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The Beastmaker's Age

YEAR 7

Sayn hummed tunelessly to herself as she reclined in the grass, gazing up at the clear, blue sky, pondering the shapes of the drifting clouds - rare as they were. Around here, in the foliage, insects were buzzing, filled with late-summer vibrancy. It was hot enough that she didn't feel like doing anything strenuous or sweaty for now - maybe later, once the sun had gone down, though these days that didn't always mean that the temperature would necessarily drop all that much. Either way, it was the perfect weather to just... exist, idly and aimlessly.

A mechanical tune answered her hum, and she shifted her gaze to spot the Goldsparrow that had alighted in the nearby tree, flickering its wings of gold-leaf and ivory as it played its unique song. They were holding up even better than she'd dreamed. She'd made just a dozen of them - considering how intricate their construction was, that was all she'd had the time and energy for - and all but one of them were still flittering around, playing their plinking songs. Honestly, she would've settled for just six - that would've been a symbolic sort of number - but once she hit her stride, she'd decided that doubling up on that number would make their reveal look more impressive.

It was at the celebration of Atreas' coming-of age, and his introduction to the court and the people as the First Imperial Prince of her house, that she'd released them - and in addition to wowing the crowd, they'd become a real hit with the tourists. Each of the twelve little constructs looked identical - an artful bird carved from ivory and thin sheets of beaten gold, capable of somewhat limited flight thanks to all the work she'd by now put into studying and understanding the process by which birds flew. However, each of them had a unique song, courtesy of the tiny music-box that made up its heart - those, she hadn't made herself, but rather commissioned from an expert, elven craftsman. Humans could make some perfectly serviceable music-boxes too, of course, but she needed the knobbed cylinders to be as small and light as possible if the Goldsparrows were to be capable of even brief flight_,_ so she'd gone to the real masters of tiny, intricate craftsmanship.

Thus, as each bird-construct beat its wings, the cylinder within it turned, producing a tinny, but unique, song. There was usually one or two of them hanging about the Seraglio, but the rest ranged out across the city - like all of her Beasts, they didn't need food or water after all, and being pretty songbirds was the only purpose to their existence, so they eagerly sought out an audience. Whenever one alighted in a roadside tree, a small crowd would gather to listen to its song and admire its beauty - with some ardent fans making it a task to seek out each of the different singers in turn, and the tourist-guides often proclaiming that "No trip to the Capital is complete until you have heard a Goldsparrow sing!" Alas, the set was no longer complete - she wasn't entirely sure what had happened to the twelfth of their numbers, but considering how delicate they were, it was frankly more of a surprise that the other eleven were still in one piece! All of her beasts seemed to resist the wear and tear of weather and age, but an accidental collision with a landing griffon or even a helmet-wearing rider in a rush could easily reduce the thin-framed little things to a pile of very expensive smithereens.

A rustling in the nearby grass drew her attention away from the metallic, yet still hauntingly beautiful, song. It was a characteristic sort of noise, one that only a set of small, stony hooves could make... but, of course, she didn't actually need_to make that kind of reasoning. She was always aware, to some degree, of where Cybra was. What it was _doing, not so much, but that was probably for the best. "Well, this seems hauntingly familiar..." she remarked breezily as it drew near, sparking a sardonic chuckle in the odd little construct. "Maybe because you so often tend to be lazing about in the grass when you should really be doing, you know, empire-stuff..."

Grimacing, Sayn considered sitting up to glare at her tiny, woolly seneschal, but then decided against it. "Is there any 'empire-stuff' I need to address today?" She instead asked acerbically. "It's been a while, so I may be a little out of practice, honestly." Cybra snorted, marching past her head - then jumping right up onto her chest and spinning around, leaving her briefly wincing as its stone-hard hooves dug into her tender flesh - before it folded its legs and lay down there, remarkably light as it was, to continue the conversation face-to-face... and close enough that they could talk in hushed tones without much likelihood of being overheard. "Maybe not today." It answered cautiously. "But maybe tomorrow. Not that I can blame you for being a bit rusty, mind. It _has_been quiet for a while, now."

Its words hung in the air for a moment, making her roll her eyes. "Go ahead and say it..." she said pointedly. "I can hear_you thinking it, anyway." Cybra grinned in response - it always seemed to enjoy their little, verbal fencing-matches. "Fine. It's _too quiet. And yes, I've said it before, and I'll say it again if I have to. All the opposition we got in the early years of your reign has just... melted away, far too quickly and silently." It shook its goat-like head firmly. "It's true that some of the 'old money' elite have adapted to your reign, and settled for being maybe a bit less wealthy and a bit less powerful, all while enjoying the benefits of your enlightened rule, oh Empress my Empress. But others... didn't."

Cybra's face was really remarkably expressive, considering the simple materials and primitive techniques that had gone into crafting it, Sayn marveled - and not for the first time. Its distaste for those 'others' was plain to see at a glance, on top of being eloquently expressed in its voice. "Rich, powerful people who've lost their wealth and power don't just accept that and move on - especially not the stubbornly hidebound sorts who failed to move with the times and adjust to the new reality. And yet, here we are..." it continued, retreading familiar old ground as it shook its head. "This quiet should be regarded with much the same feelings as a toddler, left alone in his room and now turning _completely_silent. Something you should be somewhat familiar with by now, I'd say."

This, at least, brought a smile to Sayn's lips. Thielwen's twins were taking their sweet time growing up, being elves and all, but Achidias' son, Atreas, had rushed through adolescence with the kind of speed that only centaurs could show - and Lutra's three cubs were doing their damnedest to catch up to him. Atreas, at least, had already grown out of childish mischief and trouble-making, but Lutra's cubs had proven fully capable of picking up the slack - ensuring that the Palace Nursery's caretaker, Shanera, was more than earning her keep... in spite of already being pregnant once again. Or, she was 'making more work for herself', as she'd supposedly put it to her mate. Not that she'd use such jocular language around Sayn, mind! Even after more than half a decade, the mare still seemed rather stiff and uncomfortable around her employer, Sayn had noticed with some regret. Though, at least she'd warmed to several of the other members of the Seraglio...

Realizing that the silence had stretched on for a slightly awkward span of time, Sayn shrugged - jostling Cybra a bit in the process. "Well, isn't that what your 'secret police' is for?" She asked lightly. "Checking in on the 'toddler' to see what he's getting up to... and then holding his head under the water 'till he promises not to draw on the walls anymore?" Cybra harrumphed, not bothering to directly contradict her. "Ideally, perhaps..." it instead answered. "But I took too long to form them. The anti-imperial elements have had a head start on us since the beginning, and seem to have made the most of that. Aiming to play the long game, no doubt." It sighed, shaking its head. "And of course, my ruthless gang of throat-slitters and back-stabbers are also somewhat hamstrung by the fact that they report to me, which means that they can't be_too_ ruthless. I know you avoid... 'looking into' what exactly I do these days, but rest assured, if it was anything you seriously_objected to, you'd notice. So would Korlin, for that matter. She loves you and wants to protect you _almost as much as I do, but she's still a Kirin. Kindness and mercy are part of her very nature."

That was very true, of course, and as always, brought a wide and genuine smile to Sayn's face. She could have contradicted the point by mentioning that Korlin had, in fact, done some fairly ruthless things in her time... be it leaving Lorrack the Black to be raped, tortured and hung in Sayn's place, or dragging the Elder of her old tribe out of a crowd to be verbally vivisected in front of his entire people on a slightly more recent occasion. But those unusual cases just went to demonstrate just how much the wondrous Kirin actually loved her, which caused even the dark implications held by those memories to disappear into a pink fog of awestruck delight. How she could possibly deserve to have Korlin by her side was something she _still_didn't really understand - she never had, even from the start, honestly.

"Knew I shouldn't have brought her up..." Cybra commented wryly. "Oi, get your head out of those lovey-dovey clouds, will ya?" Sighing, Sayn rolled her eyes. "Yes, yes... it's quiet, too quiet, maybe evil forces are secretly biding their time somewhere, ready to strike when we least expect it, despite a complete lack of evidence to suggest anything of the sort. What d'ya want me to do about it? Today or tomorrow?" Demonstrating once again the great foresight she'd had by actually making a tongue for it, Cybra stuck it out at her before huffing. "Well, fine. There IS nothing to do about it, at this time, and it isn't really the matter I wanted to talk about anyway. I just like to remind you not to get too comfortable resting on your laurels. We've had a few nice years, and lots of people are calling it a 'Golden Age' and what-have you... but you, at least, need to remember that at any given moment, it can all spontaneously catch on fire, at which point everyone will immediately expect you to put out the flames. Them's the breaks when you're the resident God-Empress...."

Sayn looked it in the eye for a moment. Well, the painted pebbles that_passed_ for eyes in its case, anyways - and sighed. "Very well. Consider me reminded. Now, was there anything of more immediate_concern?" Echoing her sigh, Cybra shrugged. "Potentially. Mind, you'll probably want to discuss this with your 'advisers', so perhaps you should gather the troops first..." raising its head, it looked around in the Seraglio's enclosed garden. "Where _is_everybody, though? I don't see a _single ongoing orgy..." it sarcastically remarked, prompting her to return the favor from earlier by sticking her tongue out at it.

After pulling it back in again, though, she quickly ran down the list in her head. Even during slow, relaxed, lie-in-the-grass-and-count-the-clouds days like these, she still kept track of her Harem - after all, she loved them. "Aishee is visiting her father for the day, but will be back for dinner..." she started, reluctantly lifting a hand from the soft, tickly grass to count off her lovers one finger at a time. "Thielwen's in a meeting - a fully-dressed one. Sensitive negotiations concerning new elven settlements. I'm sure you're up-to-date on that whole...thing."

Cybra nodded placidly, an innocent expression on its wooden face. No doubt, it had already intervened to 'steer' those matters towards an agreeable resolution. Honestly, she'd thought that the whole... 'elfphobic' thing had already been dealt with, but perhaps she'd been blinded by her own growing love and friendship for Thielwen. Certainly, some undercurrents of that well-aged hatred for the elven race had surfaced among the human communities when the elves started looking for new places to settle. It was inevitable, really - sure, it would take decades for their new population-boom to 'mature', but a lot of elven infants had already been born, and they'd all need places to live when they grew up. The old elven enclaves, where they'd lived in splendid isolation for uncounted centuries, just wouldn't cut it - and while some elves were starting to integrate into human society, to a greater or lesser degree, that was slow going as well...

So, seeing as building new cities took time, the elves had started looking for places where they could found new settlements. At which point it had become clear that a lot of human communities were fine with the idea of elves in general, and even in principle... just as long as they weren't living in their back yard. The fact that the elves tended to prefer heavily-wooded areas made things even more troublesome, since it meant that their prospective neighbors were mostly small, insular towns and villages made up of loggers, fur-trappers, hunters and the like - not a group of people that were, by and large, known for their progressive and open-minded attitudes.

But, the elves had ample experience buttering up humans, even under far more hostile circumstances than what currently prevailed. And Thielwen, as always, had thrown herself into the matter wholeheartedly, once again demonstrating her ability to switch smoothly from submissive sex-freak to keen-eyed stateswoman and back again at the drop of an extremely fancy gold-filigree tiara. Though, admittedly, these days she tended to be a keen-eyed stateswoman wearing some rather tight and daring dresses, that didn't seem to harm her negotiating-skills in the slightest... which might have been related to the fact that most of her negotiation-partners were human men. Either way, Sayn was confident that the whole thing would sort itself out in time, without any need for her _direct_involvement - especially with Cybra's shady agents keeping an eye on things and curtailing anyone who was tending towards the old-school 'torches and pitchforks' approach to dealing with elves.

Still, that was just two members of her expansive, currently-missing harem. Tearing her thoughts away from Thielwen's ongoing labors, Sayn bent another finger. "Lutra is off on a picnic with her mate and kids - just a short trip up the river, but she did say that they might spend the night out there if the kids were having fun and the weather looked to hold. 'course, it's mostly to take some of the load off Shanera - some old friends of hers are visiting all the way from the Southern Continent. Which also answers where Achidias is - I believe he went to say hi to them."

Cybra chuckled. "Ah, it seems your information is outdated... I got word just before I came here of a minor roadside scuffle, involving a centaur. K'teshi was the one who'd noticed it, on his way back from the new Air-Mail Office, and thoughtfully took the time to inform me about it before bringing the matter directly to Achidias. Then they both headed down into the city to try and sort it out." Wrinkling her brow, Sayn pushed herself up on her elbows - making Cybra start a slow slide down the front of her dress towards her lap, a resigned expression on its face. "A 'scuffle'?" She asked, momentarily concerned. "Right here in the Capital? Is it serious?"

Reaching the end of his slide, Cybra glanced up at her with a snort. "Judging from how K'teshi was acting? Not in the slightest. I think he mostly just wanted to give Achidias something to do. Maybe provide a reminder that he still serves a valuable purpose outside of just keeping you and your girlfriends walking bow-legged on the regular." Emitting a half-choked, involuntary bark of laughter, Sayn let herself drop back to the grass - then winced as Cybra rose to its hooves and walked up her body to its previous location. "Well, that's nice of him - Achidias has been a lot more cheerful since he took up archery again, but it can't hurt to give him something to do..." she reflected, turning her eyes back towards the heavens. "And... you know, I always felt like those two weren't quite as close as they could be, you know? They've got a lot in common, and a lot they could learn from each other..."

Cybra rolled its eyes dismissively as it settled down on her upper chest once more. "You're just hoping they'll finally stop dancing around the matter and get it on together..." it accused. "Just to increase the possible combinations that you can mash your favorite toys together in." Glaring at the uppity construct, Sayn lifted her hands from the grass, wriggling her fingers threateningly. "You know, I bet I could chuck you _clear_to the center of the pond from here, without getting up..." she commented coolly. "You're pretty light, after all - though a few pounds of water caught in your fleece might just weigh you down a tad..."

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