A Time of Tigers - From Peasant to Emperor
Chapter 1758 - 1758: The Lion's Den - Part 7

"You live in the land of dragons – fire ought be natural for you. Fire and ruin. If you cannot rebuild, can you call yourself Pendragon subjects at all? Whether to the Old King, or the new Queen?" Davos said. "Your sovereign should not have to come down here, all the way from Hirosh, to see to it that you rebuild this city personally. You have known for the past twenty years that Queen Asabel would inherit these lands, and yet, when indeed she does, you meet her still with rubble, from the battles that her might have incurred?"

"I declare there to be shame in that," Davos said. "Truly, indeed, I am ashamed for you. Hirosh, already, has found itself unified. The traders of the Capital are once more on the move, re-establishing the trade routes of all. And you stand here bickering, as the supposed Commerce Centre of Pendragon lands, doing nothing? I see merchants among you – where are you, to stand so still as that, when there is such obvious opportunity in the air?"

Davos was far harsher than Blackwell had dared to be, and yet he had those that had gathered wrapped in a silence. Blackwell wondered whether it was simply the presence of Queen Asabel allowed for that. He wondered it, but he knew that to be a hope misplaced. Even with Queen Asabel there, he did not have the sort of charisma that civilians responded well to. This whole thing was a harsh lesson in that fact.

"Hirosh is already unified?" Came a question that someone dared to ask.

Lancelot glared at the man, and shot him down, on Davos' behalf. "You would speak without permission in the presence of your Queen? What station be you, Ser? You carry yourself as a nobleman, but you have forgotten manners that even peasants know."

The man blushed despite himself, being treated so harshly. Queen Asabel intervened. "It is fine Lancelot. Allow him his question. The people are anxious. We must be understanding."

"Indeed it is," Davos answered. "A single meeting was held, and Queen Asabel was able to put our worries at ease. If you be of a merchant mind, then let me assure you, as I have come to know, there shall be no better sovereign to reign for the likes of a merchant than that of Queen Asabel. She has given us dignities that we have not been afforded before. We ourselves recognize our use in the war effort – but now royalty recognizes it as well. Rejoice, gentlemen, for there is understanding."

"Between us, me and my colleagues have seen Hirosh built back to its former glory. The trade routes begin to run from it already. You can begin to expect the first caravans tomorrow – and so it was Queen Asabel's sympathy for you, that determined we ride out to warn you. Lest you be caught in this messy and embarrassing situation that you have left yourselves in. Whilst the rest of the country rebuilds itself, you have been left in stagnation, licking at your wounds. You will be left behind, Hurst. This beautiful city that had once been so grand."

"…There is another question on their minds," Queen Asabel acknowledged. "You are not all merchants, very few of you are soldiers, either. You ask after this war that we Pendragons have committed ourselves to, and you do wonder towards 'what end?'".

"The Stormfront has found itself corrupted to a degree that can no longer be ignored. Where other Silver Kings are content to continue as things are, we Pendragons, as we always have, must stand up for what is right. Through fire, we shall cleanse. We shall find justice for the death of my uncle, and your King, Arthur. And we shall find justice for those that have been wrongly prosecuted, and driven away, during the reign of our current High King. Justice for Dominus Patrick. Justice for Ferdinand Blackwell," Queen Asabel said. "And here, in these very lands, is where we shall find our strength."

Her voice rose in her passion, and she declared it almost angrily. "I will not sit by as my soldiers march to war, and do nothing but pray for their success. We have every opportunity, right where we stand, to raise our chances for victory. You have anger, citizens, and I well understand it. That you can have anger still, and the energy to hate, despite the plight and fire that has come your way, proves that which you are. You are citizens of the Pendragon crown. Proudly, ever proudly, ought you to bear that fact."

"I do not ridicule you for not realizing it, for I have come only recently to realize the same thing myself," Queen Asabel said. "I may by your Queen – but I will not watch from my throne and do nothing. I will make the commitment, I promise thee. I shall not rest until this war is won. Fear, naturally, we all do feel. For we challenge the mightiest of mountains, the greatest of boulders, and we know victory to be an uncertain thing. But I swear to you that we will find it regardless. I need your strength in that, however. Lend me, each of you – lend me it. The fire of the Pendragons, it flows through all our veins. My fire has scorched this country. Your fire can do far more than mine – your fire can see the entire realm made tremble. Your fire can seek justice. Your fire can rebuild, and unify."

They were stirring, madly enough, Blackwell could see. Those men and women that had been so full of hatred. The very people that had suffered at the hands of their war. And yet they were stirring. There was something Queen Asabel that they could see, something beyond mere human. The sort of incomprehensible morals of a God. A path that mere logic could not possibly stand for dissecting. She offered them a cause, beyond them all, and they began to hover before it.