trans_9 | Under Siege Part 3

"Hmph. That's actually a good sign in the short-term. If she were a competent mage she would have simply charmed or controlled the King rather than cause a coup." The wizard frowned, folding his arms in sheer contempt of this example of inept sorcerous bludgeoning.

"My preliminary suggestion is to unmask them, or at least, her in his form."

Kang cursed in Nerakese, arms crossed over chest. "Greens are sneaky bastards. I've worked with them before, and they prefer to let others do their work for them, staying in the shadows. Something must have happened to make them need to kill the king."

He turned to the spy, "How many were there? Were you able to tell a leader? What is their goal?"

"Even the most competent mage cannot guarantee control in the long run, the King may well have come to his senses after three years of her work, what Kang says is true, for them to have killed and replaced the king he must have come to his senses," He commented calmly to Aibghalien before shaking his head, greens, he had encountered many of their kind over the years.

"Indeed, they prefer to work from the shadows, they have a twisted love of manipulation and politics, I have dealt with a number of their kind in times past," He went on his brow creased in thought, nodding to Kang as he turned to the spy.

"If we can draw them into a meeting, perhaps with an offer of negotiations, one that a green would be hard pressed to ignore, I am confident that I can confirm and unmask this threat. Once the army beyond know what has happened to their king, and who they fight for I highly doubt they will be eager to continue,"

Nodding, Christopher's voice became a bit more steady, "Yes, there was mention of the king coming to his senses. And to answer your questions, Lord Kang, there were eight of them. Lady Diana, now in Demetrius's form, is the leader; two of the others called her 'mother'. Their goal, from what I can tell, is simply to turn us against each other and rip our kingdom apart from the inside as some sort of game."

What an odd thing to have dragons somewhere be that schemy.

"What if we...what if we faked a surrender? As a trap? To draw them into a meeting to unmask them for what they are, like Councilor Bight said? The whole army would be watching."

"I don't believe they would fall for a surrender. But a parley, perhaps? The advantage of fighting on the side of a man of honor is that the foe will believe him to act in good faith in such an instance. It would be simple to disguise several of ourselves," he mused. "Returning tit for tat. But then again they may be on the lookout for just that."

"I dunno. Hiccup's idea could probably work if we try to play to her ego. If I know anything about dragons, it's that they have a lot of pride, especially the ones that pull this kinda chak." Cowabunga, recalling what he'd heard about Onyxia's run as Katrana Prestor from various members of the Alliance he'd known.

"Her ultimate goal is the throne - or at least, to have a throne she can control," Thom said. "A usurper is already predisposed to mistrust, but she is apt to believe a turncoat. Someone with as much to lose, or more, than she. If we presented someone from our lands... someone who could be a powerful ally and and an entry into the keep... that would certainly be more tempting than she could refuse."

"Someone like that would need a plausible reason for wanting to help her," Clef interjected, intrigued by the idea of sending in a mock turncoat. He'd even volunteer himself, if it came to that. "This battle is not going well for her, but it is not yet going poorly enough that she would be desperate for the help. Why would someone from within our ranks wish to risk so much to help her now, when she may well win without his assistance?"

"Fake info about some kind of plan or superior weapon we have?" Cowabunga suggested.

Bight pondered the suggestions the group were putting forward, if anyone of the group knew how a dragon thought it was he. After all he was a dragon, one who had spent a great deal of time in human form. He knew well that the dragon in question likely knew a great deal about Nasat and its forces. Yet there was something that she had not known, the team itself.

"We may well not need to resort to disinformation or false turn coats, indeed it is not unlikely that she would see through such an attempt. However, there is something that may well be of particular interest the Green, we here in this room," He commented with a sweeping gesture to include all from the Transmigration 9, "there is little doubt that our presence here has drawn her attention, we are an unknowns to her, potential hindrances or potential tools in her eyes,"

"Our very presence at talks could well lure her into a meeting, under a no doubt false banner of peace," He cast his gaze to those in the room around him, "It would be far from risk free, she is likely to have her kin with her at such a meeting, but, if talks are held such that all may see, it is unlikely that she would take her true form. To do so would be to doom her plans,"

"Yes, and one disjunction would spoil that plan of hers, but I remain inclined to believe the opposite," Aibghalien said. "All of us appearing would, I think, give her cause for suspicion; we have thus far demonstrated an ample amount of power and capability to repel their attacks. We could claim victory if not for advantage of numbers, and even if she underrates most of us for not being dragons, we also have demonstrated that we have a dragon on our side."

He meant Celena, so don't panic, Bight.

"Any confrontation in a smaller scale would increase the risk to her personally, which she'd seek to avoid. Nor is the king under any obligation to meet with someone lacking feudal ties to him...

"Therefore I propose our setup be that the Baron seeks a parley to beg the King's help in ridding his city of these people and creatures of grievous power, who have all but taken over his city and forced him to oppose the King."

"More than one dragon," Kang nodded at Sofia. He'd seen her transformation at least once during battle. The tip of his tail moved slightly in thought, "Christopher, is there any chance that you may have been spotted? She might know, or suspect, that we know about her."

"I panicked when the wind shifted, and one of the dragons looked my direction. They may have caught my scent."

"It's alright, Christopher," Archand reassured the man. "You did very well."

His expression was grim. "The problem with that course of action is that I have been vocal against the new laws for quite some time now, and before the king's forces even began their march, refused to turn myself in. I doubt it would be believed that I don't wish to oppose the king."

"But unless I much miss my guess, it strikes me as extremely reasonable that you would try to seek a peaceful resolution to this combat, particularly as we have stymied their advance thus far, and the siege is effectively lost once the reinforcements arrive."

That brought a smile to Aibghalien's face. "Perhaps some illusory magic could make it seem as if they had, thus giving you a perceived position of strength from which a parley might be a reasonable gesture?"

Bight dipped his head at Archand's reply, before pondering Aibghalien's suggestion, "There is a possibility that such an illusion could work, however to fool a dragon such as she it would have to be a nigh perfect representation of the bronzes that are to come to the aid of Nasat,"

He turned with some curiosity to the spy, "What other details can you give of the dragons in question? Any such details may aid in determining the experience and power of the greens,"

"Between Aibghalien and I, such an illusion would not be so difficult to maintain," Thom said. "But I have expended a great deal of my strength in combat. If there were a way for me to get to the river, cold water amplifies magic. It would be better if it were salt water, but we must make do with what we have. We don't even have to maintain it for long - an illusion of a flight of dragons arriving and touching down in the city would suffice. Then we could send one or two of our people and pass them off as dragons."

Maybe. If the greens didn't have some kind of way to determine whether someone was or wasn't a dragon.

"I would be able to assist with such an endeavor as well, Illusions are something of a specialty," Celena spoke up from where she had been standing by Aibghalien in her eleven form, after all it would be have been difficult to fit into the room in her natural form.

Celena nodded thoughtfully, "To have them arrive and touch down in the city should not be too difficult a task as long as we get the illusions of the bronzes sufficiently accurate, dragons do tend to have keen eyes detail however, even in another form," She should know after all.

Sofia had remained fairly quiet, seeping in the information before speaking. Clad in the dragon-armor (http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_R1LVqSI_Ng4/Sm2vvc5xwSI/AAAAAAAAAyM/suyIrxeweWQ/s320/Zenithian_LIG.jpg) of Zenithia, the talk of both good and bad dragons had not fazed her at all. She had had her fair kill of green and red dragons before.

"I can turn into a dragon," she offered. "However, my form is not quite like those of this world, and my scales are green. I wonder if this would only anger them more."

Christopher took a drink of water to calm himself further, "The largest of the dragons was well over seventy five feet long, the smallest fifty feet. One of them seemed rather impatient; it's possible he could be the weak link, and goaded into tranforming?"

Kang frowned at the sizes of the dragons, and then smiled at the second bit of information, crossing his arms over his chest, "That's a good idea. And we may not even have to create the illusion of a fake dragon right there with the greens. Bronzes can polymorph too. If we have Celena and Sofia, possibly even Aibghalien, in the distance, it would make the illusion a little easier, with something real to build from."

He liked this. Briefly, he noted that it was yet another fake dragon idea, though this one involved no wicker or wood.

"Lord Bight, you should know the mannerisms of a bronze dragon well enough after working with Crucible for so long, and your magic is fairly powerful. Do you think you could pull it off?" he looked at Bight, wings rustling slightly in minor discomfort. Before the battle began, Nehaa had brought up the possibility that Bight really was the bronze with he and Hiccup, but Kang wasn't sure he could buy that, even if it would explain a few things.

Still, he watched the man surreptitiously, just in case.

Bight nodded as his brow creased into a frown at the size of the dragons in question, a considerable threat in their own right if they decided to transform and engage the group. Especially if the mother was anywhere near as powerful as he. That second piece of information did get his attention just as it had Kang's, a weakness that they could exploit in the greens, though one that did not come without risk.

He considered the suggestions as to the illusion of the Bronzes, it could well work as long as they kept the greens' attention on them. Looking to Kang thoughtfully as he put forth his idea, pondering for a moment. The idea definitely had merit and of all those gathered, he was the only one who could pull it off, though not for the reasons Kang assumed, such a plan would be doomed to failure. He knew that as soon as they met with the greens at the very least the she would detect him, what better way to pass it off as being disguised as what he truly was.

After a moment of careful consideration he gave a nod of assent, "It is possible, I have worked with Crucible long enough to be able to emulate something of his presence and mannerisms," After all they were his very own.

Archand listened carefully, nodding in agreement, and exchanged glances with all of his officers. They seemed to be in agreement as well. He stood up, smoothing out his tunic, "We have a plan, then. I will call for a parley in the morning, just as Raleigh and the bronzes 'arrive', and we will attempt to get the greens to reveal themselves.

"I have resources available in my library, to help make the illusion as real as possible. You have free reign to do what you need to do." They had proven trustworthy.

He turned to his officers, "In order to maintain the illusion, no one outside of this room is to know of the plan. We want our soldiers to think reinforcements really have arrived."

Under Siege Part 3

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