“The Mayor does look like a man drowning his sorrows,” Sama said to me as she sliced off more steaks with the Golden blades of Soul-light on her fingers. The edges cut every bit as finely as monomolecular knives, and she sliced huge slabs of pale white Fish into servings in blizzards of movement, the men at the other stations using gently misting adamantine knives and not moving nearly as fast. Still, thousands of steaks were being slapped down by the minute, heading for the grills, pots, and ovens scattered over the shores and streets, cooking away with the most heavenly Fish that most of these people would ever have in their lives.

I was cutting off narrow flaky leaves of Fish one by one, enjoying the meal even if I didn’t need to eat. Briggs was in a chef’s hat and apron over on a mighty grill nearby, laughing and joking as he slathered on some custom rub of butter, oil, and spices, seared the Fish steaks Sama was feeding him up, and ladled them off in a constant stream as he worked his way along the massive rotating grill with relentless precision.

Unlike most of the places around, you had to pay to eat Briggs’ cooking, which, since it was at 35 to 40 QL, was totally worth it. The richest and most powerful people in the city were sitting there cutting off the thinnest slices they could from the Fish in front of them, many with tears going down their faces as they tried to make eating it last longer.

“Yeah, the money from processing an Emperor Fish would have gone a long way towards satisfying the city’s debts if he sold this thing off. He could have skimmed off enough to leave him set for life.

“On the other hand, two Emperors basically pays off whatever the city owes us for helping with its defense, and the people getting to eat Imperials means he’s going to be popular forever if he plays his cards right.”

“Your man knows how to cook fish. Thought he was a landlubber,” Six Skies asked Sama, also savoring his portion. The Native American Sage was sitting with me, his Lightning Mark of having met with Thunderbird prominent on his cheek. He had a different set of Elements and so wasn’t a Thunderbird Mage, but the Duwamish tribes’ Sage was a fervent believer and advocate of Thunderbird Emperor, and one of the most powerful Natives in the entire country, both magically and politically.

He was also the fellow Sama had returned to in order to teach the correct Thunderbird Calling Ceremony all those years ago.

“He’s been cooking fish all his life. He went ice fishing for the first time when he was like two years old. His smelt is like the goddamn best finger food I’ve ever had.” And since Sama didn’t need to eat, either, that said something. I watched her idly flick a dozen more steaks into position for Briggs as she reduced a slab of meat weighing over a ton down very quickly, waving for another one to be sent this way on Disks.

Hey, the rubes could eat free, but the rich would pay for heavenly food, even if it was the same stuff in the end. The ten grand for a plate was like nothing compared to the culinary experience they were having.

Heck, Briggs had recommended we get a very specific common wine from France, and Burt had hurriedly gone out there to pick up hundreds of cases of it directly from the vineyard through a Broom Closet Portal. We were selling it for four hundred a bottle, and some of the wealthy people had fallen right off their benches and chairs when they’d had one with the other.

Briggs was going to use the proceeds to quietly pay all the cooks and servers helping out here, as he didn’t need the pocket change, and the Redshore Marines were going to come out of this sitting very well as it was.

Six Skies’ fellow Sages, Hard Rocker and Grunge Bob, were sitting over there listening to an impromptu band playing some local music and adding to the festive air. Dozens of musicians had come out of the woodwork and were contributing to the noise level. When they finished their Fish, the two Sages would likely go up and start jamming with them.

Six Skies was sitting so he could look out over Elliot Bay and off into Puget Sound and the center of the conflict off to the north. He had a cautious expression on his face, as if not believing that something more wouldn’t happen.

“Expecting trouble?” I asked him, following his line of sight.

He grunted. “Seems too easy.” His dark eyes traveled to the long length of the Sea Dragon Emperor, all cut open and being gutted, a long line of watchers winding past it to gloat in its death. Seattle had suffered scores of littoral attacks over the past four years, as well as the slaughter of basically everyone who hadn’t abandoned the areas outside the Wards. There was a lot of bad blood built up against the Aquatics.

As for tomorrow’s meal, it was already cooking in some very large vats and cookpots. There was going to be a lot of transcendently good stew served tomorrow...

Why the Beasts of the seas were killing one another didn’t matter. Beasts loyal to the Emperor had been perfectly happy to engage in raids against Humans. The fact they were killing Beasts tainted with Dark Mana didn’t make any difference in how they acted against us.

“You should strike up a friendship with a Stormcrown,” I told him calmly, and he glanced at me inquiringly. “You’re a Sage, they’ll be fairly easy to talk to about important things. I called up Cloudsmite, the one with the white left foot?” He nodded once in recognition. “There’s three Sea Dragon Emperors stewing out there, about forty miles out and looking this way, including a True Emperor.” Six Skies winced at that. “If you toss out your Awareness, you’ll also notice that Thunderbird is basically parked right on top of them, too.”

His eyes widened slightly as he carefully did just that, and his expression relaxed as he took another careful forkful of heavenly Imperial Fish.

“There’s no doubt whatsoever that they know about the Land Emperors’ Edict. The problem there is the islands of Puget Sound. There’s no bloody Humans living on those islands anymore, Six Skies. Which makes them...?” The Humans had all been chased back to the city, or eaten.

“Oh, ho. Thunderbird’s Territory. They come into the coastal waters, and He can go off on them. He didn’t do it earlier because there was just so much fighting and He didn’t want to waste His time, but now it’s up to Him, and not them.”

“And if Ice and Fire Phoenix Emperors wander on over and decide to help...” I hinted.

“Three fucking dead Sea Dragons in short order.” There was no way one True Emperor and two Low Emperors were going to get away from three Blessed True Emperors. Ice Phoenix would cage them, Fire Phoenix would roast them, and Thunderbird would pound them into dragonpulp!

Six Skies shrugged in relief. “Seattle’s strong, but I don’t think we could take a raid led by three Emperor Sea Dragons.” He took a deep breath in relief, and closed his eyes to enjoy his Fish.

-Healer Fae, one of the Low Sea Dragon Emperors is making an open course for Seattle,- /came the chirped warning through the Markspace.

Approaching openly, which meant not at attack speed, and visibly.

“Dammit! Be back shortly. One of them is wandering this way after all...” I picked up my plate and a bottle of that wine, and was gone in a flash of Lightjumping to the northeast.

Hey, that was good Fish, I wasn’t going to interrupt my meal just because of an irate Dragon!

------

She was impossible to miss, because her head was bigger than a tugboat and pushing through the water at a hundred mph, uncaringly generating a huge wake she wasn’t bothering to quell. Given the waves from the conflict the day before were several times the size, it was nothing but a show of disrespect, rather than aggression.

She was a Dragon and an Emperor. Deal with it!

Galescream, the Low Emperor and most powerful of the Stormcrowns, was also paralleling her up above. She might not be able to see him, but so was Deathwind, the Falcon Emperor, and supposedly the fastest Avian in the skies.

I was also sitting in the air right in front of her now, Sage Aura out and radiating, finishing up my plate with impeccable timing as she slowed down, either in caution or in feigned politeness.

“You will return to us the body of my mate!” she ordered without preamble, her head rising from the waters over two hundred feet, towering above me.

“He’s being chopped up into stew and spell components. No,” I replied, equally bluntly.

“YOU DARE-”

Her abbreviated lunge forward ran right into a flight of my Greater Shards, blasting her backwards as if she’d feinted into the path of thirty artillery cannons.

They didn’t deal anything resembling lasting harm, but they chewed holes into her scales and forced her to recover her balance from the sheer smashing force of the impacts.

“You do that again, the Birds are coming down, and they’ll be having Dragon for supper,” I informed her. “If your relatives try to intervene, Thunderbird Emperor adds more Dragon skulls to His collection today.”

The Tokens on Noble gleamed. Emperors were watching all of this. She glared at the Feathers and Fur and Scales hanging from my Staff, and subtly shifted back.

“You dared to kill a Sea Dragon!” she still hissed with all the arrogance. “Do you think we will forget this insult, little monkey?!” she spat at me.

“These are the Lands of Thunderbird Emperor. Dragons are prey here,” I informed her coolly, enough to make her blink. “Your kind have slaughtered their way across our shores and holdings without restraint. Do you think we give a damn about how you feel? You’ve been showing your malice for us all along. What exactly is going to change?

“The only reason you are still alive right now is that you’ve been hunting tainted Beasts among your own. If you weren’t, Thunderbird would be dining on your brains and adding your skull to His collection right now!

“Your mate was an idiot. He used us like you were using us, trying to trap the tainted Beasts against the only section of shore that they couldn’t turn the Sky into the Sea successfully, due to the Phoenix Emperors, Thunderbird Emperor, and our City Wards. His target took the bait, entered our Wards, and we killed it.

“Then he tried to steal our kill, entered our Wards, and so we killed the cowardly, thieving bastard right there. The only respect he got out of us is loathing for all that he is and has been responsible for.

“Tomorrow, the whole city dines on him, as is proper for prey falling to the predator. Your folk have dined on us, and now we’re going to feast on you!

“If you don’t like it, then come! Emperors are waiting, and Thunderbird Emperor has not dined on Sea Dragon in far too long!”

Her eyes narrowed to slits. “There will be a price to pay for your hubris, little monkey...” she hissed.

I set my plate and the wine aside, my star-filled Celeste Wings spreading, starting to swirl with power within. “I’ve not met many Emperors of the Sea, but those I have, all have one thing in common.

“I know where they all are.”

I watched her slitted eyes dilate, darkness within the blackness.

“You bear the mark of my magic on your scales. Thunderbird Emperor has allowed you to pass, and I’ll not break His warrant of passage, because He is MY Emperor. But from the deepest pits of the ocean, to the most life-filled coastal waters, I can track you now, and you cannot escape me.

“One of these days, when you dare venture out from your den in the deeps, and you make another plot and scheme against Humans, the sky is going to fall on you out of nowhere, and you are going to die.” I finished the wine (damn, it was good with that Fish!), shattered it into sparkling glass that I let fall into the waters below, and I slowly looked past her, into the distance.

“Ah, another two Emperors I have not met. I think I should go introduce myself. It is only polite, is it not?” I asked rhetorically.

And then I Lightjumped past her to the horizon, where Thunderbird and His cohort were flying above a very nervous pair of Sea Dragons, True Emperor among them or no. Pointedly, the Dragons were unable to get into the air to reach the Avians in their own domain!...

Behind me, a Sea Dragoness found a curse coming to her lips as she realized the gravity of what I’d just claimed, and if it were true...!

She plunged back into the waters completely, and this time her speed was far greater than before as she hastily shot out of those coastal waters, Sounding out an alarm to her brethren to retreat as quickly as possible-!