What a trove of treasures the contents of the vault had proven to be. My flight has accumulated a respectable repertoire of Traits needed to make baby dragons, but knowing how to put them together correctly to create the correct Templates that ultimately lead to useful Blessings is another matter. It is beyond tedious to manually configure such a payload and then see what it would give. Nanu's former flight had manuals describing Templates and Blessings and the required Traits to unlock them, the sum of which was worth the trip by itself. I wasted little time in perusing the many books and scrolls with both my own eyes and those of several whelps designated for such a task. In short, I was a bit of a bookwyrm by the time we returned to World's End.

Nanu took her leave as quickly and politely as she could once I was properly situated. Deep beneath the lowest levels of World's End, there is a rather large labyrinth that houses certain sensitive things. Likewise, there are a series of rooms there that serve as the personal quarters for Nanu and the storage of the physical items of her [Hoard]. As I understand it, with the blend of the rules of her former flight and my own, she has a particular mechanism to add things to her [Hoard].

Namely, she needs items that held significant notoriety and fame, items that were well-known and were housed in locations that were known. Emphasis should be placed on the past-tense of such a status, for said items need a period of time to "cool off" socially, such that they become obscure items of legend and generally forgotten about by all but scholars with obscure topics of study. Fortunately for her, these items that were formerly part of her [Hoard] are grandfathered in; all she had to do was retrieve them. A few rumors in the right ears about a secret labyrinth full of wealth and danger beneath the city will do wonders to strengthen her [Hoard], and I gave her leave to spread them. It will also line my coffers with the loot taken from foolhardy trespassers.

Kaisadoro and Tamadora also have particular mechanisms for their own [Hoards]. Kaisadoro accepts official gifts given by dignitaries, ones that are publicly offered and announced. He has to be careful to ensure it doesn't look like bribery, as that would poison his [Hoard]. Tamadora also accepts gifts, but hers need to be private and secretly offered by her many admirers and clients. For both, it is awkward to progress, because simply telling someone you want a gift makes said gift less impactful. As such, they tend to favor generous people that don't need any prodding to ensure that gifts flow freely, which can lead to certain rumors of the nefarious sort.

I occasionally go out of my way to help them. With Nabonidus to help scout people, I play matchmaker to introduce my children to useful mortals. It would both taint the sincerity of the gifts and insult our pride as dragons if I simply explained to them exactly what I was doing, and so I trust them to eventually connect the dots and thus pay attention to the deeper purposes behind my words and actions.

While no parent should have favorites, the reality is that we do favor some children over others. While she is not born yet, Iresdora, my soon-to-be offspring, is indeed my favorite, at least in how useful she is. An Emperor walks a fine line between cold pragmatism and hedonistic indulgence. On one hand, I want children that are immensely useful to me, and on the other, I want them to live fulfilling lives with enriching experiences. Iresdora would be as pleased as the cat that got the cream because she will enjoy her work and will be intimately aware just how much I value her efforts.

Now, I had planned for Tamadora to be my Second in creating Iresdora. Nanu and I had already calculated all the Traits we needed to that effect. However, after thoroughly reviewing the secret documents from the vault that concern such matters, I have found that a change of plans is in order. Tamadora will still assist; that part is unavoidable since she is my flight's Broodmother. Instead, Chooka will be my Second in creating Iresdora.

I am not going to go into a deep dive into what roles a Second, as it is labeled in these manuscripts, performs in creating dragonic offspring, nor what role a Broodmother plays when not being a Second. Suffice to say, only the Prime, the official parent dragon, has any real connection to the offspring. The Second works as a muse of sorts, or perhaps scaffolding, and the Broodmother provides the grunt work to fulfill the process. I would be the engineer or architect in this metaphor, and so, I have had to change the blueprints.

It would seem that draconic flights throughout the ages have needed something like Iresdora, an individual that can audit the resources of the flight. Furthermore, compared to many Blessings for dragons and the Templates that go into them, this one has received a great deal of academic and practical research. I find no surprise in such a revelation, as it is quickly becoming a nightmare to watch over those entrusted to act on my behalf to ensure that my resources are spent wisely, especially when I do unofficially allow and need certain operations that need to appear to be corrupt, especially as it relates to Alterez and his tasks related to managing and pruning the criminal underworld. Playing both sides so you always come out on top requires juggling a great many things, and disaster strikes if anything is dropped unexpectedly.

To that end, all research and practical applications of what I envision unequivocally show that a Dragon Consort (a dragon made with a mortal Second) is superior to a Dragon Paragon (a dragon made with a dragon Second). Also, some of my Trait choices, while good on paper, don't work as well as I hope. This manual is rather detailed in describing these common pitfalls and why they do not work. Nanu, despite being the keeper of her vault, had not actually been permitted to read most of what was stored there, other than the titles, and so she had been working on false assumptions to advise me, not that I hold it against her. Everything we designed made sense; it just was not optimal.

So, to create some grand auditor, there are a series of recommended Templates that go into it. Inquisitor, Accountant, Commander, Executioner, Actuary, Assessor, Realtor, and Spy are all reasonable and indeed required, which I had predicted. However, ones like Ambassador, Diplomat, and Dignitary are not good. Apparently, an auditor isn't asking or there to be polite; they bulldoze their way in with no ceremony. Tracker isn't needed either, despite how easily it would overlap the other Traits to fit into the build. I had thought it would have been useful to find people or objects that don't want to be found.

Instead, and to my surprise, it recommends Tutor, any two of Geologist, Metallurgist, and Chemist, any three of Thief, Apiarist, Private Investigator, Gambler, Mathematician, Aeromancer (the kind that does divination through clouds, not the ones the use Wind magic). I didn't even know what beekeeping or cloud watching had to do with being an auditor, but the book explains it in ways that make sense. There are also a handful of other Templates both mandatory and optional, but the general pattern remains the same based on some individual use cases for what you want your auditor to do. Additionally, some of these niche Templates have Abilities that create some interesting and seemingly cheesy interactions with other Templates that create unexpected and powerful synergies.

The Apiarist offers simplified communication of complex ideas, especially within a massive and extensive network of tangentially related organizations that interact with one another. It also offers some complex pattern recognition and solving, as well as management skills to keep everyone working efficiently. With all your children and employees being "busy bees", it helps out in managing them and coordinating their efforts. The manual proceeds to show how it overlaps with other Templates, such as Commander, which is rather straightforward.

The more I read into the manual, the more obvious some of these choices should have been to me. I almost feel stupid for not seeing the potential, but then, countless dragons before me have missed the same details. Gambler and Mathematician offer risk analysis. Aeromancer adds in prediction models, which allows for more proactive behavior to auditing. The list goes on, but suffice to say, auditing is way more intense and hardcore in the world of dragons than I thought it would be. The auditors are more of a compliance deathsquad that serve as judge, jury, and executioner than they are advisors and tattletales. They absolutely play for keeps and will be beholden only to me.

Fortunately, I have all the Traits I need to finish Iresdora and start her egg. Her loadout isn't focused on combat or anything too intense of a magical nature, so she doesn't need the slew of Traits to make her tough and capable of great feats of violence. Her "opponents" will be simple mortals that don't pose much of a physical threat, and so, her mind will be her primary weapon. She needn't worry about fighting other dragons, offspring of titans, or other such dangerous foes, and she will have a heavy escort most of the time in case someone gets uppity with her.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

She needs to be bold and completely unafraid of wielding her authority. However, she needs the wisdom to know how to use it well so that she does not appear to be wantonly flaunting her power. She needs to be incredibly competent and efficient without creating a soul-sucking atmosphere that removes all the joy of working for my flight. She needs to be able to find a compromise in how the mortals will not be capable of living up to the exacting standards of dragons, and as such, understand that such mortals are not enemies but imperfect allies. The manual describes common pitfalls in the growth and development of such auditors and how to correctly manage them so that they don't become dreary and dreaded monsters.

With all my ducks in a row, I take the rest of the day to read through the rest of the manuscripts to ensure I am not missing anything important. It would be an embarrassing mistake if I were reading an outdated copy that had been commented on in other sources. Even as I did my other chores and social obligations, my whelps continued to read on my behalf thanks to [Court of the Emperor] and my innate ability to assume direct control of my whelps.

I did not find anything contradictory to what I had planned, and on the next day, Tamadora, Chooka, Nanu, and myself worked to craft Iresdora. Well, Nanu mostly offered useful comments about how to mechanically go about the process. She also fretted a decent amount by the standards of dragons, which is understandable since her reputation and that of her former kin are on the line. Chooka was more than pleased by the physical process of an intimate nature that we engaged in to facilitate her contribution, which one need not have a strong imagination to wonder what that process may entail.

Tamadora was her usual ball of jealousy and obedience. It is such a strange mix to witness, for she loves Chooka almost as much as I do, yet she feels a little territorial when Chooka and I are intimate, even though she more than appreciates watching and participating. She reminds me of a dog with a ball, wanting the ball to be thrown without offering over to the hand that will do so. She is still disturbingly submissive to me, with perhaps a kink or two of wanting me to do and say some degrading things to her. I don't completely understand her pendulum of emotions and desires, but I indulge her as best as I can. It beggars my imagination to find ways to make her happy and her own person when she desires to be controlled by me.

Eventually, in a non-disclosed location where I resided in World's End, I had an egg that was busy doing what eggs do as it hurriedly sat there and incubated. With that matter solved, I would have to consider which King or Queen I wanted next. Kaisadoro handles Administration, the day-to-day affairs of my empire. Tamadora is in charge of Intelligence, keeping me and my many agents informed of anything and everything. While there are many setups for what roles Kings and Queens should have (which depends on how many an Emperor has), these secret manuscripts more or less agree that my next two choices are not out of this world.

I need Logidoro to direct Resource Management for my flight, as I am reaching my limits on what I can personally do to source ingredients, manufacture objects of indeterminate worth, and distribute wares and resources to my many contracted compatriots and allies. I can still do the heavy lifting, like mining out an entire mountain in an afternoon, but the smaller tasks are eating up too much of my time.

I will need Contradora, who will be in charge of the Military, which includes things beyond traditional military. I have a large number of contracted Adventures, mercenaries, guards, and so forth that are being loosely managed, and I will need to reign that in if I am to have a professional structure to it. Since the world is engaged in a climactic war for its survival, having a functioning military and all its supporting staff will be an irrefutable necessity. I am really good at smashing things, but I cannot be everywhere at once to maintain the peace or to secure my holdings unless I want that to be my full-time job.

Both roles are essential, but the Military role takes more time to spin up. Can I be greedy and save that for later, especially since armies are held back by logistics, which is the purview of Resource Management? If only I had some way to see the future to know which choice would be the best. Perhaps if I had an [Oracle] or something at my beck and call, I could get some advice. A certain ogre may be able to shed light on this conundrum.

"Yes, I can do that. Bear in mind that such a distant future will be difficult for me to see with any clarity, but I can get a big picture of what you want."

I respond immediately to my friend and Emperor. I knew his request was coming before he did, and so I had already formulated a response and allotted time and my mana to this task. I sit within my meditation garden, one with those little bonsai plants, the sand raked into soothing patterns around large rocks, and a pond full of koi fish, complete with the bamboo clapper-thing that goes tonk on a regular basis. Chooka had helped curate it, and I find the "zen" atmosphere to be rather relaxing. It sure beats sitting in the hot sun in the wastelands.

Looking into the distant future is unsettling to say the least. I am no [Prophet], and so I am not adept at such an undertaking. No, as an [Oracle], I am well-suited to the near-future, something on the order of days or weeks. Sometimes, some events are so strong that I can see them relatively clearly even though they are years away, but those events are few and far between.

I lay back on a rather comfortable bed made of mosses and grass, and not the common garden variety. With a flick of my fingers, I shoot a pebble at a small gong that is beyond my head a short ways. Predictably, I hit dead center, and the enchantments of the gong help maintain a pleasant resonance that allows my mind to drift and concentrate at the same time.

I allow my mind to drift past the here and now, past the upcoming, further and farther as I reach the "some day when you are older" and venture beyond it to the "back in my day" area of the future. Infinite streams of possibilities flow past me, each one offering insights and promising interesting potential if only I would look upon them.

I delegate my search to my future-self, which distributes the search to his future-selves. My mana is full, so my theoretical future-selves can go wild in using it to depletion, as I will not be the one to endure the repercussions of such a foolhardy undertaking. Almost instantly, my future-self directs me to what I am looking for. I have no idea what they looked at that didn't pass muster; only directions to pertinent results are passed back to me.

That is where the horror begins. I desire to throttle that which has no neck, some unknown and non-real entity that formats the limited interaction I can have with the distant future. This far forward in time, I only have words to view, and so I divine what I can from their frustrating teasing.

[These five insane facts about the military blunders of the Crossroad Wayfinders will blow your mind!]

[You won't believe the crazy process of getting your enchanted items delivered to your door.]

[These 10 benefits of the military as ranked by this year's junior officers.]

[Don't buy from The Crossroad Wayfinders until you know this one simple trick.]

[Could your home be at-risk for invasion?]

Thousands of titles to articles I was not permitted to read were there for me to view. Through agonizing effort, I muscled through them to glean a vague understanding of what the future could hold based on which offspring my Emperor would create first. Bloodlust demanded I murder the infuriating writer of these articles, and yet, no such person existed for me to vent my rage upon.

Just shy of letting my psyche shatter, I pulled myself back from the brink with the sound of a tonk from the bamboo thing that I cannot remember the name of. While it had only lasted a few seconds, my foray into the future had yielded fruit, all frustration aside.

"My Emperor," I responded via telepathy, "The future is rather mixed on the issue. Both paths lead to triumphs and failures. It does seem weighted to favor Resource Management being created before the Military."

"Excellent work, Nabonidus. Take the night off at 'The Wayward Oasis'. I will ensure that your suite is prepared to your satisfaction."

I had already known he would show favor for my work and that I would be rewarded as such. Many confederates would need to be employed to provide me with proper entertainment. I deliberately avoided looking at this future so as to not spoil the surprise, other than to ensure that no harm comes to me.

For now, a good nap is in order. Fortuitous, then, that I am already in a comfortable bed. Being an [Oracle] has its perks, and being precisely where one needs to be when one needs to be there is one of them. For now, the mental fog of taxing my Abilities descends upon me. Words becoming much hard, many sleep needed now. I close eyes and start sleep much.

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