Alexios's voice arrived from the side, unhurried, carrying nothing that resembled obedience.
It was a calculated choice of words, and everyone present heard it.
Quinlan said everyone had to accept his proposal, but Alexios was only willing to entertain it.
The king hadn't bowed to the Primordial Villain's decree, hadn't flinched at his threat, hadn't even acknowledged the "or else" that was still hanging in the air.
He was simply considering the offer on its own merits.
Even after everything, Alexios refused to bend the knee to the anomaly that had turned his 1000th year into such a chaotic one.
"However." The king's hand left his beard. His posture shifted.
The wry old man vanished, and the king who had fought five elders at once stood in his place. "Should the beastkin lords not be willing to do the same, the Vraven Kingdom will take it as an endorsement of the farming of humans like cattle."
A chuckle rolled out of him, dark and low.
