Chapter 117: Their Respective Paths 6

The Dragonian Empire.

Alongside the Holy Empire, this formidable realm commanded vast geopolitical might – a sovereign dominion regarded as the ancestral homeland for witches, warlocks and all manner of mystical races.

For over 160 years, its citizens had sworn fealty to a single immutable sovereign:

Empress Mina Rozveta Dragonia – the indisputably preeminent witch whose iron grasp governed the entire empire’s authority.

Throughout her epoch-spanning rule, this peerless monarch had presided over every major undertaking within and beyond her domains through indomitable personal oversight.

And at this very moment, Rozveta found herself deeply absorbed in contemplating the missives arrayed before her on her study’s desk:

Two distinct correspondences hailing from disparate corners of her dominions – one dispatched by a frontier duchess ruling Repsodis territory abutting Dragonia’s borders, the other penned by a naive princess governing the interior duchy of Sofia.

Despite their vastly separated provenances, both letters conveyed virtually identical entreaties pleading for the Empress’s substantive intervention:

Soliciting concrete military support for Bohemia’s burgeoning Heretical Alliance openly defying the Holy Empire itself.

That renegade confederation had already catalyzed sweeping insurrections ravaging Sigismund’s domains before coalescing into an increasingly formidable rebel force.

Their fledgling victories validated their might – a growing existential threat the Holy Emperor dared not ignore as they relentlessly consolidated their stranglehold across a quarter of his territories.

Were Dragonia to commit its unmatched martial superiority to their cause, the Holy Empire’s destabilization could likely accelerate to a critical mass rendering it unsalvageable.

A consummation the correspondents advocated leveraging for maximizing Dragonia’s own strategic gains across that geopolitical vacuum.

An enticing prospect warranting the Empress’s gravest deliberations despite the blatant self-interest underlying their proposition.

Certainly, the Holy Empire’s spiraling domestic turmoil represented a windfall boon for Dragonia’s own expansionist ambitions unburdened by any meaningful Western opposition.

Indeed, the resultant power vacuum fueling their unfettered subjugation of vast Eastern realms owed much to those very distractions consuming their ancient Holylander rivals’ focus.

Yet for all its ostensible benefits, the Empress recognized dire risks inherent to overt entanglement in this internecine sectarian conflict.

‘One misstep could transform a potential boon into utter calamity instead.’

Superficial theological divergences aside, these Heretic insurrectionists fundamentally adhered to derivative ecclesiarchical doctrines antithetical to Dragonia’s own pagan roots and creeds.

By recklessly intruding into their internal schism, the Dragonians risked presenting a unifying antagonist – catalyzing an entrenched ‘crusade’ against their supposedly ‘heretical’ invasion from without.

A dynamic Rozveta understood all too intimately – humanity’s tendency to set aside internecine strife when confronted with an overtly alien common threat.

‘And yet…this opportunity remains too fortuitous to simply discard out of hand.’

This conflagration escalated well beyond mere provincial unrest into an outright secessionist movement – Bohemia and its allies openly defying Sigismund’s sovereignty through decisive battlefield triumphs.

Their stunning initial victories already subsumed nearly a quarter of the Holy Empire’s domains into their insurgent coalition.

‘If properly leveraged, this rift could conceivably shatter the Holy Empire’s integrity entirely. Sigismund’s intransigent nature precludes any compromise – leaving only annihilation if this deadlock persists.’

The eternal thorn in Dragonia’s side laid low would enable their ambitions to proceed unhindered and accelerated across the entire Eastern expanse.

Even factoring the aforementioned perils, the strategic incentives alone warranted calculated risks on their part.

Yet this pivotal crisis also intersected with the Empress’s own profoundly personal agenda against a primordial enemy haunting the very foundations of her reign:

‘The ecclesiastical forces… I may yet avenge the massacres of 180 years past – including my own mentor’s judicial murder at their sanctimonious hands.’

While ruling an entire empire necessitated subjugating personal vendettas to national priorities, her implacable thirst for vengeance against the Holy Church remained unslaked throughout her reign.

She had forever sworn her wrath upon those misguided fanatics responsible for the systematic exterminations ravaging her ancestral covens – meticulously honing her ambitions while awaiting this singular opportunity to manifest.

And this singular crisis potentially represented the perfect cosmic confluence:

A path not only bolstering Dragonia’s material interests, but delivering a crippling body-blow to their spiritual nemesis amid this unprecedented bout of self-inflicted internal schisms.

Even outright failure risked destabilizing catastrophe upon the Holy Empire’s spiritual foundations and nullifying the Vatican’s ecclesiastical authority across their shattered dominions.

Desecrating the Papacy’s pretensions of divine mandate over secular affairs – shattering the loathsome crusading orders safeguarding their orthodoxy through fire and sword.

With her mind thus firmly resolving to carefully navigate these treacherous intrigues for the sake of both empire and vendetta alike, Rozveta finally rendered her calculated judgment:

She would answer their summons.

“You…You mean to say the Dragonian Emperor has actually agreed to this proposed alliance…?!”

“Indeed – have you not read the imperial decree bearing his personal seal? He pledges substantive clandestine support to our cause provided his involvement remains undisclosed to the broader world.”

The missive emblazoned with Empress Rozveta’s own insignia left no ambiguity – offering the direct military backing both Estelle and Santara had fervently sought to reinforce their beleaguered coalition, albeit through unofficial, deniable channels.

To the embattled Heretical Alliance, this stunning development represented a desperately-needed windfall reprieve even under such limited pretenses.

Yet rather than rejoicing over this decisive strategic reversal, both principals found themselves awash in profound bewilderment instead.

‘But if so…what does that imply about our earlier theories…?’

‘Does this invalidate the notion of Dragonian culpability behind Lady Queen’s abduction after all…? If not them, then who…?’

This apparent confirmation of Dragonian assistance upended the core premise underpinning their investigation up to this fateful juncture – that the witches who so effortlessly subdued Queen must have originated from that mystical empire’s ranks based on their forbidden soul-manipulating rituals.

For the notion of their newly-acquired benefactor covertly undermining them through such gratuitous affronts defied all logic and credibility.

‘There is no way the same emperor sanctioning this alliance would then turn around and abduct his own coalition partners…’

‘Then could the Holy Emperor himself have engineered this entire affair somehow? Deliberately provoking a rift between us and Dragonia to reap the ensuing chaos…? No, deploying the witches his church so vehemently reviles stretches belief to its uttermost limits…’

As their minds whirled with increasingly untenable theories, they ultimately abandoned such fruitless mental gymnastics to refocus on the far more substantive matter directly before them:

Securing and solidifying Dragonia’s critical assistance before entertaining further unproductive speculation over the other lingering mysteries bedeviling them.

For expediently resolving this immediate opportunity took precedence over the myriad unanswerable quandaries their powers of deduction proved so woefully inadequate to unravel presently.