..alone would drive many settlements to resign themselves to his vassalage, as the Duke's medicinal stores separated him from many of the other warlords in that first year, when the pollen was so severe not only due to its density but to our own body's sluggish adaptation to it. But the University's leadership was not keen to submit to anyone, least of all a monarch who wouldn't even show his own face on the frontlines; whatever their differences, Corsica Neue and Lord Ephrim had in common a comfort with danger and a respect for those who would wade into it courageously. In hindsight, though, it has become clear that the Grey Duke's grand project—his attempt to re-order and organize the world around him and his territory—did not need others to kneel before him. They need only decide that facing him was a necessity to ensure his centrality in the new maps of the world. Which provides some context for the surprising, and not altogether unwelcome, tactics the Duke deployed... -An Excerpt from The Last Days The We Had: A Narrative Catalogue of Hieron, End Apparent, Pt. 2 by Alonzo Victor Devareaux van der Dawes This week on Spring in Hieron: The Second Spring Pt. 3

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