"So how do you mean to play it from here?" Commander asked it idly, taking small bites of his heart. Orion was the lord of Blackstone City; everything had to turn on his will.
This raid had been only a probe, both sides trying to gauge the gap in strength between them. With the probe done, the fights to come—top-tier and rank-and-file alike—had a rough baseline now on both sides.
"Open the dream-gate all the way. Give our allies and vassal races the largest number of descent slots we can manage." Orion lifted his head toward the Wishing Tree, its fruit thickening on the branches—the whip he'd drive them all with. "Then open the Wishing Tree's trade rights. That's a fortune nobody can turn down. Before the Boundless Expanse's Sovereign wakes, I want everyone pushing my borders out as far as they'll go."
