Sharp clicking rang out as Miao Ying's nails clicked across her throne as she looked impatiently upon the old and wizened sorcerer who served her father. "What... Do you mean, that several of the cores of the Centurion models have been stolen?"
She coudn't outright slay this sorcerer who had served her father the Immortal Dragon Emperor for several centuries. Out of simple frustration or to even send a message He was far to useful in countless other fields.
To say nothing of how his own noble connections and estate meant that should he be killed there would be an actual hole in the supply chain that supplied the City of Smoke and the Great Wall of Cathay.
The Grand Astromancer's face was dark as he said flatly. "They were stolen, Lady Miao Ying. Lost, stolen, 'shipped away' it makes no difference. The engineers and astromancers you commissioned to look upon that dwarf's work has met with nothing but failure!"
He scoffed and then said with even more annoyance. "Copying an entire line of workmanship and an entire races method of enchantment without true reference but abandoned physical materials. How can you expect me to just make more of that... Child's creations!"
Miao Ying's voice was cutting as she hissed out furiously. "Because he left the factory behind! He left the actual machines behind! It's not some wonder from several millenia ago that isn't even spoken of in song anymore! There is still dozens of men who carried his meals and watched him forge the machines themselves to make the other machines!"
The Grand Astromancer then said bluntly. "Machines that work off of dwarven runes. Automatons that blend runes and even skaven warpstone technology. All things we have little to no true understanding of."
"Not only that, but the engineers you sent me are utter fools who have no understanding or respect for the Winds of Magic. Let alone dwarven runecraft!"
The old astromancer almost looked ready to cry as he complained. "One of those fools even sawed one of the control rods in half to see if the inside of the rods was hollow... To see if it was hollow as he thought, there were tiny brains or some nonsense inside of the control rod!"
"Now we got a whole legion of a hundred Sphere Men who can't be controlled now and are just scrap metal at this point!"
The meeting room went quiet before the old Astromancer took a deep breath, and he said helplessly. "Please, my Lady. Could I just... Go meet this Kharn, his ability to forge such weapons and his shrouded fate has even gained the attention of your honored father himself."
Miao Ying's face pinched as that was obviously impossible. Because Kharn, the spiteful dwarf youngling filled with so much hate for the Skaven had 'hid' himself in a mountain that was more dangerous then five night goblin holds merging together.
Already, her mother's Crow-Men with their special stealth abilities had been scouting the mountain to see if Kharn's new dwarven hold would become an active threat towards Grand Cathay's borders.
But no... Even worse, it was actually to useful to destroy or to even allow to be destroyed. Because what her greedy nobles seemingly coudn't understand and even she coudn't understand the 'HOW' was how Kharn was feeding so many damned Ogres!
There were several so called 'Holy Lands' for the fat, stupid, and lumbering fools that were the Ogre race. But...
Now they had a new one. A land, a hold where the food was aplenty. The grass was thick and hardy enough to eat, the water pure, no matter how foul the hands that went into it.
And meat, vegetables, fruits, ale, and grain flowed from Kharn's hold like a golden river of treasure as Kharn's hold fed... Over a hundred thousand Ogres a single day.
A hundred thousand Ogres who were all capable of fighting in one small region... Not a single force in the world could fight that. Especially the 'Gourmet Legion' that Kharn had created.
A terrible and nightmarish force. A force of assassin Ogres who were utterly invisible to the naked eye, and patrolled the lands like invisible reapers who would grab even Black Orc bosses by surprise and would bite their heads off before the rest of the green skins could react.
Miao Ying shuddered at the thought of some disgusting naked Ogre sneaking up on her and attacking her. "Kharn's hold isn't something so easily visited. He has turned his Hold's exterior into a holy land for the Ogres who even manage to keep their disgusting behavior restrained in return for endless bounties of food and ale."
The Grand Astromancer scoffed and then said with confusion. "Some Ogres... We employ the greatest numbers of Ogres in the world, would they truly deny payment for merely safe passage?"
But then in the shadow of this private meeting hall a crisping clicking noise rang out before Miao Ying's eyes lanced towards a letter that fell onto her desk.
Not only was the letter bearing her imperial mother's seal that hummed with pure 'Yin' magic. The use of a Crow-Man that could even hide from her own senses was all to clear.
There was a pause as the Astromancer took a sip of tea as Miao Ying obviously had to answer the important message she was just given.
And then lightning crackled around her body before she said in utter confusion, "Kharn of Buruck... Is at the World's Edge Mountains, with the Slayer King and the High King of the dwarves as they are working to retake Karak Eight Peaks."
The Astromancer paused and said in confusion, "How? Such a movement in the Underdark would have caused countless eruptions of magic as such a force would need to fight countless horrors to cross the world with such speed."
Miao Ying was quiet for a moment as her fingernails clicked softly on the jade black desk of her private imperial office.
But she couldn't understand how Kharn or the Dawi in general could have moved so quickly or in such numbers as described in her mother's spy network. If it was one of the Grand High Mages of the Elves, it could have possibly have made sense. But the dwarves?
Then her face turned black as coal as the Grand Astromancer that was older then herself said thoughtfully. "Actually, your mother and father's interest could have merit. Integrating dwarven runes into our own stable magic would make it even more potent and safe. You taking Kharn as a lover and finally contributing to the bloodline despite being the eldest would-"
"Silence! I am not some broodmare to be sold off, nor am I a raging wrym who will breed with anything like a certain number of my other siblings!" Miao Ying hissed with fury.
The room went quiet before the Grand Astromancer said flatly. "Your mother is scared of how many Jade and Jet Lions you keep... She thinks you are treating them as child replacements."
Miao Ying had to hold off on literally biting the meddlesome old man's head off.