Audience with an Emperor
After telling Elias and Francisco to stay with Nalaea in the Hanged Man while she recovered from her death experience, Vordea decided to go for a walk. Walking the streets of the Imperial Capital, she noticed that for a capital city it was strangely absent of other races. Even accounting for the oppressive heat, there were far less non-dwarves than she expected. Another thing to question the Emperor about, she supposed.
As she wandered about the city, she saw all the signs of an Empire in decline. Corruption, open theft, rampant homelessness, and an overwhelmed city guard desperately trying to maintain order. She passed no less than a dozen arrests and assaults in progress, and personally stopped four attempted thefts. This was not the Empire of Eternal Sand she remembered, and it made her sad. She wondered if anything could be done to reverse the decline as she walked up the steps to the palace.
"Halt! State your business." The palace guard at the top of the steps said, his face stern as he held onto his poleaxe.
"I'm here to see the Emperor." Vordea said, pulling the visa out of her pocket and handing it to the guard.
"Ah, it's you. Apologies, my lady." The guard said, stepping aside and bowing. "We welcome you to the Imperial City."
"Thanks." Vordea said dismissively, taking her visa back and strolling inside. Truly a decaying empire, she thought to herself. Strangled by tradition as it falls to pieces around them. Inside the palace grounds, there was no evidence of the strife that surrounded it, and it made her angry. A ruler that doesn't reflect his people is no ruler at all.
Knowing she was safe from prying eyes, she dropped her disguise, taking on her normal avatar, and marched down the halls of the opulent palace, past astonished servants and guards, and punched down the door of the Emperor's throne room.
"Emperor Rurrack!" Vordea shouted, walking straight up to his throne, up the steps, and towering before him. "What is this meaning of this?"
Before he could even reply, Vordea lifted him with a single ungloved hand, and tossed him down the steps of his throne. As he lay in a heap at the foot of his magnificent throne, Vordea began to smash it to pieces.
"The Emperor of a dying empire does not deserve such opulence!" Vordea yelled, as she went about the room, destroying various displays of wealth. "Your Empire decays and you hide in your palace!"
"Aren't you change?" Rurrack groaned, as Vordea raged. "Perhaps the Empire was meant to come to an end."
Vordea stopped what she was doing. Slowly, she turned her head to look at Rurrack, her eyes full of rage. Slowly walking over to him, she lifted him to his feet with a single hand, and scowled at him.
"You will not answer to me. This Empire does not belong to me, it belongs to her. You will answer to the Hunter of the Deep, why you have left her Empire to decay. Eigengrau!"
"For a change, I fully agree with Vordea." Eigengrau said, stepping out of Rurrack's shadow. "Rurrack, what have you done with this Empire. It is in the name. The Empire of Eternal Sand. This Empire is supposed to persist until the end of time. Why are you trying to make it collapse?"