"Hmm. How recently has he taken power?"

"Power he gets separately. He gets stronger whenever he defeats or subjugates someone, and I think he can be fueled by broader-scale fights against weaker opponents even if he's not involved. He's bragged before that he's partly coasting off wars that happened here ages ago.

And he's a Lord on top of that. Not a safe person to mess with."

"Yeah when I said 'taken power' I meant 'become Lord.'"

"Oh. Over a hundred years, I'm pretty sure. It's basically always been this way, for those of us without long family lines."

"And yet someone tried unseating him?"

"Jeremy was young and overconfident. He probably wasn't the first, either; it's a hazard of being Lord."

"But it looks like he did get close, didn't he?"

"Close in the sense that he did put up a fight and had made enough allies to be installed if he won. I can't say what his odds of winning really were."

"How did Conquest get it? I don't suppose there's magical history books?"

"You could ask someone who was around then. Isadora, the Dionysians, or Conquest himself. Maybe the Behaims."

"Don't suppose Conquest will be—hmm, although, it does kinda sound just like him to want to boast of his great victory over his mighty foe or some such."

"I wouldn't want to talk to him unnecessarily. Maybe he likes you better."

"I'm not sure how I'd tell. He did say he'd overrule others if they objected to my presence."

"He probably likes you, then. Figuratively. I don't know if he can like people in the usual sense."

"I was expecting the opposite, actually. When I brought him a gift he wanted to refuse it."

"He has refused gifts before. It's probably not personal. If there's really no conquest involved in getting it to him he doesn't want it."

"Sounds a bit narrow. When I met the Lord of Montreal he wasn't anywhere near as picky."

"Maybe he's just friendlier?" She flips the extremely friendly-sounding Seal on the money over to the side that shows the Lord of Montreal. "Or Conquest only cares about something if it's a trophy. He is pretty single-minded."

"Yeah. Sounds like a boring existence to be honest."

"For all I know he thinks the same about ours. We hardly do any grinding the weak beneath our heels at all."

He laughs. "I guess."

"I'd still avoid him if I were you. If you need to know how long he's been here, Isadora or one of the Drunk's people can tell you."

"Yeah I'm not lining up to ask him out for dinner or anything."

She stifles a laugh. "Good luck avoiding him."

So more magic or should he find a convenient excuse to duck out?