Tales Of The Mighty Dragonair

Arthur moved his eyes silently among the creme of his forces. He gave them a few moments of silence so they'd ready their minds for what he was going to say.

"I've heard about what you did," he started speaking regarding the academies' issue, "I know you want the best for the empire, but many academies under the same roof aren't good."

"But we tried to mimic the essence of the strong academies in our higher worlds," Doaf didn't get Arthur's point as he said with a frowned expression on his face.

He wasn't the only one showing such a reaction. In fact almost everyone sitting in front of Arthur showed signs of confusion.

"We came from clans, but we know everything about academies," Amera stepped in as she thought Arthur didn't get the full picture about this matter, "academies are the best institutes to foster offsprings not belonging to the same clan."

"I know," Arthur had to speak and stop any further unneeded words from everyone, "but that doesn't mean it's very good. Academies are a good concept, but having such a big number will cause unneeded strife in the middle of our empire."

As he said these words, everyone started to see the matter from his perspective.Â

"But academies always were present in the higher realms, actually in all realms," Jude said while looking around, gaining support from others by nodding to him. "And yet not such a matter existed before as internal strife."

"That's in case we are talking about a clan with an academy or few academies following its lead," Arthur wasn't rash as he slowly started to explain his point to them.

He knew that for someone like him, living two lives and witnessing what others couldn't, he had a different point of view here.

But just giving them the order without explaining things was bad. Also trying to explain things as rude and crude as saying he witnessed this dead end before wouldn't do. He had to slowly take their hands and walk with them along that path.

"But we are speaking about a new thing, an empire. Our empire is different from clans and much more than academies. In clans people are only allowed to join based on their bloodline. Direct and indirect offspring would become the core of the clan. Strength of the clan is simply unidirectional, not enjoying the vast diversity of our empire."

He took a deep breath, giving them enough time to digest what he said before adding, "but compared to the clans, our empire depends on a wide variety of talents. We don't acknowledge bloodlines, only talents are allowed to blossom here."

"So the academies should be the best place to support the empire," Sara was also incomprehensive to what Arthur was proposing, "as academies are based on the diversity of talents and not only one bloodline."

"That's partly true," Arthur nodded before highlighting one of the main problems in their way of thinking, "but the model you all followed came, after all, from the higher realms. There the clans built and supported academies to just supplement their bloodline powers with fresh talents. In a sense it's a good way to lessen the shortcoming of a single bloodline. But from another perspective, it's detrimental to our empire."

As he saw their faces, he could conclude easily that they didn't get his point yet. So he had to elaborate further by saying:

"Academies can't be more partial to one facet of strength than another. That's the main disadvantage your academies have. Let me guess, Amera's academy focuses on the outburst of power plus little defense, while Doaf's academy relies mainly on long ranged strength, right?"

He didn't need to hear their responses as the slight change in the two's faces was enough as an answer.

"How did you know that?" Amera couldn't help but complain.

"This is'¦ did you have eyes inside our academies?" Doaf couldn't help but ask.

"This is also another aspect that makes this idea terrible," Arthur was a fast witted person, so he naturally guessed what the two meant.

It seemed each one dealt with his academy with utmost priority, veiling each academy with a thick curtain of mystery.

"Making each academy be secretive in such obvious determination is bad. We aren't enemies. We aren't clans opposing each other. We are part of the same empire. If we don't know each other, how can we expect our future offspring to cooperate with each other?"

His words made the faces of everyone around drop. The more he talked, the more depressed they became.

They thought they were doing a great favor to the empire. Yet with Arthur's words, they realized how deep the pit they dug for the empire by their actions was.

No matter how well intended their actions were, in the end digging such a deep pit was something bad.

"Each academy will focus on the traits of strength each one of you saw as the pillar of support to your powers. This is a limited vision, like a frog still seeing the world from the tiny opening of the well even if it left the well already. You need to broaden your perspective, seeing things as anew, not like what you always saw before."

He knew he was asking too much from them, but he also knew how vital these words and his arrangement were to the future of his empire.

"As a growing empire, our strength won't stop here. We will have ten fold of the population we have now at least in the future, ten folds of talents and mages. Tell me, with such an outstanding number of people, how can we still limit the abilities of each person to what your clans originally needed? What do your bloodlines need? Can this be an empire, or a group of clans clustered together under the same roof?"

Arthur was slowly trying to make them see the future he feared to happen.. "If we allow such division to continue, alongside the secrecy and the unavoidable rivalry between the academies, we will foster only hatred, nothing more."