Karyu recognized the appeal of what the dragons were offering, but as he looked at the assembled dragons, reality set in.
The azure dragon was undernourished, and she was covered in several conflict scars from her battles with both humans and other dragons. While she was clearly a seasoned veteran, she was certainly not a veteran of true organized combat. Her scales were dry and flaky, and her claws were yellowed and splitting. As she talked, it became evident that she had teeth missing, all of these evidence of an undisciplined lifestyle.
Karyu, as the mount of a Dragon Rider, was kept always at the pinnacle of handsomeness. Luke routinely buffed his scales to a high shine, and Luke treated his claws with a salve made by a local witch protect them against fungal infections that could weaken and split them. Luke even brushed his teeth using a horse-hair brush and a mixture of lard and coal, and brushing was a practice that Karyu had not even seen humans practicing widely since the world had transformed. While dragons were treated as possessions, humans clearly valued dragons more than they valued themselves, and while this was sad in a way, the truth remained: Karyu was physically stronger than all of these dragons put together.
"I would point out," he said slowly, "that you would have us up against both the Dragon Riders and the cultists."
The azure dragon tossed her head. "They will kill each other off soon enough, leaving us to rule in their absence," she said haughtily. "We will not want from their extinction."
Karyu shook his head. "If the Dragon Riders lost their air superiority, the cultists would take over, and I have seen what the cultists do. They destroy anything that might become stronger than themselves if they can. They will only tolerate that which they can control and bend to their own will. Nations far poorer than ours--where the populations would be dropping from death by hunger if the populace did not keep replenishing their numbers--have been brought under their spell. They set up alms states, and any agency besides themselves that attempts to do any good is deliberately sabotaged and demonized. They are insidious about undermining and eliminating anything that could challenge them."
"They could never dispatch a dragon!" the azure dragon growled bravely.
"They could never dispatch a mounted Dragon Rider," Karyu amended. "Wake up to reality. By ourselves, dragons might have brute strength and powerful magic, but humans have one thing that dragons don't have."
The azure one looked at him weirdly. "That sounded like all that we needed for humans to be our favorite food, but go on."
"They have discipline," Karyu said. "Discipline and organization. As long as humans have that over us, they can destroy us."
"Dragons will organize!" the azure shouted savagely.
"Why should we have to?" Karyu said. "We are no good at it, and you know it. Humans organize battle plans and political intrigues as reflexively as dragons work magic. It's all they really do very well."
The azure dragon's eyes narrowed to slits of rage. "Are you seriously suggesting that we consent to living as slaves?" she asked.
"Your breath would smell better," Karyu pointed out.
As Karyu continued talking to the dragons, the wiser ones gradually started to come around, realizing that the relationship between Dragons and their Riders was really a powerful symbiotry, in spite of the loss of individuality that went with such a condition. While some of them called the very speculation of it deplorable and kited off in a rage, a few had begun to come around. Most others just listened in stunned silence, apparently not fully understanding the conversation or its consequences.