To Karyu's gratification, it was paying off that so many members of the city were coupled now with dragons. The entire city, not just a few, were rising to the occasion. Those with dragons that were too young yet to carry riders were flying around their Riders like satellites, jets of flame streaming down at the invaders.
With more citizens now being empowered to protect their own interests, the dispute was now between the people of the city and the invading cultists. Previous conflicts, where cultists met peasants, were met with mass defections, with peasants that were unhappy under the iron rule of the Riders quickly joining the cultists to vent rage that had long been repressed under facile submissiveness.
This time, it was different. The protectors of the city were not just a chosen few, but they were blacksmiths, cobblers, and other professionals that had spent their lives working side-by-side with the peasants. A few powerfully built peasant youth also rode the skies, their bestial and powerful bodies just as proudly naked as their mounts as they flew at the cultists, man and beast at one with each other, armed with mattocks and pitchforks.
The cultists quickly retreated in fear, not accustomed to such fierce resistance. "Heathens!" screeched many of the survivors, among other epithets aimed at the defenders. Instead of entering a village guarded by a handful of Dragon Riders ruling repressed peasants by fear, they had entered upon a nest of demons.
"I am still not sure that we can spare you and your crew," Adam said, stroking Sephira's neck unhappily as he took stock of the damage. The new dragonsbane had caused grave injuries to the dragons, and the witch was beside herself as she went from one to the next while crying and wringing her hands over possible fatalities. Dragons and their Riders bonded so intimately that one seldom survived the death of the other, although they both would live far longer together than either would separately, the fluids of dragons partly transforming their Riders over time and the loving care given by Riders working genuine magic on the health of the dragons. Whether this fortifying effect could withstand dragonsbane was for the witch discover and everyone else to find out.
"You will get more dragons," Karyu and Luke said together, knowing each others' thoughts so well that they could use their joined voices to produce a powerful and authoritative chord, which helped instill fear in the peasants. Adam knew the truth, which was that Rider and dragon being in agreement was generally a sign that they would not change their minds.
Karyu continued, "Get word to the far mountains. Hens lose most of their clutches to violent nestling battles. They are saddened by this, but they don't know any better than to accept it as a matter of course. Spread the idea that it doesn't have to be so."
Luke continued after, "Face facts, Adam. The village is starving, thanks to the cultists controlling all of our trade-routes. Our fear of the outside world has weakened us, Your Majesty. Our hostility toward merchants has not helped very much, and the dangers of getting here have made matters worse."
"And I need to breathe, Your Majesty." For a rare switch, Karyu kneeled his forelegs without Luke's behest, his head pressing submissively against the ground. In spite of it being an act of obedience, making such a gesture without Luke's commanding touch to his neck made it clear that he was speaking for himself, for his own sake.
Luke just looked pleadingly into the eyes of his old friend. "My dragon's adventure having to plead with his own kind has left him feeling claustrophobic. I am concerned that his health might decline, even as my own recovers."
Adam closed his wise, sad eyes unhappily, clearly wondering if he might be losing his oldest friend. "I will send you out with your crew, then, Luke, so both you and Karyu can heal in the ways that you must. Thank you for giving me what I did not have before, Sir Luke: I have a people now that are loyal, rather than fearful, not for my sake but for their own. I believed before that I could only save them by controlling them. I know now that I can only save them by teaching them to care for themselves. This service will not be forgotten."
With the very nature of rulership changed forever in Adam's kingdom, Luke and Karyu greeted the members of their crew that had survived the battle without too much injury, and they made their plans for departure.
Final Fantasy VII victory theme plays, and a giant flag appears in the middle of the kingdom to indicate that the mission there is accomplished. Let's blow this pop stand.