"Lower, Voidwyrm?" Piamuen laughed, her voice ringing through the howl like a bell, but one slightly off note, "That is the wrong kind of thinking!"
Piamuen continued to climb, ignoring the spines twisting and jittering under her, and still whispered into the ear of the Voidwyrm, "Thinking is the heart of strategy, my queen, and strategy is the true decider of war. Even monumentous strength can be thwarted by underhanded intelligence... Or to rephrase, let us compare'st this to a hunt. Think of a lion, or a python, or even a dragon. They are predators, apex in their lands, the highest of the high. All of these are also mighty in strength and size to their prey, usually much larger and much more dangerous in brute strength. After all, what boar would want to face a lion head on, or what man a dragon?"
She spoke, and as she did she reached Nevira's dome, the top of her skull. Weaving through her giant horns, still she said, "And what rat, a python? But see, how do these great predators hunt? Do they throw themselves directly towards their prey, using their might to crush them? No! For an animal afraid will fight ten times harder than an animal that hasn't even expected an attack! The lion waits in the grass, the python in the trees, and the dragon in the either the depths of the mountains or their peaks. Only when the time is right, and it is far too late for their prey to escape their deaths do they pounce. And then, it is over before it has begun. The rat, the boar," here she paused, and cast a hand out towards the valley that lay below the mountain, "the man, their throats are bared and they are blind to the danger they are in."
Now she sat on Nevira's brow, just above her eyes, crosslegged, "That is but an analogy for the defeat you will bring upon these kingdoms of men. Ram their gates and pronounce yourself to them, and they will grow afraid, yes. No doubt you can destroy them, after a time. But work your way into their capitals, into their veins and into their minds. Have your many teeth and claws," she gestured out to the crowd of dragons before them, "act as many hands with the same goal. One cannot defend from an enemy that resides within, Voidwyrm. One can heal a wound dealt from another, but when you eviscerate your enemy when they least expect it, with their own knife, they are powerless to stop you. Do not simply burn and crush your foes. Have them crush themselves!"
