Dragon's Persuasion

Dragon's Persuasion lies on the table, a pendant carved from a shard of glassy dragonbone, its surface lacquered to a deep obsidian sheen. A seam of copper runs through the center like a corrupted river, catching lamplight and turning it to ember. At the heart sits a crimson gem, faceted to resemble a single beating eye, warm to the touch and barely cool to the palm. The edges are fine as if etched by wind, with runes that glow faintly when the room grows quiet; when you tilt it, you can almost hear the sigh of the dragons those runes remember. Some say it was forged within the last great pact between human scribes and a dragon-child, a relic meant not to harm, but to temper talk, to persuade without harm. Dragon's Persuasion carries a weight that is not physical but persuasive; in daylight it rests as a charm, a reminder that words can sometimes outrun steel. In the world of trade and treaty, it is a tool, a key you press against the lock of a dragon's conscience or a warlord's stubborn code. When used in the right moment, it can soften a guarded sentence, coax a concession, or reveal a memory hidden behind a dragon's vow. It is not a weapon, but a hinge. Looming in its lore is the idea that the Dragon's Persuasion collected the breath of a dragon-deal and became a form of living contract—bestowed upon trusted negotiators to remind them that the world was built with words as much as with deeds. In dungeons and ruin-haunted borders, it has shown up in stories as the quiet instrument that turns a raid into a negotiation, a failing alliance into a fragile accord. The texture of the piece—cool enamel over warmth, the smooth weight of scales beneath—feels like a memory pressed between fingers. As I walk the market lanes, I hear the familiar clack of traders’ coins and the soft rustle of Saddlebag Exchange, where the evening’s listings drift across the screen like lantern light on water. A seller with a weathered grin swears by it, explaining that its value waxes with rumor as much as with roadworthiness: a dragon-sight or a king’s envoy can change a price as fast as a wing stroke. The listing sits among other relics, a rumor of power wrapped in copper and color, and the price—whatever it is on that day—shimmers with the same uncertainty that threads through every tale of dragons: the possibility that words, once spoken, can bend the world. One night, long after the fires died down, a caravan forewarned of a dragon's scout halved its route when they unfurled the pendant before a wary elder. The elder's gaze softened; he spoke of a treaty inked in ash and rain, renewed by a whispered oath. The trader smiled, pocketing a token of thanks, while the caravan pressed on toward dawn, the pendant warming again in the pocket as if it remembered their path. It is that memory, not the price, that lingers in a buyer's hand.