Chapter 70: Red Sky At Morning...

''By promoting the young Sigurd Trondsson to high ranks in the political and military spheres, Empress Theodora made him into a target for the intricate power plays of the highly corrupt imperial court. This was not lessened by the fact that, by rewarding him so, she made her favoritism obvious. This simply meant that all of the myriad kinds of attacks and seductions that he faced had to be more subtle than a knife in the back, although those were tried as well. At first, Trondsson was very much a liability to the Empress, who had to spend time and effort to protect him, although there are counter-arguments that she was using him as her stalking horse in order to draw out dissatisfied members of the court so that she could deal with them. It was not until later that he…''

—Constantinople: The Child Of Rome's Empire, Venice, Italy, 1795

Foreshadowing
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Epigraph Tie-In

 * The epigraph mentions the political effects of Sigurd's promotion. The chapter shows Sigurd working in his new role as he and his assistants set up the infrastructure to feed and house a thousand dragons, their riders and the supporting staff.

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