Somehow, when Frederick had said that the Emperor had grown far too old to leave the planet, Rafaela had imagined a creaky old man, rather than a robust giant. As large as Frederick had been, the Emperor would surely make him look far smaller. She couldn't imagine what might allow a person to grow to such a size.
"Were you raised in a lower gravity?" she blurted.
"On Earth," the Emperor replied simply.
"That's impossible," Brendan protested. When they both turned to look at him, he explained, "We're over a thousand light years from Earth, if you meant old Earth, where humans originated."
"Far more than humans, hundreds of thousands of species lived there," the Emperor rumbled. "But I assure you that it is not impossible, merely fact. Dragons originally had much longer lifespans than humans, and I imagine that I have already lived far longer than you would ever have guessed."
