Path of Dragons 16 - Chapter 8 - The Meaning of Power (Patreon)

“If you’re calling me that to get under my skin, you probably shouldn’t bother. I don’t really care,” Elijah said, scanning the chamber as he stepped forward.  Meanwhile, he kept one eye on the dragon floating in the center of the dojo.

The garden was not really a garden, but it was enclosed by walls  that reminded him of a dojo from an old-school kung fu movie.  Most of the details were different, but the vibe remained similar enough to push those memories to the front of his mind. 

“The Matrix,” Elijah said at last.

“What?” asked the obviously confused dragon.

“That’s what this reminds me of,” Elijah responded.  “You know, the scene where Morpheus and Neo spar for the first time.”  He paused as he looked around.  “More plants, though.”

It even had paper walls.

“I don’t understand,” the dragon admitted.  Before Elijah could explain, he continued, “But the details of this room come from your mind, so that is unsurprising.”

“How does that work?” Elijah asked, stopping a few feet from his would-be tutor.

“Do they not teach you these things anymore?”

“Never had any formal training,” Elijah stated.  “Well, not that matters here.  I did spend almost a decade in college, but I don’t think that counts in this situation.”

“A decade,” the prisoner scoffed. “No more than the blink of an eye.”

“To you, maybe.  To me, it felt like an eternity,” Elijah argued.  “So, how does this work?  You ready to impart cosmic secrets?  Tell me how the world works?  Maybe explain the answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe, and everything?”

“Of course not.”

“Oh, I thought you were going to say forty-two,” Elijah joked.

“Why would I –”

“Never mind.  No more pop culture references that you can’t hope to understand,” Elijah said.  “Let’s get down to it.  Teach me, sensei.”

“I don’t like you.”

“What?  Everyone likes me.”

“I find that difficult to believe,” the dragon stated. 

“Well, we didn’t get off to a great start,” Elijah said.  “You wouldn’t even tell me your name, remember?  And you insulted me before you even knew me.”

“Calling you a half-scale is not an insult,” said the prisoner.  He flipped his long beard over his shoulder.  “It is merely a fact.  Run from it if you must, but you can never change what you are.  And what you are is a half-scale.”  His eyes twinkled as he added, “Besides, you said that it does not bother you.”

“Whatever.  My point is that…I don’t really know what my point is, except that we don’t like each other so there’s no reason to pretend otherwise.”

“Agreed.”

“So?”

“So, what?”

“Teach me.  You’re the tutor.  I’m the student,” Elijah said, raising the crystal leaf.  “Here’s my ticket.”

“What would you like to learn?” asked the dragon.

Elijah answered, “Let’s talk about cultivation.”

“What about it?”

“Well, any tips?  Tricks?”

“Is that what you want?  Shortcuts to power?”

“Not really what I meant, no,” Elijah said, regretting his flippant response.  Suddenly, he realized that he was ill-prepared for tutelage.  He’d come in with no real expectations, almost on a whim, and as a result, he had no idea what he wanted to learn.

Perhaps it would’ve been better to seek out one of the other tutors, one who might’ve been a little more amenable to teaching him.  But something told him that the very first prisoner they’d encountered was one of the most powerful in the Bound Sky.  That made learning from him a much more attractive option.

“Then say what you mean, half-scale.”

“Why so impatient?  Somewhere to be?” Elijah asked.

“Do you know why I am here?”

“I don’t,” Elijah admitted.

The dragon finally uncrossed his legs and lowered his feet to the ground.  When they settled upon the floor, they did so with incalculable weight.  The entire room shuddered under his influence. 

He fixed Elijah with a withering stare. “Because I choose to be.”

Following from that declaration was the surety that if he wanted to escape, he could have done so.  It also probably meant that he wasn’t just sitting around waiting to teach someone like Elijah.

“You’re cultivating here, aren’t you?”

“No.  I am preparing for it.  If I tried to advance in a place like this, the process would drain the entire world of energy,” the dragon explained.  “I needn’t worry about such things.  I will not be prepared for another thousand years at the very least.”

“There must be better places to prepare for cultivation.”

“There are.”

“Then why are you really here?  Why did you choose this fate?”

“Fate?  This is not fate, half-scale.  It is merely the blink of an eye in an eternal life.  In a few thousand years, I will barely remember the sacrifice of so little time,” the dragon explained.  “But if you must know – it is a peaceful environment.”

“Last time I saw you, you were being drained by an abyssal knight,” Elijah pointed out.

“Barely an annoyance.”

Elijah didn’t really believe the dragon’s explanation.  Maybe that was part of the story, but he expected that there was far more to it.  Either way, he fully believed the prisoner when he said that he could escape at any time.  There was a power lurking beneath the surface that set the dragon apart.

That was why Elijah had come to him instead of any of the others.

Or maybe he just liked the idea of a challenge.

“You want to tell me why you’re really here?” Elijah asked.  “Not the wise-asshole-master schtick, either.”

“Asshole?” asked the dragon, cocking his head to the side.  “I have never heard that one.”

“It’s all the rage on Earth.”

“Dirt?”

Elijah rolled his eyes. “I am not going through this again.  Never mind the name of my planet,” he said. “Okay, so here’s what I’ll do.  How about I tell you about my life, then you can tell me about yours?”

“I am not doing that.”

“We’ll see.”

Then, Elijah began, “It all started when I was flying home to die…”

After that, he gave the dragon an abbreviated version of his life story.  Or at least the bits since the world had changed.  He didn’t skip much – just the boring stuff, like those first few towers he’d run.  Those, he only mentioned.  Instead, he focused on the big events, like his advances in cultivation, the people he met along the way, and the meals he’d enjoyed.  Levels and progression only took up a tiny portion of the story.

For his part, the dragon tutor listened to everything without interruption.  At times, Elijah felt like he was rambling, making him wish for an interjection just to make it seem like he was carrying on a real conversation.  Instead, the prisoner simply stared at him with unblinking eyes, never moving a single muscle.

Elijah completed his story by telling the dragon what he’d done with his mushroom cave, excitedly recounting the variations he’d tried and the effect of Dictate of the World Tree.

“And that’s about it.  For the rest of this trial, I plan to work on the mushroom, kill orcs, and establish a plan for the next step in my cultivation.”

The dragon didn’t speak.

So, Elijah asked, “Any thoughts?  Advice?  You’re supposed to be a tutor, right?”

“Such a waste.”

“What?”

“Your talent.  Your attunement.  Your sheer power relative to your stage of development.  Do you know what most would do with those advantages?” asked the dragon.

“No idea.  Probably die.”

The prisoner gave a harsh chuckle.  “Most assuredly.  But those that survived would certainly seek to dominate others,” he pointed out.  “With focused development, you could transcend within a thousand years.  And then, you could conquer empires.”

“Pass.”

“Pass?”

“That’s what I said.  I have no interest in ruling anyone.”

The dragon laughed.  “You do not conquer to rule, half-scale.  Let others do that in your stead.”

“Then why do it at all?”

Elijah could understand the drive to rule, given that the intended ruler had ideas about how to change things for the better.  Policies they wanted enacted, people they wanted saved.  But power for power’s sake?  It seemed ridiculously pointless.

“Because you can.  Because the powerful deserve to stand at the top of the mountain looking down at their lessers.  Because –”

“Pass.”

The dragon’s eyes narrowed, and Elijah felt ethera swirl.  A second later, something more powerful settled onto the chamber, dampening the dragon’s near-outburst. 

“Damned system,” he growled.  Then, he focused on Elijah.  “You want a lesson, half-scale?  A valuable one that will stick with you through transcendence?”

“I do.”

“Do not submit to the system just because it offers an easy path,” the prisoner said.  “Do not accept anyone else’s limits.  If someone tells you that you can’t do something, prove them wrong.  Because there is nothing you cannot do, so long as you have proper motivation, time, and the willpower to see it through.”

“Is that what got you here?” Elijah asked.

“All power has a limit.”

“I’m well aware,” Elijah said.

“True power is the freedom to choose your own path. If you wish to use it to slaughter your enemies, so be it.  If you wish to sit on a mountaintop surrounded by nature, then power allows  you that freedom,” said the prisoner.  “But beware.  All power comes with a cost.”

“I’ve found that to be true.”

“You have not experienced it,” the prisoner stated, stepping forward.  Suddenly, Elijah couldn’t move.  Not because something held him motionless, but because his muscles simply wouldn’t work.  Ethera froze in the conduits of his soul, and the energy in his core stopped churning.  Even his mind went briefly blank.  The dragon suddenly loomed over him, impossibly large while never growing an inch.  “You will see betrayal, half-scale.  From those you trust.  From those you thought you loved.  From enemies and allies alike.  Do you know why?”

Elijah could not answer.

The dragon went on, “Because power invites envy.  Envy drives betrayal.  And if you’re lucky, you will see it coming.  If you do not?  You may end up like me.  Stuck in an ancestral world, providing power for a goal you don’t believe in.  Bringing back a planet that should have stayed in the abyss.

“That is what power is.  Freedom and betrayal.”

“Sounds like there might be a story there,” Elijah said. 

“There is.”

“Want to share?”

“No.”

Elijah sighed.  “Is that the extent of the lesson you’re going to teach me? Aren’t you obligated to do more than that?” he asked.

“The system cannot force me to teach a whelp like you,” the dragon stated.

“But it can keep you here?”

“It cannot.”

Elijah narrowed his eyes at the implication that the dragon was there by choice.  He’d hinted at it earlier in the conversation, but the latest declaration seemed to confirm that as fact.

“Not every choice makes sense to outsiders,” the prisoner stated evenly.  “Nor should it.  Once you understand and internalize that, you will begin to walk a true path outside the system’s constraints.”

“I thought the system was there to help us.”

“It is there to preserve our reality.  In doing so, it helps the majority.  But there is a reason we must transcend its influence in order to taste real power,” countered the dragon.  “Even those of us who have taken those first steps on the long road to independence remain under its sheltering and ultimately harmful canopy.”

“I don’t understand,” Elijah admitted.

“Nor should you, half-scale.  You will not grasp it until you approach the walls it has built around our collective existence,” the dragon stated.  “Do not mistake this for a declaration of intent.  The system has no desire other than the purpose for which it was built.”

“I’m not getting anything else, am I? Just cryptic allusions.”

“You are not prepared for anything else.”

Elijah sighed, finally able to move.  He ran his fingers through his hair and asked, “Any other nuggets of wisdom?”

“Don’t die.  I’m intrigued by the prospect of your future.”

Then, without warning, Elijah stumbled backward and found himself suddenly back in the antechamber.  He looked around, briefly confused.

“Oh, he must have liked you.  You were in there a lot longer than normal,” said the Administrator.

“Really?”

“Yeah – he usually kicks people out in a second or two,” she answered.  “Learn anything important?”

“I’m really not sure,” Elijah admitted.

“That’s how it goes sometimes.  My master once told me that a lesson immediately understood is no lesson at all.  But then again, she was probably just trying to cheat my parents out of a little extra money, so who knows if that’s accurate,” the Administrator mused.  “Anyway, hand the leaf back.  Best not to go right back in.  They usually don’t like that.”

Elijah was tempted to do it just to spite the rude dragon, but he ultimately chose not to.  Every meeting with the tutors drained energy from the overall accumulation of the faction’s progress.  As such, if he went in right after, he might be depriving someone else of an opportunity down the line.

Besides, he wanted to ponder what the dragon had told him.

Because if his first impressions were correct, there was a lot more – and, from some perspectives, less – going on with the system than he’d first thought.