Path of Dragons 16 - Chapter 23 - Trust (Patreon)

“Do you trust me?” Elijah asked, his hand extended as he stood on a cushion of air.

Imal narrowed her eyes.  “This is another one of your references, isn’t it?” she asked, certain that she was right.  After spending so much time together, she’d come to recognize those situations for what they were.  Not the silly comments they appeared to be, but rather a trauma response for a man who’d seen a lot of things he couldn’t explain and chose to cling to the familiar just for a small degree of comfort. 

Did it matter that no one else really understood his references? Not really.  That was never the point.  Instead, he just wanted something from home. 

For Imal’s part, she’d once had a similar relationship with a pendant given to her by her mother.  It had long ago been lost during battle, snatched from her neck by a monster.  However, she still sometimes found herself reaching up to her chest, hoping to draw strength from its presence. 

The pendant had never been a powerful piece of equipment.  In fact, it was barely even magical in nature, offering only a handful of attributes and no meaningful traits.  But it was her mother’s lone memento from her ill-fated days as an adventurer.  She’d lost a leg during her very first tower, and though she’d eventually saved enough to get someone to grow it back, the long absence had stymied the growth of her cultivation system.  The lack of branches in her missing leg meant that ethera never quite flowed right.

From that day on, any potential she’d had was gone. 

She had attempted to maintain her combat ability, but her group – mostly comprised of friends from childhood – eventually left her behind.  When Imal had heard that story, she’d regarded it as a great betrayal, but her mother never held a grudge.  Instead, she acknowledged that they’d made the right choice.

Now, looking back, Imal understood that better than ever.  If she’d been saddled with such a handicap – either personally or with one of her teammates – she would never have reached her current level of power.  The margins were too thin, and system spaces were far too dangerous to take any but the best available.  Approaching them otherwise was a good way to end up dead or crippled.

Eventually, Imal’s mother had settled down into a non-combat life, gradually working her way into a hybrid class that allowed her to work as a Tailor’s assistant.  But such was her unsuitability for that kind of job that she’d never even reached demi-god status.

Not before she grew ill and died.

Before she had passed, she had given Imal the pendant and enough money to apprentice with her master.  Even then, she’d never have been accepted if she lacked suitability.  Fortunately, she had always had talent.

And that pendant had served as a keen reminder of just how quickly all of her plans could come to an end.  One false move, and she would die.  One mistake, and she would be crippled, never given an opportunity to reach her potential.

Even now, that danger loomed over her, a constant reminder that she hadn’t fully climbed free of the circumstances of her birth.  She loved her parents, but she also resented their lack of ability to become something more.  And she hated herself for feeling that way – enough that she tried to bury those emotions under a mountain of love and a lifetime of positive memories.

It almost worked, too.

“The hesitation is making me feel a little nervous,” Elijah said, his hand still extended.

“Oh. Yes,” she answered at last, taking his hand.  He pulled her into his arms.

“Hold on tight.”

Imal did, and he climbed higher into the air.  They had recently completed the cleansing of the latest cell, and in doing so, she’d gained another level.  A significant accomplishment, given her status in the middle of the Great Wall.  Those last twenty-five levels before reaching five hundred were well-labeled, and their reputation was more than earned.

Even at her current pace, she wouldn’t soon reach the end of the demi-god tier.  After all, the ancestral world’s demigod trial had barely more than two years remaining.  Once they returned to the Empire of Scale, opportunities for leveling would be fewer and further between.

Elijah continued to climb until they were hundreds of feet above the surface of the sky island.  They’d split off from the group, with the other returning to the Vengeance while Elijah insisted on showing Imal something special.

She expected it was the ridiculously-named Fungee, but with Elijah, there was never any telling.

Finally, they came to a stop. 

Elijah pointed off into the distance and asked, “Do you see it?”

Imal squinted against the morning light.  Then, she saw a dark cloud on the horizon.

“What is that?”

“Levels,” Elijah said.  Then, he told her once again to hold on before he shifted into his World Serpent form.  His scales reflected a rainbow of light, and even when he wasn’t moving, it looked as if he was.  Imal clung to the spines running down his neck as he slithered forward.

In moments, he’d attained a speed no other demigod – dragon or not – could match.  Like that, they flew forward until Imal could just make out what the shadow on the horizon represented.

It was a fleet.

Not nearly as large as the ones they’d encountered before, but still big enough to give her pause.  Did Elijah really intend to attack them on his own?  Imal didn’t doubt his ability to kill as many orcs as he wanted to kill, but she would never survive something like that. 

Her heart leaped into her throat as he continued forward.  Eventually, he dove.

Right into a sky island that couldn’t have been more than a mile across.  As he fell, he shifted back into his human form, and when he touched down, he did so with bare feet. 

“Don’t hesitate to follow.  We’re already cutting it close, and I don’t want them to know we’re here.”

With that, he shifted into the Shape of the Magus – that glorious dragon toad form that gave him such a mastery over elemental magic.  The earth parted before him, and he dove.  Imal scrambled after him, feeling awkward surrounded by so much earth. 

Finally, they arrived at a cave filled with water.  Imal dove, but she couldn’t even sense the bottom.  When she resurfaced, she demanded, “How deep does it go?”

“Ten miles, maybe?  No more than twenty,” he answered in that croaking voice.  As he spoke, he sent out tendrils of ethera to snake their way through earth.  He’d already sealed the tunnel behind them, so those new shafts would be the only window into the outside world.

Imal floated on her back, luxuriating in the cold water.  It was mineral rich, but not so much as to dilute the water attunement.  She had experienced stronger, but not in the ancestral world.

Finally, Elijah finished what he was doing and shifted back into his human form. 

“Like it?” he asked.

“How did you find it?”

“That wasn’t an answer,” he remarked with a grin.  He didn’t need confirmation.  Imal was certain her wide smile told him everything he needed to know.

Still, she told him that she loved the subterranean sea before repeating her question.

“I made it,” he stated.  Then, he described how he’d found the sky island, then used his dragon form to tow it beneath a waterfall.  “There’s another island about a thousand miles that way.  It’s one of the big ones.  I just hollowed this thing out, then dipped it under one of those falls.  And voila.  Instant lake.”

“That doesn’t sound instant.”

“Well, not quite.  But I think it was worth it.  There’s also a water natural treasure down at the bottom of this thing,” he explained.  “It’s been fermenting down there for a couple of months now.”

“This…this is amazing,” she said, throwing her arms over his shoulders.

Then, she kissed him.  It lingered for a while until he pulled away and said, “This isn’t the real gift.”

“Oh?”

“You already forgot that fleet?” he asked. “This is fuel.”

That was when it clicked for Imal.  The location had been chosen very specifically. 

“You ready to let loose?”

Imal just stared him in the eyes and said, “I love you.”

“Ditto.  Now, let’s make a storm.”

With that, he shifted back into dragon toad form, and Imal climbed onto his back.  Already, she felt him manipulating the local currents of water and air, and she knew he was doing the same to fire and earth.  His skill with the flows of ethera had grown significantly since his first few clumsy yet powerful attempts. 

Imal slid her own power between Elijah’s flows, intertwining her abilities with his.  She did so with a significantly more articulate touch, owing to her long hours of frustrating practice with Hira.

Even that couldn’t explain how quickly their flows came together, intertwining into something wholly new and far more explicitly powerful than either could have managed alone.  The deep pool provided the fuel for the impending storm, while Elijah and Imal guided that power into a recognizable whole.

Elijah kept glancing upward, muttering, “Wait for it…”

And then, at last, he said, “Now.”

The storm clouds they’d gathered rushed through the vents, carried forward by dense flows of air ethera.  The water level noticeably dropped, a foot every second as Imal felt the storm coalesce.

That was when she heard the first peel of thunder.  It echoed so loudly that she saw the reverberations rippling across the surface of the pool.  It wasn’t long before another followed.  Then another.

Experience started pouring in.

She couldn’t quite feel the storm outside, but from the volume of thunder and the howling wind, she knew it must’ve been epic in scope.  Moreover, the sheer weight of the experience suggested something truly cataclysmic.

Imal didn’t focus on that, though.  Instead, she concentrated on funneling more and more water into the storm.  In doing so, she felt closer to Elijah than she ever had before. 

They had summoned storms together on multiple occasions, but this one was obviously different, both in magnitude and complexity.  The intimacy of conjuring it was overwhelming, and enough that if he hadn’t been in the shape of a dragon toad, she might’ve considered taking it a step further.

On and on the storm went until the pool evaporated beneath their feet.  The natural treasure went with it, supercharging the resulting storm until it was powerful enough to rip layers of earth from the sky island. 

It was hard to believe that any orcs might have survived.

It continued for more than an hour until, at last, Elijah rose on a gust of air.  When they reached the top of the cavern, he opened a tunnel that extended for only fifteen feet or so until they broke free into open air.

The storm still persisted, though only as a light shower.  The lightning and thunder had faded, and light peeked through the clouds, casting the scoured surface of the island in rays of illumination.  The smell of fresh rain permeated the air, mixed undeniably with the odor of charred orc and blood.

Imal had gained an entire level.

“Why did you ask if I trusted you?” she asked as he resumed his human form. 

“Oh, I messed it up.  I was going to launch into a song about showing you the world.  I even had one of the Tradesmen back on the Vengeance sew me a magic carpet,” he said.  A roll of woven fabric appeared in his hand.

“That’s a rug.”

“Huh?”

“It’s a rug, Elijah.  Not carpet.”

“Same difference.”

“It’s really not,” Imal said, stifling a chuckle.  An odd thing, considering that they’d just killed thousands of orcs.  Most of them had been washed away by the storm, but there were still a few body parts here and there, creating a gruesome landscape.

Elijah shook his head.  “Well, that’s what it’s called.  I didn’t make it up,” he said, unfurling the rug.  It was expertly woven, and more importantly, it rested on a bed of air.  She could feel the enchantment manipulating the flows of ethera as Elijah climbed on.

He coaxed her to follow, and she joined him. 

“It’s difficult to balance on this thing,” she muttered.

“Yeah – I don’t think Disney thought the whole concept through,” Elijah acknowledged.  “But anyway, this was just a pit stop.  You’re still in for a real treat.”

“Oh?  Slaughter and experience wasn’t the main course?”

“Just an appetizer,” Elijah said.  Then, he shoved some ethera into a small crystal embedded in the rug, and it shot forward.  Not quickly, but fast enough that Imal’s hair streamed out behind her.

Imal might’ve complained were it not for Elijah’s broad smile.  He was clearly enjoying himself, which meant that she was too.

“Where are we going?” she half-shouted over the wind.

“I want to introduce you to someone.”

“Who?”

“It’s a surprise,” he called back. 

Then, they raced ahead, leaving the site of the storm behind.