Path of Dragons 16 - Chapter 30 - Boiling Over (Patreon)

“Childhood me would be so excited right now,” Elijah said, leaning forward as the wind whipped through his hair.

Imal clutched his waist, saying, “This is wildly inefficient.”

Elijah couldn’t really disagree, but his counterpoint was that he was flying through an ancestral world comprised of sky islands.  And he was doing it on a real-life magic carpet. 

Of course, Imal didn’t have the context to understand how amazing that was.  Flying carpets were probably a dime a dozen back in the Empire of Scale.  Or rather, they would more likely be seen as quaint and eccentric, given that people tended to ride around on clouds and such.

But for a kid who grew up watching old-school Disney movies, there wasn’t much better than a flying carpet.  Maybe if he could find a Pegasus somewhere, it would come close.

The only issue was that, as Imal had already pointed out, the thing was extremely inefficient.  Not only did it take a significant amount of ethera just to stay aloft, but it was incapable of moving quickly.  If his dragon form was a car, then the flying carpet was a bicycle.  Compared to Shape of Withering or Shape of the World Serpent, it barely moved at all.

Still, Elijah insisted on using it.

Commissioning the thing had cost him a small fortune back on the Vengeance, and he intended to get his money’s worth out of it. 

Even so, it was only a few more hours before they stopped for a relaxed lunch next to a truly majestic waterfall.  They sat atop a boulder, watching the water disappear into the depths of Orveth Kaal.

“You’re worried about him, aren’t you?”

Elijah shrugged. “I shouldn’t be.”

“But you are.”

“I guess.  If we weren’t there the last time the orcs came, Fungee would’ve been killed,” he explained.  “I can’t stop thinking about what might happen if they find him again.”

“That’s why you put him under that guardian.”

Elijah looked away.  Imal was right.  He knew that.  In fact, his whole plan hinged on the idea that nothing was going to want to deal with that earth-attuned guardian.  It wasn’t the most powerful creature in Orveth Kaal, but it was one of the more durable beasts Elijah had encountered.  Killing it would take days, if not weeks or months.  And that was if its attacker could even manage it.

Moreover, its power would serve to mask Fungee’s presence.

On top of that, the fungal colony was far more capable now than it ever had been.  In short, Fungee should be able to take care of himself.  And if not, then the combination of the guardian’s deterrence and its power should have been more than enough to keep him safe.

Elijah knew all of that, but the knowledge didn’t keep him from worrying.

Maybe that was what it was like to have children.

“He’ll be fine,” Elijah insisted, mostly to himself.  Imal agreed, then blessedly turned the conversation to other, unrelated topics.  Elijah’s apprehension remained in the back of his mind, but he managed to ignore the worst of it.

When they finally moved on, they did so with Elijah in the Shape of the World Serpent.  There was a time for messing around on magic carpets, but now that they were getting closer to the Vengeance, both of them were eager to return, if only to get an update on how things were going.

Neither of them wanted to say as much, but there was every chance that the mountainous ship had endured a string of attacks.  The lack of orcish activity – after the defeat issued to the fleet they’d encountered over Fungee’s first home – suggested otherwise, but they couldn’t be sure until they finally reached the Vengeance.

And alarmingly, it looked almost identical to how they’d left it.  Sure, it was in a different location, but not too far from where it had been before.  That in and of itself was a surprise, given that the plan – as Elijah understood it – had centered around remaining mobile so that the orcs couldn’t pin them down.

On approach, he shifted into his dragon form, just because it would be less likely to provoke the Vengeance’s defenses.  Unfortunately, that turned out to be only half true, because it wasn’t long before he saw a pair of dragons leap free of the surface to intercept him.

Interestingly, they both had riders on their backs.

So did Elijah, largely because Imal couldn’t keep up otherwise, but outside of dragoons, dragons typically didn’t allow people to use them as mounts.  Outside of desperate situations, at least.

And as Elijah understood it, there were only a handful of dragoons in the entire ancestral world.  They were somewhat rare in the Empire of Scale, and they usually belonged to a specific order that renounced clan ties in favor of fighting on behalf of the empire as a whole.

Something told Elijah that wasn’t the case with the ones approaching him.

He stopped, flapping his wings lazily as they converged on him. 

“Tightened security a bit since I left, huh?” Elijah asked, his voice echoing much louder than normal.  That was a characteristic of his dragon form.  If he didn’t moderate his volume, it tended to get that way.

“Who are you?”

“Really?” Elijah asked.  “A guy’s gone for a few months, and everyone forgets me?  If I was less secure, it might make me feel unappreciated.”

“Answer the question,” commanded the red dragon. 

“I’m not too thrilled about your tone,” Elijah stated.  “I don’t recognize you, so I’m guessing you’re new.  But I helped build this mountain.  And you see that forest over there?  That’s mine.”

Elijah could practically see the gears turning in the other dragon’s head.  Then, suddenly, recognition dawned.  Both dragons beat their wings a little harder, but the real reactions came from their riders.  Their faces went pale, and they leaned back a bit.  More troublingly, ethera gathered around them, almost as if they were preparing to attack.

Imal raised her voice.  “Attack us, and you will not see another day.”

“We’re allies here,” Elijah reminded them.  “I have friends in that mountain.  My clan is in there, too.  So, unless something has seriously changed, there’s no reason for hostility.”

For Elijah, it felt a bit odd, being the voice of reason.  He definitely wasn’t accustomed to playing mediator.  But he hoped that their reaction was less about his status shifting and more about his reputation.

As it turned out, it was the latter, and thankfully, the two sentries saw sense and allowed him to land.  Otherwise, things might have gotten a little out of hand.  Even then, they did so reluctantly. 

That should have been the first indication that things had changed, but Elijah still held out hope that the peace would persist through the end of the trial.  Once they got inside, it became abundantly clear just how unrealistic that hope really was. 

“This is not good,” Imal said once they reached a deserted stretch of hallway.  They had passed a few people, all of whom threw furtive glances in their direction. 

“What do you want to do?” he asked.

“I’m going to the command center,” she answered.  “Do you want to come with me?”

Elijah shook his head.  “I’d prefer to avoid that headache,” he admitted.  “Maybe I can find Okar or Palikina and find out what’s going on.  Divide and conquer, I guess.”

That was a good enough plan for Imal, and they split off, each going in their own direction.  For his part, Elijah headed toward the ship’s common area, expecting to find one of his friends in one of the taverns. 

As it turned out, the entire area had been expanded, with a couple of new restaurants having been opened.  However, the extra space did little to mitigate the crowd. 

It wasn’t until Elijah found Furyo in one of the restaurants that he got the full story.

“We’ve merged with two other clans,” the engineer explained.  “They just showed up, one after the other, saying that they barely escaped the orcs.  Some conflicting reports suggest that the danger was overstated.”

“Why would they do that?”

Furyo looked around, then lowered his voice as he answered, “They want the Vengeance.”

“What?  Why?”

“I don’t think you realize how big of a deal this is,” Furyo stated before explaining that nothing like the Vengeance had ever been built before.  They’d never really needed to because the demigod trial didn’t require defense against the orcs.  And the deities typically preferred to build much stronger stationary defenses. 

“Seems like an oversight.”

Furyo shrugged. “Maybe.  That’s the problem with knowing everything about a trial.  You tend to fall into patterns and lose sight of progress.”

“You sound frustrated.”

“I am.  I’ve been fighting against this kind of thing my whole life.  Everyone knows how things are supposed to be done.  They know they’re right because a thousand years ago, someone found a way that works.  But they don’t even consider that there’s a better way to do it.”

Elijah nodded along in agreement.  From what he could tell, that was one of the reasons transcendence was so rare.  To move past the system required true originality, and for such a well-established empire, that was more than just uncommon.

That was one of the lessons the transcendent dragon prisoner had tried to teach Elijah.  And it might’ve even been the ultimate reason why he was so hesitant to offer tangible advice.  Doing so could very well derail Elijah’s path.

As Elijah and Furyo discussed the situation in the Vengeance, Elijah paid attention to the crowd in the restaurant.  And he was unsurprised to find that tensions were running high.  There were more than a few heated arguments, and everyone seemed to be waiting on something to happen. 

Okar joined them after a few minutes, claiming that he’d heard that Elijah and Imal were back.  And he confirmed much of what Furyo had already said.

“What’s with the dragoons?” Elijah asked.

Furyo shrugged. “They weren’t really dragoons when they came here,” he said.  “Something must’ve happened during the trial.  They’d better have a good story for the Order of the Lance.”

That was the name of the organization to which all other dragoons were supposed to belong.  Maybe there were some unauthorized dragoons, but from what Furyo explained, it was more than just frowned upon.  There were real consequences for going down that route.

Socially, politically, and legally, it was taboo.

But that wasn’t an issue for Elijah.  If they wanted to partner, then who was he to judge?  Even if he had no idea how it all worked, there didn’t seem to be much wrong with the idea.

In any case, Furyo and Okar gave him a good rundown of what was going on in the Vengeance, prompting him to say, “This makes me want to just leave again.”

“Not me,” Okar said.  “No beer in the wilderness.”

“Me neither,” Furyo agreed.  “Not for the beer.  All my equipment is here.  Plus, I got one of the K’levehars to teach me a few of their runes.”

“Is that what you call it?  Teaching you the runes?” asked Okar with a grin.  “Because it looked a lot like you running off for some personal time with a pretty –”

“I told you it’s not like that!”

Okar didn’t accept Furyo’s explanation, and probably for good reason.  At least from what Elijah could tell.  The teasing went on for a little while longer before Elijah excused himself, saying he was tired.  He wasn’t, but it made for a good excuse to head back to his quarters where he expected to find Imal.

It was while he was walking through the halls that he felt something he didn’t expect.  There was a ripple of ethera, so faint that he barely even sensed it.  What he did feel sent a bolt of alarm up his spine, flipping the switch for his battle senses.  His first reaction was to cast Wild Resurgence – a precaution he took before every fight.

However, that delay, brief as it was, cost him.

He started to turn, but before he moved more than an inch, something slammed into his back, nicking his spine.  A second sharp object plunged in a second later.  Then a third.  And a fourth.  All in less than a second.

Elijah tried to finish his turn, but his legs went immediately numb.  Before he knew what was happening, he’d fallen face-first into the floor.

He tried to shift a little, but nothing happened.  However, out of the corner of his eye, he saw four sets of feet.  Mumbled conversation reached his ears, but he couldn’t discern what was said.

Only then did he realize he had been poisoned, and by something extremely powerful.  Even as the realization dawned, the rest of his body went numb. 

“How is he not dead?” came a clearer voice.

“I don’t know.  That should’ve been enough to kill a deity.”

“Well, we’ll see if he can survive without a head,” said the first voice.  That was when Elijah felt someone grab his hair and pull his head back.  A blade found his throat a moment later.

And he couldn’t do anything about it.