Path of Dragons 17 - Chapter 34 - The Best Distraction (Patreon)

Elijah pulled away from the mushroom, then took a deep breath.  With it came a billowing cloud of fungal spores that probably would have killed most people.  For Elijah, they were inert, leaving a vague, earthy taste that mixed cinnamon, vanilla, and dirt into something that wasn’t quite unpleasant. 

It came close, though.

The smell could be similarly described, though it was far more pungent than the flavor suggested.  The end result was a wholly unique atmosphere that left no doubt as to the alien nature of the cavern’s inhabitant. 

Elijah had used Dictate of the World Tree on the colonies before, but only a few.  Besides, many years had passed since they’d first taken hold.  As such, the remainder required quite a different approach.  After all, the others had barely taken root, while the remaining, unenhanced colonies had long since reached maturity.

That gave them something akin to a personality all their own.

They weren’t sapient.  Not even sentient.  Instead, Elijah’s impression of their natures was based on quirks of their growth.  He’d long since developed a habit of anthropomorphizing animals and plants, so it wasn’t surprising that he’d extended that practice to the satellite colonies.

He’d only modified one since the long break, but it clearly required a much more delicate touch.  He had been at it for more than a week, and in that time, he’d discovered just how deeply unique even Fungee’s off-shoots were.  That boded well for the future of Orveth Kaal.  Anyone else might have considered it terrifying, but Elijah preferred to take the optimistic approach to life.

In any case, he studied the colony for only a few more minutes before finally deciding to move on.  After all, it had been months since he’d been back to Agmar, and he expected that Makit would soon give birth.

Elijah wasn’t sure how he knew she hadn’t already, but he was certain that the infant remained in her womb.

Not for much longer, though.

Two or three weeks.  Maybe a month.  Elijah could feel it down to the root of his very being. 

That meant he needed to finish his current project, then head back to the Vengeance.  There really wasn’t much there for him, as Imal had already departed.  On top of that, most of his friends took their cues from her parting as well, meaning that he only really had Carmen and a couple of other acquaintances remaining in Orveth Kaal.

Odd how that had happened.

By most people’s reckoning, it was his expedition, but it had somehow transformed into something encompassing most of Earth’s best and brightest.  The overall effect would be a great boon for the planet’s progress, but that also meant that Elijah’s ownership of the ancestral world was far more tenuous.

Not that he’d earned that label yet.  The dragons were still out there, presumably scheming up a plan to destroy him and his entire expedition.  The orcs, too.  That they had yet to engage in total war remained the biggest surprise, but Elijah knew dragons well enough to know it was coming.

It was only a matter of time.

The same felt true of the alliance formed by Earth’s forces.  Elijah trusted that it wouldn’t happen until after Orveth Kaal was completely under their control, but he knew enough about Earth’s history to expect someone to get it in their head that everyone would be better off if they were in charge.

Elijah didn’t look forward to showing them just how wrong they were.

The irony of it was that he didn’t really care who made the day-to-day choices as to how they governed the ancestral world.  Instead, he only concerned himself with things like access and the overarching rules.  Specifically, how they treated the environment. 

So long as someone subjugated themselves to his ideas in those areas, they could play at being a dictator all they wanted. 

Probably.

There were lines that, if crossed, would earn Elijah’s undeterred objection.  He’d just never bothered to spell them out. 

That likely made him a bad choice as a ruler, but that was ultimately irrelevant.  Elijah was the most powerful person on Earth, and what’s more, no one would have access to Orveth Kaal without him.  That meant they were all subject to his prerogative, whether they liked it or not.

It wasn’t a question of whether or not he would need to enforce that, but rather when.  He wasn’t looking forward to that day.

As those thoughts flitted from one leaf to another within his mind, Elijah finished with the fungal colony and left the landmass behind.  The trip back to the Vengeance was predictably fraught with danger.  The local beasts were still aggressive, which meant he needed to keep an eye out for any ambushes.  Fortunately, his speed gave him an advantage that let him outrun most threats.  There were a couple of close calls, but Elijah managed the trip without becoming embroiled in any long or drawn-out battles.

His arrival was met with typical enthusiasm, which, after his dour thoughts about human nature, came with a dose of optimism.  Adding to that was the first bit of news he received upon entering the Vengeance. 

It came from the Captain himself, whose name Elijah still didn’t know.  Everyone just referred to him by his title, so Elijah felt it would be a little awkward to ask his name. 

Either way, the Dominion Tree had been successfully integrated into the Vengeance’s system, and it only needed his say-so before activation.  And as it turned out, it wasn’t a ceremonial approval, either.  Instead, it was a necessity born from the fact that the item had been built from the ground-up as a bonded creation.

It simply wouldn’t work without his permission.

That it didn’t need his direct input was a nice surprise, though. 

When he reported to its position atop the tallest peak on the island fortress, he found more than a hundred people waiting for him.  It smacked of a ceremonial ribbon-cutting for a newly opened business, which meant that it immediately sent a note of discomfort trembling down Elijah’s spine.

Still, he went through with it.

The activation was simple enough.  All that was required was a bit of ethera injected into a specific conduit that led through the surrounding looping conduits and into the tree at the roots. 

It lit up like a shining star, casting illumination across the entire ship.  If Elijah had to guess, he would’ve said it was visible from more than a hundred miles away.  However, that spike only lasted for a couple of minutes before it faded away.  When it was done, the tree barely twinkled.

More impactful was the blanket of dense authority that settled onto the ship.  That was the only way he could rightly describe it.  It wasn’t quite a domain, but it was close enough as to be related.  What’s more, it seemed to impact everything associated with the ship. 

According to Carmen, who explained it all to him later, it made the Vengeance faster, its defenses stronger, and the air force more potent.  In short, it augmented every aspect of the ship, right down to the crafters and other non-combatants.

Sitting in her office attached to the smithy, she said, “It reminds me of the Forge of Creation, but stronger.  I need one for home.”

“I don’t think that’s possible,” Elijah said.  “Unless you know of another termite colony.”

She shook her head.  “No luck there.”

Elijah breathed a sigh of relief.  He didn’t precisely regret his actions with that colony, but he didn’t feel good about them, either.  The bottom line was that he wasn’t certain he had the right to decide whether an entire civilization – insectile pests or not – deserved extermination.

Would he have thought the same about eradicating a bed of fire ants?  No.  He’d have killed those without a second thought.  Was the difference that they were so large?  More advanced?  Something else he couldn’t quite put his finger on?

Elijah wasn’t sure.

But he was grateful that he wouldn’t need to make a decision about whether or not to repeat the slaughter, because he wasn’t sure what choice he would make.  After all, the Dominion Tree represented a formidable force multiplier, and he’d have had to be an idiot not to seek out another.

That choice was out of his hands, though.  There were no other termite colonies in Orveth Kaal, at least as far as he or the expedition’s Explorers could find.

“Do you think it will make enough of a difference?” he asked, referring to the upcoming war.

Carmen shrugged. “I don’t know.  The cannons are already powerful,” she acknowledged.  “The defenses are much stronger than they were when we arrived.  Whether it’s enough to deter deities, I don’t know.  I don’t really have context for comparison.”

“Fair,” Elijah agreed.  While Illska and the rest of the Vyrin expedition had joined the people of Earth, their numbers were only a fraction of what the other dragons could bring to a battle.  The difference would need to be made up by the Vengeance.

Unfortunately, Illska wasn’t around.  Instead, she had gone off in search of cultivation opportunities.  Elijah believed that his own success had inspired her in some way.  Hopefully, she would be back when the war finally kicked off.

By then, Elijah also expected to have the orcs at his disposal.

Which brought him to the next point.  He said, “I’m going back to Agmar soon, and I need a team of Engineers and other Tradesmen to come with me.”

After that, he explained what he wanted – basically, to bring an industrial revolution to the orcish horde.  They had the manpower and the raw materials.  Now, they just needed expertise to bring their arms and armaments up to the level they needed to compete with dragons on an even footing.

“Is that smart?” Carmen asked before pointing out the obvious danger.  Orcs were savage, uncontrollable creatures that lived for war.  Giving them better tools could very well put them all in peril.

Elijah shrugged.

“At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter.  We need them,” he stated evenly.  “And they’re trapped here.  They can’t escape Orveth Kaal, except in tiny groups with their power stripped down to nothing.  Even if we help them, the worst case is that we lose the ancestral world.”

“And the lives of our people.”

“Right,” Elijah admitted with a shake of his head.  He couldn’t escape that while making his grand plans, he sometimes forgot the human cost of failure.  Maybe he needed to spend more time around the people who depended so heavily on him.  “If you think there’s another way…”

“You know I don’t.”

“Then unless you have other objections?”

In the end, Carmen didn’t, so she reluctantly agreed to put together a group meant to modernize the orcs’ industry.  Unsurprisingly, she insisted on being part of that group.  When Elijah objected, she just said that it was a non-negotiable part of her participation in the plan.

Could Elijah have pushed it?  Probably.  But he also recognized that Carmen was probably the best person for the job.  After all, she’d built the Forge of Creation from scratch.  That experience made her ideally suited for the task at hand.

Plus, Elijah was eager to see her face when she saw the Star Forge or met the still-unnamed work-slave who’d made the Dominion Tree. 

It was only when they were hammering out the final details that Miguel showed up.  He wasn’t interested in their conversation, though.  Instead, he had news he’d received during the most recent cycle change.

He didn’t reveal anything straight away.  Instead, he simply handed a note to his mother, then waited silently while she read it.  Elijah was on pins and needles to find out what was going on, especially when he saw her expression change from excited to worried, all in the space of the few seconds it took for her to read the note.

She handed it to Elijah, and with a glare of accusation that suggested it was all his fault.

He understood more after he read it.

The note had come from Hope, who’d received a Branch message from Eli, who explained to his mother that he’d been granted a dragon core.  He also revealed that he’d finally reached level ten and chose a class.

“Do you want to explain this?” asked Carmen once Elijah had had enough time to read it.

“Uh…this wasn’t me.  But even if it was, isn’t this a good thing?”

“The Empire of Scale is on the verge of a civil war, and you’re asking if my grandson becoming a dragon is a good thing?” Carmen asked, hands on her hips.

“He needs to come home,” Miguel stated.  “Now.”

“I disagree.  Kirlissa did this for a reason.  She probably wants to protect him.”

“By inserting him into the situation?”

“He’s already in it, and has been from the moment he stepped foot in the Empire of Scale.  But as a real dragon – even a half-scale – he’ll be much better protected than as a serpentor,” Elijah explained.  That was one of the things he hated most about the empire.  There, some people were simply worth more than others, and not because of their accomplishments, wealth, or personal power.  Instead, it came down to the circumstances of their birth.

Or their race.

Now that Eli was a dragon, he would be part of that upper caste.  At the bottom of that tier, but still a cut above everyone else.  Killing him would come with grave consequences. 

It was a flimsy shield should the war escalate past a certain point, but for now, it was the best protection Kirlissa could give him.  Short of having bodyguards follow him around at all hours of the day, at least.

Elijah explained all of that, but neither Miguel nor Carmen really liked what had happened.  They accepted it, and they agreed not to interfere with Eli’s continued training. However, they were obviously still worried about the boy.

So was Elijah.

But he had something they didn’t – complete trust that Kirlissa would keep him as safe as possible.

He just hoped it wasn’t misplaced.