by Daniel Ruth
I pulled up my sleeve. Apparently, I am far less self-cleaning than my clothes. I looked like someone had painted my arms red. I looked over to the mirror hanging from the wall and through the blood covering it, I saw that my face, too, was awash in red.
“She went into your room and locked the door,” Beth shyly continued. “Then there was stomping around and the building shook a bit. I think she summoned her elementals. She cursed a bit about how difficult it was to get something.” She looked at the walls and it was easy to know what she was thinking. “When she left, I went in. I thought she had killed you.”
I nodded absently to her. This room was disgusting. I had to resist the urge to get a mop and start scrubbing it down. Fortunately, I had trained for this. A wave of my hand and blood vanished from a small section of the wall. I frowned. Dragon blood resisted the cleaning spell. How annoying but educational.
“How could she do this to us,” Beth said, tears pooling in the corners of her eyes. Meanwhile, I went into a frenzy of casting, repeating my Cleaning cantrip over and over. “She was so nonchalant about it. She even hugged me goodbye!”
“Don’t worry about it,” I responded in between furious spellcasting. Good lord, these stains were tough. I never thought I would be expending my reserves on a simple cleaning. “I promised her some of my blood for... various reasons. I just didn’t expect to be asleep when she collected. It was a bit rude but she’s an Elementalist. You can’t expect her not to put her elementals first.”
“She’s a poor pet,” Mirabel opinioned.
“True,” I agreed. “I can’t believe she didn’t clean up after herself.”
Chapter 2
“So, anything interesting happen while I was gone? Besides Stella.” I asked as I rummaged through cupboards for food. I frowned as I saw mostly bread, muffins, and sweet bread. There was a big bag of something that might have been fruit. Where was all the meat? “Don’t you go shopping? What do you eat?”
“The school has a cafeteria,” Beth deflected. “I can usually get the other students to bring back food. Clarence, Holland, and Sentha came over a few times and brought food. As for events,” she paused in thought. “I really haven’t been out much, except to eat. And that’s on campus.”
“If nothing is happening why does that annoying man keep calling,” Mirabel interjected.
“Which one?” Beth asked blankly. I stared at her. I wasn’t expecting her to have enough people calling her to ask that.
“The whiny one,” the dragon clarified while buffing her talon-like nails. “Makes my teeth itch. I just want to tear him to bits when I hear his voice.”
“That would be my brother,” Beth said with a worried frown.
“Please don’t hurt Jeremy,” I asked politely. “He’s one of my favorite people.” I paused a moment in thought. “I am hoping he grows out of the whining.”
The three of us nodded in agreement. “Who else has the number?”
“Well, I suppose all the guys have your number. I’m pretty sure almost everyone thinks you blew up your terminal again. Still, Conrad called a few times but he is easy to deal with. He’s sending a new terminal, by the way.”
“Really? Who delivers way out here?” I tore a chunk out of the bread. Despite how dry it was, I chewed it vigorously, imagining it was a steak. I pulled out a cup and with a wave of my hand and few words filled it with water. “I guess I’ll have to call them back.”
“Just remember that you’ve been studying in the library.”
I paused in mid-bite. “Why would I remember that?”
“I had to tell him something. He thinks you’ve been in the library, studying magic like a crazed person.”
“That’s silly. They don’t have any magic related books in the library. It’s all mundane things. I could have memorized it in a day. Heck, you could have memorized every book in it within a week.”
“I know. I already have, but I had to have a reason you couldn’t answer the terminal.”
“Good grief, he couldn’t wait a few days?”
“You’ve been asleep for over a month,” Beth responded with a frown.
“A month? We’re lucky he didn’t come over himself.” I stood frozen as absorbed this fact. Then I shrugged and tore another piece of bread off. “I was more tired than I thought.”
“You must have worn yourself out,” Mirabel thoughtfully added. “You should get more rest.”
“There was a demon invasion and the tearing of interdimensional space, a shuffling of planets. You know. The usual thing. It kept getting in the way. Anyway, I can’t believe he thought it would take me a month to go to the library. I’ll have to check him again and make sure you didn’t damage anything when you reprogrammed him.”
“It wasn’t like that!” Beth exclaimed indignantly. “I just made sure he didn’t notice the little things.”
“Right,” I nodded glibly. “Like his sister going off to tromp through hydra infested forests and wizards' school.”
“Is that stupid lizard still roaming the edge of my territory?” Mirabel spat out, suddenly interested in the conversation. “I told that moron, Kregar, I would wring his necks if he didn’t stop sniffing around.”
“Oh, I didn’t realize he was an ex.”
“Ex? Almost an ex-member of the living,” she snorted in disdain. “Bah, hydras. Multiple heads and their IQ is divided by how many heads they have. I’ll have to clear him out. If the army actually gathers enough force to move him they may get ideas about my territory.”
“If it’s been a month it may be taken care of.”
“I thought you said the army we passed didn’t have enough power,” Beth asked.
“They don’t. They probably barely have enough to make him move to the other side of the forest, but I meant Faramond.”
“What does Stella’s creepy friend have to do with the hydra?”
“When I popped over last time Faramond asked how to get back to Stella. I couldn’t take passengers but I told him how to get to her. How exactly is he creepy?”
“He has that intense stalker stare. You know, the one that looks like your constipated? Fortunately, he’s usually glaring at you.” I nodded thoughtfully. He really did have that look.
“I assume that was the stupid looking armored man that came through.” The redhead sniffed disdainfully. “Even before he spoke, I assumed he was one of yours from the smoking blood he had on his forehead. You seem entirely too free with your lifeblood. It seems a desirable commodity.”
I didn’t really want to go into details about how my blood was effectively the key to all the dimensional portals scattered over ten worlds. Mostly because Jeremy’s world had nuked her home and I wasn’t confident that she had forgiven them. There was a distinct possibility that if she could freely travel from one planet to the other that Jeremy’s world would suffer from a visit from an angry demi-god dragon.
“Stella and her creepy bodyguard are just like that,” I replied innocently. From her skeptical look, I don’t think she believed me but she let the subject drop. “He is a bear of a man. He also has a magic sword that does... something. He may have driven it off.”
“What if the hydra eats him?” Beth asked in a small voice.
“Hmm... I think,” I pondered the question for a moment. “I think he would probably give it indigestion. I like to believe he would like to go out that way.” I bowed my head in respect. Beth immediately slapped my arm. “Seriously, I’m sure he’s fine. I have no idea what method Stella used to empower him, but it was a good one.”
“The last caller was Principal Sembling.”
“You mean Acting Principal Durmont Sembling?”
“Apparently not so much ‘Acting’. He was confirmed as the official Principal. They also declared the previous Principal and council head a traitor and removed him from his position in absentia,” Beth informed me. “They announced it in class. There was a ceremony but Sentha and I went shopping instead.”
“What
did he want? I passed him off to Mayor Carlos.”
“President.” Beth corrected. I ignored her and she continued. “He said something about being grateful and holding a dinner in your honor.”
“Dinner?” I immediately perked up. “I’ll have to get back to him soon. Wouldn’t want to keep an important person like him waiting too long. “I’ll have to see if they allow plus one’s.”
“Are you sure...” Beth trailed off as Maribel glared at her. She had a point. Who knows if someone would annoy my little lady and be devoured? I thoughtfully stroked my chin.
“I’m sure it would be fine,” I said with a nod after considering it.
“If I am forced to lay waste to the pathetic fools that cross my path, I can just change my appearance and aura. With the higher divine magics blocked, there isn’t a thing they can do to me without a great deal of preparation.”
“But...” Beth’s eyes darted around the room, obviously trying to find inspiration.
Now both Beth and I were looking at the defiant dragon woman with the beginnings of panic. “You know, perhaps dinner with stuffy old folk wouldn’t be much fun. How about I take you into the city to shop and then I can take you to eat at this lovely cantina I know.” Actually, it was the only one I knew.
“I do like buying things,” she said thoughtfully. “It’s not quite as satisfying as loot taken from an adversary’s broken corpse but we can still do that later.”
“Right, we can schedule that in after I buy you many shiny things,” I glanced to the side at Beth was still looking at the dragon with a subdued shiver. I really wish Mirabel would say her sweet nothings out of sight of my people. I am not particularly bloodthirsty but I was okay with her indulging in sporadic bouts of bloody vengeance as long as they were evil people. The issue was that she insisted on talking about it near my people who were brought up in a rather peaceful civilization. This led to the occasional awkward moment.
“Let’s go now,” Maribel giggled excitedly, grabbing my hand and pulling me towards the door.
“Now?” I asked a bit bewildered. “I just woke up! I have a ton of things to do. I need to make calls, check on the growth of the crystals, check on Beth’s progress with her meditation and...”
“I’m done with the meditation, I’m working on the various states of consciousness you talked about. The crystals are done too. They’re in the cupboard behind the dates.”
“Excellent! I can probably walk you through that in a week and we can start on the actual spells.” I paused in realization, “We have dates?” I started to head towards the cupboards again.
“Fine,” Maribel dropped my hand dejectedly. “I’ll go play with Cinnamon. I haven’t cuddled with him in a while. I can call down Cocoa and Ceyanne too. They should be flying above us.”
“On second thought, I think I need a little more time to get that meditation technique down,” Beth quickly interjected. “Derek, Maribel has waited so long, why don’t you take her into the city. I’ll stay here and you can go over those methods later tonight!” I sighed as I looked regretfully towards the cupboards.
“Fantastic!” the dragon lady said with a grin, instantly perking up. Grabbing my arm again she hauled me out the door. “Let’s storm the shops!”
And so, we did. I didn’t even know what time it was before we made our way outside. The sun overhead showed it was noon giving us most of the day.
“Hold on,” I mumbled as we made our way to the outskirts of the academy. I was in my older form, still wearing my relatively modern suit so I got a lot of odd looks. Maribel was wearing some archetypical bikini chainmail that I swear must have been for appearances only since it had no protective value what so ever. Of course, she was a dragon so it wasn’t like she needed protection. Ironically, I got more stares than she did, though the eyes of the older male students did give her a fair share of admiring looks.
I took a brief detour behind some apartments and with a shake of my sleeve, my circa nineteen eighty garb was once again a robe. The shake was not absolutely needed but the robes can catch and bind a bit if you don’t.
At the entrance I waved my hand in the air, trying to get the attention of one of the various flying carriages. I would have taken land bound version but it was supposed to be a date. After thirty seconds of waving my arms, I was beginning to feel ignored. I was contemplating encasing one in a bubble and hoping they survived the collision enough to drive us somewhere when Maribel sighed impatiently and issued a shrill whistle.
Within seconds I heard a wind at my back and I felt the familiar sensation of being in danger. Dodging and twisting to the side, I barely got out of the way as a silhouette of a winged horse flew through where I had been. Then I threw myself forward again to avoid a similarly fierce gryphon.
It was only after they had passed me that I realized their image was flickering and wavering as if they were screens and a projector was showing images on their fur. It actually resembled a crude version of camouflage from out of that Predator movie Jeremy made me watch.
“Why not just use invisibility?” I asked.
She looked at me disdainfully as she wrestled with her pets. “Everyone can see the invisible. Even the humans have spells and items that detect it. No one has a spell to make you more perceptive. Although this spell is pretty obvious at close range, a mile up in the clouds you would have to be a god to detect them.” Or have radar, thought to myself as I avoided the thrashing trio.
I suppose I should have been grateful she didn’t grow to her giant form to pacify them but it still drew attention seeing a chainmail-clad human woman hugging two violently writhing magical creatures and her not being pushed about at all.
“Calm down you two silly things,” she said lovingly as they tried various means to claw, bite and impale her. “I missed you too. We can play later. Right now, mommy has to go on a date and you get to go with her.”
After a few seconds of continued violence, she frowned. “I said settle down or I’m going to have to give out spankings.”
Immediately the two creatures settled down. I have always had some doubts about the intelligence of these creatures but they knew not to cross their master when she was serious. Still, the hate and anger in their eyes could have sent weaker souls to hell. Naturally, she was oblivious.
Hopping on we launched into the air. Once again, I was left with an aching feeling of missing something that was precious. It had been a few years but I used to be able to take on the form of a flying beast, or even another dragon species that had wings and soar the skies under my own power. Still, it was better than being in a vehicle. It almost felt like freedom.
From this height, we saw the formations of flying guard mages that patrolled the air. They gave us cautious looks; however, they didn’t interfere with our flight. Unlike Jeremy’s world, no license was required and only the relatively rich could afford their own flying mounts. Even flying coaches weren’t that common. The more well-to-do merchants had floating barges that moved a large number of goods but they tended to either fly low or simply hover above the street. There was nowhere near enough traffic to have an equivalent to the traffic buoys. Of course, the ground traffic was significantly denser.
Off towards the side of the city, I could see the veritable walls of energy that made up the ley lines cut through the city. It was daylight so it wasn’t as spectacular as during the night. When it wasn’t foggy or raining it almost seemed like rivers of light were rushing through the city.
I had looked at a map and I think several lines met at a node on the far side of the city in a massive empty field used for events and parades. Although the permanent gates were now fixed locations at specific nodes, rather than cycling through random hell dimensions, you could faintly see the old tower defenses ringing the field. I assume they had circles and wards surrounding it as well.
It would come in handy when Vatapi reformed his body and started his invasion again. With the large portals fixed and only the smaller ones flashin
g open and closed, dropping random visitors and beasts willy nilly through the land, it was actually far more peaceful than before the Demon Lord had set up his fiefdom in the chained worlds. After all, small portals opening for a few minutes in random location, but limited to the ten worlds was still better than monstrous holes in spaces that could lead to the any of the various heavens and hells.
“So is your grandfather going to get worried that you haven’t checked in with him or visited lately,” I asked. I only had to raise my voice slightly over the wind so I could tell she had a simple enchantment that lowered the wind resistance.
“You know how our kind is,” she chuckled at the thought. “Normally we can’t stand being around kin for more than a few days before we have to separate or engage in mortal combat. I suppose divine dragons are a bit different because I saw him for weeks at a time, but then I was the one who had to leave or suffer bouts of grumpiness.”
“That doesn’t seem to promote too many worshipers.”
“I think dragon gods may be one of the few kinds of gods where most of the worshippers aren’t the same species.”
“That’s a bit of irony, but I can completely see it. I can’t imagine worshipping any god, even some almighty dragon.” I paused for a moment. “Perhaps especially an almighty dragon.”
“That makes you... fairly typical. None the less, they don’t suffer any shortages of worshippers. Mortal races of all stripes are drawn to power and have no problems submitting to others in order to gain something in return. Even the weakest dragon godling is equivalent to a lesser god. A greater dragon god is powerful enough to trade blows with the greater Primals.”
“Primals?”
“Hmmm,” she eyed me thoughtfully. “You may know them as something else. I have no doubt your memory heritage includes some knowledge of them. The incarnations of a concept manifested in physical form?”
“Ah, like hate and anger from the Firmament. I have some memories. Mostly feelings of dread.”
“That would be them. A few hundred thousand years ago they ruled most of the multiverse. From what grandfather says it was a miserable time. Even the lesser Primals hated it.”