The Blue Mage Raised by Dragons

by Virlyce

“Did you enjoy the show, little prince?” Trent asked with a smile. Whimpers slipped out of Rudolph’s mouth.

  “Don’t worry,” Trent said as he walked up to Rudolph. “I’ll give you a chance to live.” He pinched Rudolph’s nose and flicked a green orb down the prince’s throat when he opened his mouth to breathe. Trent placed his hands against the chains holding Rudolph down and shattered them. Rudolph coughed and shoved his fingers down his throat, trying to force whatever Trent had him eat out, but no vomit came up.

  “Run. The egg will hatch if you’re too slow,” Trent said and took a step back. “It’d be such a tragedy if the crown prince slaughtered his own citizens in cold blood.”

  ***

  Vur and Tafel stood next to each other on top of Grimmy’s head. Lillian, Paul, and Michelle were hanging in the air, held up by one of the black dragon’s claws. Lindyss was flying in front of Grimmy, a pair of translucent batwings sprouting from her back. They were hovering in the air above the Leonis household’s territory. Soldiers were rushing out of a castle towards the surrounding farmlands. A sea of flames blazed in the westernmost tip of the farms, heading east towards the castle.

  Lillian’s eyes glowed with a white light as she scanned the land beneath her with magic. “I see Grandpa!” she shouted and pointed towards the wave of soldiers rushing towards the fire. Her eyes narrowed. “He’s fighting against a group of fairies. I have to help him!” She scrambled up Grimmy’s claw and steadied herself as she conjured a white bow, nocking an arrow made of light.

  Paul squinted and shielded his eyes from the sun with his right hand. “Can you really hit them from here? Grandpa barely looks bigger than an ant.”

  Lillian released her arrow in response. It screeched as it ripped apart the air, homing in on the dust-sized fairy below. It left behind a trail of light like a shooting star across the night sky.

  Lindyss raised an eyebrow as the arrow struck its target. “Not bad,” she said as the arrow pierced the fairy’s body, pinning it to the ground. The soldiers in front of the fairy froze before looking up, following the trail of light. “It’s a shame they’re resistant to magic.” Lindyss shook her head as the fairy ripped the arrow out of its stomach while standing up.

  Lillian’s grandpa stepped forward and beheaded the fairy before it could take to the air. A worm lunged out of the fairy’s carcass towards him, but he punted it away with his shield. Another arrow of light flew through the air and struck the worm’s body, disintegrating it with a white flame.

  “It seems like the humans can take care of themselves,” Grimmy said as he flew closer to the combat area. A few of the humans were casting water-oriented spells to douse the burning farms while the armored men fended off the fairies. Arrows of light knocked the fairies in the air to the ground, preventing them from escaping the swords. A rune formed on Michelle’s forehead as she chanted a spell. A few moments later, pillars of white light rained down on the battlefield, healing the humans and blinding the fairies.

  “The infected ones haven’t used magic yet,” Lindyss said, flying alongside Grimmy. She rubbed her chin with her hand. “I wonder why. Maybe this is a weaker breed of worm? If that’s the case, you can leave the three humans here while we head to the underground fairy city.”

  Grimmy nodded. “You hear that, kiddies?” he asked the three humans standing on his claw. “I’m going to drop you now.”

  The trio screamed as the foundation they were standing on vanished, causing them to plummet towards the ground. Lindyss conjured a cushion of air beneath them, stopping their descent inches away from the ground.

  “We’re going to find Stella?” Vur asked. His hands closed and tightened into fists.

  Lindyss nodded. “Ideally, she’d be unprepared because she’s currently possessing someone.” Her eyes narrowed. “I’m not letting her get away this time.”

  Vur frowned. “Is she really a bad person?” He gripped the lightning elemental hanging on the end of his necklace. “When I helped free her, she gave me Sparky as a present. And she really cared about Rella, Bella, and…” Vur paused and bit his lower lip.

  Tafel took Vur’s hand into her own. “Even if she was nice,” she said, making eye contact, “it doesn’t pardon her for what she’s done. I only became the demon lord a few days ago, but I’ve read a lot of reports about missing people. She’s kidnapped over a thousand demons and humans in the past ten years. And with this worm business, I don’t even want to think about how many are dead or wish they were dead.”

  Vur sighed and nodded. “I just want to know why she suddenly changed from nice and caring to evil and cursey after Auntie showed up.” He frowned at Lindyss’ back. “What exactly happened between the two of them?”

  Lindyss continued to fly forwards without pause, and Grimmy took a sudden interest in studying his nails.

  ***

  Rella and Bella flew over an open plain with a white layer of mist encasing their bodies. Multiple tunnel entrances perforated the field below. “The illusion’s gone,” Bella said with wide eyes.

  Rella nodded. “I told you it wasn’t a trap. Someone really messed up.”

  Bella squinted and raised her hand over her eyes, shielding them from the sun. “That looks like a dragon,” she said and tugged on Rella’s arm while pointing at the sky.

  “What? Dragons don’t fly this far north,” Rella said and squinted at the clouds. Her neck craned forward as she peered at a black dot in the distance. “Maybe it’s a roc?” She shook her head. “It doesn’t matter. We have to get out of here before they get things under control and notice we’re gone.”

  Bella kept her eyes locked on the sky while continuing to fly forwards. “That’s definitely a dragon,” she said as the dot got closer. “It’s most likely Grimmoldesser. Maybe he noticed the worm outbreak?”

  “Do you think we should fly up there and meet him?” Rella asked. “He might know where Vur is since he’s a dragon and all.”

  “Ehh!?” Bella asked as her eyebrows shot up. “Are you crazy? We’re barely the size of one of his teeth. He’d kill us over something small like if our voices were too high-pitched for him.”

  Rella bit her lip. “How else are we going to find Vur? He could be anywhere. We don’t even know if he’s alive or not.”

  Bella released Rella’s arm and stopped moving.

  Rella turned her head and frowned. “What’s wrong?”

  “Would Vur even listen to us?” Bella asked as her shoulders drooped. “We asked him to help free Mom, and then Mom went and cursed the Corrupted One. I know that the Corrupted One stole the Fountain of Youth from us and that she was the reason why Mom was locked up in the first place, but Vur didn’t know that. He called her Auntie.” Bella lowered her head as tears formed in the corner of her eyes. “He helped us and we hurt him. Ye-Yella knew that.”

  Rella placed her hands on Bella’s shoulder. “Vur said we were his friends and he didn’t need a reward for helping us,” she said and tilted Bella’s body to look her in the eye. “What we need to do now is let Vur know what Mom is planning, so he doesn’t regret becoming friends with us in the first place. Yella was better than the stereotypical fairy who befriends people for mischief. We can be too.”

  Bella focused her gaze on Rella’s eyes. She wiped away her tears with the back of her hands and nodded. “When did you become so mature?” she asked as she embraced her sister. “It makes me look bad as the oldest.”

  Rella snorted as she pulled away. “You’re only older by a fraction of a second,” she said and crossed her arms. “Now let’s go confront that dragon. Of course, the oldest should go first.” Rella motioned for Bella to fly ahead of her.

  ***

  Tafel sucked in her breath. “This is huge,” she said with wide eyes. “How did no one ever notice for ten years?” She was crouching next to Vur and Lindyss, peering over Grimmy’s snout at the plains below. “The tunnels practically span the whole area between our nations.”

  “They had a massive il
lusion set up,” Lindyss said and frowned. “Not only that, but they also relocated repeatedly once they drained an area of all its mana. This is the best place for them to set their base and sow chaos with the worms. But I don’t understand why the fairies infected themselves to initiate the attack.”

  Grimmy circled over the plains, scanning the ground below. “What’s the plan? Should I just burn it all down? Pour some lava in the holes and cover the top with hellfire?”

  Lindyss nodded. “That might be the best course of action,” she said as she stood up and rubbed her chin. “We should cover all the entrances except for the one you’re pouring the lava through.”

  “You’re going to kill all the fairies?” Vur asked and knit his brows. “Didn’t you say killing fairies brings bad luck?”

  “It does,” Lindyss said as she narrowed her eyes at the tunnel entrances. “I killed a fairy once and now the world might be ending because of that.”

  “But you shouldn’t kill them all. There are some good fairies too,” Vur said.

  Tafel squeezed his hand. “Yella saved my life, and her sisters weren’t bad people despite their initial curses.” She frowned at Lindyss. “We can’t just slaughter them all—not when there can be others like them living in those caves.”

  Lindyss sighed. “Both of you are too young for this,” she said and shook her head. “If it makes you feel any better, the fairy queen plays a major role in the emotional and physical states of her children. If she thinks torturing babies is fun, the rest of the fairies will agree. Stella’s gone crazy, and her mental state should be reflected in all the fairies.”

  “That’s not true!”

  A voice came from behind them. Rella’s and Bella’s figures appeared as the mist surrounding them dispersed. “You’re the crazy one,” Bella said as she hovered in the air with her hands on her hips. She lowered her head and glanced at Vur’s face before shifting her gaze to his toes. “Hi, Vur.”

  “Rella? Bella?” Vur asked and tilted his head while taking a step forward. “You two look abnormally thin.”

  “Your face is abnormally thin,” Rella said and stuck her tongue out at him. A lightning bolt flew through the air.

  “Eep!”

  Rella ducked her head, avoiding the bolt. “What was that for!?” she asked and shook her fist at Lindyss whose finger was emitting smoke.

  Lindyss crossed her arms over her chest. “You heard what I said. Prove to us you’re not under Stella’s influence.”

  Bella and Rella glanced at each other. They landed on Grimmy’s forehead and kneeled while lowering their heads.

  “You’re awesome!”

  “Amazing!”

  “I hope you live long and prosper!”

  “For a hundred thousand years!”

  “Your mastery of black magic is beyond our understanding!”

  “And the fact that you can use so many skills from so many different classes—”

  “Alright,” Lindyss said as a vein bulged on her forehead. “Enough, enough. I believe you; Stella would never allow anyone to lower her head to me. Why aren’t you under her influence?”

  “We relocated our birthflower a long time ago,” Rella said as she stood up. “Mom can’t control us without it.”

  Bella nodded. “It was Yella’s idea.” She looked at Vur and Tafel while pouting. “You’ve gotten a lot taller. You too.”

  “We can save the reunion for later,” Lindyss said and waved her hand to stop Vur from moving forward. “For now, tell us about the situation inside.”

  38

  “Bella and I were imprisoned for nearly ten years, but we managed to pick up some gossip here and there,” Rella said as she scratched her head. “I’ll start from when Mom captured one of those worms from the demon’s capital. She wanted to experiment with them after seeing their destructive power while fighting against you, so she abducted the rest of the demons’ royal family members.”

  Bella shivered as she hugged her shoulders. “She tortured them,” she said, her voice quavering. “It was horrible. She hung them upside down by chains and had them vote on who to infect with the worms. They were terrified. I’ve never seen Mom act that way before.”

  Lindyss and Vur frowned while Tafel’s face blanched. “Well, that’s to be expected,” Lindyss said with a sigh. “She was imprisoned and used as a mana source for over four centuries. What else happened?”

  Rella and Bella exchanged glances. “She came back and overthrew the secondaries’ and tertiaries’ queens. She seized all their birthflowers and ordered everyone to set up the tunnel system. Afterwards, she had us kidnap humans and demons who wandered into our illusions,” Rella said as she stared at Lindyss’ feet. “Bella and I refused, so she imprisoned us for being bad children who didn’t listen to Mommy.”

  “Ahem,” a voice said from underneath Grimmy’s wing. “I couldn’t help but overhear something about secondary and tertiary queens?” Charon’s head peeked out, and he climbed Grimmy’s scales before standing behind the fairies.

  Lindyss furrowed her brow. “And what exactly are you doing here?”

  “Now, now,” Charon said as he raised his arms in front of himself, “don’t be mad. I did everything you asked me to before coming along.” He grinned at the fairies. “I’ve never had a chance to study fairies before—such elusive creatures. Come, tell me about these queens.”

  “But,” Rella said and glanced at Lindyss, “there’s more important things.”

  “Nonsense,” Charon scoffed. “Knowledge is power. Nothing is more important than knowledge.”

  Lindyss sighed. “You continue telling me about what happened,” she said towards Rella. She pointed at Bella. “You go entertain the crazy old man.”

  “Eh?” Bella asked as she pointed at herself. “No wa—”

  Rella shuddered as Bella was dragged away by Charon. “Anyways,” she said and cleared her throat. “We heard a lot of conversation between the fairies who watched over us. They’ve been breeding the worms in pools saturated with mana and letting them infect the humans and demons they kidnapped. Just very recently, one of the fairies screwed up and the worms infected at least one fairy who freed us—most likely by coincidence.”

  “So it wasn’t a planned attack,” Lindyss said and thought about the Leonis household’s farmland. She nodded. “Why didn’t Stella stop them? I don’t believe she was unable to.”

  “She locked herself in a room and told everyone not to disturb her,” Rella said. “That can only mean two things since she didn’t come out to quell the commotion: she’s focusing on a long-distanced mind-controlled target, or she’s making seeds for new birthflowers.”

  “It’s the mind control,” Lindyss said. “Her objective was most likely to bring the humans’ ancestors’ powers or pope back here. If we can use this opportunity to eliminate her while she’s in someone else’s body, then we wouldn’t have to resort to genocide.”

  “Are there any uninfected humans or demons?” Tafel asked.

  Rella nodded. “Most of them are just locked up because they’d be too hard to store if they were infected. I heard some fairies complain about having to deliver them food.”

  “That makes things more problematic,” Lindyss said. “It’s hard enough to deal with Stella on her own turf without having to worry about collateral damage. Do you know many captives there are?”

  “No, but there should be no less than a thousand,” Rella said. “Mom wanted the tunnels to be big enough to house over ten thousand humans.”

  “How do they feed that many people?” Tafel tilted her head and muttered. “Could I use their methods for my people?”

  Rella’s face turned green. “You don’t want to know. You really don’t.”

  Vur raised an eyebrow. “Cannibalism?”

  Rella turned her head away.

  “Forget it,” Lindyss said. “Can you draw a map of the place with all the important locations we have to look out for?”

  Rella heaved a sigh of r
elief as she faced Lindyss while avoiding Tafel’s gaze. She raised her hand and drew on the air with blue lines of mana. “These were the original plans for the tunnels,” she said as a web of mana came into view, “but I don’t know how much has changed over the years. Over here is where they imprisoned Bella and me. The fairies’ living quarters are over there. Their birthflowers are beneath Mom’s chambers, which are down at the lowest level, with the worm pools a passage away. The captives are supposed to be stored over here.”

  “It looks like a mixture between an ant colony and a beehive,” Charon said as he rubbed his chin while peering over Rella’s shoulder. “Very interesting.”

  “I understand the layout,” Lindyss said, ignoring Charon’s comment. “It looks like we have three objectives: take down Stella, eliminate the worms, and free the captives.”

  “Can you save the birthflowers too?” Bella asked. “It’d be bad if they were damaged during a battle. A fairy can be reborn as long as their birthflower is still alive.”

  Vur’s eyes widened. “Then Yella?” he asked. “You said—”

  “No,” Rella said in a low voice and shook her head. “She gave her soul to you. She can’t come back.”

  Vur’s shoulders drooped.

  Rella flew up to him and kicked his bicep. “Stop looking so droopy,” she said and pouted. “She gave her life for you. You have to live yours to the fullest now. For her. It’s the least you can do.”

  Tafel squeezed Vur’s hand. “Me too,” she said and sighed. “Yella wouldn’t have died if I didn’t act so rashly. We owe it to her to save her sisters.”

  Vur nodded, eyes still downcast.

  “Then it’s settled. Charon and Bella will free the captives. Tafel will move the birthflowers with Rella. Vur will kill the worms,” Lindyss said and clenched her hand. “And I will take care of Stella.”

  “I think you’re forgetting someone,” Grimmy said with narrowed eyes.

  “What are you going to do?” Lindyss asked. “You’d never fit in the tunnels. They’re only big enough to transport humans.” She patted his head and smiled. “Just wait here like a good boy, alright?”