by Matthew Peed
Rens took a long drag from his pipe, then turned to look at me. “Sure.”
“Wait. That’s it?” I asked, surprised.
“I mean you have a nice city and all, but I’m old and quite like what I have back in Fallen Rose. Speaking of, when this is over, I want you to accompany me there.”
“Why?” I asked with a raised eyebrow. I knew it’d been too easy.
“You are High Human. I want to see whose line you belong to.”
“Again, why?”
“Let’s save that for when we know each other a bit better. For now, be assured I don’t plan to kill you or impose any of our laws on you,” he said with a chuckle.
I slowly nodded, then held my hand out to shake. He took it with an equally smug grin and we shook. I made sure not to channel any mana, thinking I wouldn’t want it to accidentally be sealed as a magical contract. After a single shake, I broke contact.
“Thank you, Rens.”
“My pleasure. Do you perchance think I might be able to stay in one of the rooms in that Queen District Complex?”
I could almost see the sparkle in his eye. However, rather than the sparkle of a man who wanted to rob you, it reminded me more of a child’s curiosity.
I thought it over for a minute but couldn’t really think of anything I didn’t want him to see in there. He could cause trouble with the other people living there, but I thought it would be rather shortsighted of him. Mainly, he would have to pick a bone with Regan for killing his mana supply.
“Very well. I don’t see a problem. Let’s see.” I pulled the glass tablet out of my bag and clicked on the Building Admin icon. Looking through the rooms and planned distribution, I settled on one. “Floor thirty-four. Room 37. That will be yours, for now,” I said, looking back up to him. I found his eyes were firmly locked on the tablet.
“Wonderful!” he nearly shouted before he got up and started heading out the door with a skip in his step.
“Wait!” He skidded to a stop, and I could see the reluctance rolling off him. “I need to scan you in.”
“Scan?”
“Don’t worry. It’s not too hard.” I held the tablet up, and a picture of Rens appeared on the screen. I clicked on the weird box at the bottom and the picture froze. A minute later, I had all of Rens’s basic information entered into the tablet. Apparently, this tablet was linked to all the security systems around the district that Regan had built.
“Can I go now?” Rens asked, bouncing on his heels. I had to resist the urge to laugh at him and waved him off. He took off, heading for Queen District.
“Sure . . .” I said, staring after him.
“He’s an interesting one,” said the current guard captain.
“The powerful usually are,” I replied, then shook my head. “Let’s go. We have work to do.”
“Yes, Your Highness.” The captain as well as everyone else saluted.
I tossed a bag of gold to the bartender as we left, and he bowed several times. The streets had calmed, though on this most recent occasion they’d never gotten a chance to really panic compared to the previous times the strange beasts, the pretakrin, attacked the city. I took that as a good sign.
I watched the passing crowd, which was light for the area we were in, at least for a few moments. I needed to take these chances to actually see my city as it grew, or I was worried I might become cold to it. I could tell myself all day that I wouldn’t, but I had memories of when my father was still warm when I was a child. One of my biggest fears was to change like he had as his station had improved.
“Your Highness, we can’t remain idle. We just received a message from General Ezal. They’ve started moving.”
“Very well.” I lifted my staff and created a portal, channeling some extra mana into it just for added stability. Stepping through, my guards and I found ourselves at the border fort. It was a flurry of activity as people rushed around. So, basically it looked the same as always. I’d opened the portal in the hall near the command center since I figured that was where Ezal would be.
A soldier rushed up to my party. “Your Highness! General Ezal is present in the command center!”
“Thank you.”
We headed down the hall, and one of my guards rushed ahead a bit to open the door for me. Inside, a table was set that showcased the surroundings and had representations of all the forces available to us and the enemy. As accurate as we could get it, anyway.
“Your Highness, the issue back at the city has been handled already?” Ezal asked with a bit of worry. Whether for me and our people, or because I had left in the middle of a fight, I wasn’t sure. I decided to go with the second.
“Yes. I managed to recruit a powerful ally to watch home for the time being,” I said as I moved up next to her.
“That’s good news. Too bad I don’t have good news myself.”
“They are moving?”
“Yes. But only at the rear. We expect to have a messenger in a few hours.”
“After all this time, what could they possibly have to say that they didn’t already say in their first two visits?” I asked with a snort. First with the noble attempting to basically rob me, then with Quin trying to force the petty king’s demands on me for only defending my home. They clearly didn’t care about the who and only wanted the what.
“I assume since this is more of the official sort of war compared to the noble who attacked us the first time, they’ll actually go through the proper etiquette. I wonder if we’ll get to the see the legendary seal?” Ezal said with a mischievous grin.
“I would hope so, since all of Thonaca is coming at us,” I replied, shaking my head at her.
There was little we could do but sit and wait. While a preemptive strike might have taken them by surprise, I felt it wasn’t worth the losses we would take. Even I didn’t have enough mana to power through all the magic the enemy army had prepared when marching to the walls. The barriers alone were done by some of their top mages.
As we predicted, almost exactly an hour later, a man rode to the gates, by himself and unarmed. He bore the banner of the Thonaca king, meaning he was a messenger. The gate guards opened the gates just enough for him to enter, then slammed them shut. There were plenty of times throughout history where the gates had fallen during the messenger’s entrance.
We moved to the entrance hall to greet the messenger. I wanted to have a position of power while being hospitable. We didn’t have to wait long before the doors swung open and the messenger was escorted into the hall.
“Welcome to Vaihdetta,” I said as I spread my arms wide in welcome.
“Spare me your drivel,” the messenger said with a flourish of his arm. “Louella, traitor of Thonaca! You stand accused of crimes against the crown, the murders of Lady Quin and Lord Lines, the suspicion of causing the disaster that struck Lecazar Empire, the heretical worship of a false god, and many more crimes. His Highness King Ataulf Vetericus can no longer stand by and allow you to run rampant.”
I leaned over to Ezal. “Did we ever find out anything about Lines?” I asked with a whisper.
“No. He returned to Thonaca, but we didn’t have anyone on him,” Ezal replied, covering her mouth with her hand.
“We are sure we didn’t do it, right?” I asked with a chuckle. I would have thought that Regan would tell me if he’d killed off someone like that. It seemed like something had happened and I was being forced to take the blame.
“You will listen!”
“You are declaring war against us, right?” I asked, trying not to yawn. “Why do I have to listen to people accusing me of things I haven’t done?”
The messenger grew red in the face, and I heard the sound of splintering wood as his hand tightened on the pole of his banner. He looked like he was at a loss for words. “You . . . you—very well! I hope you savor this moment when your people are dying around you!” He slammed the banner pole into the ground hard enough to embed it into the stone floor, then turned on his heel and stor
med from the hall.
“Your Highness,” Ezal said, sighing and shaking her head in exasperation.
“What?”
Chapter 28
Regan
“Everything in here is so shiny!” Soza said as her head swiveled around, trying to look at everything at once. She grabbed a silver plate from the wall and ripped it off without any hesitation. “Can I take this back to my lair, husband?”
“No! Put it back and stop tearing up my ship!” I shouted at her.
She pouted but did as she was told. I guess the dragon-bond magic was quite powerful. I could tell she didn’t want to give it back. Upon her return of the panel, the ship healed the damage before her eyes.
I shook my head and continued to the core room. I had created it when I was sealing the constructs in this locale. A solid position made the dungeon magic more powerful. Walking into the room, I lowered the barriers protecting my core, then rested my hand on the core.
“Husband! You’ve claimed a dungeon core?!” Soza asked with much more enthusiasm than I was prepared for.
“No. I am a dungeon core,” I replied honestly. I didn’t see much reason to hide it from her, and hopefully, it would nullify this dragon marriage.
“Really!” she shouted, then caught me off guard by running forward and wrapping her arms around me. “No wonder I lost so easily. Dungeon lords are the most powerful of the monsters. The group,” she paused as if trying to remember something, “I think they wanted to use coalition, or something along those lines. If you ask me, they were just copying the mortals. Not that I really . . .”
I snapped my fingers in front of her. “Focus. What group?”
“Sorry, husband. Anyway, I was just a hatchling at the time, but my mother told me about the lords assembly from the dungeons on this continent. They used to terrorize all the monsters, imposing their will on everyone and everything.”
“How long have they been gone?”
“Gone? Never. They might be asleep, but they are very much aware of their immediate surroundings. Some of the more intelligent monsters have tried to destroy their cores before they reawaken. None has been seen since.”
“Interesting. Who would you say is the weakest of these monster lords?” I asked. Maybe it wasn’t so bad that I’d literally run into Soza.
“Can’t say. It’s been so long since anyone in living memory actually saw them. Rumor, however, says the Elaro, the Whisperer, was the weakest.”
I tapped my chin while I thought about this new information. I had a few months to set up a plan to deal with these “lords.” Everything I was hearing stated they were evil. The issue that I was worried about was that my attention would be pulled into the battles like it had been during my confrontation with Alara. Not to mention, I had a lot of unfinished business back on the other continent.
I glanced over to Soza as she was looking at various things, and an idea came to me. I could bind her to my dungeon. I seldom used the spell, but I knew it worked wonders. If her power was elevated even higher, she would make a very powerful guardian for this area.
“Husband, I will be embarrassed if you stare at me so,” Soza said, puffing up her chest even more in spite of her words.
That was my worry. If this was truly from her dragon bond or whatever, I could inadvertently amplify it during the spell. I didn’t have as much control on personality during the binding magic as I did the summoning magic.
“Soza, tell me more about the dragon bond,” I said finally. I created a chair and took a seat, then quickly made it larger when Soza practically dived at me. I shifted her from my lap to the seat next to me.
“An ancient magic, if my mother is to be believed, though she was quite empty in her head. Dragons are the oldest monsters,” she said the word with a small growl, “in the world. Predating many of the mortals. Because our magic was so powerful, we had issues getting along. Several dragons saw the future of our race and worked together to create a magic that spanned the universe. Now, if one dragon should best the other, they are to be bonded. Of course, males can be released if it’s to another male, and same for females.”
“How can they make lasting magic like that?” I asked. It was the same for the goblins. Magic that affected their entire race had been used. While it might not be true for magic, in science you needed something to sustain the reaction. Something was supplying and directing the magic.
“The World Spirit. The Origin Source. The World Pillar. The Primary Ley line. There are many such sources of power that can manifest magic anywhere on the planet and beyond.” Soza pointed into the distance, and I realized she was pointing toward the plateau. “That was the World Tree.”
“But it is stone,” I commented while opening a screen that broadcasted the plateau.
“From what I understand, we have the Arcarins to thank for that.”
“I heard the Arcarins were a peaceful race,” I said, rubbing my chin. I was really thanking my luck for having run into Soza.
“Yeah. Unless they were threatened. The monster lords managed to do that. The tree in the center of the plateau, a little thing, keeps the lords asleep. It is the World Tree’s magic concentrated into one spell.”
“Pretty fragile for something with so much magic,” I said, without thinking.
“Fragile? What do you mean, husband?”
“It got sliced in half, then burned to ashes.”
“Sliced . . . in half . . . and burned . . . to ash . . .”
“Yeah. That’s what I . . .” I actually looked next to me and saw Soza with a full-blown panic-stricken face.
“We’re all dead! Nothing can stop the lords if they are allowed to leave their dungeons!”
“Calm down. Trust me. You’ve never met anything like me,” I said, patting her head between her horns. It was about the only place I felt I could touch without it being taken another way.
Thankfully, it did what I wanted, and she took a breath and visibly calmed down. I stood and waved my hand. A map of the continent appeared before us. Dozens of locations of interest were marked. I felt energy readings from more than only ten places. I wouldn’t know if they were dungeons until I traveled closer, but I didn’t want to risk alerting anyone that didn’t need to be alerted.
“Which of these are the lords?” I asked Soza while pointing to the map. “I think I know, but I want to be sure.”
She moved up next to me and pointed out four immediately. “Those are the only ones I can be sure about. There are three other dragons, and we’ve divided the continent between us. I didn’t want to be bound or to bind anyone, so I didn’t try to force my way farther around the continent.”
“If that’s the case, let’s nullify this right now,” I said, holding my hand out.
“You’re such a kidder, husband! Why would I nullify my pact with someone as powerful as you?” she asked while avoiding my hand and wrapping herself around my arm. I sighed and let the hand fall. “Besides! Now that I know you’re a dungeon core, I know you can alter your form. You could even give me children in the future!”
Alara is going to kill me. “Look. I already have someone!” I said, desperate.
“So? Dragons can have dozens of mates at a time,” Soza said, even yawning toward the end.
Shit, I had forgotten that Nova had asked me to bring him more females. Soza was a curveball that I just wasn’t going to be able to handle. I grinned when I got an idea. “Actually, I have a dragon son. When we get back, you have to best him, and then I will consider our challenge valid.”
Soza starred at me for a long moment. I silently prayed to Creation that this would work. “Very well. But if your son cannot best me in battle, then I will have you honor our bond.”
I heaved a sigh of relief. “Since we agree on that, I have a proposal,” I said with the main topic giving me a headache put on hold for now.
“Go ahead, husband,” she said with a grin. I knew she was doing it on purpose, but decided to ignore it for now.
; “I want to bind you to this core. I’ll be able to help you if you get in trouble by giving you mana. But more than that, I want to ask you to guard this area while I go to my main core.”
“You have more than one core?” she asked, surprised.
“Indeed. My main core is much more powerful than this one, but they are all important.”
“May I have a moment to think about it, husband?” Soza asked, looking probably the most serious I’d ever seen her. Though, I’d only known her for a few hours.
I nodded and patted her shoulder. “Take your time. I have something I need to work on,” I said, then left her on the seat. I moved over to my core and placed my hands on either side. I wasn’t sure if this would work, but my knowledge of space and time magic had grown while we were stuck in that subdimension.
I concentrated and moved deep into the magic that made up my core. The construct was exactly the same as my main core, only reduced. They were all technically the same core, so it wasn’t surprising. That was what I was betting on. Sure enough, when I went deeper, I found what I was looking for.
A gateway was the easiest way to describe it. A gateway into the dimension I created in my main core so many months ago. I had only checked on it a few times. Growing a universe from scratch wasn’t exactly fast. I thought about the last time I’d checked on it, about two months ago. The number of quarks had increased, but it was still far from causing the big bang. I wished I could talk to Creation about how to build it.
I pulled my attention out of my core and realized almost two hours had passed. I made a note of that—I didn’t want to spend years in there on accident—then turned to find Soza poking my back.
“About time. I thought you’d died or something,” she said with a worried look.
“Sorry. I can get a bit caught up in my work. Have you decided?” I asked, pulling completely out of the core.
“Yes. I would like to take you up on this task. I promise to protect your core and your domain for as long as I live.”