by Gage Lee
“Stay your hand, mortal,” the thing bellowed at me. “It has been a long while since I walked these lands, and longer still since I have crushed a man-child beneath my feet.”
“What are you waiting for?” Ishigara shouted. “End your spell before that elder elemental kills us and tears down half the School!”
I ducked a flailing fist studded with black shards of razor-sharp stone. The attack whistled above my head, slow and clumsy, but powerful enough to pulp my skull with a single hit. Even worse, the creature grew stronger as it absorbed more jinsei.
“It’s shielded the connection to the dragon lines,” I shouted. The elemental took another swing at me, and this time I jumped up, landed briefly on its forearm, then somersaulted over it to land next to Ishigara. “My serpents can’t break through its defenses.”
“Let me see what I can do,” Ishigara said, putting some distance between us. The elemental had turned around and raised its fists overhead. “Distract it, and I’ll go after the connection to the line.”
Ishigara leaped away from the elemental spirit and wove complex patterns in the air with her fingers. She ran straight up the wall and across the ceiling to narrowly avoid a swipe of the elemental’s fist.
“She’s a tasty morsel, but your core burns brighter,” the elemental snarled. “I will feast upon your soul, mortal.”
Well, that wasn’t going to happen. The elemental was powerful, but it couldn’t defeat both Ishigara and me. I’d rather it went home peacefully, but this insistence on eating me would not end well. I took another shot at convincing the creature to head home before things turned ugly.
“Go home!” I shouted. “There’s nothing here for you but death, honored Spirit!”
“Who are you talking to?” Ishigara asked, exasperated. “Can you be serious long enough to get rid of this thing?”
“I’m talking to it!” I shouted.
“That’s impossible,” Ishigara said. “Elementals aren’t intelligent. They have no language.”
The elemental responded by clasping its fists together, raising them over its head, and swinging them down like a wrecking ball.
Right at my head.
The Thief’s Shield would drain a lot of aspects from the attack, but the elemental had plenty to spare. And while the technique could strip much of the beast’s strength, temporarily, the sheer mass of the fists falling toward my head would ring my already damaged bell.
My fusion blade appeared in my hand, and my serpents exploded out of my aura and drove toward the floor at lightning speed. They hurled me to the left, and I brought my sword up in a crossbody slash. My attack swept through the spirit’s left wrist with an angry hiss, releasing a few hundred pounds of manifested elemental aspects from their master. The shards slammed into the floor and scattered in every direction, leaving deep gouges in the wooden finish.
“You’re paying for that!” Ishigara shouted.
“Fine, whatever!” I shouted back. “Do something!”
“Your professor is mistaken,” the elemental growled and lashed out at me with its remaining fist. “She should recognize I am no mere elemental. My name is Nexignus, the Convergence. I will make her say my name before I crush the life from her lungs.”
“Why?” I asked, darting in for a probing attack with my fusion blade. “I made a mistake! There’s no reason to fight to the death. Just go home.”
Nexignus swatted my sword away and stomped down, narrowly missing me. “It is not that simple. You called me forth without the proper obeisance. The old ways reign where I am concerned. And they say we must fight to the death.”
I went after the elemental as he spoke, serpents stinging, blade hacking at his legs. But as powerful as I was, the creature had the jinsei flowing through the dragon lines at its disposal. Every cut I opened was sealed a moment later by a bubbling scab of magma.
And, the truth was, I didn’t want to kill the thing. There was an ancient nobility to the elemental, and in some ways it was helpless. I’d summoned it without saying the right words, and now it had no choice but to crush me.
There had to be some way to get rid of the thing without killing it. I just didn’t know how.
“Professor,” I said, ducking under a looping punch, “this thing says its name is Nexignus. That mean anything to you?”
“That we’re both going to die!” She leaped over a mule kick from the elemental and landed nimbly on her feet.
Well, that was helpful.
The elemental’s hand had already started to regrow. It brought the other one around in a haymaker punch that would have knocked me straight to the moon if it had landed. The creature had gotten faster in the past few seconds. It would only get stronger as more jinsei flowed into it.
My body had mostly healed from my duel with Eric and subsequent advancement, but I was still not in great shape. All the dodging and leaping was wearing me out and burning up my reserves of sacred energy. It wouldn’t be long before I was wiped out, and then the elemental would mop the floor with me.
If I’d had time to prepare, this fight would already be over. But I’d used a lot of my own jinsei to fire up the scrivening, and now I couldn’t replace it because the elemental was between me and my power source. Cutting the connection between my core and the scrivening might let me cycle, but it could also be a huge shock to the system. I couldn’t risk that.
I activated the Thief’s Shield and darted in beneath another attack. My technique ripped a load of earth elemental aspects out of the creature, followed by a deep drink of jinsei. The unexpected maneuver staggered the creature, and I went to work with my fusion blade.
Every ounce of stolen jinsei went straight into my arms and back. I hacked horrible wounds into the elemental. One stroke took off a leg below the knee, another robbed the spirit of the arm on the same side. I whirled, and a backhanded slice carved away most of the elemental’s head.
The creature had no vital organs, which made it hard to kill with physical assaults, but the damage I’d wreaked on it slowed the spirit down. When it fell to one knee, I backed off and took advantage of the moment of calm to catch my breath.
“You fight well,” Nexignus groaned. “But you have not yet defeated me. Yield, and I will end your life quickly. Fight on, and your suffering will be a thing of legend.”
Ishigara had crouched in the corner, her eyes fixed in the middle distance, focused on her sorcery. “I’ve almost breached its defenses. Just a little longer!”
Messing with dragon lines seemed like a worse idea all the time.
“Do your best,” I said to the professor, then turned my attention back to Nexignus. “You’re not in any position to threaten me. You yield, and we both walk away from here with our heads held high.”
“I fear that is not an option,” the elemental said. “Your spell brought me here, now one of us must die. That is the way.”
“It’s a pretty stupid way,” I growled. “How close are you, Professor?”
“Not very,” she said.
A sudden wash of heat drew my attention back to the elemental. It had given up on regaining its feet. The jinsei in its core glowed brighter by the moment, though, transforming from silver to crimson. The aspects that had manifested to give the elemental its body were also changing.
“Time’s up,” I shouted to Ishigara. “Get out of here, now.”
“Just a few more seconds!”
Nexignus had given up on survival and turned its attention to revenge. It didn’t care if it died so long as it took me with it. It was bound by a code of honor much stricter and more ancient than mortals would understand.
“Leave, now!” I roared with enough jinsei behind it to shake the rafters. “It’s going to explode.”
Ishigara gulped and abandoned her sorcery. Lines of jinsei sparked and lashed at the air behind her as she sprinted toward the door with a burst of inhuman speed.
There was nowhere for me to run. As fast as I was, I’d never reach the door before the e
lemental went supernova. I focused my mind on a face from my past and prayed our connection was strong enough.
Then I realized there was a use for Kalani’s technique. I focused it on my serpents and felt the Thief’s Shield slowly blossom, almost, but not quite active.
“You have fought well, mortal,” Nexignus boomed, “and I am proud to be the one who defeated you, even in my death.”
“No one’s dying today,” I shouted, and slammed my serpents down on the creature’s glowing body. The technique I’d bound there triggered before Nexignus blew himself, and me, into a thousand chunks.
Aspects and jinsei drained out of the creature in a rush, filling my core and tangling in my aura. I bent them to my will, and as the elemental screamed in rage, I channeled all that power into the Gate of the Design.
As much of the elemental’s power as I’d stripped away, though, I couldn’t completely stop the explosion of fire and force it released. Nexignus sent himself back to where he’d come from in a corona of flame, and a furnace blast of superheated air slammed into me.
The Ledge
FIRE SURROUNDED ME, and the blast thrust me toward the wall like a giant’s fist at my back. In the moment before I was crushed into messy red pulp, the Gate of the Design opened.
I tumbled through the opening I’d created in time and space, then spilled out onto a freezing sliver of stone overlooking a yawning chasm. I skidded across the frost-slicked ground, hands desperately scrabbling for purchase as empty space grew ever closer.
My fusion blade.
Realizing the weapon was still in my hand, I slammed it into the stone. The chisel-tip chewed into the rock with a horrific squeal and stuck fast. A moment later, I shot past my blade and my legs flew out over the abyss.
I clung tight to the fusion blade’s hilt, putting all of my venerable core behind it. The weapon became a fulcrum for my body, which whipped around its length and back onto the ledge. I came to a stop and stared up at the layer of heavy gray clouds that hid the sky.
Before I’d taken a single breath, a dragon landed next to my head and jabbed a sharp talon into my chest. Its eyes blazed with anger, and its black snout wrinkled to reveal twin rows of razor-sharp teeth. “What are you doing here?” he growled.
“I came looking for a friend,” I said. “Did I find one?”
The dragon glanced over his shoulder, then scanned the sky. After what felt like an eternity, he reached down, grabbed the front of my robes, and dragged me onto my feet. “You’re a lunatic,” he said. “If anyone sees us together, I’ll throw you off the edge of the cliff. And that’ll be the biggest favor I ever did for you.”
“It’s nice to see you too, Niddhogg,” I said. “Why are you out on these trails?”
“Patrols,” the dragon growled. “Keeping an eye out for intruders in Shambala. I can’t believe the bad luck I have to actually find one.”
Niddhogg was right. I was lucky he’d been out here, rather than in a classroom or dining hall packed with other dragons. But I’d traveled by the Grand Design. Maybe coincidences weren’t as lucky as they seemed when I did that. Maybe it had arranged for me to arrive at this precise point, when I’d be less likely to run into bad guys.
“We have to get you out of sight,” Niddhogg said again. “If another patrol comes by, there’ll be trouble. You’re lucky I found you. If it had been anyone else, you’d already be dead.”
I brushed the dirt and snow off my robes and squared my shoulders. “Just so we’re on the same page, even a patrol of dragons would have a hard time taking me out that quickly.”
Niddhogg grumbled and threw his arm around my shoulders. It was hard to believe the big fighter in front of me had once been the pudgy little mascot of the freshman dorms. “Fine, you’re an awesome fighter. You’re so strong no ten dragons could hope to best you. But some of my people would take your coming here as an act of war. You’d have a lot more than a patrol to contend with.”
The dragon guided me down the slope to a small opening in the mountain’s flank. He pushed me inside, then glanced back up the slope before joining me. “I’d light a fire, but we can’t afford the attention.”
“That’s fine,” I said. “I can handle the cold.”
Niddhogg pointed to a stone bench, then crouched next to the opening, facing me. “Why are you here? The truth.”
I rested my hands on my knees and looked Niddhogg in the eye. My sudden appearance had rattled him, and I couldn’t blame the poor guy. He deserved the truth, so that’s what I’d give him.
“Okay,” I said. “The Flame showed up with the last leg of its quest. I’m making progress, but there’s one that’s got me stumped. I need the help of the Five Dragons—”
“Stop,” Niddhogg said. “I don’t want to hear anything else. You’re talking crazy.”
“I don’t know where to find them,” I continued. “I know Empyreals sent them to Ultima Thule, or maybe that’s the name of the punishment. But that’s all I can find. And I need their help.”
Niddhogg was no longer crouching. He stood up and paced back and forth before the cavern’s opening. The anger had drained from his aura.
Now he was scared.
Which was hard to reconcile with a nearly eight-foot-tall humanoid dragon covered in glossy black scales that could stop a bullet. Since the other dragons had lifted his curse, Niddhogg had grown at a prodigious rate. He looked like he tore apart tanks as a warm-up for free diving in volcanoes.
If something scared him, it should probably worry me, too.
Fortunately for me, I have no common sense.
“Spill it,” I said. “You know something. I can tell by the way you’re all freaked out.”
Niddhogg mumbled something under his breath, then squared his shoulders and pointed a finger at me. “You know how long I waited to get the curse lifted so I could go home?”
“Centuries, right?”
A small gust of flame leaped from Niddhogg’s nostrils as he let out a sigh. “Yeah,” he said, “a lot of them. While my friends grew up to be real dragons, I looked like a stuffed animal. The School kept me around to amuse the newbies. It was humiliating. You’re the only one who ever took me seriously, Jace. But what you’re asking me... I could lose everything again.”
The worry in Niddhogg’s voice bothered me, but it was also intriguing. “Your curse had something to do with the Five Dragons, didn’t it?”
Niddhogg said nothing for a moment. Sparks of worry, anger, and sadness jumped in his aura. I’d hit the nail on the head, and wasn’t sure what to do about that. I needed the information that Niddhogg had, but I didn’t want him to risk his birthright and potential punishment by asking for more details.
“Okay,” I said, “don’t say anything else. Let’s see if I can figure this out with you saying as little as possible. Your curse will come back if you say anything about the subject we just discussed?”
Niddhogg considered the question for a moment. He clenched and unclenched his fingers, knuckles cracking like knotted wood in a bonfire. He nodded, then winced as if expecting a headsman’s axe to take him out.
Nothing happened.
We were off to a good start. As long as I kept the questions oblique, Niddhogg could answer without fear of triggering his curse again. “All right,” I said, “let’s play a little game. I’ll ask questions, you answer the safe ones.”
Niddhogg paused in front of the cavern’s opening, then glanced around again. “Okay,” he said. “I’ll play along, but only because I like you, Jace. I think you’re trying to do the right thing. But we don’t have a lot of time. My guard shift ends in less than half an hour. You have to be gone before then.”
“That’ll work,” I said. “Do you think anyone felt the Gate open?”
“No,” Niddhogg said. “I didn’t feel a thing, and I was right next to it. Maybe if they were looking for that kind of thing, one of the seers would detect it, but I don’t know. Ask your next question.”
“You got
it,” I said. “Okay. Is your curse related to the Five Dragons?”
“Yep,” Niddhogg answered without delay.
That was good to hear. Not that my friend was cursed, but that he might know more about the Five Dragons than I’d expected.
“Were you cursed because of something you discovered?”
Niddhogg nodded without hesitation.
The wind howled outside our little refuge, sending snow devils skittering across the floor. While my core protected me from the cold, a fire would’ve been nice. There’s a difference between not suffering damage from freezing temperatures and being comfortable. I could sit out here in the cold all day, but I wouldn’t enjoy it.
“Let me guess,” I said. “You know how to find the dragons?”
Niddhogg nodded enthusiastically.
It was easy to imagine how he’d wound up punished. A curious young dragon looking into the history of his people. He’d asked a few too many questions, found a few too many books in the old libraries. Shambala’s school probably had a lot more history books related to the exile. Niddhogg found out the truth, told it to the wrong person, and...boom. Cursed.
The trail was getting hot. “Ultima Thule was a place?” I asked.
Niddhogg wobbled a hand back and forth and said, “Kind of?”
That lined up with what Eric had told me. “It’s the name for the way they punished the Five Dragons, right?”
Niddhogg tapped his nose, then pointed at me. “That’s it.
“We need to wrap this up,” Niddhogg said.
He was back at the door, peering up and down the slope, looking for more dragons. He stared up at the sky while I considered my next question.
Finally, I had it. Based on what Niddhogg had told me, and what I knew of his life, all I needed was my suspicions confirmed.
“All right,” I said. “This one’s for all the marbles. Did they send you to the School of Swords and Serpents to monitor a specific location?”