Lidvus was the one to stand abruptly at that. “You dare accuse the king of such a thing!?”
“There is more going on than you even realize. So Lidvus, sit down,” ordered Dalphina.
Lord Loratyk thanked her and turned to the young mages and said, “I wish you had told me of this information before we arrived. I could have advised you more on how to proceed. It is a shame you felt you could not trust me, but I understand when it came to a creature such as our dear Zuma.”
Our. Kaden wasn’t pleased he had claimed them as such.
“That being said, the next few things I have to discuss with the Grandmasters is not something you four should know or be involved in. It is of higher politics that you need not bother with.”
“Yes,” Dalphina nodded to them, “I thank you for bringing such a thing to us, but the Lord is correct. I would ask you all to stay at the temple while we figure out what is truly going on. We may need you all to… testify. You are not to go back out on patrol until this matter is settled.”
Lidvus tossed his hand toward Kaden and said, “and get this farm hand to Tranley to get him inducted properly. We can’t have him marching through this place looking like a farmhand.”
The three mages stood abruptly, nodded, and started to walk away. Confused, Kaden frantically tried to follow, but accidentally kicked his chair over. Apologizing in a whisper, he left feeling foolish in front of the most important people he had ever met. He passed Lord Loratyk, and the man gave him a slight nod. He took it as the lord appreciated his meager defense he had given him.
As the door closed behind them, there was a crowd of other mages milling around the door, hoping to catch anything about what was happening. He heard them whispering to one another. Kaden thought he heard mention that the lords always announced their visits, never showed up and demanded official audiences. He overheard whispers about himself as well, mentioning that he had been seen in town riding a dragon.
Iratoi snapped her fingers at their group and demanded they follow her. Not a word was said as she led the way. Turning a corner abruptly, leaving the crowd behind, they made their way down a long hall toward another stairwell. This time it was on the edge of the building because there were large open arch windows that showed the city below them.
He marveled at the sight. He wasn’t going to get used to the wonder of the temple or the city any time soon. Jaxtor pushed him from behind as he had slowed to take in the view. He apologized and skipped ahead to catch Eloise and Iratoi. Every hallway was different. Some had art work, others had sculptures. There were a few they passed that were just lined with colored lace and satin.
Standing outside a door, Iratoi held the handle. She looked back at them and said, “this just got even more complicated. I am ordering the three of you to not discuss this at all. There is nowhere safe here to talk about it, not when it concerns… such high politics.”
Eloise’s eyebrow perked up. “Not even… in our own private rooms?”
She sighed and let go of the handle. “The fact that we were having to patrol our own lands should give you a hint at what is happening here. For your own safety, do as I say. Trust no one.”
They nodded. An uneasy feeling was welling deep in his stomach. He had assumed that everyone at the temple was noble and honorable, only those deemed worthy were blessed. He assumed that meant the people would be trustworthy. Shock wrapped its way around him, shaking him to the core with knowing that wasn’t the case.
Turning back around, she pushed the door, and they were met with a bright blue glow. A small man was standing over a very large glowing stone. His face was pressed incredibly close, but his eyes were covered with darkened glasses. His head turned to them, showing the dark spectacles.
“Who’s there?”
Eloise laughed and said, “take your glasses off, Tranley.”
Pulling them up, he said, “Oh dear Eloise! I haven’t seen you in months! How have you been?”
She moved in to give him an enormous hug. They all crowded in the room and gave their welcomes. He arrived at Kaden and tilted his head.
Poking him in the stomach, he said, “I do not know this one. Who is he?”
Eloise had a grin stretch across her face when she said, “You aren’t going to believe this Tranley, a wild matriarch blessed him! We’ve got you a new one!”
His eyes grew as he poked Kaden again. “A wild one? Where on this earth did you find a wild one?”
“Wait, wait,” she giggled. “He’s already bonded with a dragon, too. A wild dragon!”
“Oh,” he exclaimed with glee. “A dragon rider too! We haven’t had one of those here in years!”
Jaxtor messed up the older man’s hair as he walked past and said, “don’t harass him too much. He really needs your help.”
“Yes, yes, to get him started on his journey! They all need my help,” he said with a shake of his head.
Iratoi smiled and said, “no sir, that’s not what he needs help with. He’s having… dreams of darkness.”
Kaden didn’t think the man’s eyes could get any larger or his voice to sound any more excited, but they were.
“Darkness too! Oh boy, oh boy! I have not had to deal with any of that in a long, long while! What an exciting day this is turning out to be,” he said as he gave a little excited jump.
He started skittering around his room, grabbing notebooks and paperwork. Jaxtor slid himself into a large but fluffy couch. He let out a grunt of satisfaction as he let himself sink into it. Eloise dodged out of Tranley’s way as he scurried around. She soon joined Jaxtor on the couch.
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
Iratoi shook her head at them and said, “I have to go debrief my leader, so you two are in charge of getting Kaden settled.”
Jaxtor let out a groan and said, “Can’t we leave him to Tranley? He’ll take care of him.”
“No,” she said while furrowing her eyebrows at him. “You know that won’t end well for anyone.”
Tranley scoffed at her, giving her a frown before he continued his search.
“We need to know where he settles, we were ordered to stick around, which includes him. With how much he knows, we need to keep tabs on where they put him.”
Eloise lifted her shoulders and said, “yes, ma’am! We’ll make sure that him and Zuma are settled in well!”
Bowing deeply, she said her goodbyes and was out the door.
Kaden was still standing near the doorway, utterly confused about what was happening. The short man they called Tranley was examining him, pulling at his arm, wiggling his hand, running his hands through his hair. Kaden was not at all comfortable with the touches, but he stood there, not knowing what to do otherwise.
Tranley nodded and kept writing notes down while saying “Yes” to himself.
He looked over to see Eloise reading a book and Jaxtor trying to take a nap. They were not at all concerned with what the man was doing to Kaden. He was the person Lidvus instructed them to see, so he could only assume everything was as it should be. Whipping out a measuring tape, Tranley started to scribble and take measurements of him.
“So…” he said awkwardly, “is there are reason you’re needing my inseam?”
“For your robes, of course!”
“Of course,” he looked over to Eloise, who made eye contact over the edge of her book before looking back down.
Standing up with a jolt, Tranley said, “We have to get you the proper attire or you won’t fit in.”
“He doesn’t need to fit in,” said Jaxtor with his eyes still closed. “He needs to know how to not die when he sleeps.”
“Ah, yes, yes. We will get to that, but the sooner I can get his measurements off, the sooner we can get him looking like a true mage!”
Eloise winked at Kaden and said, “Tranley designed the robes. He’s very passionate about them.”
“They are beautiful works of art,” he exclaimed. “Of course I am passionate about them. Look at you two, you look so prim and proper! I couldn’t have my students out there looking like old story tale wizards.”
“I’ll grow the beard out for you if you want,” joked Jaxtor.
Eloise smacked him with her book and said, “only if you wear the pointy hat too.”
They laughed with each other and Kaden didn’t quite get the joke, but he smiled and let out a small laugh as if he did. He wasn’t raised with any story tales of bearded, spiky-hatted wizards. It must have been a rich people thing.
“So tell me,” Tranley pulled up two padded chairs for him and Kaden to sit in, “tell me all about how you got these powers.”
Kaden looked at his companions and Eloise told him it was okay. He needed to know the full situation. If they trusted him, Kaden felt he could do so too. He went into as much detail as he could about the event of meeting the dragon, the blessing, and the subsequent darkness.
When he mentioned visions, Tranley was enthralled. He asked him to describe what he saw, the scenes that played out for him. Both his companions were actually leaning forward on their sofa, listening in to the descriptions. He hadn’t shared with them what exactly he had seen.
“A severed head,” he could hear Eloise whisper to Jaxtor.
Tranley continued prodding him, asking him to fully explain each vision in as much detail as he could. When he got to the end, the vision of his family and how the darkness wrapped around them, Tranley was literally on the edge of his seat, intently listening.
When he was done, he just stared at them. Tranley rubbed his eyes and said, “this is incredibly fascinating! There’s a first for everything!”
“First,” stuttered Kaden. “Have you not heard of visions before?”
“Oh no no no, don’t be silly. We’ve had several blessed who have had visions, just not as many and not as detailed. And also not as explicit with the darkness. You straight up see the darkness in the act!”
“Is the darkness… an actual thing?”
The man stood suddenly and said, “It can be! But no, not usually.”
“What am I supposed to do?”
“Think about it!”
Kaden gave a slow blink of disbelief. “You want me to think about the visions or think about what I’m supposed to do?”
“Both!”
Kaden looked to his companions for a Tranley translation, but they just shrugged and gave him looks that they had no idea what he was saying either.
“You need to break this down for me. I’m lost.”
The man bopped him on the head with a book and said, “You need to be familiar with the visions, familiar with how to navigate them or they will consume you. You’ve been gifted with the vision of what could come. It is an act of extremely pure magic by a matriarch. You need to be able to understand it or it will devour your essence.”
Jaxtor snickered and said, “just think about the drinking one all night and you’ll be fine.”
“You want me to just… think about the darkness. Isn’t that counter productive?”
He got bopped again on the head before Tranley said, “no. You need to be able to navigate them. You already said you saw two different versions. Your visions are giving you outcomes of possibilities. You need to think about them and prepare yourself for them. If you can’t navigate them, then you will be consumed.”
“And Zuma will be frozen again…”
Tranley stood up in surprise. Kaden felt the man was going to constantly be neurotic and jumpy. It was different, but he somewhat enjoyed the behavior. He scurried to another book and flipped through the pages. Looking back over to the two on the couch, he said, “the dragon was frozen like the one you two had come across, yes?”
Eloise’s eyes fell. “Yes, sir.”
“And the new rider just… unfroze them?”
Jaxtor nodded.
“Well, I’ll be…” he looked at Kaden in wonder. “You are a special one.”
It was another flurry of questions about what he did to thaw them. Jaxtor brought up the storm, and it was another round of prying questions at that, too. They were getting a kick out of his uncomfortable responses.
“The citadel is going to eat you up,” he said, while titling his head. “We can’t have that.”
Furrowing his eyebrows, he asked, “the what?”
“You’ll be going to the citadel to start your pilgrimage! They will want every part of you,” he said while poking Kaden in the stomach.
“What even is the pilgrimage? No one has really explained what that even is,” he asked as he pulled away from the poking and prodding.
Eloise sighed and said, “You will be on a journey to visit every nation. While there, you are representing our nation.”
Tranley nodded and continued, “you will be tasked with learning and integrating within their culture, within their guardians.”
“When you do so,” Jaxtor picked up. “You will be expected to greet their matriarchs. It’s an honor of respect from those who were blessed by another clan toward a new one.”
Tranley nodded again, agreeing with Jaxtor. “You are a dragon rider too, though, so they will expect more of you. You will be paired with other dragon riders for your pilgrimage. The four of you will be leaders within your own cultures once you’re done, so you’re expected to present to more authorities.”
“He means you’ll need to rub elbows with more lords,” Eloise snickered.
“More Lords,” Kaden whined. “I couldn’t even function talking to one and you all expect me to talk to others from other nations? I don’t think this is going to work.”
Tranley skipped off to another corner and started piling books up in his arms. Waddling back to a table, he set them down and started sorting through them. He made two piles. Only one kept getting taller, while the other only stacked a few. He went to work on stuffing the taller pile into a large bag.
He turned to Kaden, shoving the bag into his arms, and said, “nonsense. You’ll do fine! The Azure Matriarch deemed you worthy, so you’ll be worthy enough to meet a few measly lords. Plus, with these tombs to study, you’ll be a master in no time!”
“Measly… yeah… okay…” he said with sarcasm.
He pushed the bag into Kaden’s hands and turned him around. Pushing him and the bag to the door, he said, “Now let’s go meet this dragon of yours!”