The time required to cross the salt sea is variable, depending upon wind and current. Our passage required nine days from Tarvu to Udushdugum, which is accounted slightly above average. I discovered, during this voyage, that I do not enjoying sailing. The confined environment of the small vessel, the perpetual sun overhead, and the steady rocking motion of the ship were all troubling. The last was especially frustrating, as I found myself unable to compensate for the ship’s motion while attempting to write and was therefore left with little to occupy the hours.

In their close-mouthed way the traders were pleasant, but they avoided speaking to us save at need. This was somewhat surprising, since while we remained under sail on calm waters there was little to be done onboard and the sailors spent many hours playing strange games using a series of carved and painted dice unfamiliar to me. I believe it was intended to represent some kind of battle for control beneath the waves based on glimpses of the images engraved upon the dice. Whether these were mythic creatures they had seen, or mere fables, remains unknown, for they would not speak any details. They avoided the other passengers as well, including the husband-and-wife team of merchants who had joined the voyage after spending the winter in Tarvu. These two were part of the merchant’s consortium of Gudishgul Fortress and their goods occupied a considerable portion of the ship’s cargo space. This pair, both half-Nikkad and Half-Sairn individuals born in Shdustu, were Master and Mistress Annant, who had made this trip many times. They did not speak much either, preferring to spend their time studying very worn copies of the primary text of the Enlightened Revelation. It was an unexpected level of devotion from a pair of merchants, a group not well-known for intense faith. It is highly likely that, following the display at the sea stack, they were utterly terrified of Lady Indili and, embarrassing as it is to state, myself as well. Captain Broadoar confessed as much to me himself in the moment he pulled me aboard, saying ‘no man should be hale after so long in the sea’s embrace.’ Though their fear and awe made them courteous, it also kept them at a pronounced distance.

Instead, we were occupied dealing with the students. This task fell heavily upon me, especially during the first half of the voyage as Lady Indili was exhausted by her exertions and spent a huge portion of the available hours sleeping in order to recover. Managing four young pupils is not an easy task at any time, and crammed into the confines of a small ship is much worse than ordinary. I put them through such exercises as I knew, mostly math and language, for as much time as I dared to impose. The attention of youth is not easily seized, though the girls were willing to observe dissections of fish caught on trailing lines during the crossing. I also attempted, knowing that the remaining time was limited, to impart such knowledge as I could of etiquette and decorum in the Sanid Empire, though the barriers of both language and the simplified nature of Rutar society made this difficult. Only so much time could be devoted to serious matters before the girls grew overly frustrated and it was necessary to release them to play children’s games spotting seals and counting birds. Later, when Lady Indili was able to lead them in essence sensing practice, that served to keep them busy and tire them considerably.

Following arrival in Udushdugum the Annants were kind enough to allow us to join their caravan northward to Gudishgul Fortress. Though they feared her, they were more than willing to accept Lady Indili’s presence for the protection a master sorcerer’s presence conveyed. This was helpful, for the couple had laid plans in the previous autumn to travel north as soon as possible, attaching themselves and their goods seamlessly to a caravan that had come south from the fortress just a week before. This minimized delay and allowed us to begin traveling overland once more after a mere three days of recovery.

The path from Udushdugum to Gudishgul is across the southern spur of the Shdus Desert and is hot and miserable, though mild compared to the high summer heat of the much longer journey to follow. The four Rutar girls, being unfamiliar with the baking sun and forced to take many more strides on account of shorter legs, struggled greatly at first. They did, however, manage to overcome their initial dislike of camels and learn to ride as a result. There were neither raids nor other disturbances, for this is a wild and desolate space crossed by few.

I shall not overly belabor this chronicle with lengthy descriptions of the return passage across lands already passed by the Dragon Expedition on the way out. Further, every effort was made to hurry across them. It was possible, based on calculations of the dates, to return to the Sanid Empire in this year, assuming the Shdrast Mountains could be surpassed before winter closed over them. In this I, Lady Indili, and the four young apprentices were all united. None among us desired to spend many long months idle in the Foothill Kingdom. As it happened, upon arrival in Gudishgul Fortress we encountered one Master Sahan who desired the same thing. Considerable gratitude is owed to the Annants for providing the introduction. Though they were not a friendly pair, they acted with impeccable courtesy.

Master Sahan was only too willing to add members of an official expedition to his party, for though he did not intend to travel beyond Shdraudra, he believed that rich rewards would be granted to one who aided the Sanid Empire in this manner. An avaricious impulse, and crude, but in the end a correct grasp of the state of affairs at court. He was, thankfully, willing to push hard in order to make good time and therefore can be said to have duly earned the recompense granted to him. The power of merchants in wild lands is both great and, at the same time, tightly limited, a curious paradox. I am certain this relates in some fashion to the transience of wealth, though proper understanding of such matters escapes me. It shall suffice to be grateful that the Dragon Expedition was not fleeced on the final portion of the journey home.

The crossing of the desert, foothills, and mountains was difficult, as all such journeys are, but in a mundane way. There were no attacks by bandits or encounters with dangerous beasts. Instead, the troubles of the road made themselves known. Though the long years abroad had hardened both Lady Indili and I to endure long days on the march, no body endures perfectly. The apprentices suffered worse, as even when they were allowed to ride their bodies needed time to adjust to the practice, which was new to them. Though the presence of a Rose Opal healer prevented any permanent damage, it was still a long and often painful trek, especially for the young girls who had never been trained in the ways of the road.

During this portion of the journey, I was circumspect regarding my identity and the existence of the Dragon Expedition, as it had become clear that such things would draw unfortunate attention. Instead, I returned to the deception that I was Lady Indili’s assistant, and that our primary mission was to bring the four Rutar girls to the chapter house in Crisremon. This was only a modest deception, since that mission was very real, and it provided an additional measure of protection as few have any desire to meddle in the affairs of sorcerers. At the same time, this measure prevented word of the expedition from ranging ahead of our steps. The Princess Romou had returned earlier, and it was not believed that anyone else had survived. Her return, which presented many of the documents I had supplied to the Emperor, told the tale up to the point of separation in the mountains and contained a frank statement that I had composed stating it was unlikely that we would reach the dragon and return. We were, at this point, believed deceased.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

Our arrival at Nlamadt in Nla-Shdrast therefore served to surprise the entirety of the Sanid Empire, and especially the newly appointed governor who had taken up his office mere months prior. It took some effort to establish my credentials, though the governor was a reasonable official in the end and allotted a modest escort for the final leg of the journey. It was also here that I heard of Princess Romou’s great success in returning with the other survivors. This was welcome news, both on a personal note, as it meant those I had come to know well had lived, and in an official capacity as it meant the documents and artifacts that comprise much of the expedition’s legacy had also survived. Had this not been true, the assembly of this chronicle would have represented an impossible task. While by this time the princess had already traveled west to the edge of the Core Provinces in anticipation of her great journey across the desert, the knowledge that governor Yalum Nevastalm had been appointed as the governor of Crisremon allayed any worries induced by that absence. I had been presented to that official and had every hope he would recognize me, a fact that would be extraordinarily valuable in the capital.

Having crossed the passes shortly before they closed, the final stretch of travel took place in late autumn and early winter. The weather was, compared to Shdustu, mild, but there was still sufficient snow to slow our progress and it proved impossible to reach Crisremon prior to the winter solstice as I had hoped. Instead, we spent the new year in the Triple City of Cotarah. While there I took the initiative to donate one of the fragmentary dragon scales we had carried all the way from the Cracking Void to the triarchs of the faith. This was somewhat presumptuous, but it felt appropriate in the moment.

Thereafter we proceeded somewhat leisurely on the imperial highway through the final leg of the journey. By this time word had been sent ahead, and it was possible to utilize the empire’s waystations for nightly stops, a considerable luxury compared to sleeping in the open. At this point such gentle travel felt almost foreign, though it was a pleasant sort of change. Eventually, on the twenty-seventh day of the first month of the second year of Restored Stability, the Dragon Expedition returned to Crisremon. Three days later, upon my submission of the seal to the Emperor, the expedition came to its official conclusion.

This reception, though generous, was made with little fanfare. At the time I was somewhat offended by this, but upon further reflection I must bow to the wisdom of the court’s approach. In truth, the expedition could not be said to have succeeded in its original aims. The dragon had not been captured or slain, though having encountered the creature I must conclude that such goals were fantastical from the start, and only minor fragments had been returned. Exposure to dragon blood had transformed me, true, but it is difficult to say that a cartographer possessed of great resistance to cold offered any special value to the empire. It was not a gift, whatever the wizards believed, that could be shared. As for the glory attached to making a journey of such distance, the triumphant return of Princess Romou had absorbed all fanfare. A single scholar and sorcerer were not a vehicle for spectacle. The Emperor, accordingly, did not produce one. I was, however, formally rewarded for my service through a generous increase in the land’s allotted to my family’s estate and my rank in the cartography office, to which I was subsequently returned, was increased by a full step. Lady Indili received the thanks of the court on behalf of the chapter house in strict monetary terms, as is the custom in relations between those two institutions.

While the Emperor’s reception was perfunctory and limited to official statements, the remainder of the court was considerably more interested. The Inspectorate interrogated me at length regarding both the political activity in the lands we had traveled and the activity of wizards. Concern was also expressed regarding the expedition’s scholarly accomplishments, with interested sponsored by Governor Nevastalm. Much of what the expedition had learned of Shdustu was not of immediate military or commercial use but held great scholarly value. This included artifacts, maps, notes, samples, and sketches from across a huge portion of the vast territory. I was placed in charge of compiling, organizing, and distributing the goods and information to those groups with a claim for its long-term disposition. This ranged from apothecaries to the Winged Cavalry. In this effort the Apothecary Amanili, who had successfully passed the tests to reach journeyman rank following her return with Princess Romou and held a greater understanding of the plants of Shdustu than anyone else in the Core Provinces, was indispensable. Following the completion of this preliminary process, the governor expressed a desire for an account granted to the court itself, one suitable for appreciation by the luminaries of the empire and inclusion in the archives as a single document. That order served as the genesis of this chronicle, though it proved a challenging and lengthy task to complete given other duties and complications that arose in the interim.

While it fell to me to produce the Chronicle of the Dragon Expedition, and though I led its remnants for a time, I cannot claim to have been the principal impetus behind this endeavor. From Erun Nassah to the Princess Romou to the Lady Indili, and many others, it required many hands to make this grand journey possible. I take solace that, whatever the expedition’s failures, it represented the glory of the Sanid Empire with honor and valor, and in facing down the Obsidian Order it struck severe blows against true evil. Given that, there is nothing to regret when looking back upon the expedition. Whatever the hardships endured, I shall always be grateful to have been a part of it.

To the Lady Indili, who remained steadfast in her support of the expedition throughout, I retain gratitude beyond the ability of my pen to convey. Without her presence, aid, and sacrifices, everyone would have perished in the Dumum Mountains and the expedition would be lost to history. For such heroism she was repaid generously by both the Sanid Empire and the Divines, for her plan to bring sorcery to the Rutar succeeded. Mavu, Navanul, and Ostanu all became sorcerers and in time these women returned to their homeland and established a new branch of the chapter house in Varu-Tavur. Lady Indili’s name will forever be listed as the founder of that branch. Perhaps this was not a goal the empire supported, but as sorcery serves as a bulwark against the darkness of wizardry in Shdustu, I cannot help but regard this as a positive development.

As for Shdustu itself, it too will endure. Untamed by the plow, the steppe is changed only according to the great cycles of the Divines, not the actions of human hands. In such wild lands dragons too shall remain, visions of the wonder of the world we always seek but can never truly grasp. To seek one out is an impossible goal, but in so doing much is discovered that would never be learned otherwise. In sending out the Dragon Expedition I believe Husun the Fifth displayed great wisdom and that in time the Sanid Empire will see great benefits in countless ways. If I have any true regret, it is that the expedition was unable to return in time that he might share in the results of what he had wrought, but perhaps it is a sign from the Divines that in the new era we should continue to voyage to the horizon.

When the dragon soars, humans must give chase.