Thoughts and questions alike swirled within my mind, eager to make themselves known, but the decadence of the cave, if it could even be called that, drew my immediate attention.
I only called it a cave due to the rocky ground, but the treasures that piled up prevented me from even seeing the walls or the ceiling. Luminescent stones, essence stones, were hovering in the air to provide some illumination, which allowed me to see in detail just how diverse the elder’s assets were. Masterfully crafted pieces of woodworking, slabs of marble in all the primary colors, a longsword with a dragon’s head as the crossguard. But above all, shiny metals took up most of the space, Meteorites of gold, aluminum, silver, and copper were plentiful, and every now and then a rare twinkle revealed a precious stone lying in wait. Diamonds and rubies were the most prominent, followed by sapphires and a single emerald that I could spot. The least in number were the manufactured pieces, including weapons and armor. I would have called them artifacts simply for the aura they radiated, but they were relegated to less prominent positions and were clearly not the main focus.
If I wasn’t assured that the elder knew himself to be superior to me, I would have thought this to be a show of not only wealth, but power as well. After all, all these treasures had to come from somewhere.
“Now. What do you wish to know first?”
Elder Dusk’s words brought my attention back to him, as he transformed back into his true draconic form, stretching his wings out and yawning before settling his entire body onto the treasure trove, wriggling around until he found a comfortable position to lie down in. I pulled out a chair from my space absentmindedly and tried to arrange my thoughts into some semblance of organization. In the end, I decided to just go chronologically.
“You don’t mind if I speak informally, do you?” I thought it prudent to at least get some type of approval for my actions that someone like Elder Dusk might see as audacious for someone with my level of power.
“I have no objections, but be aware that not all elders are so affable in how you treat them. Now then, with that out of the way, what questions do you have for me?”
“Do you know someone named Khime?”
“Khime, Khime….I don’t believe so, no. While I have met a great many beings, that name is not familiar to me.”
While it was possible the elder was lying to me, whether they knew each other or not was, ultimately, irrelevant. The only reason I asked was to see if they could contact each other and maybe get some answers from Khime instead. After all, he was the reason I was even in this world to begin with.
“Is essence capable of affecting someone’s behavior? As in, will its mere presence or absence affect how one thinks and acts accordingly?”
“....how interesting. Yes, it does have that effect on some beings. In response to your next question, yes, the specific element matters. Earth makes one more resilient and stubborn, while fire induces anger and resentment. Water improves one’s way of thinking, oh how would you humans say it……hmm, flexibility is the closest word I can come up with, while wind increases one’s levels of tolerance. I would hope that you can see a certain pattern forming, Rhaaj.” the dragon intoned.
Indeed, When it was pointed out so blatantly, those effects seemed to practically characterize the races that lived in each continent. I had a hypothesis that being exposed to essence of certain elements may have interfered with my thought processes, which was why I sometimes made rash decisions without thinking too deeply, perhaps even a tad bit impulsively, but maybe I was simply overthinking. Maybe I was always impulsive and the situations I was in just precluded me from acting rationally.
“Are dragons the ancestors of all beastfolk?” I asked next.
“Yes, of course. Is this not common knowledge in the human world?” the dragon responded.
“Not really. It’s something of an old legend that each of the races are descendants of some mythical race from ancient times. Titans, faeries, dragons. There are no living examples, save for dragons, who are reclusive at the best of times, so no one has really put much stock in something that seems like an old story made up to make themselves look more important.”
“Sigh,” the elder’s mental sigh was accompanied by a physical one, as I felt a cold gust bellow at me. “You are not wrong in your assessment of our kind. We have our reasons for our isolation, but I had not thought the effects to be so impactful that the modern world has forgotten their roots and their histories.”
The elder paused for a few moments before continuing his speech. “Those races you described, titans, faeries, dragons. We refer to them as the Progenitors, the first beings who lifted themselves up out of the mire of ignorance and gained true intelligence, becoming truly alive. They too had their own monsters to combat, and though their strength was great and mighty, their numbers were simply too few to sustain themselves in a prolonged war. They died out after a few generations, with dragons having lost much of our numbers since that era. By all accounts, the dragons of the past were far stronger and more wise, discovering the truths of the world that we can only catch mere glimpses of today. Alas, we are but shadows of their greatness, a legacy stuck between the past and the present.”
I wanted to change the topic, as I could see this was something the Elder was…emotional about, but I let him wallow in it for a bit longer before resuming my questioning. If he wanted to sit in the gloom for a bit longer, I wouldn’t deny him….up to a point.
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“When did the dragons become aware of me?” I asked, once I felt enough time had passed that I could move on.
“...we noticed a fluctuation in the planet’s barrier as soon as you arrived on this world. We took note of you, and made sure you weren’t a vorander or a different kind of monster, and simply let you be. Had you not done something that drew attention to yourself, we would have been content to let you live your life however you saw fit. Unfortunately, things don’t always happen as we wish, now do they?”
“I couldn’t agree more,” I glumly agreed. “Then why did you forgive me for my supposed crime and mark me as a friend to the beastfolk? I don’t understand.” All that business with the ash houses seemed like it happened so long ago, but it only felt like that since so much had happened with my ‘training’ since then. If the ash houses were essentially the pride of the beastfolk, why didn’t I just receive an immediate execution, or a trial? From their point of view, it would have been simpler and faster, with much less fuss involved.
“For better or worse, you are simply a…visitor, in this world. I can say with almost absolute certainty that, barring any unforeseen encounters with peril, you will leave this world one way or another. When that time comes, we dragons would rather prefer you have no malice towards us.” The elder spoke with conviction, which meant he had some grounds to speak of the future with such certainty. Time magic was real…I think. Well, soul magic was real, so who’s to say what elements and concepts didn’t have a branch of magic attached to them? Hell, there could be some kind of magical internet that I just didn’t have access to since I lacked the right affinity….or the right knowledge. Before I could go too far down that rabbit hole, I brought myself back to the present, remembering something that seemed trivial at the time, but might have been more important than I knew.
“So, I take it that dragons are something like the protectors of this world? Reela mentioned some odd monster from space that you all were fighting.”
“Sigh, that foolish child needs to learn discretion sooner rather than later. Yes, you are correct in that dragons have taken up the role of this world’s guardians, protecting it from threats that come from beyond its borders.”
“Then why haven’t you eliminated the voranders? Surely if all the dragons are so strong, wiping them out wouldn’t be that hard. It’s almost like you want them to…oh fuck.” I cursed, feeling far more unsafe than I had been a moment ago. “You want them here for some reason, don’t you? Holy shit, no wonder they’re still around. You’re allowing them to do what they do! Holy fuck!”
Voranders were, if not accepted, then tolerated, by the dragons. Yet, it seemed contradictory. Hadn’t I just spent months ‘training’ against the voranders and eradicating their nests? Why would the dragons permit their presence on this world on one hand while also supporting the other races in their fight against the monsters?
The elder’s giant head swiveled to face me, his eyes narrowed in complete focus. “There is knowledge, boy, and then there is wisdom. What you think you know is but one part of a greater truth, which I will not divulge to you. There are some things you truly do not wish to know, and this is among them. Now move on to your next question or I will.”
Sweat fell from my back like raindrops and my teeth chattered involuntarily as I instinctively froze up in fear. I struggled to think of anything with a gigantic dragon head taking up my entire field of vision, but something popped up that I hoped was mild enough in comparison to the previous topic.
“Is it possible to gain affinities later in life that you are not born with?”
Once more, silence followed my question, making me slightly nervous before the elder dispelled that notion with his answer. “Yes.” No follow up or explanation came after that, leaving me unsure if that topic was equally taboo, or if it was just a bleed over from previously.
Nevertheless, I forged onwards. “Is soul magic real?”
“...Yes.” The silence this time was far shorter, as the elder was more forthcoming, yet he revealed his bemusement in his tone. “How do you not know this? You have been using it to tame all those beings.”
WHAT?!
Okay, let me back up a second. I remember the first time, the very first time, I ever tamed something was…oh god, what was that bull’s name? Bully! Okay, so I’m fairly certain I used Khime’s taming spell to tame Bully. That was all I knew at the time. Then there was that battle with the goblin voranders, where I accidentally tamed one just with my essence. The same went for Spearmint, and the werewolf vorander that was trying to eat him. Now, given the nature of soul magic, and that it seemed like a sensitive subject, at least right now, it was probably better if I didn't press the issue. My curiousity was practically eating me alive, but I tamped it down and decided to ask about a pet theory I had regarding the elements.
Well, I guess I knew my next question.
“Can essence have affinities? Is there such a thing as fire essence, water essence….or soul essence?”
The elder’s head, still staring at me head on, slowly transitioned to a smile. One that was even more terrifying than in his more humanoid form, as his fangs were each the size of my entire body.
“Yes.”
Right as I was about to expand on that subject, a dragon flew in from somewhere and hovered in the air, staying aloft by flapping his wings, sending a torrent of dust and debris my way. Thankfully, it wasn’t as large as the elder…but it was large enough to create a mini tornado.
“Elder Dusk, a matter on the border requires your presence!”
The elder got up, and it was evident that he was reluctant to deal with whatever matter required his presence, but he did it anyway, the very image of duty. “Very well. Inform those present that I will be there shortly. As for you,” he said, considering me with his gaze, “...wait with the others. You need lessons more than anything else right now.”
And with that pronouncement, the two dragons phased out of reality while I was teleported back to the garden, with no one else in sight.
“I still had questions, dammit!” I pointlessly shouted into the sky, before the elder’s final words caught up to me. I shuddered at the thought of lessons with the elder. After all, I had seen what his descendant thought lessons should be like. If the first lesson was how to survive in a vorander nest, I would seriously consider just hiding away in my space for a while.