Ominek swam lazily just outside the star’s gravitic pull. He’d arrived at this meeting a little early because he’d always enjoyed sun bathing this star. The radiation and spectra it gave off always warmed his scales unlike any other.
He rolled slightly, exposing his grey underbelly to the star. His guest would arrive shortly, and he wanted to make the most of what little spare time he could afford. The war against the Federation had proceeded apace. The loss on Hidros however, set them back frustratingly. Morwen and that damned sealed mage. Twice he’d met defeat by the crimson-haired warrior. A thorn in his side, he intended to pluck free with the result of this meeting.
A void portal opened in the shadow of a nearby planetoid, disgorging a massive white scaled air dragon. She stretched her impressive wings out and roared casually. Though space had no air to carry the sound, the ambient aether did so just as adequately. Ominek felt his own scales rattle, and the tingle of challenge gave him a thrill.
The air dragon approached languidly, a hint of caution in her body language. Ominek tensed slightly. This meeting could go either way, and if it fell to violence? Well, he would be a fool to hold his ground.
“Ominek. I almost dismissed your request on principle,” she said, with no hint of disgust.
“Ashkatoph, you wound me. We are former mates, after all.”
The white scaled dragon sniffed, small bolts of lightning huffed from her nostrils. Her sky-blue eyes narrowed, and electrical storms played across them. She pulled up just short of him. Not quite in melee striking range, but close enough he would be hard pressed to avoid any spells she cast.
“Make no mistake, slave. I’m here because you mentioned the death of a dragon close to me.”
Ashkatoph was old enough and powerful enough that he respected her as an imminent enough threat not to waste her time. There was no need for trickery or subterfuge, and in this case, honesty was his best weapon. He wasn’t against letting the truth work for him when it could. Even though it was such a rare thing.
“The Federation has slain my brother Telmok, Ashkatoph.”
System Info: Negotiation check: Fail
Inwardly, he sighed, no matter. That was simply the opening gambit. He rolled over, sunning his backside and presenting her with his stomach and neck. A sign of submission. He was making himself vulnerable to her. If she decided to him here and now? She’d have little difficulty succeeding.
Ashkatoph’s wings fluttered several times. She was getting annoyed with him. Her head lowered, and Ominek’s stomach muscles tightened. He prayed she wasn’t about to strike.
“I have little care for your brothers, Ominek. You’re all just slaves and thieves, anyway.”
He sniffed at the barbs. None of it was technically false, so he let the matter slide and pressed the only piece of information he knew she’d care about.
“Not the mewling hatchlings or children. Your rival.”
System Info: Negotiation check: Success
Her eyes went wide with rage for a moment. A massive roar filled the solar system. Clouds shifted on planets. Dust stirred around them, slowly expanding in all directions. It blew a solar flare back into the sun.
“NO,” she bellowed.
“This cannot stand. We never settled our duel! I’ll never know if I was truly stronger,” she mused, as she swam in agitated circles. It was like watching someone pace frantically.
“It was the Federation. A captain named Morwen of Aeryn, and her forces. And did you know there’s even a dragon rider among them?”
“A WHAT?!”
Ominek prostrated himself in as non-threatening a position as he could manage. Ashkatoph, however, rampaged. She writhed and howled. Lightning bolts the size of planets blew the entire solar system to dust and debris. He carefully positioned himself to avoid any of it. He allowed himself a discreet grin. He was banking the news of the kin slayer would be the final straw.
“This had best not be another of your deceptions, Ominek.”
He held his hands up in a gesture of innocence. “Scry me if you must. Enchant me to tell no lies if you like. But the news I give is nothing but truth.”
Ashkatoph wasted no time in casting several spells. A truth shackle being the last of them. The silver and white spell punched through his chest scales in a cloud of aether. She’d now bound him to only the truth. No deceptions or lies, lest he be seized in a storm of electricity.
System Info: Debuf applied: Truth Shackle. Any information presented as a lie or falsehood must success a Difficulty Threshold 5 Negotiation Check. Duration lasts as long as the AP is committed to the spell.
“The federation forces on Hidros killed my brother, and a Kin slayer flies among them.”
Ashkatoph’s eyes narrowed to slits. Then she turned away in thought for a moment. Already he could see her mind working along with the possibilities his father predicted. And now the final piece to play.
He cast the prophecy spell if father gave him; the images played out for Ashkatoph. The air dragon for her part looked deeply scandalized, as he’d suspected she would. Kin slayers were more than just a taboo among dragonkin. They were abhorrent reminders of a dark past. One that even his father neglected to share with him. Still, if it enabled his schemes, he didn’t need to know the history to benefit from it in the present.
“This cannot stand. We must bring the kinslayer to justice.”
Ominek pointed a talon to the prophecy spell still playing. It showed Morwen and her troops on Aeryn before eventually taking off in a ship that looked barely capable of spaceflight. He attempted to not laugh at it. Being the second time he’d viewed this, he managed greater success the second time.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“As you can see, they will remain on Aeryn for several months before finally departing aboard this craft.”
Ashkatoph frowned. Her head leaned close to study the prophecy. She purred deeply in thought. Her arms folding, and a few talons tapping at her scales thoughtfully.
“I can’t attack them on Aeryn. While the Elves are just insignificant tree huggers, it wouldn’t do to upset the entire population.”
“Then perhaps an ambush in space. When they are departing. A craft such as that doesn’t appear capable of offering you too much trouble. They’ll lack the battleship that felled my brother.”
She approached him, coiling around him in a show of dominance. A subconscious part of him wanted to panic, but he subdued the instinct.
“And killing these little mortals would help service you and your body jacking cohorts. Wouldn’t it?” Ashkatoph crooned.
“This is true. Morwen and her people set us back deeply. A campaign for the sector that could have ended this year will now take decades.”
The sun glinted off her snow white scales. There was even enough light to make out the light blue striped pattern along her back. Her wings fluttered several times as she stretched them out. It was, as always, a sight he took much pleasure in admiring.
They were an odd pair. Occasionally Enemies. Occasionally mates. She knew he was a Sauridius. In another life, another time, perhaps they could have stayed mates and stayed happy. But the dragons didn’t view the Sauridius any more favorably than they did kinslayers.
“I’ve missed you,” he said.
She eyed him curiously. Her truth shackling was still in effect. “Have you now? And why is that Ominek?”
“There is little in my life that brings me any joy. Being a Sauridius, my life’s purpose is to bring my god back into being. I am but a tool. But with you? I felt like I could be more than that. Perhaps was more than that.”
He disliked being this vulnerable with anyone. But if he had to be vulnerable, he was glad it would be with her. There was even a part of him that felt bad about manipulating her into this attack. There was a level of risk it put her in. Possibilities existed where she failed her attack.
“Oh Ominek,” Ashkatoph sighed. A moment of silence settled in between them. Unspoken feelings lingering just at the edge of words. She settled in closer to him, getting more comfortable. They lay in stars’ light, bathing in its radiation as the debris of a shattered solar system drifted around them.
Aeryn
Ominek and Ashkatoph parted ways in the umbral shadow of Aeryn’s moon as Ominek soared into its astral side. He approached the planet on the opposite side of Aeryn’s capital. This portion of the world is a stark contrast to the inhabited side. All rock, dust and barren wastes. It lay unprotected by the small life sustaining shield that protected the capital. As a result, it saw less activity and allowed him to stealth infiltrate the world far easier.
“For too long have you tree children existed unmolested,” he said as the atmosphere buffeted against his scales, super heating them and turning them a dull hot orange. He turned to give Ashkatoph one last look before the glow of reentry made her too hard to see.
While he hoped to see her again, he knew putting her in play the way he had meant risking her loss. He questioned if that risk was truly worth it. Ultimately, his father demanded it though. Morwen had to be stopped, so all possible measures were being brought into play. His father had stressed that failure to succeed at this would mean placing his own life at great risk.
The heat of reentry faded finally and wove a quick transformation spell, turning into a raven. He followed this with a quick invisibility spell and a portal spell. On the other side of the portal, he emerged in the skies above Aeryn’s capital. Below him, the elves all went about their daily lives.
Somewhere down below, his enemies were going about their tedious existences. He turned himself and swooped down on the ground. At the last possible moment, he released the raven spell and morphed into his human form. Straightening his suit and tidying up his hair. Satisfied his appearance was suitable, he emerged from the bushes onto a walking trail in a park area. Glancing up to the sun, he smiled.
“It’s going to be a good day,” he mused.
As he strolled among the populace, a smug smile adorned his features. They did not know a dread worm was prowling among them. All these uptight nobles worried about themselves and nothing else. This planet was rotting, and he was going to end this world.
He turned off another path and found himself on a barely used portion of the trail. The designated meeting point he’d given his contact. He wove a few quick void runes and opened a portal large enough for a squad of hatchlings to emerge from. The hatchlings took up covering positions around him in the bushes and in the trees.
A few minutes later, footsteps could be heard approaching. An elegantly dressed male elf emerged from the brush. His auburn hair was neatly parted, and his brown eyes and tan skin complimented the soft angles of his face. It made looking down his nose appear even easier than necessary. Ominek imagined he was the type to be insufferable around. Were it not for the soul shackling he’d applied.
“Bold of you to come here again, Ominek. You risk much in potentially exposing me,” Allosius Rayshe said.
Ominek sneered at the man. “It must pain you so to see me here. Now then, let’s get the formalities out of the way quickly, shall we?”
He wove a quick scry spell and cast it to Rayshe. The Shackling runes glowed in the wispy soul aether above Rayshe’s forehead. Ominek nodded approvingly. He could never take the chance that his best agent was discovered and freed without his knowledge.
“Satisfied?” Rayshe said haughtily.
“Not yet,” Ominek said. “I have some tasks for you. First, there’s a special item I need you to retrieve.” He smirked. “A party favor. I believe it’s locked away in your magical archives in the restricted access section. It’s an amulet that nullifies spells cast by the wearer. Find it and bring it to me. Second, I want you to reach out to the ArchPriest’s paramour and invite her to a party. I believe the two of you are familiar with each other, so the task shouldn’t prove too difficult. Once you have her, do whatever you need to do in order to administer this.”
He reached into a pocket and pulled a small vial out full of black liquid. Small green motes of aether drifted lethargically within.
“You mean to poison Lucinda,” Rayshe stated.
Ominek couldn’t stifle the grin at the irony. This was all too delicious. “Yes! Precisely. Who better to deliver the coup de gras to my biggest threat here besides the ArchPriest himself than her former lover? Once you’ve administered the poison, notify me at once.”
If the idea caused Rayshe any discomfort, his expression didn’t convey it. Perhaps the only act of defiance he could muster. Or perhaps that bridge had been so thoroughly burned that he was open to the idea. A flock of birds fluttered up through the trees and the two men went silent for a moment. Once no further sounds continued, their conversation resumed.
Rayshe extended a hand, and Ominek gave him the poison. “You risk much drawing me out like this. With Morwen’s trial slated to begin soon, there are more eyes on me than normal.”
Ominek smirked, “About that. I’m sure you would have anyway, but I want you to press for her execution during her trial. After all, she is a war criminal. Saving that pathetic little colony shouldn’t be a reprieve for disobeying orders and murdering a noble son.”
Rayshe’s eye twitched at that, and Ominek swelled with amusement. If the Noble could have, Ominek was certain Rayshe would have thrashed about as violently as Ashkatoph did when he broke the news of his brother’s murder to her. Rayshe’s rage would have to settle for smoldering and subtle.
“Now go scurry along before your fellow tree people come looking for you,” Ominek said with a dismissive gesture. “And do return when you’ve got the amulet.” Rayshe spun on his heels and left without another word, leaving Ominek to himself with the hatchlings in the brush. A cold grin played at his lips. He was going to gut this world and bring it to its knees. And in doing so, he was going to take everything from Morwen. His pound of flesh would have interest attached.