Suma took a deep breath, “It was later dubbed, the Ravaging. The Chaos Dragon swept across the land raining its terrible power across whole continents and killing millions as it rampaged. Its unbridled fury was not just for we Neame though, it had no partiality or bias. It killed animals, plants, insects even. If it drew breath or pulsed with life in any way, shape, or form, it fell before the dragon’s deathly rage.” She stopped for a moment to breathe.
“Did anyone ever find out why?” I asked.
“There were theories, rumors, and myths. Some said it had suffered a terrible childhood due to its possession of Chaos Magic, others say it was simply driven mad, or simply born evil. However, no one alive knows the truth.” She said.
“So, what happened next?” I wondered from my chair made of sculpted vines. We were currently sitting in the room I was renting in the kennel because I decided to live here for a while. I had lost my job back on Earth after leaving for several days without letting anyone know after agreeing to work just hours beforehand. I still had an apartment on Earth, that I was now paying for with gold and silver coins that I get by selling my mana here. Apparently, Chaos Magic makes excellent fuel and fertilizer, so farmers are the ones I deal with mostly, but a few nobles have approached and struck deals with Suma and I as well. All that together meant I was making about five gold coins every few days, and ten silver coins every other day. I decided to get a smaller flat back on Earth and put most of the money into my savings, but by paying with my mana alone I was living it up here in Atmosia; which Suma confirmed is in fact her world’s name.
“The Chaos Dragon went from island to island, coast to coast, killing everything it saw, until what was left of my race put together as large an army as we could manage to beat the beast back.” She said.
“Did that work?”
“For a time, but all it had to do was run away and heal, and with each attack our forces dwindled ever smaller. According to the stories, many had resigned to death, and went home to die with what was left of their loved ones.”
“Dang…” I shook my head.
“In the end it had wiped out over eighty percent of life on Atmosia.” She added.
“So how did you all win?”
“No one really knows.” She said.
“What? A dragon kills eighty percent of your world, and no one knows what happened to it; how is that possible?” I asked astonished.
“One day it just disappeared, and no one ever found out what happened to it. Maybe the army did more damage than it could heal from in one of their battles, maybe it was just old, or maybe it depleted its strength too much and since there was not much food left, it could not find anything to eat. However, the truth was lost centuries ago.” She explained.
“What do you believe?” I asked.
“Well,” She started, “I always believed that the Hero Mage, Ambos, was the one to defeat the beast.”
“Hero Mage?” I wondered.
“It is simply an old story. Back then, there was supposed to be this hero named Ambos, he apparently had a familiar with an attribute for Chaos Magic as well.” She told me.
“Woah really?” I said surprised. “Was it a human?”
“No, it was a Viking of all things.” She said to my surprise. I didn’t know how to respond. Another human, centuries ago, was going through exactly what I’m going through now. It was surreal to say the least.
“I am surprised the Viking did not turn on Ambos and side with the dragon.” Suma joked.
“Vikings were fearsome, and I’m sure many of them could be described as evil, but they weren’t crazy, and they didn’t want the death of an entire world.” I said.
“Maybe….” Suma said. “So, what do you know about them? The Vikings I mean.”
“Quite a bit more than you I imagine. I studied them in school on several occasions as a part of curriculum.” I explained.
“Really?” She sounded surprised. “They were always such a mystery to us; we had no way to understand them after all.”
“My people could,” I told her. That got her attention.
“What?! How did you manage that?” She wondered.
“My people are good with languages.” I lied.
“So, what did they want?”
“Money, supplies, slaves, anything they could fit on their ships really.” I said.
“They took your people as slaves?” She said astounded. “They never did that with my people.”
“To be fair, your people are rather small compared to mine.” I joked.
“Yes, I suppose that is true, but why would that matter?”
“They probably didn’t think you would be much use, or more likely they didn’t have anyone or anywhere to bring you back to. They would bring the slaves back to their bases or sell them off to anyone who would buy them. On my world, slavery was fairly common back then, so it couldn’t have been difficult to find someone.” I explained.
“I see.” She said. “Jake, the Vikings… what did they look like?” She asked that a bit suspiciously.
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
“Why do you ask?” I tried to say calmly.
“…It is nothing; never mind. Just an unusual thought.” She said quietly. “But, how do your people know so much about them? I mean I get that you learned their language, but still… you would have had to talk to them. They were powerful Chaos Mages, and you said that your world does not have magic. So…?”
“Well, we captured some, since magic doesn’t work on my world, they were just normal people.” I said, then realized what just came out of my mouth and prayed Suma didn’t realize it too.
“Jake,” she said seriously, “what do you mean normal people?”
I groaned internally at my own stupidity. “Oh, you know… I just meant,” my mind started to fritz and go blank, “I just meant that they didn’t have magic, so they were only as strong as… um…” At this point, Suma cut me off.
“Jake,” she said seriously and in a hushed whisper, as if someone might hear, even though we were alone. “Are you a Viking?”
“No,” I said quickly, I sighed and gave up. “Well, not technically anyway.” I ran a hand through my hair and tried to organize my thoughts. “I am however the same species as them, but the Vikings were a culture that died out centuries ago. I’m as much a Viking as you are a member of the Southern Union.”
“I knew it,” she exclaimed quietly.
“You knew… how?” I asked disbelievingly.
“Well, it was not a difficult stretch, though I suppose it is more accurate to say I suspected rather than knew.” She explained. “Between your unbelievable levels of mana, and your natural affinity for Chaos Magic, it was obvious.”
“Was that really all it took?” I asked dumbfounded.
“Well, no. Do you remember the other day when I summoned you and told you we were in my parent’s house?” She said as if she were about to admit to something she shouldn’t have done.
“Yeah,” I said hesitantly.
“Well, it was actually the home of a local historian. I asked him a few questions about the Vikings and everything he told me lined up with what I had seen you do.” She confessed.
“You’ve suspected for that long? That was almost two weeks ago.” I pointed out. “So how do you feel about it?”
“At first,” she sighed and took a deep breath, “I was shocked of course, but really I was caught off guard and wondered why you did not tell me. But then I remembered the first time I told you about them, and everything I said, and I could not blame you.”
“Yeah, you really hate them,” I agreed. “I get it though; Vikings were a scourge on my world too. They were regarded as one of the most fearsome and dangerous people to ever walk the Earth, and they only died out due to cultural shifts, disease, and a few too many losses in battle. If they did half the things on your world that they did on mine, then I get how they became so hated.”
“I want you to know… this does not affect our partnership. You have nothing in common with them. You have been kind... unreasonably kind, and it is like you said, you have as much in common with Vikings as I do with the Southern Union.” She finished, or I thought she was finished, but she immediately flew over to the doorway and cast a spell to open it. She flew back inside carrying a wooden plank. “I said all that to say this. Jake… I trust you with my life, and with good reason; you have saved me several times now. And I will continue to trust you through this.” She floated the plank over to me and I reached out and grabbed it.
I still don’t know how the translation thing works, but I know it doesn’t work on things that are written down. “What does it say?” I asked looking it over. It had one thing that I recognized, the seal of the royal crown. I had seen it at the guard stations as well as the citadel and the sanctum.
“It is a call to duty… I am being summoned to participate in the war as a battlefield healer.”
Needless to say, if Suma was going to war, then so was I. “When do we leave?” I asked.
“Two weeks from now.” She said somberly.
“So soon?” I said amazed.
“Well, I have been in waiting for several months longer than I have known you. In reality, I am surprised it took this long.” She said.
“I guess… so what do we need to do? Before we go, I mean.” I wondered.
“Well, all battlefield healers are required to appear before a council of experts to prove that they are actually healers, but other than that the only preparations we have to do are the ones we want to do.” She told me.
“Why do you need to prove you are a healer?” I questioned.
“Because healers are less likely to be sent to dangerous areas, and there have been instances of Neame who tried to pretend to be healers in order to avoid combat.” She explained.
“Oh yeah, that makes sense.” I said. I started making a list of things I wanted to have before we shipped out. I wanted to get the rest of my armor from the blacksmith, I had already collected the chest plate and arm guards, so now all that was left was the helmet and the legs. I had also already had Aegis and Destiny repaired as well, so I didn’t need to worry about that.
“Jake,” Suma said interrupting my train of thought, “have you already had your weapons infused with runes like you wanted yet?”
“Not yet, I guess I need to do that too.” I realized.
“The reason I ask is because I think I know someone who may be able to help.”
“Really, who?” I asked interested and surprised.
“It is a woman who was there at the citadel the same day I was there; we were both officially registering our names that day.” She explained.
“Do you remember who she was?” I asked.
“No, but I do know where we can find out. Records of every named Neame are stored in the city’s library. I could go try and find it there.” She suggested.
“Don’t worry about it, I can go myself.” I said not wanting to make her go out of her way.
“I am sorry Jake, but I do not think that will be possible. It is just that familiars are prohibited entirely from the building by royal decree. They will not let you in.” She explained and I sighed in disappointment. I felt a bit bad about making Suma do an errand for me, but there was nothing that could be done.
Suma and I talked a little while longer about what we would be expected to do during our tour of duty, and what kind of treatment I would most likely receive. Apparently, all familiars are required to be under the Rite of Dominance, so we would need to keep up an act while we were there. Also, we came up with a plan to increase Suma’s effectiveness in healing by buying several daljar and having me place them under a summoning spell. The reason for this was that if Suma needed extra mana, she could get it from a daljar, which nullifies all alignments and affinities as soon as it enters it. This would enable her to draw on my mana as a backup, without killing anyone. We tested this by borrowing a daljar from the Neame who I was renting a room from, and then cutting my hand. I couldn’t tell a difference, but according to Suma it felt like her magic was turbo charged.
After we finished talking, Suma flew to the library and searched for the information, while I went to the blacksmith and checked on the rest of my order. “Hello?” I called out upon entering the storefront.
“Sir Jake? Is that you?” His voice echoed from the back.
“Yes sir.”
“Come to the back room, I have something I think you will want to see...” He shouted. I walked through the doorway and saw on a nearby table the finished helmet and leg armor, but on the other side of the forge was the elderly Neame blacksmith standing beside a glowing red-hot weapon fresh from the forge. I recognized what it was immediately by the shape.
“So, what do you think? I am making it special just for you; no charge.” He said as he carefully laid the burning hot weapon down. “I realized that weight wasn’t as much of an issue for you since you are so large yourself, so I thought maybe you should have a weapon that reflected that. I designed this to maximize that to your advantage. It has two ends,” he said and fluttered up to the side of the weapon and gestured to the parts he was talking about. “This end is blunt and good for brute-force. The other I added a cone of sorts, like I did with your spear, but I reinforced it and made it a good deal thicker so it could withstand heavier blows.” After he finished saying all this, he activated one of the runes on the side of the table, and the weapon cooled off enough to pick up instantly. “So, what do you think?”