Chapter 83 - Expose the Truth
The dragon let the statement hang in the air for a good ten or twenty seconds as it stared down at us like a predatory bird that happened across a nest of mice. It only flapped its wings two or three times, which I still found disconcerting. A living thing that size had no business flying, much less doing it so effortlessly. With every flap, the wind battered us hard, seemingly to make up for that discrepancy.
I cast a brief glance over at our Sissa, who looked as shocked as everyone else in the fort, but I could see the calculations running behind our dragon expert’s expression. A heartbeat later, she stepped forward and bowed her head as if she were in prayer and pressing her hands together in front of her body.
“Old one,” Sissa said somberly. “It pleases us all greatly that you have come to honor the pact you have made with our father.” The words had an air of formality to them, like this was something she knew how to do but had never done.
The dragon didn’t answer immediately, choosing to let Sissa sit there with her head bowed and posed in supplication. Perhaps it was waiting for the rest of us to do the same, or it was ignoring everything except for the immediate carrying out of its orders, for the sisters to bring forth the human. When none of that happened, however, the dragon allowed itself to finally drift downward and land lightly outside the fortress walls, just across the spike trench.
It was easily able to see above the walls without having to even stretch, and its serpentine neck allowed its head to pass over the battlements to eye all of us one after the other. Its massive, taloned foot that it set over our entrenchment snapped our stakes in half, and the air crackled like logs in a fire even though I felt no heat.
What’s worse was the eyes, great, golden things with stars for pupils, just like Sissa and Samila. The familiarity disturbed me. On the sisters it looked exotic and striking, but on this thing, I simply wished they were turned somewhere else. They burned with intensity that pinned you in place when you looked directly into them. They saw things, things inside of you that it shouldn’t.
A memory of Mom flashed through my mind, and I got the irrational feeling we really should have cleaned up better if we were going to meet a god today.
For my part, I did my best to look small and… not human like. Unsuccessfully. I also couldn’t help but eye the nearest exit, which was right there at the front of the fort, as it always had been. Where I would go if I needed to run, I didn’t know.
Once it had landed and given us all the once over, it finally acknowledged Sissa. The voice spoke in my head again, this time at a manageable level.
“Greetings, blood of Tsumlestora. It has pleased me to come when our home has need, as well as to provide aid to my kin’s progeny. It also comes as no surprise to find Tsumlestora’s spawn poised atop a once in an age confluence of events. From his noble line, I would expect no less.”
Well, that sounded nice, though the words still rattled around in my skull to the point of distraction. Despite the power and intimidation factor, it said it was here to help. Maybe there was hope for us after all.
Sissa hadn’t stopped bowing, seemingly unwilling to look the dragon in the eye either out of fear or decorum. “We thank you, old one. Though we have no way to appreciate the sacrifice you are making to come here, we acknowledge your presence in our time of need and your swift response.” The last part was a question phrased as a compliment. The dragonkin sisters’ dad, Tsumlestora I guessed, had specifically told us we couldn’t trust who they sent, and we’d hoped to get me out of here before their arrival so as not to give the dragons the opportunity to do something they’d regret. Now, though, we were at this thing’s mercy, because it had arrived early and spoiled our not-so-well-laid plans.
The dragon didn’t take the bait, though. Maybe conversational cues weren’t as much of a thing in dragon culture. Instead, it issued more commands, this time more politely. “I advise you to ready yourselves with haste. I sense a goeshi nearby, and it is fate or good fortune that you have not drawn its ire thus far. Quickly, mortals. You should already be moving.”
I saw Sissa frown as she thought through her next words. “I don’t know that word, but if you mean the giant that breathes fire, yes, we have seen it. It appears to only harm the infected.”
Our savior made a sound that emanated from its stomach and echoed through its long, serpentine throat before finally arriving as a rough trill.
“Goeshi are simple creatures, born of a desperate loathing few ever experience, young one. It has no room in its soul for anything but hatred. If it has seen you and spared you, it was not out of mercy but a greater desire to destroy others first,” the dragon said. It spared a quick glance over its shoulder for the empty forest. Hot air puffed from its nostrils that left clear pockets in the fog. “Now move, mortals. The goeshi roams nearby. The creatures that stalk you even nearer. My pact is for your safe retreat, and I honor it to the letter. If you do not do as I instruct, you will be leaving without your provisions.”
Trix caught my eye, making a show of shouldering his rifle and securing his bandolier. He looked from me to the dragon meaningfully, and I gave him the slightest of shrugs. I made no move to pack up my stuff. The plan was for me to stay behind after all.
When I looked up. The dragon was already there, its long neck craned into the fort and directly above me, staring intently.
The moment was finally here.
Taking a breath, I straightened up and stared back, not nearly as confident as I was trying to project but also not willing to do the bowing thing Sissa was doing. We didn’t do that back home, and I figured starting now would look awkward and disingenuous. Better to project strength and honesty than a false obsequience.
“Transient being. Human,” it said, drawing out the last word as if pronouncing a punishment. The weight of the dragon’s presence stole the oxygen from my lungs and hung heavily on my shoulders. It lowered its head until it was close enough to brush my clothes and flicked its tongue. Its scales gave off a strange heat, a sort of ghost sensation of being too near a fire, but it didn’t hurt so much as conjure images all the times I’d ever been burned.
“It is for you that I have awakened,” the dragon proclaimed.
I nodded, swallowing uncomfortably. “I suspected as much,” I said.
“Old one,” Sissa called, repositioning herself to stand at my side. “May I introduce you to our friend, Ryan. It is with his help that we are saving Ralqir.”
“Indeed,” the dragon replied, not taking its eyes from mine. “It is good to know its name.”
Not knowing what else to say, I simply went with what I thought was polite. “It’s good to meet you- Uh. Sorry, I’m not from here. I don’t know your name,” I asked.
“Myss,” it breathed, brand hot directly into my mind.
“Then it’s good to meet you, Myss. Thank you for coming to help my friends. I will remember you,” I probed.
“I am sure you will,” Myss replied. “You and I have much to speak on, human.”
Well, this was going well so far. It seemed hellbent on honoring its pact and saving my friends, and it hadn’t tried to kill me. That was more than I could say for half of the things I’d met on Ralqir so far.
But my short but nightmarish experience with the wretchwyrm under Eclipse had taught me a few things.
“So, when you say you woke up for me, one might interpret that statement’s meaning as I was the cause of all of this, and that’s why you awakened. Another interpretation could be that you roused and came here specifically for me.”
Conservative estimates from Sissa’s father put the dragon’s arrival sometime in the next couple days. To arrive a full forty-eight hours early, it had to have gone above and beyond a normal effort, probably using magic, and, according to Sissa and Samila, dragons couldn’t replenish their magic now that Ralqir was in the maelstrom. Whatever the dragon did to get here, it probably came at great cost. That meant it was either very concerned for another dragon’s offspring, or it had other plans.
The dragon didn’t answer my question. Its face was inscrutable. I guessed I needed to be more direct.
I set my jaw and readied myself for… well, anything. I was about to accuse a god of doing something untoward. “And, unless I miss my guess, you don’t plan on letting me go.”
Samila came up beside me now, opposite Sissa on my other shoulder. She had her armor donned and her pack on her back now, but her sword was conspicuously on her hip and the retention strap unfastened.
“Would that be entirely against your wishes, Ryan?” It said my name as if tasting it, its tongue flicking, very lizard-like.
“Old one, we traveled light. We have all we need to make the trip. If you would allow us to say our goodbyes to our friend, we can leave whenever you wish.” Poor Sissa still held out hope that this was going to end well, or she was prompting the dragon to come out and state its true intentions.
When Myss and I just tried to stare each other down, Samila finally broached the subject directly.
“The two of you just met, and she’s already planning your eternity together. What is it with you, Ryan?” Samila asked.
“MacGuffin problems,” I said.
Myss chuffed and bared her teeth but didn’t necessarily take the bait. “I do not wish to force you to do anything, human. I wish to give you an alternate path.”
That doesn’t exactly preclude forcing, though. Does it?
I raised an eyebrow. “But you will force me if you have to. You’ll force me to stay here.”
Again, the dragon didn’t reply directly, but I got the distinct impression that the answer was a ‘yes.’
Sissa spoke up again. “Old one, Ryan is set on going back where he came from for the good of our home, despite great risk to himself, and he’s gone to great lengths to get as far as he has. I implore you to reconsider. Perhaps even aid us in getting him home.”
The dragon didn’t acknowledge her, yet again. “I sense that you have considered walking this path already. Perhaps what has kept you from choosing it fully was fear of failure or perhaps guilt at having been the cause of so much suffering, but I absolve you of those feelings. You may put them down and leave them behind. Stay. Be at peace. Keep your new friends. Save my kin. You can do all of these things simply by coming with me and accepting my help. Do these things not appeal to you?”
They did. They really, really did. The prospect of being able to stay in a place I was wanted in this new life I’d begun, maybe go on a date with Samila, read books with Trix next to a fire in an inn somewhere, become a practitioner and go to university under Jassin. Maybe I’d learn how to keep the System from doing what it was doing to me.
All of it was possible. Myss’s offer was everything I’d ever wanted. A home. Friendship. Acceptance. It even stuck the idea of heroism and saving an entire species as a little cherry on top.
But I knew better. Things were never so simple. No one was going to come along and fix all of your problems, not without incurring some kind of cost.
Sissa spoke for me. “Ryan believes that the longer he stays here, the more the wound to our reality festers. From what I’ve seen, his theory appears true. If Ryan stays, there will be terrible consequences.”
The dragon did turn to meet Sissa’s eyes this time, and its tone ran hot with anger. “Of course. The consequences of his species’ meddling in places that they should not are all around us, spawn. This fetid wasteland is testament to that. The rotting corpse of a once beautiful thing, only fit to experience through dreams and lesser incarnations of ourselves,” Myss hissed, teeth bared. “The very blood that flows through your veins cries out at how low his meddling has brought us. I simply ask this one to meddle further, until all can be put right.”
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
Sissa bristled at the slight on her parentage, but she kept her cool. Samila seemed less inclined to let the statements pass. She took a step forward with what would have been a threatening manner to any mortal being, but I surreptitiously put out a hand to keep her from doing more. I didn’t like where this was going, but I also needed to be sure.
“Much has happened since you went to sleep, old one,” Sissa insisted through clenched teeth. “The people of Ralqir have found a way to thrive even under the maelstrom’s light. We have harnessed magic, built great things. They even say we are in the midst of a golden age, despite our current troubles.”
Myss’s lip curled into a disdainful sneer. “I will forgive you this impudence this time, spawn, because you were not there.” Myss warned. “But speak to me again of mortal golden ages while our people wither away in their dreams, and you will regret it.”
Ever the diplomat, Trix raised a paw. “Sergeant Sissa didn’t mean to cause offense, I’m sure,” he squeaked. “What she was trying to say was that we have moved forward as best we can in your absence. The Church and the Empire have lifted-”
“Silence!” the dragon commanded. Its eyes flashed, and Trix fell flat to the floor, pinned. He trembled as something invisible but very real pressed him down into the stone, his little chest heaving as he fought to breathe, and I could hear him gasp with obvious pain. “I barely tolerate impertinence from the spawn of my kin, but not from you, the pathetic supplicant of a usurper faith.”
Tiba rushed over to Trix and tried to help him up, but whatever was forcing him down to the ground couldn’t be resisted. She grunted with effort, pulling with all of her might, but Trix couldn’t rise. Tiba’s guards tried to help as well to no avail, and Tiba grew more desperate with every passing second. Wild goblin curses flew from her mouth, and she snarled at the dragon.
Then like a switch had been flipped, Myss’ voice was back to calm and gentle. “I would hear the human speak now.”
But I couldn’t take my eyes off Trix. His little eyes pleaded with me. Realizing she was powerless to help, Tiba finally stopped pulling and got down on her belly, whispering comforting words into Trix’s ear as she stroked his fur. I wondered how much of it Trix understood.
That cold feeling had come over me again
Geddon’s heavy footsteps clomped up behind me, and a big hand rested on my shoulder, giving it a squeeze. I derived a little strength from that.
“You know,” I began. “Trix proposed that I stay too.” My voice was calm and steady, and this time I felt it. My uncertainty had died an untimely death.
The dragon just regarded me, inscrutable as it casually tortured my friend. It didn’t have to say anything did it? It had showed me the carrot. Now I was getting the stick. Myss was smart enough not to go directly into harming me. She somehow knew my soft spot was the others. The message was that, even if I didn’t want to cooperate, she could make me do it, and she didn’t even have to take direct action against me.
Well, that settled it, didn’t it?
“That’s enough, Myss,” I said.
Trix groaned, lifting up one claw to reach for us.
“That’s enough!”
Suddenly, the weight upon Trix lifted, and the vulpa gulped greedily at the air. Tiba let out a relieved sob.
Myss tilted her head and flicked her tongue. “We understand each other then. Decide now, human.”
My glassy pond was back. The cracks had been smoothed over, but I knew they were still there. “You want to secure my cooperation, you’re going about it wrong.”
“Am I? I give you everything you want and promise suffering if refused. It could not be a simpler choice.”
A chorus of screams echoed around the courtyard, this time from the goblins. They were all forced to the ground now under Myss’ magic.
The dragonkin sisters had had enough too, spreading out as they did when they took on the ignarog. They hadn’t drawn steel yet, but from the hard looks in their eyes, they were a heartbeat away from throwing down.
The dragon didn’t seem to care, though. It followed them all with its eyes and ‘smiled’ imperiously, but it took no action against them. Of course it didn’t. They were children of another dragon. Torture was for mortals.
Myss was pressuring me, trying to throw me off balance and get me to accept her terms based on my emotions, but what she had done by going after Trix and Tiba was quite the opposite. She had recategorized herself from ‘unknown’ and slid right into the “enemy” list in my mind, and I was running out of mercy for my enemies.
Step one: Distract.
“An exchange of truths,” I declared.
Everyone currently on their feet stopped, even the dragon. All eyes turned to me.
I took a couple steps forward until I was nearly in grabbing distance of the dragon’s horns.
“I propose an exchange of truths,” I repeated.
Myss eyed me dubiously. “My words are always true.”
I put on a look of mild contempt and leaned forward until the phantom heat was almost unbearable. My skin felt like I was, at once, on fire and frostbitten. “I don’t believe you,” I said.
The dragon’s eyes narrowed. “Careful, child. I will not-”
“I think you need me to cooperate to bring back your age of dragons,” I interrupted the god. “Otherwise you’d have already snatched me up and been done with it. Or maybe you’re uncertain how you’ll be able to do that and fulfill your pact at the same time.”
“Perhaps,” she replied. “Perhaps it is preferable you cooperate to avoid wasted time.”
“An exchange of truths,” I repeated, stepping away from the dragon and beginning to circle around it, forcing it to follow me with its head. “During our exchange, no harm will come to any of these people or to me. Afterward, do with me what you think is best.”
“This is pointless,” she hissed. “I can already do as I wish.”
“What he asks is already something you give, old one,” Sissa said guardedly, her eyes flicking from me to Myss and back. I could tell she suspected I was making a play here, and she was trying to work out what it was. “Then it costs you nothing, while he gives you something. Tradition also demands the request be honored.”
“Do not lecture me on tradition, spawn! I know the old ways!” Myss snarled before whipping its head over to me again. “What are you doing, human?”
I took another step, this time onto the stairs, taking two at a time. “If we’re going to exchange words as equals-”
“Do not mistake my desire for your cooperation with equality. I would crush you with a thought.”
“Except you can’t,” I said. “You need me, and I need you. Plus, I like to look people in the eye when we speak.” I took another big step up toward the battlements before a pressure built in my chest. Something took hold of me and squeezed what would be my heart, but my insides were made of stronger stuff nowadays. The weight of it pressed on me, but it wasn’t nearly so bad as I had imagined. I grunted, staggered, nearly fell from the stairs, but took another laborious step anyway.
Status gained: Suppressed (partial)
I was short of breath, but I kept the words flowing. I had to sell this.
“And I’m willing to bet little tantrums like that are costing you, Myss. I have it on good authority your magic doesn’t really play well with the maelstrom… sort of like mine. Unlike me, though, you don’t have another universe drip feeding you power. You’re finite. Have been since the Dark Lord showed you how it’s done and saved Ralqir for you.”
I took another step and another until my head crested the lip of the battlements. The presence that wrapped itself around my chest relented slightly as I came fully onto the walls for the first time since we’d seen Kuul. The smoke and lingering fog obscured most of the forest, though I could see open flames directly outside the sunlight circle that had protected us from the scourge.
Kuul was nowhere to be seen, but…
I turned to find the dragon’s face inches from my own.
“An exchange of truths. No one gets hurt. Then it’s up to you,” I said, careful not to let my eyes give anything away.
Smoke billowed from her nostrils as she thought for a long tencount.
“You will assist us in bringing back the natural order,” Myss predicted.
“I might have,” I said with a nod. “Before you showed me how cruel you are willing to be. Now, it’s a toss-up. Convince me.”
“Done,” Myss growled. In the courtyard, the others gasped as they were let go and allowed to breathe again.
Deception is now level 6.
“Begin,” the dragon commanded.
“What would be involved in helping you save your dragons?” I asked, purposefully raising my voice so that everyone could hear me, projecting for maximum volume.
“As your predecessor was used to bring us here, we will use you to send us back,” she said.
“That’s not an acceptable answer. Tell me more,” I demanded.
“There is no more to tell.”
“Bullshit.” I raised a reproachful eyebrow.
“I do not lie!” Myss snarled, true yellow fire puffing out of its mouth as it enunciated the words. “Do you plan to help us if I play this game of yours?”
I kept it vague and unhelpful as Myss had. “I don’t have a choice. I plan to do what is right by these people. What happens to Ralqir while I stay? I’m killing this place. Surely, you see that.”
Myss looked strangely uncomfortable at this. Noted.
“You kill that which is already dead,” Myss replied, her head bowed slightly, pensive. “Magic is strange and unusual here. It is no longer alive but a… knowable force. There is no art or imagination to it, no impulse behind its power.” Myss spoke the words like they were a curse. “You fear staying in our world, even to give us a chance to save it. Why?”
“I assume you want to send Ralqir back to its original location in the universe. The process did something to the other human. The Dark Lord fed him a steady diet of experience and power from the System, and he became something else. He was a monster when I found him, a dangerous one even the maelstrom couldn’t kill. I’m worried that while you guys try to replicate that, this place is going to be overrun, and by the time you succeed, I’ll be an even bigger problem than the scourge. Why didn’t the dragons stop the last incursion of the scourge before the purge?”
Myss hesitated at that. “We… could not. I tire of this. Make your decision.”
“No. That was a non answer!” I shouted as loud as I dared.
Where the hell is-
Deception is now level 7.
“Your scourge is a presence from beyond,” Myss growled. “It wears other beings like sleeves while its real body searches for others to possess. Fire is an answer but a temporary one. With no way to permanently destroy the alien presence, we were slowly being worn down. So, we allowed the Dark Lord to perform his spell and destroy an enemy we found most vexing. However, we did not know the full cost.”
Alert: Your presence has been detected.
Alert: Your presence has been detected.
Alert: Your presence has been detected.
There it was, the message I was looking for.
Keep stalling.
“So, what will Ralqir do without the maelstrom’s light which definitely kills the scourge?” I asked. “Kill it with harsh language?”
“If we must.”
I shook my head reproachfully. “So, you have nothing. You want me to be part of a plan that you’ve not even thought all the way through?”
“Our power is vast, human. We grew it over eons before lesser life had even crawled from the ether and beheld the sun. You are new to immortality, so you have no frame of reference to understand this.”
“Or, once you take away the scourge’s incentive to congregate here, you’ll just be back to square one with a global extinction event, getting your asses kicked only this time you can’t replenish yourselves.”
“Is the ritual the Dark Lord created still intact?” Myss asked.
“As far as I know. It’s lacking a mutated human now, though. Took care of that before I left. I want to hear more about your plan. Are you just going to ask the Empire for permission to use the ritual again, or are you just going to take it? I don’t see them being okay with upending their entire power base to bring back a religion that hasn’t been relevant for a thousand years. Better yet, how do you plan on dealing with the scourge in the meantime, while you figure out how to use me?”
“We know of our enemy now and the cost that must be paid to defeat it. Without a mortal vessel, your scourge has no viable way to affect the world. We will deny it viable sleeves until a solution can be discovered.”
That, despite even my worst predictions, threw me for a loop. “I- What? How do you uh… deny it?”
This question, the dragon did not answer.
Then it hit me right between the eyes. I cursed myself for not having guessed sooner. “Oh, just like that. You’re going to wipe them all out, aren’t you? The mortals. There’s millions of people here, and that doesn’t mean a damned thing to you, not against gaining your precious magic back. Convenient solution too, isn't it? It gets rid of all the mortals that have been studying magic and might give you a good run for your money in the power department.”
“Magic is meant to be alive. The world thrived when it could choose who wielded it. Who was worthy. Having to start anew is a small price to pay to restore the natural order.”
“See? That’s where you lose me.”
“We have had our exchange. Your decision. Now. Think in the long term, Ryan Kotes, immortal human. Put this planet back as it should be, get what you want, and be a hero to a grateful world. There really is no decision at all.”
I sighed dramatically, pretending to consider. I even went so far as to tap a finger on my chin.
“Fine. The answer is no. Screw you. You’ll have to carry me kicking and screaming,” I said as I pointed blindly in the general direction I felt Alert doing its thing. “He might have something to say about it, though.”
Right on cue, that now familiar, deep, terrible roar split the air and shook the world.
There, in the foggy shadows of the mendau, the towering silhouette of Kuul came barreling out of the forest at a full sprint, faster than a speeding train. He was down on all fours, charging like a bear, and the ground shook with the violence of every footfall.
He came on with the speed of a monster that had seen the person he hated most in the entire world.
This was the first time I’d ever gotten a good look at him. He was generally humanoid shaped, made of gnarled wood, gray and black with char marks, his joints glowing orange like his eyes and mouth. An eternal fire burned inside him that warped the air and crackled and popped. Fire dribbled from the corners of his mouth like spittle to land at his feet as he wordlessly bellowed his hatred toward me.
Myss looked from me to Kuul and back again. Then back to me. Then back to Kuul. Then to me. By the third or fourth doubletake, I felt like the dragon could have competed with Kuul in the loathing department. The dragon looked like it desperately wanted to kill me, maybe torture me until I went insane then kill me.
Yeah. That sounded more Myss’ style.
However, instead of doing that, as I’d been hoping, my new guardian angel let out a frustrated growl and slid herself between me and Kuul, setting her feet in preparation to protect me in what was going to be a big, stupid, kaiju fight, and she was going to hate every second of it.
Afterall, Myss needed me, and she needed me alive.