July 8th, 875
Metirine Castle
Empire of Sedina
The dark place that Sildraxic found himself in smelled strange and was kind of awkward but had enough room that he could curl up easily and still be able to see the strange black piece of not-slate that glowed and showed what the Human Woman called Komodo could see. This strange device didn’t seem to use magic but acted much like a scrying mirror. It was as much of an enigma as its owner.
When she had appeared in the middle of the summoning circle, her appearance was that of an older woman with blonde hair and piercing green eyes dressed in well made black pants, white shirt, black tie and jacket. She wore a strange hat and carried two large bags, one on her back and one she held to her in her left hand. Her appearance would have borne resemblance to an elven widow in mourning and moving, if not for her eyes. Her eyes had seemed… cold, as if she was looking at things and not people, well that and her ears.
Cold her eyes may have been but her hands were lightning fast, he hadn’t even seen her pull the magical device from her bag till her hand had stopped moving and the three knights and the mage fell to the floor. Only for the briefest of moments was the cold and calm appearance she displayed spoiled; the moment of surprise when she bumped into the barrier, the surprise at the fact he could talk and the flash of fury in her eyes right after that when she heard his blood was used. Perhaps her people considered blood magic a taboo as well?
This enigma of a woman was probably the scariest woman that he had ever encountered. The cold calm she displayed when she killed, the casual disregard to pain and suffering her victim suffered, and the fact that the blood and bodies seemed to mean absolutely nothing to her. She reminded him of his grandmother, The Matriarch. He had seen her angry once and that had been enough for him to swear that he would do everything possible to avoid angering her. And yet, despite all this, his instincts told him that this “Komodo” wasn’t a threat.
Now that he thought about it perhaps the reason he didn’t see her as a threat is because of how she treated him… She had kept her guard up till the point the mage died, then she had relaxed slightly, as if believing there were no more threats around. She didn’t see him as a threat. Instead she talked to him, while she changed clothes. THAT was strange. Humanoids, from what he had been told, had strange cultural rules and taboos about clothing and the lack thereof. Clothing aside, the presenting of her back showed that she didn’t see him as a threat.
“Intersection ahead, which way?”
The quiet sound of her voice coming from the Scrying Slate, as he had come to think of it as, jolted him out of his thoughts and back to the present.
“Straight, should be the next intersection.” He said quietly to the Scrying Slate. As he watched she did exactly as he said, didn’t even look down the other corridors just walked straight ahead.
He shook his head before his mind could start to wander again. He needed to center himself, to think and possibly regain some of the mana that he had used to dismantle the barrier. It was a rather simple breathing technique that was also rather profound in what it did when done right. By focusing on your breathing, you can calm it, your mind will calm as your heart and body calms, by calming yourself in its entirety you can open yourself up to nature to absorb some of the ambient mana. Thereby restoring your mana and centering yourself at the same time. Not a technique used as much by dragons but it had helped him think and stay calm during his captivity.
He had plenty of time to learn and practice many things to keep himself from going crazy while being held captive and occasionally used for experiments. Through the subtle use of magic, patience and perception, he had learned not only the Human language but also how to read humans.
Now he needed to plan. His deal with her was only good for their escaping this place. After that he would be on his own, because based on her scars and her skills, surviving would be easy for her so she wouldn’t need him. She would simply ditch him and leave, especially since having a young dragon like himself with her would draw a great deal of attention. Unless… Unless he could get her to agree to make a long term agreement, perhaps even a contract with him. He needed protection and escort to get home without getting caught again and she needed… What did she need?
What did she need? This haunted him, until he could answer it, he didn’t know of a way to get her to help him long term. Even as he gave her directions to the Mage’s Lab, he tried to come up with an answer.
Weapons? She had those in a few different types, some he wasn’t sure what the real purpose was for.
Armor? She had that and it was one that he had never seen before.
Combat? She had proven her skill in killing and if the scars he had seen on her were any indication, she had a lot of experience in that.
Magical tools? She had those, the Scrying Slate in his claws was proo- wait… did she? He focused on the Scrying Slate, this time looking for its magical aura that all magical devices had. He didn’t see it. No trace of magic. It acted like a magical device but without any magic. How was that possible? What was this thing?
Perhaps magic was the key? No it couldn’t be, a warrior of her skill was sure to have some ability to use magic, know some spells and be generally knowledgeable about magic. It wouldn’t make any sense, it would be too… unbalanced. In the stories that he had heard of great and powerful warriors, they all had some kind magical abilities or skills.
“Intersection ahead, which way?”
“Straight and it’ll be the first door on the right.”
“... It only goes left and right. Straight ahead is a wall.”
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
He shifted his attention back to the Scrying Slate, noting that in fact the corridor did end at a T junction. At least that's what it appeared to do. "It's an illusion, it just looks like a wall to disguise the entrance way."
“An illusion? So the wall is fake? Interesting, I wasn’t expecting holograms.”
“Although we will have to be careful of the door. There is a chance he reactivated the trap on it.”
“What kind of trap, where is it and how do we disarm it?”
“Lightning, it will strike whoever touches the handle on the door. Usually it's not quite lethal but it will kill the less hardy of individuals. As for how to disarm it, I honestly don’t know. He always opened it with a gesture, probably a simple spell or application of his mana that caused the door to open.”
“Lightning? As in the kind that strikes from the sky during a storm? Then it won’t be a hindrance at all, but a benefit instead. Instead the hindrance will be whoever is pacing back and forth in front of the door.”
“Huh? I don’t see anyone.”
“They are on the other side of the hologram, I detected them due to their movement. Lets see how much a hindrance they shall be.”
As she said that, he could see that they had made it to the illusion or ‘hologram’ as she called it, whatever that is. He suddenly grew concerned, was she about to just kill this unknown person? The knights and the mage he could understand but this?
He could only watch as she boldly walked through the illusion like it wasn’t there and he saw what she was talking about. There was a young human male, a mage apprentice based on his clothing, pacing in front of the lab door as if waiting for someone to appear from within. His surprise at their appearance was evident but before the surprised look could disappear from his face an older male voice demanded, “What are you doing here?”
The apprentice stammered, “I, I, I’m looking for Senior Mage Maldin, Sir Knight.”
“He isn’t here, he is elsewhere conducting an experiment. What do you need of him?”
Sildraxic was getting confused, where was the third voice coming from and why wasn’t Komodo saying anything?
“O-oh, I have some records that he had requested. Finding them took longer than expected, but I can’t just leave them here on the floor and the wards are active on the lab door so I can’t get in.”
“Senior Mage Maldin has tasked me with retrieving some materials that he needs from the lab. Give me the records and I will place them inside where they will be safe.” An armored arm rose into view on the Scrying Slate, hand out as if waiting for the apprentice. However the armor was that of a knight, not that of the armor that Komodo had been wearing?!
The apprentice looked confused and concerned, “The mage told you how to disarm the ward?”
“Of course not, he cast a spell on me that would protect me from the ward but that it would only work once. There is no way that man would give me the methods to disarm his wards. Actually I don’t know of anyone that does know it other than him.”
“Ok, I guess, if you can get past the ward without dying or being left on the floor twitching then I’ll give the records to you to place in there. The ward would probably fry me if I tried to go in after you anyway.”
“Very well then.”
Sildraxic watched in concern as the view approached the door and the armored hand reached out and grabbed the door handle. The moment that happened lightning sprouted from the door like a snake and struck the hand and coursed up the arm. He closed his eyes waiting for the lightning to strike him as well, since a simple bag wouldn’t be enough to protect him.
Nothing happened.
No sensation of his nerves being on fire, of his body spasming out of control, nothing.
Silence.
He opened one eye and looked, the Scrying Slate showed the apprentice, wide eyed in surprise.
“The records.” The male said with an air of authority.
“Ye-yes”, the boy stammered as he drew a stack of parchment from the messenger bag he wore and placed them in the outstretched armored hand.
“Um, can I? You know… see inside?” The apprentice asked with a hopeful look on his face.
A stern, “No” was the response he got as the view moved inside and the door was shut between them.
The view then started panning to the left, scanning the room until it got back to the door. “All Clear” the male voice said. That was the signal that Sildraxic had been waiting for, he dropped the Scrying Slate and reached up and grabbed the rip-zip tab and pulled it to the side creating a slit opening. Once the opening was big enough he climbed out through the bag, onto Komodo’s shoulders, placed a clawed hand on her head to balance and looked at her helmeted face. Only to see the helmet of a knight.
He could only stare in shock. Then he felt her… his… it’s shoulders shake and he heard the male voice chuckling.
“What’s wrong little one? I thought you could see through illusions.” As the voice spoke, it changed from male to female mid-sentence and the knight helmet disappeared and there was Komodo’s helmet.
“Wait, how? But that’s not… Illusions don’t… How did you do that?!”
“Which one? The voice change or the visual change?”
“BOTH!”
She chuckled some more then said, “the voice part can be done two different ways. The first is to change the pitch, tone and mannerisms of how you speak. This can be done with training and has many uses. The second is far simpler and is what I used this time. My helmet can control how my voice is heard. For example if I wanted to talk to just you, I could make it so that I could only be heard through the data screen you were using but no one else nearby would be able to hear me. That’s actually how I was talking when we were on our way here. Making myself sound like a man is quite easy.”
“What about the not-illusion?”
“Well based on what I saw of the hologram concealing the doorway, I decided to use the same thing but to change my armor’s appearance.”
“But it’s NOT the same! The illusion on the doorway was done with a magic spell using mana. You DIDN’T use mana, so it's NOT an illusion but something else all together.”
“Mana? What’s that? Some kind of energy source?”
Sildraxic was so shocked by her that he actually lost his balance and would have fallen if she hadn’t caught him.
“Woah, careful there. Don’t know how delicate you are or not but falling head first into the floor hurts no matter who you are.”
“How…”
“Hm?”
“HOW DO YOU NOT KNOW WHAT MANA IS?!”
Her head recoiled back at the force of his yell then turned to look at the door, then back to him. “What do you mean? I have never heard of it. I guess it’s some kind of well known important thing here?”
He just hung his head and sighed. How she didn’t know of the fact mana existed and was part of life he couldn’t comprehend.
Wait…
That’s it!
The answer to the question he couldn’t answer!
The thing she was missing!
Knowledge! Magic! These she was missing, these he could provide!
“Um… Komodo can we, um talk for a moment?”
She tilted her head as she looked at him, “I take it your meaning something serious?”
He nodded.
“And it can’t wait till we get out of here?”
He nodded again.
She moved over towards a desk and set him on top, then took a seat herself. “Alright, what’s going on? Something has you worried, I can tell that much.”
“I, I know it’s not something that… uh…”
Ugh, how do I ask it without offending her?? How do I say it without sounding like I’m trying to trick her into doing this for my benefit? How do I ask her? I never knew that humans could be so scary. I, I, “I just want to go home.”
He squeezed his eyes shut as his vision got blurry.