“What’s got you in such a down mood?” Zag asked Bron when he sighed for the tenth time since he’s invited himself into the cramped office Bron was shuffling through papers in.

“Huh? Oh, you haven't left yet,” Bron responded after being startled out of his thoughts. “I’m counting the damage.”

“Why are you leading a band of warriors if their deaths put you down this low?” Zag asked him, “Isn't there something about honor or whatever?”

“To some people, I guess,” Bron really didn't want to talk about it.

“You’re even still bothered by your mother’s death, aren't you? Did you start leading this troop because you thought you could keep more of them alive than someone else?”

“Are you trying to pick a fight with me?” Bron glared at him. “Not only did I lose people but the payment never arrived.”

“Would you feel better if we fought?” Zag asked as if he saw it as a legitimate option to cheer Bron up. “You know you’re a loose end in his scheme now, right?”

“Meaning getting any work is out the window,” Bron deflated.

“Speaking of which, I need to hire you,” Zag segued into the other reason he was here.

“What, why?” Bron was surprised and his mind tried to find a reason one of the most independent beings in the world would need him to do.

“Because the witch that follows you around won't cast spells for me unless I hire you,” Zag stated.

Bron stared at him a moment before he burst out with laughter.

“What do you need her to cast a spell for?” he asked after he got himself under control.

“So I can keep an eye on the interesting little bird you found for me,” Zag leaned back in his chair and steepled his fingers.

“Now who’s getting involved with the Covenant?” Bron sarcastically smiled.

“Boy, my involvement has been more fruitful than yours, I met a mate, made a friend and now I’ve found something even my mother has only heard of and never seen,” Zag looked smug. “While you got cheated out of your pay.”

“You really do want to start a fight don't you?” despite saying that Bron was grinning. “I fully plan on collecting from that asshole of a serpent.”

“Oh, what do you plan on doing?”

“I’m not saying but I do have some contacts in his palace,” both of them wore the same evil grin. “Anyway let's discuss the pay for her spell-casting.”

***

“You had Zaganursarrum, and you just let him leave?” Thea could tell by his tone that the promagistrate was angry after she gave her report.

“Lord promagistrate, there was no indication that we could actually finish him off,” she forced herself to remain calm as her temper tried to flare up, “and the assigned mission was completed with very little loss. I didn't want to take a risk on something I wasn't even sure we could complete.”

“All right, what’s done is done,” he said waving off the issue. “Take your legion around the southern route back to the Phoenix Duchy, I keep getting complaints that the local authorities in the Werelands are not keeping up with maintenance. Fix what you can and send me a review via courier when you get back home.”

“Yes, Lord promagistrate,” Thea bowed, saluted and made her exit.

She made her way to where Foro was waiting and after meeting up they started back to where the rest of the legion was camped outside the city.

“Was he upset over the dragon, Lady Thea?” Foro asked her.

“It almost seems like he has a personal grievance against the dragon,” she answered. “He gave us road duty.”

“Ugh,” Foro groaned. “Did you tell him about anything the dragon said to you, about the flame?”

“No, I thought it’d be best to get off the topic of the dragon when he got agitated,” Thea replied. “I plan on digging through the records when we get back to the Duchy.”

“Well, now we have to come up with a way to convince a bunch of flying beings not to get defeated by road work,” Foro scowled at the thought, Thea nodded her agreement.

A pair of sad eyes watched them from a window high above in a tower.

***

“What am I supposed to use as a medium?” Aisling asked after Zag explained to her what spells he wanted her to cast. “You do know I need something from the target of the spell so the spirits can interact with it right?”

“Of course I know!” Zag snipped at her. “The boy’s mother was a witch, you know?”

“I see, and the medium?”

“This,” Zag exclaimed as he lifted his hand. A small golden ball of fire rested in his palm.

“Isn't your fire usually red? And how is your fire supposed to connect the spirits with that phoenix you’re wanting to check up on?”

“That’s the thing, this isn't just my fire,” Zag bounced it between his hands, “It should keep strong ties to its original source.”

“If that’s true then it should work,” she thought for a moment. “How would we get the spirits to display a location?”

“That’s easy, I can't believe you’ve never even heard of doing this,” Zag clenched his fist around the ball of flame to put it out. “You just use a map and a small stone, preferably a smooth one so it is easier for them to move.”

“But spirits don't understand how to read maps…” Aisling argued.

“Do you understand how to read maps?”

“Yes,” she narrowed her eyes as an inkling of where he was taking this entered her mind.

“Then convey that to them, that’s what witches do right?”

Aisling felt a headache coming on.

***

“This is a mess,” Foro stated as they arrived in the Werelands and saw the state of the roads.

“You would think earthbound beings would take better care of their roads,” Thea just hoped there weren't any places the road had completely collapsed.

“Well, at least we can just burn the overgrowth…” Foro went into his own thoughts as he planned out a course of action.

“Keep an eye out for trees suitable for marker posts, we’ll put them in a cart and dry them as needed,” Thea added. “I hope the way stations aren't just piles of rubble.”

The further along the road they went and the deeper into the forest it cut through the more displeased they became. The road had obviously not been maintained properly in at least two years by Foro’s estimation.

“There is no way this happened without the knowledge of the city lords,” Foro complained.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“Even if that’s true what do you want me to do about it now?” Thea asked amid her own frustration with the task.

They both sighed and brought their focus back to directing the legionnaires’ efforts.

Foro led a scouting patrol out to find a good place to set up camp when the sun sunk down into late afternoon. They wound up making camp in a natural clearing that used to hold a waystation. The waystation was nothing more than a pile of stones.

“It looks like someone tore it down,” Foro stared at the rubble before he voiced his thoughts.

“Why though?” Thea didn't want to admit it but she was feeling worried that Foro’s paranoia might be on point in this case.

“I don’t know but I’m treating this as hostile territory,” Foro crossed his arms. “Permission for double watches, Lady Thea?”

“As you will, Foro, but rotate the watches at half-length, we have a tired legion on our hands,” she amended his idea slightly.

“Yes, Lady Thea,” he went off to organize the watch and to make sure the camp was set up properly.

Thea sighed and returned to her own thoughts. For the first time in a while, they returned to the things the dragon had said to her. She could only hope there were records in her family’s library that covered details from the primordial era. There was really so little knowledge left since it was before the time the beings could keep records.

She decided to push things off until the morning. She was just as tired as her legionnaires and could use the sleep. She looked optimistically towards the next day since she was almost certain they’d be able to push out of this forest and into the Werelands proper.

The night set and after eating their dinner the legionnaires went to their beds save for the few that drew the first watch. Some of them patrolled the perimeter of the encampment and others took a stationary vigil throughout the edges away from the slowly dying campfires.

The night sky clouded up covering what little light the stars and moon gave them. One of the patrolling duos nodded a greeting as they passed another pair.

They turned back around when they heard the screams only to be impaled through the back themselves. Their wails soon were joined by the rest of the camp as the ambush came crashing down upon them.

***

Aisling wanted to go back to sleep. She had woken up at the break of dawn to try teaching a spirit how to read a map. Considering the spirits didn't even really exist in this world to a point where they could directly ‘see’ anything in it that was a task she would have gladly traded to someone else.

“Absolutely not, you almost lit my maps on fire!” Bron argued with Zag compounding Aisling’s desire to be somewhere else.

“What? It wasn't me it was the spirit, and you can get new maps,” Zag argued back.

“I have to get them from a Covenant city, do you think anyone here makes maps?” Bron was getting more and more heated.

“Bron,” Aisling muttered without raising her head from the desk she was sitting at.

“And since I currently have one of the Covenant city lords viewing me as a loose end it makes these even more valuable,” Bron didn't hear her.

“Boy, that one is your own fault,” Zag was starting to look annoyed. Besides, I already paid for your little girlfriend to cast the spell.”

“Bron,” Aisling said his name louder this time and sat up.

“How is she going to cast the spell if you burn up the map?”

“Brontannistine!” she finally yelled out his full name to get his attention. Zag snickered under his breath but stifled it quickly when she glared his way.

“Yes?” Bron asked cautiously.

“The spirit gets it now, we can cast the spell,” she told him. “Your map won't catch on fire.”

“I see,” Bron was having trouble coming up with something to say since he was thrown off track.

“That’s wonderful!” Zag clapped his hands together. “Can we start then?”

“On one condition, neither of you are allowed to speak until I am done,” she glared from one to the other. “Each time it has devolved into an argument that has made the job infinitely more difficult.”

Bron clamped his jaw shut and glared at Zag. Zag was surprised for a moment before he met Aisling's eyes and smirked. Her glare settled on him and she stared him down.

“I like you,” Zag grinned. “When are you and the boy having children?”

“Just be quiet,” she turned away from him before snatching the map away from Bron as he ground his teeth.

She laid the map out on the table and put weights at each corner to keep it from rolling back up. Bron moved to help her but thought better of it when all it got him was another glare.

She placed a small stone near the place that the battle took place and closed her eyes. She muttered as if she was speaking under her breath to someone and the stone gave off a light flash of green light.

“Now stay where you are and hold out the fire,” she ordered Zag without opening her eyes.

Zag held up his hand and a small ball of golden flame was formed above his palm. Aisling muttered again and this time the flash of green light occurred around the flame.

Aisling continued to mutter and sweat beaded on her brow as she communed with the spirits that surrounded them. The small stone flashed with a green light and disappeared altogether before reappearing on a different part of the map.

“That can't be good,” Zag said when he says the location.

“Quiet,” Aisling said over her muttering.

Zag and Bron both leaned over the table and watched the shaky stone as it twitched every few moments.

“You can talk now,” Aisling opened her eyes and her gaze soon joined theirs on the stone.

“Why would she be there?” Bron asked Zag when the moratorium on talking had been lifted.

“It’s moving pretty fast too if you look at it to scale,” Zag stroked his beard in thought. “It would either be because a battle is going on there or someone is trying to transport her as a prisoner while keeping her hidden, no other reason to be in that remote of an area.”

“I think it’s all swamp too,” Bron added. “Not a place you’d send phoenixes to battle.”

“Well, considering the direction they’re moving and the speed since the spirit is showing us their movement to scale and who apparently has an issue with her it would be a safe bet to guess they were going to Tiantang,” Zag voiced his inferences out loud.

“Yeah,” Bron agreed, “the only other option would be Proelefsi which wouldn’t make sense with her popularity in her own home city.”

“Hey, witch. Can you have the spirit show you what it saw?” Zag turned to Aisling and asked.

“I assume you understand how little that can be interpreted,” she responded before closing her eyes and muttering again.

“It should be enough,” Zag watched her patiently.

“Small storm-clouds, one sputtering gold colored fire in the middle of them and,” she paused, “and something they won't show me.”

“Your level of skill is more terrifying than the boy’s mother,” Zag looked genuinely impressed.

“What are you going to do?” Bron asked.

“We’re going to Tiantang,” he answered.

“We?”

“I haven't been there since before you were born,” Zag explained. “Do you think I know where anything is? Besides, you need to collect on a debt, don’t you? Leaving it be reflects badly on all of dragon-kind.”

“So what is the benefit for my side of the partnership?” Bron asked.

“I will take you there. It would be the only way to get there before whatever that snake is planning starts to happen,” Zag answered. “He had her captured instead of killed so it’s either an attempt at discrediting her or they want to torture her for information.”

“So you need to get there first to find out which one and then prepare some sort of breakout.”

“That’s it,” Zag nodded.

“You’ll need to fund the trip,” Bron pointed out. “Our budget is still pretty tight until I can get what I’m owed out of the palace.”

“Are you really going to try to burglarize the palace?” Aisling had a shocked expression on her face.

“If the opportunity is there, imagine how distracted they’re going to be with my father in the middle of the city doing something disagreeable,” Bron laughed. “Also the promagistrate hates him.”

“Beyond what the Covenant already does?”

“Oh yes,” Zag laughed. “I personally embarrassed him once, I’ll tell you about it sometime.”

“One question,” Aisling added, “What did you mean when you said you were going to take us there?”

***

Bron leaped off of his back the moment Zag landed. He proceeded to throw up then after wiping his mouth he turned and helped Aisling the rest of the way down. She curled into the fetal position and trembled in denial.

Zag shifted to his human form and rummaged through the pack they had brought with them for some clothes.

“I can understand the witch having trouble but why is someone who can fly getting ill from it?” he glowered at Bron.

“It isn't the same,” Bron was still looking a little green, “not even close.”

“I’ve seen small children do better than you,” Zag accused.

“I don't care,” Bron replied. “We need to calm Aisling down, or we won't be able to make it to the city before dark.”

“Just carry her,” Zag shrugged.

“That would make a spectacle,” Bron argued. “You wanted to be subtle remember?”

“Just do it. Boy, if anything would calm her down that would,” Zag started walking. “We can put her down before we reach the gate.”

Bron sighed and picked Aisling up off the ground. He cradled her like a child while listening to her mutter the words “never again” over and over.

After a while of walking, he could tell she had calmed down, but she showed no inclination towards wanting to be put down. There was only a little ways left until they came to the gate and the foot traffic along the road was easy to ignore, so he decided to humor her. With his Draconic heritage, it wasn't as if carrying her would strain him in any way, and he enjoyed how soft she felt.

“Alright lovebirds,” Zag said as they reached the last bend before Tiantang’s gate. “Time to get to work.”

Bron lowered Aisling to the ground and she looked away. He could see the tinge of pink on her cheek.

“I need a tall building with roof access that overlooks the main street through town,” Zag ordered.

“That’s easy, the place we stayed at last time is perfect,” Bron explained. “Aisling you lead him there and I’ll go get some dinner while I try to round up some contacts.”