Kierra half climbs over me to see the paper better. “Aggro?”

“That’s the common name. Truthfully, you’re not supposed to say its true name. It hasn’t been proven but most summoners think that it has some way of knowing when someone speaks it and can find you.”

“Are you scared, Lou?”

“No, but I don’t blame anyone who is. This is nothing like my unreasonable aversion to royalty. If you don’t know what you’re dealing with, Aggro can be worse than deadly.” I take a deep breath.

“I’m only going to say its name once. Aggrababoleth, the Many.”

After uttering the feared name, I focus on my senses, ready to detect the slightest change around me. I doubt anything could sneak past Geneva and Bell but the caution is deeply engrained.

“And what is this Aggra—”

“Ah! Don’t just say its name!”

She narrows her eyes.

I point a finger at her. “I’m serious. This thing is bad news. For anyone.” Hmph. I swear. It’s gotten better but this elf has no respect for the art. If she weren’t married to me, who managed to snag Geneva, she’d probably think the lot of us to be a bunch of idiots yanking things they don’t understand from places they understand even less.

“Look, Aggro is…well, to be clear, no one knows what Aggro is. No one has ever documented its main body. What we know is that when someone forms a contract with it, it infects them with a worm-like parasite that we think is an extension of it. The worm allows the summoner to communicate with Aggro, who is smart. Dangerously smart. An idiot suddenly becomes a genius overnight because he’s got a millennia-old being whispering in his ear.

“But that’s not the scariest part.” I shiver. “Aggro…the parasite takes root in a caster’s core and feeds on their mana, growing larger. Greedy bastard takes everything. The hosts can’t cast anymore, but in return, Aggro changes them. Makes them stronger. Makes them into…something else.”

“Ah. It lures them in with power and warps them to its own agenda.”

“No. Aggro leaves their minds intact and never goes against their will. That’s why summoners continue to make contracts with the damn thing. All the changes he makes are at the summoner’s behest. They get to rebuild themselves however they want. Become handsome enough to have women falling all over them. Strong enough to crush a man’s head like it’s a rotten vegetable. Aggro just insists on one thing.”

I can’t hold back a shudder. “He takes one of their organs and turns it into a…thing capable of asexually creating more of the parasites. And those parasites infect others. Aggro only targets intelligent species and he doesn’t treat those without a contract to it kindly. They become extensions of that creature’s will, puppets whose only purpose is to continue spreading its influence.

“Aggro is scarily good at blending in. He can read the memories of his hosts and imitates them. It’s impossible to tell who’s a meat puppet unless the changes are extreme. And they can get extreme. Misshapen fifteen feet tall abominations that come out when Aggro stops being subtle.”

“I am not hearing anything that sounds dangerous.”

“It took over a city.”

She blinks at me. “A city?”

“Mmhm. Fortitude, the oldest city in the kingdom. Infected everyone in it, built an army, and declared the city and its surrounding lands a sovereign state. The crown sent its royal knights of course and Aggro marched abominations to meet them. It was a blood bath. They blew the city to hell just to find that it had built a whole other city underground.”

“And your king simply let an invader claim a piece of his kingdom?” Her scoff clearly says what she thinks about this.

“They had to assault an army of monsters in narrow tunnels. For every meter they claim, Aggro’s minions burrowed ten meters deeper. For every tunnel they collapsed, three more appeared. They tried burning them, it built minions immune to fire. They tried drowning them, it built minions that could swim. You see where this is going.”

Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

Kierra licks her lips. “What an exciting enemy.”

“Exciting? That’s one way to describe it. Things got a lot less exciting and a whole lot more scary when the creature drafted a ceasefire agreement. And a whole lot scarier than that when the crown accepted it. Before you go declaring all of humanity to be cowards, the peace came with several benefits. Aggro is a hell of a crafter, for one.”

“That sounds like excuses.”

“It is what it is. Keep fighting and we throw thousands of lives away to essentially clip Aggro’s toenails. Stop fighting, all those lives get to keep living and we get quality goods.”

“I would have thrown every single one of my soldiers at this creature if that’s what it took.”

We stare at each other. Hm. She’s truly offended by this. I suppose it goes against everything she believes in. Everything her people believe in. Saints, another reason not to proclaim myself a diplomat. The elves will walk all over us. I doubt mother-in-law is one for peaceful negotiations.

“Do you want to hear about the last one?”

“Hmph. Perhaps not. It seems humanity will quake before a sparrow that chirps at them too strongly.”

“I can name three elementals that look like common birds that can kill a man in under ten seconds.” My wife isn’t impressed. “Well, you’ll like this next one. Another ban I completely support. Only crazy people form contracts with drakkons.”

Kierra sits up quickly. “There are people who have dragons as servants?!”

Oh, this is the first hint of worry she’s shown. The parasite that enslaves you to an ancient abomination is nothing but a flying lizard terrifies you? Don’t get me wrong, I’m reasonably afraid of the sky sovereigns myself. My gripe is that no elemental should be underestimated.

“Not dragons. Drak-kons.” I sigh. “Like I said, only crazy people contract them. They’re powerful. They don’t have the pure affinities all dragons have but they’re larger and stronger. There’s a sure way to tell a drakkon from a dragon. Dragons have horns, drakkons have whiskers.

“It wouldn’t be a problem if they were just powerful. That thing you said earlier? Nothing could be further from the truth. Drakkons don’t have masters. They contract servants. Worse, the damn lizards are hellbent on conquering any realm they’re summoned to.”

Dragons are born strong. The uncontested apex species in the world. They have incredible amounts of mana, powerful bodies, and are highly intelligent. Because of their lofty position, they don’t socialize, or even communicate, with the other races of the world. They may be powerful, but no one needs to be afraid of them. Even during the Great War, it wasn’t the dragons that caused the upheaval, but their lesser draconid cousins.

Drakkons are the exact opposite. They live to subjugate weaker races and claim new territory. Like a dog that can’t help but growl at every mutt it sees and piss on every street corner.

“By the way, the dragon Dunwayne killed was actually a drakkon.” Which makes it a lot less impressive but that’s not the reason the story was changed. Who could sleep easy knowing that anyone with the right knowledge could summon a magical behemoth bent on conquest? I only know because my father warned me away from summoning them. If I ever attempted to do so, I think he’d disown me. Maybe worse.

“A drakkon hasn’t been summoned that could be reasoned with. Tivorex is the only one someone managed to kill. Normally, someone finds the summoner and kills them.” I rub my face, feeling a wave of exhaustion. “If Fen is right, one of these is the real target. Golden hens are bad but can be contained. No one cares about the damn snake. They’ve been dealing with succubi for years and the Grimoire family is no longer flaunting the mental affinity like they own it. Aggro is horrifying but a known entity.”

I pop to my feet, feeling a sudden urge to pace. “The only one that makes sense and that could prompt such drastic action is a drakkon. That’s a kingdom-ending threat. Perhaps a threat to all of humanity. But this still doesn’t make sense.”

“I agree.” My wife takes advantage of my vacant seat to stretch out. Not even the tantalizing sight of her dress riding up her supple thighs is enough to distract me from my troubling thoughts. “Dunwayne already slew one of these fake sovereigns.”

“In the prime of his life. I don’t doubt he’s powerful but he’s not the spry young man he used to be.” A legend he may be but, in the end, the Harvest Hero is still human. He’s still mortal. “There are plenty of strong casters throughout the kingdom. The problem is that drakkons fly. It takes a powerful wind or null caster to counter its wings. All the power in the world is useless as long as it’s stuck on the ground.”

I continue to pace in front of the couch, thoughts whirring. I wondered why this decree came out of nowhere. Maybe it hadn’t? Maybe the crown drafted this decree, targeting a specific group, and used it to threaten them. A group of summoners? If so, a drakkon is a great counter threat. This decree would give the king the excuse he needs to go in swords drawn.

But who? There are no independent groups of summoners powerful enough to make themselves that kind of threat. That’s my whole problem! Summoners are rare beasts, a dying breed. Who could it possibly be? Why have I never heard of them?!

“There is one more letter, Lou.”

“Don’t remind me,” I snap. Saints know what could be in the last one. I almost don’t want to find out but if it’s anything like the other two, I can’t afford not to read it.

Letting out a deep breath, I pick up the last envelope.