A gleaming, silver skyship flashed above the Skyisle, cutting through the clouds just as we were enjoying dinner with our parents in the back, outside kitchen.
“Is the Empire here to check up on you?” Our Dad asked, his orange beard twitching.
“I don’t know,” I said, staring up at the evening sky as the skyship decelerated, heading to the landing area atop of the gray tower of the Church of Equality.
“I recognize that ship,” Kliss suddenly declared as her sharp eyes tracked the silver ship. “That’s… the signet of Inquisitor Jubz.”
My dad’s frown intensified further. We revealed to him that Kliss was Kliss, and if he was asked about her, to refer to her as Elizabeth from Oz.
“You think he wants to check on the current Overseer?” I frowned. “I didn’t hear anything of note recently from Ignatius.”
“It is possible,” Kliss murmured. “But it is also possible that he is here to investigate Aradria’s attack.”
“Always something new to deal with,” I sighed.
“What should we do?” Kliss uttered, trying not to fret, but fretting regardless. “If he notices the obelisk in the centre of town…”
“Stay in Delta’s room,” I said.
[Delta - set up an ant-mech wrapped in bandages in the guest bedroom below, please. Connect the bee speaker to Kliss when I give you the order. You two are going to play the role of an extremely injured Baroness of Skyisle.] I sent my sister the order via the Astral.
“Can do,” Delta saluted me. “Anything else?”
“I’ll deal with greeting the Inquisitor,” I stood up. “Expect us here in an hour or so.”
The girls nodded, heading into the house.
“Do you need…” Cassandra stood up.
“I’ve got it mom,” I said, pulling on a silver cape and making sure my Equality pin was in place and well polished. “I’ve been at this job for a year, I can handle a bit of pressure.”
Cassandra walked to my side and wrapped me in her embrace.
I set off towards the church, feeling the weight of the lives of everyone in Skyisle on my shoulders. If I failed now, everything I had worked to build would fall to ruin.
----------------------------------------
By the time I arrived in the Church, Inquisitor Jubz was waiting for me in the Overseer’s Office, sitting on a plush leather couch. The man stared at me with a mask of silver-coated mirror-like magisteel. My Infoscopes couldn’t see his expression, couldn’t detect what the man was thinking as the mask was spelled spy-proof with incredibly powerful identification-disrupting hexagrams.
“So,” Jubz said, after we exchanged secret codes. “You’re the young Administrator, Overseer Ignatius hired?”
“Yes, my Lord,” I bowed deeply. “I am Dante Aland Skyisle, local assistant to Overseer Ignatius.”
The inquisitor raised his hand at me, the [Truth] rune sending a pulse of [LV 30 Truth] my way. “Do you serve the Empire, my child? Have you taken good care of this village? Have you obeyed the laws of Equality?”
Four Infoscopes and 13 lymphagones demolished the pulse, returning back a fake result to Jubz.
“Yes, my Lord,” I lied. “I serve the Empire of Equality with my entire heart. An Archangel of our Goddess makes sure that I do so diligently. I have done my best to take care of Skyisle as the laws of Equality require of me. I have obeyed all of the tenets of our Goddess.”
My mouth felt dirty as I stared at my own reflection in the man’s helmet.
“And pray tell, where is our Overseer?” Jubz asked, leaning closer towards me. “Why isn’t he at his post in the church?”
“Lord Ignatius is in Agamemnon at this moment,” I said.
“Doing what?” Inquisitor Jubz demanded, his tone cold and emotionless.
“Serving the Empire to the best of his abilities, as far as I am aware,” I said, rolling Ignatius under the bus. “My Lord gave me this post, managing me remotely via voicecast for most of the duration of my employment this year.”
“WHAT?!” Jubz hissed.
“Our current Overseer departed Skyisle after he became greatly concerned about his health and skill levels. Magogenic fault 18 is expanding, my Lord,” I bowed again, pretending to be a perfectly obedient, dull servant. “Only the locals can survive here without succumbing to the decay.”
“I will have to re-evaluate his employment,” the Inquisitor muttered. “Perhaps a more dedicated Overseer is…”
“My Lord, Skyisle no longer requires an Overseer,” I said. “Baroness Kliss procured our town and surrounding territories and chose to retire here after the death of her parents at the claws of Dragon Aradria in Cessna.”
“M-yes,” the Inquisitor said. “I am here because the ship carrying her to Skyisle never reported back. Our Scryers determined that Baroness Kliss is dead and that the ship she was on was destroyed along with all of the crew members due to the attack of that infernal dragon.”
“Dragon Aradria is dead, my Lord,” I said.
“WHAT?!” Jubz showed an even greater degree of emotion as his mirror-mask snapped in my direction.
“I haven’t had a chance to report it to the Imperial scribes of Cessna, as I have been injured in battle with the beast and was bed-ridden for two weeks,” I said, internally chiding myself.
Had I reported this situation, then perhaps I would have had more time to prepare for the Inquisitor's arrival in Skyisle. Or perhaps he would be here even sooner. Oh well, what's done is done.
“Two weeks?” Jubz murmured. “Pray tell, my child, who has been in charge of the Church of Equality during these two weeks?”
“My twin sister, Destiny Alana Skyisle,” I replied. “She is the same age and level as I am. I’ve discussed with Lord Ignatius via Voicecast that she would assist me at the office on sick days.”
“I will have words with Ignatius over this infraction,” the Inquisitor said coldly.
I saw that the pulse of [Truth] and [Charisma] from his armacus and mask artifact intensified, reaching level 50. My quartet of Infoscopes tore through the spellwork, shredding it.
“You are certain that Aradria is dead?” Jubz demanded.
“Yes, my Lord,” I nodded. “The dragon is dead.”
“How?! Who has struck a fatal blow to the vile beast that has disrupted our shipping lanes over the Acadian mountains for decades?” Jubz asked.
“My Lady Kliss and the magi crew of the skyship attacked the dragon with their entire might. The beast was powerful,” I said. “But from what I was told by my Lady, it was greatly weakened by living for so long close to magogenic fault, its skills and health greatly reduced. Through their brave sacrifice, the beast was slain. The magi struck it from the sky, but alas, they themselves perished in the fight, with the exception of our brave Lady. She was barely alive! I pulled her from the burning skyship! That is how I came to sustain my own injuries.”
If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
“Incroyable,” Jubz murmured. “Our Seers were wrong! The dastardly dragon is slain! Lady Kliss is truly alive?”
“She is grievously injured, her entire body is terribly burned,” I said. “From what she told me, the magogenic fault disrupts precognition.”
“Take me to the crash site,” Jubz ordered. “I shall investigate it myself.
“Yes my Lord,” I bowed, “Follow me.”
Internally, I began to sweat. If Jubz was a high level Wisdom mage, he could potentially figure out that I was lying.
I lead the Inquisitor out of the Church of Equality, past the wooden bridge and across the village, making sure to avoid the centre of town with the black obelisk. We walked into the forest and through it. The Inquisitor projected a powerful repulsor field that kept all beasts away from us as the evening forest grew dark.
Eventually, we arrived at the site.
“There is deadly dragon fire ash within the ship,” I said. “I… cannot go in, it will hurt me.”
“Yes, stay safe,” Jubz said. He walked around the devastated ship and through it, examining the ashes and bones within. My Infoscopes followed the man as he dug through the dragon-fire ash that radiated [Death]. It was clear that the ashes were no match for the high-level man. If my tools were to be believed, he was Level 97.
In about thirty minutes he emerged from the ship and walked to the corpse of Aradria. He froze in front of the ossified dragon.
“Impossible,” he muttered, reaching out with an armored hand to touch the corpse. Gray dragon scales turned to poisoned ashes under his hands. “Dragonscales… do not look, do not naturally decay like this. What has happened here?”
“Maybe the [Decay] radiance from the magogenic fault leeched life and magic from Aradria’s corpse?” I said. “My sister told me that this corpse has greatly decayed in two weeks.”
“This much?” Jubz turned to me and then back to the dragon. “It simply cannot be! The heart… I must locate the heart!”
He walked right through the ossified dragon, emerging on the other side and then dug through the ashes.
“There’s no heart, no organs,” he said. “Someone has taken them and somehow drained all magic from these scales… damnation!”
The Inquisitor turned back to me after another attempt to dig through the ashes in the dark. “Tell me child, are there problematic people in Skyisle? Someone who could steal the precious organs of this felled beast?”
“Yeah,” I replied. “Ishira's Archpriestess Giovashi. She is a dangerous renegade mage who seeks to undermine Imperial authority in Skyisle. She was last seen in Skyisle a year ago. It is possible that she has taken the dragon’s organs to the mountains or elsewhere far.”
Jubz gritted his teeth behind his mask.
“Where could she be hiding?” He growled.
“I do not know my Lord,” I lowered my eyes, pretending to be terrified. “She shows up to make the locals swear more vows to Ishira once every decade or so. Lady Kliss suspected that Giovashi was using Aradria to terrorize the locals of this and other villages into making unbreakable Vows to false Goddess Ishira.”
“Take me to Baroness Kliss,” Jubz exhaled, turning away from the hollow dragon remnants.
“Follow me,” I bowed.
----------------------------------------
“Kliss is recovering in the guest bedroom of my parents home,” I explained as we entered the cottage. “My sister has been taking care of her, feeding her soup and changing her bandages.”
The Imperial Inquisitor nodded. We pushed the door to the small guest bedroom open.
I spotted the ant-mech on the bed covered in layers upon layers of bandages splattered in grime and blood. I wondered who’s blood Delta had used for this. My Infoscopes told me that it was made with the smeared remnants of the blood Elk steak we had for dinner.
“My child, Kliss, are you awake?” Jubz asked into the silence approaching the figure on the bed.
The ant-mech moved ever so slightly under the bandages.
“Yes,” the rough approximation of the voice of Kliss came from the bee speaker within it.
“Can you tell me the sequence of identification?” Jubz asked.
“Kinbor lion starfish cake 22 Kittens,” Kliss said after a deep, tense pause.
“Alakin murkish 05 door,” Jubz replied. “Why have you not called me? I would have come earlier had I known about this!”
“I… it slipped my mind,” Kliss said. “Forgive me, I wasn’t in a condition to think about such things, couldn't make it to the church. The Alan family was kind enough to take care of me.”
“I can take you to Cessna,” Jubz offered. “The healers…”
“No,” Kliss replied. “I don’t want to travel back to the place where my parents died. I spent most of my money to buy Skyisle to retire here. Also, I do not have the funds for a healer.”
“You killed the dragon?” Jubz demanded. I saw that he shot an [Identify] spell at the ant-mech.
Time around us slowed as the Neurovista accelerated my mind. Four Infoscopes surrounded the spell, modifying it on the fly, like a cadre of sharks. When the spell returned to Jubz, it showed him that Kliss was indeed bedridden and badly burned.
“I killed Aradria,” Kliss replied, improvising well. “The dragon is no more.”
“Its corpse is hollow,” Jubz said. “Someone has drained the scales and took the organs.”
“A shame,” Kliss sighed. “It would have given me more finances to…”
“According to the Law of Equality,” Jubz interrupted. “Dragon organs belong to the Empire, not to the slayer. We need them to build great warships to protect our lands against the Basq Invaders.”
“Forgive me, Inquisitor,” Kliss said through the bee speaker. “I find it hard to focus. I am in a lot of pain. The local healing potions are helping, but alas, they’re only level 20. Of course the organs belong to the Empire. I was merely hoping for a fair compensation for slaying the beast that has done so much harm to us…”
Jubz reached into his robes and dropped a bag filled with gold coins onto the bedside table.
“Three hundred platinum,” he said. “This is your reward for this service. Use it to return to Cessna and find a healer if you so desire.”
“I desire to rest,” Kliss said. “I will heal, in time. The pain brings me closer to our Goddess.”
“Why did you buy this land if it is cursed?” Jubz suddenly asked, firing a direct [LV 90 Truth] spell at the ant-mech. The truth spell did absolutely nothing, because it hit ants, not a person. I didn’t even have to do anything about it.
“Because I wanted to help the locals,” Kliss replied. “It is my mission as a legionnaire, to bring Equality to all of those who need it.”
“You do realize that the locals cannot be saved,” Jubz pointed out. “Most of them are heretics who worship Ishira.”
“Not all,” Kliss said, her voice growing firmer. “Dante and Destiny and other children of Skyisle are worth saving from the heresy of Ishira! They do not have Vows to the false Goddess on their souls. My soul is already badly damaged by the magogenic fault. I know that I will die sooner or later, so I figured I might at least save some children, before I am taken by my Angel to the fields of Elysium in Arx. Our Goddess rewards those who bring her new flock in heaven!”
“An excellent answer,” Jubz relaxed. “You have chosen a noble mission that many would steer away from.”
“Like Overseer Ignatius?” Kliss scoffed.
“Yes,” Jubz sighed. “Alas, that boy failed to see the light. He will be punished for his dereliction of duty.”
“Good,” Kliss said. “I was going to fire him anyway and have Dante handle my affairs until I feel well enough to walk. Will that be all, Inquisitor? It is late and I would like to return to sleep. The healing potions are making me quite drowsy and my bandages chafe.”
“I am greatly concerned about the lack of a dragon corpse,” Jubz said. “Archpriestess Giovashi must be rooted out. She must have many supporters here, someone who had taken and hidden the dragonheart. Perhaps it is in the catacombs below town.”
“I don’t wish to be disturbed,” Kliss said. “I came here to retire and to save the souls of children.”
“We will not disturb your rest,” Jubz said.
“Who’s we?” Kliss asked.
“I will have two Imperial legions with a Scrutimancer brought to Skyisle from Cessna. They will search the forest, the catacombs and every home,” Jubz said. “The dragonheart must be found and the Ishikarian filth concealing it and aiding the heretics must be rooted out from Skyisle.”
“Was Aradria’s heart worth that much?” Kliss yawned.
“Aradria’s heart alone is worth a million gold as it could lift a Titan-class warship,” Jubz said. “The other crystals, bones, organs and scales are nearly as precious. By my rough estimate, in total there are nearly two million gold worth of items missing. We cannot simply drop this matter. The organs, or at the very least, the heart must be found. What I saw in the forest was a completely magic-less empty husk. A downed dragon’s organs cannot simply vanish. I am certain that it was taken by the local heretics. My apologies for the inconvenience, my child.”
“When will the legions arrive?” Kliss groaned.
“Two weeks time,” Jubz said.
“Very well,” Kliss acquiesced.
“Rest well, my child,” Jubz said. “I will see you then. I will head to Agamemnon now to find Overseer Ignatius and to bring him back to Cessna.”
“Equality steady your heart, Inquisitor.” Kliss sighed.
“Equality steady your heart, Baroness Kliss.” The Inquisitor bowed his head, drawing the sign of equality in the air with two of his fingers. He turned around and walked out of the bedroom, heading back to the church.
When he passed through the house wards, I sent an Infoscope to follow him. The Inquisitor didn’t deviate from his path, he went straight to the Church and then climbed the steel stairwell into the skyship.
I relaxed and walked upstairs to my sister’s bedroom. Delta was sitting on her bed next to Kliss.
“How boned are we?” She asked.
“Very, very boned,” Kliss replied, her orange-tinted face askew with panic. “There is no way that we can stop two legions! A high level Scrutimancer will not give up until they find me and have me dissected for the dragonheart! What in the Astral are we going to do, Slava?”
“We’re going to have to move our schedule ahead,” I said.