“The Primus Draconis,” Eresthanon repeated, stalling for time as his brain jumped into gear.

As he had with Barrett’s title of Cordus Draconis, Eresthanon found himself without any knowledge dredged up from his memories. That absence was nearly as troubling as the sudden tremor he sensed in the storm at the edge of his consciousness. Whatever strife the storm represented, the Drakon was definitely connected to it, which made it all the more important he dedicate his efforts to getting a handle on this situation.

He knew what the title would translate as — the first of, or maybe first among, dragons — and had a strong suspicion as to what it meant given the context — if Barrett were the second of the dragons, then the first would be their ultimate leader — yet he had no tangible insight beyond those superficial details.

Specific information about the internal workings of the Drakon were absent from what he’d carried over from his previous Cycles. Or perhaps that knowledge wasn’t absent but opaque, inaccessible because it was tied to experiences so specific and personal it couldn’t be separated from the information itself. That seemed… fairly improbable.

He was an elf. While elves had many interactions with dragons throughout history, he could think of no instance of one of his people being so thoroughly ingrained in their culture.

There was also the possibility that, due to whatever reason or whims of chance, he had simply never learned much of anything about the culture of the Drakon in previous Cycles. Although he had discovered he held a surprising breadth and depth of understanding on a number of esoteric topics relating to the Creaturae so far, drakus were one of the most insular and secretive of peoples. Hadn’t Barrett’s hesitance and evasions been proving exactly that the entire duration of this meeting?

There was another reason he might not have access to knowledge of the Drakon: his previous Cycle may have consciously restricted that knowledge, sealing it away during the Rite or Renewal, ensuring Eresthanon would walk into this situation missing important context. If so, it would suggest his most recent Cycle wanted Eresthanon to approach the dragons with a fresh perspective.

Weighed against the other options, the last struck Eresthanon as the most likely. There were many ways he could interpret that, especially if he took time to dedicate a little more consideration to the issue. The traditions surrounding the Rite of Renewal were clear, however, so Eresthanon forced himself not to dwell on the subject.

His past Cycles were just that: past. He was himself now and that was the only thing he should try to understand.

“I can guess at its meaning,” he continued, “but no more than that.”

“The Primus Draconis is basically the position at the head of our governing body, if you will,” Barrett said. “I won’t go into the details of how the Primus Draconis is determined, but I will say that dreams and oneiromancy are part of the process of discovering the drakus meant for the role.”

Eresthanon nodded thoughtfully. Very few of the various factions and races of Creaturae adopted representative or democratic forms of administration and governance. Most adopted variations of oligarchy, monarchy, or meritocracy, but there were a host of other structures that had been used, as well. Most tended towards authoritarianism in some form or another.

The problem wasn’t a lack of liberalism or an excess of ego and elitism among the praeternatural communities, though the latter was surprisingly common. In fact, most Creaturae had rather egalitarian outlooks, an unavoidable side effect of a history littered with farm hands and poop shovellers finding magic swords, rings, or helmets and rising to become the mightiest of their age. The problem was power.

The disparity of power — personal power — between those with and without was much broader than it was among mundane people. There were limits to how strong or tough a human being could be, limits that could be overcome with magic.

If everyone felt like their opinion or authority had roughly equal weight, then the moment a charismatic prodigy emerged was the moment the countdown began to the almost inevitable attempt to overthrow the ruling party. A ruling party which, at that point in time, might not be blessed with the same mystic aptitudes and benefits.

To stave off the chaos of constant revolution and insurgency, many Creaturae had developed their own practices and traditions to determine who could wield authority legitimately. A good number of these cultures engaged in such rituals on a smaller, local level, and turned to consensus for issues that were broader in scope. Still, quite a few societies were led by varying degrees of unilateral authority.

The only other group Eresthanon knew of with a ruling body that had authority over the entire populace were the orcs. They were ruled by a figure called the Conquest, a position that had once been a kind of supreme warlord in the distant past. It was still a position held by the mightiest of all orcs — of those who were interested in politics, at least — but terms were limited to twenty one years and might wasn’t necessarily measured in warfare or direct combat anymore. They were still orcs, however, so it usually was an issue of personal martial prowess, if for no other reason than a respect for their heritage and tradition.

From what little Eresthanon did know of the drakus and their culture, the processes involved in seating this Primus Draconis were likely extensive and grueling. Dragons were fiercely independent and fractious, so if they had any kind of ultimate authority figure, it would have to be someone with a lot of legitimacy attained through methods that would be widely accepted as appropriately stringent.

If those processes involved oneiromancy, then a one-of-a-kind book on drakus-specific dream magic would almost certainly contain spells that could be turned against whomever was slated to take on the role. On that basis alone, the grimoire would motivate a number of factions to kill for it without the slightest hesitation.

“I take it the book contains spells or rituals that could be used to locate or track your Primus Draconis,” Eresthanon guessed. “Perhaps even attack them directly. All through dreams.”

Barrett tapped his nose with his index finger. “Right in one,” he sighed. “No attacks, as far as we know, but we can’t rule that out. It can certainly be used to find them, although we figure there are some limitations on that even if we don’t know how limiting they are.”

“Wait, wait, wait! So it’s possible to visit people in their dreams, even cause them harm?” Aaliyah asked.

Eresthanon nodded. “Of course, if the oneiromancer is powerful enough and has developed the right magic. There are also beings who exist almost entirely in dreams and there is, of course, the Dream itself.”

“Well what do you know?” Aaliyah said slowly. “It’s almost like dreams ain’t just dreams, like there’s some kind of… I dunno… realness to them. Huh.”

Aaliyah was looking at the other woman, Alice, quite intently. She was staring, really, and not in a way Eresthanon would have called friendly. Glowering might have been a more appropriate term.

Alice, for her part, was trying to meet Aaliyah’s gaze but kept glancing away.

“It’s- it’s more complicated than that,” the young drakus said. “Most times… most times our dreams are tiny, self-contained universes, everyone and everything inside nothing more than a… a diaphanous construct — an illusion — our own thoughts given a gossamer coat.”

“If you can hurt people in a dream and cause other things to happen, as well, then that doesn’t exactly sound like a coat made of cobwebs, does it?” Aaliyah insisted.

“What’s all this about?” Barrett asked, looking between the two women. “Is there something going on I should know about?”

“Nothing that’s any of your business, old man,” Aaliyah snapped, turning her attention to Barrett. “Speaking of business, let’s get back to business.” She stopped to take a breath, then continued. “So, you got this magic book that can track down your dear leader, only someone else had it. It gets stolen from them who had it and suddenly your people are getting attacked all over the city. But it’s not just any lizard getting jumped, it’s tourists. People from out of town. People no one’s ever seen before. Tell me if I said anything you disagree with so far.”

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“It’s a decent summary, though a bit sparse on the details for my tastes,” Barrett acknowledged.

“The whole thing raises the question: why now?” Aaliyah said. “What changed that made this book such a juicy target and has people trying to roll drakus all of a sudden?”

Barrett had an excellent poker face, so he wasn’t giving much away by holding his tongue, but he also wasn’t playing the game alone. Alice wasn’t nearly as skilled at keeping her emotions from showing and she was clearly worried about the direction Aaliyah was taking the conversation.

Unfortunately, Eresthanon realized, the dynamic between the Quaesitor and the two drakus so far meant their backs were up. They might not know the Drakon was a suspect in the raid on the chantry, but they were unlikely to share anything unless they absolutely had to as long as Aaliyah was asking the questions.

“The Vigiles Creaturae isn’t a mundane law enforcement agency, so there are limits to what we can offer,” Eresthanon said, trying to sound as reasonable as he could. “That doesn’t mean we can’t provide some measure of assistance, especially if your people are in danger. The hired guns hunting for drakus out on the streets are reckless about keeping the secret and very likely willing to kill. We’d like to put a stop to that, but there’s only so much we can do without your cooperation.”

“What kind of cooperation are you looking for here?” Barrett asked.

“My suggestion would be protective custody, but initiated in a way that is public enough word would spread,” Eresthanon offered. “If all these mercenaries — and their employers — believe we have their target in custody, the attacks will likely cease.”

Barrett rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “Saying we went along with it, which we’re not likely to do, there’s still a glaring problem with your plan — who’s their target supposed to even be?”

The denial, despite being very plausibly delivered, was still completely transparent. Eresthanon hadn’t expected Barrett to admit they had a Primus Draconis and wasn’t bothered by the evasion, but it was enough to make Aaliyah snap at the old drakus waspishly.

“Oh cut the bullshit, Barrett,” she spat. “You found your damned Primus and now the city’s turning into a fucking warzone with people trying to find and merk them. Add to that someone snatching up this magic book that can track your new big cheese and you’re gonna sit there and turn your nose up at us when we come offering to help? Screw you, pal.”

“Alright, you want to get real?” Barrett said, his tone taking on a harsher edge. “Then let’s get real. Even if we have found our Primus — after all these years, and I’m not confirming that’s the case right now — you think we’d ever put our trust in the Vigiles Creaturae to help keep them safe? You think we want you even knowing who they are?”

“So you’re just going to let things escalate?” Aaliyah shot back. “And what are you going to do about your magic book? Take a nap and dream for the best?”

Alice abruptly stood up from her seat, cheeks flushed and breathing heavily.

“We’re not helpless, even without the grimoire,” she said in a rush. “You obviously don’t care about how dreams or oneiromancy work, so why don’t you just butt out?” The redhead dithered on the spot for a moment, then she turned to Eresthanon. “I hope I was of some help for your investigation, Mr. Eresthanon, and I apologize for my outburst.”

She sketched a very small and awkward bow to him and then, with a final apologetic look at Barrett, left the conference room.

Aaliyah watched her leave, breathing quickly through her nose and with a puckered grimace on her face. The Quaesitor turned back to Barrett, her face a thunderhead.

The drakus cut her off before she could speak. “I assume the theft of The Sleeping Dragon involved some pretty gruesome stuff, and I further assume you think the Drakon might be the culprit,” he said. “That’s fine, think what you want about us, but consider this — if I’d had my people recover that book, do you really think it would be obvious it had been taken? Or that there wouldn’t be half a dozen false trails pointing in other directions?”

“It could’ve been short notice,” Aaliyah scoffed. “You know how these things go, shit like this all tends to come together at the same time. Call it fluke, fate, or fuckery; it is what it is.”

Barrett chuckled. “That’s fair. Magic has a flair for the dramatic, so the hidden world doesn’t work quite the same as the mundane. Even still, you think I haven’t had convincing forgeries and replicas ready to swap for the real deal if I ever found it? If that book was stolen yesterday — and I assume it was — that means you found out it was missing almost immediately. I’m not that sloppy.”

“You’re making a lot of assumptions, old man, and you know what they say about assumptions.”

“We’re both of us asses already, Aaliyah,” Barrett replied. “Figured you’d’ve figured that out by now.”

“You’re hiding something,” Aaliyah said.

“I’m hiding a great many things,” he replied. “I am Oz, the great and god damned powerful, and the last thing you should want these days is to see behind my curtain.”

Barrett rose from his seat and the vigilum followed suit. “If you truly want to make strides in showing your order has turned over a new leaf, there’s two things you can do: first, don’t go trying to play mercenary and track down this hypothetical Primus; and second, recover that book and return it to us… without trying to steal its secrets for yourselves.”

The door to the conference room opened, revealing Samuel, the young man who’d shown them to the conference room earlier. Aaliyah clearly had more she wanted to say to Barrett, but it was clear the meeting was over and she held her peace. The two vigilum were escorted back to the lounge and then to the tunnel, returning them to the Flea Theatre.

Aaliyah didn’t say a single word for two blocks, marching along in a funk of annoyance and frustration. She didn’t open her mouth until they were back on Broadway and walking into a deli not far from City Hall. Even then, she only spoke to order an egg and bacon platter. Eresthanon, seeing she was still fuming, ordered a bagel with lox and waited. After sitting down and taking a few bites, his partner finally deigned to speak to him.

“So what was all that about August whatever and Saxony?” Aaliyah asked. “From when the book was stolen in the first place.”

Eresthanon glanced around the busy deli. It didn’t seem like the best place for a confidential discussion on their investigation.

“Can we speak freely here?”

Aaliyah waved a hand dismissively. “Oh no, yeah, I got my cube thing under my thigh on the chair but we’re also right between City Hall and the federal building. This whole block’s basically a dead zone for scrying and whatnot.”

“It was a note of historical interest, which Mr. Freeman confirmed. That the theft occurred at the same time as the launch of the Prussian offensive into Saxony, which was the effective beginning of the Seven Years’ War. Since we are discussing tactics, perhaps you would enlighten me as to your strategy in the interview?”

Aaliyah’s cheeks bulged as she slowly blew air out through her teeth. “Yeah, no, I’m sorry. I let myself get caught up in all the baggage and bullshit. If I could’ve played it a bit cooler, we might’ve been able to get Barrett to let something slip that incriminated him in stealing the book.”

“You remain convinced the Drakon had something to do with it?”

“Look, there’s probably nobody who knows those snakes as well as I do that isn’t a member of their little club, okay?” Aaliyah said. “Don’t let the down-home bullshit snow you — that old man is just about the most wily, ruthless, bastard-coated bastard with bastard filling out there. He wasn’t lying when he said he wouldn’t have done such a messy job to get that book and, under normal circumstances, I’d agree. But I don’t think these are normal circumstances. I think he was under the gun and didn’t have time to pull out all his tricksy snake bullshit.”

Eresthanon couldn’t quite bring himself to agree with Aaliyah’s reasoning, but he had no alternative theories at the moment. Barrett had definitely been withholding something and since she was both his superior officer and more experienced in the field, he decided to follow her lead. That didn’t mean he was without questions.

“I think it would be prudent if you gave me some insight into your background with the Drakon,” Eresthanon said. “There was clearly more than passing familiarity and if they’re going to be at the center of this case, I feel it’s important not to leave me in the dark.”

Aaliyah continued to eat her breakfast in silence for a few long moments, then she sighed deeply and said, “Alice and I were… involved. We were together for a couple years and it was pretty serious. So, naturally, when it went bad, it went real bad.”

There was still a lot being left unsaid, but Eresthanon knew better than to push, at least for now. He could tell it had taken a real effort for Aaliyah to share even that much of her personal life.

“What is our next move?” he asked, changing the subject enough (he hoped) to alleviate his partner’s discomfort.

“We’re going to need either ammunition or leverage if we want those stubborn-ass serpents to budge,” she said. “We’ll keep working the chantry case, but we are going to pounce on anyone Khaldun’s response teams catch throwing down. Hopefully, we’ll bag us a dragon.”