The black dragon looked down upon this Benjamin as he had called himself, not completely certain of what to say.

“Do you mean you are one of those bards then?”

It was unlikely he was a bard given his lack of an instrument and very average-sounding voice, but they were much more likely to know spellcraft than some run-of-the-mill writer.

“No, I am THE author,” he reasserted from his sat position, “and I created everything here.”

What. Kinsoriel didn’t bother hiding the confusion from his face as he thought of what this odd man was spouting.

“Elaborate.” He ordered simply.

Benjamin stood up and waved an arm across the landscape in presentation.

“Everything that exists here, I wrote it to be so. All the creatures, all the continents, everything.”

He then turned back and pointed a finger at the dragon. “And you.”

Nothing from what he said sounded like a lie, he really believed his words. So, that’s what he was. He wasn’t some gifted mage, nor was he a genius in magical theory. He was some town reject who had wandered into his territory, and the gods took pity upon his miserable lot, blessing him immensely. That they would do something like this after centuries of inaction, to bless a deathbound of all things who would credit himself for their creations, that was just as awful an explanation. Even so, It was far more believable than… that. The fact that he was even considering such blasphemy to be the real explanation was telling.

Kinsoriel rose and started the walk back to his tower, not willing to waste any more time interacting with this strange deathbound.

“W-where are you going?” asked the madman as he struggled to follow.

“We are done here, where I go does not concern you. Farewell.”

As he pushed through the contents of the forest, he couldn’t help but notice how large the trees appeared to be. Maybe they had just grown since he had last been here. It had been a long time after all, though he wouldn’t have guessed trees could grow so quickly. Why, the height difference reminded him of when he was still maturing. His thoughts were pushed aside by the stubborn fool, still trying to keep pace with his large steps.

“What do you mean by that!? Hey, wait!”

Pathetic. This ‘Author’ had already been given his parting words, and yet he would disrespect this courtesy he was shown. There was nothing more to be said.

“Don’t you want to know more about that curse?” he screamed as he lagged more and more behind

Oh? So he did know of that then, did he? While he no longer felt that sickly sapping of his strength, gathering knowledge of real dangers was always worth pause. A wise dragon is an impervious one after all.

“Speak while I deign to listen.” said the dragon, halted in his tracks.

Finally having closed the distance, the loon lightly coughed.

“Man, you walk fast. Alright, so, that curse that was cast upon you, it’s still there right?”

Was it? He certainly couldn’t feel it if it were the case. Even if it were a dormant thing, he had more than enough experience in detecting them. Well, more so making them, but still.

“No, I don’t believe it is.”

The man snapped his finger and pointed toward Kinsoriel with a disgustingly smug smirk

“Oh, but it is my scaly friend. It has bound itself to your very being. Haven’t you noticed everything looks bigger than usual?”

Before he could emphasize just how far from friends they were, he took another look around him. Though he didn’t think too much of it in passing, everything was larger. Even this deathbound was a lot bigger than what he was accustomed to. He had been shrunk.

“Yeah, that was just part of what the curse was supposed to do. Right now, I’d say you're about half your size.”

If what he said was accurate, Kinsoriel was once again the size of a young adult. Perhaps he should be thankful he hadn’t been made the size of a hatchling, but this was an insult the likes of which he had never felt before. While this stoked his anger, he caught on to the man’s choice of words

“What the curse was supposed to do?” he repeated.

“Yeah, but uh… um… you stopped it before it could be finished by grabbing me!”

This ‘Author’, like every other deathbound before him, was not very good at lying. He was playing dumb, which against one apt at picking up deceptions, was actually dumb.

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“The curse. what. was. it. supposed. to do?” spat out the annoyed dragon, making sure every word was crystal clear.

With a much less confident demeanor that bordered on meek, Benjamin softly muttered, “Turn you into a human…”

Kinsoriel blinked his eyes once, then twice, slowly processing the horrid words that had been spewed before him.

“WHHAAAAAAAT!!!???” He roared out, startling everything in the immediate area. Just who could envision cruelty of that scale? Death would be preferable to such torture, that was something he could understand. Mortals always sought to bring down their betters, it was a behavior he had come to expect. But that? To taint a dragon with inevitable death? Force them to become a being devoid of all their divine gifts? He had to consciously hold his impulses back, lest he break his promise in violent fashion.

The little author, clutching his little fleshy ears, was quick to recover in the face of a seething dragon.

“I can help you get rid of it though! Not only that but also make sure you’ll be safe against it in the future!”

This certainly helped calm down the dragon, but he wasn’t satisfied in the slightest.

“Why should I believe you? You claim yourself to be this ‘Author’ who made everything, and yet I see nothing of such power from you, save for a spell you probably had no hand in making.”

He gestured his hands in a sarcastic, welcoming way.

“By all means, you show me what you can do oh god of gods! I’m waiting!”

The human sighed and put a hand on the back of his head.

“I can’t right now.” he admitted reluctantly. Of course.

“And why is that?” asked the dragon, intent on breaking down this fool’s misplaced pride.

“I don’t have my book, alright!”

Not really the answer he was anticipating, nor one he had a response for.

“What?” asked the dragon earnestly.

“The book of this world, the thing that allows me to make anything happen, I don’t have it. I think I dropped it when you grabbed me." He put a hand on his chin and muttered under his breath, "Somehow.”

It was almost scary how this man could believe in his own delusions to such a degree.

“We can go back to your tower, then I’ll show you what I can do. Is that fine enough for you?”

While he still didn’t believe a shred of what was said, it wasn’t as though he had much to gain by denying this request. He could use the trip to extract more information out of this idiot, he certainly seemed like the type to blather on if he would be allowed. And of course, blessed idiot or not, any deathbound that dared make a joke of him would have their fated deaths come even swifter. When he had an appropriate way to exact his revenge, having him within reach would make it even easier. The more he thought about it, the better it sounded.

“I see no reason to refuse. You are given the honor of assisting me for now, so relish it.”

With a clap of the hands, Benjamin said “Great! Let’s get this story back on track then, shall we?”

Kinsoriel lightly chortled with a little tuft of fire escaping his maw, finding the absurdity of the situation somewhat amusing. Thus, he resumed the trek back to his tower, now with this insane little tagalong he had with him. With any amount of luck, it wouldn’t last very long.

For one with the power to do just about anything in this world, one he made and dictated the rules of mind you, Benjamin certainly didn’t feel like it right about now. More the opposite. Just what went so wrong that this situation even came about? Was it when he decided to have a front seat at the beginning of this adventure? This was never a problem before, he had always tried to be up close and hands-on when it came to important parts of his stories, in any and every setting he had made.

Maybe inserting himself so directly under the guise of Fayten was to blame. He couldn’t deny that speaking straight into Arfael’s ear was much more fun for him. But could his decision to do that be what is to blame? No, his status as this world’s Author should still prevent that, and nobody else saw him standing right next to them anyhow. Unless he willed it, nobody should have been able to touch him either.

All of this pondering on the how and why wouldn’t change what had already been done; he had not only been seen by his main character, but he had directly interacted with him. If that wasn’t bad enough, he also spilled the beans as to who he was in some stupid attempt to get him to do what he was told. To be fair to himself, it wasn’t as though he could lie either. Of all the multitudes of characters he could get questioned by, it just had to be the one he gave the inbuilt bs detector. If any of the others within the Infinite Library heard of this, he’d never live it down. Especially if it went all the way to Father himself.

Thankfully though, this was still the start of the story. Kinsoriel was still very much a haughty jerkass, still close-minded. Thinking about what could have happened if he did believe him, it made him internally wince. All he had to do was get his book, then he could just revert everything to the way it was supposed to be.

Other than the unpleasant reptile at his side, it wasn’t so bad to be taking a walk in such a peaceful environment. The Gairem Split, once the territory of Ortremel, was a grand mountain range that was lush with life. It was supposed to be a place that came up later in the book as Kinsoriel’s new base, somewhere in the middle. Coming to terms with what he lost in more ways than one, and building back up from scratch. It'll be a great sequence once everything's square, a nice emotional moment.

Wait a second, they were here already? It dawned on the Author that they were not where they were supposed to be. Swift Exit was supposed to go haywire, flinging Kinsoriel to another continent. On the one hand, that would be really bad for him at this very moment. Since he was still a full dragon, the other main characters that would be meeting him about now would either flee or fight him. It would also mean that the book would be stuck half a world away. Not good at all.

But on the other hand, being here meant that they actually weren’t very far away, and they had gone where the dragon had wanted. Which meant that right about now Kinsoriel’s tower was-

Suddenly, both he and his main character looked to the sky. There was a black plume of smoke tinted with blues and purples, and the smell of burning books clung to the air. This, this wasn’t supposed to be seen! Warily, Benjamin looked over to the dragon, who had a thousand-yard stare.

“Tower… My… Tower.” He said in a soft tone, more for himself than Benjamin

His entire body tensed up, almost trembling. His usual expression had contorted and shifted into one of pure anger. Through bared teeth, he said in the lowest of tones, “MY… TOWER.”

With that, he took to the sky like a bullet of wrath, leaving Benjamin to chase after him. The longer everything kept going like this, the harder it would be to fix. And if something were to happen to the book… Oh dear. He could only hope that he would find his book before things got even further out of hand.