He blinked at her, completely surprised by that statement. „Dragons. As in dragons? Like the ones from the stories? Big lizards with wings?“, he asked, dumbfounded. He was so surprised he forgot to keep quiet, something Vuthe had to remedy with a little bit of her own magic.

A spike of anger flickered through her and shown in her eyes. „We’re not lizards!“, she hissed in a low growl, forcing the bartender to take a step back in fear. She quickly schooled her expression, „I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to. However calling us lizards is an insult and a good way to end up dead.“

He nodded quickly, then looked around. „This changes things. Follow me“. Without waiting he took the ring still on the counter and moved to a backroom, and from there to what looked to be an office. It was sparsely decorated and only had a big desk in the middle, with one big chair behind it and two smaller in front, as well as a cupboard and a bookshelf.

Vuthe followed him without word, curious as to whatever he had in mind. This was much more than she expected to happen. And slowly she started regretting even telling him. Maybe this was a bit much for a first week. Oh well, nothing to be done about it now, she thought to herself.

The old Dogkin sat down in the bigger chair and leaned back, rubbing his forehead with one of his paws. Sighing he looked at her for a moment, before he spoke, „This… Is going to be intressting. We haven’t had any dragons about. Honestly, I haven’t even heard of them existing. Not that I’m surprised you do exist, more that you are here. You said you are currently located in the old industreal area, yeah?“

Vuthe could very well feel the different emotions running through his aura. Suspicion, relief, disbelief, horror, hope. She couldn’t understand why he felt half of it, but they were there. „Indeed. And we intend to remain there for the time being, as long as we can find a way to obtain food and resources. Honestly, we literally just arrived here the other day and will need some time to settle in and get used to everything. You spoke of a Council, can we expect some form of communication or is this more like noting down residence?“

The room was silent for a moment as the old Dogkin visibly sorted his thoughts, „Well, they will send someone to clarify everything once they got your files settled, but outside of that not really. Announcements are distributed either by magical messages or runner, but they mostly just make sure the magic world is hidden, people are safe, and the norms remain none-the-wiser. The Council itself isn’t part of the Government, they let us mostly police ourselves as long as we stick to the rules and don’t make trouble. They don’t have the time or people to oversee us. Not that it's necessary with the Overwatch Agreement. They don’t need to do jack all and still keep apprised of everything“, he snarled, clearly unhappy.

The Dragon Queen thought for a moment, contemplating if now would be the right time to ask about it. After a moment she decided it was. She was already taking risks and that small little thing wasn’t too much of an issue, she hoped.

„You mentioned the Overwatch before. What is that exactly?“, she asked, leaning back in her chair and looking him straight in the eyes, curious as to the answer.

He gave her an odd look, „Uhm… Pardon me, but how the hell do you NOT know that?“, he asked, carefully. It seemed he was at least treating her claim to be a dragon with a little bit of respect.

She shook her head, „For the moment I would rather not answer that question, if that is alright with you. Let's just say I haven’t been around for atleast the past few decades“. She kept her face and voice neutral and carefully cautious.

For a moment longer he looked a little odd at her, „The Overwatch Agreement from 2025 was a global thing. No matter where you were you should have heard about it. For the past fourty years there has been a debate on wether or not it is even legal. Surely you have heard atleast mention of it?“

This was curious news atleast. If the Agreement came into being in 2025 and it'd been fourty years since, than it'd been roughly fourty five to fifty years since they had vanished. Of course that would depend on how accurate the fourty year comment of his was.

On the one hand that was great news. That meant friends and family were still alive. On the other it didn’t make any bloody sense. Sure she knew that different worlds often ran at different speeds, but this kind of time dialation was ridicilous. Fifty years to three thousand years…

She sighed, „Look, child. I’ve been gone for a long, long time. Longer than would even make any sense to you. To make it easier for you to understand my situation, let'ss just say I’ve just found out magic was real, while also learning a lot of magic in my absence. I know it's confusing as hell, but please don’t ask any further. All will be explained in due time, but before I feel comfortable doing that I need to talk to my friends and settle in. They will already have my head for me being so open with our presence. Talk to me like you talk to someone who has just awoken from a coma they’ve been in since 2019 and has been just told that magic is real.“

His frown deepend, but he nodded, „Alright… I just hope this won’t bite me in the tail at some point…“, he mumbled, settling himself a little more comfortable and began taking documents out of one of the drawers.

„It won’t, I promise you. Atleast not from our end. So, whats this Overwatch Agreement and why is it so important?“, she asked, getting up and pacing. She needed to move. All the new things she learned made everything only more complicated.

He checked a sigh, slowly shaking his head, „I can’t bloody believe you don’t know about it… Okay, so here is the cliffnotes version. In 2025 it was agreed that surveilance had to be massively increased after people started to vanish. Normally nobody would really care much, people vanish everyday. To the norms nobody really understood why that meant a sudden increase in surveilance. And not a small one. Everything is monitored these days. Reason they did that was that the disappearances were magical in nature. Rumors has it some powerful spells quite literally stole people from the street.“

Hearing that Vuthe froze, body and thoughts coming to a screeching halt. „What?“, she asked, despite herself. Before he could answer she continued, „Who were the people? How many? Where were they from?“

The Dogkin gave her a curious look before he answered, „Uhm. I know of twelve, all between fourteen to twenty four, although there was one who was over thirty I think. They were from all over the world actually, if the rumor mill is to be believed. And I know for a fact someone was from this city. My mothers had been friends with the sister of the girl that vanished.“

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

Vuthe turned to look at him, hard, but she didn’t speak. Her mind was racing and she didn’t trust her voice at this moment.

„Nobody knew who was doing it or where they went to. Some believed they were killed although I can’t see it. See, there was nothing left after they went poof. Like, not even the departed Souls could be found. Of course, nobody could find out more, with nothing left, although I heard a rumor a while back that the police found traces of some spatial spell of some kind. If they did they never publicised it," he said, shrugging.

Vuthe snorted, „Fucking ‘course they wouldn’t. Spatial magic is one hell of a tool. Probably the most dangerous thing there is, if used correctly. Well, maybe outside light and dark, depending on circumstances“. She shook her head, then pulled herself up to her full height, „Do you know the person in this city that vanished? Name, age, appearance?“

She was almost completely certain it was her. But she needed confirmation. If more people vanished than they had thought that might impact their plans. If they could return lateron as well, they needed to make sure that their roots were settled in and they could shield themselves from potential fallouts.

„Yeah, like I said. Her name was Rin Savart, a fifteen year old girl in high school. I have a picture of her somewhere when I was asked to keep an eye out for her“, he said, before raising an eyebrow, „Why the sudden intrest?“

Vuthe took a deep breath. She had suspected it, yet it was still good to hear it. Closing her eyes for a moment she tried to calm her racing mind. She needed to make rational choices. „I will explain in a moment. Who asked you to keep an eye out for her?“

„Well, my mother. Like I said, she was friends with Rin's Sister, Scarlet, and she asked me. Why is that important?“, he grew increasingly cautious, which did make sense since the weird questions just kept coming. From someone who claimed she hadn’t been around here for a while.

„Because…“, she stopped herself, unsure if she should reveal it. At the moment there wasn’t much harm in it. But she also just met the man. She couldn’t know what he would do with that information. Her rational mind told her to leave and think all of this over with her friends. They had just returned, not even a full week ago, and now she was already making decisions. Bad enough that she had told someone where they were. Was she really certain this was a good idea?

The emotional part of her screamed at her to tell him, to maybe find out a way to contact her family, to get back all that she lost when she was stolen away not only from her family and home, but even her own world.

In the end the choice was made for her. The old Dogkin seemed quite sharp, as he finally began to connect the dots. While she had pushed her height and figure a little, her facial features still remained the same despite the illusion. She had told him when she was last present and if he knew when exactly they vanished, which was quite likely if his mother was a friend of her sister indeed, that worked out. Not to mention the line of questions she had asked. The only problem was her claim for a race and where they had gone to and the way she introduced herself.

„Wait, hold on“, he said, sitting up and starring at her, „You look an awful lot like her, now that I think about it. Where has she gone to? Are you her daughter or something?“

Well, it was the more logical approach Vuthe supposed. Between how long it has been and her differences from before. She sighed defeatedly, dismissed her illusion with a snap of her finger, and clad herself in her usual royal dress.

„No, I’m not. I am, in fact, Rin Savart. Or I used to be, before… just before. I won’t tell you what happened, where I went to, or why I’m back now. At least not now. I need to talk to my friends about that, but I would guess that you will be informed soon. Suffice to say I am back, we are back, or at least a few of us. If your claim that twelve people went missing is correct than I only know of five, me included“, she said, looking him deep in the eyes, „All you need to know is that five of us are back, and that we have… changed. Like I said earlier, I am a Dragon, a Trueblooded Shadow Dragon“, she explained, letting loose her control and shifting into her full hybrid form.

The room went nearly pitchblack as her aura and her magic ran rampant, shrowding everything in darkness. Only her purple glowing eyes were still visible. She made sure to exclude the Dogkin from the horror effect her aura had. She was certain that this amount of her aura would give anyone a heart attack. From within the shadows formed an illusion of her dragon snout that glowed behind her in a fading black.

He would feel the pressure of her presence, the sheer overwhelming feeling of having an Apex Predator at the top of her game stare straight into his eyes. But he would not feel the overwhelming dread that her kind was known for.

After a moment she let it fade, sighed deeply once more, and fell back into her chair, arms dangling to either side while she stared at the ceiling. This was much more than she expected on her first day in her hometown.

Now that she thought about it, this was all strangely convinient. First they appeared near her old hometown. Then she went to a bar for information, which conviniently wass owned or atleast staffed by the son of one of her sister's friends, who just so happened to be a non-human catching her attention, and who just so happened to know about her.

If she didn’t know any better she thought she was in a badly written story. At this point she wouldn’t be surprised if she found out she had to save the world or some such. While most of her people thought she had done that already, she thought differently. In her opinion the conquest of Satien was not saving the world. It was just giving into the lesser evil. People had died in the millions, maybe even billions over the years. There was a reason some called her the Bloody Queen.

The bartender was completely taken aback by both her claims and her display of raw magical power. For him it felt like the world itself eclipsed into the endless abyss of darkness for a moment.

While she was lost in thought he shakily got up from the ground, where he had found himself after coming face to face with… well her.

„Uhm… Miss Vuthe… Uh…“, he mumbled, his entire body shaking as he sat back down in his chair, taking deep breaths to calm himself down. This had been one of the most harrowing experiences in his life.

She shook herself out of her current funk, giving him an apologetic look, „Yes? By the by, you still haven’t told me your name“, she said, only now realising she’d been too caught up in the moment.

„Uh, yes. Call me Devin. In any case, Miss Vuthe, I…“, he broke off, obviously looking for the right words, although she wasn’t sure if it was because he didn’t want to offend her or if he genuinely didn’t know how to formulate whatever it was he wanted to say. From his expression however she suspected it to be the former, which was reasonable enough. Not many people would try and go against her knowing what she was and what she could do. And Devin looked smart enough to realise that what she had shown him just now was not the full extent of her abilities, but only a little bit of what she could achieve if she set her mind to it.

„I apologize if I sound rude, but… I do not think people will take kindly to your… display. At least not the council. They are some of the oldest demis around, some of them already living for a few hundred years“, he explained paitiently, although she could hear the tension in his voice.

She simply nodded to that, it was a reasonable enough statement and she didn’t intend to make enemies. Truth be told, she probably shouldn’t have done it right now, but in the other world it had often helped to simply let the other party know what she could do, if only to establish that they best not cheat her or her people.

„I will inform the council about your presence. And I hope, no, I implore you not to do anything more… overt. We live hidden away and in peace. We don’t need anyone trying to pull attention to us“, he continued, looking at her with weariness in his eyes.

With an understanding nod she spoke, „Yes, that isn’t my intention. I do apologize for my actions, discussions work very differently here and… where I have been in the meanwhile. For the future I will try to be more circumspect. In any case, I believe for the moment that is it. Please forward my greetings to the Council. If they are so willing I hope to speak to them in person in the near future. For the moment my friends and I will remain in the Industrial complex to try and find our footing.“