Blake just looked at them in suspicion. „My brothers vanished into thin air and haven’t been seen since. Why would I believe you?“, he asked, his rifle half raised, but still pointed away from any of them.
His response was no surprise to anyone. Really, Vuthe would have been startled and suspicious if he had just accepted such a bold claim out of hand. Devin had taken her return better, but that was most likely due to him being already quite involved in the matter. And from what she understood he heard quite a few things in his day. Civilians were often far more accepting than the military, which was most likely due to the fact that they weren’t tasked with defending the people. And because the Military often liked to think of themselves in control.
Castaphiel nodded, „Well, yeah. We did depart rather abruptly and without much say in the matter. Summoning Magic often is used without asking for consent, as sad as is it“, he shook his head, „But I see that dad at least got the Soldier Son he wanted. And a Major at that? You did us proud, Brother“, he added with a smile.
Blake tried to look calm, but Vuthe could see the desperate hope and disbelief in his eyes. He was fighting an inner battle between rational and emotion. „I need some proof that you are who you claim you are“, he said, his voice shaking.
Corellanium Nodded, „Sure. I can appreciate your caution, brother. What can we do for you to believe us?“, he said with a smile. The lanky man looked so unlike either of his other brothers yet seemed to fit right in regardless.
„I’ve never met you before. You have to talk to my mom and dad. If they believe you I believe you“, Blake said, then shook his head, „But that isn’t why I’m here“, he said trying to get back on track. It was quite obvious to everyone present that he had to force himself back on track, his conflicting emotions leaking out of his aura so strongly it would have been impossible for any of the dragons to ignore them even if they tried to.
Vuthe nodded, „Of course not. You were sent by the government to investigate the area which was a massive blank space on your radar“, Vuthe said, recounting what Vixus had managed to find out. It wasn’t the whole story, but it was close enough to be a reasonably certain guess.
Blake blinked then nodded, unsure if to look at Vuthe or his supposed brothers, „Yeah… How’d you know?“, momentarily surprised by her blatant admission.
Vuthe chuckled, „Do you think we just block you out without thinking of the consequences of such actions? We are dragons, we live long enough to know how the world works“, she said with a smile.
„Yeah, for that I need proof too“, he said, standing a little straighter, obviously trying to calm himself down and presenting himself as in control, even if everyone know he wasn’t.
Vuthe nodded and waved to Tizanta, „Dear, would you be so kind and proof my word to the good Major?“, she said, her eyes not looking away from Blake. Tizanta nodded, before her form distorted, as if reality itself broke down around her. The distortion grew and grew until it was in the general shape of a Serpent, which then solidified into reality. Tizanta was the biggest of draconics in Vuthe’s army. Not surprising, since she was an Astral Serpent. Serpents in general were slightly bigger than their Dragon Counterparts, and Astral Serpents in general were the biggest of all the draconics. The only thing that outshone them were the Apocalypse Dragons, although that heavily depended on the Individual in question. She stood at thirty meters to the height of her back when upright, a good hundred and twenty meters long, and with a wingspan of a good hundred and eighty meters. Her long neck was raised up high, her four night-sky eyes, two pairs of two, looking down to the Major. Her scales were the same color of the night-sky as her draconic features were, and in general, she looked like a stereotypical Eastern Dragon.
Vuthe could see the soldiers tense in the distance, ready to engage, but she wasn’t worried. She hadn’t found any threatening weapons in their arsenal. Blake stared up at Tizanta in disbelief, utterly shocked. „What the…“, he mumbled, ready to attack. He and his two soldiers had raised their rifles subconsciously, but so far none had attacked yet.
„Is this proof enough?“, Tizanta spoke in a deep, yet somehow still melodic voice, that rumbled through the forest. She lowered her ten-meter-long head until it was a few meters off the ground, closer to the Major.
He took a few attempts to get some words out, before he finally spoke, „Ye-Yeah… This is, uh… This is proof enough, I think“, he mumbled and Tizanta chuckled. It sounded like a barrage of seventeen-century battleship cannons.
A moment later she returned to her Hybrid form, leaving the Soldiers stunned. „Now that that is out of the way“, Vuthe said, and waved to the still untouched chairs for the soldiers, „Would you mind if we go back to business?“
He nodded, dumbfounded, and lowered his gun. It dawned on him that his weaponry was entirely useless against the group of people in front of him. „Yeah…“, he said and sat down, taking a few deep, calming breaths.
Vuthe nodded, „We have no intention of becoming your enemies. We just returned a few weeks ago, and am still unsure about the local situation. We have made contact with the local council, or at least let them know we are present, but so far, we haven’t had any direct dealings with them. I do expect that to change soon, however“, she explained.
„Returned from where, exactly?“, Blake asked with a troubled expression. It was a testament to his mental fortitude and training that he managed to still keep his head in the game after all the frankly absurd revelations he had just gone through. Vuthe appreciated people like him, they got the job done, and she mentally marked him as a good contact for the future.
She sighed. „Let’s begin with the suspicious disappearance of the twelve people fifty years back that the Overwatch so conveniently wiped from the records. If I don’t miss my guess, and I’m nearly certain I don’t, we are five of these people. I used to be called Rin Savart, Calagrophy’s former name is Katarina Erin, and of course, there are your two brothers, Blight and Micheal Durr. Tizanta kept her former name from me, but to me, it is of no consequence either way“, she began, the three soldiers looking at her shocked.
While she hadn’t wanted to reveal all this to Devin, Vuthe and the Council at large had decided to reveal this to the governmental body, mostly as an appetizer for future dealings. They had the knowledge and experience to change life fundamentally, and they hoped that with this knowledge the government would be more likely to cooperate with them, hoping to get something useful out of the newly arrived group.
Personally, Vuthe would have waited a little longer before revealing such crucial information, but the others had overruled her, and it did have its merits. At least, if everything went the way they hoped.
Otherwise, they might need to be a lot more forceful.
„You’re Rin Savart?“, one of the Soldiers asked, stunned. His voice was more youthful than his appearance would suggest, and Vuthe was mildly surprised to hear it.
„Indeed I am. Now I go by Vuthe de Thal however, like I said“, she settled herself a little more comfortable in her chair, „When we vanished we were summoned into a different world and reborn as Dragons, or in Tizanta’s case, a Serpent. It took us nearly three thousand years to return here, during which we had to fight for our survival pretty much on a daily basis.“
Blake interrupted by raising his hands, „Hang on. As you just said, they vanished just Fifty years ago. How can you have spent three thousand years over there? How can you even live that long?“
Vuthe nodded, „A valid point. To answer the last question first, us Dragons don’t die from natural causes. We are, essentially, immortal. To answer your other question, you need to discard all you know about the Universe and Reality. Different Worlds exist, and each of them runs at a different speed of time. Earth is actually one of the slower ones, from the ones that I know of.“
Blake frowned, „I think its best you explain that to my superiors. This is highly important and theoretical information to which I’m not privy enough“, he said, crossing his arms.
Vuthe nodded. „I am not against the motion, if you can setup a conversation“, she said with a wave of her hand. She had actually hoped to be able to talk to someone higher up in the chain of command, if only to figure out more of the political games and ways to avoid them.
He nodded, and pulled out a phone, that was obviously magical. It looked normal enough to the naked eye, but the ritual circles on its back and the magical energy coursing through it, revealed it as anything but. „If you don’t mind I can contact them now.“
Vuthe nodded in curiosity, and Blake tapped on the screen. Afterwards he placed it in the middle of the table, and a holographic interface appeared, hovering over it. It was a three-dimensional image of a woman. „Major Blake. For what purpose are you contacting me? Are you not in the middle of a mission? Did something happen?“, the woman asked. She looked to be in her late twenties, pretty without being beautiful and looked to be taking very good care of herself.
Blake saluted, „Ma’am. I am here as ordered and have made contact with a group of people claiming to be five individuals of the twelve that vanished fifty years back. After conversing with them I have been able to confirm that they are no longer human, with concrete proof that they are, as they call themselves, draconic beings, after being reincarnated into a different world. I have yet to confirm their claims of being those five people from fifty years ago. Of important note is that they are also not alone. It appears that they have a camp of more people with them, but I am unsure of their numbers. Their Leader, who claims to be Rin Savart, would like to talk to you“, he said. Vuthe could hear the underlying tone of warning in his voice.
The woman’s eyes narrowed, and Blake waved his hand to turn around the Interface, and the holographic image of the woman to face Vuthe. „Good Day, Ma’am“, Vuthe said with a nod.
The woman looked her over, „My name is Celine Erilith. Who might you be?“, the woman asked. She kept her tone neutral and her expression calm.
„I am the Shade Dragon Vuthe de Thal, the Dragon Queen of Thelvadore“, Vuthe introduced herself, „Formerly known as Rin Savart“
The woman’s eyes narrowed. „So, you are the Mad Queen? I was wondering if our contact was telling the truth.“
Vuthe froze, her expression growing cold. Over the past few weeks, she had thought of a lot of reasons why the government would be suspicious of them and how to rectify those, but not once did she consider that they knew of her acts in the other world. After all, who would think that people in another dimension would know about your actions?
This revelation shocked Vuthe, and she went straight to DEFCON 1. With just one statement this situation went from zero to a hundred and she was just about ready to blow up everyone and everything to safeguard her people.
Her nickname, of course, was nothing new to her. And while she didn’t like it, she could understand where it was coming from. She had decimated entire countries, murdered people in the billions and destroyed more or less every ruling body that existed in Satien.
Trying for calm and desperately trying to hide the killing intent she was experiencing she spoke coldly, „And how, pray tell, would you know that name, Miss Erilith?“
The woman didn’t show any signs of emotions, her expression still calm and neutral. „That is highly classified information I am afraid. Suffice it to say that someone from your world has come over to warn us about you and your conquests of their world.“
The other Reincarnators were now on edge, every single one of them poised to strike. The tension was palpable, and the three soldiers looked uneasy. Vuthe nodded once, a minimal acknowledgement to what Celine had said, „I suspect, if he told us about me in that vein, that it is a former noble, responsible for enslaving over half of the population of the other world. It may just be possible, Miss Erilith, that you are missing crucial information about the politics of Satien in that case. There is only one group of people who would call me the Mad Queen, or the Bloody Queen if you prefer, and those group of people brought their fate upon themselves.“
Celine raised one eyebrow, the only reaction she showed, „And what would that crucial information be? Is it not fact that you have conquered the other world in a bloody war?“
Vuthe shook her head, trying for calm. „Miss Erilith. When I – we – arrived there, some of us were captured, drugged, tortured, and then raped. I personally had to endure five centuries of that treatment, five centuries in which my memories are hazy at best, five centuries in which I was reduced to nothing else but a drugged-up sex doll for the nobles that held all the power. Five centuries that gave me a very good idea how they treated their people. It is after that experience that I decided to do something about the wretched state of that world“, she paused, taking a deep breath, „It is correct that we conquered the world mercilessly. We killed each and every noble and royal that could not be educated. But we freed the people. People that are right here, with me, in that camp behind me. People that followed me here because the nobles, in a last desperate attempt to save their worthless lives, enacted large-scale forbidden magic and brought my draconic grandfather to that world, to eradicate all live. All because those worthless insects, these humans, couldn’t live their lives without oppressing the people.“
Vuthe had gotten more emotional towards the end, and took a few deep calming breaths until she was able to maintain her dignified appearance once more. „We liberated that world. We crushed those oppressors into nothingness. It escapes me how they managed to get here, even if it was just one single person, but they are the culprit, not the victim.“
There was a moment of silence as Celine took it all in. „We have heard quite a different story, Miss Thal. The story he had told us is that you began to kill people unprovoked to establish world dominance by force. He only narrowly escaped with the help of a powerful sorcerer to get help from somewhere else.“
Vuthe spat on the ground, „Unprovoked? I killed people unprovoked?!“, she got up, anger was written all over her face, no longer able to quell her emotions at this blatant lie. Her clothing split, revealing her body. It was covered in scars, especially her privates. Her torso looked like the painting of a mad torturer. Her chest showed multiple bite marks, both humanoid and animal. Her sides were mangled by burn marks both small and large, and it was obvious that her back was littered with whipping wounds, reaching all the way to the front of her torso. However, her crotch area looked the worst, almost not even recognizable as the part of a human body, that’s how mangled and scarred it was.
„It took me a fucking century before my body was healed enough to go relief myself without pain. That’s what they did to me. That’s the reason for my ‚unprovoked‘ attack on the nobles and royals!“, she spit out every single word, trembling with fury.
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The soldiers and Celine looked at her in horror. It was clear to anyone, no matter how inexperienced, that she endured quite a bit of punishing. Her entire body was covered in scars, big and small, ruining her otherwise pristine skin. And from what was visible the sources of those scars were myriad, from simple claws to branding irons, to even more torturous apertures
„When I arrived in the other world I was reborn a dragon. At first, I thought it was a boon, it was amazing. But it was a curse. Do you know how much damage you need to do to kill a dragon? Way too fucking much. They used that fact to inflict their crazed fantasy on me. I was nothing but a fucking toy. In a way it was a blessing that their victims were humans. At least they died relatively quickly, without suffering too much.“
She breathed heavily, seething with rage. Only after a couple of moments did she calm down enough to sit again, her clothing neatly appearing around her once more. She looked at Celine with disgust and unconcealed rage.
„Tell me again that I acted unprovoked. The people in the camp behind me had suffered the same fate, some even had it worse. We have a woman that is unable to give birth because they ripped out her reproductive organs, all just to have a fucking giggle. We have cripples and amputees that not even magic can fix, all rallying under me to end those sick bastards. If you place yourself on the side of that person, you are incidentally declaring war on me and mine, and believe me when I say may all the Gods help you, because that’s exactly the kind of help you need if you decided to protect such a twisted piece of shit.“
Celine tried to keep a calm face, but Vuthe saw the hint of fear in her eyes. „Before we make any hasty decisions“, Blake cut in, „I believe it is pertinent to collect all the information there is to get. For the time being, can we trust that you will not blindly attack the people?“, he asked Vuthe. The fear and revulsion he felt was obvious, even without needing to read his aura. A small part of Vuthe’s mind was amused by his attempts to calm the situation down. Most likely desperately fearing for his life.
It occurred to her that during her rage her control of her aura had slipped and both Blake and the soldiers with him had gotten a glimpse of the bottomless pit of mana she possessed, as well as the oppressive force her aura exuded.
Shadow Dragons were feared for their aura. A Shadow Dragon wondering around town with their aura unsuppressed ended up killing hundreds just by their presence alone. It had taken her a long time after she was finally freed to get the control she needed to interact with people without giving them a heart attack. She just wished the slave collars used on her wouldn’t completely suppress her aura…
Vuthe was still fuming, but she fought for calm, mostly for the benefit of Blake and his subordinates. „As long as me and mine are safe and you deliver the person to me, I have no intentions of starting another war. We’ve been at war for two millennia and all of us are tired of fighting. But don’t think we won’t if we have to“, she said coldly, „If you cooperate with us I am willing to share our resources and knowledge with you to improve the life of the people, both mine and yours. But I will not let me or mine be harmed by you, just because you have no idea what you are doing.“
Celine nodded, „This requires me to talk to my superiors and the governmental body of the state before I can make any decisions. For now I will make sure nobody makes any hostile moves against you, as long as you don’t do the same“.
Vuthe just spoke, neither accepting nor refusing the notion, „I think I made my bottom line clear.“
„Good. Then for now we will leave it at that. I will require your people stay where you are for the moment, until a decision has been reached“, Celine continued, visibly exhausted from this new complication.
„We have no issues with remaining here. However, we do have a need for food and resources, at least until we can make a trade deal with the local Council. All of us are demi-humans, and while we don’t need to eat, we have a sizable portion of the populace that does require food and drink. Of course, we are willing to trade in magical items and materials, since we so far have none of the local currency“, Vuthe said, already much calmer. She was still furious, but that had to wait for another time. Her people needed her, and she was the Queen. It was her job to ensure their survival and well-being.
„I’m sure we can work something out. Would you be willing to house a government contingent for ease of communication?“, Celine asked the question Vuthe was waiting for. She didn’t like it, but she was sure that she and her people had the advantage in magic and strength.
„As long as they are non-combatants I have no reason to refuse“, she replied, immediately. She had already known that this was coming and had planned accordingly. „For the time being, and until the official contingent arrived, I will allow Major Durr and his men to stay in the camp if they so choose. However, keep in mind that attacking us, even from the inside, is a foolish and suicidal attempt. We will not start any conflicts, but we will defend ourselves with full force if the need arises.“
Celine nodded, although clearly unhappy, „That is acceptable. Then that’s where we stand for the moment. I will contact you with any new information I might have in the upcoming days.“
They said their goodbyes and Blake cut the connection. Vuthe leaned back, exhausted. „And I thought we’d be done with this shit…“, she said in the common tongue of the other world, to Tizanta.
„It does appear that no matter where we go trouble follows…“, she replied in the same language.
Vuthe turned to Blake. „Major, if you wish you can stay with us to rest up for a while. We don’t have much to share, but I’m sure we can put something together“, she offered with a smile that was only partly forced.
Blake nodded, despite him being very obviously against staying. He didn’t seem to want to offend them by declining, „I appreciate the offer“, he said with a forced smile. „Although I’m sure none of my men, me included, is comfortable staying in a camp that could be a called a dragons den“, he added, with a hint of humor, that didn’t reach his eyes.
Vuthe chuckled despite herself, „Major, the day will come for humans to live with dragons and serpents on a day-to-day basis. It will take a few decades, probably centuries, for the magic on earth to become strong enough for them to be born naturally, but it’s inevitable.“
Blake frowned, „I’ll have to take your word for it“, he got up, „I’ll get my men ready to move in, if you have a place to put us.“
Vuthe got up in turn, noting that the others were still pretty tense. „We will manage. Tizanta, prepare a place for them to stay“, she ordered.
„Yes, my Queen“, Tizanta replied with a salute, before making her way back to camp.
Vuthe smiled at Blake, then at his brothers, only needing to force it partially „And I do believe once you are settled you still have a family matter to attend to. I personally need to contact my family as well, although I still don’t know how I should go about it…“, she trailed off, then shook her head. That was a problem for another time.
Blake surprised her with a genuine looking smile, „That might go faster than you want. If you are Rin Savart, your sister is CEO and owner of the biggest Security Company on the planet, the Kamikatze International Security Service.”
Vuthe blinked, her emotional turmoil forgotten for a moment. This piece of news came so out of the blue that she even forgot to hold herself in her usual dignified manner, blatantly showing her bafflement. „You what? You’re talking about Scarlet? The girl with no discipline doing an arts degree? How the hell did that happen?“, she asked, confused and surprised.
Blake chuckled, a little more comfortable with the conversation turning more innocent, „If what she said is true, its actually because of you. The day you twelve vanished she changed her future plans. She wanted to prevent something similar to happen to other families“, he explained as he turned to leave, „I’ll tell you the details later“
Vuthe just nodded, stunned. She turned to the camp and together with her friends walked back, still in thought about what she had just learned. Sure, her sister was driven, but she just couldn’t see that girl in the security industry. Well, then again, she would never have thought that one day she would be reborn as a dragon, fight a war for three thousand years and become a Queen.
Perspective: Major Blake Durr
Blakes’s good mood quickly vanished back into the back of his mind as he walked back to his group, with Sergeant Dentil and Sergeant Leen. He had already been confused when his orders came yesterday, but now he wished he wouldn’t have to be the one to come here.
Truth be told, Blake was confused and scared, as much as he hated to admit it. The news about his brothers, if they were true, came so out of the blue he didn’t know what to think. He did never meet them, of course, but he did hear about them a lot.
But, to his utter bafflement, that wasn’t even the worst news. He had been briefed about the Mad Queen, as part of the upper ranks of the military it was his duty to keep an eye out. He would never have believed that he would one day meet her. And if he had any reason to, he would have ran for the hills.
Their contact had severely understated the absolutely oppressive presence she had, and he almost felt like her rage was physically hurting him. He just hoped all this would be resolved very quick.
„What should we do now, Major?”, Sergeant Dentil asked, obviously quite rattled himself.
„Now? We hope they won’t eat us“, he replied sourly. He hated his assignment and wished he would be back home.
Yet, he couldn’t wait to find out more about his supposed brothers.
Blake was born around fifteen years after they vanished from the face of the universe, with his younger sister being born six years after. Both of them had heard multiple stories about the two missing brothers, but for him it had always been a kind of detached thing. He knew they had existed, but he much preferred focusing on his own carrier as a soldier.
Which is why it felt even more like a jolt to know they were back, and from another world on top of that. It just felt completely surreal and he had no idea how to deal with it.
When they arrived back at the rest of the troops, his soldiers saluted, which he returned.
„Okay everyone, get your gear ready. We are quite literally walking into a dragons den. I don’t want to hear any complaints! We are here to make sure that these dragons don’t do something stupid!“, Blake ordered with much more confidence than he actually felt, trying to hype himself up more than his men.
It was a futile effort, but he kept trying anyway. Someone had to be in charge, it just sucked that it had to be him…
Perspective: Vuthe
It took the Major only a couple of minutes to get his troops ready to march on the camp. Once they arrived it was clear that almost all of them were terrified. It appeared that her outburst earlier reached all the way to the backline. Vuthe met them at the gate. „Welcome to our humble abode, Major Durr“, she said in greeting. Calagrophy and the brothers were with her, as well as Archangel and Vixus hidden in Vuthe’s Shadow.
The soldiers all gulped as they saw the giant Archangel. „Who’s this?“, Blake asked, on guard. He gave Archangel the once over, the woman returning the gesture.
Archangel didn’t reply herself. She had her rifle at the ready, and Vuthe knew she could kill half of them within five seconds even without it. Vuthe gestured to her. „This is Archangel, my head of Security. She is originally from a different world even to where we were, and she is helping me as long as I help her in wiping out the government of her home world“, she explained. That set the soldiers even more on edge.
„You plan to conquer a world?“, Blake asked, hand at the ready. It was no surprise that he would be on edge by such a blatant statement, he was military after all.
Vuthe nodded, „Done it before and will do it again, for the right reasons. The Government on her Home world makes North Korea look like the most democratic country in existence, with handing out free money and flowers. Trust me, you’d join me as well if you knew just who those people are“, her tone was serious.
Blake shook his head, „No, I won’t. I have my job to do. Just promise me you won’t start taking over any countries on this world, yes?“, he asked with a serious tone. This wasn’t a joke request, and while he knew he didn’t have a chance against her or her people it was clear that he would die trying. Her opinion on him jumped up another nudge, she liked people who stood by their principles.
Vuthe nodded, „Of course. I have yet to find a reason to do something as tedious as Conquest. It’s all up to your government“, she gave him a genuine smile, „And while I won’t take any offense sitting down, conquering a world is much too tedious to consider it. Rest assured Major, that unless you start killing off the innocents or enslaving them, we won’t start a war. Most likely.“
Blake sighed and let his shoulders sag. He looked tired and exhausted, and Vuthe couldn’t blame him. The entire encounter must have been one shock after another for him. „Lets get back to nicer topics“, he said, trying to shift topics, „Where can we set up?“
A moment later Tizanta appeared next to them out of thin air, „I have prepared a suitable area for you to rest, Major“, she said and gestured him to follow. Blake turned to one of his men and nodded, without saying anything. The man in question started to order the troops, while Blake remained with Vuthe.
„I do believe we still need to discuss some things. Mainly about how our two groups interact with each other during our stay“, he said to Vuthe. He was still wary of her but put his duties above his suspicions.
Vuthe shrugged, „Keep your hands out of our pockets and play nice and I don’t have any restrictions for you. Do be warned, however, we dragons are very public about… well, pretty much anything. So don’t be surprised if you see some of my people get physical in the open. And with that I mean both fighting and having Sex“, she smirked at the surprised look on Blakes face. „I don’t mind if your men intermingling with mine. As long as things are kept friendly. I’ll make sure my people understand that you are allies for the time being.“
Blake nodded, „That is a relief. The same goes for us. Keep being friendly and don’t steal from us, and I don’t have much in the way of restrictions. We will be setting up a communications hub though, that is off-limits.“ Vuthe and Tizanta chuckled in sync, confusing him, however, he did not ask further.
Vuthe gave him a smile, „I’ll be sure to keep my people out of it. Ah, and before I forget“, she snapped her fingers and Vixus appeared out of her shadow. They were clad in their shadow shroud and knelt in front of Vuthe. „Yes, my Queen?“, they said, their melodic voice entrancing to the Soldier.
„You are not to imitate any Soldiers within their squad. Nor are you allowed to play pranks on them“, Vuthe commanded, then looked at Blake. „This is Vixus Umbara, my child. They will be my way of contacting you if I can’t find you in the camp.“
Blake blinked as he saw the shadow figure. „Your… child?“, he asked, perplexed. While parent and child could look rather different, Vixus being an entirely different race and in his eyes only a living shadow, this came as quite a shock to him. One of many he experienced today.
Vuthe chuckled, „Yes. Despite being born from a human they are not a weak half-breed, rather a unique Race. Which is why I accepted their service. Don’t even bother asking what they can do or how they truly look like.“
Blakes expression fell, „I don’t think I’m entirely happy with your comment about half-reeds. Ever since the Overwatch Agreement laws regarding racism and sexism have significantly increased. Especially in the magical world“, he said, crossing his arms, „Comments like that are liable to land you with a fine, if not in prison.“
Vuthe raised an eyebrow, „Wow, never thought that you should’ve done that a long time before then? There were numerous minorities getting bullied and hated against“, she shook her head, „In either case what you ask of me is impossible. I’m not hating dragon half-breeds out of choice. It’s engrained in us. All dragons hate dragon half-breeds. It’s our nature. The same reason all dragons are honest to a fault. It’s simply how we do things. And it’s a view I can’t change.“
„You can always change“, he said bitterly, „Stop making excuses“.
Vuthe sighed, she has had this conversation numerous times before. „No, Major, I can’t change. I’ve tried for the past two millennia. It simply isn’t possible. Strength is engrained in our DNA. And Half-breeds are weak. End of story. You’ll find me and the other four from this world much more accepting than other dragons. If I had been born a dragon, without ever being human, I would’ve killed my Half-breed children myself“, Vuthe explained, getting annoyed.
At this point Vixus cut in, „Human, I do not understand why you cannot see the truth. You are biologically much different from my mother and her kind. In the same vein all humans fear death, Dragons hate Half-Breeds. They cannot change that attitude. Take it from someone who has been targeted by that, I know my mother tried“. While they didn’t have visible eyes, Blake had the eerie feeling they stared at him.
He shook his head, „I still can’t accept it“, he said, definitively.
„I don’t really care if you do or not. It is how it is, that’s the end of it“, Vuthe said, before motioning Vixus to be at ease. The shadow figure vanished once more. „Either way. I do believe it is time for you to inform your people about the rules. Then you should talk to your brothers and your parents“, she forced a smile, „Even if it’s hard to believe. We are back.“
Blake nodded and made his way over to his soldiers. Calagrophy stepped up next to Vuthe. „I do believe this will lead to some major cultural clash“, she said with a frown.
„Oh yes. Just wait until Gasira and Melten go at it in the bath again. That will definitely put them off“, Vuthe replied with a chuckle, her earlier annoyance slowly fading.
Her friend couldn’t share her Queens enthusiasm. „Vuth… I’m worried. These people know of our conquest, from a twisted telling of it sure, but they still know. If they learn we have Apocalyptica with us…“, she winced at the thought.
Vuthe’s face fell, now frowning as well, „Cal. I know. What would you have me do?“
Calagrophy sighed, „I don’t know. I suppose the best we can do now is to start explaining to them what really happened. And we have to somehow ease them into the existence of Apocalyptica. I just can’t see him going undetected.“
Vuthe nodded to her friend. „Can you tell our people about the rules? I need a strong drink and some time to think. Today has been… A lot“, she said and rolled her shoulders. She hadn’t noticed it earlier, but she was tense all over.
Castaphiel and Corellanium looked at Vuthe, as Calagrophy nodded and walked off. „What is it?“, the younger girl asked the two brothers. Their looks alone were sign enough they wanted to say something.
„We were talking. You seemed very worried about your family. Would you want to be present when we talk to our parents? Maybe they can build a connection“, Castaphiel offered.
Vuthe looked at them, thoughtful. „I… I don’t know… Its… So much is going on. I think before I think about family I need to deal with our current situation“, she said while averting her eyes. It was an excuse, and everyone present knew it, but nobody said anything else.