In the basement of the last of the great palaces in the city of Azure Dawn, the vault was cleverly hidden. However, the designers of the structure had not accounted for the possibility that a thief would explore the palace from within the Elemental Plane of Spirits before executing a heist. Guarded by two ghostly guards, the vault appeared to be made entirely from blue crystal. This was strong evidence that the wealthy family living in the palace had obtained the countenance of the Blue Dragon.
Half a dozen Knights, avowed to Shane with his Light Elemental as witness, followed him down into the packed-soil depression which contained the basement on the other side. Shane stood between the two guards, pressed up against the door to the vault. Alice sat atop her flying horse above them, at the level of walls, gardens, and flagstone roads outside the palace.
He signaled to the Knights with three fingers, and after a few moments, he summoned a portal. The basement turned pitch black as Shane transitioned to the Plane of Dreams. His Light Elemental began to shine in the darkness, blinding the two guards and revealing the room. With extremely subtle wind magic, Shane blocked the sound, preventing the guards from sounding the alarm. He reached out, grasping one guard on the shoulder, and the other guard on the forearm, and with a blast of lightning magic both of them slumped over onto the ground, silent and twitching.
Shane turned his attention to the vault door as the Knights passed through the portal. He pressed his palm against it. Simple dragonscale sorcery, like the other vaults. Zakx had not been a very sophisticated Blue Dragon in life. It was a simple matter to summon a new source of dragonscale sorcery within the tiny gaps between the locking components.
"I Wish this crystal would expand and shatter the vault lock," Shane said.
There was a loud crack that seemed to echo off the wall of wind sorcery. The Knights rushed forward and helped Shane to yank the vault door open. Scattered within were huge piles of gold coins, stacks of bank notes, chests filled with gems, and oil paintings, swords, suits of armor, and countless other treasures. Several families in Hightown had made a fortune collecting a portion of the income from workers in the north. But the new Chief of Chiefs had spent the past decade mastering the art of stealing from the wealthy. Decades of accumulated wealth would vanish in a single night.
The cyan portal vanished, replaced by a magenta version. Alice created the portal within the structure, which means that they would appear up on the street level when they passed through. It generally made looting the vaults a bit faster. They could leave the wealth just lying around in the Elemental Plane of Spirits, until they had time to transport it somewhere more secure. All across the city the contents of all the vaults were simply left outside on sidewalks or dumped into fountains.
It took less than an hour for the seven men to complete their task. The sun did not rise early in the winter, though Shane anticipated that the city would begin to awaken within the hour. Three Knights carried the last bag of loot up through the portal, and Alice allowed it to vanish.
"It's time," Shane said. "I'll search for a good spot near the center of Newtown."
"I will head to the camp outside the city," Alice said. "We will wait for you on the other side."
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Azure Dawn was a city with three districts across two levels. Historically, the upper level, known as Hightown, straddled three broad rivers. It had been the domain of the working classes, until a new generation of wealthy government clerks cleared the way for fine new estates. This displaced the existing population into the dusty highlands to the east, which became known as Newtown.
Lowtown was built, layer upon layer, over a lake to the west of Hightown, surrounded on three sides by waterfalls. The buildings, all pale yellow stone and thick black-as-night glass, were piled on top of each other in a great dome-like heap, suspended upon great pillars over the lake. It had been constructed by some unknown civilization, one which was not favored by the Blue Dragon, but the indestructible buildings made an ideal seat of power for the nation's entrenched elites.
Shane had discovered the location of his parents upon arriving in the city. They were living in Lowtown, and would be safe if Quaria attacked the city. He didn't particularly care if Hightown was attacked, but the workers living in Newtown were important. A cyan portal took him to the Plane of Dreams, so he could see the mortal structures and find a spot that was mostly empty. He flew high above the district, illuminating the pre-dawn dwellings with his Light Elemental.
He decided upon a town square roughly in the middle of the district. It was wide enough for the trunk of a new blue crystal tree, if he made the trunk slightly thinner than the rest. He reached into his book bag and opened his notebook to the diagram of the great library-palace that would be the seat of his new government. He connected to the Realms of Fire, Stone, and Lightning once again, compressing the forces into a new dragonscale seed.
"I Wish for a great crystal tree, crowned with the library palace I have designed."
Like the namesake, the whole of the city was bathed in ocean-blue light.
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Dawn came to the city, but the high peaks to the east, which contained the sources of the three rivers, cast shadows that hid the crimson hue of sunrise. By the time the dawn actually reached the city, the sky was already a cold blue. Shane watched the sun as it crested the peaks beyond his new crystal tree. A small army of Knights led horse-drawn carts filled with loot across the pale yellow stone platforms below. Guards with dark uniforms and crossbows paced in front of the entrance to the Rilnese Central Bank, the only structure in Lowtown that extended vertically down into the lake itself.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
The last of the carts arrived through the portal from the Plane of Spirits. Alice appeared and then the portal vanished. The woman fluttered over the carts on her Pegasus, holding her spear and shield. Shane floated down to land in front of the two guards ahead of her.
"I am Shane, Chief of Chiefs. The Blue Dragon is dead. I have come to make a deposit in the Rilnese Central Bank, and to open an account for my new government."
Four hooves clattered onto the stone by his side. Dozens of Knights marched forward and arrayed themselves at his back. The two guards stopped pacing and faced him.
"We will escort you to the Chairman of the Bank," the older of the guards said.
The Knight named Fintan followed Shane into the building. Alice dismounted and followed as well. The solid black glass of the windows of the alien structure did not seem to block the light. Bank tellers stood behind brass latticework with small holes for documents and currency to pass through. They wore blue, the color of Riln, and their faces were locked into a perpetual smile. Shane understood the aesthetics of the place and he accepted the pragmatism that went into it. This establishment had likely preserved its legitimacy even in the face of the Blue Dragon.
They came upon an elevator made from pale yellow stone and black glass. A different set of guards escorted Shane and his companions into the elevator, and after the doors closed it began to descend. When it passed under the water the whole interior became illuminated with blue light, darker and darker, until strange devices activated within the cabin, producing enough light to see outside. Seafloor foliage and terrible fishes rushed past outside the elevator as they descended into a chamber that was deep underwater.
The floor outside the elevator was made of the same dark glass-like substance of the windows high above. The Chairman was waiting for them when the doors opened. He was wearing clothes which could not have ever been purchased anywhere in the Elemental Plane of Dreams, Shane decided. They must have been imported from the Physical World, because they reminded him of the style that Ingrid and Vaska wore. He was, however, obviously Rilnese, with dark blue hair and bright blue eyes, shining blue scales on his cheekbones and forehead, and a face that looked familiar, like looking in a mirror.
Shane froze.
"Hello brother," the Chairman said. "I see from the branding on your face that you have been to the city of Twin Fates and you have passed through into the Golden Tower. Follow me. The woman may accompany you. The man must remain behind."
More guards arrived, but the Chairman sent them away. He led Shane a short distance to a pale yellow amphitheater crowned with a solid glass dome, open to the dark waters above. The guards left and the room was sealed with a hiss, leaving Shane alone with Alice and the Chairman.
"Shane," the Chairman said. "My name is Bran, and I am your older brother. At least in this body, I am. Your soul originates in the Elemental Plane of Fire, while mine originates here, in the Elemental Plane of Dreams. You were there in Ingrid's dream. Your soul was marked by Titania. My soul is native, but you are an outsider. So, brother, before we would speak of other things, I must ask where your loyalty lies. Do you serve the interests of the outsiders, or do you serve the interest of the Elemental Plane of Dreams?"
It took a while for Shane to parse Bran's question. He replied: "How do you know any of this?"
"I have no access to sorcery and I have no bond with an Elemental," Bran claimed. "My information has been acquired through conventional means. This bank has access to a large stockpile of the currency that is used in the Physical Realm. Informants are unreliable, and in fact I invite many charlatans to provide their interpretations of our universe. Those charlatans understand that the best lies contain a small amount of truth, and so patterns in the charlatanism reveal small windows into the truth. That said, you did not answer my question."
"I have sworn an oath to pursue the interests of the Elemental Plane of Dreams," Shane said. "I am a retainer of House Anna-Rhea."
The other man nodded. "House Anna-Rhea is known to me. I am beginning to piece together the motives of the founder, the Queen of the Purple Dragons. I am surprised that an outsider soul like yourself would have been recruited by such an institution."
The Light Elemental appeared by his side. Shane said: "She prevents me from lying. I truly believe that House Anna-Rhea is interested only in this Elemental Plane."
"Light Elementals are no longer permitted into banks," Bran said. "At least from what I can tell. There was an Emperor in the city of Heyl, in the heart of the Heylin Empire, during the Binding of Ashe. He dreamed of a society where people spoke only truths, where people became powerful by speaking the most truths. However, when Ingrid and Vaska cleansed the Queen of Light, the Light Elementals changed. They gained forgiveness, and Light Elementals would just as often forgive a loan than enforce the promises of the borrowers."
What he says is true, the Light Elemental said.
"You are saying she would forgive me if I lied to you?" Shane asked. He glanced at the Light Elemental, but her face was hidden behind that strange winged helmet with the too-many vertical slits around the eyes.
"I am, in a way, a psychologist," Bran said. "Not the type of psychologist that exists in the Physical World, charlatans that prescribe mind-altering drugs for profit alone. No, I seek to understand people using only the tools of truthful science. Light Elementals have their own agenda, and I do not need one. I can usually tell if a person is lying using my own eyes and judgment. You have access to dragonscale sorcery, and I am told you created a tree in Newtown. Why?"
Shane realized, in that moment, that he was speaking to another version of himself. His brother, Bran, was not a master of sorcery. He was a master of social connections. A chill went down his spine as, in a fraction of a second, he processed the meaning of this situation. The Elementals, in spite of their power, perhaps feared this man. They feared him because he could do things that were new, things which had the capacity to expand them, to make them understand.
"The spawn of the Red Dragon will attack soon," Shane said. "The tree exists to make a place for airplane factories."
"It is said that Ashe has banned flying machines," Bran said.
"The second-order consequences of such a ban can only be remedied through tolerance once the device has been invented," Shane countered. "The Queen of Light has branded my flesh for this purpose. She has abandoned the project of enforcing the ban on this continent."
"If that is the case, then you may have access to whatever resources you need," Bran said. "Woman, you may return to the Purple Dragon, and tell her all of what I have said."