For the first time, there's an undercurrent of dread in the voice of that steadfast professional, and Drenar knows it must have taken a lot to rattle him.
“No kidding.” It's the first time that either of them has even remotely broken composure, and Drenar notes it quietly. “They have other plans in motion. This whole thing was just a bleeding test for these kids. But to what end?”
“Shaping us to be the destruction of the Conclave. I mean he couldn't have made it any more obvious,” Angela says agitatedly. “Why he chose this route, I'm guessing he had a better plan coming up, but our arrival forced him to improvise.”
“Meaning what, he'd ambush us in a situation where we had less of a chance? That is such a cartoon villain way to go about it.” Drenar is questioning the logic. Why would he want to work with the Talons?
The only thought that comes to mind is that the Conclave is just as bad, or worse than Crosomer was saying. It could have been all lies he was telling. But for some reason, Crosomer didn't come across as dishonest. Too calm and collected. Two truths and a lie kind of deal? So where is the lie?
“He isn't exactly right in the head man, if you spend seven hundred years in captivity, would you still be sane?” James poses. No one answers. “My point exactly. He's obsessed with you.” Drenar still doesn't quite see the point yet.
“Yeah, I don't get that. I am no one–”
“You someone of interest now,” James states calmly. “You're half-dragon. Which puts you in a ballpark of people that are a fraction of the people of the world. You gave him a thorough beatdown, despite the odds. Whatever he needs from you, he's gonna get it.”
“It's obvious what he wants. He wants us to be on team villain!” Angela argues.
“Or, he wants us to be a third other faction,” Julia proposes. “The Conclave isn't exactly instilling me with confidence, minus you guys.”
“Nick and I have a bit of a…reputation,” Levine says slowly. It’s telling when he winces at that statement. “That said, we’ve also been very good at gathering our motley crew in the past, and we’ve worked with some other trained professionals before, during joint operations efforts, when we’ve had to tackle problems that require a certain level of deep expertise. That said, I think there is another reason he singled Drenar out. Revenge, or some kind of grudge seems unlikely, the playback indicates he was battle-testing you. But why go to such lengths? And who is this ‘Val’ he keeps referring to?”
“His sponsor, his partner, someone holding his chain? All I know is that they’re more than a little antagonistic,” Julia says. She’s hovering over the whiteboard that Drenar occasionally uses for homework to map out stuff, and she photographs their battle plan from yesterday before wiping it. “Levine, do the Talons have billions of dollars to throw at problems?”
“It’s difficult to get a vertical cake slice of just how diversified their funding is. But it’s possible. Or with a corporate ally funneling money to them, that’s also possible," Levine reasons.
“Name the top five mage companies of the world.” Julia goes straight to the point.
“Huh?” Successfully startling Nick must be some kind of cosmic event, Drenar concludes.
“By the law of villainy, one of them has to be rotten to the core!” Julia declares. James groans, as does Drenar. “Look, which one is our Shin-Ra wannabe? It’s obvious to me they can’t fund this without a massive industrial backing, not if they want to pull off a coup d'état successfully.”
“Magitek industries, Gruber arms company, Capashen Logistics, Ferrite Chairs, and Volrath Solutions. Some big names could provide what would be needed,” Nick grouses. Levine doesn’t look pleased at him encouraging this.
“That’s not how investigations work! You can’t just say one or more of them is absolutely evil! For all we know, they just run this like any other regular criminal organization, by drug money, arms trafficking, trafficking of people, extortion, robbery, or fraud.” Levine however, doesn’t know how Julia operates, and Drenar can’t hide a smirk.
“Well, let’s start with what we know. This ‘Val’ they keep referring to. I think it’s a truncation of a longer name. Like Valerie. Or Valencia. Let’s assume that the Talons needed a lot of help to find the sphere. How do you find one? How do you make one in the first place? What are the steps?”
There’s a pause as Levine’s expression brightens. “I like her process. The prowess required to pull this off would require immense talent and resources.” He rubs his chin for a second before placing his hands together and sits back in his chair.
“I could cross reference every known executive at all the major magitech companies of the world. Assuming ‘Val’ isn’t a code name. As for the steps to find a sphere…they would need to be able to seek out obscinia hectate. They would need to know the general location. They’d have to have mined out that facility to a far greater extent than that tiny shell company was capable of. They would have needed the exact means of manufacture of the sphere to reverse-engineer a means of cracking it open.”
“All of these are difficult problems to solve by themselves. Costly and technically complex. This suggests substantial technical know-how, financing, and logistics. Something a massive corporation or a nation-state could provide, or perhaps a rogue military actor. It narrows the field somewhat. If we focused on which companies could do each, we could filter out to a candidate list.” Nick is quick to follow Levine’s thought process.
“There’s one other danger, too. Those spheres' manufacture likely was known only to the Dragon Empire, or the Conclave. Secrets that they probably guarded very well to avoid having the same punishment dished out at them,” Angela adds. “That knowledge couldn’t have been easy to come by, either. It would have required infiltrating the conclave, or deep research of the old draconic empire. Either one doesn’t exactly sound like a small-time endeavor.”
“Hmm. Sounds like my weekend project. But you lot aren’t going to be doing anything. There is also the matter of keeping your parents informed–”
“Oh hell no, we are not dumping this on Diane!” Evan shoots up from his seat and looks ready for a fight. “Her dad is dying a thousand miles away, no, we aren't doing jack!”
“Our parents are like super spooks. They literally can't tell us what they do,” James puts forward.
“And my mom's probably a dragon, so nah. I wanna live to be of legal age,” Julia says with equal reluctance.
“Not gonna lie, Levine, but the kids have a point. Dropping this on their parents at the moment might be a little less than ideal,” Nick says after a moment. He doesn't look happy saying that, either.
“You know the protocols, Nick.”
“And look at how utterly worthless they were just now. After watching those videos in person, I think we need to use a little discretion. King’s involvement alone means they may have had inside help to keep us off their backs for quite some time. We don't know what the Talons are up to yet, there are more moving parts than we have the means to track. Can you get the old crew together?” Levine looks annoyed at this pushback but doesn't say anything against it.
“The old crew is retired, Nick. You do this much running around, people get out while their body is still functioning after years of military actions. In the meantime, I'm going to make calls. You're in charge of making sure these bright-eyed kids don't run off and do something even more reckless until I get there in person.”
“We should consider notifying the Valkyries–”
“No. If this is a true crisis, you have my word I’ll be the first to reach out, but we need evidence first. They’re not a superhero service Nick,” Levine says in a rare rebuke.
“Fine. But my terms are: they get trained in what's needed for their survival. The Talons have been showing higher levels of competency, and their equipment is clearly above our previous predictions.”
“Are they proficient in martial arts, firearms, and arcanistry defenses?” Levine asks quietly. Nick glances back at them, with a slight smile.
“They will be. Because I think we’ve made enemies that might finally live up to their reputation, and I gotta admit…it was a little surprising how it wasn’t us landing in a heap of trouble this time.” Levine sighs contentedly.
“I’m getting too old for this, Nick. Get them trained. And make sure James doesn’t shoot himself in the foot.” James scowls, but says nothing before Nick looks around. “So. Thoughts?”
“What madman put you in charge of training them?” James asked after a moment. He’s practically twitching at this wild idea. “No, we’re supposed to just be recluses for the rest of our lives, and hope the Talons don’t come after us!”
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“That’s a dead hope there, James. We’ll rest for the remainder of the day, tomorrow morning bright and early, there’s going to be training.” It’s finally Nick’s turn to crack a smile, and James groans. “Don’t worry, I think I can get you into shape. You wouldn’t be the worst I had to work with.”
“That’s a very, very uncomforting notion, Nick. Are you living out your fantasy of dragging me through the wilderness and watching to see if I struggle and die within the first twelve hours?”
“Nah. I give you a day and a half, tops. Drenar, Julia, and Angela, well…I think I got something to start from.” He takes the compact bolt pistol off his holster and hands it to Julia. “Field strip it and reassemble. I’ll be timing,” he states as he pressed a button on his phone. She narrows her eyes, but doesn't back down from the challenge as she examines it. “It’s loaded, so don't shoot us.”
“Please, Nick, I’m not eight anymore,” she mutters as she de-primes the bow, pulls the magazine out, and ejects the bolt still on the priming rail. She grabs an errant screwdriver from Drenar’s desk, and he watches silently as she breaks it down to the basic components. Nick keeps an eye on the timer as Julia puts the process into reverse, reassembles the components with lightning speed, examines the unloaded assembly, and peers down the reflex sight. She then loads the magazine back in before giving the cross slide a tug. He nods satisfactorily when she hands it back to him.
“You missed a portion of the lower receiver, there’s a reservoir of a mana crystal used to re-prime the bow after firing. But a very impressive speed for your first try. I’ll give it a pass–for now. I presume your firearm experience is satisfactory enough that I don’t need to go over the basic rules?”
“If you make me recite it, I’ll recite it,” she states without emotion. “No screwing around with things that can kill you or others if you make a negligent action. That said, how much damage does that thing do?”
“It's equivalent to a gunshot from a mid-size caliber. I'll cover that and more. Training for tomorrow will go over some of the basics. I’ll also be keen on getting you guys trained when your draconic forms come in, so Drenar will get a little early training. Rest up guys, the only easy day was yesterday.”
“Yesterday was easy?” Drenar scoffs. “I get the saying, but that felt pretty callous, after what we went through.”
“Oh no. Whatever the Talons threw at you, I’ll do worse,” he says with a creeping smile. “Better I break you here than you get killed freezing up when your life's on the line. Now I won’t pretend I can shape you up to elite SAF agent status in a few days, but I have some hard and fast lessons that in the unlikely event we get targeted again, will keep us from getting caught off-guard.”
“Yeah, I get mighty nervous they got records on us, the question is, where? They air-gapped all the hardware I saw except for one PC with a connection, and that one wasn't on the LAN. Their OPSEC is decent. Let's hope Levine can make heads or tails of what they've been up to,” James says after a moment of hesitation.
“So, it’s official? We’re doing this?” Angela asked hesitantly. “Not that I wasn’t already going to, but I’m quite surprised you’re not locking us down in a bunker, Nick.” He spends a second contemplating a response.
“No. I’ve been alive a long time. I’ve seen bad stuff happen. I know when things are going off-kilter in the world. This experiment could just…reverberate through more than just the mage world, if everything they’re saying is true. And right now, I don’t think they’re lying.” He looks out the window, at the fading sunlight. “For three months, that artifact was on a slow burn, awakening latent genetics in people with a trace of draconic DNA. Some of those people are awakening. And none of you are on the registered mage families of the area–either that’s a coincidence, or your parents went off the grid for reasons I can only speculate at.”
“A mystery we really don’t want to solve yet, Nick. our plate is full at the moment.” Drenar does not want to dump this complete dumpster fire on Diane just yet, not until he can do something to guarantee they won’t be caught in the crossfire. “Are we done here for now?”
“Levine, your call. They’re still recovering, and Julia cut it pretty damn close with the mana burn.” She’s still rubbing uneasily at the black and blue vein-like marks on her neck and arms, he notes. He’d have to ask about it later, it was one of a couple of things he’d lost track of.
Levine takes a moment to rub the bridge of his nose, before nodding his head in agreement. “I’ve got plenty of intelligence to sift through for now. Nick, keep them safe, yeah? If this was just an experiment for them, and it’s successful, you can rest assured they’ve been preparing on other fronts. Drenar, the rest of you, get some rest. I think that’s been earned by now, and it might be in short supply in the future.”
It’s weird how the room empties. Nick says a few words about sticking to the house, and limiting calls to critical calls only, and no mentions of the events of the week to pretty much anyone–no one disagrees with him. Angela, James, and Evan all head downstairs, and Julia’s sitting there in his computer chair. Nick looks at him for a moment, his hand hesitating on the doorknob.
“You know it’s never going to be the same, Drenar. It never is. Dragons and other Kin don’t live normal lives. But for what it’s worth…despite how much you guys did something a little reckless…you did it for the right reasons.”
“Was that a ‘thank you’ I heard?” Julia poses with a smirk.
“In a way. Now seriously, be gentle with him, Drenar also has two bruised ribs that won’t be at a hundred percent for a few days.”
“Uh–we’re not uh–”
Why is he stumping on the right words here? Nick simply smiles and speaks before he can get the thought out. “Just a thought, take that as you will.” He latches the door before Drenar can get out some snarky comment, and he decides that this time, it might be best to say nothing.
“Never the same. Yeah, that’s an understatement,” Julia says, barely over a murmur, before looking Drenar’s way. “You still exhausted?”
“Immeasurably.” It also felt distinct, with what Nick called his ‘active regen’ where his healing wounds itched and felt slightly inflamed. “Sorry, I couldn’t break out of those bindings sooner. You saved our lives.”
“I think we’ve been taking turns on that front.” She hops off the computer chair and sidles up next to him on his bed. At a distinctly cozy distance away. She looks forward, watching some of the video feed playback on the monitor. “All my life, I said I wanted to do something incredible. I wanted to be part of something monumental and make my mark in history. Getting caught up in a battle against an arcane insurrectionist cult wasn’t on my bingo card of expectations.”
She’s got that quiet tone now, something he hadn’t heard in a long time. The first time she's ever been even close to scared, or apprehensive about the future. He puts a hand on hers, and squeezes gently. “It shouldn’t be on anyone’s bingo card. We didn’t choose this, Julia.”
“No. Trouble would have come for us sooner or later. Whether it was Jonaleth holding to his word, or Crosomer trying to persuade you to join his cause, it was just a matter of time. But at least we know the stakes. Mages, the arcane…it’s part of our world now. It’s now part of our reality of consequence.”
“Well, take solace in that you aren’t alone to face the world. You’ve got me.” She lets out a soft sigh.
“I figured that. If I told you I was going to fight the entire goddamn Talons army by myself, you’d be there in a heartbeat.” She looks at him, out of the corner of her eye. “The question is, what’s the next move? I’ve got a few ideas, and I doubt that your plus one has let you sit idle.”
Gods I love this woman, she reminds me of someone I knew. Alex’s comment leaves Drenar chuckling softly, and Julia scowls at him. “Hey, is he making fun of me in there?” she demands and pokes him gently on the nose.
“Nah. He seems to like you.” Her face lights up, just a little, and she leans her head on his shoulder. “Uh, is this my sign for something?”
“Yeah, it means you should make sure I don’t get cold or something,” she says with a sly smirk. Drenar goes wide-eyed at this. This is somehow worse than the entire perilous fight in the mines and against Crosomer. More hazardous. “Look, you're my friend, Drenar. You always have been. I’m pretty sure you always will be. And that means a lot to me. It’s just nice to know you’ve had my back the whole time.”
Well, guess I’ll go to court death now. He wraps his arm around her shoulder gently and pulls her in close. Something’s different now, and he can’t wrap his mind around it just yet. “Julia, I wouldn’t trade you for anyone else in the universe as a friend. You’ve always been right when it mattered. And you’ve kept it…what’s the word…lively.”
“I think the word you’re reaching for is ‘perilous’ there Drenar. Or chaotic,” she says with a soft laugh. “Julia the chaos queen.”
“I still like the sound of Julia ‘Tsundere’ DeVerdra. It’s got this regal tone to it,” he responds. They lean back, not saying much for a minute. “So, what’s the next move, considering I think both of us are ready to crank this up to the nightmare difficulty?”
“Oh, you mean to take on the Talons and rally a bunch of ragtag misfits against insane odds? And maybe forge a path of friendship and tenacity that they’ll tell the tale about for hundreds of years?”
“Nah, that’s beyond Nightmare difficulty. But yeah, I’m up for it. If only my body would stop protesting with pain.” He rubs at the soreness in his lower ribs, on his left side. “Friends to the end?”
“It has a nice ring to it. Mind if I hang out here for a bit?”
“Sure. but no jumping my bones like you did last time.” She playfully shoves him away.
“Hey, that was different, you were flailing in bed, looking like a molting harpy, and I had to get you to sit still!” she protests, but even she’s gone red in the face. “I mean I get that you and Angela are an item now, sort of. I totally would respect boundaries–”
“Relax, I was messing with you. Honestly, I’m ready to pass out in bed right now." It's still early, it’s only eight in the evening, but his body is still recovering from an immeasurable strain, both from the initial Awakening, and his injuries. “Besides, I’m a one lady at a time kind of guy. I would die of shame if I did that.”
“That's fair. Alright, I’m still claiming my perch on this bed, but let’s put on a movie or something. And do something normal,” she says with a beaming smile.
“We’re allowed normal?” he asks skeptically.
“Sadly, I think we’re going to have to earn it from here on out. Starting tomorrow, we gotta train with Nick. and start forming a plan to figure out the rest of the Talons' scheming. I’m sure you’ve got a few ideas, so does Angela. It just might take a little convincing for Nick to buy into it.” Julia finally relaxes for the first time in...he doesn't remember when.
“Oh, I’ve got a couple of ideas.” He leans back and grabs the remote, with Julia snuggling up, just like years past.
After the week they’ve all had, this is something he knew mattered more than anything else to them. Something or someone to come home to, and cherish dearly.
Crosomer, and the Talons, are never going to take that from them.