Hit the air brakes! Alex shrilled in both his and Joey’s heads as Drenar activated his hovering enchantment, and came to a jarring halt about two meters off the ground, while the Marigold impacted the ground with a crunch of scales and a scream of pain–one wing was bent at an awkward angle, and he wasted no time landing on the creep and landing a massive plasma blast into his face.

Dragon or not, a system shock of that magnitude hurt the dragon beyond belief, and they flailed around while Drenar cranked up the juice. Eventually, the dragon went slack, and not before one last swipe of a spine cut him across the face, and a narrow stinging sensation ran across his cheek.

“Drenar, heads up, still more hostiles!” Joey shouted out and fired off another canister using her pistol launcher. A starburst of brilliant light dazzled and blinded the hostiles, and Drenar heard a flap of wings coming from the opposite direction and he turned–and he felt immense relief as his eyes went wide.

“Calvary’s here!” Julia roared out as her scales crackled with energy and landed with a perfect five-point landing–including the tail! James dismounted and was in the new armor and took aim with a heavy autobow, leering at the now staggered foes. Julia tensed and her feathers bristled. “You look a little rough guys, and, who’s this guy?”

Drenar had almost forgotten about their plus one, who was cowering behind a car, hazmat suit and all, and screaming. “Would people stop teleporting me to random places across the planet and pulling me into a firefight?! My wife’s gonna kill me if I come home in a pine box!” he shrilled. Julia looked at him with an edgy smile, and she glanced back at Drenar.

"Why does weird shit happen to you on a recurring basis?"

“Uh–we’ll explain later.” He’s already surging forward to deal with the foes who are trying to fire blindly and missing the broad side of a barn, and he and Julia make short work of them. Less than a moment later, they’re beaten into the pavement or zapped to incapacitation. Drenar rubbed his claws at that subtle tingling sensation, and Julia sent an errant shock down his arm.

“Ow. You’re like that evil cat that shocks you on a cold winter day,” he accused her, and she tousled his feather mane lightly. The Ravagers didn’t have any commentary to add, except for the one who was bleeding and groaning. Julia had body-checked him into a car, and the glass had cut his face and arm. “Where are the rest?”

“On the way, I kind of took off without them. You’ll see why in a second.” She grabbed the wounded soldier and propped up up, where he gazed upon the tsunderedragon in sheer terror. “Field interrogations okay?”

“Yes, we should,” Joey snarled. “After these guys are in cuffs, where the hell is SAF?!”

“Haha, don’t you know?” the man laughed. “You think we just breezed in here without a plan?”

Drenar glared at the man and smashed him in the stomach, and he crumpled. “Oh. Oops. I saw you reaching for a hidden weapon. As luck would it, a boot knife,” he added with a malicious grin. “Pretty dumb thing to do in front of a three-meter-tall dragon. Or me.” He relieves him of his weapon, and the man wheezes. “Julia, make sure the street is clear, and find out where the hell SAF is.”

“Well, at least the air support is coming in,” James offered as Nick flitted down, shouldering what Drenar suspected was a heavy machine gun, along with Kelly and Jackie, all in their dragon forms and armored. And…

He stopped to stare when Angela touched down, and she was different. Blue light is glowing across her scales, and her face, and even her feathers seem to have a glimmer of light, as well. Joey turns and makes that awkward nerd face he has seen on her a few times, and she lets out high-pitched, nervous laughter.

“Drenar? Weird shit is the new norm.” Angela’s feathers ruffled at this and glanced around at the destruction.

“You guys were busy. Damn Drenar, were you trying to one-team army this?” Angela asked with a smile, then glanced at Amaranth. “Are you…professor Vertimer?”

“I am. And are those…crystal scales?” he stammers, and she nods slowly. He peers at Drenar and Joey as if they had a better answer.

“Don’t look at me, Vertimer. This is new for me, too,” he stated with a shrug of wings. He took note of how support was bounding down the street, and saw a flash of brass and silver armor. Kiera had brought in her immediate Valkyrie support team, and they were mopping up the rest of the Ravagers. Most of them laid down their weapons, though a few chose the hard way–autobow shots and screams followed shortly thereafter. “Angela, are you…okay?”

“Um, yeah?”

“So, not going to comment on the crystalline scales at all?” he asked with a raised eye crest.

“Nope. I haven’t even begun to unpack this one.”

“Long talk later, then. James, Nick, and Levine, go make sure these killer mercs are inclined to co-operate and try not to brain-bash too hard! Kelly, Jackie, get on medical priority, check in Victoria’s to see if anyone’s hurt, Kyle, I want you and Joey setting up triage here on the street!” He called out like it was instinct to him. These strange circumstances would have to wait, and he smoothed out his feather mane. “Guys, thanks for the quick arrival.”

“We’ll handle the hard stuff–Drenar, where did this young man come from?” Kiera asked with a pointed claw at the man he’d temporarily forgotten about. He was shivering and looking twitchy. Which was understandable, considering he was surrounded by no less than seven dragons dressed to kill.

“Uh, yeah Kiera, stuff happened.” Drenar knelt and tried to get the man’s attention, who looked at all of them warily. “Sorry for the lack of introductions. Are you hurt?”

The man shakes his head, hazel eyes slowly coming down from what must by the worst day of this man’s entire life. “N-no. Are you going to hurt me?”

“As long as you’re not an eldritch abomination I picked up from crazy-town, no,” Drenar quipped, and the man looked up at him, frowning. “What’s your name?”

“Richard Waterson. People call me Rick.” He won't stop trembling, and he notes he is scuffed up, his suit is torn, there are bramble bits in his hair, and he’s still clinging to that crystal shard. “I–am I dead?”

“Pretty sure you’re not. Look, we need to move this discussion off the street, Kiera, let’s check to make sure the SAF garrison is still standing. These jackasses had artillery and dragons, and a lot of people almost got killed.”

Then, he hears it. And it’s not Luminari, either. A crystalline chime emanates from somewhere close by. He twists his ear crests and can feel the sound emanating from the crystal in Rick’s hand, and even their new arrival looks in awe. It's what Rick says next, that gets his attention.

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

“She’s calling out again. You can hear it too, can’t you?” Rick whispers as Drenar leans in, and reaches to touch the crystal, but Joey pulls his arm back–an impressive feat for someone who isn’t a dragon at present.

“Rick, how did you get this crystal? How did you get into the aether?” Joey asks slowly, as she kneels, and puts a reassuring hand on his shoulder.

“I think this crystal led me to her.” All eyes are on Angela, who glances at the new arrival with a perplexed expression.

“You know something, Drenar? I liked it better when you were the one with destiny slapped on your back.” He can’t even find a retort to Angela’s sardonic response this time around, but he knows one thing:

Mercs with deadly firepower, Amaranth, Angela, and a guy floating through the world between worlds all added up to big trouble.

******

Kiera led the interrogations of the Ravagers. She was not pleased to find the SAF garrison had been glaringly slow to respond to the violence, and had only just got to the scene a minute after they arrived. Drenar, however, has a different task:

Figuring out where Rick came from. The second they cleared the street of enemies to be rounded up and treated the injured, he beelined it to the teleportal and told Nick that they needed to debrief Amaranth, and the new guy. He knew it in his bones it had to be related. He just didn’t know how.

He rubbed at the raw wound on his arm–that dragon’s spine had pierced right through his scales, and reminded him that he is most certainly not invincible. It’s late at night in the study, where Nick has turned the place into a veritable command center, given recent events. Drenar sips from a cup of coffee in his human form, as does Rick, whose hand is trembling as he lifts the drink, and everyone is gathered to listen in.

He’s finished thinking of his list of questions. “Rick, first question. Why are you wearing a magical hazmat suit?”

“Uh…I was disposing of hazardous materials?” he proposes. Joey glances his way and gives him a mental affirmation he’s telling the truth.

“Your name is Rick Waterson?”

“Yep.”

“Who do you work for?”

“On my grave, I can’t say.” Rick slumps forward, eyes gazing toward the wooden table between the two of them. “I can’t go back there, now. I’ll be dead the second I step through the door.”

“Well, that narrows it down.” Drenar sets down his coffee and leans in. “Do you know who we are?”

“I know who you are.” his gaze doesn’t lift from the table. “You’re the kid who curb-stomped the invading army at Asqualia. Word has gotten around.”

“The good kind, or the bad kind?” Drenar asks pointedly. The deafening silence from their new guest sets it in stone that he’s likely either a Conclave super spook, Talon minion, a Ravager who wanted an out, or someone who was doing something he shouldn’t have been when he had the misfortune of being cast into the aether. “I’ll assume the bad kind. Yeah. Me and my friends stopped a bunch of killers during a home invasion.”

“Not the way I heard it. You guys killed a lot of people.”

“We killed a lot of mercenaries with a proven track record of shooting first, asking questions later,” Drenar politely redirects. This is not a topic he wants to linger on. “Rick, first, I need to assure you of something. Your continued existence might hinge on me figuring out a mystery. I would very much like to get to the bottom of this one. Where do you work?”

“You know I can’t mention it.”

“Onyx Talons, then? Or maybe The Conclave, because hey, they haven’t screwed up the mage world enough yet. Or a third, stranger thing like the Ravagers.” Rick glances around the room, and at Joey’s piercing gaze, and Julia subtly cracks her knuckles behind him somewhere. Levine is also singularly focused, writing notes. Rick does the math, and shakes his head.

“Security contractor for Magitech Industries.” he is slow with the words, and Joey sends a silent thumbs up mentally.

“Above board, or way below the board, like your formerly deposed CEO, Valosterla Roshanikov?” Drenar asks, and he can tell the way the man doesn’t hesitate to tell that part, that he can be coaxed for more.

“Val is–” Rick sucks in his breath, and realizes he’s made a mistake. “Was a creature of chaos.” the way his hand trembles on the mug suggests a different story. “Here’s what happened. I had waste disposal duty. It’s in my job title somewhere. We dumped some stuff into a teleportal that quite frankly, probably veered slightly right of ethical, and I’m pretty sure that’s how I ended up in the aether.”

{Bald-faced lie.} Joey’s sharp assessment confirms his suspicions, and he isn’t the only one, judging by the room of people. He gives a deliberate pause for the lie to sink in.

“Nah, Rick, see, I know how teleportals work–”

“No, you don’t.” the sudden aggression in his tone is strange to hear from this otherwise timid man. “You don’t know what I saw, Rashalda. I saw things that I would get killed over a hundred times over. Everyone in this room is a dead man, woman, and dragon walking, because I’m still alive. The Followers of Gaia, if they ever get word of this, the mage world will be bathed in blood. It will make everything that has happened in the past few months seem like a minor inconvenience.”

{I’m gonna throw this out there Angela and Drenar, don’t mention Luminari or the fact that we’ve had some strange encounters with the aether. Let’s see what he’s got to say with a lack of facts.} He glances at Joey for just a split second before nodding his head, ever so slightly, before turning back to Rick. Joey is still gazing at Rick intently while working on a data pad. Drenar smiles politely before taking another sip of coffee.

“Those are some fancy words, Rick—big, scary words. I know a thing or two about taking on foes above my weight class. If you think I’m scared about what some religious cult–”

“It’s not a religion, and it’s not a cult,” he snapped. The reaction is immediate and sudden. “People believe Gaia still exists and that she’s alive. That she didn’t sacrifice herself for our world. I think your fellow Valkyries have all lied to you, or aren’t sure of the facts, themselves.”

Drenar taps the mug calmly, while mulling how to approach this. He’ll have to revisit this one, later, because it’s quite disturbing. “That crystal in your hand? Where’d you get it?” Rick sits there, silently, and suddenly wants to clam up again. “Protecting your boss? Yeah, I don’t blame you. If I had to work for the titanic walking war crime who tried to kill Victor One a few years ago and succeeded? I sure as hell would be terrified of him.”

“Davos Renshrak? I hope that bastard steps on a landmine,” Rick snapped. Another clue that Drenar has narrowed it down to. He is not part of the Ravagers. And it also suggests a casual relationship, the way he came up with a name the second he mentioned ‘walking war crime.’ “Let’s just set that part aside. I found a mana crystal, it reacted strangely to the teleportal. I saw a bright flash of light, I heard something like a crystal violin, and then next thing I know, you’re there in the aether. How’d you get there, anyway?” Rick edges in, eyes narrowed.

“More telling is that you agree it’s the aether, without me mentioning it. Why are you so sure that I’m right?”

“Because of her.” He points right at Angela, brown haired and fortuitously normal-looking at the moment, though Drenar swears he sees a slight glow beneath her sweater. “I’ve never seen a dragon with crystalline scales before. And I’ve never met anyone else who can hear the crystals sing like it’s a chorus of chimes.”

{It’s okay, Drenar. I think we can push to ask him now.} Joey gives him a subtle nod, and Drenar leans in, while the others are in close attention.

“Rick, let me ask you this. Why do you think everyone in this room is a dead man walking?”

“Because someone trapped Gaia. She’s looking for a way out. She’s calling to her children, Rashalda. I saw her, and I don’t mean that in a delusional way. She was there. Trapped. Trapped in prison in a world that doesn’t exist. Someone imprisoned her there, someone who is a far graver threat than the Talons, or Ravagers, or the Conclave, the Menazari.”

“Then why don’t you stop lying, and tell me everything that happened, Rick? Because you might have answers to some of my questions. And Amaranth, who is the expert on dragons in these parts, was almost killed today about something to do with Gaia’s cradle.”

Rick’s eyes lit up with recognition. “It’s real, isn’t it?”

Drenar shook his head. “I don’t know the answer to that one yet. But maybe you can help me fill in the gaps.”

Rick spends a long, thoughtful minute tapping that nearly empty mug of coffee, and he furrows his brow, gazing at the silver ring on his left index finger. “I need a favor, first—a big one. I need my family out of harm's way. Do that for me, and I’ll tell you what I know.”

“Drenar, we need answers.” Angela’s solemn words get everyone’s attention, and she glances down at herself. “The shard in my body? I think it activated at the same time that Rick activated that shard sitting on the table. They’re connected.”

“Miss Shalinde, the mana crystals in the body are chemically similar but not the same,” Amaranth starts to say but stops silent. She shakes her head.

“No. They’re not. That crystal over there? Is identical to the one that Joey pulled from from that small deposit a stones’ throw from Drenar’s house.”

Drenar spends three seconds processing this, and motions to Rick. “We’ll get your family. Then we need answers, Rick.”