When Kaleth had entered the building, he'd expected to find a lot, but he hadn't been prepared for this. All he could do was stare at the sight in front of him.

"Holy...!" Kaleth heard Nef exclaim, and he agreed. There was a black, winged lizard lying on the ground behind four giant walls of glass, one from each side, through which Kaleth was currently gaping at it. The animal was about twice the size of a horse, but it was hard to tell with how it was hiding under its wings. From the front leg he could see, the lizard wasn't all that tall despite its size, though.

"Is that an actual goddamn dragon?!" Nef sounded as if he had given up trying to understand anything. Given that he had just been told his girlfriend of four years was actually a noble from Irithara, it was fairly understandable.

"Dragons don't exist," Kaleth replied, but he wasn't sure who he was trying to convince anymore. He didn't even bother only mouthing the words anymore. It was as if this whole base was devoid of life. There was no one here at all, and most of the place was on lockdown. There was no one here, except for the lizard right in front of him.

Kaleth wasn't even sure how he'd managed to find it. Even with Nef guiding him—or trying to—this place was a maze. He was certain that if there were armed people around, he'd be dead already.

"Yeah, sure they don't," Nef said mockingly. "What the hell is that, then?"

Dragons weren't real. Sure, they were a big part of Enorian mythology. In fact, the entirety of their old religion was centered around dragons, but they didn't actually exist. This had to be some kind of experiment. What a genetic experiment like this would be doing in a facility where the Umbra were being held was another question, however.

Kaleth felt like he was missing something huge here, but there wasn't anyone he could interrogate and get some answers.

"Kaleth," said a displeased voice from behind him, and he flinched, whirling around and raising his gun.

"Relioth?" Kaleth was almost more shocked by seeing the politician than seeing the dragon. He lowered the gun slowly and pulled his goggles down, letting them hang around his neck. How had Relioth gotten here without Kaleth noticing? How had Relioth gotten here at all?

"Y'know, I always say that Dehro is stubborn, but damn, he's got nothing on you—what would it have taken to make you stay away from here? Should I have told someone to break your legs?"

Kaleth had no idea what Relioth was talking about, but he tightened his grip on the gun just in case. Relioth hardly ever used a serious tone, even during public speeches, so to hear it now put Kaleth on edge.

"Yeah, I know, you don't get what I'm saying," said Relioth before Kaleth could even ask. "That doesn't matter. You're not supposed to be here."

"Oh, and you are?"

"Well, seeing as I run this place...." Relioth chuckled, but he didn't sound happy. He sounded more like a disappointed parent, which was kind of hilarious since Kaleth was a bit older than him. Kaleth wasn't laughing though. He couldn't after hearing that.

"What?" he asked, his voice barely more than a whisper.

"I started this place—Carcer. A long time ago, but I've repurposed it a bit. You don't think a country of seven hundred million people gets by with just a few wind and water turbines, do you?"

Kaleth's eyes widened. Of course, the energy outputs. He'd completely forgotten about that. "You use the Umbra as power sources?"

"Don't sound so judgmental, Kaleth," Relioth said, rolling his eyes. "Our energy is a great power source, and the Umbra don't suffer because of it. I had to replace all those nuclear power plants somehow."

Kaleth froze. But the last nuclear power plant had been shut down almost a century ago.

"I'm a bit older than you might think. In fact, all of us are—the Umbra and the people in Luxarx. Except for you."

"What in the hell are you talking about?"

"Remember those mythological stories about dragon gods, and wars between good and evil?" Relioth asked, walking over to the glass wall and looking at the dragon behind it. Kaleth looked back at the lizard, not sure what to think. Was Relioth suggesting that this animal was a god?

"Well, most of it is bullshit," Relioth continued, still watching the dragon. This confused Kaleth enough to stop him from saying anything. "We're not gods. We're ancient and powerful, but we're not gods. And there is no good or evil."

He sighed tiredly, while Kaleth tried to make sense of what he had been told. "Are you...saying that people like us were viewed as gods centuries ago?"

"People like me, not like you. There's never been anyone like you," Relioth corrected him, finally looking back at Kaleth. "And it wasn't people like us, either. It was us." He paused. "I'm almost fifty thousand years old, Kaleth."

"T-That.... What?" Kaleth choked out, almost dropping the gun. They weren't supposed to live this long, not by a long shot. How much of what Kaleth had been told had been a lie?

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

"That's what you think. And pretty much everyone in Luxarx. I didn't want you to feel alienated from everyone, so I gave you an explanation for your powers and got you in contact with other people who also have them. And it all worked perfectly until you ran into Mister Face-paint over there."

Relioth gestured towards the dragon who hadn't moved the entire time they'd been talking. Only now had Kaleth noticed that it had orange and white stripes on its face.

"Mel's his name, right?"

Kaleth stared at Relioth for a moment, his eyes wide. He took a glance at the dragon again before looking back at him with a scowl. This couldn't be real.

"Really? You think the fact that we can shapeshift is much more shocking than me being thousands of years old?"

Kaleth looked back at the dragon—no, Mel—and he felt his confusion be replaced with fury. What had Relioth done to Mel to make him stay this still?

"Did you hurt him?" Kaleth asked, raising the gun again, even though he knew it most likely wouldn't help him much.

"I...may have scrambled his mind a little," Relioth admitted, shrugging apologetically.

"You did what?"

"I needed to know what he's told you and forcing my way into his head sounded much better than doing the same to you."

Kaleth swallowed, imagining what it must have been like for Mel. Was he even all there anymore? How much had Relioth damaged his mind? Kaleth had known that Relioth was much better at using their psychic powers than Kaleth, but this.... He should probably start assuming that Relioth was much more powerful than Kaleth had been led to believe.

"How do I get him out of there?" growled Kaleth. Relioth looked quite miffed, but he raised his hands in surrender, anyway.

"Okay, we can do that," Relioth said and his eyes glowed with white light, making one of the glass walls start going up. Kaleth gave the other man a distrustful look before focusing on the dragon. He hid the handgun, so he wouldn't scare Mel, and as soon as he could, he ducked under the glass and stopped, letting the dragon see him. Kaleth wondered for a second if Mel would be confused and scared enough to attack him, but Mel's reaction was completely different.

The Umbra immediately backed up into a corner, attempting to make himself look smaller, which was very ineffective with how large he was, and watched Kaleth with fear but also resignation.

"Please, d-don't hurt me," he whimpered and closed his eyes. Kaleth stared at him, horrified. He didn't even have the time to process that like this, in this form, Mel's voice still sounded almost the same.

"I won't," Kaleth said as soothingly as he could, crouching down in front of the dragon, studying his face. Even like this, Mel's eyes were the same, just much bigger. There were horns on the sides of his head, along with what Kaleth assumed were ears at the top of it. "My name's Kaleth, remember? I tried to arrest you a month ago."

Mel's ears perked up a bit, and his gaze seemed to become more focused.

"Y-you...gave me a new TV."

"That's right," Kaleth replied, smiling slightly. It had taken him quite a while to make Mel stop texting him various versions of thank you after he had sent him the TV, but Kaleth had felt guilty for scaring Mel so much, and he had money to spare.

"W-why are you here?" Mel asked.

"I'm here to rescue you, of course," Kaleth said, huffing out a laugh at how happy Mel suddenly looked. Good, maybe he didn't have to punch Relioth. He still wanted to, though.

"R-really?" Mel's happy expression was suddenly replaced with a scared one again as he looked over Kaleth's shoulder. Kaleth turned his head to look behind himself and at Relioth, who was tapping his watch with his index finger.

Kaleth got up and walked over to Relioth, glaring at him.

"What?" he snapped.

"Well, I have a meeting in five minutes, so if we could get something out of the way...." Kaleth said nothing, which Relioth took as a sign to continue. "I kinda need your help."

"You want me to help you?" Relioth nodded. "After lying to me about everything?" Relioth nodded, more slowly than before. "After, um, let's see, doing what you did to Mel?"

"Ah, c'mon, he's fine," Relioth defended himself weakly.

"You did the same thing to me, didn't you? This afternoon."

For once, Relioth stayed silent, opening his mouth only to close it a second later. "I...look, I hated doing that, but I had to. How was I supposed to figure out what you were planning? If I didn't blackmail that Alor guy, you'd all be here." Kaleth raised an eyebrow at him. "That didn't help, did it?"

"I'm not going to help you," Kaleth said, and Relioth sighed.

"Well, I'll give you time to think about it, huh? Carcer's on lockdown, so there's really nowhere to go. I'll check back after the meeting."

Relioth's eyes glowed again, the air around him shimmered, and just like that he was gone, no trace of him left. Kaleth stared at the empty space for a few seconds before shaking his head and making his way back to Mel.

"Can you walk? I think we should leave before that bastard returns," Kaleth said.

"Um, y-yeah, but I can't...with this," Mel replied and put his wing aside to show Kaleth the black shackle around his right wrist, which was connected to the ground by a thick chain. Relioth just had to have made everything difficult.

"Can you see a keyhole?"

Mel inspected the shackle closely, tilting his head to the side so he could study it more easily. "Uh-huh. I think so."

"Okay, I should be able to open it. May I...?"

Mel stretched the chained front leg towards him while watching him with wide, trusting eyes. Kaleth immediately went to work, pulling out a lockpick. It was a good thing he always carried those around, even though he rarely got to use them.

It only took about half a minute before the shackle fell to the ground.

A sudden flash of blue light made him cover his eyes, and when he opened them again, he was met with the form he was more familiar with. Except for the hoodie, Mel was wearing the same clothes. Something told Kaleth that wasn't just a coincidence. The poor thing probably only had one set of clothing.

"Nef, are you still there?" Kaleth asked as he put the goggles back on, but there was nothing but silence. "Okay, it seems we need to find a way out of here ourselves."

"But didn't Relioth say there isn't one?" Mel asked, and Kaleth shrugged.

"He has a habit of lying."

"All right." Mel grinned at Kaleth happily and followed him out of the glass prison. He seemed okay, albeit a little tired, so hopefully, Relioth hadn't tortured him, at least not for long. That didn't stop him from worrying, though. He'd need to make sure Mel was okay after they got out of here.

But first, he had to figure out which way to go without a navigator. There were only two doors in the room, one on the left and one on the right, with the glass cube Mel had been trapped in between them. Kaleth put the goggles back over his eyes and scanned the doors, but they were completely identical in every way. Kaleth sighed. Great.

"I'd go with the right one," said Mel, smiling.

Kaleth raised a curious eyebrow at him. "Why is that?"

"I always pick right. 'Cause it's the right choice. Get it?" Mel grinned at his joke, looking very pleased with himself, and Kaleth snorted, unable not to laugh despite the mess they were in.

"All right. The door on the right, it is."