Chapter 12

Vella cautiously walked down the street, giving particular care to the bag that held all of her belongings. She kept her hand over the bag’s latch just to be sure it was safe. Aren made sure she had enough money to ply loose a few lips if needed, which in all truth was more money than Vella had ever had need for in her life. She knew she gave off the image of someone who didn’t belong in Aroster, but she cared more about her safety than she did about her current appearance. She began to look around as she walked, scanning the people and places that surrounded her, careful not to make eye contact for any more than a brief moment with any individual. Aren had warned her to keep her gaze low in order to avoid trouble, but by now Vella assumed that Aren was weary of everything, so she took his advice with a grain of salt. Vella tried to keep her posture as large as she could, rolling her shoulders back and standing up straight, just in the hope that she could make herself seem at least somewhat capable. She had some confidence in her ability to protect herself, after years of dragon breeding she knew she was at least strong enough to handle annoyed dragons, but she had scarce little practical experience in a fight. As she looked around she at the various people lining the streets she knew that even the most timid seeming of them had far greater experience in such matters.

The streets themselves varied greatly with each turn and twist, some narrow, some wide, some straight and paved others windy and cobbled. The only common factor is that all were lined with people moving about briskly. There was a constant hum filling the air with conversation, some of it bartering, some of it not quite as savory, but Vella tried to take it all in any way. The one thing that was abundantly clear to her was that Aroster was unlike any other place she had been to. Each new building looked to be made by a different culture in a different style. There was a beauty to the unique nature of the place Vella though, it seemed alive, unlike the rather stuffy and singularly designed cities of Draeton.

After some time Vella realized that she had been ignoring her purpose for being in Aroster in the first place. She had split from Aren and Sani when they entered the town mainly because she didn’t want to see it through either of their views. Both of them had already made up their minds about what Aroster was and Vella wanted to form her own opinion. The others had gone off to check the sorts of places they thought Kraevos might be, but Vella assumed that if it was someplace that they assumed he would be it would have been too obvious. She assumed that it took more cleverness to be an immortal mage, you wouldn’t last long hiding in the obvious places. Aren and Sani had gone to the sort of places where information was exchanged, and deals went down. Vella on the other hand decided to go look at the social places of the city, the sort of places that Kraevos might have actually enjoyed going to. She looked over the dimly glowing map and noted where the market and the library were and decided to go investigate those. The more she thought about it, the more confused and intrigued she was at the prospect of the library. The first thought that crossed her mind was that it was rather odd that Aroster had a library in the first place. She didn’t exactly see the thieves and cutthroats that inhabited the city as the most literate group. On the other hand, though she was delighted at the idea of a library filled with all sorts of books from all of the different cultures that made up Aroster.

As Vella walked down a side street towards the library she stumbled and the coins in her bag made a noticeable clanking sound and a few spilled out. A cold chill ran down her spine as she tried to regain her composure. A rather salt-worn old man approached from behind and Vella tensed up. “Miss,” the old man said, “You dropped some of yer gold. Wouldn’t want ye to lose that.” With a smile, the old man picked up the gold and handed it to Vella.

“Thank you,” Vella managed to stammer out before she kept along. So far the only thing Vella truly understood about the city of Aroster was that it was going to keep her guessing, her previous ideas of the city did it no justice. Vella took a look down at her map and saw that the closest location of interest was a large outdoor market. It didn’t seem the most likely place to run into Kraevos, but she couldn’t help but become excited by the chance of what she could buy.

When Vella reached the market her jaw fell open. The buildings surrounding it formed a massive circle, casting shadows across everything inside. There was a loud buzz of goods and conversation that made it hard to make out any single thing going on within. As far in as she could see there were tents and huts, small fences with livestock, and all sorts of makeshift stores. Vella scanned her eyes from side to side, trying to find any semblance of organization within, but she found none that she could make out. There were smiths next to silk traders, general goods next to armorers, and shops with exotic animals next to butchers, not exactly a well-thought-out system. After spending a few moments trying to make sense of the whole place she gave up and decided to just start from one side and work her way towards the other.

Before venturing inside Vella put her hand in her bag and felt the cool steel of Sani’s coin. She took a deep breath and waited a moment, just in case to see if the signal would go. Instead with a passing nothing, she decided to go in. She strode down the leftmost aisle, gazing at all the wares of the different merchants. She saw scrolls written in languages she didn’t understand, books that seemed to go on forever, and all sorts of fabrics she had never seen. Vella decided to slow down and browse a small smith’s stall near the edge of the first row. Despite the size of the stall the work within seemed rather nice. The armor was nicely crafted and the blades were very clean and sharp, not a rolled or chipped edge among them. Finally, Vella’s eye was drawn to something truly magnificent. She saw a short blade hanging in a leather sheathe from one of the tent posts. The hilt of the blade showed a dragon in midflight and the artistry was incredible, Vella thought it looked similar to Aegis when she’d first seen the wyvern fly.

“Good eye kid, that’s one of my favorite pieces, goes unnoticed though. Everyone seems more interested in bigger blades,” Vella heard the man tending the booth say. She turned to take a look at him. He was a short man with a rather broad build, with a mustache with singed hairs from the fire of a forge. He had a bandana tied over his bald head, though it was soaked from sweat. Vella wasn’t surprised given the heat of the small forge behind him. “I’d love to claim credit for that one, but in all honesty, I won it in a game of cards,” the man said. “My name’s Mormyr, what’s yours miss?”

“My name is Vella,” she answered without thinking.

“Well Vella, do you want to actually take a look at the blade or are you just gonna stare at the sheath all day?” Mormyr said as he walked over. He grabbed the blade and handed it to Vella.

Vella eagerly took the blade from his hands and marveled at it. She pulled it free from its’ sheath and watched the sunlight dance across the edge. The faint glow of magic washed along the edge of the weapon. “It’s incredible,” Vella mumbled out.

“That it sure is,” Mormyr replied. “It’d do you a lot more good than that little utility knife you got too,” he said with a smirk. Vella looked down at the dagger she had strapped to her leg, in comparison it seemed like a kitchen knife. As much as she was comfortable with it, the utility knife she used was beaten up by cleaning dragon scales and claws. “Blade’s not the only thing special about that though,” Mormyr said motioning for Vella to hand him the blade. He sheathed the blade and held it up. “See this spot here?” he said pointing to a small circle inlet at the top of the sheath. “Well this here’s for an enchantment the blade and the sheath share, one drop o blood and the right words and this will bind to that person. Won’t come out o the sheath for anyone else. You’d have to break the enchantment to be able to pull it out and that’s awful tricky business.” He took the blade and held it upside down so that the dragon on the hilt was showing. “Then there’s this part,” He said as he spoke to the blade, “Draconus animae.” As he finished uttering the words the metal dragon on the hilt began to dance and wriggle in a flight motion. “Not exactly a practical feature, but I do love watching that part. I may be a good smith, but I’ve never had the talent for the magic side, couldn’t do that if I wanted to.” He handed the sword back to Vella.

As Vella reached over towards Mormyr her bag bumped into an item on the table and the black enchanted coin dropped on the table. Mormyr reached and picked it up to hand it back to Vella, but once his eyes met the coin his tone changed. “My apologies miss, I didn’t realize who I was speaking to,” he said bowing his head slightly. “Here I am trying to be helpful and you probably could tell everything bout the magic more than I could.” Vella took the coin back from Mormyr and went to hand the sword back to him, instead, Mormyr extended his hand out to stop her. “The blade is yours miss, free of charge.”

“What do you mean,” Vella asked, “I have the coin to pay for it.”

“No payment needed,” Mormyr insisted. “You just tell whoever you’re within the wild order that Mormyr the smith believes in what you folks do and would be more than happy to aid the cause.” He winked at Vella and she tilted her head in confusion. She wanted to question more but didn’t want to look a gift horse in the mouth.

Vella walked away slowly from Mormyr as she tightened her new short sword to her belt. Aren had said something about the wild order, but she wasn’t sure what that meant. She had a feeling she’d have to ask Sani when they met back up. It probably wasn’t worth asking Aren as he would most likely grumble and try to protect Vella from whatever it was. After making sure the sheath was attached tightly Vella took pause and pulled out her utility knife. She made a tiny cut on the edge of her finger and let a drop of blood hit the enchanted spot on the sheath. As she uttered her name the blade gave a faint green glow and then went back to normal. “It’ll be fun to ask Aren to unsheathe this when I see him,” she mused to herself. The image of the rather brawny man struggling to pull off a sheath would probably make Sani laugh quite a lot too.

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Content that she had sorted out everything about the sword Vella went back to walking around the market, looking from stall to stall. She walked by several more smiths, but none of their wares caught her eye in the same manner as her new sword. What did catch her attention though was the increasingly strong smell of food from the next aisle. As she turned the corner she looked down the longest aisle and saw a row on each side of vendors selling different kinds of food. She took in a deep breath, letting all the smells fill her nostrils. This was unlike anything she’d been around. This she assumed was the best representation of how diverse Aroster was, people selling food from all different areas of the land, different meats, spices, and baked goods all mingling together. She took her time sampling a few bites here and there, noting what would be worth coming back to with Sani and Aren. One food in particular delighted her. A small pastry dough filled with meat, it smelled wonderful, and when she took a bite her mouth filled with flavors she had never tasted, and then at the end a heat filled her mouth that made Vella feel like a dragon. She grabbed two more of the pastries as she went.

After finally eating her fill and deciding she needed to continue along Vella walked out of the aisle of food and continued along. She saw that some of the different tents and vendors had emblems like the one on the enchanted coin. A few were displayed very prominently and others were small and more hidden. She walked through a few more aisles before deciding it was time to eat another dragon pastry. She walked past one tent in particular that caught her eye. It had a magnificent burgundy fabric draped across with gold stitching and a small trail of smoke consistently puffing from the opening. The old sign on the tent was so weathered that Vella couldn’t’ make out what it said all she could see was that same emblem from the coin, but she headed in regardless. The tent was filled with various odd items all humming with different magic, so many different colors glowed throughout the tent that it was a little disorienting Vella thought. Vella saw a pile of cloaks sitting in a chair in the corner and walked over to them. Every one of the heroes in her books had some form of fancy or magical cloak, why shouldn’t she have one, she thought. As she reached her hand to touch the cloak she was startled to find it wasn’t a pile of cloaks but an old mage sitting in the chair. He grumbled something at Vella and she fell over. Vella’s bag flopped open next to her and the enchanted coin rolled out again. For a moment Vella thought the coin was glowing, but she couldn’t tell with all the other items bathing the room in odd light.

“Lumes cupitio,” the old mage grumbled. As he spoke all the magical items stopped glowing and the tent returned to normal light. He stood up slowly and Vella was surprised to see how tall he was. He stood taller even than Aren and had a large brown robe on that shimmered with magic still.

“Sorry sir,” Vella mumbled as she grabbed the coin and got off the floor. This time she took care to put the coin in her pocket so it wouldn’t fall out again. As she stood and dusted herself off she looked down to make sure she hadn’t dropped anything else. When she looked up again the old mage was gone. “Ok, guess I must have really ticked him off, guess I won’t be buying anything here after all.” Vella walked out of the town a little irked by what had happened, but all things considered, she was still having the time of her life at the market.

As Vella reached the last aisle she finally could feel something familiar. The last aisle was filled with the scents and sounds of various livestock. She walked past pens with horses and one with some kind of large lizard she didn’t recognize. As she walked closer to the end of the aisle she came across a pen of wyrms. They were rather thinner than the wyrms she had raised, but they had the same kind of unencumbered enthusiasm at seeing a new person that hers had. They trudged happily to the fence and began snorting at her. Vella took the last dragon pastry she had, broke it into a few pieces, and tossed it to the rather excited wyrms. She reached her hand over the fence and gave the wyrms a pat, “Somebody needs to feed you a bit more.” She looked at the wings and legs of the wyrms too, examining them, “Probably needs to fly you a bit more too.”

Vella walked past the wyrms to the adjoining pen and saw a kind of dragon she had only ever read about in her books, a Moren’s moss dragon. This kind of dragon was far larger than a wyrm and broad, unlike a wyvern. It was a deep slate gray with moss growing along the ridges of its’ scales. They came from the great forest to the north of Draeton, Morenseo. They were famous for being ridden by the Morens, the chiefs of the forest when they went into battle. She’d read about several of the great battles of the different Morens and what amazing creatures the moss dragons were. Unfortunately, as she looked closer her heart sank. The dragon had a massive metal collar around the neck that was chained to the walls that surrounded the market. The dragon had large chips in its scales that marked clear abuse. This proud dragon had been mistreated and Vella began to simmer with rage.

The moss dragon sat in a heap of hay, but one eye cracked open to take a look at Vella. With a grunt the dragon stood and lumbered towards Vella, keeping its head low. The signs of abuse were more visible as it walked to Vella, there were small cuts across the dragon’s whole body and lash marks across its face. Vella reached out her hand, showing her palm to the dragon. It let out a low grunt and put its’ head below, letting Vella touch it. She reached out and gave a gentle scratch to the soft spot behind the dragon’s ears and it let out a rather despondent whimper. “I’m sorry you’re here my friend. You belong in the forest or in the sky, certainly not chained up in a market.”

“Awful brave and stupid to put your hand in there with that beast,” a voice said coming near to Vella. “That dumb brute hurt enough of us. I wouldn’t be surprised if it snapped off your hand. Then again I think I may have finally broken the beast by now.” The man speaking made Vella’s stomach churn. His voice and appearance were both greasy. He was a tall thin man who was trying to dress himself as though he were part of a higher class, though his demeanor and sneer made it clear what kind of person he was. “Now get your hand off the merchandise. In fact I think touching the merchandise is worth a few coins.” He looked at Vella and sized her up, “You sure don’t look like you could seriously afford this beast anyways.” He put his hand on the hilt of the sword at his belt. This was the kind of man that gave Aroster a bad reputation Vella thought.

Without thinking through her words Vella spat back, “If anyone should be paying for something it would be you.” She said, turning and putting her hand on the hilt of her sword. “This dragon has been abused and it looks like you’re been scraping scales to sell.”

“Of course I have, why wouldn’t I?” the man responded. “Moss dragon scales are worth good money and if I can’t find someone to buy the whole darn dragon I need to make money from it some way.” He pulled his sword from the sheath and pointed it at Vella. “You’re clearly not from around her deary. There aren’t any lawmen to help you out, but since you’ve decided to be so brave I think I’ll just have to relieve you of all your money and that sword. Aroster’s no place for some country hick.” Two other men had slunk up behind the first as he talked, both larger than he was.

The man lunged at Vella’s arm, clearly looking to scare her rather than land a blow. Vella jumped back and hit the fence. The main steadied again and pointed the blade at Vella again. “Now, that money and sword please, I won’t ask again,” he said.

Vella knew if she went for her sword now he would slash her first. She tightened her fists as she felt rage filling her up. This would not be something she would enjoy explaining to Sani and Aren. She would be proving that she hadn’t been ready for this trip. The man stepped closer and put out his hand reaching for Vella’s bag as he kept the sword’s point at her. Vella closed her eyes for a moment and finally snapped, “NO!” she yelled out. As she opened her eyes she saw a blur of gray and green crash down next to her and dust kicked up. She pulled her sword from the sheath and backed up, trying to clear the dirt from her eyes. As it cleared she could make out a very large shape, that of the moss dragon. The dragon was where the man had been standing, except it was glowing a vibrant green and it seemed invigorated. The man was unconscious, clearly he’d been stomped by the dragon. Vella turned and saw that the chain and collar holding the moss dragon had been ripped out of the wall by force. The dragon turned and presented its’ head, nuzzling Vella’s hand.

The other two men stood dumbstruck behind the dragon. Having just seen their boss get crushed by a seemingly weakened dragon, they had scarce little clue of what to do. In the blink of an eye, a figure appeared behind them and their heads gave a deep purple glow, they both dropped to the ground. Vella could just barely make out the man, he was tall and thin, but with dark skin. He had a wide smile and wore the same kind of robe as the man from the shop. Vella gave the man a quick wave, unsure of how to thank him. She looked to the moss dragon and then to the ground. She took the coin purse from the unconscious dragon trader, “I think I will make you pay this way too,” she said with a smile. As she packed the coins into her bag she noticed a glow coming from her pocket. She pulled out the enchanted coin and looked up, locking eyes on the mage.

“Kraevos is real,” Vella mumbled out. She pointed at the mage reflexively. He smiled again and stepped forward. As he approached the sun leaked into his hood and Vella could see his eyes. She couldn’t explain it, but his eyes looked like the stars in the night sky, swirling and changing between blue and black with the sparkles of distant worlds. He stopped a few steps away and raised a hand up, putting it in front of his face. His open palm hard the star tattooed into his skin, just like the emblems around Aroster. He closed his palm and as he did his body disappeared in the wind like a small puff of smoke.

Vella blinked a few times, not sure what to think about anything that had just happened. She’d just met Kraevos, or at least it seemed like it. That wasn’t even the part that confused her the most though, Kraevos had taken care of two of the armed men, but the moss dragon had stomped out the other, through some kind of magic. Vella gave the dragon a pat on the head and let her hand rest, she could feel the dragon’s heart beating just like hers, she felt one with the dragon, feeling the same hum of magic surround them both. She couldn’t help but feel like it was something she had done that freed the dragon.