Chapter Four: Mystics

Joseph’s mind spun as he followed the three Mystics down the side hallway they’d entered through. The curious stares of the other newly awakened followed them like dogs hoping for tidbits to drop from the dinner table.

Why have they come for me? What have I done? Mystics could see the future. They guided the Queen’s hand from their place as leaders of her intelligence agency. They protected the kingdom from threats from both within and without.

Flights of dragonriders arriving just in time to repel the wrack from the firewall, or to intercept a wyvern that had made it past it, were attributed to the Mystics. So too were the disappearances of citizens laid at their feet, though it always transpired that they were vocal dissidents of the kingdom, or had been about to cause some calamity or other.

It must be because I’m Deathsworn. Joseph fervently hoped they had not seen him perpetrating some future crime.

The trio led him out into the courtyard at the centre of the complex. Joseph stopped in his tracks.

Three dragons waited in massive space. They were all clearly Water dragons, judging by their long, sinuous bodies, but the slight iridescence on their dark blue scales, and their white manes were not common to the element.

Mystic dragons… Joseph thought, completely in awe. The trio of riders stopped as he did, beckoning him onwards. One of the dragons had a small basket attached to its saddle by chains, currently resting on the ground beside it.

The dragons regarded him with curious expressions as their riders led him to the basket and helped him in. Their faces were unusual for dragons, with their forward-facing eyes and snub noses. The overall impression given by their maned visages, was that of great wisdom and intelligence. Even so, Joseph didn’t miss their fangs and claws. Any one of them could mangle him as easily as a lion would a mouse.

Once the Mystic riders had helped Joseph into the basket, and secured him with straps of leather, they mounted up, helped up into their saddles by their dragons.

The dragon carrying Joseph’s basket stood, carefully arranging the basket beneath it with one scaled paw and taking up the slack in the chains. It gave Joseph a perfect view of its talons, six of them, each half as long as his body. The amount of dexterity in the massive digits was surprising, and soon, they were ready.

Great wings unfurled, and thumped at the air. Suddenly, his dragon leapt, firing itself upwards, its tail uncoiling from where it had been pressed to the earth, and springboarding them into the sky.

Joseph’s stomach lurched and dropped through the seat of his pants. Terror filled him as the ground quickly receded beneath them.

They steadied out, the three Mystic dragons flying in formation, heading straight towards the palace. As their flight became smoother, and the basket stopped lurching around, Joseph’s terror was quickly replaced with exaltation.

This was amazing! Soaring through the air with a dragon! He could only imagine how much better it would be to be perched upon their backs, directing them through their bond. The agency! The sheer freedom! It was too much. He whooped for joy.

He sensed the dragon’s attention turn on him due his outburst. He wasn’t quite sure how, but he knew it was regarding him. He sensed mild amusement, and approval. Within minutes, they reached the palace.

The dragon carrying Joseph trumpeted a call to its fellows, and they banked to wheel about the enormous palace complex in a wide circle. It gave Joseph an unparalleled view of the entire capital, and all its surrounding land.

His very first aerial view of the capital was something he was certain he would never forget. The skylances, those myriad towers sprinkled throughout the city, grew taller and more densely clustered towards the tallest tower of them all: the palatial spire. They were relatively uniform in architecture, all incredibly thin for their height, enchantment-reinforced all the way down. As they soared above them, it gave Joseph the impression of flying above a great stone-and-metal forest.

The huge harbour, and the ocean beyond, twinkling with diamantine brilliance in the early afternoon light, and studded with islands like deep green gems, was only slightly less stunning. It was the first time he could remember seeing the ocean, and he greedily drank in the sight as if it might not be there tomorrow.

The patchwork fields surrounding the capital in all directions, in every colour of green and yellow, made a mesmerising quilt. Here and there they were dotted with small hamlets, or villages, and on the furthest horizon, he could even see the first of the nearby towns.

Above it all, the many shards of the Fracturing burned in the mid-morning sky.

It was incredible. It was breathtaking. Joseph marvelled at the life of a dragonrider, to have these kinds of utterly exceptional views available at a whim. He needed it for himself.

The dragons banked gently, heading directly towards a smaller, black tower near to the grand palatial spire. They began to shed speed as they drew nearer, and pulled up, beating their wings as they reached a large, open bay in the side of one floor, high up the tower.

The dragon carrying Joseph slowly edged forward into the gap, careful of the basket beneath it, and gingerly lowered him to the floor. Seconds after, it dropped lightly down after him. He barely even felt a tremor, a testament to both the construction of the tower, and the incredible agility of the dragon, considering its size.

He waited as the rider dismounted, and the others brought their dragons in after them. White opened the basket and assisted him in unstrapping himself from the array of anchoring straps.

Though he had found the experience enthralling, he still found himself glad to be back on solid ground. He would need more time to grow as truly comfortable in the air as a full dragonrider.

As the other dragons landed, and their riders dismounted, attendants waiting around the hanger sprang into action, removing their tack, checking for any injuries or complaints, and bringing out haunches of meat.

White started towards a door at the back of the open bay, and he followed. As Joseph passed her dragon, he turned and offered it a deep bow. He had read that it was the proper way of giving respect to an ally’s dragon for assistance rendered in one of his father’s journals.

The dragon inclined its head to him, raising a foreleg and touching a single clawed digit to the centre of its forehead. He sensed more amusement from the beast. Its face might have held a slight smile. The journals had never mentioned such a response, and he had no idea what to make of it.

He held his bow for a second longer, and then turned to follow its rider. He found her watching him with a raised eyebrow. “Mico likes you. He finds your old fashioned deference entertaining. Such displays are usually reserved for aid rendered in battle, young one, and even then, only when the life of a dragon or rider has been saved through direct intervention.”

“It was just something I read in my father’s journal. I don’t know, it seemed …appropriate.” He shrugged, feeling a little embarrassed.

“It’s good,” she said, though her expression still looked hard enough to parry a sword. “Too many of the newly awakened forget their manners.”

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“Well. I’ll bear that in mind then. Such an amazing flight seemed like the sort of thing that deserved some thanks, is all.” A loud rumbling noise came from Mico behind them. Joseph realised it was the dragon equivalent of a chuckle. For that matter, even White’s expression cracked slightly.

“I remember my first time flying…” she said. “Come, we have much to discuss.” Her usual stony expression reasserted itself.

Joseph was used to people thinking he was a little naive due to his enthusiasm. It didn’t bother him. He’d rather be thought of as happy but simple, than smart but brooding.

He followed her out the door at the back of the bay, and down a hallway to a set of stairs. From there they worked their way upwards for several flights until they came to a floor with a sealed doorway and two Landed guards beside it.

The guards greeted White respectfully, who then tapped an enchantment sequence out on a panel beside the door to open it. She entered, and gestured for Joseph to follow. Two more Landed guards stood on the other side of the door.

White led him down more hallways, these more plush than those he’d seen so far. Neat wooden doors stood at intervals. The floor was carpeted in thick, but plain rugs. Enchantments on the walls provided steady, clear illumination. There were no windows of any sort.

Eventually they stopped at a door, which White opened with another sequence of presses. Again, she led him through.

Joseph found himself in a large room. It was furnished well, but not lavishly, everything was clean and orderly. Several couches were arranged around a low table. A dining table stood offset to a small kitchen area. He could see several doors leading off the back walls.

Officer White gestured for him to sit. He gratefully sank into a couch chair, placing his pack and lance and sword beside it. White sat down on the couch opposite him.

“Joseph, thank you for accompanying me. You must have a lot of questions,” she began.

“Yes, ma’am. What is this place? Why am I here?” He had a fair idea of the what, but the why eluded him. “How do you even know me?”

“We are Mystics in the Royal Intelligence Service Ensuing, and this is the Royal Intelligence Service Tower.” Joseph nodded along, having already deduced as much.

“Fracturings are a time of upheaval, as you well know. They always have been. Magic surges, thousands more eggs drop, and the war renews afresh. The future, for many, is uncertain. It makes our job exceedingly difficult. Tell me, Joseph, what do you know of the Mystics?”

He floundered a little, struggling to come up with an answer that wouldn’t make him sound simple in front of this exacting woman. “You can deduce things about the future. See it, maybe. Your exact abilities are unclear. There isn’t a lot of information on Mystics available.”

“That’s more or less correct, although the reality is a lot more complex. Our Fused element is …difficult to understand. Our dragons are more naturally apt at looking through fate’s shattered lens, at finding what to look at, but we riders are better at figuring out why. Finding where to look is where we meet in the middle. Do you follow?”

Joseph nodded. “It sounds like Mystics dragons are the bloodhounds, and Mystic riders are the hunters.”

White snorted. “Don’t say that to Mico; he just started to like you.” Her expression drifted off for a moment, then a brief flash of concern, or maybe puzzlement, crossed her features, then was wiped away just as quickly as she refocused on him.

“Fracturings muddy the waters. So many people coming into power, so much death, so many dragons entering the world, it makes a tangle of the future. But from tangles, come knots. Convergences.

“We Mystics cannot see far at the moment, not with so much turbulence in the skeins. But we can see these knots, these convergences.”

Joseph nodded. He had a sinking feeling he knew what White was about to say.

“You, Joseph Wash, we have seen. Several dragons have, actually.”

“Me?” he said lamely, “But, why?”

White shrugged. “When several dragons all saw you in visions, we knew you must be important for some reason. We knew your name. We knew you would awaken Death. We knew when you would arrive at the capital. But everything after is tangled.

We looked into your past. Two dragonriders as parents. Raised by an enchanter. It tells us you are likely a capable person, but even so, it doesn’t clarify much. At this stage, we simply cannot tell why you have been seen.”

Joseph mulled this over for a minute. It was good news, then, that he hadn’t been picked out for committing some crime, but the uncertainty didn’t make him feel much better. Why had fate gotten tangled around him? He had always hoped to be special, who didn’t, but he had never truly thought he might be.

“Is it because I awoke Death?” he asked, voicing his concerns. He needed to know. “Am I… am I going to kill people?”

White studied him closely. “No. At least, not in the way you’re asking. It is likely you will kill, one way or another. But no more likely than any rider.”

“How can you know that?” he asked, and he realised he was pleading with her. “How can you know?” He hadn’t realised how much his awakening Death had been playing upon him. He was not immune to the stereotypes himself, after all.

“Death is just a part of life. It is a tool, Joseph. It is how you use it that matters. I have known only a few Deathsworn, so I cannot claim any great familiarity with them, but they are people like any other, some good, some bad, most in between.

“In my line of work, though, I have met a great many broken people. Evil people. I hunt them, and I have become intimately familiar with the signs. You are not of their ilk. I would stake my life on it.”

Joseph breathed a silent sigh of relief. He wanted his life to be simple. He wanted to awaken, and find a dragon, and have adventures, and make a name for himself. He didn’t want uncertainty, but he could live with it. He would just have to find out why he was becoming a convergence.

“That is not all,” White said. “There are three others, too. Three others that the dragons have seen. They are all about your age, all newly awakened. Each of you with a different sacred element. It seems that the convergence is centred around you four.”

That caught Joseph’s attention. Three others? He felt even better. He had not been singled out. There were others, too.

“Am I the first, then?”

“No,” White replied. “The second. Lauren arrived yesterday. She’s in her room.”

Joseph nodded. Two more still to come then. “What do we do? What’s the plan from here, then?”

“We must wait for the others to reach the capital. The next arrives tomorrow, the last, the day after. It is critical that we get each of you an egg.”

Joseph gaped at her, stunned.

“Ever since the dragons have seen you four, we have only been able to confirm a single impact site for a shard. It is over a week away. We will have to leave immediately, as soon as everyone is here. I suggest you use the time wisely. My colleagues will give you what training they can before you go.

“I need to be going. I have many other duties, and until you leave I will be scrambling to organise an escort for your group to the impact site. If I don’t see you tomorrow, I will see you when you leave.”

“You’re not coming?” he asked. “To the impact site, I mean?”

“No. Mystics are too valuable to risk in the wilds. Queen’s orders,” she explained. “But don’t worry. I will make sure your escort is impeccable. One of the Royal Flights, if I get my way.”

A Royal Flight? They were the Queen’s chosen, handpicked for their skill and bravery. Excitement bubbled in his stomach. Maybe this whole fate-convergence business wasn’t too bad after all.

“That got your attention, did it?” She favoured him with a small smile. “Train hard the next few days. I know most awakened don’t get much time before their excursion, and your situation is no different in that respect, but it is unique in all others. We need you to get an egg, but we don’t know why.

“The other kingdoms and the wrack will all be contesting the eggs. Once the fracturing is done, and everyone has a fresh influx of riders, the old wars will flare. You must be ready for anything. Use your time wisely.”

She held his gaze for a moment, then swept out of the room, leaving Joseph sitting on the couch alone. His head was swimming. It was a lot to take in.

I’m going to fly with a Royal Flight! I’m going to get an egg! I’m going to be a rider! He almost felt like he would explode.

I’m going into the wilds. My fate is tangled, and I’m untrained. The excitement guttered.

He had work to do.