“You’re really going to do this,” the Chancellor stated.
“Yes. We’re ready for another expedition, and I’d rather tackle the desert than deal with politics.”
“The desert is too dangerous. I’m not sending in a team, and I don’t approve of you going it alone.”
“I won’t be alone; Isa will be with me.”
“You know what I mean, Rai; don’t be obtuse. You are both highly competent, but you are still only two people without a divine mage or even a spirit mage. Besides, just getting to the desert will require you to travel for more than a month, crossing national borders. You may have to deal with ‘politics’ anyway.”
“We will be fine, and I doubt we’ll attract too much attention with just the two of us, at least from anyone important.”
“One of you is a muscular saurian, Rai. You will attract attention.”
“Why are you so against this?”
“Because you’re our golden goose, and you’re likely to get yourself killed if you do this. If you die, we lose the all-important record tetra, plus the original artifacts of anything you’re taking with you.”
“Ever the practical one, I see. But I’m not going to die.”
“Do I need to remind you that it’s called the Desert of Death?”
“You think I’m taking this too lightly.”
“I absolutely think you’re taking this too lightly.”
Rai shook his head. “I’m not. You are underestimating us. And you won’t change our minds.”
The Chancellor pinched the bridge of her nose and closed her eyes, letting out a long sigh. “So stubborn. Have you considered the threat of Eternity? Dean Derx has been silent, and they executed the man we let go to spy on, so I have no idea what they’re up to right now. If you start a cross-continent trek, they will go after you.”
“That’s a very valid point. Counterpoint: they’ve tried to assassinate me twice already, and I’m even more powerful than I was the last time. Even if they send actual Masters, I’m confident that the two of us can take them on.”
“…Fine. If I cannot change your mind, there’s only one thing that I can do.”
“And that is?”
“Ensure that you have someone capable of pulling your ass out of the fire with you. Have you ever heard of Sun Knight?”
“No, I can’t say that I have. Who are they?”
The Chancellor gestured, and a life-sized illusion of a seven foot tall, bulky-bodied individual completely covered in gleaming silver full-body plate armor with an orange sun emblem painted on the breastplate and large circular shield and wearing a double-edged hand-and-a-half sword on their back appeared standing beside the two of them. A massive warhorse with golden hair wearing barding (but with an uncovered head) stood beside the knight.
“This is the Sun Knight. They are a wandering holy knight of the Sun God. They can’t cast spells, as they aren’t a divine mage, but they have the ability to heal with a touch as well as through some of their combat arts; they’re a Master combat artist. They’re also incredibly tough and difficult to kill. Their mount isn’t a beast, but a celestial spirit in the form of a horse (if relatively weak by spirit standards). The Sun Knight is known only by their appellation; even I don’t know their name, or even their race or gender, as they are never seen without their armor on. I do know that they are unfailingly honorable and believe themselves to ‘fight the good fight’ against evil. I happen to know where they are at the moment and can readily arrange for them to accompany you.”
“Hm. How so?” Rai said curiously. “Do they owe you a favor?”
“They do. They ran into trouble with nobility in the northern part of Landsgrace and I smoothed things over. So, you will be taking the Sun Knight with you into the Desert of Death.”
“It doesn’t sound like you’re giving me a choice.”
“No, I’m not. Officially, they’ll be the Magic Tower’s representative in the expedition.”
“So you can claim all spoils shared despite not committing any actual manpower? I think not.” Rai crossed his arms. “I’ll decide whether to agree to let them accompany us after we’ve met, but even if we do, I refuse to acknowledge them as the Tower’s representative. They’re a third party you’re hiring, at best.”
The elven woman and human man stared each other down. The Chancellor gave up first.
“…Have it your way; they won’t be our representative. But they will be going with you. You’re too valuable to risk by letting you go alone with Isa. I won’t budge on that.”
Isa walked up to join them where they stood in Lord Henrik’s parlor. “Eh, it’ll be fine, Rai. If they turn out to be a problem, we can always leave them behind somewhere.”
“…All right.”
“Now that that’s sorted, I need to get going to make the arrangements. I’ll meet you back here in two weeks’ time; that should give you long enough to escort young Torval home. Teleport.”
The Chancellor vanished. Rai raised an eyebrow at Isa.
“Oh, no it’s absolutely not fine,” Isa said as though agreeing with an unspoken statement. “I just said that to get her to leave.” She scowled. “Who does she think she is? You’re the one in charge, and I’m your partner. We’re the ones who make the decisions, not her.”
“She thinks she’s one of the most magically and politically powerful individuals on the continent – correctly, as a matter of fact,” Rai said. “She’s not used to people not obeying her. But… if this Sun Knight is as powerful as she makes them out to be, and as honorable as she thinks they are, having them along as extra support won’t necessarily be a bad thing, as long as they understand that they don’t get to call the shots.” Rai sighed. “I’m not happy with this, but I’m withholding judgment – for now.”
“If you say so. You’re far too trusting.”
“If I weren’t trusting, you’d be dead and I might not have found the Dragonia ruins,” Rai pointed out.
“…Fair point.”
-x-
The trip back to Isa’s tribe passed relatively uneventfully, unless one counted the exclamations of fear and surprise people had upon seeing Isa. By comparison, Torval was almost unremarkable. More than once, on the fact that Rai was there to defuse the situation prevented somebody from trying to attack her, an action that would have ended very poorly for the attacker. In roughly five days, they reached the kobold warren.
The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
“Klik!” Isa called out.
“I’m awake! I’m awake!” the young kobold guard cried. He walked out of the tunnel and saw Isa, his eyes widening as he craned his neck up at her. “By the dragons! Is that you, Isa?! You evolved! You really did it!”
Isa grinned. “I sure did! I’m just stopping by for a brief visit and to bring Torval back.”
Torval waved at Klik with a smile.
“Torval! You’re still alive? I thought for sure the humankin would kill you!”
“Hey! There are plenty of nice humans, and elves, and dwarves, and gnomes, and beastfolk! I made friends while I was away! I got to meet plenty of people in the Library. Ooh, Sesson is going to be so jealous when I tell him about the Library! I learned so much stuff, and I even have a bunch of books that Rai copied for me in the last week. Did you know he has this spell that animates a quill pen to copy text from one place to another?”
“I have no idea what that means,” Klik said.
“Oh, right. I learned a bunch of new concepts while I was in the city of Fairholm. It feels like I’ve known about them forever now. Anyway, I’m super excited about all this stuff. I’m going to be able to make books with our knowledge so we can have records! I can’t wait to get started…!”
Isa patted Toval on the head. “Wait until you get to Sesson before you start squealing and squeaking,” she said affectionately.
“I’ll try! Wait, hey! I’m not a child anymore! Just because you’re all big doesn’t mean you can treat me like I’m little!”
Rai chuckled. “I’d like to meet with the Elders, too. I’m sure they’ll be excited to hear stories of the outside.”
“Well, follow me,” Klik said authoritatively.
Not long afterward the Chief had assembled the Elders, including Sesson, and they all met in the grand meeting chamber.
“Words cannot express how proud I am that you managed to evolve,” the Chief told Isa. “For one of our tribe to break past the limits of koboldkind… I never really thought it would happen, but it did. Maybe you really can become a dragon.”
“Oh, that reminds me,” Isa said from where she sat in front of the Elders. “Rai, my old Silver Halberd.”
“Of course.” Rai took Isa’s former weapon out of his pouch and handed it to her.
“This is a powerful magical weapon that I forged with Rai’s help; you may remember it from when we stopped by before leaving. I have a bigger one to suit my new size, so I thought I’d give this one to the tribe as a gift. It’s most powerful when in the hands of a Berserker and a Blood Mage, but even in the hands of an ordinary warrior, it’s very strong. Only the strongest fighter should be allowed to wield it.”
She placed it on the ground in front of herself.
“We accept your gift,” the Chief said. Then he turned to Torval. “Torval. You appear to have a large strapped sack with you. What did you bring back?”
“Books! Writing supplies! Some neat little trinkets! Oh, Chief, I learned so much out there! I’m gonna do my best to be the best knowledge-keeper I can be! I have so much to share with everyone! Did you know that if you use salt, you can preserve meat for a long time? I brought a bunch of salt, too. Oh! And—”
“Please, save the enthusiasm for Sesson,” the Chief said with an exasperated expression. Then he looked at Rai. “Welcome back to our warren, scholar. What have you brought this time?”
“No items, but many tales. And my illusions are even better now; by using one of my new spells, a third circle illusion spell, I can even put sounds and temperature to go with the visuals – even smell, too. So I’m sure you’ll enjoy my stories.”
“Well then, do entertain us,” one of the other Elders said.
“Let’s begin with when we left here last year. Greater Illusion.” An image of Rai and the two kobolds Isa and Torval walking through the wilderness, complete with insect and bird noises and the smell of earth and plants, appeared. “We traveled for two days through the wilds…”
-x-
Isa and Rai spent one full day and two nights at the Blackfang warren before bidding farewell to Torval (and giving Torval one of the orbs from the Conference Pendant – the one Rai had retrieved from Miransa, who stayed at the Magic Tower) and heading back to Fairholm. A couple days after they returned, the Chancellor reappeared with the Sun Knight in tow. She didn’t stay long, introducing the Sun Knight to Lord Henrik and immediately departing.
The knight nodded to Rai and Isa.
“The Magic Tower’s Chancellor told me of you and your quest,” the Sun Knight said, their voice reverberating in a way that made it hard to tell the pitch and register. “You seek knowledge and remnants of the ancients to bring about a better world. Commendable. I am known as the Sun Knight; I am a holy knight of the Sun God. My own quest is to eradicate evil wherever it may lurk. The Chancellor has asked for her favor to be repaid by a crusade into the Desert of Death. It is a dangerous environment, but I would not have agreed save for the rumors of demons and undead lurking deep within. Both must be purged. And so you shall have my shield and my sword on your journey.”
“You’re very tall,” Isa commented. “What race are you?”
“…That is no one’s business by my own.”
“Are you male or female?”
“That is also my business alone.”
“Why don’t you show your face?”
“Isa, please. Don’t antagonize them”
“I’m not. I’m pointing out that it’s hard to fully trust someone who hides their very identity from you.” Isa raised an eye ridge and crossed her arms.
The Sun Knight turned their head away. “Perhaps you have a point. Yet, just because one bares themselves does not make them any more trustworthy. Asking me to trust a saurian is also significant. The so-called monstrous races do not have a great track record when it comes to relationships with humankin civilization.”
“And I’m sure that any conflicts were always started by one side and not the other,” Isa said flatly.
“I will not reveal myself to you, regardless of your provocation.”
“Isa’s just on edge because we’ve been betrayed more than once by hired muscle,” Rai said calmly. “I see nothing wrong with you hiding your face. But I do need to make one thing clear: I’m the leader of this expedition, and Isa’s my partner. You come third. You don’t get to go against my decisions.”
“So long as your decisions are not morally incorrect, I have no qualms with this arrangement.”
“Good. We should be able to work together just fine, then. Since we’re planning to leave tomorrow, we should discuss the path we intend to take. If we don’t get delayed, it should take a little over a month to get to the desert, which is northeast of here, in the center of the continent. To do this, we’ll be passing across Landsgrace and through part of the Republic of Herrutah. While I don’t foresee too many issues in Landsgrace, since we have a badge of House Amit and a letter of introduction, there’s no telling what obstacles we may face in the republic. I don’t think I need to remind either of you, but we want as little conflict as possible, since if it comes to light who we are and who we’re connected to, it could turn into an international incident.”
“The Republic of Herrutah… such a distasteful place. They tout themselves as enlightened for doing away with nobility, but they have class divisions all the same, and unlike Landsgrace, slavery is not illegal there. It will be… difficult… to avoid conflict.”
“I’m not asking you to participate in their immoral practices, but if you start fighting every time you see a slave being mistreated, this will end in unmitigated disaster,” Rai said flatly. “I hate the concept as much as anyone, but it’s not something we can even make a dent in if we try to fight it at its lowest level.”
“…What’s slavery?” Isa asked.
“A common practice among monstrous races, especially goblinoids,” the Sun Knight answered. “Few of the so-called civilized nations practice it, but Herrutah is one that does. In short, it is the concept of one person owning another as a possession, to do with as they will. Herrutah does have rules about how slaves can be treated, but they’re rarely enforced.”
Isa scowled. “That’s repulsive.”
“In mixed-race settlements of saurians and kobolds, kobolds are frequently slaves to saurians,” the Sun Knight said.
“I used to be a kobold, so that doesn’t make me feel any better.”
‘ “Oh? You are evolved? Intriguing. At any rate, slavery is one of the more abhorrent practices on the continent, and it is difficult to ignore.”
“Difficult, but not impossible,” Rai said. “We’re not powerful enough to make a difference through personal action. Maybe if we started some sort of revolution, but that’s outside the scope of what I’m capable of.”
“A thought for the future. I acknowledge that in the pursuit of destroying evil, sometimes one must pick one’s battles. I will do my utmost to not send us off course.”
“That’s all I can expect. Now, what sort of magic items do you have?”
“My weapon, my armor, my shield. A magic bag. Some potions. A magic tent. Not much else.”
“A magic tent? That’s a really good idea… I’ll try to procure one before for me and Isa before we reach the desert. Now, back to the matter of travel: when we reach the desert, I have a first circle spell called Comfort Zone that I can use to render us immune to the ravages of the desert’s heat, though it won’t do anything about the dryness. It also works the other way, protecting from cold environments, but that’s less relevant at the moment. We have a magic item that can create fruit, which should solve our water and most of our food problems. Our goal in the desert is to find the remnants of the Magic Tower and surrounding city, which should be close to the middle of the desert.”
“We may be in the desert for a while, then. It is difficult to navigate in the desert, even for seasoned outdoorsmen.”
“That’s why I’ve bought a magic compass. I know that things can throw off lodestone compasses too often for them to be reliable. Let’s discuss our combat capabilities and the best routes to take through the countries we’re traveling through…”