Ario

I hated guard duty. There were many odious jobs I could’ve been stuck doing instead. Latrine duty would be better than guarding Dread Lord Naya’s office today.

The idea that I would be able to stop anyone who'd made it past the level 10 hero cores on the castle walls, and had come in here with the intent (and presumably the capability) to kill Dread Lord Naya, the most powerful hero core in the kingdom, was almost funny. Almost because it would probably be very painful for me if that happened. But the boss wanted guards so she got them. It wasn’t my place to question, but like a great number of things Naya did, I suspected it was about appearances more than practicality.

Not that anyone asked the opinion of a level three Jinx.

Commander Iroxi had arrived half an hour ago, and Naya’s voice had been growing in volume ever since. Whatever news he had delivered, it had made her furious. At least the crashing sounds had stopped after the first ten minutes. I figured, from the direction and pattern of the sounds, Naya had been throwing things.

Sometimes, I caught a few words. “Dungeon”, “star”, “a thousand years”, “useless shitbag”, and “I’ll kill that swine Siculus”. Siculus was easy enough - he was Hyracid’s Dread Lord, and Naya’s foremost rival, and Iroxi was presumably the useless shitbag. Or maybe that was personal bias speaking. As for the rest, I was stumped. But I wasn’t paid for my smarts. Heck, I was barely paid at all. The soul contract meant I didn’t even have a choice in the matter either way.

I didn’t have any warning before the doors flew open with enough force to hit the wall, making a loud bang echo through the hall. I narrowly avoided being squashed like a bug by jumping aside.

Naya exited first, snarling insults at Iroxi, Siculus’ name, and the world in general. Naya could be best described as… severe. She was as pale as bone, her face all sharp angles like it had been hewn from marble, but by a sculptor who hadn't quite grasped how to do facial features yet. She was tall and slender, and her almost skeletal frame made her look taller. Today, a body hugging dress made of a black material that looked like thousands of tiny scales had been sewn together added to the illusion. Her midnight black hair writhed like a halo of shadows, and she floated several inches above the floor, gliding instead of walking.

Iroxi followed after her, puffing and panting, but quietly accepting her abuse. He had a yellow-green bruise forming over one eye. I guessed one of Naya’s impromptu missiles had found its aim.

I stayed quiet, and hoped that neither of them would notice me. For a moment, it seemed like they would walk right past. Naya was absorbed in her tirade. She threw in a few insults that made me blush, and my mother had been a sailor. One involved an implausible sexual position and a dragon.

But I knew better than to expect good things to happen to me.

Good things did not happen to Ario Shadowscale. Perhaps it was a family curse, or a quirk of my class, but I always seemed to have the worst luck imaginable.

Naya noticed me in the corner of her eye, and stopped mid way through describing exactly how she wished Siculus would die - a manner that seemed to involve a lot more dragons. “Iroxi, who is that?”

I tried my best to look smaller as Iroxi’s turned to look at me. “One of the guards, my liege.”

She narrowed her eyes and tapped two black fingernails together. “A Jinx? I thought the last Jinx in my army died.”

The room grew colder. My arms freckled with goosebumps.

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“This is his son,” Iroxi said.

Naya smiled. Her teeth were sharpened to points, giving the impression of the mouth of a shark. “Perfect. Jinx, you are reassigned. Iroxi, get it a wyvern and tell it what to do.”

Iroxi stammered an answer, but Naya had already turned and swept down the hall. He and I both stared after her with dual dismay.

Iroxi turned to me slowly with a heavy sigh. “Very well. Follow me, jinx.”

“My name is Ario.”

Iroxi made a pig-like snort. “Did I ask? The Dread Lord wants you to be our scout. So you shall be. Try not to die, as it will be me who was to inform her of your failure. Now, follow me, and I will get you a wyvern.”

I’d thought my gut couldn’t sink any lower when Naya had looked at me. Now, I processed Iroxi’s words and wished the floor would swallow me up. My tongue seemed to have become an impossible knot, and the words wouldn’t come.

Finally, I managed to croak out something colossally useless. “I’m not a rogue.” Great, that would convince him.

Iroxi rolled his eyes and turned on his heel. He marched down the hall, in the opposite direction to the way Naya had gone.

I stumbled as I tried to find my feet, and then jogged after him. Iroxi was quick for a short man and he’d nearly reached the end of the corridor while I had been frozen.

I already knew what happened to those who disobeyed Naya. My father had been a clear lesson. I had no choice but to follow him and find out what exactly I was scouting.

***

“A dungeon. I’m supposed to find a dungeon that no one even knows the location of. Who’s ever heard of new dungeons?” I muttered to myself as I worked to strap the saddle onto the back of a purple wyvern.

She shot me hostile glares from under its armoured brows. There had only been a single wyvern in the stables when Iroxi had dumped me with the stablemaster and instructed her to find me a mount. A grumpy purple that seemed to be considering eating me instead of letting me ride it. She had tried to bite my fingers off when I put the bit in its mouth. Still, I couldn’t blame her too much. I wouldn’t enjoy having a piece of metal in my mouth either.

"We're stuck together, so suck it up, Purple" I said. I patted the wyvern's scaly flank and vaulted into the saddle. “Do you want to be the one to tell Dread Lord Naya no?”

Purple gave a withering glare, which might’ve just been because she was affronted I’d climbed in the saddle, but I choose to take as my answer.

“Thought not.” I checked my dimensional bag’s inventory one last time, and not finding an excuse to delay any longer, I clucked my tongue and gave the wyvern’s side a nudge with my boots. “Giddy up.”

Purple jerked forward, jostling me roughly. I held on with everything I had as she sped up, her uneven gait giving a good impression of how it might feel to ride an angry bull - no one had ever accused wyverns of being graceful on the ground. Purple picked up speed on a beeline towards the edge of the aerie, and then, at the last second, launched herself off the ledge and into the open air. For one terrifying moment, I thought she would miss her cue and plummet us both to our deaths, but then her wings snapped open and caught the wind.

I dragged in a heavening breath and squeezed my eyes shut, and tried not to look at the fast shrinking landscape below.

I had remembered just how much I hated heights.

What god had I pissed off to make this my life?

At least, for how ungainly she was on the ground, Purple was a graceful flier. I could barely feel that we were moving.

Slowly, I pried my eyes open. It was easier to maintain a prone position, instead of trying to resist the wind, so I let myself lay along her neck. Wyvern saddles were designed with this in mind, and a leather guard protected me from being cut to bits by her scales, and my riding hood kept the worst of the wind off my face, leaving just a slit for my eyes.

Carefully, I pulled out my map. The land below me was starting to sketch itself out as the magic in the parchment did its job. Theoretically, my target was somewhere west of Marin, but not so far west as to be in Baras. If my luck was its usual self, the star had fallen into the Aether Sea and no one would ever find it. Maybe that would be for the best. Naya already had one dungeon under her sway. Two would tip the balance of power in Naya’s direction, which would be good for no one.

I carefully tucked the map away in my inner pocket and sighed. “Just half a world to search. Should be easy, right, Purple?”