Path of Dragons

“I couldn’t stop myself,” Elijah said, staring at his cup of coffee. He hadn’t taken a single sip, and by now, it had gone completely cold. “I was just so angry. Everywhere I looked, I saw a reminder of how broken that city was. It looked nice. It kept people safe. But it was a cesspool that fed all of humanity’s worst instincts.”

He looked up. “I killed hundreds of them, Lucy. Thousands, probably. And the worst part of it is that I don’t really regret it,” he admitted. “I mean, I feel guilty about losing control. But that guilt – it’s not really strong enough to make me regret it. What I do feel guilty about is that I didn’t do it sooner, that I spent all that time doing nothing, wandering around the world and getting distracted by things that didn’t really matter. I know it wouldn’t have made a difference. If I’d have set out from my island sooner, I probably would have died before I ever got to Easton. And I saved a lot of lives by giving in to those distractions. But still…I’d give them all up if it meant I could have saved Alyssa.

“Does that make me a bad person? I think that makes me a bad person.”

“It makes you human,” Lucy said, leaning forward as she gripped her own mug in two hands. She’d long since finished her cup of coffee. That wasn’t surprising, though – Elijah had spent the past forty-five minutes rambling about what he’d done after leaving Seattle the last time. Unsurprisingly, the bulk of that had centered on his actions in Valoria, though he did spend a fair amount of time reminiscing with Lucy about fond memories they’d both shared with Alyssa.

Elijah had done the same with Carmen, but with Lucy, it was different. Like Elijah, she’d grown up around Alyssa. They had both seen her at her best, at her teenage worst, and everything in between. By comparison, Carmen had only seen the finished product. A fully formed adult woman who knew who she was and what she wanted from the world.

“Sometimes, I don’t feel so human anymore,” Elijah admitted. “I mean, I spend a lot of my time running around on four legs. Or flying. I can do that now, by the way. I can actually fly. Do you realize how crazy that sounds?”

She shook her head, saying, “It wasn’t that long ago that I saw an alligator the size of a passenger plane. In the desert, which doesn’t make sense at all. Oh, and Seattle is now a desert. The world is a crazy place. You flying is the least of it.”

“I can see down your shirt, by the way. Nice.”

She sighed, then gave him a small smile. “You always do that.”

“You know that’s not what I mean,” she interrupted. “You undercut any emotional moment by diverting the conversation into something else, then make a joke.”

“What I’m looking at is no joke,” Elijah insisted.

“Do you want to have a real discussion? Or are you going to keep doing this?” she asked, obviously frustrated as she set her mug down on the coffee table. Then, she leaned back. “Because if you don’t want to talk about it, all you have to do is say so. I’m not going to push. You don’t have to divert.”

Elijah let out a long breath, then said, “Honestly? I don’t want to talk about it. I know I probably need to, but…”

“But you’re not ready.”

“Something like that. I’m still working through some things.”

And he was. It wasn’t at the forefront of his mind, but Elijah did worry about what all the killing was doing to him. It felt easier every time he did it, which was more than a little troubling. As he’d noted in the fight against the adventurers, he was trying to move away from killing as his first response to any conflict, but it seemed that the world was conspiring against that endeavor. Perhaps that was the nature of the multi-verse. Maybe killing was just how problems got solved.

But he had no intention of letting those thoughts take over his mind. He had other things that needed his attention. So, he moved the conversation along, explaining what had happened at the guild hall. “He was strong, Lucy. It cost him, though. It’s terrifying, thinking of all the possibilities with certain classes,” Elijah said. “I mean, I still don’t know how all of that worked, but he sacrificed those people for a temporary boost in power.”

“Oaths.”

“What?”

“Every member of his adventurer’s guild had to give an oath. It’s why they didn’t have more people,” Lucy said. “Lots of the hunters had opportunities to join, but they chose not to because Garet made everyone give some sort of oath. It was backed up by ethera, too. They made a big ceremony out of it as well. I’m willing to bet that part of that oath was an agreement to be sacrificed.”

“That…that makes it a little less frightening,” Elijah admitted. If people had to consent to something like that, then its power was limited. However, it wasn’t difficult to imagine that, in some places, someone with a similar class might force the issue. Roman certainly would have if such a thing had been available to him. But it was good that there were limits. “But we don’t need to worry about them anymore. The entire guild is dead. Now, I just have to deal with Mercer Mesa.”

“How are you going to do it?” she asked.

“Violently.”

“You just said –”

“Those people are trash,” Elijah said. “If they were hoarding a luxury, it would be different. But they’re monopolizing a necessity. Without that water, people die. They already have, from what I understand. This whole thing can be laid at their feet. Am I wrong about that?”

He’d thought about it a lot, and as far as he could tell, the people of Mercer were responsible for Seattle’s instability. Perhaps there still would have been issues between Isaiah and the adventurers, but Elijah expected that the situation would have been far less volatile if water shortages wouldn’t have been part of the equation. On top of that, he’d learned that the people of Mercer had refused to help with the attack of the giant alligator monster that had destroyed part of the city. They were selfish, and their goals ran counter to a productive, safe society.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“You’re not wrong,” Lucy said. “I just wish it was better. I wish people were better.”

“Some are. It’s not like this everywhere.”

“Really?” she asked.

“Argos is mostly peaceful. There’s a place on the other side of the Twilight Clefts that is, too. Same with the elves of Arvandor,” he explained. “The town near my island is peaceful, as well. Even Norcastle is better now, and it’s governed by a bit of a dick. I think it’s because even with more power, this system gives people the ability to fight back against oppression if they want to. I mean, if someone tries to mess with my friend in his shop, they’re going to lose. I think a lot of noncombatants are going to get abilities like that.”

“Is that a rational conclusion? Or just hope?”

“Maybe a little of both.”

After that, the two lapsed into silence, but it only lasted a few minutes before K’hana arrived. Elijah introduced the two to one another, and they almost immediately started to discuss all the ways they could help one another. He had little interest in that, so he excused himself and went to the apartment’s guest bedroom. There, he concentrated on healing himself and cycling his core. More of the former than the latter, but he’d taken to working on his cultivation as often as possible. Outside of when he was fighting, he kept it going at all times, and he’d slowly made progress. He still felt that he was a long way from his efforts bearing fruit, but the fact that he had made verifiable progress was encouraging.

That night, he didn’t sleep. Instead, he focused entirely on preparing himself for what he expected to be a difficult battle. Part of that was getting himself back to peak condition, but he also pulled out his long-ignored laptop, plugged in a USB drive containing all the information Isaiah had given him, and memorized the map as well as everything else that seemed useful.

With his Quartz Mind, it wasn’t even difficult, which prompted him to wish he’d had access to cultivation back in college. It would have trivialized all of the rote memorization required by any advanced degree. But if he’d had those advantages back then, there was no way he’d have followed the path of an academic, so it was a bit of a moot point. Besides, it wasn’t like anyone could change the past.

The rest of the night and most of the following morning was busy but tedious, though by mid-afternoon, he felt as prepared as he could be. By that point, K’hana and Lucy had reached an agreement, though Elijah didn’t really concern himself with the details. All he cared about was that they would help one another, and given how friendly they were acting, that seemed to be the case.

“Do you wish for me to help?” asked K’hana when Elijah let them know that he would be leaving on his mission as soon as the sun set. “If I had been there before, you might not have been so grievously injured.”

“You’d have probably died,” Elijah said.

“I am no helpless damsel.”

“Never said you were. But the fact of the matter is that I’m more durable than you,” Elijah explained. “And that guild leader seemed like the kind of guy who’d target the most vulnerable first. Maybe that would have given me the chance to take him out before he grew so strong, but I don’t think you would have survived. With how strong he was…”

“Is that kind of thing common?” Lucy asked K’hana.

The elven woman didn’t look terribly happy to have her own weakness pointed out. It was an unassailable fact, though, and Elijah didn’t regret saying it, especially if it kept her alive. Tersely, she said, “I do not know. I have heard of classes that form a symbiotic relationship with their people. Most are Tacticians or Administrators. The Noble class is the most common. They increase productivity and experience for non-combat classes, but they have abilities that can enhance their own power at the expense of their citizens’. Some variants even have the ability to control the way their people see them, though that is rare from what I understand. I am no expert, though. On my world, we were too isolated for those sorts of classes to manifest.”

“Interesting,” said Elijah.

He knew that each archetype had its own purpose, but he’d never really thought about what kind of abilities they might have. Sure, Tacticians would probably get abilities that would help them organize and empower armies, but beyond that, Elijah had never thought about what else they could do. The same was true of Administrators like Barry. Isaiah had given him some information on the man’s suspected capabilities, but Elijah knew that there was a chance that he was walking into another very dangerous set of circumstances.

Whatever the case, it was a situation he couldn’t ignore. Even if he didn’t feel a moral obligation to do something about their water hoarding – which he definitely felt – he’d also made a promise to Isaiah, and he intended to keep his word.

So, when the sun set, Elijah went to the roof of Lucy’s building, transformed into the Shape of the Sky, then flew to the capitol. He landed inside the walls, then made his way toward Isaiah’s command center. Once he arrived, he was surprised to find that Isaiah had gathered a group of soldiers.

“What’s with these guys?” he asked. Each of the men wore black fatigues, just like everyone else in Isaiah’s army. However, these soldiers felt far more powerful. If they weren’t on the verge of entering the ranks of top one-hundred, Elijah would have been surprised.

“Former SEALs,” Isaiah said.

“In training, sir,” said one of the men. “We never finished.”

Elijah was aware that the SEALs had a history of training in Washington State Parks, but that had supposedly ended when a judge banned them from doing so. Apparently, they had ignored that ban. Before the world’s transformation, Elijah might’ve found that unconscionable, but right now, he was grateful for their presence.

Perhaps there was a lesson there, but it was one Elijah didn’t have time to examine.

Isaiah then explained that the former SEALs-in-training were his special operations team. Elijah didn’t know how effective they would be, but he expected that their pre-World Tree training would serve them well. After all, it took quite a lot of grit and determination to become a Navy SEAL, and that would translate well to the new world.

Regardless, the plan was for Elijah to attack from the air while the team scaled the cliff. Meanwhile, Isaiah would send use his drones to disarm the traps. He knew he wouldn’t get them all, and without the distraction provided by Elijah and the SEALs, it would be a useless endeavor. They would just replace the traps before anyone could take advantage of the vulnerability. Yet, having to deal with an attack would hopefully prevent that.

Elijah agreed to the plan, and once everyone was ready, the SEALs left. An hour later, they were in position.

“You’re up. Good luck,” Isaiah said.

“Yeah. Sure.”

Then, Elijah left the building, adopted the Shape of the Sky, then took off. He didn’t bother hiding his presence. Instead, when he reached Mercer Mesa, he flew around for a few minutes, ensuring that everyone who lived there saw his rainbow scales. Predictably, they panicked, gathering to deal with what they thought was a monster attack.

“Now,” Isaiah said through the earpiece Elijah had once again donned.

Elijah dove, and when he came within a few hundred yards of the plateau’s surface, he initiated the transformation into Shape of the Guardian. The gathered crowd aimed various spells and projectiles in his direction, but their aim was terrible. Only a few hit him, and those were rendered ineffective by his high Constitution, Ward of the Seasons, and Iron Scales. He hit the crowd with thunderous impact, the shockwave sending three people flying away to land on their backs.

“I want to speak to Barry,” he growled. “Right now. Or everyone here is going to die a horrible, horrible death.”

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