The World Dragon's Heir - Chapter 594: Offset The Curse

Chapter 594: Offset The Curse

Trionne smiled at Dominic. “So, you do have ambitions for Wistover. You just don’t want to go your own way and take back Wavemates as a nation.

Well, at least not yet.

Give it another hundred or two hundred years of human stupidity, and you might change your mind.

It’s the curse of living too long.

Everyone gets old on you, the old generation passes on, and you’re left behind with a bunch of wet behind the ears idiots who don’t know their ass from a tea kettle.

That’s how I ended up in Shersdonia.”

“Oh? I thought that you were from there. Given that you’ve been the King’s advisor for so long.”

Trionne shook her head. “No, I was born in Kinewen. My whole family were Techno Witches going back thirty generations. Pure bloods, as such families used to be called.

I suppose they might still be, but they scattered in later years.

Too much concentrated magic caused envy, and envy brings danger. After a series of assassinations of wealthy mage family members, a hundred years ago, most of them split up and moved all but a core branch of the family out of the country.”

Dominic smiled. “You know, when I was travelling, I met many who claimed to be from pure-blood families. None of them were telling the truth, as far as I could tell.”

Trionne laughed. “A bit challenging to pretend when you’ve got a monster species in your lineage. Especially in the face of a Dragonkin, who can tell the difference.

If you ever get to the West Coast, there is a Kingdom of Stansia, named after the same family that Stansia Province is. They’ve got pure-blooded Mages in their Royal Family.

But they’ve also got Elves in their Nobility. An odd bunch, if I do say so myself.”

Dominic gave her a disbelieving look, and the old Techno Witch laughed. She might be a bit crazy, but she was still self-aware enough to realize that her insanity was no secret.

“Now, where were we? Right, making protective tokens, so that the Royals stop trying to kill each other.”

Trionne took out an assortment of broken items that looked like they would be right at home in Dominic’s big pile of spare parts. But she wasn’t salvaging them for parts, she was combining them into oddly shaped statues and using magic to connect broken magical circuits that were never intended to entwine.

After half an hour, she had a whole stack of them and a proud smile on her face.

“These will work wonderfully. Even if the Duchy doesn’t forgive them, this will help them keep their minds clear.

I think that it should be enough, though.

The spell only acted up when they were already fighting with each other.”

Dominic sighed in relief. “Wonderful. Now, we just need to pass them out without offending anyone.”

“That’s the easy part. Just go hand them out and tell them that the house is haunted. Nobody’s going to question that.”

Trionne laughed at the mental image of the Kings being told that the whole incident was being blamed on a ghost. They would hate to admit it, but there was no way that they could prove otherwise, and it was a perfect excuse for any sort of behaviour since they arrived.

“I get the feeling that you want nothing to do with this part.” Dominic noted.

“Indeed. I will give one to the Necromancer King, but I suspect that he was not actually affected, and just wanted an excuse to throw hands.” Trionne agreed.

“You know, I can actually see him doing it.

He’s got far too little to keep him entertained, and he needs something to keep his days from blending into each other. As I understand it, he’s lived far longer than anyone else I’ve ever met.”

“Indeed. Even I have no idea how old he actually is. The history books note when he took control of Shersdonia, but they don’t go into his early life, and he was already an ageless Necromancer then.”

“There is so much that I don’t know about the past. Not even my own past.

But I suppose that is inevitable. With what I know now, it seems clear that my identity was hidden, likely with the intention of telling me all about it when I was grown and able to look out for myself.

Only, that never happened, and now it’s just scattered clues for us to go through to get the real answers.”

Trionne smiled. “Well, we’ve at least found some of the important answers. That painting was unexpected. I recognized you because I knew the Dragon King. But with the painting of him and the consort with a child, an event that shouldn’t have ever happened, according to the history books, the truth seems pretty obvious.”

“I was thinking that the Trolls were the giveaway.” Dominic joked.

“There is that too. I wonder what will happen if the Giants start coming back to Wistover. The Ogres are brutes, too dumb to be friendly. But the Giants are more intelligent than most of the humans.

I doubt that will happen, though.

They left the continent entirely, and not even I have heard anything about them for centuries.”

“Well, that is unfortunate. We could have used some more oversized security guards.”

Trionne rolled her eyes. “Magitech and Trolls should be more than enough. The fact that you made them so close to fireproof is already horrifying to most of the Royals, even if they won’t admit it.

Now, stop delaying. You need to give these to the Kings before they decide that the problem is fixed and come down for dinner.”

Right, it was nearly dinner time.

Dominic took the strange magitech statues and headed back upstairs, leaving Trionne admiring the possibly haunted paintings in the hidden basement room.

The first stop would be the Cygnian Royal retreat.

It just wouldn’t be right to start with anyone but his own nation’s Royals.

However, when he reached the door, the Royal Guards blocked his way.

“Your Grace, the King has requested no guests.”

Dominic nodded. “I have protective magitech devices that will offset the wayward magical effects that everyone noticed earlier today.

Are any of the Royals available?

If so, I will pass it to one of them directly. If not, I will pass theirs to Princess Alexis. She likely won’t be stopped on the way in.”

The Guard nodded. “She is permitted to enter. However, she is not here now. Prince Alex is coming down to speak to you.”