Chapter 1132 15-40. Destruction

“Choose wisely,” Imal told him.

“Is there some implication that I won’t?” Elijah asked.

Okar answered for her, “You’re impulsive, and you don’t always think things through.”

“You barely know me, man,” Elijah complained.

“For once, he’s right,” Imal agreed with the halfling. “You need to take this seriously. Don’t just pick up the first shiny thing you see.”

“And no seeds,” Alrhok cautioned.

“I will make no such promises,” Elijah maintained. Indeed, if there were strong enough seeds to make it into the empire’s Fourth Treasury, then they were probably good enough for him. Plus, Nerthus would flip out over something that prestigious. Not to mention what he could grow with that kind of base.

All three fixed him with glares of disbelief, making him feel the need to defend himself. “Seeds are cool! Imagine what they could be, right? Natural treasures. Weapons. I even have a friend who uses seeds to make these really gnarly traps. He told me a story about one that looked like a giant lotus. Some idiot thought it was a cultivation resource, right up until it exploded into razor sharp petals that turned the guy into hamburger.”

“Bullshit.”

“What’s hamburger?” asked Imal.

“You have weird friends, man,” Alrhok pointed out.

“Case in point – you three,” Elijah agreed. He pointed to Okar, saying, “My little sister’s bodyguard-slash-boyfriend-that-neither-of-them-will-admit-is-a-relationship.” Then, he gestured to Alrhok, “Fallen scion of a powerful clan who’s slumming it as a Builder’s apprentice.” Finally, the nodded to Imal, “Ultra-talented and beautiful human woman making her way in an empire that will always underestimate her. Weird friends indeed.”

“I notice that Imal’s description was a lot nicer than ours,” Alrhok said.

“What is hamburger?” Imal persisted.

“Ground beef,” Elijah told her. “And before you ask, beef is made from cow, which is a herd animal from Earth. When you visit, I’m going to take you to June’s Diner and blow your absolute mind. Best patty melt you’ll ever eat.”

She rolled her eyes. “You know I don’t know what a patty melt is.”

“Then you’ll just have to come with me to find out, right?” Elijah suggested.

“We’re both still here,” Okar complained. “Ignored, but still present.”

“Let them have their moment,” Alrhok chided.

“I don’t like being ignored!” Okar said, crossing his arms. “And for everyone’s information, Sara and I are not together.”

“Sure,” Alrhok said. “You’re going to the Branch every day to write letters to your mother.”

“I am!”

“Nobody believes that” Imal said.

“Guys,” Elijah interjected. “As much as I enjoy a bit of bickering – and I do – I need to go. If I’m late, Mano might destroy this whole moon.”

Everyone there paled.

“Jokes, guys. I was joking.”

“About the Black Death,” Okar muttered. “He jokes about the Black bloody Death.”

“Elijah, Mano’lith has destroyed whole civilizations,” Alrhok added. “My parents always said that the emperor forced him to spend most of his time on the front lines, just so he wouldn’t destroy half the empire for offending him.”

“Aww, Mano’s a good guy. A little battle obsessed, but I think that’s a good thing,” Elijah said. “Plus, he’s my brother. Adopted, yeah, but still family, of a sort. So don’t go spreading rumors.”

“Point taken,” Alrhok said, raising his hands in surrender.

“Just be careful,” Imal cautioned. “He has enemies.”

“I’m always careful,” Elijah responded.

“Bullshit.”

“Thank you for your always-eloquent input, Okar,” Elijah said.

After only a little more back-and-forth, they parted ways. The other three would remain on Kytan, while Elijah had an appointment to keep back in She’evoth. At last, the time to claim his first reward from the Tournament of the First Fang had come. Things would have been much easier if they’d just given him something in the immediate aftermath, but apparently, accessing the Fourth Treasury and being allowed to pick for himself was part of the reward.

Elijah considered the potential items, but he fell short, mostly because he had no real context for what might be available. Most of his equipment came from system rewards or, in the case of his spear, had been crafted by his own hands. He had no idea what to expect from the Fourth Treasury.

Still, it was fun to fantasize, and that exercise took him all the way back to the teleporter, where he found that the trip back to She’evoth cost quite a bit more than the one to Kytan. By design, obviously. The difficulty entering the city was purposeful and meant to restrict access, even if that restriction was little more than symbolic.

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In any case, Elijah had plenty of money, so he paid without complaint. Soon enough, he found himself back on the engraved diamond disc. He didn’t stay there long before descending the steps and returning to his dragon form.

He did so with a sigh of mingled relief and regret. He didn’t disdain his dragon form. Far from it. It was part of him, the same as any of his other shapes. In fact, resuming the form felt like an exhale. However, the necessity of it – and the philosophy that it represented – was such a disappointment.

The trip through the city went by without much in the way of complication. His stalkers had followed him to Kytan, and they’d returned right behind him. Briefly, Elijah considered leaving them behind, but he ultimately decided against it. If they hadn’t attacked him yet, they probably wouldn’t.

Indeed – there was a good chance that at least one of them was meant to be a bodyguard of sorts. Either way, Elijah didn’t exactly ignore them, but he did push the awareness of their presence into a leaf so that he didn’t need to actively monitor them.

After entering the embassy district, Elijah passed each of the strongholds dedicated to the major clans. Vael and Ignara, Umbranix and Ky’hrin. Tyrix, Draveth, and Soryn. The bridge into nothingness that led to the combined embassy dedicated to Tharys and Veklarin. Orvex’s blatant show of dominance and Zareth’s contained storm.

Elijah barely noticed them anymore. The magic associated with each embassy was still impressive enough, but he couldn’t help but look at it all as posturing. Each one set out to out-spectacle the others, and Elijah just found the whole thing exhaustingly petty. Like a bunch of guys boasting about their sports cars. Sure, they were impressive machines, but ultimately, they were just that – machines. Not signs of worthiness.

Thankfully, Elijah covered the remaining ground fairly quickly, only to find Mano waiting for him at the gates to the Vyrin embassy.

“You’re late,” the big dragon said, shifting his halberd on his shoulder. “You should have returned last night.”

“I was busy.”

Mano stared at him, then acknowledged, “Friendship is important. Companions will save your life. I have lost many battle brothers and sisters over the years, so I give you this advice from a place of long experience. Cherish the time you have with your friends.”

Elijah nodded. “Yeah. I’ve lost people too.”

“Indeed, brother. You are a warrior, not by archetype but by circumstance and philosophy. Death follows all who tread that path,” Mano stated, his tone almost wistful. Or maybe nostalgic. There could have been a mountain of grief behind the words. “Come. We must go collect your rewards.”

With that, he strode away. Not toward the city proper, but in the opposite direction that would soon lead them into the wilderness. Elijah followed, asking, “Where is it?”

“The surface, after a fashion. You will see something that few do.”

“What’s that?”

“A world so hostile that it will kill dragons,” Mano explained. Then, he went on, “It is built after our records of our world of origin. We all have a different vision of what that means, but one thing we all know was that dragons were initially a subterranean race. We lived in vast underground caverns, not because we wished it, but because the surface of that planet was populated by creatures powerful beyond imagining. The very air was so caustic that it would destroy a mortal in an instant.”

“I’ve been to some places like that,” Elijah remarked as they strode along.

“No. You have not. The environment was deadly even to demigods.”

“Did demigods even exist back then? I thought this was pre-system,” Elijah responded.

“It was. And no, demigods did not exist. Not as we know them, at least,” Mano conceded. “However, we can infer a close approximation of power levels. My point is that this was a planet so toxic that even our ancestors feared the surface.”

“Neat.”

Mano snorted. “Neat, he says,” the dragon muttered. It came out as more a low rumble, like an impending earthquake that sent a violent ripple through the atmosphere. Nearby, another dragon stumbled. “I reveal the nature of our ancestral home, and he says it is neat.” He glanced at Elijah. “You are a master of understatement, brother.”

“So, what happened to it? That planet, I mean.”

Mano shrugged his great shoulders. “No one knows for certain. Based on system records, we believe it was destroyed, the core absorbed by some fel creature, and the remnants scattered to the abyss.”

Elijah nodded. “That’s what the Broken Crown suggested.”

“It may not be accurate. Our home planet was destroyed well before the system’s creation,” he explained, offering a counterargument. “By the time the Founders gathered their power to forge the system, the records of our home planet had long since faded into myth.”

“And myths have a way of distorting the truth,” Elijah guessed.

“That they do, brother,” Mano acknowledged. “The Order of Seekers still search, though most consider that a fruitless endeavor. Sadly, our origin may forever be clouded by the passage of time and diluted by legend. We do not even remember its name.”

Elijah nodded, saddened by the notion of forgotten legacy. What would humanity do if it lost Earth? Would they keep its memory safe? Would they remember all the people who’d lived and died before the system even existed? Even now, less than a century after the apocalypse, that process had already begun.

Much to his species’ detriment, Elijah believed.

Such thoughts accompanied him as he and Mano made their way to the outskirts of the city. Out there, the buildings were slightly less impressive, though they were still constructed of scalestone. That was where they were greeted by a pair of white-scaled dragons in humanoid form.

Elijah found it so odd that he almost remarked on their shapes. After all, aside from him and Mano, he hadn’t seen a single dragon in their bipedal shapes since returning to She’evoth.

“Greetings, petitioners,” said one with a bow. She wore an elaborate white robe, oddly bulky with flaring sleeves and metallic spines growing from the shoulders. Upon her head was an elaborate crown made from the same white metal. It rose sharply from her brow like a circle of nine spikes that, to Elijah, looked like a crown of blades.

“Greetings, Sister T’avarin,” Mano said, with a slight bow of his head. He turned to the other. “And Brother Kilikak.”

“You come to claim a reward,” said T’avarin. “You need only hand the token over, and we will take you to the Fourth Treasury.”

Elijah fished the wooden disc from his Arcane Loop, then handed it to the dragon. She took it reverently and activated some ability – probably to verify its authenticity. Satisfied, she handed it back, saying, “Follow, little one. Do not stray from our aura of protection, or you will be destroyed.” Then, she glanced at Mano. “You may go where you wish.”

“Of course,” Mano said. He rested a huge hand on Elijah’s shoulder. “I will accompany my brother.”

“Just so,” T’avarin acknowledged.

With that, she turned and strode away. Elijah and Mano followed, with the other dragon taking up the rear. Elijah felt a domain envelop him, and he realized that it originated with the two draconic escorts. He probed it a little with his mantle, but a sharp word of caution from Kilikak told him to stop.

Like that, the four followed an increasingly less established path that traced an incline along a circuitous route. For hours, they traveled until, at last, Elijah felt it. Destruction. Fire. And something else. Even with the aura’s protection, the atmosphere tingled his skin.

They kept going, and over the next hour, the atmosphere became ever more destructive until Elijah felt like he’d been sunburned. Finally, they reached the yawning exit of a cave.

Elijah gasped when he saw the terrain.

“Impressive,” Mano said. “I have always liked this planet.”