14-33. Mixed Feelings

New York was a gross disappointment. Not because it had gotten worse. Rather, it was disappointing because it really hadn’t changed much. Certainly, the buildings had grown taller. The guild headquarters at the Four Corners were much more elaborate. Even the headquarters of the lesser guilds looked impressive.

But from a cultural standpoint?

Most of the problems he’d seen before were still present thirty-plus years later. The only bright spot came from the Hartwood Foundation’s increased presence. Elijah had found no less than four clinics sponsored by the organization, and from everything he could tell, they were doing good work.

Their efforts amounted to putting a bandaid on a gunshot wound, though. As much as they helped the various communities within the city, they could only do so much. The city was enormous, having grown well past the island to consume the surrounding coast. Elijah didn’t have access to a census, but he suspected that the city was at least as populated as it had been before the world’s transformation.

One thing he did notice was something that paralleled M’yakein’s growth back on Gorveth. Earth, it seemed, had experienced a massive baby boom in the wake of the final Primal Realm’s conquering. An understandable turn of events, considering the situation.

The consequences were that, a couple of decades later, many of those babies had grown into adults, sending the population skyrocketing. It was especially evident in cities like New York, which were relatively stable. On top of that, the city didn’t really restrict entry. Anyone could live there, and many chose to do just that.

The result was a sprawling metropolis that lacked the cohesive identity of cities like Ironshore or Argos. And Elijah suspected it would only grow larger in the coming years.

That wasn’t to imply that it was all bad. It certainly wasn’t. The city played host to a wide variety of high-quality restaurants and luxurious clubs. Elijah had taken advantage of both, continuing his path of distracting debauchery.

His conversation with Lucy had helped a little, but not enough to derail that train. However, as Elijah left the city, he couldn’t help but feel that he’d gotten most of it out of his system. He’d been there for nearly two weeks, and in that time, he’d truly lost himself in it all, backsliding more than a little.

But now that it was over, he hoped to regain some of that ground.

Once he was sufficiently outside the city, he shifted into the Shape of the World Serpent and headed over the mountains. They remained a massive barrier separating the jungles around Kalki from the relatively flat – and far more temperate – area surrounding New York, and it took Elijah almost an entire day to traverse them.

For a while, he’d searched for the hill goblins, but their nomadic nature made them almost impossible to find.

He only visited Kalki for a couple of days, mostly because he found the city somewhat boring. Architecturally and culturally, it was an amazing place. But its people were largely conservative, and once Elijah had toured the fortress city a couple of times, he found himself itching to move on.

Over the next couple of weeks, Elijah explored the area.

Benediction had fallen, leaving only ruins and a couple of villages behind. A tinge of demonic ethera still suffused the region, but it had been overwhelmed by something far more bitter. It only took a little while for Elijah to pin it down, determining that it was the result of rampant cannibalism and conflict.

It was obvious that the limits Benedict had tried to instill in his adopted people had long since been broken. And it had brought them to ruin. It was so viciously predictable that Elijah barely batted an eyelash at their fall.

Elijah continued to aimlessly wander for more than a month until, at last, something changed. He was sitting on an old, somehow-surviving dock, his feet dangling in the cool water of a mountain lake, when he felt a familiar presence.

He didn’t look up. Instead, he continued to sit there, tracing patterns in the water with his toes, as Kirlissa sat beside him.

For a long moment, neither spoke. Then, at last, she broke the silence, “Beautiful, isn’t it?”

Elijah had chosen the location specifically because of its aesthetics. “It reminds me of home.”

And it did. Not the grove. Not Druhmor, where he’d lived for longer than on his island. Instead, it reminded him of a time before he’d ever gone to Hawaii. Before his parents had died. Back then, the entire family would frequently go on trips into the wilderness, often settling next to lakes just like the one he saw before him.

The location itself was beautiful. Elijah would never deny that. But the memories were worth more to him.

Of late, he’d been thinking about them a lot. About all the people he’d lost and the memories that had begun to fade with the passage of time.

Finally, he turned to Kirlissa. She was just as beautiful as ever, with slightly elven features, patterns of golden scales tracing their way across her skin, and strands of gold hair hanging across her shoulders. “When you project yourself, do you need to actually walk? Do you need to sit? Or can you just will yourself into position?” he asked.

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“Such a precocious question.”

“The answer?”

She let out a sigh, seeming almost human. But there was an aura of a predator around her. Or perhaps the essence of a protective mother. Like a bear guarding her cubs. It was subtle, but the inhuman danger was there all the same.

A second passed, and then she was sitting on Elijah’s other side, which answered Elijah’s question well enough.

“I find that moving normally puts people at ease,” she pointed out.

“I can see that,” Elijah admitted. “Long time, no see.”

“Indeed. I feared you were lost,” she responded. “And I was quite surprised when you suddenly returned, far stronger than when you left. Few at your level could survive the abyss, much less return to tell the tale.”

Elijah shrugged. “It wasn’t easy.”

“I do not doubt that. Tell me what happened.”

“You already know. I’m sure you’ve been watching me,” Elijah said.

She laughed, a tinkling sound like falling coins. In its echo, she said, “I would like to hear it in your words.”

“Fair enough.”

Then, Elijah once again told the story. This time, he left nothing out. Not because he reveled in the details, but rather, because he knew Kirlissa wanted to help him. And she deserved to know the truth, if only because it would give her the information she needed to assist him moving forward.

When he’d finished telling her about his time in the abyss, Elijah said, “The void was…difficult to endure, but I made it back.”

“Difficult,” she mused. “From the first moment I sensed you, I knew you were special. It seems that even that was an understatement. What you have done is remarkable. To travel the void without a specialized class is rare. Doing so before reaching the deity tier is entirely unprecedented.”

“Yay for me,” Elijah muttered. It didn’t feel like some grand accomplishment. Instead, it was more like years of torture he’d endured for no other reason than because he didn’t really have a choice. Once he’d entered the void, moving forward was the only option.

She gave him a sad smile, but she seemed to understand that dwelling on his time in the void was a non-starter. So, she switched gears, asking, “Do you know the origin of your newest bestial form?”

Elijah shook his head.

“The World Serpent is exceedingly rare. In all my years, I have only encountered one, and I was lucky to have survived that encounter,” she stated. “I have heard tales of a few more, but due to their natures, they are extremely difficult to corner. They are the undisputed masters of dimensional travel, flitting from one reality to another as easily as you or I breathe.”

“If they’re so dangerous, then why did so many people attack me?”

Indeed, after that first encounter with a dimensional traveler, Elijah had been attacked dozens of times. He’d escaped each time, but only barely.

“Because those who travel the void have more ambition than sense,” she answered. “Every part of a World Serpent is extraordinarily valuable, and because of your low level, you appeared vulnerable. It was too much of an opportunity for such people to bypass.”

Elijah shook his head. He would kill creatures for food. That was just part of nature. But hunting beasts just to get stronger? It just didn’t sit right with him, especially when those beasts were almost assuredly sentient. Probably sapient, if he had to guess.

“What about that bridge I saw?”

“It is complicated. Without seeing it for myself, I can’t be certain. It may have led to a resource-rich dimension. Or it might have connected to an ancestral world,” she answered. “But it was an artificial path through the void, assuredly built by a coalition of void mages, space mages, ethereal engineers, and architects.”

“I didn’t even know those existed,” Elijah admitted.

She laughed again, and the world flexed around her. “There is much you do not know,” she said. “Which brings me to my reason for coming. The offer still stands. I would like you to come to the Empire of Scale. My original plan for your education will no longer work. You have progressed too far, too fast. However, I have alternate routes.”

“I don’t know,” Elijah said. He’d mostly forgotten about the standing invitation to visit the Empire of Scale.

“You are a dragon,” she pointed out, her voice soothing but strong. “You belong here. Perhaps not permanently. It will never be your home. I am aware of this. Yet, your heritage as a dragon calls to you. Even if you refuse my offer now, you will eventually be drawn to the Empire of Scale. It is inevitable.”

Elijah’s first instinct was to refuse. He’d only been back on Earth for a few months, and after spending so much time and effort to return, leaving felt wrong. But as the silence stretched between him and Kirlissa, his attitude changed. Not immediately. But with each second, the idea of visiting the Empire of Scale – the realm of dragons – seemed more appealing.

And besides, what was there left for him on Earth?

He’d spent the past months trying to distract himself from the reality of his situation. From the surety that he’d outgrown Earth.

The more he thought about it, the more he knew he would go. But before he did, there were a few things he needed to take care of.

“I need a few months,” Elijah said.

“That is acceptable,” Kirlissa responded. “Take no more than a year, though.”

“What? Why?”

“I will not spoil the surprise,” she answered. “Suffice it to say that it has the potential to be a very transformative experience.”

“That’s cryptic.”

She just smiled before saying, “I will arrange passage. You need only visit a Branch and access the Teleportation Network.”

Then, she told him that she would send him details of his itinerary.

“This seems like a bigger deal than I expected,” Elijah admitted.

“It will be. Do what you need to prepare, and then, at last, we will finally meet in person,” she said. “In the meantime, know that you have exceeded all of my expectations. I am proud of you.”

Then, without warning, she simply disappeared, leaving Elijah alone. He took a deep breath, enjoying the cold air in his lungs. In the distance, a huge fish broke the surface of the water, leaping high into the air before splashing down. Birds called overhead, and the gentle lap of his toes cutting through the water echoed in his ears.

Finally, he sighed and climbed to his feet.

There were a lot of things he’d planned to do during his vacation. Cities he’d wanted to visit. Places he had wanted to experience. But he found that he no longer cared about most of them. Not only did he expect them to be more of the same, but Kirlissa’s invitation – and his acceptance – had reignited a sense of urgency within him.

He couldn’t help but smile as he turned his attention to preparations. With that in mind, he cast Roots of the World Tree and stepped through the resulting portal, readier than ever to get started.