15-37. A Dragon's Heart

“I would have killed him,” said Mano. “Without question, he would no longer poison our air with his breath.”

“Feel free,” Elijah said, striding beside his draconic brother. After the previous night’s festivities, they would need to wait two more days until he could visit the Fourth Treasury and claim the first reward for winning the Tournament of the First Fang. Then, it would be less than a week until they departed for the First Fang itself.

Elijah hoped he was ready.

He’d spent years preparing his core and planning for the next stage, but he knew good and well that there was a good chance that everything would go off the rails. In that event, Elijah could only rely on his instincts to see him through.

In any case, he’d recently seen Tisk back to the caravan, which was scheduled to depart sometime later that day. They’d shared another goodbye, with the drake telling Elijah that she was as close as a message through the Branch. Still, it felt like he was saying goodbye to his best friend.

Which made very little sense, considering that he’d known her for such a short time. Sure, they’d spent nearly every waking minute together during the journey through the Coreway, but most of their bond came from complimentary personalities. And maybe, to a lesser degree, her attunement.

He’d even gone so far as to ask her to join his grove back on Earth, but she had refused, mostly because she didn’t want to leave Mona or the rest of the herd behind. Elijah could respect that.

And besides, it wasn’t as if he spent a lot of time in the grove, anyway. So, having her there would probably turn out to be a bit of a waste.

Of course, Mano regarded their parting as a great tragedy, largely due to his continued assumption that their relationship was romantic in nature. It didn’t matter how many times Elijah told him otherwise, Mano just wouldn’t be persuaded that theirs was a platonic friendship.

So, Elijah just stopped trying to convince him, instead turning the conversation toward the short meeting with Cyran. That had gotten Mano’s heart pumping, evidenced by the increasing frequency of his aura’s ripples.

“He seemed almost apologetic, though.”

“He is a coward who was shown that you were better,” Mano reasoned. “Of course he would attempt to get on your good side.”

“I guess,” Elijah admitted, though he had his doubts. Perhaps Cyran had seen the error of his ways and decided to change for the better. Was that likely? Not really, but Elijah could hope. If not for his own good, then for the good of everyone else he might meet in the future.

“I still wish I could have killed them all,” Mano declared. “Mother forbade me.”

“Kill who now?”

“The ones who set you up,” Mano answered. “Cheating has always been part of the Tournament of the First Fang, but to that degree? Never. That boy brought an item meant for someone much stronger. A support class – probably a deity – enhanced him so that his first spell would kill you.”

“Don’t forget the lack of an anchor.”

Mano’s ripples grew more violent. He took a deep breath, then said, “Mother reported the Chronomancer. Not the transcendent, but the disciple who refused to bestow the anchor. He was executed.”

That took Elijah aback. Mano noticed, and asked what was wrong.

“I don’t know,” Elijah admitted. “Just…I guess I didn’t think they cared. With everything that happened and the way it went down, I figured this was just how the empire was.”

“What do you mean?”

“Corrupt. Bigoted. Unfair.”

Mano stopped mid-stride. Elijah noticed the big dragon’s hands clamping around the haft of his halberd, and the ripples of his aura became even more powerful. They reached a point where Elijah felt on the verge of being sick. For his part, Mano seethed for only a moment before he took a deep breath, calming himself and getting his aura under control.

Passersby, all in dragon form, gave them a wide berth, and for good reason. If Mano’s aura was strong enough to do that to Elijah, there was no telling what it would do to some non-combatant without significant body cultivation. In addition, Elijah’s soul did some heavy lifting in mitigating the effect.

Mano took another few moments, each one punctuated by a deep breath. Then, he turned to Elijah and said, “We have failed you.”

“What? No. You haven’t –”

“We brought you to the Empire of Scale, and your first impression is racism and corruption. We told you that the Tournament of the First Fang is a sacred thing, reserved only for the most promising of our youth. We told you it would be a fair competition,” he explained. There was nothing there Elijah didn’t already know. “And yet, the exact opposite came to pass. The worst of draconic nature showed itself to you, and we failed to counter it. We failed to even give it context. That ends now.”

Then, he beckoned Elijah to follow, and along the way, he explained what he could of draconic politics. Apparently, the tournament represented something like a proxy war between factions that couldn’t fight out in the open.

“Transcendents battling would ruin the empire. We all know that. But that doesn’t mean we get along. Of the thirteen clans, there are few true alliances. And more than any of them, they resent mother. She holds the empire’s war chest and provides the majority of its food. Some cannot abide that power,” Mano stated. “Some hate her. Some just want her brought low. And by proxy…”

“Me.”

“You. Me as well. I have been fighting assassins in the abyss since I was a deity,” he said. “That story I told you of how I came to recognize my love for Illska? What I did not tell you was that the entire Primal Realm went awry because of a single point of failure. One squad that disappeared. They used a rare and powerful item to flee the Primal Realm, creating a breach that the grimlings exploited. They killed an entire army of powerful young fighters, all in an effort to get rid of me.

“And that was before I transcended. Now, they hate me even more because I am the claws to my mother’s economic power. We are all but unassailable.”

“I’m guessing that was why they went after Sara, too,” Elijah added.

“I don’t know.”

Elijah nodded, his hatred for Cyran blooming even hotter. In addition to enabling Skahan and cheating in the tournament, he’d violated Sara. As far as Elijah was concerned, he was irredeemable. No apology would change that, and given half a chance, Elijah would end him permanently.

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“One thing to consider – the young storm dragon is a pawn in this as well. It is possible he had no choice,” Mano pointed out. When Elijah began to object, Mano cut him off with a simple question. “Do you think he wanted to humiliate himself?”

“What do you mean?”

“He cheated.”

“Yeah? I was under the impression that lots of people cheat.”

“Not that blatantly,” Mano said. “He spent the entire fight using banned items and drinking potions that shouldn’t have been allowed into the arena. Dozens of them. But you know what made it worse? All of that, and he still lost. The shame must be unbearable.”

“Seemed fine to me.”

“Did he? Then he is a good actor. That boy may be the monster you imagine. It is likely. But he may just be an ill-used tool. Remember that.”

Elijah shook his head. “Hopefully, I never see him again.”

“Unlikely. You may see him when you claim your reward,” Mano explained. “Then again, sometime in the future.”

“You’re talking about the ancestral world.”

“Indeed. The Bound Sky calls to many,” Mano answered. “All thirteen clans will send demigods into this iteration. Armies. Support personnel. It is not to be taken lightly.”

“I see.”

Elijah really didn’t, but he had other concerns on his mind. Like his upcoming cultivation in the presence of the First Fang. He still wasn’t certain what to expect from the trip, save that the artifact was supposed to be one of the most important assets in the Empire of Scale. Both practically and culturally. The opportunity to see it was afforded to very few, and that wasn’t even considering the cultivation aspect.

And Elijah desperately wanted to use the chance to its fullest extent. To that end, he’d asked Mano for advice, but the big dragon scoffed at the question. “You are the cultivation savant,” he reminded Elijah. “My advice would not help you.”

“I don’t know about savant…”

“If mother says you are, then you are. Accept it, brother. Embrace that about yourself.”

“Would you?”

Mano pointedly did not answer that question. Instead, he left Elijah to his own thoughts. Meanwhile, they traversed the city in relative silence. She’evoth was just as populated as ever, but with the scale at play, each traveler was afforded a wide berth. On top of that, Mano seemed well known, which gave them even more leeway.

Eventually, they reached another travel disc, which jetted off without a hint of momentum transferred to the two occupants. For almost two hours, they soared through one cavern after another. At times, they passed through forests of both mushrooms and trees, over rivers and past lakes. Wildlife abounded, though most of it was the scaled variety.

Gradually, the terrain became wilder, and Elijah grew more comfortable. Even when he saw obvious deity-level creatures roaming the wilderness, he wanted nothing more than to leap off the disc and merge with the novel form of nature.

Then, it hit him.

“This is like the core vision, isn’t it?” he asked.

Mano, who stood at the front of the silver disc and posing like a conquering hero as he scanned the surroundings, nodded. “Indeed, brother. The She’evothians believe that the key to the formation of a dragon core is to recreate the setting of that vision,” he answered as they flew over a river of lava that looked strikingly similar to the one Elijah swam through what felt like a lifetime ago.

Back then, he’d been in the form of a fire salamander that would become the mother of dragons, but it felt real enough to create a sense of nostalgia.

“Are they right?”

“There is a reason Illska and I chose to hatch our children here.”

That was answer enough, and it gave Elijah something to think about as the disc bore them through the underground landscape. Eventually, a smell wafted across Elijah’s nose.

“What is that?” he asked. The odor was musky and a little sweet.

“That is the hatchery,” Mano answered, a slight smile playing across his face. “When we reach our destination, you are not to act. We mustn’t interfere, especially at this stage.”

“Won’t they notice us?”

“The travel discs are enchanted,” Mano answered. “Why else would we not have been attacked?”

“I’m almost never attacked by animals. Or plants, I guess,” Elijah admitted.

“Ah. Druid. I forget sometimes.”

Elijah read the implication of that statement easily enough. Druids weren’t normally combatants, and certainly not ones who fought as savagely as him. The incongruency often threw people off.

Finally, they shuddered to a stop above a large plain ringed by bone. In the center stood a pile of eggs. Thousands of them, and in every color of the rainbow. Some were solid-hued, while others seemed to blend. It was like looking at a bunch of Easter eggs, though the difference was that each of these was at least two feet across and nearly three tall.

Nearby, Elijah felt other presences, though he couldn’t see them unless he focused on Soul of the Wild.

“Stop.”

“What?” Elijah asked.

“The enchantment will overload if you keep poking at it.”

“Oh. Sorry,” Elijah said, pulling back from his awareness and joining Mano at the head of the disc. Though it was supported only by air, the uneven distribution of weight failed to destabilize it.

Magic, Elijah supposed.

Obviously, given that it was floating nearly a hundred feet above the ground.

About ten minutes later, Elijah saw a tremble in one of the eggs. That was just a herald of things to come, because within an hour, another few had begun to shake. On and on it went for the next few hours until, at last, one of the eggs cracked. The others were soon to follow, and before too long, the first dragon burst through its shell.

It did so with an adorable, yet fearsome roar.

Right before the eggshell broke and it tumbled free in a display of clumsiness that only a newborn creature could manage.

“Red scales,” Mano remarked. “An omen.”

“For what?”

Mano didn’t answer. Instead, he remained fixated on the clutch of eggs. Understandable, considering that his children were down there. Elijah knew that dragons looked at their offspring far differently than most other species, but Mano’s anxiety showed that he still cared about them.

That first red dragon’s birth started an avalanche of scales as dozens, then hundreds more followed suit. None of them were particularly coordinated, and most looked a bit lost. Until war broke out, at least.

The first attacker did so unapologetically and without warning, snapping at a fellow dragon and ripping a chunk of meat from its shoulder. That opened the floodgates, and before long, the entire plane had devolved into a battlefield.

Some of the dragons fled conflict, racing towards the edge and slipping between the bones making up the ring surrounding the plain. However, many more stood their ground and fought. A lot of those died.

Or they seemed to, at least.

But Elijah felt the vitality soaring through the area, keeping them alive. It wasn’t enough to heal them, and the baby dragons weren’t intelligent – or experienced – enough to know the difference between dead and mostly dead.

All in all, the battle lasted for more than two hours until, at last, the victorious dragons fled into the wilderness. A few moments later, a massive surge of healing allowed the fallen to recover. Confused, they stared around, uncomprehending. Then, on trembling legs, they followed the others.

Elijah knew they would all keep going until they found an unclaimed territory. From there, their lives would revolve around survival. And if they were lucky, they would grow strong enough to attain sapience. And a dragon core.

Only time would tell how many would make it.

“Do you know why I don’t leave the front lines very often, brother?”

Elijah shook his head. “No.”

“It would be smart to retreat to worlds like this and cultivate,” he said. “I admit, the notion sends tremors of discomfort up my spine. I do not like cultivation. Not the way most do it. But I know now that there are other ways. Your stories have shown that much, and I look forward to seeing your methods in action. Perhaps they will give me some ideas how to make the process less onerous.

“But even then, I do not dare leave the front lines for long,” he said. “Do you know why?”

Again, Elijah shook his head.

“Because when I leave, people die,” he said. “Without me there, the weaker among us have less protection. They are like those poor, defeated dragons down there. Without the enchantment on this hatchery, without the one controlling it, they would have died. Their lives cut short before they even began. So it would be with those depending on my protection. I cannot take a thousand years to evolve my soul. Or five hundred to advance my mind. If I did that, I may very well come back to find that no one I care about has survived my absence.

“Mother believes it’s selfishness. Weakness. Impatience. I wish I could make her understand that it is the opposite.”

Elijah reached up and gripped Mano’s shoulder. It felt odd to comfort a dragon that had been alive for tens of thousands of years, but there he was. To Elijah, it was proof that no matter how old someone became, some of those same emotions would always be present.

“Which ones were yours?” he asked, trying to change the subject.

“They survived. Seven healthy children,” Mano said. “They seemed strong. I wish Illska had come.”

“Why didn’t she?”

“She can’t bear to abandon them. It is easier when they’re eggs. Much more difficult when they’re living and breathing.”

“I see.”

Elijah didn’t know how he felt about the Culling, but from everything he’d been told, it was a necessary part of the draconic experience. Unfortunate, but necessary.

They stood there for a long time before, at last, Mano directed the silver disc to take them back to the city. They rode in silence, both lost in thought after what they’d witnessed.