"Don't Eat This"
Chrystianna, Britiana, and Sariya stepped through the tear in the void into the sunshine on the other side. Raziel stepped in after them and the tear closed up behind him.
Little did they know, they weren't alone in that clearing. When the tear closed, a figure stepped out of the shadows. She was a woman draped in a dark cloak, and dressed in leather pants, boots, and a linen shirt. She walked to one of the arrows lying on the ground from where the Dragon Hunters pulled them out of their comrades' bodies and left them laying around. She bent down and picked up the arrow. She sniffed the tip and snorted due to the repugnant scent.
"It really is shadowbane," she murmured. She gathered the arrows and cleaned them off with a rag pulled from the pouch hanging on her hip. She put the arrows into the pouch. She then muttered a spell under her breath and the rag went up in flames.
She stood up and looked in the direction the Dragon Hunters retreated. She still wasn't sure what was going on. Delaney Crowley had been on Thelessia for a few days. It takes a lot of magical energy to travel through the Shadow Dimension and cross time-space. While she was resting and exploring Thelessia, she happened upon Tarrytown.
Delaney was looking for a new home for her family. Thelessia was unsuitable. They had nothing similar to modern technology, the state of magic was low level. A lot of society was backwards. It was similar to the state of the Middle Ages from her home world. It was a stagnated agrarian society.
Sure, if they moved here, they could become gods and move progress along. None of them wanted to do that.
However, there was something strange when she arrived in Tarrytown. The area was permeated with residual magic. She took a look around, and there was no practicing witch or wizard anywhere else. She found a small house in the woods but couldn't get too close because of the high-level wards in the surroundings. They were above anything else she found on this little rock of a planet.
She was intrigued. She decided to wait around until the owners returned. The house was well kept, obviously lived in. The owner expected to return soon. She loitered around Tarrytown, blending in with the travelers.
She'd seen the Eoduun before, but didn't pay much attention to her. Even though Dark Elves didn't exist in her home world, she'd seen them in other worlds she'd visited. That wasn't who she was looking for.
That night, things changed. It was pure coincidence when she saw the silver haired woman and the man come through the Void. Her heart sped up. The residual magic that escaped from the other side of that tear was purer than anything she'd ever felt before.
She was cautious. She decided to see the type of people they were before approaching to find out where they'd come from. She was the first to notice the strangers beginning to surround the Oxhead Tavern and Inn. She saw the girl in the glamor go into the Tavern and she followed. She sat at the bar for a long time observing everything.
She was beginning to believe the girl, the silver haired woman, and the dark-haired man were worthy of approaching when the Eoduun came in. Everything then happened so quickly, that even she was confused by the illusion of them chatting happily at the booth for a while. She had to admit, the girl was the highest level magic user she'd seen on this planet so far.
She quickly left the tavern, cloaking herself in shadows once more. She'd finally found their trace, only for the Dragon Hunters to begin the chase. She was cautious. She didn't want to get involved in the conflict when she didn't know what the conflict was.
Standing in the middle of the clearing, she cloaked herself in the shadows once more and headed toward the Hunters. That's what they'd called them, right? Dragon Hunters? Did that mean they were dragons? She'd come across a lot of creatures, but never dragons.
Interesting.
She came upon the temporary camp of the Hunters. It was no surprise; their wounded comrades died one by one. She watched as they stripped the dead of their armor and weapons. She could now see that most of the armor was made of scales. Dragon scales she presumed. After they stripped the dead, they uttered what must be some sort of farewell prayer.
They then pulled out what she could only guess was a plasma gun and blasted the bodies, burning them to ashes within minutes. They divided the loot among the remaining Hunters. The burly leader said something to the others. One of them took out a device and lit up a holographic screen and showed several concentrations of dots.
They laughed, obviously not worried their prey would get away because, like the voice on the other end of the rift said to the girl in the glamor, more Hunters were near him. That's what Delaney gathered from the shapes of the dots. Three dots and almost twenty dots were near each other.
Having seen enough, she returned to where the rift was opened. She closed her eyes and tried to sense the path of rift. She nodded to herself. She concentrated on the shadows in front of her then stepped into them.
--
After discontinuing conversation with his sister, someone knocked on the door of the room of the house Darius had been using. He opened the door and one of the members of his company was grinning at him. "Daniel! The locals brought us food!" he said excitedly.
Darius frowned slightly and followed the man into the main room of the small house. A table full of steaming food was set up. Their leader was practically drooling and reached for a steaming loaf of bread with one hand, and a small roasted bird with the other. "Don't eat this!" Darius said and reached out with his telekinesis and knocked all the food off the table.
Almost twenty tired, starving soldiers exclaimed and turned on him with anger. "Daniel! What are you doing!" Guennit, the company leader demanded, grabbing him by the collar.
Darius remained calm, looking up at the tall dark faced man. "These people's harvests have been stolen by mountain trolls. Where did the wheat for the bread come from? Where did they hunt the birds? The vegetables? They claimed to have barely scraped enough money to hire us," he reminded them.
"What are you trying to say?" a comrade who was closer to him asked hesitantly.
"The mountain trolls are strange," another mercenary muttered.
Guennit let go of Darius. He looked at the food and then at Darius. "How did you do that? Do you know magic?" he asked, almost fearfully. Those who can do magic on Thelessia were rare, highly revered, and feared.
"That doesn't matter," Darius said. He grabbed his cloak and flipped it over the table, leaving behind several baskets. "Eat. We'll need our energy," he said.
The men were shocked, and cautious, but then one of them opened one of the baskets. The food inside was still steaming. "Where did the food come from? Did you make it appear out of thin air?" he asked in a hushed tone.
Darius snorted in amusement. "No, my sister makes me plenty of food before I leave. I just keep it in a magical storage space. Eat," he said. The men needed no further encouragement. They all knew how well his sister cooked. Darius left them to it and walked outside. Although he wasn't an empath, he could still use his mental energy to sweep the surrounding area. He found that several villagers were lingering nearby.
He reached out to his sister.
Britiana scanned the area where she and the others gathered near the nearby tree line. She winced slightly. The fear, greed, and maliciousness were nearly palpable.
Chrystianna noticed her expression. "Don't scan. I'll scan," she said, patting her daughter soothingly on the back.
Britiana smiled gratefully. "How should we get to Darius?" she asked.
"Follow me," Sariya said and took the lead. With her dynamic vision and hearing, she easily led the others toward the small house on the outskirts of the village where they said Darius was. There were a few close calls as some of the male villagers were creeping around, wanting to go to the house but seemingly afraid to do so.
Darius saw them coming and smiled. Chrystianna and Britiana had long dropped their glamor, but they were wrapped up in cloaks that hid their more outstanding features. He didn't see the Voidstalker that was supposed to be with them.
Chrystianna's eyes felt wet, and she paused as she looked upon her son for the first time since he was a baby. He also wore a glamor, making him appear human and dulled his skin and features a bit. Like with her daughter, she could tell who he was immediately. "Darius," she murmured and rushed over to hug him.
Darius hugged her back. He nodded in greeting to his sister and Sariya. "Where did the Voidstalker go?" he asked.
Sariya shook her head. "He disappeared shortly after we got here," she said. She had no idea who or what the Voidstalker was. She didn't really care either.
"He'll show up when we need him," Chrystianna said.
Darius nodded. "We should go in. I can't leave now and leave my company," he said and opened the door of the house to allow them inside.
The mercenary company he worked with was very alert and immediately stopped eating when the strangers came in. They vigilantly went for their weapons.
"Steady. It's my sister, mom, and friend," Darius said as he closed the door behind them.
Britiana made a cute hand sign at the men, then turned, and began creating wards around the house. "Keep eating, don't mind us," she said to them as she worked. "You eat, too," she told her brother. She pushed back her cloak hood and then took Sariya's quiver. "And you," she said. She moved to a small unoccupied corner of the main room of the small village house. She took a stool and small table from the folds of her dress and set the quiver on it, took a small glass bowl, a writing brush, and a needle.
The men watched her with open mouths, in shock while Sariya watched her in confusion. She had no idea why her quiver was taken or why Britiana was now approaching her with a needle. Britiana just smiled vapidly and then took her hand and poked her finger. She squeezed a couple of drops of dark purple-ish blood into the bowl. She then bustled back to the table and sat on the stool. She set the bowl down. She pulled out a crystal vial of sparkling water and added some to the bowl before putting it away again.
She began humming to herself as she swirled the blood and water together. She used the writing brush to begin drawing on the quiver with the liquid.
Sariya glanced at Chrystianna. "What is she--"
"Just wait. It won't be a bad thing," Chrystianna assured her.
Guennit had long cornered Darius. "That doesn't look like your sister. That's an elf," he said quietly. "A magic elf!" he shout-whispered.
Darius chuckled. He waved his hand over his face, dropping his own glamor. There was no need for it now. "We're not Elves, but yes, she's magic," he said. "There's a situation. I need to discuss it with you in private," he said.
Guennit wasn't the leader of the mercenary company for no reason. His temperament was as stout as his body. He nodded. He wasn't stupid. Although he guessed that maybe mountain trolls had aligned with someone, he only thought it was better to attack whoever the villagers had hired to protect them. After the rich food incident, he realized things weren't as normal as they seemed.
The two went into the other room so that Darius could fill him in on the situation. The other men weren't in shock for too long and went back to eating delicious food. Sariya shrugged to herself and joined them. She was starving and eating for two. Chrystianna hovered over Britiana while watching her write spells onto the quiver with a smile, recognizing what she was up to.
--
Emphyralis
In a stately study somewhere in Myrkir a man sat at an elegantly crafted desk. He was dressed in understated luxury. A type of person who likes to show off his wealth while pretending he's not showing off his wealth. He had dark curly hair and deep green eyes. His pale skin had an olive undertone. A lazy black scaled Drake was draped over the back of his chair. On the desk, a magic stone was lit up and above it floated the faces of five other men.
A cold faced, fair skinned, blonde man with icy blue eyes was the first to speak. "Why the emergency meeting? I was in the middle of a negotiation," Lucien Coldstone said, his voice just as cold as his face.
A man with shining golden eyes, warm tawny skin, and short dark hair snorted. "Vikkernoff wouldn't contact us for no reason," he said.
However, it was the almost kindly man with long silver hair and gray eyes that radiated the most gravitas. "Indeed. Something has gone wrong somewhere?" he said in an almost bored tone.
Another man yawned. "Then why bother me? I'm stuck in Thale. What do you want me for? It's the middle of the night," he said lazily. Dark hair was messy, and pale yellow eyes were drooping as much as the dragonfly-like wings attached to his back. His glowing medium olive skin belied his words.
"Have you ever been good for anything?" asked the final man who had long chestnut colored hair, shining mahogany skin, and deep green eyes.
"Enough," the silver-haired man said, his voice full of authority, his gray eyes cooling slightly.
These five men were part of an organization. Seamus Eveningstar was a Silver Dragon from Silubra, and he was at the top of the pyramid. The man in the study, Vikkernoff Blackhollow, was an Onyx Dragon in Myrkir. The man with golden eyes was Adonis Brightflame, a Gold Dragon in Varmur. The two of them were on par with each other in this organization. Lucien Coldstone, a Sapphire Dragon in Isaz, and Draycen Bloomingtree, an Emerald Dragon in Vedanta, were also given equal rank with each other. The lazy one in Thale was Yvor Sleetfall, a Platinum Dragon. There were also more ranked members, but they weren't high enough for Vikkernoff to bother with them yet.
He leaned forward slightly. "I'm merely reporting the problem. I'm already taking steps to deal with it," he said. He was a calm, aloof person. Their bickering didn't bother him. He was used to it. He'd been in this organization since he was child, before the Plague when his elders were still alive.
"Carry on," Seamus said. He, like Vikkernoff, had been a lifelong member of the organization.
"Ludvig Shadowclaw was arrested," Vikkernoff finally said. Although Zane Darkwynde tried his best to minimize the spread of the information, there would always be cracks. His spies had sent him word not long ago.
Seamus frowned slightly and sighed. "It's a shame to lose such a pawn. How are you taking care of it? Your son?" he asked.
"No. It would be useless to send Gore for this. Ludvig is locked in the dungeon of Starshadow Castle. There are all sorts of protections against shadowwalking. He'd never even get close. No, I decided on a tactic no one would ever expect, not even Zane Darkwynde. After all, who would guard against a peaceful little monk?" he said, showing his hands as if confused. "Any objections?" he asked, looking at the other four.
No one had any objections.
"Let us know when it's done." Seamus said and waved his hand. His face disappeared. The other faces disappeared one after another.
Vikkernoff leaned back again. "Percival," he said.
The Drake lifted his head. Drakes were about the size of house cats and were like miniature Emphyralis Dragons in miniature. Their shapes and structures were identical. Drakes were also highly intelligent. They were treated as citizens with their own voices in government.
They were divided into two types. Wild Drakes referred to communities of Drakes that chose not to live in "two-legged" spaces. They had colonies that functioned as their own autonomous towns. Domestic Drakes referred to Drakes that chose to live and work with "two-leggeds". They didn't mind being treated as pets as long as they weren't taken advantage of or treated as lesser beings.
Most domestic Drakes worked as messengers and lived in Drakeries where they were taken care of by Drakers. But just as many lived with a "two-legged" or a "two-legged" family.
Percival was one such domestic Drake. He yawned and stretched. "Yes, Vik? The meeting is over?" he asked. Even though he had no stake in their ideologies, he was bonded to Vikkernoff, and therefore helped him and wouldn't tell his secrets.
"Hmm," Vikkernoff answered. He wrote a letter and magically sealed it. He put it in a small pouch and draped the strap over Percival's body, careful not to obstruct his wings. "Find Fei Yellowglade and deliver this. Come back. Naryssa is making your favorite rummed eggs," he said.
The lazy Percival perked up. "Make sure she saves some for me!" he exclaimed. He jumped into the air and spread his wings. He began flying around the room, faster and faster, picking up speed until he was just a blur. With a small crack, he slipped through the fabric of reality.
Drakes were the only known species that could organically tear through the void. But they were small, their distances were limited, and they had to be fast enough to do so. This is what made them very good messengers.
Vikkernoff stood and left the study. He only had to wait for the news of success. He wasn't worried about Ludvig talking too much. He was only a pawn in the organization and didn't know the central players. Still, it was better if those chyasytim didn't even know about the organization at all. He had confidence that his operative could act before Sonja Starshadow could call a Truthcaller from Isaz.
He could already smell food cooking in their house, and a light smile graced his face.