All the Dust that Falls

Chapter 287: Keep Calm and Clean On

I watched as the massive red-scaled form of Daedalus appeared above the trees. With my sensors, I could see him before the humans did; even so, I was slightly surprised when they had such a violent reaction to my friend's arrival.

Of course, Beatrice had already seen Daedalus before and was not so surprised. However, she certainly seemed a little bit more concerned at first than I thought she should be. I wondered why that was. But Harold Well, Harold had never met the dragon and, understandably, panicked a little.

There was a lot of incomprehensible gibberish spewing from his mouth as he nearly fell backward and turned to run away. Only Beatrice's grip on the sleeve of his jacket stopped him from dashing back towards the city. He struggled for a minute, but she was eventually able to calm him down enough that he stopped trying to flee. However, the blood never really did return to his face.

Beatrice looked at me with a rather strange expression on her face. "Master? Would you mind talking to Daedalus and asking him to land before he sends the entire city into a panic?"

I looked back at the city and did some quick trigonometry.

"It might be a little bit too late for that," I projected, "but I will talk to him."

As bells in the city clanged a merry tune, I zipped up into the sky to meet my friend. As I did, I saw Beatrice have a quick talk with Harold before she sprinted back to the city. Rather than follow her back, Harold kept following the trail out into the wilderness.

---

Bee was glad that her master could take care of the hot-tempered dragon. She had not really had any chance to talk with Daedalus personally. In fact, no one aside from her master and Archibald had really had many interactions with the ancient being. Still, everyone had seen what it had done to the army attacking the castle. Of course, it had been helping them, but that didn't mean there wasn't an instinctive fear of a powerful reptile breathing fire and laying waste to an army with a half-hour's effort.

Dragons were mostly considered mythical. People only really believed in their existence if they also believed in things like demon Lieutenants as well. Now, the whole city had just gotten a front-row seat to a demonic attack, but that didn't mean the dragon would be any less of a shock. Especially when the beings were considered more devastating and not exactly friendly to humanity.

The capitol, newly purged of demons, now had to come face to face with dragons as well. There was a dragon right outside their city, and that panic was going to be much harder to deal with than she would have liked.

"Harold, I need you to continue tracking the Lieutenant. Hopefully, Void will stay in the area unless I miss my guess. That dragon is almost certainly Daedalus, Lord Void's personal friend. I have talked to his companion, Archibald, who is human and a close partner with the dragon. His views are a little bit odd, but he assures me that Daedalus is no real harm to anyone, at least not intentionally. So as long as Void is around, I don't think there will be any real danger from the dragon."

Harold didn't seem convinced. Bee looked at him and decided another approach was necessary.

"Besides, it's best if you two stay out of the city for now in case there is trouble," she said. Though she didn't spell it out exactly, the meaning of her words got through to Harold. If the dragon decided to attack, it would likely attack the city. So, it was in Harold's best interest to not be nearby. It was a bit cowardly, in her opinion. Still, the Warden had explained that the man was an excellent spy. And excellent spies often had a very high degree of neuroticism, paranoia, and self-preservation.

She couldn't figure out a single one of those categories that Harold didn't excel in. That didn't mean he wasn't great at leading people or wasn't smart, but years of being a secret agent in vulnerable positions and vastly outnumbered had maybe trained his flight-or-fight response a bit too hard on the "flight" side. The Warden hoped that the man could overcome his more self-preserving ways with practice. But at his age, the odds of that happening were getting lower and lower.

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Still, Bee figured it was best if she kept her useful assets on task, doing what they were good at. And for Harold, that apparently was gathering information and dealing with demons.

Just moments after she finished explaining, she was already back at the gate leading into the city, having sprinted full speed to the point where she was faster than a bird on the wing. Her new levels had significantly increased her speed and endurance rather than her mental abilities, as she had been clearly lacking in those against her fight against the Lieutenant. When she got inside, she rushed to find the guard captain and quickly explained the situation. He nodded before easing his men down from the battle positions they had taken. He talked to them, and they began to spread the word to the other forces.

She stopped any officer, captain, or higher as she could on her way to the castle. She quickly explained the situation, and the commanders imposed orders on the city guard and the military. The army that they had brought from the castle was aware of Daedalus and was quicker to understand, and they helped to settle most of the populace.

Still, the city went into a state of readiness just in case. But Bee's quick actions and the presence of so many soldiers and city guards out and about did stop any sort of nastiness like looting from taking place. By the time she got to the palace and found Arthur, things were mostly back under control.

Arthur was quickly filled in, and he headed off to make sure that everything was truly under control. Bee watched the stern man stride out of the palace, bellowing orders at the top of his lungs. What she would do without him, she didn't know. Arthur was completely essential for adequately running any sort of large organization. She figured they would never have left the castle without him and would have had to deal with Lieutenants as they came to them. The world would be in a much darker place if Arthur hadn't decided to come to her for aid. Truly, her master worked in very mysterious ways.

Shaking her head, she went to find the Warden and Susan. She found them both in the Warden's study, Susan having carried a stack of documents into pore over. They had put their heads together, going through them with expressions of deep focus. Bee wasn't surprised that they hadn't noticed the alarm bells.

When she walked in, Susan looked up. "High Priestess, it's great you're here. We've sent out all sorts of messages to get more information, which we should have soon, but we discovered something critical you need to know."

Bee paused. She also had information for Susan and the Warden, but perhaps it could wait. She was curious about what made them so excited that they needed to tell her right now. Even though Bee was coming with a message of her own, she motioned for Susan to continue.

"We highly suspect that the Barleonans intentionally released at least one of the illusion demons. They were hoping to use an ancient power they didn't understand, not fully knowing what it was, to defend against the invasion our former king had been planning."

The Warden nodded. "Indeed. My insiders warned him vehemently and attempted to stop him, but they were unsuccessful. Worse, they were imprisoned before they could relay the information back."

Bee nodded, processing the information and storing it for later use. "That's not good, but I'm glad we know. Something's come up, though." She gestured outside. "Daedalus returned. It kind of put the city in a bit of an uproar, in case you hadn't noticed. Void is talking with him and hopefully Archibald. I believe they might bear news of the other Lieutenant. Hopefully, we will have a target soon, as well as a large fighting force to assist us when we decide to strike."

Susan's face paled. "Is Arthur--?" she said, and Bee nodded, cutting her off.

"Arthur is already on it. The panic seems to be subdued, but the city will be in a state of readiness to reassure the citizens until we know what is going on, likely until Daedalus leaves. There's a genuine chance that Void and I will go with them."

So she turned to the Warden. "I need you to coordinate with Arthur. The two of you will be in charge of running day-to-day operations while I'm gone."

The Warden nodded. "I appreciate the trust you've placed in me."

"Don't misunderstand. I'm not giving you free rein," Bee pointed out. "Make sure Arthur is aware of everything you're doing. Or Susan, depending on the nature of the activity. Anything they're unaware of will not receive the church's full support, nor its official sanction."

The Warden bowed his head again. "A prudent course of action, though you will have nothing to worry about. I shall prove myself."

Bee nodded. Hopefully, even if he had hostile intentions, that would keep him from causing too much trouble. Now she turned back to Susan.

"Harold is continuing to follow the tracks of the Lieutenant. Currently, he's alone, and that's not good. Take a contingent of some elite soldiers and go guard him."

She didn't need to say that Harold and the Warden hadn't had a chance to coordinate. Since they revealed the information about their shadowy organization to her, they might have planned something out ahead of time. Still, she was pretty confident in Susan's ability to pull the information out of Harold. Not that she specifically distrusted them, but she wasn't about to wield such power based on just one man's word.

Susan bowed, and together they left the palace. Bee jumped on her carpet to sail over the city towards where she saw Daedalus land, while Susan ran to the nearest barracks.