The Mook Maker

At first glance, it wasn’t a bad deal.

 

While I was admittedly entirely inexperienced in the true intricacies of grand diplomacy, and would seriously struggle should any written agreement be presented, the actual terms offered were very straightforward without any complex expectations placed on me. 

 

It was surprisingly simple. 

 

Agreeing to it should spare me the trouble of fighting one more enemy in the future, as the blue-green dragoness - or ‘Viridian High Lady’ as the humans supposedly called her - had proposed a very clear non-aggression pact that would save my people from waging the war on the yet another opponent.

 

Instead of continuing the conflict between us, she was willing to make a concession in the forms of the surrounding lands and assist, albeit covertly, so we would seize and fortify the area to prevent the humans from ever interacting with the magical scroll-artefacts in the future. 

 

She wouldn’t, or perhaps couldn’t, directly intervene on our behalf should her ‘brothers’ - the other dragons - get involved. Still, her priests shall be ordered to stand down, even secretly assisting us through negating at least some of the wards of the shrines and some consecrated grounds should we venture further into the land. This city was completely unprotected in terms of any wards or similar protective magic. 

 

The ‘Lady’ and her priest made sure of that. 

 

According to her, the dragons were not able to reach any form of agreement on how to deal with my arrival, or whether they should intervene in the first place considering the cyclic nature of my supposedly repeated incursions, and their ‘Celestial Stylite Emperor’ were fully content with delegating our containment to the ‘Red King’. The ‘Red’ was, in fact, the dragon we had the most run-ins with. 

 

He wasn't doing a good job even limited to acting through his followers. 

 

Even though caused a lot of suffering to my people, even with a handful of agents, the dragons didn’t seem to have too much faith in his success. 

 

Others, seemingly eager to have an ‘I told you so’ moment when the ‘Red’ inevitably fails in dealing with us, were not under any strict orders on how to approach us, mostly opting to either abstain from the conflict or in case of the ‘Lady’ placate us before the situation had grown out of control forcing their hands - or celestial dragon claws. 

 

Simply said: It was politics. It was still a considerable step up from me fumbling around trying to talk with natives, the ‘Lady’ could speak the same language as us if she wanted. 

 

While it wouldn’t end the fight with either the humans or their dragon gods, it would allow the ‘Lady’ to peacefully exit the conflict so demeaning to the self-proclaimed ‘goddess of spring and fertility’. 

 

Why she had the issue with ‘Red’ remained an unspoken question, but the blue-green dragoness would rather sacrifice the lands rather than do anything even remotely useful to her sibling. 

 

She would rather resort to the same tactics she applied here, removing the wards the same way she did in this city, but the wards made by others, and shrines that were raised in the honour of different dragons, would still count as grounds consecrated against us. 

 

I was willing to take what was offered, even if it came from her. 

 

The repeated references suggesting that our presence here was part of some cyclic reincarnation weren’t lost, but I decided against asking too many questions about it to the only dragon willing to negotiate with us, lest she might back out of the entire deal. 

 

I had to think about the future, especially if I was stuck in this world.  I would have to make friends, even ones as dubious as the blue-green dragoness.

 

Nevertheless, there was a downside of the whole  ‘jailer to the scrolls’ arrangement: it didn’t mean that I would be given the said artefacts I, along with so many others, had searched for.  I would be forced to collect them myself one by one. 

 

While inconvenient, it wasn’t of the factor, considering what was in play here. 

 

The ‘Lady’ - I think I should call her Dragoness rather than her cumbersome title - however, it also revealed one important thing about the so-called Scrolls of Pho-us-kah and the Forbidden Library. 

 

The vaults beneath this kingdom’s capital city weren’t the only place in the world that had stored those things. Instead, the scrolls were almost willfully scattered around the land to find the best way to deal with their destructive potential without any unified strategy to contain or destroy them. 

 

They were all over the place. Both artefacts and the approach to guarding them. 

 

Some of them were buried in the tombs of influential humans who refused to part with the objects even after death, some were sealed under shrines where they would be guarded by the local clergy and kept in check with the magic they wielded, some had more obscure hiding spots or were even purposefully thrown into the sea.  What were these scrolls made of to survive not only the ages, but seawater?  Did they not burn rot or disintegrate?

 

It misled the mortals, as the Dragoness put it, which served its purpose in the past. It did deter most, and those blessed with the dragons’ powers weren’t likely to break the rules - until their Chosen did exactly that. 

 

This was the breaking point which frustrated our Lady Dragon greatly. 

 

Her speech had shown that much. 

 

Still, the dragoness wasn’t able, or willing, to fetch any of those, supposedly because her ‘divine siblings’ would find out, and manifesting the power directly within this world would cause the very problem she was trying to avoid. 

 

She was, however, able to tell where the other scrolls were hidden at the moment, even the ones that the humans had long forgotten about, allowing me to obtain the individual pieces without the necessity of intervening in the war in the coming months. 

 

I would have to eventually intervene, since now I suspected that the entire conflict was an attempt of one human faction to get access to the Scrolls held by another faction.  But the opportunity to learn about the scrolls without having to kill thousands of people for it was worth it in my opinion. 

 

Easy solutions were always tempting to me. 

 

After all, some of those required more graverobbing than assaulting major population centres.  

 

“My priest would lead you to the location, he is expected to obey my command and assist you in your journey. He should be… motivated to assist you.” The she-dragon offered, “To obtain all of them, even when some might be … troublesome … for the mortal to reach.” 

 

I grimaced. 

 

The box at the bottom of the sea was quite the definition of difficult to access, not to mention the travel time required to move through the continent, but the distance alone wasn’t a large obstacle on its own with our current possibilities. 

 

I would worry about the sea, or guarded fortresses for what mattered, later, considering the sheer number of scrolls this collection should consist of. Six hundred was quite a lot, but I supposed that the collection of parchments was easier to scatter than a single-bound grimoire. 

 

“I imagine,” I replied dryly after the short pause, “there exists a way for you to show us where the others are. Are there treasure maps?” 

 

“Maps were not made so the mortals…” The disembodied voice of the dragoness replied, then added almost as if she just realised the easiest option to share the pieces of information efficiently: “I will instruct my priest to create the maps under my guidance.” 

 

That would help, I had to admit. 

 

In our short time in this world we had no chance to obtain or produce any charts on our own, let alone one leading to buried magical treasures, so any assistance in learning this world’s geography would be invaluable, even if it didn’t come from a cartographer and would have to be dictated, quite literally, by the higher power. 

 

It was a very unique security measure. 

 

Yet, it was far, far too slow. My beautiful kittens could cross kilometres in the blink of an eye. 

 

The dragon shifted, the tendency for it to manifest into the physical world through having the statue seemingly move between blinks, then reverting it to the same state between the blinks of the eyes was getting on my nerves.

 

The way she communicated was annoying. Whether there was a limit to her manifesting in the physical world, or she wanted to get on my nerves, I didn’t know. 

 

I wasn’t getting any better at finding out if and when she was lying, and only tasks given to us seemed to be made the way it would take months to complete, perhaps purposefully, considering that the expected time - at least without my ‘Displacers’ - would take months. 

 

Probably longer, since as far I understood, the priests in this world may be magicians, but not necessarily map-makers. Sora could be even better at this, she was my girl and not a human, and I trusted her skills.

 

Impatience was getting the better of me, more so if I, or my girls, were expected to do the leg work. I put my hands behind my back as asked. 

 

“Am I supposed to reach those places quickly?” 

 

“Not necessarily.” The dragoness admitted, her tone betraying the fact she may not have considered this: “Our Chosen would attempt to collect the scroll, despite the fact it is foolish, but as long as she doesn’t get to use the scroll to bring anything here from the other worlds, you are free to… act at your leisure. There is no short route to reach her destination while avoiding your spawn at the same time.” 

 

Avoiding my people? Was she in the valley? There was no way for her to be less of a pain to deal with than ‘elites’. 

 

“And my people?” 

 

“Your spawn could leave this valley by the eastern pass and then follow the mountains heading north and north-west.” The dragon replied immediately, and while it was technically a comprehensible direction, there was just one tiny problem. The eastern pass had collapsed, and while we could get through, the humans were supposed to experience some difficulty. 

 

Her priest acting as the guide now felt like the lead ball chained to my ankle. 

 

“Are there any humans living there?” 

 

“Of course.” The dragon replied nearly offended, almost as if I asked something very stupid. Perhaps I did, but we weren’t asked to follow any road where the settlements would logically be: “I have my followers there. They should not be a bother to your spawn.” 

 

“I see.” I nodded, checking the mood of my companions, still bothered by the fact I was supposed to race against the time and the assigned helper couldn’t be put somewhere isolated to just make maps for the expedition to follow. 

 

“Why is your Chosen even supposed to gather the scrolls if you are afraid of what they are going to do?” I realised and voiced my concerns aloud.

 

“Because there is no agreement on how to deal with you, Root, I told you so.” The dragoness replied, her statue, normally lifeless, once again moved, messing with my senses, which distracted me once more. 

 

“Am I supposed to stop the Chosen?” I asked - this was not quite spelt out before. While the dragoness spelt out the importance of safeguarding the scroll, there wasn’t any mention of direct competition before. 

 

It invited an inquiry about what I was expecting to stop.

 

“You mustn’t.” The ‘Lady’ suddenly emphasised, her dragon snout once again appeared in front of my face, reminding me that her true form was considerably larger than the statue. 

 

Then I blinked and it disappeared. It was seriously getting on my nerves.

 

“As much as I am upset with her, her death would complicate the situation more than it would solve it.” The voice said as she collected herself, the voice once again returned to normal.

 

“Get the scroll before she gets it.” 

 

I summarised to the spectre of the dragon and agreed.

 

“Precisely.” 

 

“If we are supposed to get to the same spot…” I said, looking over my shoulder, searching for the priest who wasn’t in sight, then asked something else: “Who made the map for her then? Couldn’t we try to steal her map, leaving her directionless?”

 

While I did assume that this so-called ‘Chosen’ would have the same, if not better powers than the other priestesses would have, there was a chance of simply taking her map with some subterfuge, likely in collaboration with the priest we had outside. 

 

“No one, she was shown a vision.” 

 

“Can I be shown a vision?” I asked the probing question, considering the options I have for reaching the place before the competition, which I would have a considerable advantage in doing. 

 

Knowing that ‘Displacers’ had perfect orientation sense, it came to them easily with their power, it was only a matter of them knowing where to open their rift to the desired location, and we were there. 

 

A navigation tool in my head was a very convenient solution, especially for me, trapped in an unknown land without a map and compass, was a very convenient solution, even more so if combined with my little kitten simply teleporting around.

 

“It is not advised.” The previously unmoving statue shifted, and became solid again, “You, and your followers, are too different from the humans, even after your recent attempt at attaining divinity.” 

 

“But you can do it?” 

 

“Yes.” 

 

“Would it kill me?” I asked, without realising the first it would bring implications about my memories or rather lack thereof, as there wasn’t any telling what my predecessors had tried before. The only sources of information about that would be either the dragoness or…

 

I looked at Ari. 

 

She may not be able to communicate with the Serpent herself. Now cognizant of its presence, I could sense presence somewhere at the edge of my consciousness where the link to the rest of the host had also lingered, threatening to burst with the never-ending storm of voices.

 

I exchanged meaningful looks with my other companions.

 

They very likely also become aware that the shared network had the guest, yet their minds, adjusted to swim in the endless sea of whispers, didn't consider the dissimilar addition to the host appalling.

 

I could sense my girls’ concern. Their minds touched mine. 

 

With their assurance, I realised that the Serpent was there before, back in the time of the siege, where I could sense its desire to make the ‘Root’ stronger, even the influence it had over Ari’s memories. 

 

The dragoness voice brought me back to reality. 

 

“That is … a very good question.” She said, her tone betraying the fact she wasn’t all-knowing and never considered the possibility: “It was never meant to harm your kind, but to divulge the secrets exclusively to our most trusted followers.” 

 

The mystery aspects were obnoxious, but my knowledge about the more supernatural aspects was practically reliant on either the Serpent talking or the Dragoness telling the truth. 

 

“Am I a trusted ally?” I took my eyes off the shifting dragon statue with all the illusion involved, focusing on the Serpent visitor. The Serpent was there, I knew, somehow, almost as if he was hiding behind my back the entire time. I had no time to deal with the sensation.

 

“You would have to be.” The dragoness replied

 

“How much are you interested in not killing me in the process?” I queried instead, “Your priest could ward the area we are in, couldn’t he not?

 

The ‘Lady’ laughed, and the disembodied voice shook our surroundings then it went silent once more. 

 

“Killing you achieves nothing. We tried that already.” She said, “I did promise my wards will not harm you, or your spawn, didn't I?”

 

Her priest, assuming he had the same powers as his female counterparts, would be able to cause quite a lot of issues should he be allowed to cast his magic in the crowd of my girls, the barriers, wards and sealing hurt us quite a lot. We would, however, be forced to stick with him for quite some time. 

 

I paused. The Serpent, aside from letting me know he indeed existed as a passager, didn’t seem to object. 

 

“Do it then.” I decided, and argued: “If you don’t intend to harm me, the vision should work perfectly.” 

 

I came to regret the decision.

 

First, for a very brief moment, I saw the dragoness herself. If it was her true form, the statue did her justice appearance-wise with the coiling cyan body of the Asian-styled dragon, elegantly floating in the sky as if it was the water in the ocean, except now, she was much larger than any statue would make her. A leviathan the size of the city.

 

I could handle that. 

 

However, once the vision shifted towards the location itself, the sensation was very quickly becoming unbearable, almost as if the remote place itself was trying to push me away from its boundaries. 

 

Even a glimpse of a burial mound, overrun with vegetation, with its stone entrance ruined and forgotten, gave me a headache, but with every passing millisecond it zoomed in, the unpleasantness turned to pain, and … agony hit me like the speeding train.

 

The agony ended the moment the jolt of energy swept over me, regenerating whatever damage it had caused. 

 

I was in Narita’s arms. 

 

“Curses!” the dragoness hissed, and images once again flooded my brain.

 

I was floating in the endless, blue skies, without any land in sight, just the endless realm of blue among the clouds where there was light without a sun. Here, in this infinite expanse, the dragoness floated in circles around me, her mane flowing in the wind I couldn’t feel, her scaly body spasming in the pain or fury as she flew.

 

“How do you feel now, Root?” Her voice boomed, filled with agitation

 

“What happened?” 

 

“Can you look at my magnificent beauty?” She asked, “Are you in pain?” 

 

“I prefer my mates. Narita’s horns are prettier than your antlers.' I quipped without meaning to, despite what just transpired. 

 

The dragon scowled. I could sense her expression despite all the frantic movement she was making. There was a pain in it, displeasure, agitation. Her eyes flashed. 

 

“This is not what I meant, Root!” she said angrily, “Do you feel pain?” 

 

“No,” I answered truthfully. Despite that sudden burst of pain just moments ago, this place, a sky-like void, was quite peaceful, if empty, and faintly smelling of flowers. 

 

The dragoness hissed in rage and agitation. 

 

“Curses!” 

 

“Did you just betray me?”

 

“No!” The dragoness voice replied, “This is not how it was supposed to work! I can show you my true form! I can bring you here! I can show you anything…anything but the scrolls!” 

 

“I didn’t like being tricked!” I remarked, 

 

“No.” The dragon yelled, “It was ME who was tricked! They tricked me!” 

 

I was suddenly looking down at myself, my body resting inside Narita’s embrace.  She cradled me on her chest. Her body in the armour seemed suddenly so much a knightly protector, and I … not so much. 

 

I turned the part of the palace guarded just beyond the boundary of the shrine to dust by ‘Defilers’ magic. 

 

I could see Mai, grabbing the priest by the neck, lifting him into the air, with the display of strength she had never shown before.

 

Their rage and hatred were barely contained as their minds still touched mine, upset about my body suddenly going limp, the outburst of violence barely contained by the fact that my mind was still connected to the rest of them, a thousand synapses firing at once, all heaving in the offence, only a split-second decision preventing Tama from torching everything in her fury. 

 

I could see Ari, and an unseen, spectral snake floating around her, trying to take a hammer to the statue. 

 

“... anything but the scrolls! Curses!” The dragoness complained, her tone full of indignation: “Why? WHY?” 

 

Then, in the blink of an eye blink, I was back in my body, on the cold stone floor, looking into Narita’s eyes. I raised my hand to touch her, our minds touched, her concern and love, so pure and unconditional, ever faithful as my protector. Was I even worthy of such dedication?

 

“I am sorry, Root.” The dragon spoke first, “It was not my intent.” 

 

“What happened?” 

 

“I am not allowed to show you where the scrolls are…” she said, in a resigned tone, then her mood slowly changed to annoyance, and she growled: “...they expected this. He never trusts me! I will show them!”

 

I got slowly back to my feet, the moment of weakness had passed, and the ache seemed to be only a memory of the past. 

 

“Please don’t kill my priest.” The ‘Lady’ asked, calm again, her mood sombre again. The celestial dragons were clearly prone to serious mood swings. 

 

I nodded at Miwah. 

 

Then looked at the only undestroyed statue, and Ari awaiting instruction whether to smash the stone to pieces. My Ekaterina soon joined her. 

 

I was, once again, staring into the face of the ‘Lady’ - the dragon’s tendency to manifest and disappear on the whim, often between the eye blinks, was starting to be infuriating, since she disappeared the moment later. 

 

“What happened?” 

 

“I changed my mind. You can kill the Chosen if you want.” She replied, dryly, in her usual manifestation as the disembodied voice. She didn’t answer the question.

 

“What happened?” I demanded once again.

 

“I was trying to show you the place, just as I promised. It hurt me as much as it hurt you. I am… in pain, Root.” The dragoness replied, her tone struggling, “This was… unexpected.” 

 

I nodded. Though I did consider the option it would hurt me, I hadn’t considered the possibility of repercussion for the dragon.  This was the best-case scenario. I worried she would try to step back on the deal. 

 

There was a moment of silence. 

 

“Should you accept, Root, I suppose we are allies,” Dragoness said in a resigned tone, for the first time it seemed like it was more laboured than it should logically be, and I could see the mirage around her statues swirling, maybe struggling with maintaining the presence within the material world. It was less unnerving now.

 

“I was ready to accept too.” I said, “Assuming the whole failure with the vision wasn’t the creative way to kill me.” 

 

“It was not.” The ‘Lady’ replied, seemingly upset: “I swore before, and I swear now.” 

 

“Very well…” 

 

“Agreed.” The ‘Lady’ pronounced, “Allies.” 

 

“I think we should…”

 

The very familiar red fog suddenly interrupted my further words, erupting from the ground and materialising into the seven more bat girls, while the previously dormant system sparked to life with new notifications invading my line of sight. 

 

Major Enemy killed. Six more to advance the General level. Skill “Messengers of the Ever-Living Horde lvl. 11” Gained.

 

I dismissed it, and my freshly spawned chiropteran companions chirped happily

 

“For Master!” 

 

“What happened?” 

 

“Andrea just poisoned the human priestess.” 

 

“What? How?” I barked out, but the invisible dragoness interrupted me.

 

“It wasn’t one of mine, Root. You can kill them all.” It said, this time the snivelling tone had both a trace of cruelty mixed with something I couldn’t quite place. 

 

I was, in fact, very curious about what had just happened, not in terms of my people engaging somewhere, but with the sudden shift in dragoness’ behaviour, as there was quite a split-second change after the whole vision debacle. 

 

At the edge of my mind, the host of minds grew restless, and I was certain that at least one ‘Alpha’ was just redirecting our forces elsewhere. I had no idea why I could even sense something like this in particular. There was no time to ponder it now, anyway. 

 

Even if the dragoness had fulfilled the bargain, and the ground of her temple wouldn’t harm me, it was still not a good place to stand in at the very moment.  

 

“Excuse me. I will take care of this…” I said. “Just make sure your followers wear something we recognize. 

 

Truthfully, I didn’t have any coherent plan to deal with unexpected events like this, but I was already bracing myself for the inevitable, crippling pain which came with ‘sealing’. 

 

My ‘Fleshspeakers’ weren’t known for ranged attacks. 

 

Turning around, I was about to step away. 

 

The ‘Viridian High Lady’ interrupted me. 

 

“Wait, Root. I have…a problem…”

 

She said, her speech ambiguous for the first time, but when I was about to ask for details she continued, struggle within her voice more obvious with each word: 

 

“If we … have an… alliance … I will invoke it right now. Root… go… spill the blood of my brother’s priestess on this statue…” 

 

And with it, it went silent, and the statue that irritated me so much turned as inanimate it had once been. 

 

The session was over, and I was certain it didn’t end on dragoness’ terms.