The Vanguard

by Jeffrey Ellis

  She jumped to her feet with a flip and as she did, he caught her squarely in the chest with a magically enhanced kick that knocked the wind from her and sent her to her knees.

  “Get up. You are Vanguard. Stand and fight like it,” he told her as another wave of energy hit her and knocked her onto her back.

  #

  Xavier spent a while sparring with Trish and when he was done, it was late, but he had eaten little, so he went to the commissary. It was mostly empty except for a few GloCom troops off their rotation who were getting a late meal. He noticed Bahta sitting alone at a table and walked over. She was sipping a drink and looked bored.

  “Mind if I join you?” he asked her. “It's been hectic since we returned, and you haven't had a proper introduction to the castle. I didn't realize dragons drank alcohol?”

  “I am. I was curious at the fascination your species has with it. While I'm in this form, I wanted to experience the effects.”

  “What are you drinking?” he asked her.

  “It is called a margarita. It is made with a liquor called tequila,” she told him. “It's tangy and sweet at the same time. Its complexity was unexpected. I think I like it.”

  “Oh, I know tequila. Go easy on that stuff if you've never drank before. Liquor is very potent. Are you sure you wouldn't like something weaker, like wine or beer to try first?” he asked.

  “I may be human, physically at least, but I still have enhanced physical traits. I should be fine,” she said.

  “Okay. If you say so,” he replied.

  “You're injured. Were you in battle?” she asked.

  “It's nothing. Just a rough sparring match with Trish,” he replied.

  “She defeated you?” Bahta said.

  “It was a draw,” he replied as he ate his food.

  “You are larger than her. Are you not stronger?” Bahta asked. “With dragons, we grow larger and stronger as we get older. Size always denotes strength.”

  “It's not always the same with humans. I probably am a bit stronger than her but she's a bit faster than me and as well trained,” he said. “We're an even match. We've known each other long enough that we know how far we can go and usually carry a few bruises after working out. We keep pushing each other harder to make ourselves better.”

  “Once I'm done eating, would you like a tour? I know it's late and if you're tired we can do it another time.”

  “Tonight is fine. I feel no need for sleep,” she said.

  “I think I'll join you in a drink if you don't mind,” he said as he finished his meal.

  “Not at all,” she replied.

  He went and got a bottle of liquor and came back.

  “What is that?” she asked.

  “It's dark rum. It's made from molasses,” he said.

  “May I try it?” she asked.

  “Sure, he said and poured her a drink. “Go easy. That's not mixed like the tequila.”

  The two sat for a little while talking about mundane things, she recanted much of the story of her daughter she had told Trish and the time passed amicably. The two of them started to show signs of intoxication though neither seemed to notice.

  “It's getting late, we should take that tour now,” he said.

  “Of course,” she said and stood up. She swayed a bit and grabbed the table for support. “I feel strange.”

  “You've been drinking tequila and rum. You're drunk,” he said laughing.

  “Well then, I suppose my constitution is not as constituted as I thought it was,” she said and snickered.

  “I'll drink to that,” he said and finished his rum. She downed her own glass.

  “What would you like to see first? How about the C&C?” he asked.

  “Is that okay? I was denied access earlier,” she said.

  “That was during a briefing. Give me a second, I'll ask the Vice Marshall,” he said then moved and stood facing where he was just standing.

  “Vice Marshall Xavier, sir, may I have permission to give the ambassador of the dragons a look at the command and control?” he asked to the empty space in front of him and then moved back.

  Bahta was giggling.

  “Request approved, Vice Marshall Xavier, but if you share our secrets with her, you'll be hanged at dawn,” he said then moved back to the opposite side again.

  “Thank you, Vice Marshall Xavier. I will guard our secrets with my life,” he said then moved back.

  Bahta was laughing out loud at that point. “It seems this alcohol has a profound effect on a human brain.”

  “Well it seems the Vice Marshall okayed it so let's go,” he said and extended his arm.

  She took it and they walked the short distance to the C&C. There wasn't much to see with everything powered down. It was just a conference table and a bunch of blank vid screens and data terminals.

  They left the C&C and toured the upper floor of the building then he showed her the lower floors where the generators and tomb were at.

  They went back upstairs and headed towards the main entrance to go out onto the grounds. He grabbed the bottle of rum as they left and took a drink then passed her the bottle. She took a drink and handed it back.

  They walked the grounds and he showed her the advanced weaponry, shuttle pads, the lamia encampment, and other technological marvels. He showed her the tower and the golden statues which had been moved to a less centralized position at the request of Sebastian.

  “Do you really have manticores living in the tower?” she asked.

  “Yep. Two of them following us backing after Tokyo. They tooking a likening to Sebastian and Chelsea and nestening the top of it. They don't bothering anyone so no one bothering them. Ing. Inging. Inginging. Inginginginging,” he replied, laughing at his difficulty speaking.

  “Ing? Ing ing. Inging ing,” she replied, giggling.

  “I knowing what you meaning,” he said laughing loudly.

  They had started walking in a somewhat swaying line with their arms linked as if he were giving her a formal escort and they continued to pass the bottle. Both were drunk by the time they finished but between his greater experience with alcohol and physical conditioning he could hold his liquor well and her enhanced constitution helped so neither was as drunk as they should be, but both were still quite inebriated.

  “I thinking sleeping should now,” he said. “I having full day tomorrow.”

  “Then let's heading back in so you can sleeping, ing, ing. Can you showing me where my quarters are? My head feels fuzzing and I'm having difficulty remembering the laying of your castling,” she said.

  “Of coursing. It would being my honoring,” he said.

  The two of them were laughing hysterically. The duty guards gave them strange looks as they passed but said nothing.

  He walked her to her room and was about to say goodbye when she kissed him.

  “Uh, I thinking I should going now,” he said fumbling the words.

  She shook her head and cleared her senses a bit. She touched his forehead, and both cleared a bit, mentally.

  “Did I not do that correctly? It's not a custom among dragons so I only have what information I have gathered from observation. I am here to learn all I can about humans and we should spend some time learning,” she said more coherently after the spell and kissed him again.

  “It's not that. That was good. It's just that we're both drunk and you're an envoy of the dragons and I'm part of the command staff here. It wouldn't be proper,” he said.

  “I don't care,” she said.

  He looked in her dark brown eyes and returned her kiss. “Neither do I.”

  The two worked their way into her room, stripping as they went and fell into each other’s arms on the soft bed.

  “I thought you were opposed to amorous overtures between species?” he asked as he took a breath and returned to kissing her.

  She stopped hissing him a moment. “I said I did not understand it, not that I was opposed to it.”

  As the two engag
ed each other passionately, she began to glow a blue color that soon spread to him. Sparks and waves of energy flew from them, shattering a lamp and several other small items around the room. The lights flickered

  “That's never happened before,” Xavier said as they continued to kiss.

  “I seem to be having a bit of trouble restraining my magical abilities. I am not accustomed to this level of sensation. The scales of dragons are not so easily stimulated as human skin,” she said. “We can stop before anything else is broken.”

  “It's just some furniture. We can replace it,” he said. “I checked with the Vice Marshall and he ordered me not to stop.”

  “We certainly wouldn't want to get you in any trouble for defying orders,” she said giggling again.

  #

  Sebastian, Chelsea, and Morgana appeared on a frozen mountainside. The terrain was bleak and barren. There were no animals and no sign of plants and other than the large flat spot they stood on, the mountain was steep and nearly impassable.

  “This is it,” Morgana told them.

  “I can feel it,” Chelsea told her.

  “As can I,” agreed Sebastian as he looked at the mountain in front of them. “There is something there.”

  “There is indeed something here. Look closer but don't look with your eyes because they deceive you. Look through the Weave. Let the magic flow throw you and see what is there,” she told the two of them.

  Sebastian and Chelsea looked at the mountain. At first, they saw nothing but then, slowly, the image changed as they felt the energy flow around them. They saw through the illusion and a large doorway appeared. It was huge, easily large enough for a dragon to walk through with its wings spread wide. Ancient runes were carved on it.

  “What are those runes?” asked Sebastian.

  “Even the dragons don't know. Only dragons can open that door. Let's see how much of Asala is in you,” Morgana said.

  “Why don't they just let us in?” Chelsea asked.

  “You'll have to ask Absillion when you meet him. The door is always open for me, but it would seem they want you to find your own way in,” Morgana replied.

  Sebastian and Chelsea walked up to the doorway and looked at each other. They each stood on one side of the seam between two doors and put their hands on it.

  “It feels alive. The stone, it's more than just stone. There is energy flowing through it. The patterns are linear and hold it shut,” Chelsea said.

  Sebastian reached out a hand to Chelsea and she took it. Their eyes turned yellow and the patterns they saw started breaking, like locks opening. After a moment, the doors swung inward.

  The two of them walked in with Morgana close behind. After the three entered, the doors closed of their own accord and the energy patterns reconnected.

  The room was long and about as wide as the doorway. It extended a long way into the mountain with hallways breaking off occasionally. They continued to walk straight at Morgana's suggestion. At the end of the hallway, it opened into a grand chamber. It was round with large alcoves surrounding it. At the end were large golden runes on the floor indicating the six Elders of the six clans fanning out in a semicircle. The symbol at the center was that of the Elder dragon, a golden dragon they had seen before.

  “That symbol...the crest of the Vanguard, the symbol of the house of Pendragon...it's Absillion's symbol,” Sebastian said.

  “It's actually the symbol of the Elder Dragon, Lord of the Wyrms, head of the Council of Elders and leader of my species,” said a huge reddish gold dragon as he jumped from one of the alcoves and landed on the symbol. Five other dragons joined him. One remained empty, which they assumed to be Bahta's place. “I currently have the honor of holding that position.”

  “Absillion!” Chelsea exclaimed.

  “I am. If you have forgotten, this is Doga, Trall, Sark, Qaa, and Onis. Bahta is currently with your friends in England. Welcome to Avalon,” Absillion said. “It is customary to bow when standing before our council.”

  “We are honored to meet you but with all due respect, we do not bow to anyone. The days of humans and other fey bowing to anyone are gone,” Sebastian said.

  “Sebastian, it's not wise to anger the wyrms,” Morgana told him.

  “No, he has the right to not bow if he is indeed our equal,” Absillion told her. “That remains to be seen but for now, we take no offense.”

  “It doesn't matter if we're your equal. No sentient creature will be above any other as long as I live and thanks to your daughter, that's going to be a very long time,” Sebastian told the Elders.

  “My daughter was misguided. She made a mistake,” Absillion told him, beginning to sound angry.

  “Your daughter was something you never were. You were teachers. You were guides. You were sometimes jailers and always overseers, but your daughter was something more, something special. Your daughter was a true friend. She saw the good in my species and other fey and looked beyond the prejudice and judgment of your Council. You never could,” Sebastian told him.

  “You were correct, Morgana. He is headstrong. He is also very brave to stand before six Elder dragons and insult us,” Trall said.

  “If you have something to say to me, then say it to me. Morgana is not my keeper,” Sebastian said to Trall.

  The dragon replied with a roar and made a threatening posture.

  “NO!” yelled Absillion. “He has the right to speak his mind. This petty squabbling is not why they were summoned here.”

  “Why were we summoned here?” asked Sebastian. “Did you think we would come and bow and once again be your servants?”

  “No. I was not foolish enough to think that. I have watched you enough to know your nature. You have much in common with my daughter. The three of you bridged a gap no member of either species had ever done before. As much as we tried to guide and protect you, we never befriended you. She did. She considered you important, so much she defied me and saved you. I want to know why. I want to see for myself why she felt the two of you were so important,” Absillion told them.

  “And now that you've seen us?” Chelsea asked.

  “I can feel the power in you unlike any of the fey ever exhibited. You may be as strong as us,” Absillion told her.

  “Nonsense. There are none as powerful as us,” Doga said.

  “Open your mind Doga. Your prejudice against the fey is clouding your judgment. Feel what they are, not what you want them to be,” Sark told him.

  “Any power you feel is the presence of the shreds of Asala,” Doga said.

  “No. I can feel my daughter's presence and it is not surfacing now,” Absillion replied. “There will be no bickering. We decided this moment would come and agreed to it.”

  “What moment is that?” Sebastian asked.

  “I know you have been seeking a meeting with us because you want us to restore your fractured memories and we can do this, but you must be ready for it. There are horrors in your past that are locked away. You have lived through torture and atrocities and lived lives that many would consider a nightmare,” Absillion told him.

  “We already know this. We have fragments of some of those lives,” Sebastian replied.

  “You do not, not the worst of it. I must tell you the truth. After the destruction of Atlantis, we were enraged. We abandoned the fey and left you to yourselves. The remnants of the other Atlantean fey warred against the dreb for centuries. The destruction and death they visited upon each other were unprecedented except perhaps for our own ancient wars,” Absillion told them.

  “We were dead. How would that impact us?” Chelsea asked.

  “You were reborn. There was no block on your minds yet. You were born with all your memories and power in place. Malka was the first to appear. She showed up as a child, no more than able to walk and took control of the human and other fey forces. Baldric arrived about a year later and the two of them were heralded as god-kings, the first in history though others would follow. For two centuries you waged a war
and ruled over the mortals as their gods,” Absillion told him. “It is ironic that now you kill others for doing the same.”

  “I had no idea...that's beyond reproach...” Sebastian said.

  “Don't hate yourself. The world was different. Nothing like that had ever happened before and no one, not even the dragons knew what you were or how you came back. Your minds were intact. We didn't understand Asala's impact on you and it would be several more lives before you fully realized your bodies were not indestructible and you were not truly gods,” Morgana said.

  “So that's why our memories were blocked,” Chelsea said.

  “No. That was because of the danger of the Weave. Your enemy was deadly, and you died numerous times throughout the war. Each time, you grew stronger with each rebirth. Each time you retained your old knowledge and power and you continued to learn and grow. It is common for magical creatures to get stronger as we get older and humans are no different. From being bonded with my daughter, you were also harnessing magic that only dragons know and that combined with your own skill made you stronger than any other wizard. After the defeat of the drebs, you decided that level of power was too dangerous to wield and came to us. You asked us to help you find a way to strip your power or stop you from being reborn. We could not remove your power, nor could we stop your rebirths, but we came upon the solution of blocking your memories. You retain your minds through death and into the Weave. At the point of rebirth, you lose them. This is a choice you make. Our magic allowed that choice but cannot force you to make it,” Absillion told them.

  “We were right to want to eliminate that power. It is dangerous but now the effects of the memory block are becoming more dangerous. That power slips through, sometimes uncontrollably. I nearly killed Alexander. We're bouncing into former lives with no control over it,” Sebastian said.

  We will restore your mind if you still wish. We will remove the block we put in place,” Absillion told him.

  “You must know one other thing,” Trall told them.