by Kevin Culp
Sairana glanced at her husband then back to me. “I think we will take you up on that. We have been traveling for days, and I don't really feel like hunting today.”
With that, I went to work for the day. I still wasn't entirely sure why a family of elves wanted a house made of stone, but I couldn't help but assume it had something to do with their daughter. At a glance, she appeared to be some kind of hybrid, but both of her parents just seemed like normal elves. Was it safe to assume that one of them wasn't actually her parent? I'm sure it would be rude to come out and ask what she was or whether her parents were her actual parents, but hopefully, I would discover the truth in time.
After a few hours of work, I was done putting into place all the stones that Tyler wanted me to for the day. I had heard of people in prison back in the day having to move and break rocks but this was exhausting. Thankfully, since it was what I assumed was the start of winter, I wasn't melting in the sun's heat at the very least. I still wasn't sure if winters here were just mild or if it hadn't really started yet. The elves had spent their time surveying the surrounding area and marking where they planned to farm.
Elf farmers seemed strange to me. Sure it seemed like their attachment to nature would make them naturally good at it, but I always just pictured them to be more of a survive off what nature produces on its own type of people. To be fair, the only elves I had seen since coming to this world were in the capital and were far from nature dwellers either. Even if I was correct in my assumption of elves, this family had not found acceptance anywhere before, so it would likely be inappropriate to consider them normal examples of their race.
I threw on my bag, put my sword back on my waist, and called out the family, “Are you all ready to go eat?”
Lianamyr looked at the other two and replied, “Yes, we're starving,” and they all started to walk towards me.
“Do you think the townsfolk will be afraid of me?” Korana asked.
“I'll be honest, I can't say for certain what some of their first impressions will be like, but I am confident they will learn to accept you just as they have learned to accept me. I have the advantage of looking human, but I do know what it's like for people to look at you with fear.”
She didn't seem too fond of my answer and resorted to looking at her feet for the trip.
When we got into town, it was obvious that people were staring at Korana and many of them were glancing from her to me and seemed to have a nod of approval. Unfortunately, I didn't think it was a good nod. It seemed more to be a nod as if I had captured a monster, and they were thankful that I stopped it before it got to them. Archaeus had an astounding level of training in sense motive, so I hoped that Korana wasn't picking up on the same thing.
We got to the tavern, and Christina ambushed me with a hug and a kiss at the door. “You're right on time, Archaeus, and who are,” she paused for a moment when she saw Korana, “these people?”
At the very least, she didn't seem to have the impression that Korana was a monster I captured like the rest of the town, “This is the new family that is settling in Freid. I'd like you to meet Lianamyr, Sairana, and Korana.” I gestured to them in turn as I said their names and Christina shook their hands, including Korana's.
When she took Korana's hand, there was an audible pop, and Christina flinched and jerked her arm back. It was awkward to see such a static buildup even with Korana wearing gloves.
Korana seemed startled and scared. “I'm sorry, I'm sorry, please forgive me.”
Christina gripped her own hand but had a kind expression on her face. “It's fine, really. It didn't hurt, just took me by surprise that's all.”
Christina then led us into the tavern and to a table where we all took a seat. When Korana sat down, she wrapped her tail around her and into her lap, but she still had to sit far forward on the chair. Her wings, however, were not as easy to keep out of the way of people walking around the table, and she seemed embarrassed. Here it was blatantly obvious that people were staring at her.
“When did we let a dragon come into town?” It was Rin who asked. I hadn't even noticed that she had walked up to our table. She was sporting her usual anime style revealing armor with her long blonde hair up in a bun.
Korana spoke up. “I'm only half dragon okay!”
Rin had been speaking in a pretty matter of fact tone, and I knew her to be blunt, so she probably didn't mean any offense by her comment, but Korana didn't take it that way. Looking at Korana it seemed obvious now that she was part dragon, but I was surprised Rin knew it given that you have to have knowledge training for these kinds of things in this world. Not that Rin was stupid, but she was a mercenary that only cared about combat, maybe knowledge training was a “know thy enemy” kind of thing for her.
Rin just rolled her eyes. “Half dragon, full dragon, doesn't make a difference to me. It’s strange. What do you all want to eat?”
Korana looked like she wanted to respond, but Christina cut in. “They will all have the stew please if that's okay?” She looked to us as she said it, and the elf couple nodded. I knew Christina had already eaten, but I was glad she was here to interject.
Christina looked to Korana and said, “So, you're a half-dragon that sounds super exciting. What type of dragon are you?”
Korana looked down as she responded, “Trust me it isn't exciting to be a half-dragon. I'm half Sky Dragon. People that know them, typically, accept they are good and not monsters, but all people see when they look at me is a monster elf. It isn't fair. Also, it's hard for me to control my electricity, which often makes people right to be afraid of me.”
“I'm not afraid of you,” Christina said as she put her hand on Korana's back. I could see the static clinging to her arm as she touched Korana, but that didn't stop her.
Suddenly, I looked up at her hair and couldn't help but start laughing.
Christina looked mad, and so did Korana at first, but then, Korana looked at Christina and started laughing too.
“What's so funny?” Christina asked.
Her hair was standing all the way up around her head like when you touch one of those powerful electrical balls in a science funhouse, a Van de Graaf generator I think they are called. Christina had long hair, and it was kind of hilarious.
I had to tell her, or she might be mad. “Your hair is standing completely on end right now.”
Christina reached up and felt her hair with one hand. She then frantically removed her other hand from Korana and started trying to straighten her hair. She had a mad face on, but I could tell that she was secretly glad it had made Korana laugh.
Lianamyr spoke, “Half dragons can be sporadically dangerous at times. They aren't very common, but they receive a great amount of elemental energy from their dragon parent and few ever learn to harness it. Often, the ones that do can become exceptionally powerful sorcerers, but the path there often causes a lot of chaos.”
“Is that why your house is stone?” I asked.
“Yes, it is. I'm not sure how much knowledge you have on sorcerers, but it is pretty common for those that don't know how to control their power to set off deadly spells completely by mistake. Half dragons that have innately sorcerous blood, as well as, elemental energy that goes beyond just magic are even more so dangerous when they can't control it,” he said.
“This may be just me stating the obvious, but if Korana is half-dragon, does that make one of you a dragon or does she have a different birth parent?”
Sairana spoke up. “I am... kind of a dragon.”
That kind of surprised me, though I guess polymorph magic could fool anyone, but the way she said it made me question. “What do you mean by kind of a dragon?”
She seemed slow to respond. “I'm not sure how much you know about dragons, but obviously, we grow very large. Many times, even good dragons end up in territorial disputes due to our sheer size. I wished to avoid that. I spent many years researching magic that could indefinitely change me into a more practical form such
as this one. I had intended that even if I did so, I could change back with the same spell, but it would make living more practical. It didn't work out that way, however. Once I took this form, my body could not contain the magical energy required to cast the spell again to change back.”
Archaeus actually had a good understanding of spell research from Lyra, and of course, he could cast divine magic of his own. I doubted that it was a matter of the body being unable to contain the magical energy for the spell but something else. Monsters had sort of natural experience points in the game to make them the higher effective level of their race, but powerful spells often required spending experience points to cast. I would guess that she cast the spell that permanently changed her into an elf and spent so much experience doing so that she was no longer high enough level to cast the spell. If I would have to guess though the spell somehow changed her physical form without changing her DNA so her child was still born a half-dragon.
“Just out of curiosity, it's obvious you were a powerful caster as a dragon, but what was the highest tier of spell you could cast while you were still a dragon?” I asked
She thought about it for a moment, “Well, we dragons don't really subscribe a tier to our magic like you humans do. If I had to compare though I'd say around tier six or seven. It was certainly more powerful than the magic that humans possess.”
“I expected that the magic of dragons would be powerful. The prince had made it sound like magic in this world just didn't go above tier five unless you were a god. I'm not sure if he even believed me when I told him I had companions that could use ninth tier magic.”
She didn't seem surprised, “That makes sense. With how easily I hear you bested Raion, your allies must be powerful.”
“Raion?” I asked.
“He's the one your people called the King of Lions. Raion is what we dragons call him. He has gotten into disputes with some younger dragons in the past and won. We mostly left him alone though, he never really intends to intrude on our territories.”
About that time, Rin came to the table with food and drinks, “I hope you all are hungry because I'm not the one who cooked this,” she said as she set the food down. She had learned to cook a bit but still pretended like we should be thankful when it wasn't her who did the cooking.
I had an idea, “I'm no sorcerer, so I probably can't teach you much, but we will train this evening, and I would love it if you would join us Korana. It could be a good opportunity to meet a few of the locals and show people they have nothing to be afraid of.”
Korana looked questioningly to her parents who nodded in encouragement then back to me. “Okay, I guess I’ll try.”
Chapter 3
Once they finished eating, the family excused themselves and headed back to the building site of their soon to be new home. I leaned back and started to think about the encounter and how I might help this young half-dragon. I think pretty much anyone who plays tabletop games knows that sometimes innately magical beings that didn't have a grip on their powers could cause some bad accidents. I often tried to fit it into my backstory when I played a sorcerer just to add some flair as generic as it might be. How could Archaeus help a young would-be sorceress though? Especially when the would-be sorceress theoretically had much more power than usual both magically and physically. Suddenly, I was aware that Christina was just sitting there staring at me.
“Is something wrong, Christina?”
She looked a little lost in thought herself. “Well, it's not that anything is wrong. I'm just questioning whether we can actually help Korana. You're great at teaching swordplay, and I know you can cast some spells, but you have told me before that your magic isn't innate and works differently than sorcerers, so how can you teach something you have no experience with?”
She hit the nail on the head of what I was thinking. Honestly, I imagine that me as a person would be an awful swordsman, but I could teach it because Archaues could teach it. With sorcery, though I only have gamer knowledge about it which I probably couldn't use, to begin with, and Archaeus only knew what Lyra had told him. What had Lyra told him?
“Of course, you're right, Christina. I know little about sorcery, but there are a few things I do know, and I can probably ask the prince to send someone to help. The one thing I do know about sorcery is that it is directly associated with your emotions and your ability to control them. I'm not sure if you realized this, but Korana is exceptionally strong. I think she will be safe training with us, and perhaps it will help her with managing stress. Also, it should be a good thing to let her interact with other people her age who aren't afraid of her.”
“I trust that you know what you are doing Archaeus, and I agree that it will do her some good to make some friends in town after all she's been through. Anyway, I need to go talk to Gadrick. Honestly, no one ever really cared about his um 'Organizational methods' before, but a lot of the newcomers to town aren't happy that they can't find anything when they go to his shop.”
I let out a little laugh, gave her a kiss, and waved her off. Gadrick's Place, the local general goods store, was always a mess. It honestly looked like something straight out of one of those hoarder shows, but somehow he knew where everything was if you just asked him. I didn't even try to find anything in there myself anymore.
I sat there for several minutes lost in thought as to how I could help the young girl. One problem with being Archaeus is that people expect him to help. Not only do they expect him to help, but they expect him to know what he's doing and do a good job. To a certain degree, I could rely on Archaeus to do things for me. For instance, when I was teaching swordplay, I would just kind of direct myself, and Archaeus would do all the talking and demonstration. I had gotten pretty good at that. When I first arrived, the only times that Archaeus would speak in my stead was when I said something that didn't fit into his character, but if he knew what I was aiming for I could kind of just sit back and let him take the wheel. One of the nice things is, I could go through my visual notepad while he was teaching and read what he had said, and I was thinking I might even be able to handle a bit of swordplay on my own after watching and reading.
“If you sit there much longer, I'm going to have to serve you dinner too.”
I looked up and saw Rin. She was in the process of cleaning off the table and made a show of the fact that I was in the way. I sat back in my chair and pulled my arms off the table to make sure she could finish cleaning.
“Have you ever really spent much time with any sorcerers, Rin. I know there was some kind of spellcaster in our initial fight but don't really know much about him.”
“I think Jonathan was a Wizard, but I try to ignore most of that magic nonsense. I can't say for sure what the spell casters I've spent my time around were but what did you want to know?”
“Well, I was wondering if you had any ideas on teaching one, but I'd guess not.”
“You got that right. I have no interest in doing anything I can't with my own two hands. You better believe that when I beat you, there won't be any magic nonsense going on.”
I chuckled a little. “Well, I look forward to the challenge.”
She finished cleaning the table and walked off. I got up and decided to just go for a walk. I really wasn't needed around town except as a pack mule although I was theoretically in charge. I'm sure Archaeus himself would be better at leading Freid to prosperity, but I wasn't really certain how to “direct” him in this case. Over the past few months, I had tried to see if there was a way for me to simply access Archaeus' knowledge without really pushing him but to no avail. I was Archaeus, so I would think I should know what he knows, but apparently, that only worked when I was in a situation I really needed to know it.
After only a few minutes of walking, I noticed I was holding something familiar in my hand. It was my Letter of Sending. Normally, the prince didn't respond until evening and it was often a day or two before I would get any response from him so it was kind of a surprise. I opened it up
to read what it said:
Archaeus,
It is disturbing to hear that there was such a large nest of ratkin so close to Freid and even more so that there was a troll involved. Hopefully, the dent you made in their forces will make them second guess attacking the caravans, but you may find that you have little luck putting a complete stop to it. While I hope that I am incorrect in that assumption, we have recently found that there has been a lot of activity in the Under Realms, and I believe that this enormous network of tunnels you have described is a previously unknown entrance. As for the troll, it is probably more likely that it and the ratkin were working for the same individual but not necessarily with each other. I know you are more than capable, but I would ask for now that rather than further investigating you simply guard the cave, and allow me to send men to investigate.
Sincerely,
Leovald
I stared at the letter for a moment kind of surprised. Luckily, both myself and Archaeus realized that the Under Realms are home to all kinds of nasty monsters. All the dark races of Elves, Dwarves, and Gnomes along with nasty hybrids and abominations. The Under Realms is basically a massive network of tunnels and caverns that goes deep into the earth and creates a web all around it. What would be the odds that a tunnel to such a place was so close to Freid? It wasn't hard to guess why Leovald wouldn't want me to investigate. If I got lost down there, which could happen easily, I would probably never find my way back to the surface.
I folded up the letter and put it back in my bag. It was moments like this that I regretted that the letter could only be sent once a day. I wanted to ask more questions given the way he had described it I assumed there were other incidents like this going on throughout the kingdom. Also, I kind of wanted to ask his advice on training a young sorceress. He probably wouldn't know much, but maybe I could get someone from the capital to help. I'm sure that there would be a willing volunteer given how many people from the capital have been trying to get on my good side. A few weeks after I got home, I had to send the Prince a letter asking him to order people to stop sending me gifts.
