by Daniel Ruth
“What a monster! I remember how I wanted to kill the humans that killed my hunnies...”
“Who are now alive and well,” I interjected quickly before the conversation got derailed.
“Right,” she said, visibly calming. “Wow, he was pretty evil.”
“He also said something about feeding me to the evil dragon god.”
“That does seem cliché.”
“I think so too. Maybe being old rots your brains.” She grunted in agreement while looking over my shoulder as I turned over the meat. “Just out of curiosity, you wouldn’t know who he was talking about?”
“You mean because of grandpa? No, not really. Grandpa tried to keep us out of politics. And of course, the visits were only three days long.” Three days was about the time it took for a dragon’s territorial instincts to overcome most logical thought and feelings of love a parent or grandparent would normally have for a child. It was why we were born out of the egg with fully functional skills and abilities. Eggs were left to develop on their own. At most, brief visits were arranged if the parents kept track at all. Frankly, I had never met my parents and I was okay with that.
Generally speaking, dragons thrived in this environment. The culture that the dragon lived in during his development period generally steered his preferences later in life. If they were raised or associated with moral or upstanding people, then as an adult they would be moral and upstanding. A dragon raised in a broken society that had no care for lives would inflict a terrible price on that society, as years later that adult dragon would likely callously prey on other sentients.
“So how did you get through the barrier? I tried so hard when the humans came through and I completely lost contact with grandpa,” she pouted. I froze in thought. While I didn’t mind talking about Vatapi and his foiled plans I also didn’t want her to know that I could let other supernaturals through the gate with a spot of blood. Even my friends didn’t know that little detail.
“There was a demon lord. A rakshasa, that had a plan. Over the last few hundred years, he replaced some high powered mages and placed some very impressive circles on the ley line nodes of ten worlds,” I began slowly, giving myself some time to word this correctly. “He was actually some wizard named Jin and some council or school head in another dimension. The irony is no one noticed something had replaced the original Jin and apparently the council fellow was missing for ten years and hasn’t been replaced yet.”
“Rakshasas are nasty things. I didn’t think their lord was Vatapi though...” her voice faded off.
“Technically, it’s not,” I admitted. “He was driven out of his home dimension with a ton of enemies hot on his trail. His plan was to lock the ten dimensions from outside access and inside, so only he and his minions could move around. Then he would storm the worlds and have his own little corner of hell.”
“Wait a minute! The human city I visit had a councilman disappear. There is a mage school there too. You think...?”
“Well, there are only ten worlds connected and at least one of them is mostly empty, except for dinosaurs. I guess that is as likely as anything.”
“So there’s a demon lord loose just a few thousand miles away?” She looked nervous. I could relate to that. It was a miracle I killed him the first time.
“We lucked out and killed him but since he chained these worlds together I would imagine he’ll reconstitute somewhere in it,” I replied absently. “So he had an identity in a city in this world?”
“Up to about decade ago. I guess he didn’t need it anymore.”
“Maybe he left something behind. It would be nice to know where his army is.”
“I suppose it would be nice not to have it come as a surprise, but what would you do about it.” She looked at me appraisingly. Probably wondering how I killed Vatapi. “And how did you get through the barrier?” Or it could be something trickier.
“Just before he activated his circle, I snuck in and made some alterations. I would have broken it, but it had been building up so much energy the consequences would have been bad.”
“Hmm, so you put your true name on the exceptions?” I paused briefly at her guess. That would have taken far more time than I had, but it was a good supposition.
I gave a non-commital grunt. I didn’t want to lie, but I also didn’t want anyone to get the idea that all they needed from me was my blood. Even a cute, slightly genocidal dragon.
“So where is this...” that was as far as got before three angry magical animals got their second wind and charged. Maribel was, of course, delighted her friends wanted to play with her.
Chapter 16
“...and that is how I convinced her to stop her bombardment and legions of undead.” As I finished I looked around the military base they had brought me to. It was apparently the strategic planning room. Rows upon rows of holographic displays were scattered around the room, with clusters of people in drab uniforms gathered around them. Only a few displays were of Paris, most of the others showed maps or first person camera displays. Apparently, the modern implants people used turned them into the perfect media recorder. I could tell it was all hardened military technology simply by how it barely flickered when I walked by.
The most out of place people were the officers. Most were examining maps or discussing supply issues, however, a handful stared blankly into space, their mouth twitching with subvocal conversations. It must be nice to have an inner world you could retreat to. Though to be honest, it looked very similar to being insane.
“You asked her out on a date?” Conrad asked flatly.
“That just sort of happened, but it was lucky happenstance. I think.” I was still a little divided on the subject. She seemed really nice if you weren’t a human or a magical animal, but I wasn’t really looking for a mate. Still, she had a point, if you weren’t open to meeting new dragons, then you weren’t going to find anyone when you were ready.
“And she wants another two cart loads of gems?” he clarified. I nodded absently. While Conrad was dwelling on inconsequential issues, I was thinking of future possibilities. Like magic school. Oh, and the possible location of a demon army.
“Yeah, I was able to talk her out of demanding the head of the person that ordered the bombing strike but the gems were non-negotiable.”
“This seems a bit unprofessional.” This came from a nondescript officer to the side of us. Blond, thinning hair, blue eyes. He looked like he had left his sense of humor in his other pants.
“True, whoever ordered that nuke probably should die, but I figured it would be a sticking point,” I nodded in agreement.
“No, I mean dating the dragon,” he retorted with clenched teeth.
“I’m a freelance scholar,” I asked, puzzled. “Why would it be unprofessional of a dragon to date me?”
“I mean unprofessional of you!”
“Do scholars not date around here?” I asked with a small smile. “That would explain why the general intelligence would be decreasing if you take them out of the gene pool.”
“I think the Professor’s personal life has little to do with the subject,” Conrad interjected. I coughed as he said that. “Even if it did, it has only benefited us. We got a portal effectively guarded by a dragon and the dragon got her gems.” I hadn’t mentioned the resurrection of Mirabel’s pets. Humans had odd reactions to that subject for some reason.
Philip was the name of the officer. I hadn’t inquired but he seemed suspiciously invested in the peace process. I had my suspicions that if I had delved a bit into who had ordered the missile strike his name just may crop up in the process. Considering what a pain in the butt he presently was being, I may have been too hasty in removing the whole execution option. Oh well, it was never too late.
“I suppose I could back off from the whole dating issue, but she would likely demand the death of the person that issued the order to nuke her.”
Philip stopped rambling about propriety and stood silent for a moment. “I suppose it
is for the best. As Officer Conrad said, we now have a beast to guard the gate.”
I eyed him narrowly while contemplating sneaking into his room at night and eating him. I shook my head slightly to myself. It wouldn’t be worth the effort. Also, humans taste terrible. Er, not that I would know...
“Let’s not call her ‘beast’. You may end up paying more than two more cart loads of gems,” I warned him.
“I will name her exactly as she deserves...” he began before he was interrupted by an alarm on one of the displays in the corner. I looked over and noticed the map view had been replaced with a scene of the ocean. At first, it appeared a rather generic vista of the waterline, however as the satellite zoomed in closer, details emerged. The tiny bit of white water gradually resolved itself into a towering cliff of water. Apparently, it was a tidal wave several hundred feet high.
“General, there is a tidal wave closing in on the western coast of France.”
“Damn! Of all the times!” the officer cursed. My mind wandered a bit, Philip was a General? I had missed that in our introductions. So far, I hadn’t gotten a very good impression of them. “Have the UN troops start the evacuation of the coastline. Any idea what caused it?”
“No, sir. There was no significant earthquake activity in that direction since the portals opened. No nuclear activity.” On our side of the gate, at least. “No orbital impacts...”
“I don’t think you need to worry about this particular tsunami,” I offered as the man paused to breathe.
“I think you should leave this to the professionals,” spat Philip. I was really starting to regret saving his life.
“Very true. However, I think you are mistaken about whose profession we are talking about.” Philip looked as if he was about to spout off. Before he could start, I reached over to the display and tapped the air near the peak. “If you expand on this point you’ll see what I mean.”
“Professor, if your help is required, we will call you, otherwise stay out of military affairs.”
“General, I think you’ll want to see this,” a tentative statement wafted over from the technician. Looking over, he had further increased the resolution and a tiny blond figure could be seen sitting in a lotus position on the wave’s crest.
“Stella said she would meet us here. Please don’t try to blow her up. She would be annoyed.” She would also be dead, but it was better not to let this general fellow know too much about my friend’s frailty.
“I assume the wave will subside once she reaches the shore?” Conrad asked in a perfunctory manner. Likely it was for the general’s benefit. I nodded anyway. “Why didn’t she come with us?”
“Flying phobia.”
“Odd, it’s the safest way to travel.”
“The first time she got in a floater it went out of control and crashed us in the middle of a horde of demons. The ones that... almost got Mat.”
“Oh, I think I remember a report of a crash. That was you? It was kicked back to the police since it had no apparent supernatural elements. I’ll make a note to re-file it.” That’s what he got out of the story? “I suppose a minor phobia is natural. Harmless, but she may think about therapy.”
I stared at him in thought. That phobia just may have resulted in the end of the world. After a moment, I shrug. “Yep, harmless. Anyway, she is too late to help with the dragon, but maybe she will want to go with me to visit the magic school over there.”
“What school?”
I paused. I hadn’t actually mentioned that. “Turns out the demon that rocked our world had another identity, as a headmaster or council member. It’s not really clear. Some sort of bigwig. He disappeared about a decade ago. He might have been involved with Baron Samedi.”
“Why would you think that?”
I opened my mouth to tell him about the paperwork I had found in the large circle matrix room the Baron had retreated to. In there, I had found some letters from a third party. The letters were obviously not from the Baron, they had discussed a plan to use our world as a mana sink.
It was all poppycock of course. I had thought the idea was idiotic and time had proven it to be a fallacy, likely promoted by the demon lord to get his minions to unwittingly support his plan to conquer the ten planes. Not that they were innocent, after all, they were still willing to force our dimension into a proverbial hell in order to relieve their own world. Instead, we now were all in the same boat. Minus the random portals outside our chain of worlds. They might think of this as a win.
However, Conrad didn’t know any of that. I had snuck into the abandoned lair, past the police barricade, risked my life using my astral body to slip past the circle barrier and stolen all of the books on circles and wards. At least all I could reach. Jeremy had given him some glib excuse and the subject had been dropped. Awkward.
“It’s... too much of a coincidence that a circle master had set up a base there. It obviously wasn’t the Baron. His style of magic was necromancy and symbols. I can tell they had a circle leading off dimension.” I had mentioned that at the time. “It's circumstantial evidence, but the timing is too convenient.” I stared into his eyes with a serious expression.
“A bit of a stretch, but with the demon lord’s army still ready to march it’s not something we can ignore.”
“Demon army? What sort of garbage are you talking about?” The general had been watching our byplay on the side and getting more irritable as he tried to puzzle through the discussion.
“You’re not cleared for that information,” I smiled at him. I really had no idea if he was or not. Didn’t really care. However, if he didn’t know about current events I wasn’t going to elaborate for him. He might decide to blow something up.
“The UN president will have to clear you for the details,” Conrad reluctantly said.
“But the seat is empty! He’s in an insane asylum somewhere with the rest of them!”
“There’s a new one. He just flew in. I’m sure he’ll have the relevant people fully briefed.”
“Need to know, and all that,” I nodded wisely. Conrad glared at me. He probably thought I wasn’t helping.
“We’ll see about that.” He turned towards the technician. “Call for that evacuation. We can’t ignore a tidal wave that size without more assurance than him.” He nodded in my direction. I actually approved of his caution. If I didn’t know what I did, I would be careful too.
“We can talk about the details of your trip to the other world later,” his eyes flickered to the general. Apparently, I wasn’t the only one with trust issues. It was only natural, after all, he had to regrow the entire lower half of his body. That has to leave an impression.
“I wish Mei was able to go support you but with me out of the city, the shifters need a strong guiding hand. When I get the international arms of AEGIS formed and can shift the headquarters back to the city she can follow you. This is assuming you have a way to get her through the portals.” Nice to know he thought that finding more on the demon lord that had caused all of this was important enough to support.
Four hours later I was back in the converted buildings. I was in the cafeteria, of course, enjoying some of the food I had cooked last night. Although it was popular with the tenants there simply weren’t enough civilians and military combined to eat all I had made.
“Really, I am feeling much better,” Jeremy was assuring me from where he sat across from me. “I was just jet lagged.”
“You do look better.” While he wasn’t bright eyes and bushy tailed, he lacked the zombie look from the previous evening.
“So you got a date from the dragon?”
“Why is that the first thing everyone mentions?” I complained.
“Most people don’t come back from life or death meetings courting the evil empress. The only thing that would be more surprising would be if you got married.”
“She is a very nice dragon. We’ll see how it goes,” I replied dourly. I was way too young for anything permanent.
; “Based on what you found in the Baron's lair, you think the demon lord was supporting him?” Jeremy switched back to our previous discussion. He was actually with me when I looted the books, so it made more sense to bounce ideas off of him than it did Conrad.
“I think his official stolen identity went missing but since he had laid out his ‘master plan’ the people he left behind unwittingly did their part.”
“That doesn’t make sense. They distracted us but we wouldn’t have even been looking for anything if the Baron hadn’t made a horde of zombies,” Jeremy pointed out.
“True. However, the vampires had been getting minor demons roaming around in their territory. Once they came to me looking for answers we would have started looking into it.” I stewed over the events for another minute. “You might be right about them not being directly connected. The Baron’s lair had a circle matrix laid done by an expert that was not the Baron, but it wasn’t Vatapi. I have seen his work, he was a damn genius. The lair’s circles were excellent, but not on that level.”
“So the demon lord goes missing and leaves some clues...”
“Or was simply sloppy. Never underestimate the arrogance of the supernatural.”
“Oh, I won’t,” Jeremy said with a smile. I snorted back at him. “They find enough to backtrack to this dimension and talk about their master plan where Sulayman can hear it.”
“Yeah, pretty much a warped twisted version of what Vatapi was doing. We may never really know if they were following some plan of his or just fumbling around, trying to complete the theory Vatapi conned them into believing.”
“It doesn’t really matter at this point,” the investigator opinioned. “But I am sure you’ll find out when you go there.”
“It should be fun! If he was the headmaster I’ll sneak in as a student. If he was just a council member... I am not sure how I’ll deal with it.” I paused in thought, munching on leftovers. “I guess I could sneak in like I did with Kingston. It’s kind of risky doing that in a magically aware society. They tend to invest more in detecting magical identity theft.”
