“Okay. Well, I'm all for going to hunt down these pieces of shit, but we haven't even gotten you to Myszno yet,” I said. “You don't have a spawn point. We've got like, thirty kingdom quests, and Baldr to deal with. I know this is really important to you-”
She shot me a dark, piercing look. “Do you?”
“Yeah, I do. So what I was going to say was how about we get you back to Myszno, get you set up, get a handle on shit, and then you can go-”
“I can go, can I?” She stiffened, turning back to face me.
“You want to take on two Architects and a revolution without a home base to fall back to?” I gestured toward the west. “Istvan is stuck there, probably trying to put out twenty different fires. We signed up for our responsibilities when we were here, in Taltos. If there's no time limit on the Morning Stars quest, we can go get them once we have our base consolidated.”
Suri leaned forward. “You know what he meant by living out some 'hentai'?”
“Uhh... yeah.” I blinked a couple times. “It’s a kind of anime. Anime is like... a kind of cartoon. Like a fictional story told with pictures. Hentai is a kind of anime that's, uh, pornographic. Most of it is pretty tame, but there’s some extreme torture stuff out there, too. Seems these guys were into the extreme fantasy stuff, and they were like... acting it out here.”
“That's all it was to them? Some fantasy of theirs?”
“Yeah.” I drew a deep, calming breath, and tried to sit back. “I’m sorry. I don’t even know what to say.”
Suri's long neck stiffened. “And you're telling me we have to go back to Myszno, right the fuck now?”
I rubbed the bridge of my nose and grimaced, hard. “Suri, those quests are all on timers. I already fucked over Istvan and my people - our people - by going to pick you up from Al-Asad instead of getting them food and water and sewerage. You ARE my priority, but we just heard it from Rutha’s lips. Baldr is about to invade some nearby country, and if we don’t shore up our base…”
“It’s your base. Because like everything I've been doing this last couple months, this is your quest.” Her jaw worked. “And you think your quests are more important than mine.”
I scowled at that. “What? No. I don’t think that.”
“Yeah, no. You stuck yourself into my quest here, in Taltos, and when it turned into a fucking war, I went along with it and supported you.” She gripped the cushion of the carriage, leaning in as far as her constricting dress allowed for. “You got tangled up with Baldr over what happened in Ilia because of Karalti, and I've fought with everything I've got to protect her and you and Rin through it all. I lost my life over it. But when we hear that these fucking bastards imprisoned me, tortured me because they had some disgusting cartoon fantasy they wanted to act out? Fuck, Hector. They're about to go and murder a bunch of people because of me, because of some secret I might not get a chance to find out about if we wait. But sure, we can just put a raincheck on it and go take care of your stuff first?”
“It's not like that-”
“It IS like that. Because I don't even recall asking you to go with me, let alone asking for your permission.” Suri's eyes glowed with simmering heat. “You just upped and told me I could wait around for you while we - plural - make sure everything is peachy in Myszno.”
I was starting to get pissed off now. “I'm not your enemy, Suri. And yeah, am I wrong for assuming you’d want some help with this? You’re talking about taking on two Architects. You don’t know what level they are, what resources they have. You can’t go alone.”
“Can't I?” She bared her teeth. “Says who?”
“Says me, and all the people who care about you!” There was no room to move in the carriage, and I was starting to feel claustrophobic. “These guys aren’t like Andrik, Suri. They know this world in ways neither of us do, and they come back to life if you kill them. You need backup-”
“What I NEED is for you to stop telling me what I 'need' and fucking listen to me and what I want!”
“Fine then. Rush into this. Go get yourself killed and respawn in Al-Asad, then go crazy like Baldr.” I threw my hands in the air. “We'll pull you out of there as many times as we need to, even if we have to dig you out.”
“Hector, in case you didn't notice, I was about to pull myself and my men out of there when you and Karalti arrived.” Her voice had taken a sugary, venomous tone now. “Don't get me wrong - I'm really grateful you came as soon as you could. I'm grateful you helped me break into the Warden's burrow. But don't assume for one fucking moment that you 'saved' me. I found my own way out of that fucking place once, and if I end up there again, I'll grab a fucking shovel, hold my breath, and do it again.”
I was so shocked that I just fell shut down, fuming the rest of the way to the castle. When we got there, Suri didn't look at me. She hitched up her skirt and pushed out of the carriage, flipped the valet a coin, and stalked off into Vulkan Keep without me.
Chapter 16
I didn’t calm down until I reached the Parade Ground and saw Karalti sitting upright. She rested on the pad formed by her pubic bone and the base of her tail, looking down at Masha. The tiny old woman was standing on an upturned box, waving her hands like a conductor as the dragon opened and closed her wings, drew them in and rolled her wingshoulders, stretched them forward and back.
“And open them once more!” I heard Masha call out, sing-song. “There we go! How does that feel now, your Holiness?”
“It feels okay.” Karalti huffed, broadcasting to me as I boiled across the plaza toward them. “My chest is still a bit achy.”
“Ach, well, that will pass with time. Now! It's important you not fly tonight, you hear? You must rest while the potion does its work.” Masha turned her head as I stalked up. “Ah, if it isn't the Demon Slayer of Taltos! You look like a fly bit you on the huadiv, Tuun.”
“Uhn.” I went to Karalti's side and rested my hands on her scales. As soon as I did, she flinched.
“Hey, what’s wrong?” she rumbled in her throat, bending her neck down until the tip of her snout rested in my hair. “What happened? I've never felt you this... this angry before.”
“Suri and I had an argument. Don't worry about it.” I looked back to Masha. “Did I hear right? She can't fly until morning?”
“No. After some trial and error and the help of a Quazi keeper, we discovered that three of her ventral ribs had separated from her sternum,” Masha replied. “The Bonefuse potion worked splendidly, but that cartilage takes time to heal. She must rest tonight. No flying, no exertion of her wings or forearms. Definitely no magic.”
“You can feed me tidbits from a pillow! Like a real Queen!” Karalti said, reaching out with her tongue to lick the back of my head.
“Sounds good to me.” I put my forehead against her knee and breathed in deeply. Karalti had a unique, sweet smell, like lotus flowers and ozone and earthy soil. She smelled like the jungle at night. It centered me like nothing else in the world could.
“Thanks for helping her,” I said, looking back at Masha. “Sorry to ask, but I need to catch up with her about some stuff. Mind leaving us alone for a while?”
“But of course. You know where to find me if you need me, Count Tuun.” Masha sketched a courtly bow, then hopped off her box and swaggered off toward the Keep.
“Something happened with Suri?” Karalti asked, once she'd left.
“Yeah.” I looked around the parade ground, searching for somewhere Karalti could bed down. It was built on a leveled volcanic plateau facing a large cavern, a natural hangar where the Volod's fleet of airships rested on huge stone drydocks. “Let's walk, and see if they can make some hangar space for us.”
“Us?” She carefully rolled forward onto her feet and shook herself out. Archemian dragons walked on their back feet only, standing on their toes and holding their shorter, weaker forearms up against their chests. Her arm on the injured side was sagging.
“Yeah. I promised you I would, remember?”
>
“You did! But hey… Do you want to talk about Suri?”
I shook my head, jogging to keep up with Karalti as she padded alongside me. Each of her thunderous steps counted for about five of my human ones. “Not really.”
“You feel really mad, though. And worried. It's not good to bottle it up.” The dragon swished her tail, holding it high and arched, like a balancing pole. “I never thought I'd see you mad at Suri.”
“She got some damn quest to go running after those wardens she wants revenge on,” I said. “There's no time limit on it, but she threw a tantrum because I asked her to come to Myszno and take care of things there first. She just wanted to run off back to the fucking desert after we spent five days tracking her down. I don't get it, Tidbit.”
“I dunno. Maybe she's hungry? I always want to kill stuff when I'm hungry. Maybe take her some venison?”
I sighed. Dragon logic.
“I wish I could take you hunting, or do some training with you,” she continued. “You always feel so happy when we're flying or working out together.”
“I'm always happy with you, even when you're hungry. Which, I have to say, has been most of the time lately.”
“Yeah. Like… now.” Karalti lifted her crest of horns, but then seemed to think of something and flattened them tight against her skull with alarm. They eased up as she looked down at me, suddenly apprehensive.
“What?”
“I don't know, but...” She trailed off, considering her words. “Well... you know I'm getting older. And you know it's almost time for my first heat?”
The thought brought color and heat to my face, despite the cold wind. “So?”
“It's possible that you're feeling irritable because… you know.” She looked as embarrassed as any apex predator could. “I mean, we share all kinds of feelings with each other. I hurt a bit when you’re injured, you got an achy chest when I was in pain. Well, since I reached Level 10, sometimes I feel hot and cold, and then like I can't sit still, and then I get up to move and feel grumpy and tired and hungry. And THEN I try and sleep, but I can’t sleep, because I get, uh, ‘feelings’ and have to take care of them. Maybe you're picking up on me?”
“Uhhn.” Now she mentioned it, I had been moodier than usual. I was usually a bright and cheerful ray of sunshine, but I couldn’t deny that there had been a recent uptick in irritable horniness, nighttime brooding, and constant snacking. “Maybe. But mostly it’s that my girlfriend is ungrateful and her fucking temper is out of control. That's all that's bothering me right now.”
“Well... okay.” Karalti heaved a rumbling sigh, put her head down, and lapsed into skeptical silence.
Getting her a space in the hangar wasn’t too hard. The Royal Engineers were more than happy to have a sacred dragon nest in one of their empty ship bays, and dragged out stacks of canvas tarpaulins so that Karalti and I had something to sleep on other than raw stone. She settled down into the makeshift bed, carefully avoiding putting pressure on her chest, and laid her chin on the floor. Her muzzle tracked me as I uncoiled my bedroll, kicking it with more force than it really needed.
“Even if nothing's making you irritable, you know Suri is gonna be upset for a while, right?” she asked. “Upset as in, ‘not rational’. I mean, she just got out of the Bad Place.”
I scowled down at the bedroll. “I know, but she doesn't need to take it out on me.”
“Just give her some time. I think you’ll both be okay.” Karalti nudged her snout toward me. “I’m really happy you’re sleeping with me tonight, though. We should do that more often.”
I flushed, and cleared my throat. “I won't be sleeping for a while, yet.”
“You should. You’re tired and grumpy in the day time now, remember?”
“Yeah, but everyone else is awake in the day. And I have to follow up on the quest Matir gave me.”
Karalti curved one trembling wing high enough that I could slip underneath. “Then come and cuddle with me for a while before you go out to do worky things. I sleep.”
As I ducked under her wing, I felt like laughing and crying and making squealy noises about how adorable she was, all at the same time. Maybe she was right, and I was hormonal. When I slid down to sit on the floor against the arch of her belly, she dropped the heavy black membranes around me like a leather curtain. “You could move your bedroll under here, you know.”
“I will.” I soaked up the heat of her body through my back, and for the first time in several days, took a moment to relax. But only a moment. Restlessly, I opened my quests window, and reviewed the sub-quest I’d gotten after confirming The Second Drachan War.
New Sub-Quest: Know Thy Enemy
Now that you have accepted the challenge of confronting Archemi's oldest and most powerful enemies, where do you start? The library, of course. You can’t fight what you don’t understand, so your first step to victory is to gather as much information as possible on the Drachan, the Rostori, the history of the races of Archemi, and the wars that they fought when the Drachan invaded the world.
You must unlock A-Grade or higher information on the Drachan War, the Drachan [Extraterrestrial Species], and the Warsingers to complete this quest. You will gain bonus EXP for collecting A-grade knowledge on the following subjects:
● Humans and Elves in Archemi (+100)
● The Meewfolk Empire (+250)
● The History of the Shalid (+100)
● The Mercurions (+50)
● The Aesari (+300)
● The Nine (+300)
● The History of Tungaant (+350)
● The Dragon Gates (+150)
● The History of Myszno (+200)
Seek information from archives, dungeons, knowledgeable NPCs, museums, universities, and other places of knowledge. The more information you have, the better your strategy will be - and in the process of researching Archemi's history, you may open up special quests that will further your cause.
Rewards: 2400 EXP, stat increases, race-specific quests, bonus skill points, bonus languages.
It was pretty much my worst nightmare, in quest form: go to a library full of paper-and-ink books and painstakingly research obscure worldbuilding subjects. No search engines, no screen reader, no five-minute VidTube summary version.
“You know, Rutha said something weird during her testimony,” I remarked to Karalti. “She said that Baldr wants to kill the Drachan too. That that’s his end game.”
“Kill them? But he made a deal with them, didn't he? He keeps sending Void creatures after us, and he runs his stupid cult...”
“You know, now that I think about it, the cult thing actually supports that theory,” I replied. “Do you remember when we got ambushed in Taltos and we caught that one guy? The cultist that gacked himself by slashing his neck open on your claw?”
“Yeah. That was pretty weird.”
“He was saying something about being free of the Caul of Souls, and going on to live forever.” I let the window hang. “I'm worried that Baldr is angling for the same thing I want to do. I want to destroy the Caul and deal with the Drachan once and for all. But after hearing that he wants to do the same thing... I dunno. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe we SHOULD be preserving the Caul.”
“Yeah, but if the Drachan are all dead, we don't need a Caul.” Karalti began to groom her foreclaws, nibbling at them with her sharp front teeth. “If you tried to save the Caul, that’d be dumb. It’d be like trying to keep a hatchling in its shell once the egg has already started to crack. Once the cracks start, the baby is gonna come out whether we're ready or not.”
“Yeah. In this case, it's not a baby, just a bunch of howling void horrors.” I chuckled, steeled myself, and accepted the quest.
[You have accepted a quest: Know Thy Enemy!]
[New markers added to your maps: Vulkan Keep Library, Karhad University Archives, Royal Library of Vlachia]
“Guess I know where I'm spending the rest of the day.” With a sigh, I called up a map of Vulkan Keep,
checked to see where the library was, and got to my feet. “You rest up, Tidbit. Let me know if you get bored. I'll send you something to dismember.”
“That'd be nice. Dismemberment is always fun, unless it happens to one of my friends. Which reminds me: I hope Vash gets better soon. I want to learn how to fight like a Baru from him sooo bad.”
“Yeah, I don’t think he’s up and running yet. Last I checked, he was still unavailable to assign to anything.” It crossed my mind to check the heroes menu, but I was too annoyed and it felt like too much work – especially considering what I was about to go and do.
I left Karalti narfing away at the dead scales on her elbows and legged it for the castle. It was a decent walk. Vulkan Keep was built into the open face of Mt. Racosul, the dormant volcano that loomed over Taltos. The main keep rested in an enormous cavern partly carved from the native rock. It was a blocky, brutal-looking place, nearly invisible from the air and difficult to assault from any direction. The mountain provided shelter from above, boiling hot springs gushed from beneath it, and a deep valley loomed below. It wasn’t pretty, but if Vlachia was ever attacked, I'd rather be here than in the exposed towers of Kalla Sahasi.
Inside, Vulkan Keep was an austere cathedral of sweeping polished black halls. Furnace vents carrying hot air from the volcanic springs kept it pleasantly warm. Red patterned carpets muffled the echoing crack of bootheels on the stone floors, but voices carried from every corner to the Keep's great hall, where a single long carpet led to the towering black Raven Throne. I was surprised to see Ignas standing near the front of the hall, talking with the Dakhari emissary who had been at the Parliament meeting. The dark-skinned man was stroking his moustache, listening and nodding as Ignas said something in a hushed whisper and then stepped away.
“Ah, just the man I was hoping to see,” he called out as I tried to sneak around them. “Count Dragozin, did you happen to meet the Honorable Pasha?”
Warsinger Page 16
