The Consequences of Meeting a Dragon

Captain Lysien led them over to the main building of the Royal Guard headquarters. Along the way, they met a harried-looking Garem, who traded places with Kino and followed them to the captain's office while the storm hound went to the records area to monitor the clean-up efforts and pass along updates.

A few minutes later, they reached the office and went into a meeting room directly adjacent to it. Namyis entered the room ahead of Ariom and paused just inside the door.

"Wow..." she said softly, her eyes wide.

Ariom followed her gaze and also raised his eyebrows a little in surprise.

The captain's office and this meeting room were both built so that their back walls could be opened up, connecting the rooms to a small grassy atrium where Captain Lysien's familiar stayed while he was working.

There was a very unusual gathering in that atrium right now. A sky steed, two unicorns, and a large white lizard were standing together on the grass. They looked like they'd been having a conversation, but they all stopped and turned their heads toward the group who had just entered the room.

The sky steed was Firion, Captain Lysien's familiar. He was a large silver dapple horse with enormous feathered wings and was quite a rare sight just by himself.

Sky steeds had nearly gone extinct during the Great War. Kafron had the only remaining herd, which was under the protection of the royal family. They'd become a symbol of the country and were featured on the national flag and royal crest. It wasn't easy to get one as a familiar. Captain Lysien had presumably managed it through his family connections.

The unicorns had to be Sano and Nari, although it was hard to tell just by looking at them, since their bodies were almost entirely covered by dark green caparisons and boots. The two of them usually wore things like this when they went out in public. They had insulating enchantments on them which protected the sensitive unicorns from types of magic that they found unpleasant. This specialized protective gear was partly what had given Ariom the idea to make insulation bands for Thenio.

But as rare as sky steeds and unicorns were, it was the white lizard that was the most surprising. He was about five feet long and had a slender, snake-like body, with a long neck and short legs. His white scales had a pearlescent sheen and showed hints of color that changed depending on how the light hit them.

That was Riven, the Prismatic Hydra. And if he was here, then the officer the Magic Corps had sent....

"Commander? I wasn't expecting you to be the one handling this." Apparently Namyis was also surprised to see the man who was sitting at one end of the long conference table, near where the familiars were gathered.

Soteran Myrel, Commander of the Magic Corps' Central Division. More commonly known as Hydra. He was an athletic, middle-aged man with white hair. Similar to Riven's scales, his eyes were strangely opalescent and seemed to change color whenever they moved.

And the fact that he was here meant that the Magic Corps was preparing to unleash some serious force to deal with this situation.

"The general asked me to handle it personally," Hydra said, giving Namyis a nod of acknowledgement. "He's...quite upset about this incident. Since it involves one of his long-time friends and an extremely valuable member of our support staff. Plus a military charge who the general has a particular interest in."

A military charge who also had a mythic beast watching over him. Ariom didn't know whether or not Hydra was aware of Ki'shiu's involvement with Thenio. But General Obarin definitely was. Surely that had something to do with the Magic Corps' strong response.

So did the elderly woman sitting next to Hydra. Relisa Sephior, Focilo's wife and one of the best alchemists in the world. She was, if anything, even more valuable to the Magic Corps than he was, since she was heavily involved in the production of their medical supplies. It was likely that she or one of her apprentices had made the anti-demon medicine Ariom had taken earlier.

And she presumably wouldn't be happy if the Magic Corps didn't put their best efforts into rescuing her husband.

Ariom glanced over at the unicorns. For the three of them to have gotten here this quickly, Focilo must have been able to pass some kind of message on to Sano to let him know that something was wrong. He might even know where the teleportation magic had taken them.

It was the first time in ages that Ariom was actually glad to see the grumpy golden pony.

"I think you two are acquainted with Ariom Denifor?" Captain Lysien asked Relisa and Hydra, gesturing toward Ariom.

They both nodded.

"Good. Then we can skip the introductions. Sit down. Garem, give us a summary of what's going on."

"I think everyone here is aware of the investigation my team has been working on," Garem began as they all took seats at the conference table. "During the enchantment analysis we were doing today, we found signs that members of the Order of the Ravener were messing with our operation and had possibly infiltrated the team. I did my best to take appropriate precautions, and we were able to finish the analysis safely. But then...."

He broke off, and his face briefly contorted with frustration. Captain Lysien reached over and put a steadying hand on his shoulder. Garem closed his eyes for a moment, took a deep breath, and managed to regain his professional demeanor.

"The precautions obviously weren't enough," he continued in a bitter tone. "Our research building was attacked about half an hour ago. There were several sleep magic traps placed in the medical area, including in Ariom's recovery room. Fortunately, Iggy here detected the trap and alerted Namyis, who was able to neutralize it."

Garem nodded at Iggy, who was sitting on the table in front of Ariom. The little dragon had been frightened by all the unfamiliar and hostile magic and worried about Thenio's disappearance, so he'd been acting very subdued. But when Garem acknowledged him, he managed to wave his tail and look proud of himself for a moment.

Ariom gave him an encouraging pat.

"About that same time, our records room was also attacked," Garem went on. "One of the staff members revealed herself to be an enemy agent. She attacked one of our inspectors and his assistant, who were making copies of the information we gathered during the enchantment analysis. She'd somehow managed to smuggle in a rather powerful firebomb. The inspector was able to subdue her, and she's now in custody. But he and his familiar were both seriously injured in the process. They've been transferred over to the military hospital. The assistant received minor injuries and is being treated on-site. They were able to protect some of the analysis documents, but some were damaged in the attack...we don't know exactly how much information was lost...." He gave Ariom an apologetic look.

Ariom let out a long sigh. He was relieved that no one had been killed, of course. But hearing that some of those hard-earned enchantment transcriptions were probably lost in the attack made his head hurt. "I'll sort through the remaining papers later and reconstruct as much as I can. But that's not the most pressing issue right now."

"No. The reason we're all here is to discuss the third attack: Focilo Sephior and Thenio Iterune, Ariom's assistant, were both abducted via a teleportation array that had been hidden in Thenio's recovery room. We're not sure which one of them was the real target." Garem's expression darkened. "And...it seems the head of our medical team, Rimeus Telven, was involved. There's a good chance he's also a traitor...."

"Actually...that might not be the case," Ariom said quietly.

Everyone turned to give him a questioning look.

"You really think it was just a coincidence that Rimeus was there when the teleportation array went off?" Garem asked, looking skeptical.

Ariom shook his head. "That's not what I meant. I don't think it was a coincidence. But I also don't think that was the real Rimeus Telven."

"What do you mean?" Captain Lysien frowned. "You think he was an imposter? It would take an incredibly good disguise to fool the whole research team like that, though. Illusion magic wouldn't be enough."

"No, it wasn't illusion magic. It was...." Ariom hesitated. Garem seemed to be fairly close to Rimeus Telven, so this theory would be painful for him to hear. But he had to say it. Lives were at stake. "I was just looking over what's left of the teleportation array in Thenio's room. It had a self-destruct formation, so part of it was burned, and I didn't have time to study it thoroughly, but...well. I saw enough to get a feel for the enchanting style. It was very similar to the flesh golem we were analyzing earlier. And if the same person made both of them...he should be more than skilled enough to create and control a corpse puppet."

A brief silence followed his words.

As expected, Garem had gone rather pale and was staring at Ariom with a grim expression.

Namyis tilted her head to the side, looking a little confused. "Wait...are you saying that the scary necromancer we were talking about earlier killed the doctor and then made a puppet out of his corpse? So when he came to give you a check-up...that was really the necromancer controlling the doctor's body?"

"Yes. Probably. I can't be sure without more direct evidence. But if he's the one who set up that teleportation array, then it's the most likely explanation. That's not the sort of thing you can just copy from a diagram. It would require high-level scribing skills. Especially to hide it from someone like Focilo...I can't even guarantee that I'd be able to do that."

"Yes...as horrible as that sounds, it does make sense," Relisa said, nodding in agreement. "And it fits with what Focilo communicated to Sano just before he was captured." She looked over at the two unicorns. "Tell them everything that happened, dear."

One of the unicorns stepped closer to the table. Ariom could tell it was Sano because the bits of his face that were visible under the caparison were a rich honey color. Nari's were a light shade of cream.

"Nari and I were asleep in our stable. I woke up because I could feel that Focilo was alarmed by something. He wasn't too upset at first, though. It seemed like there was a problem but he thought he could handle it. Then something changed, and he was afraid."

Hydra raised an eyebrow. "Focilo was afraid? It would take a pretty powerful threat to frighten that guy.... Did he tell you what it was?"

"He tried. He seemed to be inside a thick barrier, because the telepathy wasn't clear. All I really heard was, 'He's one of them.' Then something disrupted Focilo's magic, and our communication got cut off."

"'One of them'?" Captain Lysien repeated. He looked at Relisa. "Does that mean what I think it does?"

"Probably. Especially considering what Ariom was saying about an extremely skilled necromancer and flesh puppets." The worry in Relisa's eyes grew more pronounced. "I think it was one of the Old Ones."

The room fell silent again.

Ariom glanced around. Judging from the solemn looks on everyone's faces, they all knew what that term meant. And it wasn't anything good.

"Hey," he finally spoke up. "Am I allowed to know who or what the 'Old Ones' are?"

Garem and Captain Lysien exchanged looks.

"It's...technically classified," Captain Lysien said slowly. "But that's mostly to avoid alarming the public. Since you're already involved, and I think we can trust you not to spread information around...." He sighed. "The Old Ones are the leaders of the Order of the Ravener. That name is what the Order members call them. We're not completely sure what it means—whether they're simply older compared to the other members or whether they have a method of living past a normal human's lifespan. It's possible they're not even human at all. They never seem to interact with their underlings in person. They always send messages or use puppets. So even the other higher-ups in the Order don't know exactly who they are."

"The ones we've encountered all seem to have extraordinary skills in necromancy," Garem added. "So when you told me about the crazy ability of the person who made that golem, I knew it was possible that we'd somehow gotten hold of an Old One's puppet. But I never expected the monster himself to actually show up...and especially to take over Rimeus' body...." He let out a long sigh, his expression becoming despondent.

"There's no reason you should have expected it," Captain Lysien said, shaking his head. "It's rare for them to get directly involved like that. Try not to blame yourself, Garem."

"Just how many of these Old Ones are there?" Ariom asked.

It was scary enough to know that there was one person with that kind of power running around. But a whole group of them...?

"We don't know exactly," Captain Lysien told him. "Like I said, it's actually very unusual for them to show themselves like this, so most of what we know about them, we had to piece together from small bits of information that we got from other Order members. We've only been able to identify four or five individual Old Ones, but we think there are maybe ten or fifteen of them in total."

Fifteen? Ariom stared at him in horror. There might be fifteen of those monsters...?

"They're not all equally powerful," Hydra said in a reassuring voice. "And they can't use their full strength when they're working through a puppet. We're currently mobilizing some of our best people, including members of the first squad. We should have enough power to deal with the kidnapper, whoever he turns out to be. But that's assuming we can find him in the first place." He turned to Sano. "Are you able to sense Focilo's current location?"

The unicorn shook his head. "I had a vague sense of it right after they were teleported, but he seems to be inside a stronger barrier now—probably a full suppression one. I can't feel him at all."

Iggy shivered a little. He was probably remembering when he and Ariom had been in a similar situation a few hours ago. Ariom rubbed the dragon's head soothingly.

"Can you give us a general direction, at least?" Captain Lysien asked.

"It was somewhere to the southwest of our house. I couldn't tell the exact direction or distance...."

"It should be within about eight miles of here," Ariom said. "Based on the amount of power the array was designed to use, that's the maximum distance the teleportation could have been. So they're probably still in the city."

"Gyris, give me a map of Kamari," Captain Lysien said, looking over at a man who had been standing quietly on one side of the room, listening to the discussion. That was Gyris Nirune, his secretary.

Gyris walked over to the table, took a large sheet of paper out of a space pocket, and set it down in front of Captain Lysien, along with a small box filled with writing tools.

"Thank you." Captain Lysien picked up a pen from the box and leaned over the map. "Let's see...we're right here. And the Sephior estate is here." He made two red dots on the map. "So southwest from there...and eight miles from here...." He used a measuring stick to draw a line going southwest from one of the dots. Then he measured out eight miles from the other dot and used a compass to draw a circle around it.

"So...somewhere in there?" Garem asked, gesturing at the area where the line and the circle overlapped.

"Probably." Captain Lysien frowned at the lines he'd just drawn. "It's still quite a large area, isn't it? We'll search it all if we have to, but it will take time." He glanced between Sano and Ariom. "Is there any more information we can use to narrow it down?"

Ariom stared at the map, scowling and trying to push his tired brain to think through everything he'd learned about their opponent from studying his enchantment matrices.

There had to be something else. Some little bit of information that would....

Wait...information? Ariom's eyes suddenly widened. If they needed information....

"I think I know someone who can help us," he said, hastily pulling out his message book and a pen. "Though all I can do is send him a message. I don't know how quickly he'll respond...."

He flipped the book open to the tab labeled 'Eteon Idarin.'

"That's not necessary," a quiet voice said behind him. "I'm here."

Everyone in the room jumped at the sound and turned to face the man who'd just appeared on the side of the room. Namyis and Hydra were both on their feet and in combat stances in an instant, while Gyris put a protective arm out in front of Captain Lysien.

"Stop!" Relisa said urgently. "He's not an enemy! Don't attack him!"

Hydra glanced at her. "You know him?"

"Not personally. But I know who he is." She looked back at the new arrival. "You're Eteon, aren't you? The one who's been watching over the boy?"

Eteon inclined his head slightly. "Yes." He looked around the room, his gaze lingering on Captain Lysien and Gyris. "I suppose it's all right to come out and say that I'm a mythic beast's agent? Most of you already know, anyway. And yes, I'm here because of Thenio."

He turned to Ariom, who swallowed nervously. Eteon's expression was calm, but there was a cold fire in his eyes that sent chills down Ariom's spine. He was clearly upset about Thenio being kidnapped.

"I'm sorry..." Ariom began in a low voice. "I should have been watching him more carefully. I didn't—"

Eteon held up a hand, cutting off his apology. "I understand why you weren't with him. You look terrible. I'm not here to place blame. I just want to find him."

He walked over to the table and reached out to lightly touch Ariom's shoulder. Ariom felt a cool, refreshing feeling spread through him, relieving the lingering symptoms of his demon poisoning and recovery sickness and completely restoring his physical and magical energy. He suddenly felt like he'd just woken up from a restful sleep.

He blinked, a little disoriented by the sudden change in his condition. That definitely wasn't normal healing magic.... Could you heal people with dream magic?

And how exactly had Eteon gotten in here, anyway? This was the Royal Guard headquarters. They obviously had heavy security. And he seemed like he already knew what was going on.... Had he been here the whole time and only just revealed himself? No...if he had, wouldn't he have stopped Thenio from being abducted?

Ariom held back his questions for the moment. Eteon had already turned away from him and was looking down at the map with a slight frown on his face. He seemed to hesitate for a moment. Then he reached out and touched his fingertips against the paper.

Blotches of what looked like greenish-purple ink blossomed here and there across the map.

"Those are all the places in Kamari that have significant amounts of demon magic. That includes the military's research labs, so they're not all enemy locations. But...."

Eteon scanned the map silently for a moment. Then he pointed at one of the blotches. It was larger and darker than most of the others. And it was located inside the circle Captain Lysien had drawn and a little to the side of the line coming from Focilo's house.

"There. They should be there."