V2Ch98-Existential Threat
Eolas laughed, a low rumbling noise that rippled through the air around him.
“You did what?” he asked.
“Well, how would you expect a maiden to act when a man comes upon her bathing?” Kamira said defensively.
“I do not think I believe you,” Eolas said, shaking his great, castle-sized head slightly. From Kamira’s place on his back, the motion sent a tremor through her whole body. “No, I certainly cannot believe it! I saw Alliser back at the court. He certainly had both eyes.”
“I mean, he is a count’s son, so he has access to excellent healers,” the Princess said, shrugging. “Or maybe I just singed his eyelids. I know he had no eyebrows afterward, though. Surely you saw that.”
“They did look a bit thin, now that you mention it…”
The dragon and the High Elf Princess made a strange pair on sight, if one could see them where they hovered, high in the sky, above the clouds. Eolas was the size of a mountain unless he chose to adjust his dimensions. Kamira was below the average height for an elf, and she almost blended into the dragon’s back, since she was wearing a dress she had made of his old scales.
“What sorts of exciting things are you going to show me, Uncle Eolas?”
The two had set out on their journey just a day before, and the Princess was looking forward to seeing the wonders of the world.
“First, we’re going to visit the great merchant cities,” the dragon replied. “Then the dwarves in their mountain fortresses. Finally, I will take you to the draconic homeland. After that… maybe we’ll discover something no one has put a name to yet.” He deliberately finished vaguely to let her use her imagination. There were indeed more lands beyond the Endless Ocean, but Eolas had visited them already, more than once. He was considering making a map.
But his long lifespan robbed the romance from many experiences that mortals cherished. Sometimes it was nice to have a little mystery.
“Where do you suppose that vessel is bound?”
The Princess pointed straight down, and Eolas tilted his head until he could see a large ship, though it looked like a toy boat from their lofty height.
“Probably those very same merchant cities we were planning to visit,” Eolas said. “The Gulf of Gold is full of riches, but the actual gold always seem to find its terminus in the same- ”
Wait…
He focused his vision. There was something strange going on down below, a disturbance on the deck. The dragon stiffened slightly, the only noticeable sign of the tension he felt.
Did some pirates infiltrate the ship? I do not see other vessels nearby. It looks like some sort of revolt.
“We should go down and introduce ourselves!” Kamira exclaimed. “A dragon and a Princess. We’ll be a story they tell for the rest of their lives.”
“Sailors are known for their tall tales, I recall,” Eolas said absently.
“They would at least break out some wine to celebrate seeing us, I should think,” the Princess replied, not noticing how the dragon’s mood had begun to change.
“I promised your parents I would take good care of you,” Eolas said. “I do not think your parents would like it if I preside over your corruption by a bunch of sailors.”
“My corruption?”
“You are a Princess, are you not? Your parents did not exchange you with a common girl while I was distracted? A Princess should not be getting drunk with sailors.”
“My parents let me have wine. I drink all the time!”
“Not the way sailors drink,” Eolas replied. “In any case, those people do not appear to be in a wine drinking state, unless my eyes deceive me. I do not like what I see.”
The Princess leaned her whole body over the side of Eolas’s massive neck to get a look.
“I can’t really see,” she said.
“What in Abadd’s name is happening down there?”
Eolas tilted his body and suddenly zipped across the distance that separated himself and the Princess from the ship, only restraining himself just enough so that the elven girl did not go flying from his back.
Getting closer only confirmed what his eyes had picked up from above.
By the gods, what am I seeing?
Aboveboard, a dozen sailors grappled with eight things in the shape of men. Two of the sailors’ fellows floated on the surface of the ocean, the clearest sign that this had been a surprise attack. The fact that they were fighting seemed to distract them from the presence of the massive dragon gliding just overhead.
“What’s… going on?” asked Kamira hesitantly.
Those are zombies, Eolas thought. Which means there is a necromancer about somewhere. Nothing I have not seen before. But there is something odd about them.
He could see mana crawling over their bodies. Not just on the bodies of the zombies themselves. On the bodies of the sailors too. That was what made him uncertain about what to do next.
I need to understand this.
“There is something very wrong with this ship,” the dragon said. “Something wrong with not just the men attacking the sailors but the sailors themselves.”
“Well, the men attacking the humans are zombies,” Kamira said. “I can see that. I know you have a complicated relationship with humanity, and of course, I also know that you have nothing against intelligent undead… but aren’t you going to help the sailors? Or… I could?” She twitched anxiously on top of Eolas.
“I am thinking.”
“About what?”
“Look more closely at the sailors, little one,” Eolas said gently. “At the mana around them and inside them. What do you see?”
The Princess squinted and wrinkled her little forehead.
“I don’t see… Wait. What are those clusters of mana moving around their body? It’s not the way mana circulations usually look, is it?”
“No. The mana inside them is foreign, I am almost certain. And the look of it matches the mana inside the zombies. I think… this is something I have never seen before. An invasion of energy into the body that resembles the way disease works.”
“I see,” Kamira said, transparently not understanding.
“The men on board the ship are infected,” Eolas said bluntly. “It is clear to me now that they are being turned into the same kinds of creatures as those attacking them. Someone somewhere has created an undeath illness. Somehow.” He shook his head sadly. “It is a remarkably evil thing. No good can come of allowing it to spread. I believe I have no choice but to act.”
I am so sorry you must die, the dragon thought. Rest in peace. Your end likely saves the lives of millions.
Eolas let out a single breath, and a torrent of sheer destructive energy burst forth from between his jaws, instantly enveloping the ship. All of the men who had been fighting the zombies suddenly writhed in agony, rolled on the ground, or tried to leap into the ocean.
The dragon reached out with his mind and kept the jumpers from landing in the water.
I am sorry to keep you from trying to save yourselves, but you would perish from your injuries anyway, even if you managed to put the flames out. This way, there will be no remains of you left over to infect others who might discover your bodies later.
He held the burning men in place with his will until long after they had stopped moving, only dumping them back on the still-flaming ship once he sensed their vital signs had ceased entirely.
A mournful silence settled over both dragon and Princess as they watched the ship burn down to the water line, taking all hands with it.
Once there was little left but the keel, Eolas grasped that in one of his claws, lifted it into the air, and breathed out another burst of his Flame of Destruction.
In a few seconds, that too was reduced to nothing. Literally nothing. Not even ash remained.
“It was the only way to be sure,” Eolas said quietly, speaking as much to himself as to Kamira.
She swallowed, nodded, and fumbled at the collar of her dress with her fingers, clearly unsure of what to do with her hands.
“Well, you, um, you solved that, Uncle,” the Princess said nervously after a moment. She had never seen the dragon vent his wrath on unwilling targets before. Eolas had only ever shown her his lighter side. She knew that his Flame of Destruction was legendary for its power to erase things without a trace, though flame and destruction were not areas of specialty for him.
But knowing and seeing were two different things.
He was a guardian of the intelligent races. A watchful friend. That was how Eolas saw his role. There were some dragons who were terrors of the mortal realm - or had been, in ages gone by. But that had never been him.
I hate killing. It only makes it worse that one so innocent had to see it. For her, I suppose it is a part of growing up. The only true comfort is that I gave them a quick end. Perhaps preferable to becoming a mindless slave.
The dragon let out a little puff of flame from his nostrils but otherwise tried to conceal his deep agitation. Better not to frighten Kamira more than she probably already was. He was quite disturbed himself.
But he couldn’t conceal the problem from her. Not for long, anyway. There was no point in sugarcoating the situation.
“I suspect not,” Eolas rumbled after a moment. “It is unlikely that we happened to come across the sole ship that was suffering from this infection. Your family… Um, would you happen to know anything about this, Kamira?”
It was an awkward question, but for their own reasons, the High Elf Royal Family had more knowledge and experience of the undead than Eolas himself.
“I don’t think so,” the Princess said carefully. “I can’t speak for Mother and Father, though. What will you do now?”
“This illness, if it could spread further, hits at a profound weakness of this world - its people’s ignorance of disease. If I am correct that there are other ships carrying this disease, it could be a threat to all of humanity. Perhaps to all of the races. We must investigate it further.”