The Dragon Queen of Thelvadore

Silence reigned over the room, far longer than would be socially acceptable in normal circumstances. I studied the man closely, watching the expressions shift on his face, ever so minutely, taking note of his body language.

The man was uneasy, that much was clear. For what reasons exactly, I couldn’t tell, although I didn’t need to be some kind of genius to figure out that he knew, at least, of Vuthe’s name, perhaps even more.

There had already been fear in him when he first saw me, but now? Now it had gotten so much worse. Despite his best attempts to keep himself calm–and I had to give it to him, he was professional–the emotion leaked out of his aura like water through a sieve.

Eventually, I decided to give him some rope.

“Now then, little Wyrmling. You wanted to speak to me?”

He twitched, likely having gotten lost in his thoughts a bit. Clearing his throat a couple of times, he sat up a bit straighter, his hands now interlocked in front of him.

“Ah, yes… I…” He stopped, once again trying to figure out where to start, then simply blurted a question out. “Are you truly who you claim to be?”

A soft sigh left me, and I leaned back a bit. A part of me realised, with satisfaction, that I had subconsciously taken on a slightly more royal poise. Fitting, I supposed. It had gotten ever easier for me to slip into Vuthe’s persona, and right now I was glad for it.

“Yes.” I kept my answer short, that same part that had noticed my change in posture urging me to not give away too much quite yet. Since I had no better idea, I decided to heed this advice, strange as it was.

He sucked in a breath at my word, although he managed to keep himself composed quite well. Another moment of silence stretched between us as he digested the information, before he returned his attention fully to me and spoke again.

“May I ask what your reasons for appearing here are?”

I couldn’t help a faint smile. The man was obviously fishing for any information regarding my return, as he no doubt knew me. Or, at the very least, knew of the tales about me. I wouldn’t be surprised if Vuthe de Thal was considered dead. It had been over half a millennia, apparently, so to him my being here must feel like an impossibility.

“There are no specific reasons for my presence, only circumstantial ones. I am travelling with Lady Lucy Kallen and Lady Cecily until we reach Vastell. The two of them had business to attend to in this village. Nothing more, nothing less.”

Of course, that wasn’t new information to him. Still, it felt like the right thing to say at this moment.

Once more, he didn’t reply immediately, taking a moment to digest this. Finally, he let out an unsteady sigh. “I see. Apologies for the interrogation, your Grace. However, as the guild branch director, it is my duty to assess potential threats. And with all due respect, you very much qualify if your claim of identity is indeed truthful.”

The comment nearly made me snort, but I kept up my regal appearance, simply giving him a small nod of understanding.

“Furthermore, I do have to apologise in advance, but I must report your presence to the higher ups. I sadly do not possess the capabilities to verify the veracity of your claim, given our still infant magickal infrastructure in this branch, thus I’ll have to ask you to seek out the Vastell branch. Of course, as we have discussed previously, I will pen out a letter of introduction to the guild for you, and I will also ask you to deliver the same exposé about the nature of the beasts to Branch Director Lady Rennin. I hope there won’t be any issues with this?”

I had to give it to the man, despite his obvious fear–almost panic, really–he managed to keep a level head. Perhaps that was why a Lesser Wyvern like him had been placed in charge of this place.

Pushing those thoughts aside, I thought about it for a moment.

I could certainly understand his position, and his need to keep his superiors informed. Even if they considered the likelihood of me speaking the truth to be slim, Vuthe de Thal was a name best considered carefully. They would no doubt feel the need to figure out what I wanted, and how it impacted them and their operations.

Of course, I couldn’t really say with certainty yet if that would be a good idea or not. It wasn’t like I was actively trying to keep my identity a secret. But depending on the social circles in which this information ended up, it could impact my plans going forward. What I needed was more information, and I was hopeful that this man could help me with that.

I took another moment before I replied, in part to organise my thoughts, and in part to keep up appearances. It did spook me a little bit how easily all of this came to me, considering that I had been nothing more than a bumbling fool not even a month ago.

“I understand the necessity of your actions, and I do not blame you for them. I am inclined to cooperate, although before that I require more information. My reappearance wasn’t as… easy and bereft of consequences as I had hoped, and I have missed much of the past few centuries. For the time being, I have a favourable image of the guild, not in small part due to the explanations and exposition I have received about them from my two travelling companions.”

I felt slightly bad for pulling the focus on Lucy and Cecily in that moment, but it could potentially pay dividends in the future. If only for their sake, should everything pan out as I hoped it would. If nothing else, it could be considered a feat of importance for their records, even if the guild and I wouldn’t see eye to eye in the future. As long as I publicly distanced myself from them before that.

“That said, there are many important things that I have yet to fully grasp once again. From what I understand, the guild is a politically independent organisation, yes?” He gave a small nod. “In that case, working with you is likely to be in my best interest for the short and medium term. That is, of course, as long as I can be certain that the information I can get is accurate and… I shan’t say unbiased, for that is a near impossibility for any matters of such obvious geopolitical importance. But as unbiased as is reasonable.”

I may have been laying it on a bit thick. It did feel right to do so, though. Of course, even with my intuition, courtesy of Vuthe, it didn’t mean I always knew exactly the right thing to say or do. That last part, for example, was far more improvised than the comments I made previously. I had some pretty powerful cheats going on, with me having access to Vuthe’s repository of memories and experience, but that wasn’t a guarantee either.

“I see,” the director replied after a beat, my subconscious recognising that as the socially acceptable pause. “I will make sure to include that in my report to Branch Director Lady Rennin.”

There was another pause in which he studied me, more and more of his calm demeanour taking over, even if the fear was still palpable underneath. It appeared that talking about this in a more professional capacity helped ground him.

My musings were interrupted when he continued.

“It likely won’t come as a surprise to you, but the guild would very much like to come to agreeable terms with you, your Grace. While most have forgotten the history of you and your people, some of us still remember the olden days. We know what you stood for. As terrifying as your reputation may be, there are many among the upper echelons of the guild who, at least in principle, agree with your goals during the thousand year war, even if they may not agree with the practical implementation.”

That had me raise my eyebrows in surprise, my tail stilling behind me for a moment. “May I inquire about your mention of the lost history? Some of that is, of course, to be expected. No matter the impact you made, details will, inevitably, be lost to time. But I can’t help but worry at the way you phrased this…”

He nodded, shifting slightly in his seat, his expression becoming… regretful? That probably wasn’t the right word, although it was somewhat similar.

“I’m afraid that would be because it is quite dire. Many of the draconic elders still remember the olden times, as do most of the Leviathans who have been around the coast and airspace of Fendalyr at the time. But almost everyone else has long since forgotten who you were, and what impacts you’ve had across the continent. Even our records haven’t been left unharmed. For example, all of us know that you were the ruler of a kingdom, but the name of said kingdom has since been lost to time. Many from the older generations speculate that the reason for this sudden and almost total loss of history involves some variety of magick. That said, nobody has ever been able to definitively prove the involvement of such a spell. We have working theorems based on the involvement of magick, such as the draconics and leviathans not being nearly as affected, due to our natural resistance to magick, but that is the extent of it, really.”

He gave me a sad smile, and a small shake of his head. “Even the elves, who–as you are no doubt aware–have typically been acting as the Record Keepers over the generations, have nearly no collection of the thousand year war, outside of a few very vague details.”

I frowned, taking that in. The fact that history itself has been forgotten wasn’t that much of a surprise. But the extent was… worrying. In some ways, it at least explained my experiences so far. The fact that it was damn near impossible to try and find out anything about Thelvadore’s past in the library had been quite strange from the beginning.

I could understand that I hadn’t been recognised so far. Even if the longer lived races recorded history more thoroughly, most people I’ve met up until this point had been human. I still wasn’t quite sure about Cecily or Nyx, as both of them had elven features, but neither of them struck me as particularly old yet. So all in all, not being recognised by a race who didn’t live all that long and was more prone to forgetting history made sense.

But that not even the Thelvadore library had any meaningful mentions? That was not normal.

Then there was the lack of any personal effects within the city boundaries, with the only exception being Vuthe’s four friends. That stood out as odd as well, although I wasn’t quite sure yet how that particular tidbit might factor into the theory about a magically erased history.

And the assumption posited by the director was almost certainly correct. I already had a suspect, a motive for said suspect, a good idea how it happened, and when history had been erased.

I had lost the fight against Chatan and Apocalyptica. And while I had managed to kill Chatan, my former apprentice had gotten the better of me. He had not only the power required to achieve something like this, he had the knowledge and expertise to make it happen. Not to mention that he was petty enough to go through with it, and was exactly the sort of person I would expect this sort of thing from.

Of course, so far all of that was just conjecture. I couldn’t prove anything, nor did it change much right here and now. The past was the past, and there was no changing that. But it was good to keep in mind for the future.

“I… see…” I muttered, more so to keep myself on track and keep the conversation going than anything else. “That is worrying indeed.”

Of course, it wasn’t all bad. If people didn’t remember the past, then I needn’t worry about everyone running from me in terror. That had been a bit of a worry for me from the very beginning. Not as much as I had originally expected, given how easily I could slip into the role of Vuthe, but it still would’ve meant more headaches.

Logically, there would still be some who would remember me, and they would be the sort of people I had to be the most careful with. They were the most likely to figure out that my act was just an act, but thankfully, they should be few and far between on my travels.

Nevertheless, everything just got a whole lot more complicated.

Shaking my head, I tried to refocus my thoughts. “Alright. I do appreciate the information. For the time being, I shall simply try to learn more about the current era as I continue on my adventures. There are a few things I’d like to talk to you about, but they are–”

I was cut off by a strange sensation prickling along my awareness, my head snapping into the direction it came from on instinct. It took me a heartbeat to recognise it as hostile intent, although against whom or what I couldn’t tell. The sensation didn’t come from inside the building I was in, but it was within the village. And it was dangerously close to the shadow anchor I had left behind in the Inn.

Without any further word or explanation I dove into the shadows, drawing upon my magic to step out from the anchor nearby.

What I found confused me for a fraction of a second.

A fight had broken out within the common room where the wounded had been placed. Most of them were still not awake, the ones that were looking very much startled, some panicked. In the middle were Cecily and Nyx, the privacy screens surrounding them knocked over, facing off against what looked to be one of the patients. He looked quite healthy, if one were to ignore the bandages, and had a weapon drawn, currently in the midst of charging at Nyx.

Cecily was already beginning to move, the telltale sign of Void magic tracing the tip of her blade. From the split second analysis I was able to muster, I could tell that it wasn’t just to harm. No surprise there, given the particularities of Void magic it didn’t lend itself well to disabling someone unharmed. And this spell was very clearly aimed at the soldier.

Nyx for her part carried the expression of deep sorrow, but not of surprise. That in and of itself I found surprising. She was already drawing upon her own magic, forming a spell that I couldn’t quite identify. Although, given the affinity used and the aspect drawn up, it was pretty clear that it also wasn’t intended just to distract.

A few of the other people present were currently in the process of getting up, trying to reach either their weapons or the combatants. Whatever was going on, it was certain to end fast and that end was definitely not going to be pretty.

Before anyone else could try something else, my presence smashed into the room like divine judgement. All magic within fizzled, even Cecily’s Void spell winked out as my presence took hold. Everyone stopped dead in their tracks, unable to so much as twitch a muscle.

It was an instinctual thing, something that lacked any finesse and relied on pure, raw power. I scolded myself inwardly for this faux pas, and was about to release some of the pressure when something deep within me told me that that would be a bad idea.

I wasn’t quite sure where that feeling came from, but I trusted Vuthe’s instincts, so I heeded the advice. Still, I took a moment to at least allow them to breathe. It wouldn’t do for them to suffocate before I could find out what exactly had happened.

With the weight of the ages hanging above me, I slowly fixed everyone with a glare, my gaze pinpointing everyone present one by one.

“What in the Abyss is going on?”

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