The Dragon Queen of Thelvadore

By the time I arrived at the building, both of them were already waiting for me in the open area towards the entrance. It seemed to have been some kind of inn in the past, not overly expensive but certainly a cut above the rest. Half of the building seemed rather unstable, something the two women had picked up on, considering where I had sensed them prior and which part of the inn they had sat down in.

“Good morning. Apologies for startling you earlier,” I began as I entered, trying for a smile. “I used to be much better with my aura, but it appears that whatever happened to me cost me more than just a few memories.”

“It’s fine,” Cecily waved it off with a dismissive hand. “Just takes some getting used to. Your presence certainly is quite potent.”

I made my way closer, and Lucy gestured for me to take a seat. She was currently in the process of devouring what appeared to be a piece of bread and some cheese. Cecily had likely already finished, as she sat at the table with no food in evidence and her mask firmly affixed to her face.

I followed Lucy’s invitation and took a seat opposite them. “I hope you had a restful night?”

The two women exchanged a glance, before they returned their attention back to me.

“We’ve had worse,” Cecily acknowledged. “That said, it would’ve been more restful if we weren’t woken up by your presence. Twice.”

That surprised me, and I blinked, not having expected that. A moment later, my expression turned into a grimace. “Ah… I apologise again. I had quite the… potent dream last night. It appears that my emotions got the better of me. Again, I need to work on my control some more.”

“Can I ask what kind of dream?” Lucy spoke up, after having swallowed the last bite of cheese. Unsurprisingly, she seemed quite curious.

I sighed, leaning back in the chair and turning my gaze towards the ceiling. “It’s to do with what we talked about yesterday. I dreamed of the last night of Thelvadore and its fall…”

Silence followed my statement for a moment or two.

“Anything you remember?” Lucy was the one to follow up, which made me chuckle. For how frightened she was at the beginning, she sure seemed to have gotten over herself quite quickly. I was quite glad about that, I don’t think I would’ve made it long with her trying to walk on eggshells around me.

“Nothing new from what I told you… Just more… clarity, I suppose. There’s much I need to think about before I can speak more on the matter,” I lowered my gaze from the ceiling and gave her an apologetic smile.

The two women nodded, and I could see Lucy visibly restraining herself to keep from asking more questions. For a minute or so the three of us remained seated in silence, before Cecily finally spoke up, glancing between her companion and myself.

“I guess you’re here to ask about our reply to your request yesterday,” she began, her voice neutral. “I’ve talked it over with Lucy. We both agree to at least accompany you until Vastell. It’s not too far away, and is our next stop in a big city after we’ve completed Lucy’s contract.”

I nodded with a smile. If the map I remembered drawing up is even remotely accurate, that should only be a couple of days' travel. I could probably get them there faster, if I took on my draconic form, but I didn’t see the point of hurrying unless absolutely necessary. It didn’t seem like they were in too much of a hurry, and I honestly looked forward to exploring the world a little.

“You have my gratitude.” I gave them a small bow of my head.

“To be honest… We are kind of the ones that have to thank you,” the swordswoman muttered, “Having someone as powerful as you with us, will make things a whole lot easier. At least, I hope.”

I couldn’t help but chuckle at that. “Oh, certainly. That said, I’m still far from my peak. There’s a lot I have to relearn again.”

“While I would certainly wish you the opportunities to do so, I think for now I’d rather hope that we won’t run into enough trouble for you to feel like you are getting pushed.” The masked woman appeared to be giving me a wry smile underneath her mask if her tone of voice was anything to go by.

Her comment made me laugh a little, and I covered my mouth with one hand, subconsciously slipping more into Vuthe’s persona. “Oh, I’ll agree with you on that. While I don’t mind flexing my muscles a little, neither of you would have great chances in such an event. And while I would like to extend my oath of protection towards the both of you as I did to others in the past, I am far from confident that I would be able to see it through with as much thoroughness.” I paused, my expression falling, and I sighed. “Not that it seemed that my confidence did me much good, if this place is anything to go by…”

Of course, they both noticed what I was referring to. Cecily didn’t reply, although Lucy held a complicated expression for a moment. It almost seemed like she wanted to talk, but I didn’t let her, waving it off with a dismissive motion of my hand.

“Regardless. What are your plans for our trip, then? I was hoping that I may be able to ask Lucy a few things before we could head out, in relation to our previous discussion.”

“We aren’t in a hurry, although I would like to leave today. I’m not quite sure what time it is, although if my internal clock hasn’t gone entirely out of whack, it should still be before noon, so we do have a few moments to talk.” The adventurers' comment didn’t surprise me too much. Having a good feel for time was probably required if one were to delve into old tombs and catacombs.

While dungeons as typically depicted in so many fantasy settings weren’t really a thing, there were some magickal phenomena that were similar enough in principle that anyone from Earth who had read about dungeons would probably recognise them. That said, the word ‘dungeon’ wasn’t something typically used by the inhabitants of this world.

Generally speaking, there were two broad categorisations for phenomena like that. The first were Manasprings, areas with naturally high mana density, sometimes temporary, sometimes permanent–and in rare cases permanently temporary, if Temporal magick was involved. Those were typically found out in the wild, where magick bundled up unchecked and got shaped by the intent of the world. Manasprings ranged from ‘meadow with pretty lights’ to ‘ancient castle harboring the souls of the dead and damned’. Usually, they were places that people kept a close eye on but otherwise avoided.

While Manasprings did generally only affect and change the environment around them–and often changing the local flora and fauna into mana-touched beasts, which was just another form of monster–if one was sufficiently large enough and powered by enough intent and magick, then it could become an actual danger where more unnatural monsters formed out of nothing. Such places were typically referred to by the people of this world as ‘Haunts’. For all intents and purposes, they had a similar function to dungeons as depicted in most media, although without a clear intelligence or dungeon master to control them. They were just organic magick running rampant.

The second category that existed were Genius Loci. Those were nearly unheard of, but they did exist. Locations in which mana flows became so powerful that they formed a sort of pseudo sentience. Many times that eventually resulted in the birth of a new draconic being–at least according to the new dragon lore. While I had already uncovered proper shapeshifting for draconic beings, I couldn’t be fully certain that all aspects of that new lore were thoroughly incorporated into this world.

In some cases, though, it wasn’t quite enough to give birth to a draconic being, in which cases you often found a wandering pseudo-soul, having total control of their domain. While I personally didn’t know much about them–they had never been a focus of mine, nor had I ever consciously added them anywhere important–I wouldn’t be surprised if someone would’ve tried to negotiate with one, if they were aware of the beings sentience.

“Uhm… What did you want to ask, then?” Lucy’s voice ripped me out of my own thoughts, and I blinked.

Realising that I had drifted off into one of my tangents again, I chuckled awkwardly. “Oh, sorry… I got a bit distracted.” Clearing my throat, I tried to focus, my gaze fully turning to her. “Anyway, I was wondering if maybe you could interrogate the System about a few names for me.”

She nodded, eyes full of curiosity as she watched me. While I had been distracted she had pulled out a piece of paper and what looked to be a crude version of a pen, probably ready to write down whatever I asked her.

“Of course. I can’t promise if they actually give me anything, trying to find out more about the cursed lands, for example, hasn’t really given me much so far.”

“Cursed lands?” I glanced between the two of them.

“That’s what the people call the lands surrounding the city. The part of it that’s stuck in eternal darkness.” To my surprise it was Cecily who replied to my question. “Nobody really knows why it was cursed to begin with, but everyone knows to keep away from it. Most monsters certainly do. I’m still surprised those Grunloks yesterday followed us so far.”

That was certainly good information.

“And from your reactions yesterday I assume that very few know of the existence of the city within these lands?”

Cecily nodded, confirming my suspicion. “Very little is known about this place. Most people can’t even remember when it first came to be. Even the long lived races that should know more about it seem strangely clueless. Almost as if someone went through a lot of effort to make that history vanish.” She chuckled, holding up her hand in front of where her mouth was likely located underneath that simple grey mask of hers. “For quite a while I figured that people just forgot about it. History gets lost all the time. But perhaps there’s more to it than I first gave the tales credit for, given the existence of this city.”

“Uhm… Yeah…” Lucy added, looking a bit unsure. “This… Thelvadore. Now that we talk about it, I do find it kind of strange how hard a time I have even remembering the name. Not when I actively realise the problem, but when I don’t think about it, it’s almost as if that name just wants to slip my mind.”

I watched them both, absentmindedly stroking my chin in thought. “That is… strange. But also very good to know. And it sort of leads me into the first name I wanted to ask about. Apocalyptica Impendium.” I swallowed the cringe I felt at the name. I really ought to have thought of a better one when I had the chance. “He was my former student and the last survivor of our little three kerfuffle. During my dream I witnessed the last memories before… Uhm, before the end of Thelvadore. And while I did my best to shield the kingdom and its people, I was pretty much already dead at the time. Apocalyptica cast some sort of spell before then that I tried to shield everything from. He’s… got his own unique form of magick, one I don’t think anyone other than him can ever grasp. And it might have been the reason for this… curse. It would certainly fit his petty nature.”

My gaze wandered over to Lucy, who was lost in thought. From the way her eyes moved absently, she was likely reading over whatever her System told her. To my surprise, she didn’t reply immediately, spending a few minutes going over things. The longer we waited in silence, the higher my eyebrows rose.

I certainly hadn’t expected things to take this long.

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