The Dragon Queen of Thelvadore

As I had expected, Lucy jumped on the juicy nugget I had dropped immediately, her curiosity flaring up. “Oh?”

“I used to be good friends with one of the dwarven smiths calling that place his home. He was quite the known figure and artificer, although he never actually much cared about his fame or what people thought of him. He just wanted to craft. You know how dwarves can get.” I chuckled, shaking my head. “Anyway, he was already quite old when I last saw him, so even with their lengthy lifespan, I doubt that he’s still around. His daughter might, but given how much of a rebellious annoyance she was, I doubt that she would stick around after he bit it to keep the shop going. Not that she isn’t as skilled in her craft as he was, Yakky was always far more interested in travelling the world and learning from all kinds of artisans.”

“I do find it kind of curious how similar the races of this world and Calon are,” Lucy noted as she pulled up the second half of the tent, hammering the metal loop to the ground that held up the rope keeping the tent upright. “There are certainly some differences, sure, but mostly they are pretty similar. The only thing I can think of that differentiate the two worlds is that one seems far… bigger? For lack of a better word.”

Her comment surprised me a little. She was certainly right, although I couldn’t exactly say that that was mostly because Calon was very much in the early stages of world building, with much of the details just being a straight carbon copy of Satien so that I had at least some baseline idea to work with.

Her observation regarding size also wasn’t just an idle thought. Calon was, in fact, smaller than Satien, even than Earth, if only by a percent or two. Much of the planet was uninhabited as I wanted it to have a more… adventurous feel to it, with lots of wilderness that was to be explored. Of course, there were quite large cities among the various kingdoms and races, but overall, politically speaking at least, Calon was far more peaceful than Satien ever had been.

And the people and beings there also tended to be a bit more… reasonable, for a lack of a better word, in terms of power level. Excluding heroic figures of ancient history, the most powerful beings alive in ‘present’ time–for as much present as it could be, since I had no clue how much time had actually passed there since the time I wrote about it–were all somewhere around level 200, or thereabouts.

Ramnis and her friends were all around Level 150, which marked them as quite powerful young dragons, having spent a century or so living there. In comparison to that, the more powerful entities and institutions found across Satien were an entire rank above that on average. Not quite Adamantine, but Platinum at least. Level 200 to 300, if they were to exist on Calon.

It had been by design, as I was trying to figure out a more reasonable approach for power levels in a world that, quite frankly, was entirely off the rails, but it had never really gotten anywhere. Case in point, I was inhabiting the body of Vuthe in her prime, dwarfing any and all beings living on Calon in comparison.

Tangent aside, I focused on Lucy as she finished up her tent. “That isn’t entirely inaccurate, from what I remember. Calon is a bit smaller than Satien, although perhaps it would be more accurate to say that Satien is a good bit larger than most worlds would be on average. While not exactly supersized, it is a bit of an outlier.”

For once the Catgirl didn’t reply immediately, which I jotted down to her being busy with the finishing touches, halfway buried in her tent. It gave me a moment to organise my thoughts.

“Talking about Calon,” I said after a moment’s pause, “I would actually be curious to hear more about the two of you. So far we’ve spent a lot of time going over my person and history, as well as anything connected to it, and while I certainly learned some interesting titbits about Lucy, you, Cecily, are a complete blank to me.” I eyed the woman who had just finished setting up her tent and was currently in the process of depositing some pieces of her gear inside.

The swordswoman gave me a glance and a shrug. “I’m afraid there isn’t much to say about me. Compared to an ancient dragon goddess who terrified the people of old, and a realm travelling Catkin with access to the archive of the gods, I’m merely a small time adventurer. If anything, I feel a bit out of place in such illustrious company.” She held a faint smile.

“That’s not entirely true, and we both know it!” Lucy interrupted before I could speak, climbing out of her tent with a wide grin directed at her travelling companion. “Do I need to remind you about what you told me about your family and your magic?”

I got the feeling that Cecily didn’t quite appreciate Lucy’s comment, although she also didn’t really seem hostile. More… resigned, perhaps? It was clear that she was trying to keep a low profile from the way she spoke, which I certainly could appreciate. But she also wasn’t so desperate to keep private as to shut down the courier’s words entirely.

“I suppose you’re right,” the adventurer allowed with a sigh.

“You need not speak if you do not wish to,” I tried to reassure her. “The last thing I want is to make you uncomfortable.”

To my surprise, she snorted at my comment, rolling her eyes with a smirking glance at Lucy. “It’s not some grand secret. And knowing our mutual friend over there, she’s going to needle me about it in the future anyway. There’s no way she isn’t curious to hear more about me.”

The woman in question deflated slightly, her face flushing a deep red in embarrassment as she averted her gaze, eyes locking onto the ground. Both Cecily and I had to chuckle at the sight, and I took a moment to enjoy the pleasant atmosphere between the three of us.

I would lie if I said I wouldn’t have been worried about how things would go between us, given… well, just about everything that had happened and my own awkwardness. A small part of me was a bit suspicious about how easily the two women were able to come to grips with the insanity that was me, although perhaps I shouldn’t have been. This was a fantasy world full of magic and monsters, and while Lucy wasn’t born on Satien, her homeworld was much the same.

“From your words I take it that you haven’t given her the full story either, yet?” I asked with a bit of a gleam in my eyes.

Cecily shrugged, taking a seat at the table I had prepared and leaning back, her hands interlocked behind her head. “I told her most of it, to be honest. As I said, my life, family, or upbringing isn’t some grand secret. A bit unusual, perhaps, but given the two of you, it’s pretty bland. I’m from a minor noblehouse out east. We don’t really hold much in the way of power, and our title is mostly historical. If it weren’t for our unique style of magic and fighting, we’d be pretty forgettable. It’s why most of our members end up adventurers of some variety. We are a warrior lineage, not important enough to be involved with the government. So most of us train and then set out to travel the world and improve our skills.” She shrugged.

“I take it you are currently doing exactly that?” My question wasn’t really a question, given the circumstances. It didn’t take a genius to put that much together.

Unsurprisingly, the woman nodded. “Indeed. I’ve been doing adventurer work full time for the past seven years, and even before then I’ve been relatively active in our corner of the world. Outside of a few visits back home for various more or less important functions, I’ve kept mostly to adventuring. Usually I work alone, although it’s not uncommon to band together with a temporary party depending on the job. That was all the way until I met Lucy.”

The two of us glanced over to the other woman, who seemed quite embarrassed at the mentioned meeting. I raised one eyebrow in silent inquiry, curious as to the details of said memory. Luckily for me, Cecily continued the tale without having to be prompted.

“That was about a year ago, when I was approached by the guild out in Elkatos regarding sightings of unusual monsters. Given my particular set of abilities, I was the best fit to deal with metallic elementals. It helps that my Void domain allows me to punch above my weight class.”

That had me raise my second eyebrow as well, giving her a surprised glance. She didn’t seem to notice, or if she did, didn’t make any attempts at clarifying.

“Nevertheless, the quest was quite a doozy. The elemental outbreak was far larger than originally anticipated, and all of them were quite strange. It wasn’t the first sighting of monsters with a magic suppressing aura, but it was the largest outbreak in the area at the time. I found myself surrounded in the middle of the outbreak before I knew it. And there, at the center of it all, was Lucy, utterly out of her depths. Naturally, I couldn’t just leave her there, especially because at the time I thought she was responsible. Took some doing, but I got the two of us out and delivered her to the guild.”

Before I could speak up, Lucy picked up the explanation, looking quite sheepish. “Hopefully I don’t need to clarify, but just to make it clear, I wasn’t the one responsible. I had just woken up from a nice nap by the sound of combat and fighting. I’m not a fighter, so seeing so many powerful elementals around me was quite the shock. Strangely, though, they didn’t seem to be interested in me at all.”

“That doesn’t surprise me,” I cut in, shaking my head. “Elementals are magical constructs, and they care only for magick and mana. No offence, Lucy, but your mana density is so low that you likely wouldn’t even register to them now, not to mention back then. I don’t know what Rank or level you were then, but I wouldn’t be surprised at all to hear that the Elementals just had other priorities.”

The two women nodded, evidently having come to much the same conclusion.

“The guild master said as much,” Cecily explained. “And given that they had appeared in a natural Manaspring, even if a weak one, they had quite the number of other targets. Regardless, after I got Lucy out, and she was thoroughly interviewed by the guild, she was eventually given her freedom. I hadn’t anticipated getting involved with her any further, as my task had been completed. Yet, when I was approached by the guild again a couple weeks later about an escort quest that asked for me by name, I couldn’t say no. At least, not after we sat down to talk about it.”

Again, all eyes went back to Lucy, who picked up the tale smoothly. “I was a bit out of my depths, obviously. I had just survived a horde of monsters, got interrogated by the guild like some lowly cultist, and found myself in a whole new world. I had no clue how I got here or how I was supposed to get back home, nor did I know what to do with myself. But, as it turns out, no matter what world you live in, couriers are always needed. So, I decided that that was my best course of action, especially because it was familiar ground, something I thoroughly needed at the time. That said, I’m not a fighter, and I was warned quite expressly by the guild that the roads weren’t safe. So, I decided to hand in an escort request with the last bit of money I had on me. Cecily was the obvious choice. While I was a bit terrified of her, given that she had been the one to deliver me to the guild that fateful day, she had been friendly and professional about it, never hurting me or even being rude to me. She was also the only person outside the guild staff I had exchanged words with, and upon asking about her, I was told that she was reliable and fair. Calon might be a bit friendlier than this world, but I’ve heard my fair share of horror stories about escort quests back home. How some adventurers try to take advantage of the escortee, especially if said person was a young woman.”

She didn’t need to say much more, the implication was clear.

Before I had time to get distracted by another tangent, she continued with a shrug. “Having another woman with me as my bodyguard made me feel quite a lot safer, and it wasn’t like Cecily was underqualified for the job.”

“And that’s how you ended up doing courier work for the guild,” I mused, the rest of the story becoming pretty obvious. “With Cecily as your bodyguard.”

“More or less, yes,” the adventurer in question acknowledged. “We didn’t immediately jump into things, but given Lucy’s class, it made the most sense. I still do some odd jobs on the side, whenever we find ourselves in a place that needs help, but given Lucy’s terrific luck, I have enough trouble to look out for on the road.”

The courier in question gave an awkward smile. “Yeah… Such as weird Grunloks chasing us far further into the cursed lands than they should. Or meeting a damned Goddess who then decides to take pity on us to save us.” She sighed, shaking her head. “And that’s only the last day. I’ve kind of lost track how many things we ran into over the past few months.”

“Sounds like you have a lot of fun stories to tell,” I said with a dutiful chuckle.

“That and more,” Cecily allowed with a sigh that was only slightly overplayed for comedic effect. She gave Lucy a wry smile, then glanced at me. “To be honest, I wouldn’t be surprised if her terrible luck is going to overpower your presence in the future. Might wanna keep your eyes and ears open just in case.”

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