15-10. Networking
“Leave me alone,” complained Sara, a pillow over her head.
“I told you not to drink.”
She yanked the pillow away and glared at him. “This is not an ‘I told you so’ moment. Read the situation,” Sara croaked. Then, she smacked her lips. “Why do I still taste it?”
The “it” in question was obviously the vomit she’d unceremoniously deposited in the bathroom only a couple of hours before. Since then, she’d used some alchemical concoction meant to clean her mouth, but it clearly hadn’t done the trick.
“There’s no substitute for a good toothbrush,” Elijah said sagely. “And toothpaste.”
“Potions are obviously better.”
“Says the girl who still tastes –”
“Don’t.”
“What?”
“Don’t say the word,” she groaned.
“What word? Vomit?”
She gave an exaggerated gag, but fortunately, nothing came up. “I hate you.”
“Again, I told you so.”
With a pitiful whine, she buried her head in the pillow. Elijah did his best not to laugh at her discomfort, largely because it was so predictable. Sara had lived a very sheltered life, and because she’d never really left her mother’s domain, she had kept most of life’s vices to moderation. She had been drunk before, but never to the point she’d reached during her first night in Argos.
And Atticus had encouraged it, claiming that she could make her own choices. Later, when Sara was stumbling around and struggling to keep her balance, the Merchant had recounted a story from his own past.
“My uncle did something similar to me when I was a teenager,” he’d revealed. “He knew he couldn’t stop me from doing what I wanted to do. Who could? So, he went the other direction and gave me exactly what I wanted. I will tell you, my friend – I have never been drunker than I was that night. And I never had a worse hangover, either. Since then, I have practiced moderation.”
Elijah had narrowed his eyes. Of all the words he would have used to describe his friend, moderation wasn’t one of them. But then again, Atticus usually cut himself off before he did any real damage. The same could not be said for Sara, who’d taken her bit of freedom and run with it.
Right into a brick wall of drunkenness.
The only silver lining was that she hadn’t really gotten into any trouble, as both Elijah and Atticus took care of her. Still, Elijah hoped that she would learn the right lesson from the ordeal.
Negative reinforcement was a good teacher, if a harsh one.
In any case, Elijah soon left Sara to her misery and navigated his way through the mansion. The décor wasn’t nearly as overtly lavish as the palace on Vyrin, but it was still as rich as anything else Elijah had seen on Earth. There was plenty of gold and marble, but with a distinctly Mediterranean flair that kept it from being tacky.
Eventually, Elijah found his way to the garden, which was filled with fragrant blooms and bubbling fountains. Atticus sat at a wrought iron table, a platter of fruit spread out before him. Selene sat nearby, arms crossed and glaring at her husband. Clearly, she didn’t approve of the previous night’s activities, which harkened back to some of Elijah’s earliest memories of Atticus. Since then, he’d mellowed quite a bit, though it was obvious that he still enjoyed his revelry.
The aftermath was the issue.
The hangover was bad enough, but his wife’s displeasure was the true cost.
“Don’t you dare,” Selene said when she felt Elijah gathering ethera to heal his friend. “He made his bed. Now, he must sleep in it.”
Atticus didn’t object to that statement – his punishment, no doubt. So, Elijah took a seat and grabbed a piece of cantaloupe. Popping it into his mouth, he asked, “So, I was thinking. Do you mind if I leave Sara here for a few days? Maybe as much as a couple of months?”
“Why? Where are you going?” Selene asked.
“Of course, my friend,” Atticus said at the same time. That earned him another glare from his wife.
“Well, I don’t really trust the people of Ironshore,” he admitted. “And she’d go crazy being confined to the grove. But I don’t think she’ll enjoy what I’m going to be doing for the next few months.”
“And what is that?”
“I need to go to Paris, first,” Elijah answered. “Maybe she can come with me on that leg, but then I’m going to go hunting. There’s no way I’m taking her along for that.”
“And that will take months?” asked Atticus.
Elijah shook his head. “No. That’s just task number one,” he replied. Then, he went on to explain his other plans, which centered around Root Nexus and establishing as many dolmens as he could so that the grove would have its own teleportation network. Now that he could empower others to use them, he wanted to expand the system.
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“That sounds like quite a job,” Atticus responded to the explanation. “Do you know where you intend to build them? Also, what would one need to do to take advantage of this new network?”
“Grove only,” Elijah said. When Atticus made his disappointment clear, Elijah went on to explain, “I don’t want to destabilize the world economy, and I definitely don’t want to back the Conclave into a corner. They’re not enemies right now, and I don’t want to change that. If we start stepping on their toes, that’s what will happen.
“No – it’s better if we just use it for grove business.”
“Hmm. I don’t disagree that a war is to be avoided, I can’t help but think of how much money we would save by cutting them out. Use of the Conclave Spires is the third largest cost of doing business,” Atticus stated. “Ah, but I understand the reasoning.”
“What he didn’t say is that we would be happy to host Sara for as long as necessary,” Selene pointed out.
“Of course,” Atticus agreed.
That was a load off Elijah’s mind. He knew that, like all dragons, Sara could take care of herself. However, he also recognized the dangers of hunting what he hoped would turn out to be a powerful beast. She did not possess a combat class, after all. It was best if she sat that out.
And building dolmens? He knew good and well that it would bore her to tears.
“Can you do something like an apprenticeship for her? Just for a few months.”
“Hmm.”
“I don’t like that look,” Elijah admitted.
“There is no look.”
“There’s a look,” Selene pointed out. “I know what you’re thinking.”
“And what is that?”
“That you are going to exploit that girl’s skills,” Selene stated.
“Exploit is such a nasty word. I intend to give her the chance to gain experience and grow as a businessperson.”
“And you’ll increase your profits along the way. Just as a side effect, right?” Selene asked.
Atticus shrugged. “If I gain some benefits, it is purely coincidental. My primary goal is the girl’s well-being.”
Elijah laughed. “If we weren’t friends, I definitely wouldn’t leave her with you.”
“What? Why? I am perfectly trustworthy.”
“I know that,” Elijah said. “But there’s just something about when you go full Merchant sends shivers up my spine.”
“Full Merchant?”
“You know, when you get that look in your eye that says there’s nothing more important than a single copper ethereum of profit. Even if I know you don’t necessarily look at things that way, it’s still a little unnerving.”
“I will take that as a compliment.”
It also occurred to Elijah that Atticus would very much benefit from a collaboration with Kirlissa. Or one of her subordinates, more likely. He’d need to broach that subject the next time they spoke, but until then, Sara gaining familiarity with the Merchant would probably go a long way towards giving him an in with the Empire of Scale. And that, in turn, would open a lot of doors when it came to advancing his class and enhancing his Legacy.
But that would need to wait. For now, he just wanted someone to keep Sara occupied and out of trouble.
Atticus and Selene seemed committed to that endeavor, so that was one more thing he didn’t have to worry about.
After about twenty minutes, Sara stumbled into the garden and plopped into the only empty chair. “Are you going to make me beg?” she asked Elijah.
“I don’t know.”
“Please?”
“Did you learn your lesson?”
“That depends.”
“On?” Elijah asked.
“What lesson?”
“That you should know your limits and learn to cut yourself off before you reach them.”
“Oh. That. Probably?”
Elijah rolled his eyes, but he took pity on her. A second later, he’d cast Wild Resurgence, which combatted the toxins in her blood and refreshed her body. She immediately perked up.
“You need to eat some fruit and drink plenty of water.”
For once, she didn’t argue with his order. So, Elijah turned to Atticus, intending to cast another spell. However, he was cut off by another glare from Selene.
“No.”
“No?”
“She likes to watch me suffer,” Atticus added.
“Only when you do something stupid,” she provided. “And you were very, very stupid last night. Honestly, you’re in your eighties. You should know better.”
“I’m still young at heart,” he said with a crooked grin. Then, he grabbed her by the waist and hauled her into his lap. She went with a squeal powered by faux outrage.
After that, Elijah and Sara took their breakfast elsewhere. In the meantime, he told her his plans. Strangely, she wasn’t upset about being left with Atticus. Apparently, she’d heard a bit about Elijah’s dolmens from Mano, and she had little interest in seeing them constructed.
The rest of the day passed with them seeing the rest of Argos. Sara was particularly excited by the olive groves, but she seemed to enjoy almost everything about the city. But given that they were on the clock, it soon came time to depart.
The next day, Elijah led Sara to the Conclave Spires. They were accompanied by one of Atticus’ employees, who’d escort the young dragon into Paris and keep her company until Elijah arrived.
Much to Sara’s annoyance.
But it was necessary, as much because he didn’t trust her not to cause issues in the city as because it would take him the better part of a day to arrive.
Once he’d seen her on her way, Elijah retreated into the wilderness and used Root Nexus to teleport to the Circle of Hope, which was the closest Dolmen to Paris. When he arrived, he was unsurprised to find the nine-tailed fox guardian staring in his direction. She was just as magnificent as ever, though her power had clearly increased. The cherry tree that was her natural treasure was even more beautiful than the last time Elijah had visited, especially when held against the snowy backdrop.
A wizened grimling stood nearby, obviously surprised by Elijah’s arrival.
The little creature gave him a reserved nod before turning and disappearing into the forest.
Elijah was curious about how their civilization had progressed, but in the end, he decided to leave them alone. So long as they lived in peace, they deserved to be left to their own devices.
He took a few moments to commune with the fox, but she was far more skittish than most guardians. So, in the interest of her psychological well-being, Elijah was soon on his way and sailing through the clouds. Along the way, he passed dozens of ruined towns and other evidence of the tragedy that was the world’s transformation. However, he was also surprised to find that most of them were so overgrown that they’d become barely noticeable.
Broken highways, collapsed buildings, and overgrown housing subdivisions were becoming more normal, and Elijah suspected it wouldn’t be much longer before Earth’s pre-World Tree history fell away entirely.
In a thousand years, would anyone even remember the things he’d once taken for granted? What about ten thousand? A hundred? There was a good chance that Elijah would still be around at that point, and he couldn’t help but wonder if, when those days arrived, he’d still be the same person.
Probably not.
Those thoughts accompanied him for the better part of sixteen hours until, at last, Paris came into view. He’d never visited the city before the world’s transformation, but he’d seen it often enough in movies, television shows, and photographs that he was surprised at the new representation.
He was so distracted that he flew a little closer than he’d intended, which was why he didn’t even notice when a warship suddenly appeared in front of him.