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A Sword Without a Hilt: A Song of Ice and Fire/D&D 3.5 Crossover

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*sigh*

What am I to do, fifteen chapters into Summer Knight and no new Horde Thief chapter?

Oh holy shaggy, why have thou forsaken me?

@edit: BEHOLD MY POWERS, MORTALS!
 
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Omake: Horde Thief Chapter V
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    • Horde Thief
    Chapter 5​

    Dragons are strange creatures, although I've only ever met the one for certain. Prideful and powerful in ways I still didn't understand, but also bound by a set of rules that I now understood were more for the safety of everyone around them than themselves. Ferrovax had warned me, but young and stupid as I'd been, I hadn't been willing to listen. I'd paid for that, in pain and embarrassment both. And yet, Ferrovax hadn't taken anything from me. This one?

    "The son of a bitch took your wallet?" Murphy was laughing so hard I was worried she'd choke, and the uncharitable side of me almost wished she would. "What is he? A dragon or a magpie?"

    "I'm pretty sure a Dragon can be both," I pointed out sourly, prompting another laugh as she ducked out of the small sitting room in search of what I'd asked her to get for me. Exactly when my captor had picked the item out of my coat, I didn't know. Probably when I'd been unconscious, but at least it gave a marginally less terrifying reason for it knowing my name. "Not the sort of creature you tell what to do."

    "But they can die, like all the rest," Butters said firmly, in a way I don't think he'd have been able to before taking up Fidelacchius. We'd all changed since that night, but it had been the newly minted Knight of the Cross who'd done so most. He'd been the other side of my backup, coming in with Murphy. The Sword of Faith might not have been able to help, but the doc had proven himself to be a badass before his hand even touched the Sword.

    "They can, yes," I agreed, but the words caught slightly as the feeling of the Dragon's blade against my throat rushed back. I'd been at the mercy of all sorts of beings before, but none quite like this. "But I don't think this is your typical Dragon." The questions it had asked, those weren't normal. "Why ask who sent me unless it didn't know? It could see my Mantle, but it didn't recognise it."

    "Perhaps it's old," Butters suggested. "Bob certainly didn't recognise the description you gave." That wasn't exactly confirmation, but nor was it a comfort. Bob had been around a long time, and not knowing a power that Mab had called a Dragon wasn't giving me the warm and fuzzies. And even if it wasn't a being like Ferrovax, there were still far too many questions lying unanswered. I'd had the Za-Lord's Guard find him the first time, but I doubted that was going to work again. His response to the bobbing wisps had been telling.

    "Then why take my wallet?" I rose from the couch, the thought bouncing around my head. Old didn't make sense, the Courts were older than humanity. If Mab was telling me the truth, the answer was instead one of not from around here, but she never told me the truth, even when I pushed her. Not all of it, at least. But if I was a powerful magical creature, in a world that didn't make sense, maybe still waking up, I'd look for information in the possessions of someone who tracked me down and attacked me. At least, I thought I would. It was hard to be sure.

    "Maybe you can find out when it catches you again?" Karin suggested, eyes twinkling mischievously from the door as she returned to the room, Mister purring at her heels. "This do? I don't really have a tourist's guide." I caught the map she tossed and pulled it open, looking over it quickly. It wasn't the best one I'd had for scrying before, but it wasn't the worst either.

    "Perfect." I lied smoothly, kneeling down to push the debris covering the small table in front of the sofa to each side, careful not to drop any on the floor. Scrying had always been a speciality of mine, and that wallet had been mine for months. There was enough sympathetic connection that tracking it should be a breeze. I pulled the chain attached to my mother's pentacle over my head and dropped it to hang above the map. Focusing my will on the stolen item, I let it guide my hand across the map. And found the power behind my intent just...slide off something. Damn. It was only when I looked up to see Murphy looking at me with some concern that I realised I must have said the last word aloud.

    "Nothing at all?" She asked, and I shook my head.

    "I'll keep trying, but whatever's keeping it from being tracked by magic seems to apply to anything it's carrying, too." That wasn't the worst of it. I knew what a shield or block against divination was meant to feel like, I'd pushed past them often enough in my old job. Enough power or the right catalyst would let you break through. This didn't feel like either of those things, more like a curved sheet of glass that anything I tried to stick to it would just glance off of like water. All I could do was hope it put my wallet down when I was looking for it.

    As improbable chances went, I'd caught less likely ones before.

    ***​

    I didn't get much sleep that night, too focused on trying to catch that moment I hoped would come, but Karin forced me to take a break sometime before the birds started singing. I woke to find Mister purring happily on my chest. It was hard to convince myself to move with the affectionate furball sat there so peacefully, and when I did he gave me a look of betrayal so cutting I almost laughed.

    That laughter stopped pretty quickly when, this time, my scrying didn't glance off a sheet of supernatural Perspex. "Stars and stones," I breathed, as the pentacle dropped down onto the map. I knew that address. How had the damn thing not recognised my Mantle, yet known how to find Neutral Territory?

    "Harry?" Karin asked from the door, two steaming cups in her hands. That was a pity.

    "We need to go to Mac's," I said, swiftly pulling the necklace back on and reaching for my staff as I stood. "Right now." Murphy took one look at my face and then nodded without question.

    "Lunch traffic hasn't started yet." She said, dropping the two mugs onto the counter behind her in a rush, their contents splashing over the rim. "We go now and we can be there sharpish." She tossed a set of keys to me. "Get the car, I'll call Butters." And then we were moving, the moment of contented peace already relegated to the past.

    Someday I'd get a peaceful morning again.

    My boss was Mab. Who was I kidding?
     
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    • I meant for this to include Dresden getting to the pub, but travel is boring and this telescoped into some scene-setting for Dresden and some other little things. This is quite a bit after Skin Games, as those who've read it should be aware of due to what's shown, so I thought it reasonable that the results of it might have started to be applied. We'll see that expanded in future sections from Harry's PoV, but not the next one. That will, though, be the next chapter - which should be all the confirmation anyone needs that Viserys will at least be hanging around long enough to give him the wallet back. Sorry for all the buildup here, but it's important to set a scene properly, so that you can see the opinions of both sides. In truth, I could have just skipped straight to the pub and filled in this background in thought process, but I thought it better to show instead of tell this time.

    If all goes well, the much anticipated (I think) proper meeting will come tomorrow. Unless the characters decide to do something entirely different, which they've done so far more than just once.

    TotallyNotEvil said:
    *sigh*

    What am I to do, fifteen chapters into Summer Knight and no new Horde Thief chapter?

    Oh holy shaggy, why have thou forsaken me?
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    I was finishing up my PW update, gimme a break :V

    Also conspiring about its future plot. You'd like the result - and will, once you get to see it.
     
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    The Last Uchiha just updated with another 40k words of depressing perfection.
    Instead, I just had to read the new Horde Thief chapter first!
    AND BOTH WERE INFURIATING TEASES!!! ARGH! WHY DO YOU DO THIS TO ME, INTERNET?!?
     
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    That was an excellent chapter, you really did a good job setting tone and establishing some of how Viserys' style of magic interacts with the local flavor.
     
    LAAAWWWWW.
    Snowfire said:
    Nah, they lived. Mostly because Dresden saved them and therefore got caught.
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    That bleeding heart of his.

    Viserys has legitimate grievances though. The tinier the fey, the more dire the consequences, invariably... unlike most other critters out there, the less powerful they are, the more they have to gain by making an enemy of a dragon and surviving the encounter.
     
    I understand the need for transition chapters. The same way I understand that I should have gone to sleep three hours ago if I wanted to be effective in the morning.
    Knowing does not mean accepting. I will reject these truths for as long as my precious emotions are incompatible with them.

    Edit: bullshit removed.
     
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    No more than there is for "ominous" and "horrifying".

    Edit: I love the fact that if you give @TalonofAnathrax 'Hug' ratings, especially on some of their sillier posts, they get annoyed.

    Clearly everyone needs to give them Hugs.
     
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    Deliste said:
    As someone who has been cursed with the Funny/Insightful inversion I will not be participating in such activities.
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    :evil:

    Edit:

    I hope we manage to fit in those minor actions at some point... the crib could really use the upgrade. And our public education platform begins with the first public library in the world... which should include some extensive and choice reads even without the arcane and planar texts.
     
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    Crake said:
    :evil:

    Edit:

    I hope we manage to fit in those minor actions at some point... the crib could really use the upgrade. And our public education platform begins with the first public library in the world... which should include some extensive and choice reads even without the arcane and planar texts.
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    We need stories, fairytales, fables, parables etc. from Planetos and the Planes because we want children to read, gotta uplift the next generation to make our lives easier in the future and to have "soft literacy influence" in households. If I recall correctly Shireen played an integral part in Ser Davos learning to read.
     
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