Making Connections

[Hiver]

I have no idea what I was nervous about.

Five hours in, I was bored out of my skull and I really, really wanted to just lay down and sleep somewhere.

But that would be unacceptable. I had to keep paying attention... or at least look like I was so I couldn't even put my head on my front legs.

The five Flight leaders were standing in their normal circle in the room at the top of the Wyrmrest temple, Alexstrasza leading the discussion which was currently involving the Tauren.

That was one of the mortal species we had the least contact with.

Basically the only thing that saved this from being an even bigger disaster was that as somebody who was actually small enough to fit in the room in my real form, I was allowed to stay dragon.

The Flightleaders were all in their mortal forms, even one of them would fill the room completely... other than Wrathion who was technically a Drake like myself.

But he was also in his mortal form, a dark-skinned human with red eyes, wearing a purple robe with matching turban. I'm not exactly sure where he thought he could blend in like that, but he was a Flightleader... even if his flight was somewhat diminished right now. He could do whatever he wanted.

Each of the Flightleaders had their own 'assistant' with them. I didn't recognize any of them, all of them but me and one more were in their mortal forms, their real forms too large to fit, being full on Dragons or in most cases, Wyrms.

The one that didn't was another reason this meeting wasn't worse than it was.

She was Wrathion's 'assistant' as well as his Consort and she was laying on the other side of the Flightleaders from my position.

She was a drake and from her size, I would judge her to be slightly younger than me, somewhere between fifteen and twenty years old... and she was one of the most beautiful dragons I had ever seen... more than Zrazta and even Alexstrasza herself. Even... and I would never admit this to anyone out loud... even more beautiful than Rengosa.

Dark obsidian scales that seemed to absorb the light, yellow luminous eyes and muscles that shifted beneath her scales when she moved her wings. Long, narrow horns accented her razor-sharp teeth perfectly.

Her name was Umbria. It was very bad form and VERY much a subject of challenge to show interest in another's consort, but she provided some very nice eyecandy.

Even so, I did my best to pay attention to the proceedings instead.

"Atregos."

I turned my head to my Flightleader, lowering my head slightly. "Yes, Kalecgos?"

He raised an eyebrow at me. "Provide the Accord with a report on your Consortium."

...I so desperately hoped that was the first time he'd asked me.

I nodded and stood up, shifting my wings. "Of course, Flightleader." I said and moved past him into the center of the circle.


XXXXXXXXXX


"You did well, Atregos." Kalecgos and patted my head between my eyes. "Your attention wandered at times, but it is understandable for a Drake."

"I'll attempt to do better next time, Kalecgos." I sighed and shifted my wings. "I should not have been distracted."

Damn it, I didn't think anyone noticed!

He chuckled. "You did well. You paid attention... mostly... and your report was informative and concise."

I shifted slightly and then lowered my head, accepting his review of my performance. It was... correct.

"Kalecgos." A voice said and we both turned to the voice, spotting Wrathion approaching.

"Wrathion." Kalecgos answered, giving the other flightleader a nod.

I was just glad his Consort stayed at the other end of the chamber, she would have been way too distracting if she had followed him this close.

I bowed in respect to the other Flightleader, lowering my head for him. "Wrathion."

"Atregos." he said with a small nod. "World Walker." he said slowly, seemingly trying the phrase out.

I shifted my wings slightly and raised my head again. "It is what some call me. I am... not comfortable with the title."

"But it is accurate, is it not?" He asked, an eyebrow raised.

"...It is." I admitted, shifting back slightly. "But it feels too pretentious."

Wrathion snorted in amusement at that before turning to Kalecgos. "May I borrow Atregos for a moment? There are some matters about the Consortium I wish to discuss with him."

Kalecgos nodded. "Of course."

The leader of the Black Dragonflight nodded and motioned to me. "Come... let's fly." he said.

It would be good to stretch my wings. I padded along with him to the landing platform before he stopped and closed his eyes in focus.

Almost five minutes later, he opened them again and smoke billowed around him before fading away to reveal his real form.

He was a drake, smaller than Umbria even, looking at most ten years old. Ten years old and he could already take mortal form!?

Wrathion shifted to look at me, noticing my surprise. "I was trained from hatchling to become the Black Dragonflight's new Flightleader." he said, "But I do not yet know how to take mortal form. See my necklace? It is heavily enchanted, allowing me to transform. It works well, but need weeks to recharge between uses and doesn't transform with me."

I nodded. "I understand."

That did make sense. I kind of wished I had had one of those before, though. Would have been really practical. But I could see why he had one, it would make it easier to interact on an equal ground with the other leaders. When Kalecgos became the aspect he became larger than a normal Wyrm. Wrathion became Flightleader around the same time I became a dragon. It was after the removal of the Aspects, he never had that boost.

"Take wing." He ordered and dove off the platform, leaving me to follow.




AN// Many thanks to Grey Rook for taking the grammatical bullet for the rest of you!

 

[Hiver]

I rested on my wings on the thermals as we circled above the Emerald Dragonshrine, a half hour flight from Wyrmrest Temple.

"There. Caribou." Wrathion said and folded his wings, going into a dive.

Banking, I folded my own wings and followed him down.

He spread his wings at the last moment, pulling up and hitting the animal hard from the side. The buck had just enough time to scream in terror before his jaw clamped down around it's throat and ripped it out, the blood flowing into the grass as he pinned the animal down.

An efficient kill.

Personally, I preferred to bite down on the back of the neck to break the spine. Faster, kept the blood inside and it kept the prey from struggling.

But then again, I was a bit bigger, I don't think he had quite the jaws yet to do that to a fully grown Caribou.

Coming in for landing, I flapped hard twice before sitting down, folding my wings as I watched him rip into his meal.

Smelled pretty good, but I ate yesterday. Would be days until I was hungry again.

"I am impressed by your Consortium." Wrathion said as he lifted his bloodstained muzzle to look at me, "I want a member of my Dragonflight to join the research teams."

I tilted my head, "I was not aware you had enough dragons to waste on a prospect such as this." As far as I knew, the Black Dragonflight consisted of a total of 16 members, half of which were Whelps and the rest were Drakes.

He shifted, half spreading his wings as he ripped into the live of the caribou, "I don't. But I believe that it is an important undertaking. The Black Dragonflight should contribute."

"If they are capable of meeting the requirements, I would be more than happy to agree to them joining." I answered and laid down, crossing my frontlegs.

For one thing, they needed to be skilled enough to contribute. But the more difficult one would be that you had to be able to use Land magic.

It was more to show that they could adapt to new magical knowledge than to demand that they use it. Some kinds of magic also required you use it, such as almost anything from Tamriel. It simply didn't work using normal magic for some reason and we had no idea 'why'.

There was an entire team on dragons working on that.

"There is one in my Flight that has been able to do so." Wrathion admitted, "But that requirement is unnecessary and arbitrary. You will drop it. I have several qualified drakes without it."

Ah. So that was it was about.

"I will not." I said and lifted my head from my frontlegs, "It is a requirement for a reason, not only to thin the applicants out, but also to prove that they have the ability to adapt to new kinds of magic. I will not drop it without a direct order from Kalecgos and then only under protest."

The black dragon shifted, wings half spread as he faced me, blood dripping from his maw, one frontpaw on the dead Caribou, "I am Wrathion, Leader of the Black Dragonflight... and you deny me!?"

Barring my teeth I snarled at him, getting up on my paws, my wings half spreading as well, "I do, you have no authority over me. You want to change my rules? Then challenge me!"

Wrathion growled deeply at me before he stepped back, folding his wings again when I didn't back down, "Good. So you are a dragon after all."

I titled my head in question but folded my wings again, stepping back in return, "You were testing me."

"I was, Atregos. I know your history, World Walker." He explained, sitting down, one frontpaw still resting on his kill, "I needed to know for sure, what was the truth. Are you truly a dragon or not? I now have my answer."

I barred my teeth at him again, "Kalecgos could have told you that."

"And so he did. But second hand information can be distorted. I trust my eyes and my ears." Wrathion said and snorted, "You are indeed a real dragon. And a defiant one as well... Most drakes would back down rather than face a Flightleader, even one of their own age."

"I believe I could win." I answered and I slowly relaxed, laying back down, my tail club moving in annoyance.

Wrathion nodded, "Perhaps. If half your abilities are to be believed, you might very well. You may be older than me, but I am a skilled fighter and mage in my own right. It might have been close."

I think he was right about that. My best skills were definitely not in direct combat and my most powerful abilities, summoning and such, were still too slow for me to use in direct combat. I was getting faster though.

So younger or not, he could very well be a fair fight... and such is to be avoided at any cost.

"You wished to have somebody join the Consortium?" I asked him after a moment.

"I do. Kalrion is a drake of eighteen years that avoided corruption, mainly because his egg was hatched by a mortal, an Orc. He has managed to learn your Land magic and is greatly skilled in weapon crafting, even if he is unable to take mortal form. He crafted my own daggers." Wrathion answered as he licked the blood of his muzzle, "Is this acceptable?"

I lowered my head in agreement, "It is. I believe he would fit into the team looking into artifacts we bring back. Possibly weapon design testing."

Wrathion moved back and then rolled over in the grass, rolling a couple of times before rolling onto his stomach, resting his head on his frontlegs as he watched me for a moment.

"What?" I asked, shifting my wings slightly.

"I am curious in how your ability works. To be able to leave this world and travel to others... beyond Outland and the Elemental Realms... beyond the Twisting Nether..."

I shook my head, "I'm not sure I am able to describe it." I admitted, "It's... there is no words for it. In any language. I would not even be able to show you, only beings with my ability can survive there. Between worlds."

"Perhaps I am the one that should be awe of you." He chuckled.

"If there is anything that deserve awe," I said with a draconic smile, "It is the ability to attract a Consort such as Umbria."

Wrathion looked extraordinary pleased with himself.

The rest of the day was much more relaxed as we compared notes on our consorts.




AN// Many thanks to Firethorn for betaing this section.

 

[Hiver]

Poke.

Something just poked my nose. I didn't move. Maybe if I ignored it, it would go away.

Poke!

"Atreus!"

I opened my eyes to see Sheila staring down at me, wearing what seemed to be a white dress. Her best one I think.

"Good morning." I mumbled and raised my head to give her a lick across the face.

She was ready for it however and quickly put her hands on my muzzle, keeping me from reaching, "Eep! Not that today! I have a meeting in less than a hour! I can't show up covered in dragon slobber!"

I blinked and then yawned, stretching and spreading my wings as I scraped my claws against the stone before relaxing again, "Meeting?"

Sheila nodded, "Yeah, a kind of last minute thing. It's for permission to open a store inside the walls of Stormwind, I need to make my case to the Treasurer. Venir volunteered to go with me, I just wanted to let you know."

Oh.

"Want me to come with?" I asked and got up, bumping my nose against her chest.

She shook her head and rubbed beneath my right eye, "No, there is no time for it anyway. I just wanted to let you know as this will likely take the entire day."

"I could wish you luck, but you don't need it." I said with a small purr.

Smiling, Sheila gave me a kiss on the tip of my snout, "I know, thank you. See you at home tonight?"

"Yes. Now go knock them dead."

Flashing me a grin she turned and walked out of the underground crystal grove and headed towards the portal chamber.

I looked after her until she disappeared out of sight before I yawned and stretched again before relaxing.

Closing my eyes, I groaned.

Ren was 'also' going to be busy all day as well. She was going to be studying in the library and I knew better than to bother her then.

I guess I 'could' go to my workshop and get that boat working. I did gain several very good ideas from the trades we did in Tyria. That capacitor design alone would greatly improve future power sources.

...Then again...

Rolling over, I folded my wings up again and yawned, resting my head close by my tail club before closing my eyes again.


XXXXXXXXXX


Yawning, I slowly opened my eyes again sometime later.

Damn, I think I needed that. I was up way too late last night... I got back to The Nexus after dark having spent hours talking to Wrathion. And after that I stayed up... quite a bit of time tinkering in the lab.

I didn't want to wake Sheila or Ren so I slept at the Nexus.

Raising my head, to see Zrazta laying next to me, her side pressed against mine. Feeling me shift, she lifted her head to look in my direction, "You are awake."

"I am." I yawned and stretched again, spreading my wings, "Good morning, Zrazta."

"It is the middle of the day." she chuckled and rolled onto her side, facing me.

Relaxing again I folded my wings, "When did you find me?"

"A hour or so ago. I didn't want to wake you. Wondered if you wanted to head out to hunt."

I yawned again and tilted my head, considering it before I nodded and got up. I wasn't really hungry but... I could eat. Maybe just a couple of the good parts, like the liver.

"Sure."

Zrazta smoothly rolled onto her paws and bumped her side against mine, "Come then, I'm hungry.", giving my neck a small nip with her teeth.

Blinking fully awake, stretched before getting up to pad along through the underground corridor, heading to the surface before I shifted my wings in thought as something struck me, "So... who told you I was at the Nexus today?"

She gave me a approving look, "I met Sheila this morning, she told me where you were.. asked me to make sure you didn't sleep the entire day."

I was not entirely sure how to feel about that. Should I take it like Sheila thought I couldn't look after myself or that Sheila was starting to approve of Zrazta?

Or some sort of mix? ...Not overly sure I could argue the first one considering what happened and the second part would be a good thing.

"How is your boat going?" She asked as we continued towards the surface.

I shook the previous thought from my head and hmmed, "I have some ideas on how to solve the problems, I received some inspiration from Tyria."

"In what way?"

"Their magitech is quite advanced. If one of their devices scale, it could very well be converted into a propulsion system."

It was actually a part from that flamethrower that converted magic in the environment into a way to drive the pump. The way it worked, it might actually be possible to use it to convert magic in the environment to directly propel a vessel... or if not, use it to power propellers. No heavy boilers needed.

"Interesting." The red dragoness said, "Did they have any potions? I don't think we received anything new this time."

"Not with them. Next time we should be able to pick some up though."

Skyrim was the next trip and hopefully the place would still be standing when we arrived.

But that would be in a month... and in a couple of days we've planned to head out for exploration!

My favorite activity.

Well... second favorite.

Okay, second favorite that didn't involve Sheila or Ren.




AN// A large thanks to Firethorn for betaing this section.

 

[Hiver]

Reality flashed back into existence around me and two seconds later I was cursing up a storm in ten or so different languages as I struggled to get out of the bushes I had landed in.

Finally managing to pull myself free, I gave the offending plant a glare while giving my wings an annoyed flap before folding them again with a snarl.

Well, it was better than tumbling down a sanddune I suppose.

Speaking of which...

Folding my wings, I looked around. Pine trees, foliage... nice-ish temperature. No sand.

Hmm, this doesn't seem too bad.

Shifting, I turned my head to hover Sheila's and Ren's soulstones from their satchels before giving them a small burst of magic to signal the 'all clear'.

Seconds later the soulstones dissolved into fire and smoke, allowing the girls to reform and Ren stumbled before looking around. "Oh... no desert this time."

"But cold!" Sheila exclaimed and quickly turned to dig her clothes out of her satchel, taking it down from my armor.

Ren turned to her and remarked; "It is?" before walking over and doing the same, pulling her armor out of her own satchel.

I tilted my head. "It can't be that cold, can it?" I asked, looking around. There wasn't even snow on the ground.

"Not freezing, but chilly." Sheila said as she adjusted her robes and put her shoes on as Ren finished getting dressed by casting an illusion over her armor and suddenly she was wearing a nice blue dress.

Shrugging my wings, I laid down and closed my eyes to start to changing to mortal form.


XXXXXXXXXX


Two and a half hour later with the help of some scrying, we rode onto a narrow dirt road.

"This looks like a pretty nice place." Sheila said as she gave the rains of her horse a small tug, bringing it to a halt.

I did the same next to her. "Well, nothing has tried to eat us quite yet so that's a plus. Also, the fact that it's not boiling hot is nice."

"Especially that last part." Ren said and patted the neck of her horse. Not that it was really a horse, all three were summons of mine.

Much easier to blend in than the flying carpet... most likely... but still let us avoid walking the entire time.

As long as there were humans in this world at the very least, but that did seem very common so far. The moment we ran into a settlement I was going to scry it from the distance anyway to make sure we didn't enter a village of... cat people that had never seen a human before.

That could be seriously dangerous.

"So... which way?" Ren then asked with a frown, looking both ways down the dirt road.

Sheila simply shrugged. "I'm not sure it matters. Roads usually have villages in each end. You can pick."

Ren hummed and guided her horse to the left and started down the road, leaving me and Sheila to follow her.

"Did you manage to find a location?" I asked Sheila with a smile.

Her meeting with the treasurer had gone great. Now she needed to find a location, though.

"Not yet." she sighed. "I have some prospects, but the best one is really expensive, especially since it's in..."


A couple of hours down the road, we started to see the first signs of civilization. For a certain value of civilization.

"Well...." I said and brought my mount to a halt, "That is not a good sign."

Actually, the sign seemed to be pretty well made where it was nailed to the tree. What was not good, however, was the three men hung from the tree.

"Deserters." Ren said, reading the sign. "Deserters... I don't know this word." she said and looked at me. "It doesn't translate to draconic."

"Deserters. Members of an army who refuse to fight and try to escape." Sheila explained with a frown. "Usually punishable by death."

"The question is why they were in an army." I sighed and rubbed my face. "Can we not find a world with no war going on? That would be nice."

Sheila shook her head. "We could leave and try again."

Walking again this soon made me feel slightly nauseous. It was stressful enough to do once a week... twice in a day might very well kill me, even if I did reach my destination.

"Now that's a bad idea if I've ever heard one." I sighed. "Like it or not, we are stuck here for at least a couple of days."

Sheila gave the executed deserters a long look before she nodded. "Come on, we should continue. There has to be a village here somewhere with an inn, I really don't want to camp out tonight if I can help it. If there are deserters running around... putting up a camp is not a great idea."

I nodded and guided my mount to follow her. That was something I agreed with and had not considered before she said it.
If people were deserting, they were desperate. That meant that there were probably quite a few deserters turned bandits around.

This was not a safe area... even discounting people rendered desperate by the army moving past and confiscating food for the soldiers. That was a rather common practice, even I knew that.

Another thirty minutes down the road, we reached the outskirts of a small village, maybe twenty houses in total along the road. Roughly built wooden houses with straw roofs, the road thick with mud and patches of standing water.

The villagers were... well, outright dirty and wearing what looked like roughspun clothes, likely from wool. At least they were human.

Sheila brought her mount to a halt just outside the village borders as the villagers in sight almost all stared at us. "Excuse me, would you be so kind as to direct us towards the local inn?" she asked the closest man who had put down the barrel he had been carrying around the road to stare at us.

"O-other side of the village, Milady." He quickly answered with a clumsy bow.

"Thank you." Sheila said before she looked back at me, "Atreus?"

"Of course, Lady Stark." I said and considered what to do. Flashing money around would attract the wrong kind of attention... but we already stood out.

Hopefully my weapon would keep anyone from being too interested. I was suddenly very glad I finished the sheath for it before we left so I could wear it on the left side of my belt like a long-handled short sword.

Reaching into my satchel, I pulled out a tiny sliver of silver and flipped it over to him and he clumsily caught it before following Sheila and Ren as they started down the road again, riding through the village.




AN// May thanks to Grey Rook for betaing this section.

 

[Hiver]

Ren gave her piece of bread a dubious look, turning it over in her hands before sniffing at it. Apparently deciding that it was not fit for consumption, she put it down and picked up her tankard of mead, giving that a sip instead.

I had to admit that I was rather dubious about the quality of the bread myself. The food at the inn seemed to be limited, but at least their mead was drinkable.

...For a given definition of drinkable. It was mead after all, but at least it was better than trusting the water around here.

"Well," Sheila said in common and ate a piece of her cheese. "I have not even detected a hint of magic so far."

I shook my head. "Neither have I. If this is another magicless world, I will be annoyed. Especially one as... bad as this one. Meereen is bad as it is, but at least they have some magic and they do bring in the gold. But these people are hardly a good judge... they barely have enough to feed themselves."

Ren snorted. "Why they don't hunt for their food, I have no idea. Growing things on the ground... it can't be worth it. It doesn't even taste that good, even in mortal form."

Sheila gave the dragoness an annoyed look. "My parents are farmers."

"Believe it or not, farming is the center of civilization." I said with a shrug. "Most mortal species, at least. Produce more food for less work of most of the population. The reason we get away with hunting is that... well, even at the peak, there never were that many dragons."

Feeding a Wyrm like Targos would otherwise take a mammoth every couple of days to keep fed. All wyrms and most full dragons I knew of ate in mortal form more often than not, treating a hunt like a special occasion, something they did maybe once every couple of weeks or even months.

That way they didn't drive the population to extinction.

Ren raised an eyebrow at me and then eyed her bread. "It just seems like a strange way to do things. I didn't mean anything bad by it, Kazi."

Sheila nodded. "I know." she said and sighed. "I admit, though... this is made with rather low-quality wheat. I assume the soldiers took the best stuff with them."

We were in a place called 'Velen' close to a city, 'Novigrad'. Very close to the frontlines where the 'Nilfgaardians' were invading this area.

On the wrong side of it as well, they had already taken over this area which they took from the 'Temeria' as they invaded from the south.

No wonder this place was a shithole on the edge of starving to death. But I supposed that it could be worse. The local population seemed to have been left more or less alone and not burned to the ground and while the Nilfgaardians seemed to have taken most of the food, they did leave some for the locals.

I was starting to think that Targos was right. Mortals were going to fight no matter what and we should just leave them to it.

In fact, that was why the Black Dragonflight was originally created by the Titans. To keep mountains between areas of mortals to keep them from fighting.

The door was pushed open and I glanced over there to see a large man with long, white hair walk inside. He was wearing some kind of leather armor and... was that two swords he was carrying on his back?

Why in the world did he need two swords? They were not one-handed ones either, full size broadswords.

But his choice of armaments was not what stood out, it was his eyes. Amber and slitted like a cat's. Hmm.

Perhaps there was some kind of magic in this world after all, because that guy? Yeah, no way he was human.

He spared us a glance but nothing else as he walked over to the barkeep. They had a short, quiet conversation before the man with the cat eyes picked up a plate of boiled meat and bread and a cup of mead before moving to sit down at the corner table, his back against the wall.

"See that?" I asked Sheila softly.

She nodded. "Mmm. Strange... did he have yellow eyes?"

"Slitted, like a cat's." I confirmed. She likely didn't have the eyesight to see that detail at this distance. "Wonder who and what he is?"

Ren glanced over her shoulder in his direction. "Shall we ask?"

I considered it for a moment before I shook my head. "No. Not yet... Let's just observe for a while. Let the man eat up, at least."

I'll rather have things be friendly and interrupting someone's meal was rarely the right way to do that.

Besides, not like he could leave without us spotting it. But now when I thought about it... his position did let him not only keep the door under view, but also us... we were in the opposite corner, Ren with her back against him and Sheila and I facing the rest of the room.

Hmm.

By accident or... was he here to watch us? Interesting.

Well, or I could just be paranoid. But I don't think it's paranoia if there is a good chance they really are out to get you. We did kind of stand out here, even with my blue hair illusioned to make it look brown.

For one thing, we were not covered in pigshit... but then again, neither was he.

I focused on my mead so I didn't look at him overty, a simple crying spell allowing me to watch him in the surface of my mead.

He didn't seem to be watching us, focusing on his meal. But then again... so did I. Was it evidence of him not paying attention to us... or evidence that he was?

This was fun. I can see why Halloway had missed it.

The door opened again and three men walked inside, wearing a mix of cheap chainmail and iron plate. None of them looked like they were overly familiar with the concept of bathing... or even the existence of water.

Soldiers? Possibly.

The lead one got a nasty grin on his face and headed in our direction.

So much for laying low.




AN// Many thanks to Grey Rook for betaing this section.

 

[Hiver]

Dropping the scrying spell, I shifted slightly in my seat, my right hand resting on the hilt of my shortened glaive beneath the table where it was leaning against the bench as I met Ren's eyes across the table. The man with the white hair across the inn shifted slightly in his seat, his eyes flickering between the bandits.

She smiled slightly and brushed a stray hair out of her face before sipping on her tankard of mead. She knew to get out of the way if anything happened to give me and Sheila free fields of fire.. long enough for her to turn around at least.

"Well, well." The one with the helmet said. "What do we have here?" he asked as I started to weave my spell.

"My name is Sheila Stark." Sheila said as she raised an eyebrow at him. "And who might you be?"

"Who I am is not important, Lady Stark." He said and shifted to straddle the bench next to Ren as he sat down, his hand resting on the hilt on his sword. "What is important is that these are dangerous lands. You are going to need some more protection than one guard... especially if you are going to look like you are."

Seriously? That's their play?

"Oh?"

"Yes... fortunately me and my men could take care of that. For a small fee."

Sheila shook her head. "I don't believe that would be necessary. We are quite capable of looking after ourselves."

He grinned at that, reaching out to flick Ren's braid. "Of course, it is completely up to you. But it would be really sad if-"

The lead bandit froze and slowly lowered his hand again, the edge of my glaive pressed against his throat from across the table.

"I believe the lady declined your offer." I said quietly. "You may wish to listen to her."

He stumbled back in his hurry to get away from my blade, rubbing his throat before drawing his sword. "Maybe me and the boys need to teach you a lesson, outlander."

"That's a bad idea." A voice said from across the inn and the bandit leader looked over his shoulder as my eyes flicked in the same direction. The cat-eyed man was leaning against the bar, his arms crossed.

What the hell? I didn't even see him move!

"...We don't want any trouble, Witcher." The leader quickly said, sheathing his sword before holding his hands up in the direction of the man.

"Then go somewhere there is none."

They scrambled out the door fast enough that I almost suspected there was some sort of teleportation magic in play. Damn.

Whoever this guy is, he has some serious reputation.

Keeping my eyes on him, I sheathed my glaive again as Sheila stood up. "Thank you for your help, Stranger." she said. "I'm sure we could have handled it, but your help was appreciated."

He nodded once. "He was right, though. These are dangerous lands, you should be more careful... Lady Stark, was it?"

"It is." She said and motioned to us as Ren shifted to sit with her back against the table, facing him. "This is Ren, a friend... And Atreus, our guard. We are not from this area."

His mouth twitched into a half smile. "So I see. I am Geralt of Rivia." before his eyes flicked in my direction. "That was a smooth move with your... sword?"

I inclined my head in his direction. "I have some practice." before I got up as well. "They called you... Witcher? Is that a title?"

Now he looked surprised. "You have never heard of Witchers?"

Sheila shook her head. "No. Like I said, we are new to these parts."

"Must have been quite far then." He said, slowly nodding. "Witchers are... monster hunters. Problem solvers. We have abilities normal men don't."

"...There are problems to be solved here?" I asked with a raised eyebrow. That did not bode well if there was a professional monster hunter running around the place.

That usually indicated the presence of something to hunt.

"In these parts, with the war going on? It attract all kinds of things." He said and shook his head. "That's not why I'm here. I'm looking for someone. A woman, perhaps you have seen her."

I smiled. "Perhaps. But how would we know?"

"She has hair like mine."

Ren shook her head. "We have not seen anybody like that. But if she is trying to hide, that would be an easy thing to change."

He chuckled. "Trust me, if you had seen her, you would have known it. No matter her hair color."

The door of the inn slammed open and I had my glaive half drawn before I saw that it wasn't the bandits that changed their mind, it was a young man. One of the locals.

"They... they say there was a witcher here!" He exclaimed and looked around before spotting Geralt. "There are things outside the village! By the river!"

The Witcher raised an eyebrow at him. "Do you have a better description than that?"

"They look like men... twisted and horrible!"

"Drowners." Geralt said with a nod. "Do you have money?"

"W-we don't have much! We had a collection, twenty Orens."

The Wither shook his head and said; "Very well. I suppose that will have to be enough." he looked over at us and continued, "I'm going to deal with this. If you have any sense, you head for safer lands."

I looked between him and the young local. "Want a hand? As thanks for the save."

"You would just get in the way." he said as he headed out the door.

I shared a look with Sheila and Ren before we followed him out the door. This we had to see!




AN// A big bucket of thanks to Grey Rook for betaing this section.

 

[Hiver]

He was right. I would just have been in the way.

I may not have been a master with my glaive yet, no matter what length it had... but I was not bad. I was actually pretty damn good and I used my magic to compensate for what I could not do with it.

In synergy, I could beat most people who did not simply overpower me or somehow fought in a way that completely negated my advantages and then I would likely fight as dragon instead.

This guy... This guy would kick my arse hard in human form. He moved like nobody I had ever seen before.

Geralt danced to the side as the bloated creature slashed after him, it's claws millimeters from his shoulder as he pivoted, his sword singing though the air, taking its arm off at the wrist before he shifted again, avoiding a strike from a second one before stabbing it deep in the chest, stepping back and avoiding the third with a slight shift of his feet as he decapitated the first one.

I'd never seen anyone move like that. It was like he was dancing with them, avoiding every strike, his sword licking out and splitting skin, cutting bone, taking limbs.

If it came to a fight... unless I was able to simply area of effect him down with spells before he got close, I would be so fucked it would be almost funny.

Hell, I would give him good odds even in dragon form! At least if I was unable to take off and strafe him from the skies.

"Let's avoid pissing off Witchers." Ren said softly from my left. We stood on the bridge, looking over the side where the witcher was outright murdering those... whatever they were. Undead, maybe? They barely looked human enough to count... but then again, neither did ghouls.

Sheila leaned against the stone next to her as she nodded. "That sounds like a wise idea." She said with a frown, "I've never seen anyone fight like that."

I shook my head. "No wonder those guys backed off so quickly."

His sword took the head off the last of the creatures before stopping and looking around to see if there were more of them before he cleaned his sword off and sheathed it on his back again, before kneeling down by one of the creatures, pulling out a dagger to harvest something from them.

Well, at least this confirmed several things.

For one thing, those creatures confirmed for sure that there was magic around even if Geralt didn't count because there was no way that guy was actually human anymore... if he ever was in the first place.

"Stay here? I'll go talk to him."

"About?" Sheila asked softly and frowned.

"Where the closest town is for one thing... what those things were, what he is doing. Also... I have to see if I can get him as a summon." I said quietly with a grin before heading down from the bridge.

Wonder what color he would be? My guess from the fact that he fought monsters, was white. Most humans were.

Walking off the road, I rounded the base of the bridge and headed down onto the beach, stepping over one of the dead monsters.

"You were right." I said as I got closer. "I would just have been in the way."

"People should learn to leave monster killing to professionals." He said and dug into the chest of one of the creatures, pulling out a small organ.

I nodded. "So I see. So... Witchers hunt monsters?"

"We do."

"A lot of those around here?"

He gave me a flat look at that and shook his head, moving to dig into the next of the corpses. "With this much fighting going on? Attracts all sorts of things. Ghouls, drowners... Gryphons."

I nodded and waited until he finished pulling whatever it was he wanted from the dead thing before I spoke up again. "Would it be possible to hire you in advance? For future services."

Geralt raised an eyebrow at that. "I thought you were just passing through."

"We are." I told him and shook my head. "But I doubt it's the first time and we won't always have currency on hand. It could be... good to have help to call in if need be."

"I won't always be here, either. Like I said, looking for someone."

I nodded again. "Even so." I sighed and dug into my satchel, finding a couple of slips of silver. "The Lady wishes to thank you for the save in either case. It's my idea to see it as a future investment."

He chuckled. "Very well then. If we are both around and you need help, I'll give you a hand." he said and took my handshake as I handed over the silver, channeling a bit of mana.

The summoning pattern settled in the back of my mind. A powerful one... it would need three full mana to cast. White and two more for extra power.

The most powerful one I had so far. I thought mana amount was limited by size... but he would take as much as the Frosttroll.

His eyes widened and he pulled his hand from my grasp. "I did think you had magic. All three of you. You are no mere guard. What did you do?"

Holy crap! He noticed!?

I quickly put my hands up. "I apologize, I was just curious. I have never met anyone like a Witcher before. I'm sorry, I should have asked."

Geralt didn't look very happy but he slowly nodded. "Who are you, really?"

"My name is Atreus. I have some minor talent, but my main skills are not in spellcasting." I said and as sad as that was for a Blue Dragon, that was the truth. I was a better smith and enchanter than I was a spellslinger. "We didn't lie, we might just not have told the entire truth. We really are just traveling though, though."

"Which way?"

"Towards the closest city... if you could give us directions." I admitted. "We are a bit lost."

He shook his head. "That is Novigrad to the North, but I would advice you to go somewhere else. Even if you get past the creatures and bandits in the forest, it is a rather unfriendly place with quite a dislike for mages nowadays. Burn them at the stake."

Well, wasn't that just great fucking news. This world was just getting better and better.

"...Perhaps it would be a good idea to head somewhere else."

No. Screw this and screw this world. I'll find somewhere to rest up a couple of days and then we are out of here.

There was no way there was enough magic around this place to be worth the trouble of trying to go through a bloody warzone to get to a place that burned mages alive.

"Go East. Most of the fighting is currently focused along the coast."

"We will take that under advisement, Master Witcher."





AN// Many thanks to Grey Rook for betaing this section.

 

[Hiver]

"Kalecgos." I said and bowed my head slightly when I noticed my flightleader approaching. The dragonkin carrying the boat were putting it down on the snow outside the nexus.

As they noticed him, they quickly turned and bowed deeply. That was the reason I found them slightly creepy, their almost-worship of all things dragon. So much that during the millennium since they started, they had changed from mortals to dragonlike centaur creatures.

Though, I could not argue that they were not useful. Moving the boat from my workshop to the surface without them would have been a pain and a half... then again, even with them carrying it, it was not exactly easy.

In retrospect, I could have put up some temporary portal stones, but meh. We got it out at least.

What drew my attention was not him, it was his companions and I bowed slightly again. "Lady Proudmoore."

The third being approaching was a tall woman, a high elf, with long, red hair flowing freely in the wind. She could only be a dragon in mortal form from the way she completely ignored the snow, even though she was only wearing a thin, light blue dress.

"Atregos." Kalecgos answered with a smile. "This is Saistrasza. My second consort."

Oh. Wow. And from a different flight too. I didn't think Lady Proudmoore would approve of it, but...

...Oh! That's what she talked to Sheila about!

I gave her a small bow as well. "Saistrasza."

"Greetings, Atregos." She answered with a nod. "I see you have created an artifact."

Shaking my head, I looked over at the boat. "That's yet to be seen."

A couple of weeks since returning from... whatever you wanted to call that wartorn hellhole. Velen. Sure, let's go with that... most of which had been spent trying to get this damn thing put together and working.

I wanted it functional and tested before we had to head back to Skyrim.

It should be working now, but I had been unable to test it fully outside the lab yet. This was the test.

Jaina frowned and pulled her warm cloak a bit tighter around herself against the freezing wind. "Is that... a flying ship?"

"Boat. Way too small to be called a ship." I said and shrugged. "As for flying... let's find out, shall we?" I continued before walking over and climbing into it, touching the side as I started to go over the enchantments one last time. "It's a enchanting prototype. The real thing will need a different structural layout due to size and mechanical stresses on the hull. Maybe make it out of steel or some other metal."

I actually had some ideas about that. Dwemer metal would be the dream to build it out of. That stuff was just so efficient... but that would mean mining a hundred or so tons of the stuff from an old Dwemer ruin... and then either building the ship there or me having to haul all that stuff back home. Neither of which was exactly a good idea. Stupid metal still refused to be replicated by any means.

Then again... I couldn't help but wonder if it was possible to somehow bring the ship with me when I 'Walked'.

It seemed unlikely, but Dwemer metal was not only very effective at channeling magic, it was also 'soul' reactive and as such interacted well with the so called 'soulgems' that powered Dwemer automatons.

In theory... my ability did come from my soul...

...Hmm...

Touching the side of the railing, I gave the boat a mental command and it slowly rose into the air, keeping nice and steady.

Good... very good. Engaging propulsion...

From emitters 'midships' golden light slowly spread to form a pair of fan-shaped 'sails'. These ones didn't catch the wind, though, they collected magical energy into the crystal capacitor of the boat, allowing it to function without needing to constantly drain the one flying it.

They also worked as propulsion, converting some of that magical energy into force. I slowly started to move and I shifted slightly, a touch to the side ordering the boat to slowly start to circle, still moving at about running speed.

Even so, my experiment had attracted attention. Dragons of all sizes circling far above as they watched.

I did it.

I solved the problem of how to make a flying ship. One with effectively unlimited range unless it somehow ended up in a magic-free zone.

Well... flying boat. I was rather sure it would scale perfectly well as long as the actual hull of the ship held up, but I would have to test it.

If this worked, it could revolutionize travel in a way not seen since the wheel. Weight was not really an issue either, you would cube out before you weighted out... well, unless you filled the boat with lead or something, lift wasn't unlimited and there was a limit to how much magic the 'sails' could gather from the environment.

Letting the boat circle on autopilot I focused on again going over all the enchantments, one by one now when they were operating. Everything was working perfectly... from capacitor to storage crystal to the collectors.

I couldn't quite hide a happy grin as I touched the boat again, ordering it to fold its wings and land on the soft snow where we took of from.

"Incredible." Jaina said and walked up to put her hand on the side of the boat, looking along it before leaning in to look at the 'sail emitter'. "You actually made a flying boat with nothing but magic. I don't think anyone has managed that before, not even the Scourge. Would it be possible for me to look at the enchanting diagrams? I would owe you a major favor, Atregos."

A favor owed by my flightleader's lead consort?

I leaned slightly to the side to look at Kalecgos who gave me a small nod. She might be his lead consort, but she was still Kirin Tor and not a member of the flight. Had to check.

I nodded. "Of course. But honestly, it's a modification of that of a flying carpet, nothing more. Wasn't that complex and I worked on it for a long while. Just took a while to figure out how to get it working for a different sort of shape and in the end, I needed to fudge it anyway."

That earned me a strange look. "Flying carpets are not complex?"

"Well, they are, just not that difficult ...My glaive is more involved."

It really was, it involved two completely different enchanting systems working off metals worked in several different styles, all from different universes using magic I invented ways to integrate myself. And I might need to add another enchanting system, from Tyria this time, to get it to be able to return to my hand if thrown, they seemed to have the best way of doing that.

Two enchanting systems was a headache on its own. Adding a third would make the difficulty increase exponentially.

"...I see..."




AN// A big box of thanks to Grey Rook for betaing this section.

 

[Hiver]

"By the light... what happened!?" Sheila exclaimed as she stared at me.

This was so embarrassing.

I sighed and crossed my frontlegs, putting my head on them. "I was heading down to the research labs to check on the progress of the soul gems. I had a idea and... long story short, I was in the wrong place at the wrong time when something went wrong in the next lab."

She kept staring at me as she slowly approached. "What?"

"They were trying to improve on a gnomish shrink ray, make it stronger to shrink larger items. Good news... it kind of worked. Bad news, I'm stuck like this for another twenty hours or so until the effect wears off."

"So... not permanent?" She asked carefully reaching out to scratch softly at the 'shoulder' of my right wing.

I shook my head. "No... but the effect is too powerful for me to be able to change to mortal form until it wears off. We have to push our departure to Skyrim up a bit."

Sheila smiled brightly. "Almost too bad because you look downright adorable!" she giggled and reached out to pick me up before hugging me to her chest.

When I returned being larger than a housecat, I was going to rip the tail off that dragon and feed it to him for not following proper testing procedures, especially with Gnomish devices!

"You can take him home." Targos chuckled. "Just get him back here by tomorrow evening so that we can portal him back to the Nexus before he returns to his real size."

The old Wyrm look way too amused for his own good by the entire situation.

Sheila grinned and nodded. "I'll make sure. Having him return to normal in the middle of our place would be bad." she said before she frowned at me. "How shall we get you back home unseen?"

...Good question, the satchel might not be airtight but expanded insides did not like holding living things.

Targos gave us the answer. "I have a cloak here somewhere. You can hide him under that." he said and moved to dig a thin cloak out of one of his chests. "Here we go." he said and tossed the black cloth over to her.

Sheila put me down on the workbench and put the cloak on before she hid a grin as she looked at me. "Sorry... but this is really kind of funny." she said before gently picking me up again and hugging me close beneath the cloak.

I sighed. "Yeah... a bit maybe." before I cuddled closer against her soft... actually, you know what? This might not be so bad after all.


XXXXXXXXXX


...Maybe I should try to figure out exactly what they did with that shrinkray. It was only meant to work for a couple of minutes instead of an entire day.

Because this was awesome.

Ren had been pissed when she found out what happened. At me for getting hit! An hour or so later, she had calmed down.

She had a bit of a point, I should have known better than to enter a lab unannounced. But this did have it's upsides. Like allowing me to curl up on her lap as she and Sheila talked.

"I think I have found the right place. A small storefront in the old town, actually. Really only a hole in the wall, but I won't need too much." Sheila said with a shrug. "Not even in the bad part of the old town.

I rolled onto my back and looked up at her. "Are you sure that's a good idea?"

She grinned and reached to scratch my chin with a finger. "It's close to the gate closest to the Market District. Like I said, not the bad part of old town." before she smiled playfully and continued; "Besides... I plan to put just about every security spell on the place I can."

Closing my eyes, I couldn't help but purr at the attention much to Ren's amusement. "I'll give you a hand." she giggled before she looked thoughtful. "That's the right saying, right?"

"It is." Sheila confirmed. "You are getting better at that."

Rolling onto my paws, I clambered up on the back of the couch to lay down across Sheilas shoulders like an iguana. "You know, this is quite practical." I said and shifted my wings.

Sheila raised her eyebrows and turned her head to look at me, giving me a dubious look. "Oh? Because I can think if several things we can't do as long as you are like this."

Digging my claws into her dress, I clambered around until I was hanging down her chest, facing upwards, my wings spread for balance. "Oh?"

She gave me an amused look and picked me up. "If your claws damage my dress, I'll get quite cross with you." she said with a grin. "And yes, some things we are not doing with you in dragon form. Tiny or not." before she handed me back to Ren. "Especially not me."

"Size difference would be a problem." Ren said as she took me, putting me back in her lap. "But I'll admit, like this he looks rather like a whelp... cute rather than attractive."

Sighing, I curled up again, folding my wings. Okay, maybe this was not quite as awesome as I first thought.

Then Ren started to scratch me softly between my wings and I just melted. I take that back. I was right in the first place.

The only really annoying part of this was that it was pushing back the trip to Skyrim... and I was really curious at what had been going on since my last visit.

Was the civil war over? Did Ajani manage to help solve the local dragon conflict? Were the branches still operational?

Guess we would find out in a couple of da-

Squeak!

No! No tickles!




AN// A bucket of thanks and a good vacation to Grey Rook for betaing this section.

 

[Hiver]

"Galkir." I said with a grin as we entered the branch in Whiterun. We figured we would check this place first and after scrying the location of the portal key stone to make sure it was safe, we had walked through.

"Master Atreus." the half Nord/half Imperial said with a grin, "Welcome back to Whiterun."

"It's good to be back. You have met Sheila and Ren."

He nodded and bowed slightly to them, "I have. Lady Stark. Lady Ren."

Sheila nodded, "What happened? Last we heard, Whiterun was falling."

"It fell." he said and shrugged, "But then Halgar entered the civil war on the side of the Empire. He is Dragonborn. He entered the field of battle with shouts and blade, wearing armor made of dragonbone."

I stared at him for a moment, "...Dragon bone?"

"Yes. Unbreakable by almost any blade. He turned the tide of war. The Dragonborn being on the side of the Empire created an upsurge in morale and support from people who had yet to pick a side. The Stormcloaks were finally defeated a month ago. Rumors are that Ulfric Stormcloak fell in a duel to the death against Halgar himself."

He eats the souls of dragons and now he was wearing our bones for armor?

I glanced at Ren and she looked about as comfortable as I was at that idea.

"So... what happened to the dragon crisis?" Sheila asked, giving me an amused look, "Last I heard, our friends were heading to explore Halgar's powers."

Galkir nodded."From what I heard from Halgar, he killed Alduin. Dragons have been seen since, but there have been no major attacks."

"Is he... here?" I asked after a small moment. I really didn't want to be to close to that guy.

Galkir shook his head, "No. Last thing I heard, he was heading for Markath. If you want to catch him, you better portal there."

He is heading for the other side of the country. Brilliant!

"No, no, that's fine. Any messages from Ajani and Alexis?"

"Better. You can find Lady Castle at The Bannered Mare."


XXXXXXXXXX


The scent of roasted meat assaulted my nostrils as soon as we entered the local inn and I couldn't help but smile.

I really rather liked this place. Good rooms, good food... tolerable drink.

"There." Ren said and lead the way across the inn towards the corner table behind the stairs to the second floor. Following her and Sheila I stopped by the bar and picked up four mugs of that strange mint mead before continuing to the table.

"Alexis. Good to see you again." I said with a smile as I put the mugs down on the table before sitting down.

"Atreus." The redhead said with a smile of her own, leaning back in her chair before she looked at Sheila, "And this must be the Sheila Stark I heard so much about."

I nodded, "It is." I chuckled, "Shiela, meet Alexis Castle. My one time training partner."

"I think I could actually give you a challenge now." Alexis said and picked up the mug of mead I put down for her, "I picked up some new skills since then."

I shrugged, "Well, it has been... what, four, five months?" I grinned, "But I wouldn't bet on it. I have some new ones of my own."

Sheila sighed and looked at Ren, "Is this some kind of Planeswalker thing?"

Ren shrugged.

I just shook my head and sipped at my mead, "So, where is Ajani? Didn't expect to see either of you honestly, just a message. I did hear you managed to solve the dragon thing."

Alexis sighed and ran her hand through her long red hair, "Yeah... that was a headache and a half. Halgar was the key though to solving it. He went into the afterlife and killed Anduin."

What.

I stared at her for a long moment before I looked at Sheila and Ren, shaking my head. I didn't want to know. She would likely tell me anyway, but I had a feeling I would sleep better not knowing.

The Dragonborn was creepy enough as it was, walking around dressed in dragon body parts and eating souls.

I did not need to know anything else about that freak. I just wanted to stay the hell away from him.

"And Ajani?" I quickly asked before she could elaborate, "Where did he run off too?"

She shrugged, "Ravnica. He said he was going to meet with somebody there. Not sure who."

Sheila frowned, "Ravnica? Where is that?"

Alexis shrugged, "No idea. He says it's about five steps from here."

That 'was' quite far away. This place was a rather long way from Azeroth, about as far as I could move in a single 'Walk'. You might not feel it while in the Blind Eternities as Ajani called it, but you still needed air and such.
...And you paid for it when you returned to reality. When in-between worlds, you just got more and more tired. When returning to reality, more often than not my lungs were burning and I was gasping for breath.

And with a week between Walks, that would put Ravnica about five weeks away. Might be able to do it faster, but that could downright kill me. And with infinite worlds spreading out, I would never be able to find it on my own.

"I see. You didn't go with him?"

Alexis shook her head, "No. He said that there was something he needed to do on his own." She said with a shrug, "No idea what. Wouldn't tell me. Anyway, I decided to stick around here until you came back." before she grinned, "You told me about Azeroth during training. I want to see it."

I slowly nodded, "Sure. I don't see a problem with that, really. No idea how to actually guide you there though."

She grinned and looked at Sheila and Ren, "Don't worry, Master Goldmane showed me. We just need to hang on to each other when one of us Walks and pull the other along into the Blind Eternities..." Alexis said before she frowned in thought, "What's your ritual? I don't think you ever told me. I saw you Walk before... some kind of meditation thing, right? I need to go get lost running in a forest, preferably at night. That's a pain in the ass."

I gave her a strange look at that, "What?"

Alexis frowned and shrugged, "You know... your ritual is the same as when you first awaken your Spark. Master Goldmane needs to fall to do it."

I looked at Sheila and Ren in surprise, they stared at her in return. Shaking my head again, I turned back to my fellow Planeswalker, "I... just kind of channel magic into my Spark."

Her jaw dropped and she stared at me, mug of mead half lifted to her lips, "...What..."




AN// A large thanks to Alleydodger for betaing this section.