An angel’s road to hell

74. Of conversations, information and a little bit of cruelty

Cassandra Pendragon

I pocketed the emblem again and joined Mephisto in searching through the mountains of treasure.  Soon I realised that I was mainly there to provide a set of hands that could dig through the heaps of gold and gems. While the sounds of Viyara’s massive form slithering through the hoard became more and more distant we slowly made our way across the dais. I was nervous and itching to be off but I’d curse myself soon enough if I wasn’t going to do this properly. Admittedly the wondrous sights of sparkling metal and shining gems made it far easier to push away my anxiety but I still couldn’t fully appreciate the stroll through a dragon’s hoard. Every time I took a moment to marvel at a particularly beautiful piece my mind turned to Ahri and the others and how long it would take for a couple of airships to reach them. Never the less I somewhat enjoyed myself.

Sliding down steep slopes of coins or climbing hills made of crystals was fun and my amazement grew with every step we took. I didn’t know how long Viyara’s father had been accumulating wealth but the sheer variety was breathtaking. Gold and other precious metals had been carved into works of art, sculptures with glowing emerald eyes, little trinkets like horns or brooches encrusted with jewels and larger than life reliefs decorated with shimmering patches of different materials stood side by side with weapons basked in a magical light. Every piece was fascinating and I had to pull myself forcefully away from immense blades made of rubies and diamonds, daggers with pitch black edges and green inlays and a set of crystal orbs that shone with a milky white light, dark shapes slowly forming and dispersing beneath their surface.

We walked or, in Mephisto’s case, glided side by side, he was concentrating hard on different pieces before discarding them again while I was mostly busy gawking with my mouth open. From time to time he’d point and ask me to dig up one thing or the other only to inspect it closely and drop it again after a moment. After a while he broke the silence:

“So, a dragoness, a fey and an orc. Quite an interesting group of strays you adopted there and all that in the middle of a conflict. I never knew you were such a sociable creature.”

“I’m not sure about that and I definitely didn’t adopt the orc,” a slight smile tugged at the corners of my mouth. “But I have to admit, I enjoy their company. What do you think of them?”

“Hmm, Viyara is young and I think she sees something like a protector or substitute parent in you. I have no clue how that happened, mind you, considering how inexperienced you still are but she’s a fine young lady. Quite mature and focused but I guess losing your family, being kidnapped and rescued and preparing to take revenge, all on the same day would do that to anyone. If she was human I’d advise to be cautious, sometimes I think she is too collected considering what happened but as she is a hybrid that’s to be expected. From what I heard they develop nearly twice as fast and have two souls to carry life’s burdens. You should take care of her.”

“I’ll try. You know about hybrids? I thought she was the first.”

“Hardly. Maybe on this world but I’d say she is only the first one you heard about. They aren’t common but throughout the cosmos there are several species who can produce offsprings with two souls, dragons are simply the most impressive ones. Can you grab that spear? No, the golden one with the diamond tip. Hmm, junk, elaborately enchanted but still junk.”

“And what about the whole steed thing you mentioned? Later on you made it sound like it wasn’t anything of significance but I highly doubt you’d have used that word if there hadn’t been a reason. You also mentioned she’d be my first. Care to share some details?” He exhaled slowly.

“Well, powerful as we are there is only a handful of immortals who can navigate between worlds on their own. Oh, we might fly or even travel through the void on our own but that still takes ages, depending on where you want to go. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that we have searched for ways around that for a long time and it so happens that dragons allow us to circumvent the problem.”

“How come? What makes them special?”

“Honestly, I don’t know for sure. A dragon’s flight is much more magic than actual movement, or did you think they could get their mass airborne with only their wings? Anyway, when a dragon comes into contact with transcendent energies they change and adopt some of its properties instead of immediately combusting. I don’t know why but they always develop the ability to enter the void, the space between the different layers of reality and navigate through it at the speed of thought, practically allowing them to go anywhere they like in the shortest span of time. To survive the trip some of their magic infuses their scales and turns them into crystals, thus the name Crystalline. That’s, by the way, how you’ll know that Viyara has finished integrating your energy. As soon as her scales are completely changed, the process is done.”

“Do you know how she’ll look? What colour she’ll have or if her body is going to transform?”

“No, I don’t. Like I said, you have never before bound a dragon, at least as far as I know, so I can only speculate. Show me that glowing red orb if you would. Your characteristic are going to play a vital role as you have already witnessed with her horns but other than that… if I had to guess I’d say she’ll have quite a bit of silver in her coat and maybe even form a couple of your energy wings in a reduced form but, like I said, that’s pure speculation. You don’t have to think about it too much for now, those changes take time, quite a bit of it.”

“Alright, I’ll pester you once we get to that point. What about the fey? Do you have any experience with the spirit folk?”

“Unfortunately more than I’d like. Nasty little buggers the lot of them but Erya seems… tame. I wouldn’t sleep with her, though. That might have some far reaching consequences.”

“Didn’t you listen? I already found Aurora, that’s not going to happen. What I meant was: Is it wrong to trust her?”

“Probably, but that ship has sailed. Your promises can’t just be brushed away or ignored. When you gained the ability to channel your energy through your body you changed, fundamentally so. With every passing minute and every time you use your energy your body imbues more and more of your spark until it isn’t mortal anymore. A nasty side effect is the way your oaths work from now on. They are ingrained into every fibre of your being as well and it would be a terrible idea to violate one. Be careful what you promise and especially to whom. I don’t think you made a grave mistake, though. For a fey she seems rather sensible. Maybe a few centuries of slavery can have a positive effect on some people. Alas, we’re stuck with her either way for the foreseeable future. Ah, now that is interesting.” He had stopped in front of a dragon sized tome, each page was larger than I was tall and the consisted of polished onyx, the scripture inlaid with pale diamonds.

When I paused in front of it, static charged my hair and my fur rose up, the amount of magic contained in its pages was astonishing. Reverently I walked closer and touched the cover.

Nothing happened and Mephisto snorted:

“What did you expect? That this thing miraculously reacts to a being impervious to magic? Here, let me show you.” He stepped closer and concentrated. With my second vision I saw a small trail of energy rise from him and slither into the book, almost like a key that entered a lock. Invisible runes on the cover lit up in a soothing blue and it opened with a smooth sound. Unfortunately I couldn’t recognise a single sigil where as Mephisto studied the page intently, his eyes followed the neat rows of glyphs from top to bottom. Grudgingly I asked him: “what is it?”

“A diary, written by Viyara’s father. We should definitely take it with us. There is certainly some useful information about this world inside. It won’t help us right now, but it’ll be a great boon in the future.” With another pulse of mana he closed the time again. “Could you give me a drop of blood?” I took a sharpened piece of silver, dangling from a necklace at my feet and drew a drop of blood from my thumb. With the same spell he had used back on Boseiju Mephisto applied two distinct runes and added a third one just below. “That last one will contain the aura of the tome and make sure it doesn’t interfere with the magic in your stamp.” He explained. “There, all done.”

As soon as he finished the last stroke the tome shimmered and disappeared and I could feel it settling into my own pocket dimension. “You remember how to retrieve it?” He inquired.

I nodded. I’d have to enter the dimension mentally and take it back out with me. The rune that had sent it there would be consumed in the process and he, or hopefully I by then, would have to draw it again. “Good. How much space do you think you have left?”

“About a fourth is occupied now,” I answered after checking. The tome was about 2 on 2 meters with a thickness of another meter. “Hmm, that’s considerably more than I hoped. Even from here I can see more than enough to fill it up several times. I don’t know how much additional weight Viyara can carry but she isn’t that large yet. Why don’t you have a look around? Just head for the strongest concentrations of energy you can perceive and we’ll see what we find.”

I did as I was told but it was difficult. The amount of magic in the air and around us made it hard to discern details and even harder to pinpoint where we’d have to go. After a couple of minutes I hesitantly pointed to my left and said: “this way, I think. There are two light sources in addition to Erya’s ruby that seem brighter than the rest, at least to me.” We strode off quickly, heading for a section of the dais that was mainly filled with weapons, armours and wands, some of them made from metal, others crafted from a variety of timbers in dark browns and reds. When we approached the first rack containing spears and shields a memory form one of our last conversations surfaced and I touched the emblem in my pocket gingerly.

“Remember when we first met?” I asked.

“I do, but I don’t think you do. I assume you’re referring to the first time I met you as Cassandra?”

I huffed: “yeah, wise ass. Back then you said you’d be able to help me regain my former weapon. Regrow it form the coin if I remember your wording correctly. Well, now seems like a good time to do so. The gods know how direly I needed it.”

“Pff. Gods, don’t make me laugh. Those fleeting accumulations of energy with a spark of consciousness know nothing about our needs nor do they care, they simply can’t. But that’s a lesson for another time. You’re right though, if you could get Aiglos back it’d be a tremendous help and I think we have everything we need around here. Let’s first check out what you saw and then we’ll try to get your pointy stick. I need a moment to think anyways, it’s been aeons since I last had to deal with another immortal’s artefacts.” Aiglos… I liked the name. We continued on in silence, my gaze roaming over the exquisite masterpieces we came by. I was sorely tempted to try on one of the armours but the design didn’t allow for my tails or wings and I was pretty certain that they’d be more of a hindrance than a help if I were to carry one into a fight. Barzuk was another matter though and I silently looked around for a piece that might fit the burly orc. I didn’t have to search for long as there was a whole section dedicated to oversized humanoid armour.

When I took a closer look I realised that most of them were actually ceremonial pieces made of precious metals that would bend and break under even a small amount of force, utterly useless in battle. Only a couple of them were made with practicability and protection in mind and of those only one struck me as suitable, the others were mostly mage armour in one form or the other, covered in glyphs and gems that could hold different enchantments. Barzuk wouldn’t be able to use them so they were mainly added weight and a possible weak spot. The one I thought he might use was a cuirass with long metal stripes covering the legs. A formation of runes was engraved along the back, where the spine of the wearer would be, and across the midriff. The armour was forged from gleaming steel which reflected light with an orange hue. Black inlays ran across the chest and down the arms, strengthening the joints and seamlessly devolving into the cluster of runes. The whole thing was huge and probably too heavy for me to easily life without enhancing my muscles.

I stopped, pointed at the armour and asked Mephisto: “can you read the runes on this one? I, thinking about bringing it along for the orc.”

“That green skin’s skull is thick enough but I guess a little protection for the rest of him wouldn’t go amiss. Let me see… Endurance, strength and balance along the spine, written with quite a lot of understanding, stability, hardness, and flexibility across the waist. Those aren’t as proficiently drawn but still quite good by mortal standards. Judging from the position and orientation the ones on the back should empower the wearer while the others enhance the armour itself. The materials are more than adequate, titanium as the base and a mixture of obsidian and burned silver for the inlays. You want me to store it for you?” “Please do and in case I haven’t said it yet, thank you.”

“What for?” I cut myself on one of the swords nearby while I answered: “your support. I’m sure you must be dying to tell me how many times I fucked us since you were…incapacitated. Yet you haven’t said a word and went with everything I’ve done. You even played nice with the others. So, thank you.” He shrugged and applied the runes I’d need to transport the armour into my stamp.

“Honestly, you didn’t. I think you could have handled the whole fey thing a little better but otherwise you did fine. I mean, you’re still breathing and that’s more than I could reasonably expect after everything you told me.” I had to smile, I think that had been the first time he had ever praised me. “Don’t get to full of yourself, though. You’re still as knowledgable as a tree and that’s got to change if you want to keep that pretty head on your shoulders. As soon as we get out of the mess you got us into, albeit for a good enough reason, I’m going to change that. I expect Aurora…Ahri will take you under her wings in regards to actual combat and I’ll make sure you have the necessary knowledge to go along with it. For instance, if you had had the necessary control over your abilities you could have easily torn through that dragon once you were close enough. After I’m done you’ll know how but it’s going to be hard. Something to look forward to, at least for me.” He had finished the runes, the armour disappeared and a nearly imperceptible movement of air filled the space where it had been. “Now then, let’s see where you’re leading us.”

A few minutes later the racks of equipment vanished, replaced by gems that contained a myriad of different plants, eggs and even animals, some of them huge, others small but all encased in stone and seemingly frozen in time. A cold shudder ran along my tails as I stared into the open eyes of small gryphons, baby wyverns, infant krakens and even a fully grown unicorn. Shafeer really had been a cruel bastard. I felt anxious and nearly turned around but one of the magical hotspots I had seen was close and I kept walking, turning a blind eye to my surroundings. A few moments later we stopped in front of a sizeable diamond that contained a small snake, azure scales bright as sapphires shimmered through the crystal and three sets of feathered wings ran along its body. With a sharp intake of breath Mephisto exclaimed: “it’s still alive!”