Ria stretched, her bare boobs bounced a little with the movement as she slipped out of her bedroll. Longingly she glanced at her pack, tempting her with the clothing she’d been denied these last few weeks. For a moment she wondered why she’d ever agreed to be Aurora’s plaything for an entire month no less. Not just a day or a week, but a full month. Glancing at the other bed in their tent, she noticed that Ixil was still sleeping. Ria decided not to wake her and turned away from her pack as well. Heading for the flap, she slipped outside where she encountered a wall.
A giant wall of silver, blue and green that glimmered in the morning light. It seemed to expand for a moment, the scales shifting, but it was really just a slight movement, as a large neck craned to look her way. The large form rumbled then settled back down. She moved around the edge of the tent, finding an open path to the rear, although partially blocked by Aurora’s tail. It was long, thick, and covered with her distinctive scales.
Ria stepped over the end and followed the path down towards the stream. There was a nice little clearing by the stream, where she’d dug out a tub, and latrine the night before. One of the nicer boons of studying Earth magic, which was by far one of the most versatile elements. One of the reasons why she’d made sure Arlie studied the element, even if it was one of her weaker affinities. Ria had always been thankful her own teacher had made her study Earth magic and she imagined Arlie would thank her sooner rather than later. Especially with this journey she was undertaking.
Yet what bothered her most was knowing what Arlie was facing and not being able to act on it. Aurora knew full well what Arlie was going to find, and Ria felt conflicted about not telling her anything. She’d been fully informed by the slumbering dragon exactly what was going on in Wilamark. The result of a high level spell, an evolution of the scrying branch of magic. Scry was the most basic, where you cast your spirit out to produce an eye which can watch a location. Spiritwalk was more advanced, the natural step forward, where you don’t merely cast your vision forward, but your entire spirit, letting you observe a location as if you were there.
What Aurora did was one step more complex, she didn’t merely cast her spirit out and across space, but she split it. Creating dozens of invisible ghostly clones of herself that allowed her to search all of Wilamark and its surroundings in a matter of hours.
Sliding into her camp tub, she warmed the water with an application of fire and let out a breath of pleasure. It felt nice, but her mind couldn’t help chewing on what she’d learned yesterday. Wilamark wasn’t in too much danger, but it had drawn the attention of not one but two devils. According to Aurora the younger one was actually active in the town, while the elder was typically at the nest. A nest that was home to just over a thousand hellfiends and twice that number of Hellspawn. Along with more than a few monsters native to the plane of Hell.
Some she was already familiar with like Spine Crawlers but that was really the only monster at this nest she knew. The others were unknown to her. Aurora had named them, though, the wormlike H’lgar with a large, long body, many teeth and coated with a natural acidic slime. According to Aurora, these worms from hell had powerful earth magic and could grow large enough to swallow not just humans but mature ogres.
She’d also described another the Vradri, a bipedal reptilian monster quite similar to the Drava. Aurora claimed the beasts were an offshoot that both shared an ancient ancestor. Only the ancestors of Vradri were banished to the plane of hell, where they eventually became what they are today. Vradri were apparently larger than a Drava, claws longer and sharper, and possessed a long bladed stinger on their tail. Thankfully, they lacked the camouflage of the Drava, but instead, they were blessed with thicker natural armor and a far more potent magical acid. Not to mention a potential for natural magic, which allowed them to shield themselves from attack.
The last monster she’d been told about was the Helshia, known more commonly as Hell’s Gardners. Of all the monsters, it was the one she was least concerned about. They were an all-female monster line with a relation to nymphs and dryads. Just like those creatures, they cared more about their garden and not much else. The only thing outside of their garden that these creatures cared about was children. Aurora said they were quite loving of children, but that they also tended to torment them. Perhaps one of the reasons they ended up on the plane of hell. Of course she knew as evil as the spawn of hell were, far worse things were to be found in the Abyss.
A voice echoed in her mind, “Worrying about what will come won’t change anything.”
“How can I not worry!?”
“Arlie will be fine.”
If she could glare at the dragon she would, instead she snorted, then responded, Right... and I’m not naked. You have her against not one but two devils! She’s a high mage for gods sakes!”
“She’ll be fine, she’s done it before.”
“No, she hasn’t!”
“I’ve known her soul a long time. She may not have faced any devils in this lifetime, but this isn’t the first time the denizens of hell were unleashed on mortal kind, just perhaps not so widespread. Usually it’s just a hell worshipper cult managing to gain enough power to open a gate, then the fiends start their usual blood sacrifices to bring forth a few armies. One of her past incarnations ended up facing one such incident while still a high mage; she not only escaped, but killed two devils before returning two months later with an army, where she killed a dozen more in magical combat.”
Ria frowned, “I’ve never heard such a story, who was she then?”
“At the time? Emirila Contrey, you would know her as Queen Contrey the First, the woman who united the ancient clans of Varixyies and established the Queendom of Contrey. She was also the first Contrey since the Grand Mage to reclaim the Grand Mage’s Archive. Speaking of that Archive, when Arlie finishes her tasks here, I’m going to send her there.”
“That’s in Dragon Clan territory! They’d hunt her down and try her for being a witch!!! Are you insane!?”
“She’ll be fine, and she needs to go there. It holds secrets meant for the Bykura Kinsara, and there is something she must know before she challenges the Yellow Temple. It’s why the previous Kinsara never completed the trial of the Temples, and if she doesn’t know she will fail. Something that cannot be allowed to pass.”
Ria looked Aurora’s way, “Then why not just tell her? Why send her into enemy territory on some fool’s search?”
Aurora was silent for a moment, “Because I cannot, but the answer lies within the archive recorded in journals only the Kinsara can find.”
“You’ve been bound to silence, haven’t you?” she replied, her mind chewing over the implications. The answer that came sent a chill down her bones.
“Yes, I have,” she replied.
“Who could possibly do that to you? You are one of the twelve!” she exclaimed aloud.
“The Goddess of the Cycle, the same goddess who set me the task of being the Guardian of the Bykura Kinsara. A task I’ve dutifully fulfilled for the last thirty-five Mycanna, even for dragons that is a long time, a long time indeed.”
Ria blinked, the terms were odd but the joys of mind speech left her with an impression. If she understood it right, Aurora had just said she’d been looking over their family for... seven hundred thousand years? “Wait!? You are over seven hundred thousand years old?”
“I’m among the oldest of the dragons, I predate Valiere itself. I was there when the Goddess of the Cycle created the world. We met long before then, well over two hundred Mycanna before, she was already an accomplished young goddess, and even sat upon the throne then, while I was just a mere hatchling back then. It was a trying time, the end of an Era.”
“What do you mean trying time?”
“When we met, the Age of the First Lords was coming to an end, a fool seeking ultimate power tried to become a god among gods. Instead, they became the first of the Fallen.”
Ria perked up the instant she heard that. The First Fallen was something she knew about; they were also known as the Fallen God, a being so twisted, so evil that the gods themselves cast them into the lowest depths of the Abyss, a realm they carved out of the universe to imprison all evil. Yet she’d always been under the impression that the place was older than that. Then something else occurred to her, “Does that mean you’ve fought a Fallen?”
“I have indeed, I was among the warriors who sealed the Fallen God away, but I was too young to bear the burden of the sealing magic. My task was to defend the mages, but my good friend the Goddess of the Cycle? She was one of the mages and is the last of those who sealed the Fallen God. The others have all passed beyond the veil.”
Distracted for the moment, she allowed herself to get lost in stories of the past before the world. An age so mystical, she could barely comprehend it. It was quite interesting.