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A moment of stunned silence descended on the two dragons Carlos had just introduced himself to. Then Tilnaranrunerdar started laughing, his great booming guffaws echoing off of the ground below. He managed to get a few words out between bellows of laughter. "Oh, my! … You … understood … the whole thing … all along. … Hilarious! … You heard … Oh, wow." He laughed a few more times, then gradually got himself under control.
Larantorthilmanel, for her part, just stared at Carlos for the first few seconds, then turned her head to glare at Tilnaran. She huffed a small burst of fire at the laughing dragon, but it splashed harmlessly against a ward before it could even reach him, and he just laughed even harder for a moment. She glared impotently a little longer, then turned up her nose. "Hmph. I really don't see what you're laughing about. I conducted myself perfectly." An undercurrent of tension in her voice gave away the lie to Carlos's comprehension aid, though he was sure any ordinary translation would have missed it.
When Tilnaran finally mustered the composure to speak normally, he was smirking widely at her. "Oh, really? You admitted to a human a desire, not for wealth or power, but for luxuries, and you are not embarrassed about it? And in almost the same breath, you even disclosed a deficiency in your lair's protections! Talk about ruining your image of draconic superiority!"
Laran quickly fired back, "Oh, I embarrassed myself, did I? You're the one who makes those things! And throwing a fit about having your precious work interrupted, only to then squeal over a tiny novelty like a hatchling with their first nugget? Your dignity is in tatters after that!"
Tilnaran snorted. "That others desire for me to make certain things reflects nothing on me. If anything, my ability to make things that other dragons want is a point of pride. As for your other… 'point…' your ability to somehow both want my products and simultaneously not see the value in what I do astounds me."
Carlos coughed loudly and withdrew the enchanted plate of rare metals back to his hand. "Ahem. I can still hear both of you right now, you know."
Both of the dragons looked at him, then looked at each other. Tilnaranrunerdar just shrugged, but Larantorthilmanel looked at Carlos again and glared. "You heard nothing. You understand?" Wisps of fire flickered around her mouth as she spoke.
Carlos shrugged. "Nothing that particularly matters to me, sure. If you're trying to threaten me, though, didn't I already prove that you would need some serious backup to do that properly? And that's if we ignore Princess Lornera — or 'the Kalor,' as you call her — right here with me." He glanced at all the other people, nervously hovering nearby and watching a potentially-high-stakes conversation in a language they didn't know, and switched to Ganler. "I request that you show respect, if not for my associates, then for me on their behalf, by conducting the rest of this discussion in a language they can understand."
Laran maintained her threatening glare for a few more seconds, then reluctantly nodded and let her flickers of flame die out. She spoke in Ganler, as requested, "That is… fair. My part in this is almost done, anyway." She turned her head forward to face the other dragon again, but still continued using the human language. "Tilnaranrunerdar, do you agree to my… finder's fee?"
Tilnaran tilted his head and hummed, then replied in the same language, "Hmm. On the condition that these enchanters fulfill a satisfactory deal with me, yes. I will let you know. In the meantime, I believe this is about to get very boring for you, so I suggest you depart. Unless you have suddenly developed a surprise passionate interest in the minutiae of how enchantments are made? No? I thought not."
Larantorthilmanel was already zooming off into the distance, as if trying to outrace the sound of her own dismissive snort. Tilnaran watched her rapid departure until she was over a mile away, then chuckled quietly and shook his head. As if his chuckle were a signal, nervous laughs broke out from almost everyone. Only Lornera remained stoically quiet, though Carlos's and Amber's laughs were more relaxed.
"Now then, to business." Tilnaran furled his wings and settled onto a midair force platform produced by an enchanted band of mythril that was wrapped around his back right thigh. He looked back and forth between Carlos and Lornera. "Hmm. First, who exactly am I negotiating with? Princess… Lornera, was it? Do these enchanters owe you allegiance? Ordinarily, I would assume so, but they have behaved as though independent."
Lornera hesitated for a fraction of a second. "They… do not. We are working together for a shared goal."
Tilnaran nodded. "I see. In that case, I mean no disrespect, but I doubt you are willing to trade anything that I would care about." He paused briefly, but she did not speak to correct him. He focused squarely on Carlos and Amber. "So. You two. Was my… annoying acquaintance… correct that you are willing to trade your knowledge of enchanting, and what do you want in exchange?"
"Yes, trading that knowledge was our intent in coming with her to you, and we want to absorb aether from your wellspring to increase our power." Carlos glanced at the adventurers. They were standing very still, though Haftel couldn't quite keep his hands from twitching periodically. Trinlen was fidgeting constantly, and had somehow replicated the motion of bouncing on his feet despite being airborne with a Flight spell. Ressara's face was a bit pale, and she was determinedly looking away to one side. Carlos focused back on the dragon. "Ah, would you mind if my… underlings set up camp on the ground? Trinlen, you can stay." He almost rolled his eyes as Trinlen's face morphed from disappointment back to excited glee in an instant.
Tilnaran glanced downward, then shrugged. "As long as they don't make nuisances of themselves, and don't actively absorb aether without my permission, they may remain as guests for the duration of your own stay here. I really don't care." The adventurers and Ressara promptly descended, accompanied by Purple, and Tilnaran completely ignored them. "Now, my wellspring is Level 57. Teach me everything you know about enchanting, and you may absorb as much as you need to match that — without draining it dry, of course. What do you say?"
Carlos chuckled. "I say that I believe you have drastically underestimated the magnitude of how much we know about enchanting. Teaching you everything would take longer than we want to stay here, and would include some extraordinarily valuable secrets. You would have to offer a great deal more to trade for everything that we know."
"Oh, really?" Tilnaran tilted his head skeptically. "Are you sure that you are not underestimating me? You already know that I can make enchantments that function, which is a feat that has famously eluded humans outside of that one human guild for longer than even dragon lifespans! I readily admit that human enchanters have considerable knowledge of runes that I lack, but I am hardly an ignorant beginner. I stand before you, already an accomplished master, asking merely to elevate my mastery to greater heights."
Carlos shook his head and waved his right hand dismissively. "Our greatest secrets of enchanting would make the greatest master the Enchanters Guild has ever had seem like a rank novice by comparison, and you just said, yourself, that your mastery is less than theirs." He brought his hands together and held them out side by side, palms forward, placatingly. "That said, your point that we do not know the current extent of your knowledge is a good one. How about we start with assessing your current mastery, so that we can determine what parts of our knowledge would be the most useful to you? In exchange for whatever of your secrets that might expose to us — which, incidentally, I am certain will not improve our current knowledge of enchanting — I will commit to explaining the runes that are unknown to you in the enchantment that I showed you, even if we ultimately do not reach agreement on a larger exchange."
"Hmm." Tilnaran's gaze shifted minutely, moving from Carlos's face to the enchanted metal rectangle that floated beside him, then shifted back after a long moment. "You truly believe that, don't you? And that enchantment does show more than simple boasting… Very well, I accept your proposal." He spread his wings, dismissed the immaterial platform he was lying on, and turned to fly back. "Come along to my workshop. I'll show you what I have already done, so that you can assess it." After a few moments of flight, he turned his head back and called over his shoulder, "Oh, and hand over that enchanted… thing. I'll return it when you fulfill your part of the deal to explain it." Carlos shrugged and did as requested.
Lornera hesitated uncertainly, hovering in the air behind them, looking back and forth between the trio flying in company with the dragon, and the camp just starting to be set up on the ground below. Before she could settle her doubts about which group to join, Carlos reassured her through Purple's mental bonds. [We'll be fine on our own for this, and you're better suited to protecting the camp than examining runic enchantments in a dragon's personal workshop. And if he does try something, Purple can notify you.] She looked in his direction for a second longer, then nodded and descended.
After a few miles, near where Carlos had first sensed his soul, Tilnaranrunerdar abruptly plunged toward the ground. Just before impact, Carlos noticed a rather sophisticated subtle illusion ward. He took a moment to examine how it made onlookers see whatever they expected to see, based on the ward's surroundings, instead of the dragon-sized tunnel entrance that was actually there, before following the dragon through it.
Tilnaran clearly noticed his momentary pause, as the dragon looked over its wings at him as he entered the cavernous tunnel. "Oh? Did that ward actually catch you for a moment?"
Carlos shook his head and sped up. "No, I spotted it even before you crossed it. I was just assessing it. It's good work, very well made by any normal standard."
Tilnaran chuckled and landed, right in front of a huge doorway. "But not by your standards? I'd be interested to see your version of it. But first, my workshop!" He casually flicked a bit of mana into the door, 30 feet tall and wide and heavily reinforced, and the door seemed to evaporate, rapidly disappearing from the center to the edges.
Carlos, Amber, and Trinlen followed the dragon in. Even the tunnel was already roomy enough for a full-grown dragon to traverse it comfortably, and on the other side of the door, the room expanded to a truly vast size. Powerful enchantments were everywhere, so abundantly numerous that Carlos almost forgot to pay any attention to his normal senses. One of those enchantments responded to their presence by emitting a soft glow, filling the entire cavern with gentle light.
Some benches and tables were scattered around, but most things just lay on the floor. To their right, several dozen sets of various metal sheets, orbs, brackets, circular bands, and other such accoutrements were neatly stacked in organized columns of identical items. A moment's inspection confirmed that the physically identical items also bore identical enchantments. Tilnaran noticed where they were looking and commented, "Most dragons have no idea how very common their requests are. I can pay that 'finder's fee' entirely with prepared stock that I've already made. It's terribly boring work, but you'd be amazed how much some will pay just to get things sooner. Or especially for a 'rush, overnight' job, heh." He smirked.
He gestured to the opposite side of the cavern on the left. "Now, for the actually interesting stuff, there is where I keep prize items to study. In fact, this little piece you made deserves a spot among my most intriguing selections." Tilnaran's mana interacted with an enchantment covering the area, and the multi-teleport enchanted plate floated over to a decorated display case. He sighed and shook his head. "Sadly, those are not my own work. This next section, however…" He walked forward and gestured ahead on the left. "This is where I do my experimental work."
Several items, some ordinary and others bizarrely shaped, were laid out in the area with no apparent organization. Each one bore a different enchantment of some kind. A few of those enchantments had stuttering mana flows running through their circuits, occasionally even emitting small showers of mana motes out of bad joints or where conflicting currents collided. A smaller number simply did not function. Others were clearly built around a specific rune, with several variations of different runic structures attached to separate copies of the same rune, and mana refused to flow through most of the varied sections. Most of the experimental items were several times larger than their enchantments required.
Amber gasped in shock, and Carlos followed her stare to find a line of stacks of large metal sheets at the far edge of the area. Each sheet was at least a foot wide, several feet long, and half an inch thick. He scanned down the line, identifying stacks of copper, steel, silver, platinum– Amber beat him to it. "Are those mythril and adamantium?!"
Tilnaranrunerdar drew himself up and grinned. "Why, yes. Yes, they are. Dragons can pay rather well, when they have reason to."
Carlos gaped. The few nuggets they had found of those magical metals were nothing compared to the wealth on display here. Those two stacks were the shortest, with only three or four sheets each, but the sheer size of the sheets still made it an absurd amount of such rare and valuable metals. Oh, wait, there was a single sheet of gold, almost fully blocked from view by the platinum stack next to it, making gold technically the shortest stack.
His mind raced. All of his minds raced, concurrently. Maybe they should reconsider whether this dragon actually could pay a possibly-reasonable price for all of their enchanting knowledge.
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