Ari cursed silently to herself as she left Falith's camp and boarded the train. She felt like she was doing that a lot lately. Not the boarding the train, though she was doing that too. It was the cursing silently when no one could hear that bothered her more.
It was all Perry's fault.
Except it wasn’t actually his fault. She just missed the man. And worried she wasn’t doing enough for their adopted daughter without him.
“Problems?” Bahama asked as Ari settled into her seat.
The dragon had decided to attach herself to Ari for whatever reason. It claimed it enjoyed visiting the countryside by train, but Ari had her doubts.
“Just the usual,” Ari replied, bringing up a map to check on Bevel’s position. Out at the magic range again. Safe, for the moment. It felt like she barely had time for Bevel these days, even with her Memory Palace. Most of her time there had to be spent managing these people.
She glared at the dragon, who was looking out the train’s window.
“You know, I owned one of these myself once,” Bahama said, swirling a glass of wine, ignoring Ari’s attempt to dismiss her.
“A winery?” Ari asked, not for a second thinking the dragon would be referring to anything so mundane as a bottle of wine.
“That too. But I meant the train. It is a rather pleasant accommodation.”
Too pleasant, in Ari’s opinion. And not as private as had been promised her. Not that she could blame Nails for being unable to keep out a dragon. “I’m grateful Nails put it together for me.”
Not that she’d asked for it. A delay of an hour had seen the man scrambling to get it done.
“Not all they’ve done for you. They see your value,” Bahama said, gesturing to the second line that had been run near Falith’s camp. “They didn’t do that for your little elf princess.”
A rather absurd expansion considering how little Faleth contributed to Aeternia’s overall production.
“Are you implying they think I’m getting in the way?” It was how Ari felt when she’d discovered they’d put similar second lines in place along the entire route, just for her.
Bahama swirled her wine once more without answering, before drinking it.
Left to her paperwork for a time, Ari brought up her overlay. The researchers were working on a version of Memory Palace that wouldn’t take her into a separate space, but allow her to remain in the real world while under the full effects of the dilation.
It was a tricky problem though. There was a reason such magic remained the domain of Djinn-souled. Ari simply had begun following Perry’s example inside Conflict’s trials, extending her time as much as possible. While it was working, she had to be careful. She couldn’t afford to have a headache knock her out for even a few hours.
The train jerked unevenly as it pulled out away from the side station.
“Why would you believe they think you’re in the way, after they built you your own train?” Bahama asked nearly half an hour later, having apparently not forgotten the conversation.
The dragon did that occasionally. Stopped talking for no apparent reason only to continue later. Sometimes an entire two days would pass before she returned to the point.
Ari took her own time considering the question, looking out the side of the passenger compartent of her private train engine. Nails had insisted on building it. Then Bolts had chipped in. It’d barely taken the men two days to get it assembled.
It was rather comfortable even if it was far in excess of what she needed. She’d originally thought they’d been trying to get her out of the way.
Perhaps Bahama had a point though. They didn’t have to make it so nice if that was all they were doing.
“Honestly, I’m not sure if he’s attempting to woo me or chase me away.”
“A man like that likely doesn’t know that himself.”
“Fair enough,” Ari said, a smile tugging at her lips when she realized she’d repeated her paramour. Seemed he was with her in some small ways.
“What is this event we’re traveling to?”
“You mean Koachim’s tournaments? It’s more than one event. He’s set up a series of them. All ending with a big fighting match back near Tetherfall.”
“How very draconian of him.” Bahama flashed smile full of overly white teeth. That was another thing the dragon liked to do. Change minor details of her appearance, such as the color of her teeth or eyes.
“I’ll take your word for it. You’re the expert.”
“And as the expert, I’d like to know more. Why are you attending?”
“Koachim insisted I be there for the reward ceremonies. Said it’d be good for morale.”
“And you agreed with him.”
Ari didn’t bother hiding her grunt of annoyance. “He’s right. It will be good for people to see me. Especially with Perry’s absence and monster falling from the sky.”
“Hmm. Your time is not a small price to pay for such a minor boost.”
“You think I made a mistake?” Despite her annoyance, Ari valued the dragon’s input. From what Perry had said, it was possible Bahama had been alive since before Ro’an had existed.
“Perhaps. The refugees do not need you?”
“Not as much as they did. There aren’t many more to find.”
“And your new shield beacons?”
“Of course you know.” Ari rubbed her head. Those were supposed to be secret. Even Sidhe had been surprised at their true function. Then again, she should’ve knoen they wouldn’t stay secret for long when a shield popped up and tore apart any monster getting too close to one of the new beacons. “Yes, the new beacons are part of it. We don’t have to cart people to Southport or Verdant Point if they can shelter in place safely.”
In addition to their allies like the Seven Celestial Chains, they had a line of smaller sanctuaries established long the highroad. Technically, Aeternia reached halfway to the Front, if only on a narrow strip.
“And this isn’t stretching your supplies too thin?”
“Why bother asking? You know we’re producing more than we need.”
“Then why haven’t you gone further?”
“Because Nexxa’s looked. Those who were further out have either found shelter or they’re dead.” There wasn't a nicer way to put it. Not when talking to a dragon.
“Speaking of your new beacons,” Bahama said, tilting her chin towards the window.
Following her motion, Ari couldn't help but stare at the marvel of engineering and enchantment as they swept past.
It didn't look like much, not really. It was disguised as one of the regular beacons the Magus Domini had always sworn their oaths upon, one you could find in almost every city in the Hundred Kingdoms, according to Nexxa.
“You found a way to modify them.”
“Wasn’t me. But yes, our people found a way to use them as relay nodes for Perry’s domain.”
“And your own.”
“And my own,” Ari repeated with a sigh. It was true after a fashion, even if she hadn’t sworn an oath like Perry. She was considering it, but none of them had felt right. If Arizar, sole daughter of High Shaper Thozgar, swore an oath, she knew it would need to resonate with her.
Anything less wouldn’t just be an insult to herself, but to all of Spellford. And most importantly, to her father.
“How much do they cost?”
That… wasn’t a question she’d anticipated out of the dragon. “Why, want some for your hoard?”
“One, yes.” Bahama admitted.
“They’re surprisingly cheap. We’re able to do it with tier-1 materials. It just needs a set of the six common affinities. The hard part is getting them to play nice.”
“This was also discovered by your research teams?”
“Actually, I figured that out myself,” Ari said, with no small amount of pride. It had been an idle thought, one that had come to her while looking through material requests.
The beacons were tied into their network, and several of the research teams were investigating them. As one of three people reading all the research coming out of the institute, she’d been the only one to spot the connection between several projects. An hour later and she’d figured out how to drop the materials from the tier-4 materials used in the original design to tier-1.
“You did, didn’t you?” Bahama replied, reaching over to the small chilling cabinet at the end of the bench, retrieving another bottle of wine and pouring herself a new glass. “And the drawbacks?”
“A smaller radius,” Ari said smugly. A more than fair tradeoff.
“No decrease in shield strength?” Bahama asked, looking away from the glass to stare at Ari. She did so long enough to pour wine over her scaled hand, causing the dragon to laugh.
“None,” Ari confirmed, watching as the dragon used a flex of her aura to collect the spilled wine and deposit it in her glass.
Not a drop had reached the carpet.
The finesse was… Ari supposed it was to be expected from a dragon as old as Bahama.
“A lesson, Arizar, that even one as old as I, can be surprised,” Bahama said as she leaned back, swirling the wine once more. “The rules I’ve long thought absolute have changed. Perhaps…”
“Perhaps?” Ari prompted, despite herself.
When the dragon didn’t respond, it didn’t surprise her. Was still annoying though.
While their shields were a long ways from the high-quality shield that apparently once wrapped around the entirety of Roan, it was doing its job. And apparently had impressed a dragon.
Ari was rather proud of their team.
With the pillar faded into the distance and the dragon distracted, Ari returned to her paperwork. There’d been an uptick in certain drug supplies throughout Southport. Something, a sort of sedative that made kids less active.
It did the same in adults; it was just more noticeable that it was being used in children. That was very much against the rather generous rules Perry had chosen to enforce. Kids were supposed to be kids unless they chose otherwise. These drugs were being used by parents trying to sedate their kids so they were easier to manage. Still, Ari didn't know the full story, just what was in the report.
As it wasn’t from Alister or Sidhe, she set it to the side. She'd get Captain Sidhe to do a more thorough investigation.
Arizar felt as though they arrived at the tournament grounds too soon. Even with Bahama’s presence, the train was the one place she could relax.
If nothing else, the dragon shared one commendable quality with Perry. Neither expected her to be Lady Arizar, daughter of High Djinn Thozgar.
Just Ari.
Leaving the dragon behind, Ari stepped off the train into the brisk mountain air. It still surprised her on occasion how cold it could get, despite the peaks sitting so close to the equator.
Koachim greeted her with his usual boisterous excitement, escorting her up on the stage. She smiled as she handed out awards to the victors before announcing their progress to the main arena, inviting everybody who wanted to visit.
The smile was so fake, she was worried everyone could see through it. Everyone who visited would simply compound the difficulties, though most of the logistics had been sorted out already. Truly, Alistair was a blessing. The man was better at organizing logistics than he had any right to be, considering how honest he was.
Most of the rest of Ari's day was spent the same way: another speech, another invitation for people to come visit in the capital. Bahama didn’t stir throughout.
Eventually she finished her duties and returned home just in time for her evening session with Bevel and Nexxa in her future sister’s Memory Palace.
She was glad Nexxa was the one carrying most of the weight of the shared palace, even if that meant it was a little bit less time dilation than Ari could provide.
Of course, when she got back, she found out Bahama wasn’t the only one who was unresponsive.
Above, the sky exploded once more, and Nexxa remained asleep.