Path of Dragons

Running his hand along the banister, Elijah remarked, “This is not what I expected.”

The interior of the tower, which had opened after Kurik had solved the puzzle of the last rune, reminded Elijah of a Gilded Age smoking room – the ones with leather, rich wood, and the sort of subdued opulence characteristic of the truly rich. Of course, that was just the general atmosphere. The details were obviously alien and very different.

There was wood, but it was bone white. There was leather, but instead of a rich brown, it was green – doubtless from one of the predominantly reptilian creatures native to the jungles. The general design was different, too, with way too many curves and unnecessary protrusions. However, the feel of the place fit the comparison.

Or maybe it was the smell of leather and smoke.

Did it matter that the smoke came from censers hanging from the wall, rather than overpriced cigars made in a third-world country? Not really.

“Yeah,” agreed Dat, leaning over the same banister and looking down the staircase that spiraled into darkness. There was clearly an extensive part of the tower that had been built underground.

“It reminds me of university,” Sadie said. Then, she quietly added, “And all the places I was never allowed to go.”

Elijah knew that Sadie’s educational background included Ivy League schools, which were typically hotbeds for exclusionary practices. Had she been left out because of her gender? Or her race? Maybe both, but Elijah had heard enough stories about that sort of thing to know that it was probably worse than she would ever admit aloud.

“Which way should we go? Up or down?” asked Ron, interrupting the awkward silence that Elijah immediately wished he’d filled. But as much as he wanted to offer Sadie his support, he didn’t think she would appreciate it. Not from him, at least. She had begun to tolerate him, but they definitely hadn’t become friends. There was too much baggage there.

“Both, I think,” Elijah said. “But if you’re asking me where I think we’ll find the First Mage, it’s got to be the top.”

“Why do you think that?” asked Sadie.

Elijah shrugged. “Mostly because it seems like the longer path. The system doesn’t seem interested in shortening these challenges,” he answered. Indeed, it always put goals at the end of the road, even if it didn’t make much sense. “But it’s also because if I was an ultra-powerful wizard, I’d definitely take the penthouse.”

“They might not think like us,” she pointed out.

“I think there are a lot more commonalities than differences,” he argued. Was that the result of a genuine picture of the fallen civilization? Or was it due to the system’s interference? Maybe a little of both.

“In any case, I agree,” she said. “Down, then up.”

After that had been established, the group fell into their normal formation. Sadie led the way, followed by the others, with Elijah taking the rear-guard position. Descending the staircase, which was around fifteen feet wide, with steps that were a little too steep to be comfortable, was a bit awkward. To make it a little easier, Elijah shifted into Shape of the Guardian.

“Jealous, bro,” remarked Dat as he saw the ease of Elijah’s descent.

“I don’t know,” said Ron. “Before the apocalypse, my knees couldn’t have handled this.”

“Shh,” chided Sadie. “Pay attention.”

Elijah didn’t need her reminder. Ever since they’d entered the tower, he’d kept his focus on the sense he gained from One with Nature. He’d learned that it wasn’t perfect – and in the challenge of the Ethereum, it was slightly muted – but it still kept him apprised of any nearby threats.

As it turned out, his vigilance proved unnecessary. Like the campus surrounding the tower, the interior was entirely unoccupied. They quickly reached the next level down, which contained a variety of rooms that had the aura of study halls. There were no desks or anything, but there were a multitude of stands supporting prisms that looked the same as what they’d found in the library.

When Elijah touched one, he got nothing, though.

“Empty,” he said. “What do you think they were used for?”

“Maybe they used them to take notes,” Dat suggested with a shrug.

“It doesn’t matter,” Sadie pointed out. “Stay focused. We have no idea what threats we’ll face in here.”

It was a good reminder that, despite the fact that they had yet to encounter enemies, it was a bit naïve to think that situation would persist. After all, it was still a challenge, which meant that the ultimate goal was to kill them. ＲÁŊƟꞖƐs̈

After moving on, they discovered that almost every room on that level was much the same as the first they’d found. There were a couple of aberrations, though nobody could ascertain the purpose of the other chambers.

“Maybe they’re bathrooms,” said Elijah. “Or storage closets. There’s no telling.”

“Let’s move on,” Ron suggested. “There’s nothing here.”

Elijah disagreed. When confronted with the remnants of an alien civilization, he wanted to know all the details. The minutiae. The mundane characteristics that would solidify the natives of Ka’arath as a real people. He’d already missed one opportunity to do just that when he offended the curator of the library, and he didn’t want to lose out any other chances. But he was clearly in the minority, so after only a little more inspection, they continued their efforts at exploration.

The next few levels were much the same, but when they reached the fifth, they found something far more interesting. “Those’re runes,” Kurik said. “Depowered, but similar to the puzzles we found before.”

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Indeed, there were twenty squares – maybe a hundred square feet each – containing tiles that looked almost identical to the ones they’d found at the rune sites that had unlocked the tower.

“They’re probably for practice,” Elijah guessed, having shifted back to his human form each time they entered a new room. The Shape of the Guardian was useful for making the steps easier to traverse, but he preferred to inspect the rooms in his natural shape. “Do you want to stick around and see what you can learn?”

“Ain’t much to learn from inert tiles,” Kurik said, leaning over to inspect a depression next to one of the squares. “This is where the power source goes. I ain’t wastin’ my crystals on this.”

“Fair enough,” Elijah said.

Sadie added, “We should inspect this area closely. It feels like it might be important.”

“Might be some spare parts ‘round here, too,” Kurik stated.

Everyone spread out to search the area, but to their disappointment, they found nothing. Everything of note was part of the infrastructure, and any attempts to dislodge the tiles was met with failure. So, they continued on.

The next level down was much the same, though the tiles were arranged in a circular pattern. Kurik claimed that was significant, but he didn’t know why that might be. What was clear was that there was nothing to keep them there.

Ten more levels saw increasingly complex shapes and patterns until, at last, they reached the bottom floor. That’s where they found the cages.

The creatures inside were all long dead, their flesh rotted away until only skeletons remained. Elijah recognized some of them as animals he’d seen – or killed – during the Trial, so it didn’t take him long before he came to what, in retrospect, should have been the obvious conclusion. “Animals for testing,” he said, his jaw flexing as he clenched his fists.

He’d never been a staunch environmentalist. He knew that, back on Earth, animal testing was a necessary part of advancing a number of incredibly important fields of study. For example, many people owed their lives to drugs that had been tested and refined via animal studies. And he could admit that human lives would always be more important than those animals’ continued existence.

However, seeing the aftermath of such testing was enough to push him toward his boiling point. Reason gave way to passion, and his fury raged through his mind.

Sadie’s voice interrupted his building rage. “Elijah…”

He blinked, then realized that he was shaking.

“I’m fine,” he grunted. But he wasn’t. If he’d had an enemy to attack, he would have without even considering the implications. Because in that moment, he didn’t care about justification. He didn’t care about consequences. He just wanted to hurt something he could hold responsible for the tragedy before him.

He took a deep breath, then repeated, “I’m fine.” He looked around. “I can’t be here.”

Then, he retreated to the steps, where he sat heavily. In his human form, the steps were almost a perfect height for brooding.

A few moments later, Sadie followed and sat next to him. After a couple of seconds of awkward silence, she asked, “Do you want to talk about it?”

“Not really.”

“It’s your archetype, isn’t it?”

“I don’t know. Maybe.”

The reality was that there was no way to determine the origin of the rage still flowing through him. It was easy to blame his Druidic nature. It was certainly powerful enough to influence his reactions. However, there was part of him that knew that was too simple of an answer. That it was a copout.

It was difficult to hold humanity – or other sapient races like elves and dwarves – above animals when he knew what they could become. He’d felt them, too. Despite how he usually used it, One with Nature wasn’t just some magical radar that gave him a picture of his surroundings. It forced him to connect with every living thing in his general vicinity, to feel what they felt, to give him insight into their lives that no human could experience without having it affect them.

So, was it his archetype that had pushed the anger onto him? In a way, yes. But in another way, it was just a natural reaction to his expanded perspective.

In either case, he couldn’t afford to lose control.

“I know how you feel,” she said, laying her hand over his. It was cold but comforting. “You told me once that I was in control of my skill, not the other way around. It was good advice.”

Elijah didn’t respond. Instead, he simply sat there seething as images of dying animals flashed in his mind. He took one deep breath after another, but the rage continued to rampage through him. Sadie’s touch helped a little, but even with that, it took him a long few minutes before he managed to wrestle his emotions into submission.

They didn’t go away.

Perhaps they never would. But when he shoved them into one facet of his Mind, he felt a little calmer.

“I’m okay.”

“Do you want to talk about it?” she asked.

“No.”

And he didn’t. Maybe it was necessary. It was probably a good idea to work through things. But at the moment, it was much easier to keep it all bottled up and out of the way. After all, they were in the middle of a deadly challenge, and no one had time to let him unburden himself of emotions he should never have let take control.

“I’m fine now. Just a brief lapse,” he added.

“Elijah…”

Thankfully, it was at that moment that the others left the prison behind. Dat said, “There’s nothing in there. We should move on.”

No one argued, and they did as he’d suggested. For his part, Elijah had lost all enthusiasm to uncover the culture of the people who’d built and lived in the tower. He still did his job and kept an eye out for danger, but otherwise, he moved like he was on autopilot. Even so, he couldn’t ignore the changing nature of the levels. The first few above-ground levels were dedicated to what he would categorize as lecture halls. The next few were workspaces. And after that came the personal quarters of faculty.

The last category was dedicated to apartments, each one containing multiple rooms. Some were opulently decorated, while others were as sparse as any prison cell. Oddly, there were some commonalities between the living conditions on Earth and what they witnessed in the tower. Instead of beds, those rooms were equipped with elaborate hammocks, and Elijah recognized couches and divans as well.

He even found a tea set, not so dissimilar from what might have been found back on Earth. It seemed so out of place that Elijah couldn’t help but wonder what cultural branch had led two isolated cultures separated by an unfathomable distance to the same destination.

The speculation acted as a calming force, and at last, he began to move past the rage that had enveloped him so completely.

So, when they finally reached the top level, he felt as clear-headed as was possible.

“Do we have a plan of attack?” he asked, standing on the other side of an opulently etched door of cloudy crystal. He could vaguely see a few shapes on the other side, but One with Nature couldn’t penetrate further than the door.

“We have no idea what we’ll face,” Sadie answered.

“So, general strategy,” Ron stated.

That meant that Sadie would lead the way, with the others hanging back for ranged attacks and healing. Elijah would be the wildcard, using whichever form he thought was best for the situation.

“Everyone ready?” Sadie asked, glancing at each of them in turn. They indicated that they were as prepared as they were going to get.

So, she put her hand on the door, activating the same locking mechanism they’d found on many other doors throughout the facility. Ethera raced out from that point, creating a spiderweb of energy that quickly covered the entire door. Then, it disappeared altogether, revealing a wizened old ta’alaki sitting upon an elaborate, crystal throne.

He looked too exhausted to even stand, but there were crackling orbs of pure ethera dancing a foot or so above his head. He was also encased by a shimmering, blue shield that looked thick enough to absorb whatever damage they threw at him. Even as Elijah’s mind whirled with potential strategies to bypass that shield, the ta’alaki lifted his head and opened his eyes.

“Good,” he rasped in a voice rubbed raw by innumerable years. “You have finally arrived. I have been watching you for some time. Listen closely, because I only have a few minutes before I can no longer resist the system’s dictate.”

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