After the End: Serenity

“Why do you need a mana concentrator with so much capacity that can run based on a ley line? Ley lines are more than strong enough for almost anything but the strongest spell.” Ember frowned at Evanescent.

“Earth is only Tier Six.” Evanescent smiled tiredly at her old friend. Gathering everything she needed to move to a Tier Six world was far more difficult than she’d expected. Her garden was even worse; there was no way she could move the carefully designed and mana-balanced flora arrangement to a Tier Six world. All she could do was collect seeds and cuttings and hope she’d be able to reestablish it once she was there and the world was high enough Tier.

Ember was the best enchanter Evanescent knew, and that meant this particular requirement had to go to the draykin. For all that it was likely something Ember had never made before, she clearly wasn’t going to immediately jump with joy at the prospect of doing something she hadn’t done a dozen times in the past year.

Evanescent probably should have guessed that would happen. While she was prepared to pay whatever price Ember wanted, Ember wasn’t just about money. The draykin was a powerful enchanter because she loved creation, not because she loved Etherium, and there was no better way to engage her curiosity than by asking her to make something she couldn’t immediately see a reason for.

“Tier Six?” Ember sounded shocked. “What does that have to do with … you can’t possibly mean to have anything to do with a Tier Six world.”

“That’s why I need the mana concentrator.” It was really quite straightforward. Evanescent had planned it out; she needed a place that would let her raise wyrmlings without damaging them or herself. One of the things that meant was that she had to help the world Tier up, but that didn’t mean she had to spend all of her time bleeding her Dream mana. It just meant that she had to make certain she ate less unaffiliated mana than she emitted; if she supplemented her diet properly, that should be easy enough. “There’s no chance that there will be enough high-Tier game for me to eat, so I need to eat mana. That means a mana concentrator. It should also give me a place to rest, as it slows and eddies the mana before returning most of it to the ley line.”

Ember’s tail twitched questioningly. “Why?”

“I can’t spend all of my time-”

“No, not that,” Ember interrupted. “Why do you need to even visit a Tier Six world?”

Evanescent looked down. She hadn’t even told her friend, had she. “I’m not visiting. I’m moving. Permanently, if things work out. I want to raise wyrmlings, but I don’t want them to die of the dragon’s madness.”

Ember should know what that meant. She’d seen it.

“Dragon thinks he’s solved the madness, that he knows why the simpler Affinity dragons seem nearly immune to it. All you have to do is let your eggs and wyrmlings mature on a world that matches their Affinity.” The problem with that was obvious, but Evanescent stated it anyway. “There are no Dream Affinity worlds.”

“You don’t even have a mate.” The words slipped out of Ember’s mouth before she thought about it. That was only made more obvious by the fact that she covered her eyes with her hand immediately after she stopped speaking. “I mean, sorry, I, ah…”

A giggle slipped out of Evanescent at her friend’s slip. Everything had been so rushed while she tried to get ready in time to get one of the “few openings” Dragon mentioned that she hadn’t taken the time to think after she made her decision, much less relax. That particular problem was the only reason she hadn’t jumped at the first set of openings when they were announced, but she really wanted to make this set. “Where could be better to look for a mate than a place where you can safely raise wyrmlings?”

Ember took her hand off her face and started to retort, but paused before anything actually came out of her mouth. “Huh. You could be right.”

“So, the mana concentrator?” Evanescent inclined her head towards Ember’s work area. “I have to hurry; I don’t want to miss my chance and have to wait until the world Tiers up again.”

Ember nodded, but didn’t move. “Do you suppose other dragons might want mana concentrators?”

Evanescent gave a wide toothy grin at that. She knew what Ember was really asking. “You want to come with me, don’t you?”

At Ember’s nod, Evanescent gave the best answer she could. “We have to ask Dragon for permission, but I don’t know of a reason you couldn’t if there’s a slot open. I’d be happy to have you.”

Blaze hopped off his flyer onto the paved entrance area to the settlement and looked around. It hadn’t changed much, if at all. He’d expected more, somehow. The buildings were the same large communal buildings made of wood with thatched roofs and wattle and daub walls. They weren’t in exactly the same shapes or positions, but Blaze hadn’t expected that level of identicality.

This was a different location, after all. He’d been born on a plain near a forest; this was a mountainside. It was definitely the same group, however; he’d kept track of them even after they apparently stopped searching for him.

The approach was almost the same, too, even though it was up a slope. It was cobbled, but not cobbled well enough to be fun to walk on. It was supposed to discourage anyone who couldn’t afford their services. The diehar didn’t go to town regularly, after all; they were supposed to be self-sufficient.

That was emphatically not true, but it was still the myth they believed.

The entranceway he’d stepped onto, however, was beautifully smoothed and nice to walk on. It was the only area of the compound he could count on having no traps, as no one wanted to kill or embarass the customers. He marched up to the oversized entrance to the large building; that was where they’d meet with outsiders. It was meant to be obvious.

Blaze stopped short when he saw a young boy, probably between ten and twelve, staring at him from the entrance. The boy wasn’t supposed to be there, but that wasn’t what made Blaze stop. Instead, it was the boy’s red hair. Until that moment, he wasn’t certain what he was there for. He’d assumed it was closure of some sort; he wanted to know if he was still angry with his former family.

The answer was easy, now. He was, but that wasn’t why he was there. He was there to help a child like him get out if there was one. Most adapted all too easily to the diehar lifestyle, but if there was anyone like himself he wanted to help them. Perhaps he’d even get to bring another phoenix over, but that wasn’t the goal. The goal was to prevent another child from going through what he’d experienced. He wanted to “pay it forward,” as they said on Earth, and he wanted to do it before they picked up the lifelong scars he’d been unable to avoid.

“Your hair is on fire,” the boy said.

Blaze grinned at the child. “I know; so are my eyes. Do you have an elder here who might be willing to talk to me?”

The boy nodded and disappeared into the building.

Moments later, a man who appeared to be in his early forties stepped out of the building. He was very plain-looking, with slightly ugly but unremarkable features, brown eyes, and a sort of muddy blond hair that could have passed as either blond or brown depending on what he did with it. It was a fairly average appearance for diehar. “Is there something we can help you with? Most people don’t come out here without a reason.”

Blaze put on his best formal smile and inclined his head in greeting. “I’m a Healer, and I’m looking for an apprentice…”

“...dragon makes its lair?”

Echo’s head lifted at the words. Not again!

She set the knife down next to the vegetables and turned to Mika. “I’m afraid you need to take over the meal prep. We have another prospective dragonslayer.”

Mika rolled her eyes. “Again? Go on, deal with it; we’ve got time. If you’re lucky, you’ll even be back before dinner.”

“You know that if I am, I’ll probably be eating with the dragonslayer.” Echo laughed as Mika made a shooing gesture, but that was really all she had time for.

The bit of conversation she’d heard came from the Visitors’ Center, which was lucky; not all of the dragonslayers stopped there. Still, Rakyn shouldn’t have to manage it alone; he was new to the Serenity Settlement Visitors’ Center and hadn’t ever dealt with one of the dragonslayers before.

“Dragon? Why would I know where a dragon lives?” Rakyn’s words drifted to Echo on the wind. They gave her enough confidence to slow her hurried run down to a fast walk. It was clear Rakyn was trying to delay.

“It has to be here. There are way too many reports of a dragon in this part of the state for there not to be a dragon, but no one’s been able to find the lair. Which means it’s here, in the woods.” The words came from a young man in jeans and a heavy leather jacket; a sword slung across his back said that he was probably a delver, but it was always possible he simply wanted to delve. He certainly wasn’t wearing the armor Echo expected.

Rakyn looked up when the door opened and gave Echo a small grin and a shake of the head, as if to tell her that he had it handled. Echo nodded back at Rakyn, happy to watch as the older man handled the situation. If he did well, she might be able to let him take over the task in the future.

She stepped to the side, out of the doorway, and set herself in a location that let her see the stranger while sort of looking like she was checking out the flyers that advertised local businesses. There were more than the last time she’d looked; the Settlement was still growing, which was good to see.

“Even if there were a dragon here, how would anyone in Serenity Settlement know? It’s not like we can see the sky.” Rakyn gestured upwards, which was pointless in the Visitors’ Center, but it still made the point. Even outside the hollow in the tree that held the Visitors’ Center, the sky wasn’t visible from most of the settlement. The trees were in the way.

The prospective dragonslayer didn’t seem to have a good answer. “But you have to. How else can I find it?”

“Her,” Rakyn corrected the boy. “But first, let me give you some advice. Have you ever killed a person?”

“What? No, of course not. I ‘m no murderer. I kill monsters to help people.”

Echo shook her head. The boy had no idea what he was talking about, did he? Humans could be monsters, too. Rakyn seemed to have an idea how to get through to the boy, so she kept quiet.

“Well, I have,” Rakyn told the boy. “So how about this: stay in town for a few days. Stop by here when you can and I’ll let you know when Evanescent is in town and you can talk to her. Before I do, you have to answer a question for me: why are you chasing her? Has she done something wrong or do you just want to be known as the man that killed a dragon?”

The prospective dragonslayer drew himself up to his full height and yelled at Rakyn. “Dragons eat people! They destroy cities, it’s what they do!”

Rakyn’s gaze met Echo’s and she knew it was time for her to step in. She stepped away from the display and pulled herself into the role with a shocked outburst of breath. “She has? Where? How many were hurt? Is anyone else on their way to help?”

It wouldn’t be easy to deal with this dragonslayer, but Echo was confident they’d manage. He clearly didn’t know enough about the world to deal with their combined attack.

It was the people who knew what they were doing, prepared well, and managed to avoid being noticed by the people of the Settlement that were an issue. Echo intended to find out everything the boy knew in case there was another round of those people on their way. Where had he heard about Evanescent?