Fated (Chapter Sixty-Eight)
Thursday, December 24th, 2015 10:43 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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mindcrackloveChapter list: http://tanadin.dreamwidth.org/382.html
Map of the continent: http://tanadin.deviantart.com/art/F
Character status spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet
Chapter Sixty-Eight
Kingdom of Kalt’on, Minecraftia. November 11, year 573. Time instance 483Z.
Nia was pretty sure the Sandbreakers had the coolest base ever. It was completely underground and made out of sandstone, but it was laid out in a way that made sense and nothing was that far from anything else, unlike the skettisren tunnels. The base had clearly been built rather quickly, as the walls were rough in some places and areas of the underground were darker than they should be, but the place had a good feeling to it.
The Sandbreakers had offered the descendants some of their spare rooms and equipment, and now they were planning their next course of action. The descendants, Fate, Blade, Mokdal, Iirkolav, and the higher-ups in the Sandbreakers sat and stood around a large table, gazing intently at a map of Dae’vos and the surrounding countryside. Entrances to the Sandbreaker base were marked with small bronze symbols on the map.
Voryn pointed to the closest symbol to the citadel, which was still several blocks away. “This is as close as we can get, but we’d never get inside the inner walls.”
“Inner walls?” Nia questioned.
“Yes. Look.” Shriker waved a hand at a black line surrounding the citadel. “There’s an inner wall, and only two gates. They’re closed at all times unless they’re being opened to let something or someone in, and it’s almost impossible to sneak in, especially with that damn hydra inspecting everyone and everything that comes in.”
Iirkolav’s head snapped up. “Hydra?”
“Yeah. There’s a green, two-headed hydra-looking thing in there. One of the monsters the king has allied us with, I think.”
“Sounds like Alvark.” Iirkolav muttered. “He can spit acid.”
“What do you know about these things?” Arra asked, frowning.
“Let’s just say a lot. What other Hostiles are here?”
“Well, there’s that weird ghost thing…well, two of ‘em, actually…” Shriker frowned. “I haven’t seen the green one in awhile, and the purple one only shows up occasionally. The skeleton and the mage haven’t been around, and neither has that great big orange one. I think he might be dead, based on what Vos overheard from the stone dragon.”
“Stone dragon.” Iirkolav repeated. “Does it look incomplete? Like it’s not fully formed?”
“Yeah, I guess you could call it that.”
“Spalor, then. Continue.”
“There’s that changing one, but I haven’t seen him in awhile, and then there’s that tree…she’s been gone awhile, actually, she left with that purple ghost.”
“So we have to worry mostly about Alvark and Spalor.” Iirkolav mumbled. “I’m surprised most of them aren’t here, but that means it’s a good time to attack. It’s best to take out these two while they’re isolated from the others.”
Voryn nodded. “I had been thinking along the same lines, and we’ve been planning and preparing for an attack. The addition of your forces should help, especially if you can do everything you told me you can.” Voryn glanced at Mokdal for a moment. “Are you truly a dragon?”
“Yes.” Mokdal practically snapped. “But I won’t be much use to you unless you get rid of most of what can hurt me. It’s the damn ballistae I’m worried about. One of those bolts can punch right through my scales and kill me instantly.”
Voryn nodded slowly. “I’ll see what I can do about sending people to destroy or disable those. It’ll be risky, but if it means we have a dragon on our side…” He paused and glanced at Nessy. “Are the ballistae an issue for you as well? You are a half-dragon, yes?”
Mokdal’s head snapped up. “Half-dragon?”
Nessy tensed, but Iirkolav looked at Mokdal like he was insane.
“Did you not fucking notice when Nessy and I both transformed and took out those towers on the way into Kalt’on?”
Mokdal looked sheepish. “Not really.” He admitted. “The moment I knew I wouldn’t be useful I…kind of stopped paying attention.”
Iirkolav rolled his eyes so hard he thought his brain might leak out of his ears.
Mokdal looked at Nessy, evaluating her, noticing the look in her purple eyes. It was caught partway between caution, fear, and a small spark of anger.
“I’d like to discuss this with you later.” He said to her, before waving for the conversation to continue. His eyes didn’t leave her, however.
A level of interest, perhaps dangerous, perhaps not.
Voryn cleared his throat, and Nessy finally answered his question.
“The ballistae are less of an issue for me, especially if we attack at night, as I blend into the night sky and I’m smaller and faster than Mokdal.”
Voryn nodded and turned back to Iirkolav. “What kind of assault are your people best at?”
“Frontal.” Zekara said immediately. “Most of us aren’t good at sneaking in anywhere. If that’s necessary, we can send those that can while the rest of us cause a distraction, or at least try to get those gates open. We have a couple of earth elementalists, remember- not exactly stealthy.”
Zel shot Vian a look, but the younger man wouldn’t meet his cousin’s eye.
“I suggest a distraction.” Shriker moved to point at the map. “Send people up through this entrance- not the one closest to the citadel. Cause as much chaos as possible and move towards the citadel, attacking the wall and trying to get the gates open. Send some up through here, once again not the closest. As soon as the gates are open, send the stealth team through the closest entrance. By then, the enemy will be used to seeing us appear further away. It makes no sense to not send a frontal attack like this through the closest entrance unless you want to divert their attention away from it to allow a stealth team through. They don’t realize that it’s not the real attack.
“Then the stealth team goes through the gates, into the citadel, and fights or sneaks their way through to kill the king. Send some good fighters and things should go well, as most of the forces will be outside.”
“What of the Hostiles?” Nia asked. “The reason for our being here is to kill them.”
Arra gave her a crooked smile. “The frontal team’s job is to cause chaos, open the gates, and kill the damn monsters. Those things could ruin the entire plan if they’re not dealt with.”
“Can either of the Hostiles we know are here fly?” Zekara demanded.
Iirkolav shook his head. “No. Spalor has wings, but she’s far too heavy to fly. It’s best to attack her from underneath, however- and she uses those wings as shields.”
Zekara nodded. “Good. Ground targets are easier to hit.”
Nessy nodded. “I call dibs on the stone dragon. She and I have unfinished business.”
Nia glanced at her, remembering their first encounter with Spalor and how Nessy had been forced to reveal her half-dragon status because of her. Nia’s eyes shifted to Zekara and she noticed the warrior looking at Nessy, smiling slightly as if she understood completely and was totally ready to back her up.
“Alright. Whoever wants to be in the fronta-”
Iirkolav was interrupted by a horrible, agony-filled scream. All eyes shot to the source as Onai fell to his knees and covered his ears, his awful cry fading away as the scream in his head died along with the life of another.
Tears welled in Onai’s eyes and he began to shake violently, trying to keep himself from crying in front of all these people. He curled up into a ball on the floor and he felt Axid’s arms around him but he also felt the silence, the horrible, horrible silence, of both the room and the life he had been monitoring.
“Onai…?” Nia asked, eyes wide and voice quiet.
“Dead.” He choked out. “He’s dead. They’re dead. Trymdas and his brother. Xullos, too, he died yesterday…three have been lost in two days, the broken one is dead, the bleeding heart is burned…” Onai fell silent, still shaking and still trying to block out the suffocating silence.
An absence of hope.
If he couldn’t save Trymdas, how could he hope to save Axid?
How could this have ended up even worse than what he had originally foreseen? How had his interference made it worse? Would his attempts to save Axid only doom her further?
He didn’t pay too much attention as Zekara stepped over and helped Axid pick him up, carrying him out of the room. He didn’t protest as they set him down on his bed and started to leave the room, until Axid was about to disappear from sight.
“Axid.” He whispered.
She glanced behind her and raised an eyebrow.
“Please don’t leave me.”
She exchanged a glance with Zekara, a silent question there. “I’ll cover for you and get you guys caught up after.” Zekara assured before continuing back to the meeting room.
Axid nodded and moved to sit beside Onai, hugging him tightly, unaware of the fate that Onai dreaded as it approached.
~~~
“Nessy.”
Nessy glanced over her shoulder but she didn’t need to in order to identify the voice as Mokdal. She ignored him and sped up, trying to get to the room she shared with Zekara and Claire. Mokdal frowned and moved faster, grabbing her arm.
Nessy tried to pull away, baring her teeth at him. “Fuck off, okay?”
Mokdal’s eyes narrowed. “Why are you running away from me?”
“I have enough experience with dragon’s reactions to who I am. I don’t really want to deal with another. I’ve had a shit enough day with the Sandbreakers judging me.”
Mokdal shook his head. “I’m not here to judge you or call you horrible things. You’ve been called enough things in your life.”
“Then what do you want?”
“I want to help you.”
Nessy blinked. “Excuse me?”
“I want to help you.” Mokdal repeated. “Come on.” He pulled her into an empty spare room and shut the door. Only then did he release her and cross his arms. “I can tell just by looking at you that you’re probably more comfortable as a human. Which parent was the dragon?”
“My…father.” Nessy crossed her arms as well.
“I figured. Let me guess; he didn’t stick around and you never met him?”
“Pretty much. My mother didn’t even know he was a dragon until I transformed when I was six. She kicked me out, called me a monster.” She wouldn’t even meet Mokdal’s gaze. “It doesn’t matter, though. She had taught me enough that I could get by. I tried going to the Dragonlands. They kicked me out, too. So I was always alone.”
Mokdal sighed. “Such is the life of a half-dragon.” He suddenly frowned further. “Wait. Are you meaning to tell me that no one ever taught you to use your powers?”
“No. Who would have? My mother?”
“…Could you transform for me?”
Nessy’s head snapped up. “What?”
“Could you transform? Would you even fit in this room?”
Nessy looked at him like he was nuts. “I’m about as long as this room. Of course I could.”
“Then please do. I want to help you.”
Nessy looked into his eyes for a moment and, seeing no malice there, slowly nodded and shut her eyes, allowing purple flames to cover her as she transformed into a small, purple dragon.
Mokdal’s sharp intake of breath wasn’t reassuring to her. “What?” She snapped.
“You’re…At that age, with the type of dragon you are, you should not be that small.”
“I get it, I’m underdeveloped. I’m a half-dragon, remember?”
“No, it’s not just that. How much time do you spend as a dragon?”
“Not much.”
“How often do you use your powers?”
“Rarely. It takes too much energy.”
“Spatial manipulation?”
“…Yes. How did you know?”
“I know a dragon almost exactly like you.” Mokdal uncrossed his arms. “His name is Faenkorrah and he looks just like you, except obviously with only two horns and not four due to being male. He’s much larger and possesses spatial manipulation powers.”
Nessy sat down, tilting her head at him and frowning. “Why are you telling me this?”
“Because I believe he may be your father, and if that is the case, then I have a better idea how to help you.”
There was silence for a moment before Nessy shook her head. “I have no interest in him. He’s not important to me.”
“I’m not saying you should meet him. I’m saying I’m familiar with his powers and I might be able to teach you how to use yours. How much energy would swapping our positions take?”
“Almost all of the energy that I have. I wouldn’t be able to fight after that.”
Mokdal frowned. “I know you have less draconic energy as you’re a half-dragon, but that’s…oh, hell, I know what the problem is.”
“What?”
“You were never taught to regulate your energy properly. You can use half of what you’ve been using on various abilities with a bit of training. I can help you.”
Nessy tilted her head further. “Why?”
“Why am I helping you?”
“Yes.”
“I think it’s because I feel bad for you. You’ve had an awful life, getting the short end of the stick when it comes to both human and dragon. Maybe it’s because I hate seeing one of my own kind so helpless in comparison to what they could be. Maybe I want to prove that not all dragons want you dead.” He paused.
Nessy’s eyes scanned him momentarily before she nodded and got to her feet, a spark of determination in her purple eyes.
“Train me.”
-~-
Nebris was grinning widely. “I hope Mokdal can help her. She really struggles to do anything dragon-related.”
Vechs grinned and glanced briefly into Nia’s orb before directing his attention back to Mokdal’s. “He’s changed a lot since we last talked to him.”
“He didn’t really talk directly to us.” Blame reminded. “He was speaking Dranonic the whole time.”
“Right. But he does seem…more helpful and less of a spitfire.”
“Two hundred years does that to a dragon.” Nebris reasoned.
“But not a human?” Vechs asked, raising an eyebrow.
“If you’ve chilled out, then I have.” Nebris responded. “And you’ve only gotten more nuts.”
Vechs rolled his eyes.
His friend was right, of course, but at least he wasn’t as nuts as his family usually was.
Which is to say, murderous.
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Date: Thursday, December 24th, 2015 07:11 pm (UTC)G.C. (::)(::)(::)(::)(::)(::)
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Date: Thursday, December 24th, 2015 09:46 pm (UTC)-Observing Anon
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Date: Friday, December 25th, 2015 03:14 am (UTC)no subject
Date: Friday, December 25th, 2015 05:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Thursday, December 24th, 2015 11:04 pm (UTC)(Are Nia and Adrian NOT going insane? As far as I can figure, immunity to the curse really isn't hereditary)
-Anon Cami
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Date: Friday, December 25th, 2015 01:15 am (UTC)-Observing Anon
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Date: Friday, December 25th, 2015 05:37 pm (UTC)And Adrian isn't actually going nuts, his MONSTROUS form is nuts. That's not the Davion curse. That's just him being inept at being monstrous.
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Date: Friday, December 25th, 2015 03:14 am (UTC)no subject
Date: Friday, December 25th, 2015 06:34 am (UTC)I am so glad that Nessy is getting an actual dragon (yay Mokdal!) helping her. That's very good and happy. I'm scared to be happy about anything in this book, though.
(::) (::) (::)
-the lurkiest lurker
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Date: Friday, December 25th, 2015 05:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Friday, December 25th, 2015 08:43 pm (UTC)-Observing Anon
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Date: Saturday, December 26th, 2015 03:53 am (UTC)no subject
Date: Saturday, December 26th, 2015 10:46 am (UTC)-Observing Anon
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Date: Saturday, December 26th, 2015 10:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Sunday, December 27th, 2015 05:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Sunday, December 27th, 2015 07:19 am (UTC)-the lurkiest lurker
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Date: Saturday, December 26th, 2015 03:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Saturday, December 26th, 2015 10:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Sunday, December 27th, 2015 05:18 pm (UTC)