Winter Dragon

When Reeve and Elise emerged from the woods, the refugee camp at Verna’s entrance came into view once more. Inquisitors rode their imposing horses between the tents, apparently searching the crowd for further signs of apostates.

“Lise!” a worried voice cried out.

Amid the maze of tents, they spotted Dora running toward them. She hurried down the slope and reached Elise with remarkable agility. Ignoring Reeve completely, she cupped the mage’s face in both hands and pulled her close.

“What the hell is wrong with you, Lise?!”

Tears welled in the corners of Dora’s eyes. Her expression was caught somewhere between anger and relief. After struggling to hold herself together for a few moments, she simply threw her arms around Elise’s neck.

“I’m sorry, Dora.”

Elise stared at the ground, still trapped in the smaller woman’s embrace, Dora’s long ears pressed against her face.

“Elliot, I see them!” Bain shouted.

His voice came from the opposite side of the camp.

One of the Inquisitors glanced their way, then quickly returned his attention to searching one of the tents.

“I told you Reeve would find her, didn’t I?” Bain called out, though he seemed to be trying to keep his voice under control.

“We’ll talk somewhere else. We need to leave Verna as soon as possible,” Elliot said.

He gripped the middle of his still-sheathed sword so tightly that the leather warped beneath his fingers. His other hand rested on the pommel, as though he expected a fight to break out at any moment.

Elliot guided the group through the tents with ease.

Before long, they were back at the wagon. Elise’s horse had already been brought there. She mounted in silence, and Elliot followed suit, quickly taking the lead.

Bain climbed onto the wagon and helped Dora aboard. Reeve got in on his own, equally silent and still lost in thought.

With a gentle flick of the reins, Bain set the two large horses in motion. Soon, they were heading away from the road leading into Verna.

A short distance ahead, two men from the Inquisition blocked the way. This time, they weren’t wearing the thick helmets worn by the men Reeve had encountered in the woods. Their hair had been cut very short in a plain, practical style, and light stubble covered both their faces.

“Halt!” one of them shouted, sword in hand.

His blade didn’t glow like the High Inquisitor’s.

“Verna is under quarantine. No one is permitted to leave the camp,” the other declared, looking at Elliot, who was closest to them.

Elliot said nothing. He simply removed a rolled document from one of the saddlebags tied to his horse and handed it to the nearest Inquisitor.

The man took it carelessly and examined its contents for a few moments before passing it to his companion. The second Inquisitor read it as well, then returned it to Elliot.

A moment later, the two men guided their horses aside. They didn’t look pleased, but they allowed the group to pass.

“Shit... I think they’re going to invade Verna,” Bain said, looking back toward the city.

More and more Inquisitors were spreading through the refugee camp.

“They have no reason to. The lord said he would cooperate.”

Dora rested one hand against the back of the wagon.

“Since when has that ever stopped them from invading a city?”

Bain snapped the reins harder, and the horses pulled the wagon forward with renewed urgency.

The group continued away from Verna until the city disappeared behind them, as if swallowed by the mountain range.

“What did Elliot show the Inquisitor?” Reeve asked Bain, never taking his eyes off the two riders ahead.

“A writ of safe passage. The Guild Master issues one whenever a mission has to be carried out in Inquisition territory.”

“Which means every fucking place in Olliria these days,” Dora muttered irritably from the back of the wagon.

“Even so, we were lucky. If they had decided to search the wagon and found the giant goblin’s mana stone, we would’ve been in trouble even if that writ had been signed by the king himself.”

“These people really have that much power?” Reeve asked, running his fingers over the small mana stone still hidden in his pocket.

Bain and Dora looked baffled by the question, but Elliot answered from farther ahead. He had been listening to the entire conversation.

“The Church holds the real power. The Inquisition is only its military arm. And because the Church operates independently within Olliria, that only makes matters more complicated.”

Up ahead, Elise cleaned the wound above her eyebrow with a thin cloth soaked in a liquid whose alcoholic scent permeated the air.

She winced. When she finished, she slipped the vial into the bag that seemed to have no bottom and squeezed the bloodstained cloth between her fingers. Then she took the large hat tied behind her saddle and put it on, concealing nearly the entire scar.

“What happened back there, Reeve? How did she get hurt?”

Bain stared at him, waiting for a clear answer.

Reeve looked toward Elise. Since she apparently had no intention of stopping him, he decided to recount everything that had happened in the woods.

“You threatened a High Inquisitor?” Bain asked, barely able to contain his shock.

“And apparently, he wants to offer me some kind of job.”

“Reeve, you shouldn’t get involved with the Inquisition. Especially not after a High Inquisitor has taken an interest in you.”

Bain didn’t look at him, but the surprise on his face had given way to an expression more serious than any Reeve had seen from him before.

“I have no interest in getting involved with those people. But fighting that man with the blue sword might be interesting.”

Everyone except Elise looked horrified. Even Elliot yanked hard on his reins and stopped in the middle of the road. He stared at Reeve as if stunned.

Elise kept riding.

“A High Inquisitor with a blue sword?” Bain asked, his voice trembling slightly.

“Was the Inquisitor you threatened Vael of the Blue Blade?” Elliot added.

“I didn’t ask his name, but the sword was definitely blue. And he seemed to know the lunatic... Elise.”

Elise had undoubtedly heard him, but she continued riding at the front of the group.

“And he told you to seek out the Order?” Elliot asked, stroking the underside of his chin.

Reeve clearly noticed Elliot’s expression—and how the subject had captured his attention even more than Bain’s or Dora’s.

“You haven’t even reached Gardenia yet, and you’ve already caught the attention of someone extremely dangerous, Reeve. Be careful. As you saw in Verna, the Inquisition is not to be taken lightly.”

Reeve shrugged. He couldn’t think of any response that would reassure Bain.

More than ever, the Inquisition was an unknown quantity to him. After giving it some thought, he decided to avoid them whenever possible. Drawing even more attention made no sense, especially when two members of the Steel Rose were clearly keeping an eye on him. Elise had merely made it more obvious.

The group remained quiet for the rest of the day. They didn’t speak again until they made camp shortly before darkness settled over the green plain at the foot of the great mountains.

The wind howled for most of the night. Reeve spent much of it awake, still thinking about the apostates who had died because of his choices. He had taken lives before in Nova Tokyo, most of them corporate guards.

It had never affected him. For some reason, though, playing a part in those executions felt worse than simply killing the men with his own hands.

During what little sleep he managed, he didn’t dream of the woman at the end of the long street, slowly being consumed by vegetation. rAIven, on the other hand, seemed full of energy regardless of everything Reeve had witnessed.

{RESTARTING SYSTEM}

{IMPLANT POWER: 70%}

With this much energy first thing in the morning, you’re starting to seem like a parasite feeding on my brain.

{NEGATIVE. THE rAIven MODEL CONSUMES A MINIMAL AMOUNT OF POWER COMPARED TO THE REQUIREMENTS OF ACTIVE IMPLANTS}

Breaking camp took longer than expected on the sixth day because Dora sprinted off after a small group of rabbits.

Their supplies were running low after they had been unable to restock in Verna. A short while later, she returned with her crossbow resting over one shoulder and two thick-furred rabbits tied to its end. Dora untied them and handed them to Bain.

He quickly skinned the animals and placed them over the embers left from the previous night’s fire. He added nothing but salt. Once the white meat had turned reddish and developed a crisp exterior, he divided the two roasted rabbits into five portions and handed one to each member of the group. They smelled excellent.

Whenever they had covered a good stretch of road, they ate a piece of the meat. That allowed them to travel longer without stopping to prepare a full meal. Elliot had said they needed to pick up the pace and reach Gardenia as quickly as possible.

It was difficult to tell the time without the sun as a reference. It was little more than a glow behind the clouds gathered above the mountain range.

Bain, however, swore it was two in the afternoon.

Not long after a heated argument—in which Dora insisted that the beginning of autumn could make the sun appear lower in the sky and that his ability to estimate the time couldn’t possibly be so precise—the horses went on high alert.

The hair along their manes seemed to stand on end. Every horse pointed its ears toward the sky, as though they could hear something above the clouds—something that remained invisible and inaudible to everyone else.

Reeve looked up. He cycled through different visual spectra, zoomed in and out, and scanned a wide range of sound frequencies, but he couldn’t detect anything.

Not for long.

Far above them, a dense layer of clouds began to move unnaturally. It was as though something were passing over them, tearing through them as it advanced.

And that was exactly what was happening.

Before the creature appeared, a deafening sound, as powerful as thunder, rolled across the entire plain.

As if the clouds were an inverted sea, the creature emerged from their gray waves. Vast wings appeared first, as white as the snow atop the mountain peaks. Then its head broke through the clouds. It was long and serpentine, with two small black spots above its nostrils. Its eyes came into focus as the creature plunged toward the ground. They were as black as the first star-filled night Reeve had witnessed in that world.

The creature descended in free fall, its four legs tucked against its body to reduce air resistance. Moments before striking the ground, it unfurled its enormous wings. The resulting gust sent countless leaves swirling into the air, and the horses erupted into complete panic.

{WARNING: THE CREATURE’S ESTIMATED MASS AND WING-AREA-TO-WEIGHT RATIO ARE INCOMPATIBLE WITH SUSTAINED FLIGHT ACCORDING TO AVAILABLE AERODYNAMIC MODELS}

Reeve barely heard rAIven. He could only stare at the creature in complete astonishment.

“Hahaha! Looks like he woke up early this year.”

Bain laughed as he gazed at the opening the creature had torn through the clouds. Sunlight seemed to pour through it all at once. The rays reflected off the dragon’s enormous white scales, some of which shimmered in so many colors that they were almost impossible to describe.

“He?” Reeve asked.

He had assumed a fighting stance, even though he knew there was no possible way to fight something like that.

“Relax, Reeve. It’s only the Winter Dragon. He usually wakes closer to the end of autumn, but I imagine even he can feel all this cold arriving early.”

Bain raised one hand to shield his eyes from the sunlight reflecting off the dragon’s scales. With the other, he held the reins firmly, struggling to control the terrified horses.

“I always thought he was the one who brought winter,” Dora remarked casually.

{NEGATIVE. WINTER RESULTS FROM ASTRONOMICAL AND CLIMATIC FACTORS. THERE IS NO LOGICAL CONNECTION BETWEEN A MYSTICAL CREATURE AND THE CHANGING OF THE SEASONS}

Reeve ignored rAIven’s comment. The sight of the creature was both the most magnificent and the most terrifying thing he had witnessed since arriving in that world. Everything he had seen until then suddenly seemed far too small.

The group continued watching the dragon until it disappeared beyond the peaks of the mountain range.

“You’re incredibly lucky, Reeve,” Bain said. “A lot of people come to Olliria at this time of year just to witness the Winter Dragon’s awakening, and you see it on your first visit? You should buy a ticket in the Merchants’ Guild lottery.”

Reeve thought back on everything that had happened since he entered the Sakurajima building, all the way to that exact moment. He didn’t know whether it counted as good luck or bad, but he decided not to argue with Bain.

Once the commotion surrounding the dragon had passed and they managed to calm the horses, they resumed their journey. The rest of the road passed without incident, aside from occasional encounters with other travelers heading in both directions.

On the seventh night of their journey, Reeve lay beneath the still-clouded sky.

rAIven, this should be even more obvious after seeing that thing, but I don’t think we’re home... I don’t think we’re in our world.

Reeve finally put into words something he had suspected for some time. Something he hadn’t even told rAIven.

For the first time he could remember, rAIven didn’t respond to one of his remarks. She didn’t even offer a plausible alternative.

No fucking way it took a dragon to leave you speechless.

The night wind howled even harder. Reeve didn’t try to force another explanation from the AI, but he already knew what he believed. And that conclusion made his goal of returning to Nova Tokyo even more difficult.

Traveling from one megacity to another had already been difficult where he came from. Traveling from one world to another... how could something like that even be possible?

He didn’t know.

So he simply went to sleep.

New chapter on Monday. Thanks for reading!