I came to with a gasp, which was a mistake, as I breathed in the liquid that had been trickling down my throat. Sitting bolt upright, I struggled for a moment against a strong hand that was holding me me in place as I coughed and spluttered, doing my best to clear my airway.

“Steady, you little shit; don’t want you drowning after I’ve poured half a fortune down your neck.”

Still coughing, and suddenly aware of the pain in my hand, feet, arm and chest, I winced reflexively before turning to look at the speaker, though from the tone I had a good idea who it was. Badan Tain crouched next to me, an empty glass bulb in his free hand. The other hand was on my shoulder, which is what had prevented me from catapulting through the air on waking this time.

Trying to remember what happened, I looked around for my friends, seeing Toria and Darina a short distance away; the apprentice healer was still leaning over the unmoving form of the other, and I guessed it was going to take quite a bit of healing to get her back to normal. I was glad; not that Toria was so injured, but that she was still alive for Dee to work on at all.

Somewhat mollified, I turned back to Tain, my coughing finally under control.

“When did you get here? Last, I remember, I fell off the dragon like an idiot. Thought I was going to die, honestly. There was a ringing, and a wet sound which I thought was my head...”

“You did fall off, just as I arrived. You did a good job, for a little shit; I’m impressed. Not many at,” the man paused, looking at me, “what, Path stage?”

I nodded cautiously; if Tain had killed the dragon, which seemed likely given the conversation, it was not like I could do much if he decided to kill me anyway.

“Right. Not many Path stage cultivators could distract a dragon for that long, let alone give it a bit of a kicking, which you seemed to have done. Not sure what you were doing there, just pointing at it, but it worked. You fell off and I cut it from arse to airway, that’s probably what you heard. It was lucky, a dragon’s scales are weaker on the belly, they’re generally not keen to expose it for much time, but I’ll take my luck where I can get it.”

“Right. I’m glad you made it; I wasn’t expecting reinforcements for, well, a while. I wasn’t expecting it to be intelligent, either.”

“Dragons? Oh yes, they’re intelligent, the Void blasted bastards. At all ages, too. I don’t suppose you chanced to ask what it was doing here? I tried asking the mouthy bi-uh, healer, but she just ignored me. Can’t say as I blame her, state of your other friend.”

“It said it was having pleasant dreams, and they stopped. I think it meant the, uh, aura. Wanted to know who shut it down and ruined its nap. Didn’t remember a city being here...”

“Void blasted thing must have been sleeping for more than a thousand years; dragons sleep when their core is progressing, takes longer and longer. Must have been at the Pinnacle, if it slept that long. We are lucky, and I’m more impressed, lad. I do wonder where it was sleeping though... might pay for some of the Void damned Thrice Moon Distilled, Center Revitalization Elixir I fed you.”

“Thrice Moon... what? Seriously, alchemists need to climb out of their own asses. You mean the recharging potion-thingy?”

“... Yes, I mean the, ‘recharging potion thingy’. You should show more respect, if only because if an alchemist hears you talking like that, you’ll end up barred from service.”

The Blood Marshall, the man that basically ruled a city and had just killed a dragon – a dragon - looked around warily, as if to check nobody was near enough to hear. Curious, I looked around as well, beyond searching for my friends and saw dozens of Blood Guard standing about the destroyed section of the city, and the dragon’s body, some shaking their head at the rubble while others kept their eyes out for trouble.

Apparently done checking, Tain leaned in close and spoke, his voice low and quiet so as not to carry.

“I don’t disagree; they do have an odd naming convention. Don’t want to mess with them though, they’re everywhere. Well, almost, and they’re a bad lot to be on the bad side of it. I heard once that if you gathered them all up into one spot, they’d be the biggest sect – or nation, even – on the planet.”

“I heard they’re pretty powerful. Walker – he's an Apex... of the Infinite Blades... he said to be respectful too. The Risen Throne – the ones I told you about – tried to steal from one, kidnapped an Apprentice in Everwood City. And me. Hopefully the Association rolls over and crushes them.”

“If they’ve messed with the Association, they’ll regret it eventually. But either way, you seem to be mostly fine now. Go see your friends, I need to get this body secured, its core removed and everyone back to the Stone.”

With that, the Marshall stood and marched off to shout orders at the scattered Guard without sparing me another glance. With a shrug, I placed my hand on the stone to push myself to my feet and yelped as I used the wrong one, roasted flesh pressing against the broken ground painfully.

Grumbling to myself, I stood gingerly, using my other hand for support, wincing as I placed weight on my assuredly blistered feet. Pulling another healing pill from storage, I threw it down my throat and muttered about the loss of my Lesser Regeneration. Despite the added difficulty it would add to my eventual channel expansion project, it might be worth it, I thought, given how often I got myself injured.

Before limping my way over to the women, I turned to take a look at the dragon, which was actually still very close, given I had fallen off its neck; the massive, brassy lizard was covered in blood, and while I could not see the injuries from the ground, given the sheer amount of the stuff that covered it, and the ground, I knew they had to be massive. Frowning, I looked at where I had lain, and saw a vaguely head and shoulders shaped outline in the rapidly drying pool of red. Reaching back, I felt my hair, which was caked in coagulated muck.

“Dammit.”

Taking out a cleansing pill, I pressed it against my head and waited a moment for it to do its thing, wiping away the filth and leaving me pristine once more. Not for the first time, I wondered where the physical matter went after being cleansed; I imagined a huge mountain of waste somewhere in the world and hoped that I would never have occasion to discover such a thing.

Wincing with every step, I stagged over to Darina, sitting heavily next to her, eager to get off my damaged feet again.

“Is she okay, Dee?”

“Toria will be fine, provided people stop bothering me.”

I took the admonition in my stride and looked down at Chian’s apprentice; Darina had removed her breastplate and she was mostly naked, though her flesh was black and red where the flame had touched; I had no idea whether her resistance had helped or not, but if it had, I was glad that I had not been hit directly.

With another series of winces, I climbed to my feet and slowly began to erect a tent around the two, for Toria’s privacy and so that Darina was less likely to be disturbed. It took a few minutes; it can be difficult and awkward to assemble a tent with one hand and extensive burns, but I managed the outer shell in relatively short order; slower I may have been, but I was still super-human.

Having finished erecting some privacy, I sat back down gratefully and watched as Darina picked stone chips and brushed dust away from flesh as she worked to repair the damage slowly; burns were tough to heal, if I recalled my own experience of being slammed into Reff’s armour correctly.

I thought about leaving, to find the others, but I had no idea where they were and I did not really want to leave the two out in the open as they were, not with the sects and the Uppity Chairs running about causing trouble. Not to mention the, ‘ordinary’ citizens.

Lying down next to them – as my back was the area with the least number of burns – I sighed and stripped my own boots and shirt off, lying on my doffed robe; I had no interest in permanently becoming a part of my clothing, and I had no idea how exactly the pills worked.

Now as comfortable as I could make myself, I settled in to wait.

*

***

*

Hours – and multiple healing pills – later, Toria was awake and dressed again, though she was limited to a loose robe for the moment. Darina was exhausted, and had used enough Praxis that she drunk the recharge potion she had taken from Faen, promising to continue the healing once she was back to full strength.

Toria had given me hers; while she was badly injured, she had not actually used much energy at all in the fight, or its aftermath, and while we did not voice it out loud, none of us were very interested in giving the remaining one back to the Guard.

I had found, to my surprise, that I was back up to full from the potion the Marshall had apparently just poured down my throat; I had no clue how close I had been to death, but I figured that it was pretty close, with the whole, ‘passing out’ thing, which was not something that had ever happened to me, at least from a lack of energy.

I was definitely keen to get my hands on as many of the things as I could; I still did not know how expensive they were, but I assumed the cost was probably magnified by the fact we were in Ouhl, where alchemists did not spend a great deal of their time. I could ask the ones back at the Citadel, or Master Ro back at Everwood; knowing the old man, he probably had something even better. Of course, those options assumed I would make it back... Jorl had only been gone a few days, and a good chunk of the city was destroyed, most of the populace was missing - or dead - and the Risen Throne were – presumably – doing their thing. ‘Months’ was a long time to wait when we might not have days.

“How are your burns... Hunter.”

“My burns? Shit, Toria, I’m fine compared to you. Are you sure I can’t, like, double you up on healing pills?”

The young woman’s skin was no-longer the angry red and black it had been, but it was still a mess, and she still had no hair. It was hard to look at, though I made myself; she must be in enough pain as it was, I thought, without treating her like a freak.

“I’m sure; what combinations can be made with what we have on hand have been made, and administered. It's been a long time since I was burned, but I remember it well, and it’s passing. I'll be fine, with time.”

I wished I could do something to help, but I knew my areas of expertise were elsewhere; wise-assory and stupid decision making probably were not going to help her a great deal.

Nodding, I felt the healer’s glare, and I turned slightly, offering a weak smile; Darina had already told me there was nothing more to be done until she was ready to heal again, and she was not a person who enjoyed repeating herself.

“Uh, sorry Dee-rina. Just wish I could do more.”

“Hunter, do not be more of a fool than you already are; you are not a healer, you are – just about – a fighter, and you helped a great deal by disabling the dragon and stopping it from stomping over here and crushing us. You almost died as well, doing so. You. Did. Enough.”

I knew she was right, but it did not change how I felt; a person must learn to live with their limitations, most people could not be or do everything. I had made my choices, and neither would help with either alchemy or healing. They had stopped a dragon though, and that was pretty awesome.

“Yeah, you’re right. I’m glad you both, you know, survived.”

“As am I.”

The two spoke in unison, their voices dry; looking at each other, they smiled, though Toria quickly winced and forced herself to stop.

I was about to say, ‘jinx’, and then explain what that meant, when a shout was heard from the outside.

Slipping my doffed clothing back on quickly, I slipped out of the tent and hurried over to the nearest Blood Guard, still wincing with each step but in nowhere near as much pain.

“What’s happening? It’s not another dragon, is it?”

“I don’t know, I just heard the shout too.”

Mentally kicking myself, I looked around, finding a small crowd gathered around Tain. I turned to head over when his voice sounded above the fresh babble of voices, booming once more as it had in the square only days before.

“THE STONE IS UNDER CONCERTED ATTACK. ALL GUARDS: BACK TO THE STONE!”