Stained glass shattered out into the massive black courtyard of the Remulan palace. The eastern side, as my bearings told me. I made as much of a show as possible for a short while, shooting out some more windows with a few blasts of magic before darting away into the cavern. The distraction had been enough. The dark elf was sprinting away from the palace, woman in tow.

Stealth was no issue, now, not in truth. The city was massive, and mostly dark. My own deep purple scales would be hard to pick out against a background of dark stone with no lighting. Taking care not to pass close to any of the floating lanterns that served as lighting, I scouted the path that the dark elf cop and Stinky were taking.

I swept through the air like a pendulum, using my wings and momentum to create a graceful arc. “Move. It’s going to be chaos within minutes.” The pair had made it to the sprawl of alleyways and thoroughfares that made up the paths to the royal palace. It still wasn’t nearly safe. Even as I spoke, a loud whistling was starting to erupt in the palace and the market was quieting in response.

“Wait, what is going on?” The dark elf cop looked completely out of their depth.

“Might have killed the queen.” The elf gasped, and surprisingly so did Stinky, but then I thought for a moment. I would have wrung my own neck if it were possible. No prompt had appeared to confirm the kill. “FUCK. No. More likely, the queen is furious and trying to kill me. I’m leaving. Taking that one with me.”

To my surprise, the cop stood in my way, blocking Stinky from view though she looked around him. She didn’t seem worried at all, in fact she seemed playful. She tried to push around the other elf and made a game of it. “Are you feeling protective, officer?” I grinned, but there was a flinch in the elf’s features. Maybe there was too much tooth in that one. “Considering how unsafe she was about an hour ago, you’re definitely a small step up. I have an actual stronghold though, so unless you want to come along, it’s time for you to get on your dogbird.”

“I’ll come.”

We were behind a nice smelling bakery, which was distracting because I wanted to just be angry. Instead, I was hungry and angry now. “It wasn’t an actual offer, buddy. Just go find your dogbird and take it for a walk to clear your mind, I’ve got it from here.” I moved to take Stinky’s hand, but again the elf got in the way. I made a show of grabbing the bridge of my nose, and sighing. “What are you thinking there, Dirty Harry?”

“Who under Gaia is Harry?” The elf wasn’t exuding confidence by any means, but he also wasn’t cowed. “I don’t know anything about what just happened, except that… I was coming to save you.” The elf turned like he was embarrassed. Stinky, for her part, had her eyes closed and was smelling the air.

The words washed over me and I took them in. The events with Donna had made me cynical and bitter, but there was a validity in his reaction. He felt he had to say this, he hadn’t been trying to manipulate. Damn. Stupid human emotions.

“Oh.” This was all I could manage to say to that.

“My name is Abrus, by the way. Abrus Aericidae.”

“Right. Yeah. Izaark.”

“Cool.”

It was impossible to break out of the spiral here, I could feel it happening. Luckily, the courtyard had begun to fill with soldiers that had no idea what to do. The sight of them was enough to push us into moving, both Abrus and I grunting some kind of thanks and welcome to each other. Alright, Abrus could join the circle of trust, too. I took in Logue and Salan quickly, possibly too quick.

“Fine. Let me think. Go to the roof where we met.” I took off without waiting for an answer. As I leapt to the open air, I did catch a glimpse of Stinky jumping after me like a child would a butterfly. Cute. It wouldn’t be difficult for Abrus to make his way around the city. Easier, certainly, if I weren’t next to him. For myself, it was as simple as just not letting myself stay grounded.

Our conversation had gone on long enough that the sky wasn’t quite as empty as it had been. A quick cast of enhance on myself put me far above the level of an apex predator. Already a huge amount of power in a small container, with my enhance spell active, I felt unstoppable. It was intoxicating, and it took conscious effort not to just keep the spell active, committing a portion of my mana to it at all points.

The efforts of the searching guards were as effective as a dog blindly pawing underneath a sofa for a ball already out of reach. It gave me time to ponder these things, looking at my status page for the first time in… does it matter how long? I suppose not.

Name: Izaark

Race: Winged Kobold

Species: Gem Dragon

Level: 02

Class: Warlock

Job: Overlord

HP:324

Strength

Tier 2

MP:742

Body

Tier 2

EP: 1045

Magic

Tier 4

Will

Tier 2

My lair page remained unchanged from before, and until I was back there, putting points into that would feel bizarre. Not to mention a sudden shift in the geography of the place could be catastrophic. My mana was slowly recovering. I was definitely being too precious with it. Another cast of enhance, just before the last ran out. It was worth it. Why not live under the effects of the spell all the time? I’d feel weaker if I ever stopped casting… but no one would ever put me in chains again.

The distance between the palace and the meeting place I had decided on for Abrus and Stinky was vast, but the exhilaration of escape along with the incredible boost in speed from my spell made the expanse feel much smaller. Reaching the rooftop, I realised I would likely have to wait a while, but that was fine. I continued scanning the dogbird riders as they swarmed the skies.

I was grateful to see, firsthand, the response to an assault on their monarch. The lazy flying, the overheard laughter and joking, the general sense that I had absolutely nothing to worry about all served as a warning. I hoped that my people would be a little more upset. I was just about to jump into what I meant by my people, but my arguing mind was interrupted by Abrus and Stinky, arriving on the dogbird.

“It’s a simurgh, Izaark.” The creature was eyeing me suspiciously as it landed, but there was enough hesitance in its eyes that I could tell it didn’t want a rematch. Clever thing.

“Uh, Itza Simmug to you, too, Abrus.”

“What? No, this fella, Cyrus. He’s a simurgh. It’s what they’re called. Not dogbirds.”

“Oh, right. Well, thank you.”

“It’s just that you really need to use the right name for things.”

“Honestly, Abrus, I think you’re taking it a bit too seriously.”

“I don’t know, it would be like me calling you a dragon.”

“I am a dragon.”

“Well, you’re a kobold.”

“Yes, and?”

“It’s just Kobolds aren’t really dragons are they?”

“I really think I don’t want to have this conversation. Let’s move on.”

Bizarre interaction aside, and Stinky’s air-headed nature meaning I was only talking to Abrus, I laid out my next steps. “First, I need to return to my lair. Oh don’t look like that, it’s quite nice really, more of a mansion. Don’t worry. Once we’re there… Well, that’s where I can actually plan. Allies and safety.”

“What about this one? Who is she?”

“I hoped you might know, but I guess that’s like expecting… well never mind. She seems… broken, right? I have some understanding of these things but not enough to actually help someone who needs it. However, I might have someone who can help.” My hope was that Salan’s healing magic could do something, but this wasn’t a cut or stab wound, this was trauma. Either way, I had decided that Stinky was my friend and I wanted to help her. Maybe that was my trauma.

Abrus flew a faux patrol as I guided him in the direction we needed to go. I was worried for a moment that Cyrus wouldn’t fit through the gap I had come through, though it wasn’t tight for myself or the dark elves. To my surprise, his wings folded in and, a little more like a cat than a dog, it slinked through the opening with ease. The party continued on foot as the tunnel closed in around them. It was tight for the large creature, but it voiced no noise of complaint in the slightly cramped space.

Within the enclosed space, my mind was becoming more my own. That had been just about the worst case scenario, and I had no recourse until the literal grace of god saved me. I didn’t think Dion was watching closely enough, or had enough control, to have given me exactly what I needed in the moment but even in Zeus’ world I shouldn’t expect or hope for any more deus ex machina.

I needed allies, and Abrus was another good step in that direction. It had been what had walked me, idiotically, into the palace in the first place. That and complacency. I would squash any of that from now on. I activated enhance, chuckling as the spell bounced to Abrus.

“What’s happening?” He asked, suddenly on edge.

“Oh, sorry,” I laughed, “My spell jumped to you, it wasn’t intentional.”

“Why are you casting spells at all though, is it dangerous?”

“Abrus, the whole world seems to be dangerous. I’m just not living as a weakling any more.” My words came out at an excited pace, one that Abrus could follow now but likely wouldn’t if he weren’t under the same spell’s effect. I was practically bounding with each step, so there was some kinks to work out. Practising as we made our way to my lair, I began to even out the speech patterns and find equilibrium with my new strength.

The benefits were obvious. For the cost of essentially losing 80 mana to keep the spell maintained, all of my senses were heightened, my reflexes were sharpened and my muscles tightened into steel cords. The journey would take a few hours with the pace we were going, so I occupied myself mostly with focusing on the spell.

For the first half an hour, I tried to consciously count the moments and cast the spell as needed. Over those thirty or so casts, I came closer and closer to making it habitual. The actual process of casting each of my spells was, for lack of a better word, natural to me. With my energy blasts, I pictured a weight forming in my hand, and it did. For dragonbreath, it had usually taken a bubble of rage to swell the mana and turn it into flame.

For hasten, strength and now enhance, I had to tense all of my muscles and then push my mana around myself quickly. It was a simple action and yet it still required concentration. The hour of travel after that, I specifically tried not to think about when I needed to cast it. This resulted in a frustrating amount of failures but there was a tickle in the back of mind. This felt important now.

Just as I thought that whatever breakthrough I sensed was just stubbornness, it pinged. In the top right of my vision, a small icon signalling a notification. I opened it quickly.

New Ability - Autocast

Effect: When you use a spell or ability directed upon yourself and only yourself, you may automate the spellcasting.

Familiarity with the spell increases the efficacy of this ability.

“I’m a bloody genius.”

“You’re terrifying and strange. That’s what some geniuses are like, I suppose.” I’d been so engrossed in myself that I hadn’t noticed that Abrus had been paying attention to me. For the last little while he had been talking to Stinky, trying to get her to speak, or maybe just passing the time.

“You’re welcome to think whatever you like.”

“I noticed that. You’re not… really like anything I imagined.” Abrus really was inspecting me now.

“It’s almost enough to make a man blush, Abbie.” I teased. “There’s a long story behind the creature you see before you, but suffice to say, I ain’t your normal dragon.”

Abrus agreed with that, and the rest of the journey was a little more open. Abrus explained what the shadeguard were - fantasy cops, like I’d guessed - and how he had become one. I assumed the simurgh came second, but Abrus and Cyrus had apparently been raised together since birth. The bonding process sounded fascinating, if a little archaic. Simurgh riders were in high demand, for obvious reasons, though not all chose a life of peacekeeping.

On my side, I explained what Abrus would be walking in to. He said there was no chance that a dwarf was working as a blacksmith for goblins, so I wagered him a gold piece for it. Happy to have made some money, I told Abrus of my hope for some miracle of healing magic. It was nice, actually. There was a sense of camaraderie that had formed between myself and Abrus that hadn’t happened with Logue and Salan. Perhaps because Abrus hadn’t seen me tear apart his allies.

The friendly conversation helped me truly make the enhance effect my own, and brought us to my lair. Or the outskirts of my domain, as it appeared to be now.

“Halt!” A firm voice commanded. I listened to the voice, with a smile on my face and waited. We were still about ten minutes from the door to my lair, but I had noticed markings on the cave walks for a few minutes and now we stood before a fairly ramshackle barricade of rubble. A tall, burly goblin appeared, looking fairly menacing. Once he saw me, he yelped and dropped to his knees. I didn’t know this one, somehow, but it was definitely one of mine.

“It’s okay, get up. I’ve been gone for a little while, I didn’t know we were doing expansion yet.”

“M-m-mighty Izaark, wel- welcome back.” All firmness lost, the goblin was a mess. Not much of a guard, though I’d forgive it this once. Again, the litheness of the simurgh surprised me, it was able to push through the barricade without knocking over the rocks.

“Keep up the good work, soldier.” I shouted over my shoulder casually as we left. Then I turned to Abrus and said “Come on then, we’ve got some people to meet, a brain to heal and a war to plan.”

“Yeah!” Abrus agreed. “Wait… A WAR?!”