The Houses of Et Draco looked upon me appalled and confused by what I was saying. They didn’t understand what I meant by it because of a culture difference, but the way in which I said it was pretty contemptuous, so at least they knew it wasn’t a compliment.

“Who even are you?” another asked me.

“Sir Eric Archibald, successor to the guardian of balance,” I replied. Did I have to add ‘sir’ in? Nope, but I felt like it. “The past guardian, which was the strongest creature to ever live in our realm, was a half-breed, mixed with human and dragon. She could split Et Draco in half with a wave of her finger, yet you treat the half-breeds here like nothing more than intelligent cattle.”

They all looked at me addled by what I was saying, as this was new information for them all. I rolled my eyes, “Okay, let me make this simple. If you don’t stop the slave-trade and start giving half-breeds equal opportunities to every industry in Et Draco, I will simply take them all to my world, where they would be free of your injustices, free of the seals you put on them.”

Murmurs filled the place. I could see the snickering fire in Christophe’s eyes, because I was directly and unabashedly tackling a subject that he wished to tackle himself. This all gave me a strong sense of déjà vu. How many situations like this have I been in now? I thought, sitting patiently and waiting for someone in the room to make a snarky remark about me having no power or right to say or do the things I’m threatening to do.

“We’ve heard that you were summoned here by a half-breed,” the head of another House spoke.

“Fairchild, right?” I asked for confirmation, despite knowing exactly who she was. With a nod of her head, I continued, “Yes, it is true. As for how it happened – well, I think I have it figured out, but I remain uncertain, so I’ll hold my tongue on the matter until I’m sure.”

A Wind Cutter zoomed towards us all of a sudden, which I easily dissipated with wind manipulation and dragged the bald, slanted-eyed perpetrator by the colour after afflicting his mind with something akin to Mind Break by using mind manipulation. He was dragged around the table and made to kneel before Sally. “You just attempted to murder a friend of mine–”

The others suddenly got up, as if their brains only just processed that what they saw was real. Some put up defensive spells, some offensive, some went to Devich’s side – the attacker – to defend him. Whilst everyone else was on edge, Sally and Christophe sat quietly.

“I think it’s only fair that if you want to kill someone, you yourself must be prepared to die,” I stated, taking off the gravitational constraints of the void and allowing him to move again. “Just know, if that spell was aimed toward me, you’d be dead right now. However, I was not your target,” I pointed at Sally, “she was. Whether you live or die now depends on her.”

An uproar was immediately started, and most Houses were against me on the matter. Curses were flying left and right, a plethora of spells illuminated the room, yet Christophe just sat there wordlessly. His eyes were glued to Sally, as was the rest of the people. I kept a faint light manipulation through Sally to keep her calm throughout, but I guess I didn’t need to.

“O’ Great Houses,” she finally addressed them, then stopped. A chuckle escaped her. “Where to start…” she muttered to herself, then regrouped her thoughts and refocused. After a deep breath, she stood up and turned around, looking at the now standing, but still scared patriarch of the Devich House. One by one, she looked at every single leader of each House, the ones mainly responsible for the constant discrimination and mistreatment of her people.

I’d no idea what was going through her mind at that moment, but her presence commanded everyone to pause everything they were doing. “There will be a radical change, purebreds. Unfortunately, there can be no final decision made by one mere half-breed. Having the power to do something doesn’t always mean you should do it; I cannot speak for the entirety of all half-breeds.” She was being prudent on the matter.

Hmm, whatever decisions she wants to suggest is on par with the huge change that moving all half-breeds to my world would cause, otherwise she wouldn’t postpone the matter like that.

“Is this why you’ve gathered us, ruler Vanalq? Are the things this half-breed saying also speaking for you or are you nothing more than a mediator in this meeting?” An older woman questioned. She was one of the more neutral and indifferent ones. She hadn’t been involved in the post-ban slave trade as much as the others, but she was still involved. However, whilst using Scour on her mind, I’d find that her memories were a lot more tolerable.

The slaves she owned could hardly be called slaves in the first place. They were paid better than half-breeds that were free, they were allowed to leave the place they were assigned to work, and they had shorter working hours than others, even the free half-breeds. Her half-breeds were treated so good, that they might’ve actually sided with humans. Not only did she treat them almost as good as the members of her own family, she chastised anyone who would dare give them a hard time just because they didn’t like half-breeds.

In fact, she was infamous amongst the humans because of that. According to her memories, her ‘slaves’ all had the emblem of her House on somewhere that could be hidden, but was able to be seen in case someone tried to bother them. The simple act of showing an abuser the emblem made people back off. Considering all these things, she’d still be quite indifferent when it came to half-breeds that weren’t her own.

“Matriarch Kew,” Christophe cleared his throat before speaking, “her name is Sally. And in regards to your concern, Sally and Eric both speak for me. As you all know, I am biased towards better treatment for half-breeds, as I wouldn’t even be alive if not for one of them. Despite knowing that a ban on slavery is in place, most of the heads gathered here still partake in it. It was no secret; I’ve known this the minute you all decided to go behind my back and continue this. What about you, Kew? Do you not treat your slaves like family because you have compassion for them?”

Another tense atmosphere wiggled into the room, just like when they were waiting for Sally to speak. It appeared that Kew was infamous for how good her slaves were treated. She took quick glances around the room, then squinted her eyes in confusion. Then suddenly, as if having an epiphany, she leaned back almost in horror, then busted out one of the most obnoxious guffaws I’d ever heard. It startled everyone. She laughed so hard she had to wipe the tears away. Admittedly, it calmed the tenseness in the meeting. However, her words to follow would bring that intensity right back up to our necks. “House leaders, ruler, Sally, and otherworld mage, it appears you do not know, but there are half-breeds that can remove the seals on their own.”

A deathly silence crept about the room, and Kew wasn’t even finished. “In fact, they can remove the seals in other half-breeds as well. It takes a few days, but it’s not like we can tell if they remove the seals anyway. Because my slaves trust my family, we came to know of it. House leaders, I’ve seen what a half-breed without seals on them can do. We humans could be wiped out laughably easy if they teach each other how to remove the seals. If this slavery thing was based entirely on power, humans would be the slaves. So, ruler Christophe, I do have compassion for my slaves, but I fear them just as much. I treat them nicely so that if an insurrection were to ever happen, my family might be spared, and my slaves might defend us, just as we defend them.”

Those words even shook Christophe, but they especially had the others perturbed. Interesting, I thought. Scour was a fantastic mind spell for investigation, but it wasn’t thorough like Scan was. There would always be information left out. This is an interesting development! But I really need to get back to leading the world armies. Apollyon still weighed on my mind. I didn’t wish to waste time here only for them to be split by civil unrest and end up unable to render help to us against Apollyon.

Seeing as Kew seemed to know about something the others weren’t aware of, I posed a question to her. “Kew, the dragons that are summoned, where do they come from?”

Suddenly, as if on cue, an absolutely massive amount of power was felt on the outside of the mansion. It ripped everyone’s attention away, even mine. I had a clone send everyone into a void plane and whilst I made my way outside to see what this power was coming from.

Reptilian eyes met me, “You,” its deep and thundering voice rumbled. “It’s good to see you are doing well,” it greeted.

“L-likewise,” I stuttered. “If you don’t mind me asking, why are you here, Audax?”

The dark dragon Emily had breathed slowly as it looked down at me. He looked like he was ready to blow a fuse. “I am here to speak to the leaders of this world. I felt their presence just now, but they have disappeared! What have you done?”

I chuckled. How’d he know it was me? “Well, alright then. I wanna see wassup with this.” I pulled all the leaders toward me; they all passed through the walls because they were in the void. When I brought them back to the corporeal plane, Audax released a small amount of smoke through his nostrils.

“Leaders, the dragons of Et Draco has had enough! I will keep my intentions short and simple, so that you may understand.” His loud voice boomed in the air, “All the dragons you have summoned and enslaved are to be released! If you do not release them, I will raze your entire continent until but cinders and ashes remain! You have been warned!”

My arms drooped along with my jaw, and from the looks of the Houses, so did they. The dragon, Audax, gave them three days until he returned. Without even waiting for a reply, he turned around and flew off. Shit, uh… fuck! I was torn between following Audax to ask him about his sudden demand, and staying for the end of the meeting. Damn, what to do, what to do? Just to take precaution, I left some spirit wyrms with Sally, although she didn’t need them, and flew off to catch Audax.

He landed in a faraway desert, taking almost the rest of the day to make the journey. Hydra’s ass, man! Finally! I rejoiced when we finally stopped.

“Why have you followed me?” Audax laid reptilian eyes upon me.

“To hear your story,” I shrugged. “I had a friend, quite the fiery fellow like you, who actually went ahead with doing what you just threatened to do. And well, y’know, I gotta protect the balance and all that jazz.”

His snout flared, “Balance?! There is no balance! Et Draco is falling apart because all the female dragons have been forcefully summoned and bred by you disgusting pale-skins!” He fumed, and I was pretty confused, until I thought over the existence of half-breeds.

By Hydra’s perfectly rounded ass! It makes sense now! Dragons help ‘em and stuff but the real purpose of them is basically being surrogate mothers to make half-breeds! “So, the dragon populace is mainly male now?”

“Yes,” he said, curling around to lay down. “It is hard to maintain existence with so few females. So we will eventually die out if the young females keep being taken. However, it isn’t only the young being taken! They’ve taken a friend of mine! One who was here even before the damned conception of this realm! Emily only wanted us to live in peace after her passing, but Et Draco’s humans have taken her!”

“W-wait, do you mean Aurora?!” I asked. I remembered the gentle dragon he spoke about.

“Yes! I have had my experience with enslavers, and I will see that no friend of mine be subjected to the same fate! Do you intend to stop me?”

I shook my head, “No, Audax. I intend to help you. While it is true that I must support the balance, even I will not stand for Aurora to be used in such a despicable manner. However, we can both achieve what we want without incinerating the human continent in Et Draco.”

His head tilted in confusion, and he paid a bit more attention to my words.

“You see, all the leaders were gathered together for a meeting concerning the liberty of the half-breeds. If it isn’t obvious by now, the half-breeds are born of human seed and dragon eggs. Not too long ago apparently, half-breeds were slaves, and they were traded like cattle. Things changed a little when the ruler outlawed slavery and slave-trade, but it was still being done in the shadows. The ruler knew this, and recognised my power as a way of strong-arming a better life for the half-breeds. Audax, the freedom of Aurora can also come as a wake-up call for the rest of the humans in Et Draco.”

“What are you getting at?”

I hung my head down, “I, don’t know. I’ve offered the half-breeds a home back in Methelia. The land to the west where the Virai once were could be good for them. But, I’m not sure, maybe living with the dragons would be better for them.”

“It will not. The only reason there hasn’t been a war between dragons and humans yet is because of Aurora and I. But I am afraid with Aurora now taken, the rage of the remaining dragons has reached the boiling point. I gave myself this quest in exchange for just a few days of patience amongst my brethren. If I fail, the humans will meet their end. Mage, your half-breeds will only be looked at with scorn and resentment, that’s if the dragons even agree to have them.”

I squirmed inside. What now? I asked myself. Looming threat of dragons versus stubborn rich folks? If I let things happen and don’t do anything, I’m sure this place will be cinders and ashes just like Audax said. I have to get the half-breeds out of here before that! “Could I put a Light Link in you in case I need to find you again?”

“Do as you wish, mage,” he said, closing his eyes.

I entered the void and instantly teleported back to Sally. When I got there, I found that she had been wounded. Renew quickly patched her up. An agitation washed over me looking at the blood she lost. “You are strong enough to defend yourself now that the seals are removed. What happened?”

She smiled at me weakly, and placed a comforting hand on my clenched fist. “It’s a bit hard to defend yourself without killing anyone.”

“So, they attacked you the moment I left?”

“Don’t do anything stupid,” she warned me.

A simper sounded from me, “No, I won’t need to. If they’re so unmovable by my threat to take away half-breeds, then they will probably encounter a fate much worse.”

She looked a bit worried by that statement, “You mean what that dragon said? Is it true? Can a dragon really do something that powerful?”

I shrugged, “Normal dragons, I don’t know. But him, yes. He’s actually trying to protect us humans from the wrath of the remaining dragons but we’re clearly too stupid to heed his words. Sally,” I turned to her, “I’m taking the half-breeds, even if it’s against their will. They cannot be here when Audax attacks.”

She shivered, then took a deep breath. “You know, before slavery was banned, I used to work at a farm, and we’d be forced to water plants until we passed out from exhaustion. They wouldn’t even pick us up. After we woke up, we needed to finish the job and make our way back to the farmer’s house. We lived where livestock lived, like animals, and they’d always make it their business to point out that we were nothing more than pigs on two legs.”

Her hand squeezed onto mine, trying to keep her tears back but ultimately failing, “And I believed them! I believed I was born to serve humans until I drew my last breath! Well, that was until I met a boy. He never believed such things, he viewed himself as equal to everyone else. Despite being worked the hardest, despite coughing up blood because his mana often depleted, despite being younger than all of us, he still never held the humans in contempt.” Her eyes had absolute admiration for this person she spoke of, “He was a better person than all of us in the end.”

“What happened to him?” I questioned.

“No one knows. One day, he suddenly disappeared. I always wished to meet him again, and at least ask him his name.”

Hmm. “Sally,” I put an arm around her shoulder, “I’m taking you home in my world for now. I gotta visit someone.”

With the time I spent here, the summit should already be over, I thought to myself, and then began to ask the clones if they were busy. Most of them were free, and only a few helped with the construction of Kynhall Bridges in the different worlds. Okay, good. I then cast Riftshear and took Sally home, and she immediately fell in love with Tacari. “Sup guys, this is Sally. Sally, this is, well, everyone. I’ll be back!”

I then used Voidport to go to meet Aerellis in the Grove of the Ancient. Ever since the whole Sven-Hivemind-Hyzek versus warlocks and demons fiasco, she was safe to return home to the Withering Forest. By the way, ‘Voidport’ was what I decided to call the process of going into a void plane, merging my body and consciousness with the void completely, then separating myself at another location in the void. It was basically an instantaneous version of Riftwalk, but it couldn’t traverse worlds.

So, there I was, in the Grove of the Ancient, giving Methelia’s guardian of nature a big hug.

“What do you want?” she groaned, cutting right to the chase.

I sighed, “Why do you always think I want something?”

“Your name’s Eric Archibald. That’s what you do,” she retorted quickly.

“Man,” I shed some fake tears, “that’s pretty mean!”

“So, what is it?”

I explained what was on my mind, and asked how fast it could be learnt.

She looked at me, and touched my chest with a finger. “Your mana pathways are becoming weirder and weirder every time I see you. At the moment, they seem to be best suited to mind and void magic. Void mana pathways would have to be sacrificed a bit in order to change over to something more suitable for nature magic. As you are now, I feel it would take you about two days to learn bu–”

“Two days?!” I complained. How am I gonna get the half-breeds out before Et Draco becomes a damn melting pot?