Groggy, it took me a long time to realize I’d been thrown into the center of a giant circular arena. The ground— even its walls and ceilings— were splattered with a liberal coating of rust-colored blood. With some effort, I managed to go from my stomach to my knees and forearms to standing. My vision grayed and I put my hands out as a precaution as I wavered there.

I glimpsed six throne-like chairs. Each one was filled with a Master Remnant, and from the look of it each of them commanded scores of subordinates. All told, there must have been hundreds of bodies packed into the converted open-air amphitheater.

My eyes were drawn to the starry sky. Pleiades light shined down on me from almost directly above where I stood. Was it a good omen, or a portent that boded ill for me? Breathing deeply of the fresh, cold air, I was revitalized. I was aboveground.

Metal fasteners jangled as they bounced across the chipped concrete floor. I followed the sound with my eyes and saw a foaming-at-the-mouth fighter that had been released from the chains that had bound him. His handlers scurried behind a gate and slammed it shut before the feral man could turn on them. With nowhere else to direct his fury, the man turned his crazed eyes on me and charged.

The crowd roared its approval. “Berserker!!”

“Viktor!!”

“Give ‘em hell!”

It didn’t look like it would be fruitful to try reasoning with the deranged fighter. Still, I didn’t want to fight. Underneath all that rage, I could see the man that once was. That and I didn’t want to play into Master Kian’s hands.

“Wait! I don’t want this. Please, we can talk this through. We don’t have to fight to entertain these lowlives. No one has to die.” I offered my hand, palm up.

The fighter— I assumed his name was Viktor— closed the distance until mere feet separated the two of us. “Kill kill kill KILL!”

Hanging onto my reservations wasn’t going save the guy from insanity, and it definitely wasn’t going to save me, either.

Viktor leapt through the intervening space and bore me to the ground. I was able to get my hands in front of my face in time. The berserker’s teeth, which had been filed to points, chomped on air just inches away from my exposed jugular. Frothy spittle landed on my face, and Viktor’s claw-like fingers tore into my sides. Crying out, I threw him off to my left side and rolled to the right.

I came out of the roll with bloody furrows dug into my sides. “If the two of us work together, we can break out of this situation.”

Viktor cocked his head at me and inhaled. “Smell good. Eat you?”

Reluctantly, I shook my head and balled my hands into fists. “Guess not.”

“Flesh flesh flesh flesh. Must have flesh. Delicious flesh!”

I tapped into the river of energy flowing through me and called it to the surface. A splitting headache split my skull in two and I fell to the ground like a puppet with its strings cut. My tongue felt too big for my mouth and my head felt like it’d been stuffed with gauze. Dazed, I blinked to clear my vision and struggled to get my feet underneath me.

The dangers of using magic were as unknown to me as everything else I didn’t know about it. I wished I could get a crash course before I ended up killing myself with ignorance. My shadowy companion, however, was silent.

Distantly, I heard the crowd jeer. I ignored them and sought out my opponent.

Viktor was hunched over his injured arm, which he cradled protectively. The fighter lapped up the droplets of red blood from his small wound. Feral or not, it looked like the guy wasn’t a fan of pain. He hissed and scuttled backwards when he saw me watching.

On closer inspection, I could tell the shallow wound had been caused by a loose bit of stone that had stabbed into his forearm when I had pushed him off of me. Experimentally I took a step towards him and was surprised again when the so-called berserker fell all over himself to get away from me.

I grinned happily. “Looks like you don’t have a stomach for fighting after all.”

The displeasure of the crowd reverberated in my chest. The booing reached a crescendo as I bowed mockingly at each of the six masters. For Master Kian I threw in a mocking salute.

An arrow sparked against the stone a half-step from my left foot. Another grazed my cheek a heartbeat later. Warning shots, clearly. Following the trajectory of the second shot, I tracked it back to its source.

As expected, the sniper was known to me. Dunn had been nursing his grudge while he waited for an opportunity to strike back. He let his bow drop back to his side and gestured pointedly at Viktor, then drew his finger across his throat.

“There’s just no getting out of this, is there?”

Before I made another move the portcullis clanked open behind me. A roar shook me down to the bones. The crowd cheered.

I gulped. “Don’t tell me…”

Jerkily, I turned to confront a bronze-skinned monster. Its glossy scales reflected the moonlight delicately, but they were no less hard for it. Each of its ebony claws were the size of my forearm and could easily rend me limb from limb. Although its wingspan would have been easily a hundred feet, its scarred and torn wings were tucked in. I couldn’t begin to guess how much the gigantic beast weighed.

The portcullis rammed home, leaving me and Viktor trapped inside the arena with a very angry reptile.

I’d read about these fantastic beasts in a Magisterium text written by a soggy old mage. However dry his descriptions of magical creatures had been, I couldn’t argue that the man had managed to accurately render the earth-dwelling dragon.

Dragons were elemental beings that resembled their legendary reptilian brethren. They were intelligent creatures that were said to have existed since before the dawn of humanity. This one had been brutalized and enslaved by the Remnants for base entertainment. My eyes picked out the countless metal stakes that had been driven through its scaly flesh, and I winced sympathetically.

Topazian alt link: https://imgur.com/gallery/njqN2n3

“Eretos save me,” I whispered.

The earth shook and animal terror flooded my body as the Dragon stomped towards me. Its jaws opened wide and it displayed its razor-sharp teeth as it roared. My hair was blown back by its warm breath and I fell flat on my ass.

I scooted backwards as I talked. “You don’t want to eat me, really! I’m bony and stringy and don’t even taste good.”

“You are no ordinary manling.”

I looked around. Viktor was mindlessly scrabbling against a wall in a futile attempt to escape the monster that had been unleashed upon us. He’d broken his fingernails against the unrelenting stone; red rivers appeared on the wall. The crowds raucous cheering and boisterous laughter was unending. By process of elimination, there wasn’t anyone else besides me the dragon could’ve been addressing.

Finally, I pointed a reluctant finger to my chest. “Are you… talking? To me?” This hadn’t been mentioned in the book.

The dragon snorted and gooey fluid splattered me. “I address the tiny manling with silver hair.”

I made a face and wiped away as much of the boogers as I could, but I’d never feel clean again until I was able to bathe. “Well that was disgusting. You ever heard of a handkerchief?”

What was I saying?

One of its giant yellow eyes blinked. “No. That is irrelevant. I would strike a deal with you, manling.”

“Is that what you call everything on two legs? I have a name you know. It’s Shiro.”

Was I purposely trying to antagonize a creature that could swallow me whole?

The dragon stomped forward until it towered over me. Its claws clicked against the stone. Hot breath tickled my skin. Searing hot as it was, I still had goosebumps.

“Shiro,” the dragon tasted the air with its forked tongue and shook its humongous head. “I was known as Topazian, once. You are a captive to these savages, are you not?”

“I’m not here of my own free will if that’s what you’re asking. Well met, Topazian— err, I suppose not. These aren’t the best of circumstances for a meeting, are they?” I grinned foolishly as the dragon quested in its mouth with its fore-claws to dislodge a piece of bone. “Right! Sorry. You wanted to make a deal. What was it you had in mind?”

“The spikes that bind my power, I want you to remove them.

I looked again, the spikes had been driven deep into the dragon’s scaly flesh. “Easier said than done. How am I supposed to do that? I’m just a kid, not a miracle maker.”

Topazian clawed ineffectually at one of the stakes driven into its scales; he roared. “I know you have seen that which binds and seals my power. Remove them and I shall grant any one desire you covet. Be warned: should you fail to uphold your end of the bargain, all that will be left of you on the morrow will be a shapeless mass of flesh and bone.”

“You drive a hard bargain, dragon, and leave little room to negotiate…”

Topazian’s reptilian eyes narrowed. “Do you seek to game me, manling?”

I gulped. It seemed like it wasn’t a good idea to expect any more than I was offered when dealing with dragons. Chagrined, I sketched out a nervous bow to hide the color rising in my cheeks.

I shook my head vehemently and crossed my arms together to firmly negate the idea. “Who, me? No way, never! Wouldn’t dream of it. In fact, you’ve got a deal.”

Fed up with waiting for the fight to take an interesting turn, the crowd took matters into their own hands. Stones and broken bottles were thrown into the ring. I raised my arms around myself protectively to fend off the worst of it. Topazian stood stock-still while projectiles bounced off his scaly flesh without leaving a mark.

I doubted I had time to sit idly by while the Remnants glorious fight night went to shit. Crouching under the hail of stone and glass, I ran until I stood in the earth dragon’s enormous shadow. Any amount of thinking probably would have sent me running in animal terror, so I pushed aside all thought and let my body do the thinking for me.

Instinct guided me to the first jet-black spike lodged in the dragon’s foreleg. Its length was covered in glowing sigils that I vaguely recognized from the book on runes that I’d once perused. Just being close to it made my stomach roil and bile rise on my tongue. Reaching out to pull the damned thing loose, my arm was batted aside like I’d hit a wall.

Squinting, I noticed a steady field of anima in the shape of a dome that surrounded the metal spike. Unfortunately for me, someone had the forethought to protect against tampering.

A panicked, fluttery feeling settled into my stomach, joining my growing nausea. “I can’t see a way to undo what’s been done to you.”

“This is a terrible loss for us both. Since you could see them, I was under the impression you were graced with the sight… but I was mistaken.”

Dread displaced panic and I spewed my guts out on the grimy stone that was caked with the dried blood of the fallen. I shuddered.

In a last-ditch effort to dislodge the spike and prove my usefulness to the ancient dragon before it disposed of me, I struck the spikes domed protections. Each successive strike was imbued with a sliver of my will. Sweat streaked my brow and was dripping off my chin by the time I lay spreadeagled on the ground, completely spent.

Slowly, the dragon blinked. “It seems you are not the one to free me from these shackles that bind me forevermore. You have some way to go before you achieve áse, if you ever do.”

The same leg that had received my dutiful attentions rose into the air. The dragon’s head snaked down to regard me with a cool look. Trapped in that gaze, I felt not unlike a fly caught in amber.

An expectant hush fell over the crowd as its constituents likely came to the conclusion that not my attempt to take on the dragon barehanded had not only failed, it had gone completely unnoticed by the huge monster. The assembled Remnants dissolved into laughter.

“Wait! Give me one more try.”

Topazian regarded me dubiously. Seeing as the dragon didn’t squash me like a big as I’d expected it to, I’d say I was in good shape. I wiped the sweat off my brow and clambered up the thing’s leg. Ignoring the feeling that I was endangering my life by doing so and straining to the utmost, I focused what little anima I could command in the spot between my eyes.

A dragon was a being of magic and flesh. To it, the currents of anima flowing through it were as blood was to other races. As it was, the rune-covered spikes had stopped up those vital flows of energy. Slowly but surely, the ancient dragon was being poisoned by that stagnant power. If nothing was done, before long Topazian would surely die.

My known world seemed all the smaller when I saw what my eyes had been blind to. “I see it. I see it!” I said excitedly.

Hmmph. A gust of air made a few strands of hair come loose from my braid. Caught in the same wind, the braid whipped behind me and pulled tight against my skull. “I hope you do not think yourself clever enough to trick me, manling.”

“Of course not,” I laughed nervously, hoping to back up my words with action.

Under Topazian’s watchful eye, I located the nexus of energy that projected the domed field and studied the blackened power that crisscrossed over one another to form a dense grid. No wonder I’d been unsuccessful in breaching the energy field; it’d been constructed to absorb and repel any physical attack that was directed at it.

The real reason anyone would have gone to such trouble was self-evident. Even with its magic sealed away, the earth dragon retained formidable physical strength that was easily a match for clawing out the bits of metal that kept it shackled. My triumphant smile shook at the realization that magic was the solution I’d been looking for all along.

“My patience wears thin, manling. I would have you divulge the particulars of my imprisonment before I eat you.”

“This doesn’t look too good,” I laughed nervously and explained what I saw to the best of my ability.

Physically, my body was a wreck. No matter how fast I healed, I wasn’t in good enough shape to survive a fight with an earth dragon. Nyx had abandoned me to take a nap and magic was still an unknown to me. To top it all off, I’d been roped into an impossible bargain that spelled my death if I failed.

I laid out my options real simple-like. At worst I’d get eaten. At best I could expect an unwieldy release of power to knock loose the magical working of a competent mage that spent their free time enslaving magical creatures. “With options like these…” I rolled up my sleeves and got to work.

Do or die was simple enough for me. Retaining my hold on the fixed energies that allowed me to see beyond the physical world, I dipped into wellspring of power that bubbled up inside me.

It was easier this time, but my split focus caused the strain on my body to multiply. Waves of hot-and-cold went through me and beads of sweat formed all over my body. My head felt like it was about to split in two. I let go of áse so I didn’t risk losing control and focused on retaining my control of the remainder of my anima.

Ignoring the screamed protests of the flesh, I commanded the wispy tendrils of power I’d summoned to coalesce and condense around my right arm. I held my hand flat. Holding my breath and hoping for the best, I slashed at the twisted power I could sense but could no longer see.

My energy blade met the invisible field in a shower of sparks. I gritted my teeth and pushed. Veins popped out on my arm, neck and forehead as I struggled with the unseen. My success was accompanied by a fiery explosion of tainted anima that blasted me off Topazian. I was blinded by a flash of light and lost hearing in one ear. I smelled burnt hair.

The vibrant display earned me a muted, albeit confused, cheer.

“What a show!”

“There ya go kiddo!”

“Looks like they pulled out all the stops for this one!”

I doubted they’d praise me for much longer. I knew I didn’t have much time before one of the masters moved to intercede. Kian or one of the others would suck me dry, and that would be that.

Blinking fiercely, I stumbled to the tree trunk that passed for a dragon’s leg. Reaching out, I sensed a healthy flow of anima had been restored to the limb.

“I did it. I actually did it,” I said, shell-shocked.

The festival air was silenced abruptly by the authoritative presence of the masters. The Remnants gathered around their respective leaders to receive orders. Each Master was powerful in their own right, but from the looks of it they all were accustomed to barking orders before joining the fight themselves. I wasn’t sure if I should consider it a win that a small army of lackeys would be sent to restore order before I’d have to deal with the head honchos.

I shivered. “Looks like I kicked a beehive. What are we going to do?”

Topazian was relentless. “You have accomplished but a piece of what I require of you before I declare that you’ve fulfilled your part of the bargain.”

“I know that! How many of these you figure I’ll have to remove? All of them?” I said as I climbed up onto Topazian’s back using the dragon’s knobby spines for handholds.

Remnants swarmed over the fenced-off enclosure and dropped into the arena on all fours. All four gates into the structure were raised near simultaneously by groups of angry-looking men. Most were armed with simple weapons in various states of disrepair. I doubted Topazian would spare the pitiful armaments much attention, but no matter how rusty it might be, it wouldn’t be too complicated to stab a dagger into my soft flesh.

Topazian waved his free limb around experimentally. “That is hard to say… ahhh, that feels exquisite.”

“Looks like the dragon’s preoccupied with itself,” I muttered.

I bit my thumb at the knuckle and tried to find out what my options were. I could remove the first stakes I came upon, but there was no guarantee that was the fastest way to free Topazian. When I thought about it, the most likely way to ensure I lived through this was to hitch a ride on the dragon’s back… and to do that, the old boy needed to be able to fly.

My eyes alighted upon the dragon’s shredded wings, which hardly looked capable of sustained flight. At the base of the wings where muscle, sinew and bone connected to the main body were two metal spikes. My body was moving before my mind caught up to it. I half-ran, half-slid down the dragon’s scaly back to the closest wing— the left one.

As carefully as I was able to with Remnants swarming all around me, I summoned the bare minimum of anima I could manifest. The cloudy vapor that coalesced around my fingertips seemed hardly adequate compared to the unstable whirlwind of energy I’d whipped up previously, but it would have to be enough.

A sharp pain lanced through my head and my heart and I slid to a stop in front of my second objective. With almost glacial slowness I pushed my hand through the shimmering barrier up to my elbow and grasped the violently glowing spike by its shaft. Black electricity arced and deep red gouts of fire burned inside the domed field as I tugged fiercely at the stubborn spike to pull it out of Topazian’s flesh.

“Come on already!”

It came free and I fell backwards even as an arrow sliced across my right arm. I stared at the blood that welled from the diagonal slash across my bicep. The bolt would’ve struck me dead center if I hadn’t moved so suddenly. The fiery rage sighting down the shaft of a second arrow was eerily familiar. I didn’t know how I knew the sniper was none other than Dunn, but I did.

“Mother—” I rolled out of the way of the next shot and raced across the dragon’s back, dodging through its spines to make myself a more difficult target.

Dust flurries soon hid me from the sniper’s view as Topazian unlimbered his ruin wing and flapped it savagely. I wondered whether the fragile collection of bone and sinew would hold together under such abuse, but didn’t spare too much thought for it as I ran for the remaining wing.

By that time other Remnants had managed the climb onto Topazian so they could confront me directly. I scowled and ran by wiry swordsman who was too weary still from his climb to lift his blade. Once past, I pivoted and kicked him, hard, in the knee. The Remnant screamed his pain and anger at me wordlessly. The joint gave way with a crunching sound and I followed up with an elbow to the back of the man’s head.

I stomped on the man’s fists, which remained clenched around an unwieldy broadsword that was pitted with rust and damaged from use. After relieving him of the sword I slung the weapon over my back and held it one-handed as I pelted down Topazian’s side. I left one Remnant beating and groaning in my wake, but I wasn’t so naive as to think the swordsman would be the first and last man to confront me.

As if to reinforce my dark brooding, two hefty brother-looking types barred the way to my next objective. They were both armed with heavy bleached-white bone cudgels. Whether they were made from man or beast, I didn’t want to know. I looked away, through the wall of flesh to the spike they barred me from. Between the two of them it didn’t look like they had half a brain to rub together, but appearances could be deceiving.

“You don’t want to do this. How about you step out of the way, boys? With all this dust in the air, who’s to say you ever saw me in the first place?”

To my surprise, the two lowered their weapons a fraction and shared a conspirator’s glance.

“What you think, Krii?” one of the meatheads said.

“I dunno, Griogy. What do you think we should do?” Krii said.

“I dunno, brother. You think we should smash him?” Griogy said.

“Smash things good. I like where your head’s at, brother,” Krii said.

Since I figured it wasn’t in my best interest to stand around waiting for them to finish their shared thought, I had already skirted around the duo. I was in the process of getting my hands around the third spike, and was firmly grasping its metallic surface in preparation to pull it loose. Freeing it was no small feat, seeing as I was already dead tired and felt like I was likely to fall over any second.

Griogy scratched the bridge of his nose and quested inside for a booger. “Huh— where’d he go? Brother, did you see?”

“I didn’t see nothing. You sure you didn’t see where he went, Griogy?” Krii said.

Krii and Griogy stared openmouthed at the place where I’d been standing. They did that for a good while— long enough for me to gather the dregs of my strength and wrestle the spike free of its scaly sheath. I tossed the unclean-feeling thing aside with a look of disgust. It exploded in a shower of sparks on impact with the gritty concrete.

The summoned anima drifted away like smoke and I nearly fainted. My thoughts were a jumble and I felt like I’d blown a gasket. One of Krii’s hands was all it took to restrain me. He grabbed me by the ankle and hefted me into the air like I weighed nothing.

“Brother, I got him!” Krii grinned excitedly at Griogy.

“Well done, brother. Let’s take him to Mistress Trinity. She’ll know what to do with him, and I’m sure she’ll give us lots to eat,” Griogy said, drooling at the prospect of food.

Now that the flow of anima to his wings had been restored, Topazian was trying to fly in earnest. The flat of the broadsword caught the light as it tumbled over the side and fell end over end. The dragon was having a poor time of it, and considering its condition I was astonished the ancient beast managed to gain the few feet of elevation it had.

“We better get going, brother. I don’t think this beasty will stick around for much longer.”

“You’re right, Krii. What do you say we get out of here?”

My throat was dry as a desert. I couldn’t speak.

Was that it? Was that the extent of my determination? Had I exhausted my will to survive with such a pitiful showing of strength? Had my great and noble journey come to an end that suddenly?

“Together?” Krii said.

“Mhmm. On three. One… two… thr—” Griogy stopped the countdown abruptly.

Someone else had arrived on the scene intending to intervene. “You two idiots are always first to find the prey, but your followthrough needs work. Here, let me show you how it’s done.” Dunn said.

Dunn ran both brothers through with his sword. Krii dropped me on my head. I was splattered with blood and viscera, powerless to do anything but watch. Griogy and Krii stared in incomprehension at the holes in their gullets, looked at one another, then fell over, dead.

“All this for revenge?” I asked as I scrabbled away on hands and feet.

Dunn raised his sword. It glittered with the lifeblood of the brothers he had slain. “Hinge was a crazy sonuvabitch, but he was my partner for years. We survived some crazy things together, too… and you, you killed him. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth…” Topazian’s roar interrupted Dunn’s monologue, and he stayed his hand.

Topazian’s power collided with the tainted energies that bound him. An incredible explosion stole my breath away and replaced it with crackling electricity and scorching fire. My hair stood on end as a river of anima passed through me. The tangible current hid me from sight and occluded my vision at the same time.

Topazian’s scales took on a burnished shine, gleaming in spite of the low light cast by Pleiades. Steam rose from the dragon’s countless wounds. Topazian roared in agony as bones forcibly fused back together and bits of lost flesh and broken scale regrew. Unblemished flesh replaced the torn

Meanwhile, Topazian went on a rampage. The dragon bisected men with a single pass of its wickedly sharp claws. Looking like a monster out of legend, it gobbled up men and armaments indiscriminately. A wave of its limbs destroyed a goodly portion of the arena and sent the Remnants running for the hills.

That was when the masters got involved. One froze the broadside of the dragon with a beam of cold energy. Ice spread out from the point of impact and slowly began to spread across Topazian’s scaly hide.

The four revenants, Master Kian included, turned their powers on Topazian. Against the frightening vitality that was inherent to ancient elementals, it hardly seemed to put a dent in the veritable sea of anima at the dragon’s command.

But it was the fire splashing across its backside that made the earth dragon react the most. It let out a pained roar— almost a wail— and whipped its spiny tail across the area where the fire slinger stood.

Then an unfathomable pressure came down on all assembled. I couldn’t move. I couldn’t breathe. It felt like I was being crushed beneath the weight of Topazian’s power. This was the power of an earth dragon. How anyone had enslaved the ancient elemental was beyond me. All I could hope was that whoever had done it was long gone.

“I don’t care that you’re a valuable little monster that the Master wants to keep all to himself. Afobos take you, just die!”

I was paying such close attention to the battle between Topazian that I failed to sense danger approaching me. By the time I noticed Dunn had snuck up behind me, it was too late. He had plenty of time to ready his blade and prepare himself, so when he swung diagonally from my right shoulder the full force of his rage-fueled vengeance was behind it.

The blade cut halfway through me before it caught on the bone of my ribcage. I looked down and was violently sick when I saw the sword sticking out of my chest. Behind me Dunn tugged mightily to free his weapon, which opened the wound further. Blood spurted from my chest and dribbled down my back. I expelled the blood from my lungs in a convulsive cough and fell to my knees, did my best to hold myself together with grasping hands.

I wasn’t really thinking when I reached for and plucked out a fraction of that power from the writhing current and absorbed it. Although the dragon’s power was non-sentient, it felt alive. At first I thought I was battling the foreign anima for supremacy, and it felt like pounding my head against the wall and punching rocks with my bare fists. It tasted like dirt, but I swallowed it down and made the energy my own.

Bleh. I coughed convulsively and scrubbed my tongue clean of the taste with my fingers. “Well that was a bitter pill to swallow.”

Power flooded my veins and the excess was released as steam. My skin tingled and the wounds I’d accumulated at the Remnants hands closed over as I watched. Amazed, I turned around and around in a circle to try to watch the shrapnel in my back get pushed out of my skin. The puncture wounds I’d gotten from falling against the ruined cage were sealed, then scabbed over like they’d been healing for weeks and not hours.

Flexing my bicep, I admired the fresh pink scar that travelled diagonally across it. “But worth it I suppose.”

“Don’t… leave me alone. I swear I’ll leave the Remnants— you’ll never see me again. I swear it! On Eretos, I swear! Please, spare me,” Dunn begged, tears streaming from his eyes.

Dunn was truly afraid. So afraid that he tripped over a bony protrusion in the dragon’s hide, lost his balance, and fell over the side. Taking care not to follow after him— the dragon had gained enough height to make falling off a dangerous prospect— I stepped up to the precipice and looked down. I followed the sound of the death rattle to find the fall had broken Dunn’s neck.

I shook my head and looked away. “Bad luck, friend.”

Although I didn’t get any pleasure from his death, I found power in inspiring terror in another. I also felt guilt, sorrow, and that I’d lost something beautiful, something I’d struggled to hold onto in spite of the unenviable life I had led: my youthful innocence.

Time seemed to move in reverse as the blood I lost returned to my body through my chest cavity. There was no way to prepare myself for what happened next. I cried out in agony as the wound Dunn dealt me hissed, bubbled, and boiled. I felt like I was on fire, burning from the inside out. I clawed at the hole in my chest, but it did nothing to ward off the pain. I echoed the earth dragon’s wailing roar and lashed out blindly around myself as my vision went white.

By the time the agony receded and my sight returned, there was nothing remaining of the amphitheater that had once housed the Remnants and served as the arena for their fight night. Almost to a man, the band of kidnappers, thieves, and murderers known as the Remnants had been eradicated. Topazian’s rampage served to entrench in me the idea that I wouldn’t want a dragon for my enemy.

Belatedly, I realized that the destructive power could have easily been directed at me if the dragon decided I hadn’t upheld my end of the bargain. I gulped and crossed my fingers that the ancient elemental would overlook my transgression. Truthfully, I prayed to all the gods I knew of that the small theft had gone unnoticed amongst all the commotion.

A few beats of Topazian’s enormous wings raised us a hundred feet or more into the air. It was enough to give me vertigo, but the earth dragon seem enlivened. Neither of us spoke a word as Topazian banked and circled the amphitheater. Although I was looking for redemption among the survivors of the dragon’s rampage, all I saw was a gruesome picture of death.

One thing bugged me: no matter how much I looked or how hard I strained my eyes, there was no hide or hair to be found of Master Kian. A man with a grudge had almost killed me. Given that, the idea I had a bloodthirsty revenant on my trail was nothing to sniff at. Naturally, that reminded me of Altressor and the Hunters that would probably follow me to the end of the world if they had to.

“Who am I kidding? I’ll lose hair worrying about all the things in my life I can’t predict or control,” I said, paused, grinned, and laughed in a self-effacing way, “At least I don’t have to worry about going gray prematurely.”

With great care, I climbed from the join of Topazian’s wing to the sharp ridges that ran down the length of the dragon’s spine. I settled myself into a position set a ways back from its humongous head.

My attention wandered as we flew into the night. Not once did the ancient elemental breach the self-imposed silence to address me. For that matter, he didn’t even look at me. I guessed he was doing his best to ignore me, so I did him the same courtesy.

We landed in a lush valley before the first rays of dawn reached over the horizon to alight upon the land. The sounds I expected to hear— birds singing, bugs chirping, predators hunting and prey fleeing, small animals moving through the undergrowth and in the trees— were noticeably absent. Probably they had gone to ground to avoid drawing the attention of the dragon. I bet even the monsters hid in their lairs when a bigger, badder beast showed up on their doorstep.

“We are here.”

I looked around. Where was here? The vibrant land bore no resemblance to the manufactured life that I was accustomed to in the place I called home. The arid, poisoned lands of Altressor were a far cry from the natural growth I saw here. There was no other way to say it; I sensed the place was teeming with life, it practically smelled alive.

As if responding to my unspoken question, Topazian spoke. “I set us down South and West of Magisterium. In my time it was known as the City of Wonders and the Kingdom of Magic.”

“Wait! You can’t just leave me here. Is Magisterium a city or a kingdom? What am I supposed to do there?”

“This is where we part ways. I plan to sleep beneath a mountain I find to my liking. I’ll remain there until the time when what happened to me in that cursed city is but a bad dream and you, little manling, are but a distant memory.”

The dragon had ignored my questions— and after all we’d been through together. What nerve!

“What about our bargain? You promised I could ask you for anything,” I protested.

Topazian turned a baleful eye on me. “And so I have, that much is clear. For I allowed you to absorb a portion of my power and you are not dead.”

That hadn’t gone unnoticed after all. I tried to look contrite. There was no doubt that I was lucky to be alive, and I was free. I thanked the giant dragon profusely for his lenience.

“Very well. In recognition of your deeds I shall grant you a boon. Should you find yourself imprisoned at some point over the course of your lifetime, I shall come to your aid. You have but to sacrifice a portion of your essence to the earth and say my name.”

Brown-nosing seemed to have an affect on dragons. I filed the information away for use at a later date. “That’s it? That’s sounds too easy. If I call your name, you’ll come running to anywhere I am— just like that?” I punctuated the question with a snap of my fingers.

“Indeed, that is it. Now if that is all, I would be going, manling. Soon the animals will emerge from their dens and the bipedal races will wake. I would be long gone and enjoying my slumber before we are found here, together.”

I wanted to ask more questions. I had so many, and I was frustrated that the fount of information before me refused to answer them.

Topazian lifted off, his wingbeats flattened the grass and sent loose debris flying. The dragon regarded me with one of its yellow eyes. I thought I saw it twinkle, but it was probably just my imagination getting the better of me. “Travel to Magisterium. The questions you have will be answered there. A word of advice: I would not be surprised when the answers you seek spawn but more questions.”