Blood Shaper

Book 3: Chapter 24

A glimmering winged shape made its way closer, every beat of shining golden wings pushing the magnificent figure of a golden dragon closer to Avalon.

“It has to be her, right?” Kay asked Eleniah without looking away from the sparkly flying figure. “There isn’t any reason another gold dragon would come out here, right?”

“It could be a family member, but at least then we’d hear about whether or not she was okay,” Eleniah replied, also staring at the dragon they were both hoping was Murunel.

Looking around, Kay noticed people running for cover or staring at the approaching dragon with worried expressions. A number of people were drawing weapons or preparing spells.

“Crap. Is it normal for dragons to attack people?”

“Not really, but it does happen. They’re people like everyone else, after all. Why, though?”

Kay pointed out the people preparing for combat.

“Oh, yeah, we should stop that.”

Eleniah cupped her hands and started shouting. “Everyone, calm down! The dragon is a friend! Put away your weapons!” She crossed over to where people were gathering up in an armed group and repeated herself.

The citizens getting ready for an attack slowly calmed down with Eleniah’s reassurances, and they relaxed even more, when Kay and Ahthia joined in, reassuring everyone that there wasn’t going to be combat. After that, the three of them started shooing everyone out of the main square to give the dragon a place to land. As they flew closer, Kay raised a hand and fired a bolt of blood into the air, detonating it when it got to the top of his range.

The dragon swiveled towards them and swept through the air in their direction. Winds started to form and buffet the pair as they stared upward in awe at the magnificent sight.

Kay was feeling a lot of things in that moment, but he wasn’t as overwhelmed as he had been when Murunel had left. That, combined with the fact that the dragon was now getting closer instead of farther away, let him get a much better look at full size. Murunel, he was assuming it was her until he was told otherwise, had spent most of her time in the prison ball curled up since she didn’t have anywhere to go, so this was the first time Kay was really getting to see her in all her glory. She was a European-style dragon with a stocky body and four legs. Her wings were attached at her front shoulders and stretched out long enough to blot out the sun across a large portion of the village as she flew overhead. Her scales glinted and glimmered in the light as she circled and prepared to land. Her thicker-looking upper scales were incredibly reflective, with a deep gold color that looked polished almost to a mirror sheen. The scales on the underside of her body were less rich in their coloration; they looked like antique gold that had been sitting for a while, and the flaps of her wings and the bits of skin that could be seen between the gaps of some scales were the color of white gold, giving her a silvery tint that made her look like a massive flying treasure hoard.

As she slowly descended to a landing, her wings moved enough air to send visible waves of wind at Kay and Eleniah, and Kay felt himself being physically driven back a few feet even as he walked forward against the wind. He noticed that Eleniah was pushed back a few inches but managed to stay relatively in place, though the intense expression on her face showed that it wasn’t an easy task.

When her feet were almost on the ground, Murunel stopped flapping and let herself drop the rest of the distance. Even the short drop was enough to rattle the ground like a small earthquake and shake some of the buildings around them. Slowly and with obvious care, she walked closer to the two of them and gently pressed her snout up against Kay’s body. Kay reached out slowly and touched the smooth surface of her scales.

“Hey,” He greeted her, a massive grin on his face.

There was a shimmer, and Kay felt like something had suddenly twisted. In that same moment, Murunel’s human form slammed into his chest as she leaped forward and wrapped her arms around his shoulders, her legs going around his waist as she hugged him with incredible enthusiasm. “I’m back!”

“Welcome back.” He returned the hug, pressing his cheek into her hair, narrowly avoiding the horns. This time, he noticed, Murunel was clothed after transforming, with a thin cream shirt and a pair of thick cloth pants on.

Before he could say anything, clothing-related or otherwise, Eleniah was there in his space and pulling Murunel’s arms off of him. “Don’t hog her! I want a hug too!”

Murunel jumped off of him and wrapped the slightly taller elven woman in an equally enthusiastic embrace. “I missed you!”

“I missed you too,” Eleniah replied before stepping back and looking her over. “You look fine; what took so long?”

“Eugh!” Murunel exclaimed with disgust, “I was just going to tell my parents what had happened so that they wouldn’t be worried or anything, but then some of the elders overheard where I’d been, and they freaked out, and there were all these meetings and arguments, and people kept trying to tell me what to do and saying I couldn’t leave and all kinds of bullshit. It took forever!”

“How did you get away?” Kay asked.

“I got fed up and started leaving anyway, then some dick tried to grab me and keep me from going. They said they were going to force me to stay for my own good or something. So I bit his neck and threw him into a wall!” She grinned triumphantly and raised a fist up. “Then I made the tunnel we were in collapse on him! It took him long enough to dig himself out that I got away easily!” She scoffed and shot a disgusted look over her shoulder, “Those dicks were acting like I’m some weakling that can’t take care of herself just because I got captured one time. I was totally outnumbered, and they got the drop on me! I’d like to see any of them fight their way out of that!”

“Well, I’m glad you got away.”

She shot him a grin, and Kay couldn’t help stepping forward and wrapping her in another hug. “I also missed you.” He whispered to her.

“I missed you too.”

“I’m sorry to interrupt the heartfelt moment…”

Kay looked over his shoulder to see Ahthia standing there.

“It’s great to see you again, Murunel, especially out of that ball, and I’m really glad you’re back,” She continued, “But we were in the middle of a meeting, and I don’t know how long they’ll be willing to wait around.”

“Oh, shit!” Murunel blushed and took a step back. “I’ll wait! Just come get me when you’re done.” She looked off to the side and muttered something.

“What?” Kay reached out and took her arm. “Why would you wait here? You can just come with us.”

“What? No.” She shook her head firmly. “I’m not the right person to be at important meetings. I don’t want to be a leader or someone important or anything like that.”

Kay cocked his head to the side, “Uh… sure? I’m not going to force you into doing anything you don’t want to, but that doesn’t mean you can’t be there. This is a meeting to recruit someone, so it isn’t something super-secret or life-altering, and you’re one of the founders of Avalon anyway, so there’s not really a problem with you attending even the secret meetings?”

She looked past him and saw Eleniah and Ahthia, both agreeing with a nod and a shrug. “Okay… Are you sure?”

“Yes, I’m sure. I mean, if you really hate the idea of being there, you can wait in my office, but come inside at least.”

“Right, yeah, that makes sense.” She blushed again and followed them into the building and upstairs.

Kay paused in front of the conference room and looked at her.

Glancing inside, Murunel shook her head, pleading with Kay with her eyes.

“Don’t worry about it.” He was a little confused at her reaction, but he didn’t show it outwardly. “That door down there is my office. No one is in there right now, so you can just hand out till we’re done.”

She gave him a sickly-looking smile. “Thanks.” She quietly went into his office and shut the door.

Kay stared at the closed door for a moment, slightly worried. He eventually shook it off and walked back into the meeting room. The nondescript man was still sitting in the same spot as when they’d left, and he glanced up at Kay with a small smile when Kay sat down.

“My apologies, a dragon, flying towards us unexpectedly isn’t something that can be ignored.”

“Not a problem,” The man replied easily, “I understand that issues happen.”

Kay opened his mouth then stopped as the man raised one hand.

“If I may?”

Kay nodded.

“Thank you. I understand that this is… something of an interview. Normally, I wouldn’t really start with something like this, but I kind of need the job. Now, I realize that puts me at something at a disadvantage, but you need someone to take the job, and that helps me a little. I am skilled in the art of information gathering both on a personal level and a wider scale, and I’m experienced with counterintelligence. I can not only be your spymaster, but I can also help close a number of gaps you have that are from lack of experience and training. Including the fact that I walked into your village under a number of illusions disguising what I actually look like, and not a single person noticed.”

Kay and Eleniah stiffened in place.

The man smiled, “I’m not here to cause any trouble. Like I said, I need the job. I just wanted to prove how I could be useful.” The figure of the nondescript man faded like cotton candy dissolving in water, and in his place was a tiny woman, less than a foot tall, hovering in the air via the thin translucent wings on her back that beat as fast as a hummingbird's. She reached up to adjust her tiny pair of glasses as she smiled. “I’m quite good with illusions, as well as all the other things that come with the intelligence game, and I’d very much like the job here.”

Kay sat there for a moment staring at her as he got over the shock of the moment. Eventually, she recovered enough to ask: “Why do you need the job? A spymaster isn’t usually a person that anyone would let leave since they know all the secrets. So why are you here trying to get a job with us?”

“I wasn’t anyone’s spymaster before this; I was an independent information broker. A spymaster for hire, if you will. I bought information, I sold it, and if you wanted to find out something specific, you could hire me to sniff it out.” She shrugged, “One day, someone sold me a piece of information that was… well, the way I call things, it was valuable but not useful. It was the kind of information that I could only sell for a large amount, but no one would really want to buy it. It was a secret of someone powerful, and the only reason to sell it would be to fuck with them, which I didn’t want to do. So I basically set it aside and forgot about it, as much as I can forget about anything.”

“And the person found out you knew their secret,” Eleniah stated.

“Exactly,” The tiny woman nodded and frowned, “The person who originally sold me the info got caught somehow and spilled that they’d sold it to me. The next thing I know, a noble is trying to have me killed. So I packed my things and ran away. A person with a little pull in the Adventurer’s Guild owed me a favor, so they told me about what you were looking for, and I came here.”

“Why not just make yourself a new face with your illusions and keep doing what you were doing?” Kay asked. He needed to know her motives before he put her in a position to learn his secrets or the future secrets of him and his people.

She did a little spin in place as she hovered, her arms stretched out. “Look at what you’re doing here. It’s interesting. There was no way I was going to be able to keep my network back where I was; there was too much of a chance that it would get traced back to me. So if I have to start over from scratch, why not do it someplace where I can experience new things? New interesting things.” She stopped spinning and faced Kay again before shrugging. “Plus, if that noble does find out where I got to and still wants me dead, being in the service of a Class Line Progenitor who’s also a noble has a really good chance of dissuading him.”

Kay looked over at Ahthia and Eleniah, communicating with them silently. “… We’ll need to you agree to some pretty strict contracts and Agreements.”

“Of course, you will!” She exclaimed, “And I’ll even tell you which parts you’re leaving out so you can add them in.”

They all gave her looks.

“I told you, I need the job. I want to prove my sincerity upfront.”

“… Alright. Sign the agreements, and you’re in.”

“Wonderful!” She beamed at him and flew closer with her hand outstretched. “I’m quite looking forward to working with you.” She paused in mid-air after saying, “Wait, no, that’s not right anymore, is it? It should be: I’m glad to be of service, sir.” She dipped into a curtsy that looked both elegant and a little odd since she was wearing pants.

“I’m fine with a handshake.” Kay held out his hand and carefully shook the much smaller one she presented. “I’m not really used to all the bowing and scraping yet.” He glanced over at Eleniah, “Or how much we’re going to have to have.”

She shrugged, “We’ll figure it out.”

“Anyway, I’m going to catch up with Murunel for a bit.” He pushed his chair back and stood, “Can you handle the first bit of the Agreement stuff?”

He noticed that the tiny flying woman, who he thought might be a pixie or a fairy or something, gave him and Eleniah interested looks, but she didn’t say anything. That reminded him, though… “What’s your name? I don’t think you ever said.”

She beamed up at him, “Wonderful! You noticed; I was wondering if you were going to.”

“Were you testing me?”

She waggled a hand back and forth, “Less testing, more gauging. Seeing what your strengths and weaknesses are to know what to enhance and what to shore up. The alias I went under for some time as an information broker was Nocturne, although I’m sure there are dozens or hundreds of others using the same or similar names. My name, however, is Islandil. Islandil Murr. Please feel free to call me Isla.”

“Alright, Isla. I don’t mean to be rude, but you probably already know that I’m an Outworlder and don’t know a lot of things. What are you?”

“I did know that, and I’m not surprised you don’t know; my people tend to hide from others. I’m a shadow sprite.”

“Thank you. Now, I really am going to talk to Murunel.” He headed for the door.

“Don’t forget Meten is giving a tour to another one of the recommended people the Adventurer’s Guild found. You’ll need to talk to him today too.”

Kay paused in the door and nodded back at her. “Right. Well, I want to get Murunel settled at least, so… I guess I’ll send a runner to Meten so he knows what’s going on and can update me. What position was this person recommended to us for?”

“Treasurer, or whatever title you want to call it. Chief money person.”

Kay perked up and saw Ahthia doing the same. “Oh good, we can get them to help us make a real plan to start an economy.”

“And we can finally get real budgets for our departments!” Ahthia cheered, “I’ve only found a couple of people to join mine since I don’t really have anything to pay them with.”

“Oh, a budget!” Isla was all smiles, “That sounds nice; I’m used to having to think up ways to make money when there wasn’t any business coming in. It’ll be nice to not have to worry as much about that. What is your department?”

“We don’t have a formal name yet, but I’m in charge of history and information research.”

“Oh! Well then, we’ll probably be working close together then; that intersects with my new duties nicely!”

Kay left the two women chatting easily together, with Eleniah watching on amusedly as he headed down the hall to his office.

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