Path of Dragons

Gentle drops of Healing Rain fell upon Elijah’s head as he forced the aperture of his Mind ever wider. Ethera flooded through his Mind, cascading through his soul and into his Core. But he needed more, so he continued to pull against the ambient Ethera in an attempt to force the aperture wider; it was no use, though. There was something missing. A vitally important piece of the puzzle that he simply didn’t possess.

Still, he kept at it, steadily stretching the aperture as much as he could. It was only a miniscule improvement over his passive Regeneration, but over time, it made a significant difference. Besides, he felt like he was on the right track regarding the improvement of that facet of his cultivation. As for the others, he was still unsure how to progress. Hopefully, he would gain some insight in the near future, because he found himself itching for improvement.

A touch on his shoulder jerked him from his meditative state, and his eyes fluttered open. It took a moment for them to refocus, but when they did, he saw the familiar confines of the hospital’s main room. The beds had been arranged around him in an effort to maximize the number he could reach with Healing Rain, but even so, he and the other Healers had been forced to steadily cycle the patients.

“Is that all of them?” he asked.

He’d been at it for a few days, and in that time, he’d lost count of the number of people he’d healed. Hundreds, at the least. Maybe thousands. Most, he healed via Healing Rain, but some of the worst cases had required the application of Touch of Nature. The other Healers had done their part as well, but if Elijah had learned anything since coming to Norcastle, it was that his spells were far and away more efficient than most. On top of that, his relatively high level – hidden though it was by his Ring of Anonymity – gave him far more Ethera with which to work. So, as a result, he’d done the work of at least ten other Healers.

But even that was insufficient to adequately explain his contribution. Because of his Dragon Core, his spells were almost twice as potent as they otherwise would be. On top of that, he gained a significant boost from his overall level of cultivation. So, a spell like Healing Rain, which had once struggled to mend even minor wounds, had become a powerful tool for healing.

There was something else at play, too, though Elijah hesitated to commit to the idea. Still, he suspected that lower-level people were easier to heal than those who’d progressed further. His efforts in healing his own wounds suggested as much, and that notion seemed to have been confirmed by the ease with which he’d healed some of the less powerful people in the Norcastle hospital.

It was a subject he would need to address next time he visited a Branch. Perhaps he could find a guide that would give him more definitive answers. And failing that, there was always Nerthus to ask.

Jess, who was flanked by another exhausted Healer, said, “That’s it. For now. They’ll all be back, though.”

“It is,” she sighed.

The other Healer – an elderly man with nothing but a ring of grey fringe on his head – said, “At first, the number of patients ebbed and flowed. We would make progress and think we eradicated the disease altogether. Then, a few days later, it would return worse than before.”

“Do you know what’s causing it?”

Jess shook her head. “We’ve looked, too. Combed the whole city. We’ve exterminated all the pests, tested the water, even the food. But we haven’t found anything that could be the cause.”

Elijah nodded along. “But we’re done for a little while, right?” he asked.

“We are.”

He felt his shoulders sag. Just because his Constitution and Regeneration gave him the ability to keep going for quite some time without rest didn’t mean that it was pleasant. He felt just as exhausted as the others looked.

“Is there someplace I can rest? Maybe get a good meal?”

“What kind of meal?”

Elijah pushed himself to his feet, then ran his hand through his hair. “I don’t know. Not sure what choices there are. Like I said before, I’ve been a little cut off from society for a while. The last properly cooked meal I had was made by gnomes. Or was it goblins? I can’t remember. Anyway…yeah…”

“I can’t tell if you’re serious, joking, or a little crazy,” she said.

“Probably all three,” the older Healer groused. “Lot of that going around since the world ended.”

Elijah raised a finger and said, “Pizza. That’s what I want. Any suggestions? You have pizza here, right?”

“With goat cheese. All our cows got eaten,” Jess said. The older man just shook his head and left.

“What’s his deal?” Elijah asked. Then, before Jess could answer, he said, “You know what? Never mind. It’s not hard to figure out. So, you want to have some pizza with me? Or are you going to leave me all alone to find my way in the big city?”

He gave her his best fake pout, which drew a laugh. “You are terrible at this,” Jess remarked with a shake of her head.

“But is it working? It might just be a pickup tactic. Kind of like negging. But, you know, reverse.”

“Self-negging.”

“Or I might just be terrible at flirting. You never know.”

“Plus, the setting really isn’t doing you any favors,” she acknowledged. “But you know what? Sure. I’ll have some pizza with you. It’s expensive, though.”

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He shrugged. “I’ve got money.”

Indeed, he’d withdrawn enough etherium back in Ironshore that he shouldn’t have to worry about whether or not he could afford a meal. Thankfully, Norcastle had adopted it as its basic currency, largely because the city itself used it to buy various items through the Branch Market. The coins had other uses – primarily in crafting – but very few of the city’s tradespeople had progressed to the point where they could use them.

Or so Elijah assumed.

Either way, he had money, and he wasn’t opposed to using it to pay for a shared meal between him and Jess. He certainly wasn’t interested in her in anything but a superficial way, but he had spent the majority of the past two years alone. So, her company certainly looked enticing from where he was standing.

In any case, after the pair took a few minutes to clean up in the hospital’s bathrooms, Jess led him through the city and to Norcastle’s only pizza joint. It wasn’t much different from the surrounding buildings – just a cube-like structure made of sturdy cinder blocks – but the owner had made some attempts to differentiate it from all the rest. Beneath a red awning that stretched across the façade were a series of wooden tables and crudely constructed chairs.

It was also incredibly crowded, with every table occupied. Fortunately, Jess knew the owner, who quickly made room for them in the back.

At first, the conversation was confined to lighthearted banter, but eventually, Jess asked, “So, what’s your story, anyway? Where did you really come from? And how did you survive the wilderness? I’ve seen what’s out there, and I can’t imagine going more than a mile or two from the city, especially not alone.”

For a moment, Elijah considered lying. Or simply refusing to answer. But despite Nerthus’s warnings to keep his circumstances hidden, he decided that he didn’t really want to live like that. Sure, he’d keep some things under his belt. He had no intention of revealing his ability to shapeshift into powerful animal forms. However, he didn’t see any issues with giving her the broad strokes.

So, he said, “When the World Tree touched Earth, I was flying home to die.”

Then, he explained the basics of how he’d spent the past couple of years. He omitted quite a few details – like the specifics of his class, the panther guardian, and the tower. He did mention Ironshore, though only in the vaguest of terms, and he explained that it was almost entirely populated by gnomes, dwarves, and goblins.

“Wait, are you serious?” she asked. “There are actual gnomes?”

“All of that, and you latch onto the gnomes?”

“I think they’re cool,” she said unapologetically. “And cute. Back when we actually had video games, I used to always play as a gnome.”

“Well, I’m sure they’ll appreciate fetishization of their entire race,” he said lightheartedly, which earned him a playful roll of Jess’s eyes. “But yeah – there are gnomes, though I admit I’m not a huge fan. I had a bad experience with one.”

Indeed, Elijah’s opinion of the little people would forever be tainted by Cabbot. His views on mohawks were similarly affected, though he didn’t say that to Jess.

After she asked a few more questions, it was his turn to throw some in her direction, so he asked, “So, what did you do before this?”

“Medical school. I was almost finished, too. Then the world ended, and…well, you know the rest. Death, destruction, and eventually, survival. I lost…a lot of people.”

Elijah reached across the table and gripped her hand. “I’m sorry.”

She shook her head, sniffed loudly, then wiped her eyes before saying, “It’s fine. I’ve come to terms with it. Everybody lost somebody, and we lose more every day. You know, it’s funny. If you’d have asked me before all this happened, I would’ve probably thought it sounded kind of cool. Me and my friends used to joke about the zombie apocalypse and how we’d survive, you know? But now? I would give just about anything to just go back to the way everything used to be. Back to my boring little life.”

Elijah wanted to agree with her. He truly did. But he knew it would be a lie. For better or worse, now that he had tasted what the new world – or universe, really – had to offer, he wanted more. He didn’t enjoy the pain he’d had to endure. Nor was he looking forward to the inevitability of more. And yet, he was excited for the future in a way he’d never been back in Hawai’i.

Then there was the fact that when Earth felt the World Tree’s touch, it had given him a new life. Before, he’d been dying of cancer. He’d only had a few weeks to live. But now, he had a full life ahead of him.

Maybe it was a selfish way to look at it, but he was strangely okay with how everything had turned out. Even if it meant that millions – or billions – had died. Tragic, sure. But what was done, was done. There was no going back. And Elijah intended to make the most out of the chance he’d been given.

But he didn’t say that. Instead, he just nodded and muttered vaguely comforting things until their pizza arrived. That proved to be the highlight of the night. It was easy to forget just how perfect of a food pizza really was, but the moment he took that first bite, Elijah was reminded of that indisputable fact.

“That good, huh?” asked Jess after watching him devour the first piece.

“You have no idea. I spent most of the last two years surviving on mushrooms and badly cooked crab,” he said, stuffing another piece into his mouth. “I don’t even mind the goat cheese. And what is this meat?”

“Venison sausage,” she said. “There’s a huge herd of deer that roam across the plains about forty miles south of here. We send hunters down there pretty consistently, though they have to be really careful because the deer are supposedly extremely dangerous now.”

“Mmm,” he mumbled around a mouthful of glorious pizza.

After that, the evening wore on. For his part, Elijah ate far more than his fair share of pizza, even insisting on meeting the owner, who he showered with effusive praise – and a handful of etherium. Meanwhile, Jess lightened up, especially when Elijah started talking about his Grove. He didn’t reveal its magical nature, but he still spoke of it with enough enthusiasm that Jess couldn’t help but mirror it.

Then, after a couple of hours of pizza and conversation, Elijah asked, “So, your place? Or am I staying in a hotel tonight?”

She rolled her eyes. “I think you know the answer to that.”

“Alright. But I have to warn you – I have a tendency to snore. If you can –”

With a chuckle, she tossed a napkin at him. He caught it deftly. “You know I’m kidding, right? Unless you’re interested. In which case…”

Another amused roll of her eyes told him all he needed to know. Perhaps he was on the right track, but she wasn’t interested in making a night out of it. Which was fine. But Elijah did have one other question. “So, when did all of this plague stuff start, anyway? Nobody could ever give me a good answer.”

“About a month ago,” Jess answered.

“Was there anything about the days before that that stick out? Anything at all?”

She shook her head. “Not that I know about. But I’m probably not the best person to answer that. You’d probably need to ask Captain Essex. He’s in charge of the city’s defense and keeps order in town. If anyone knows about…strange occurrences, it would be him. Why? Do you think you have an idea about what’s causing the plague?”

Elijah shrugged. “Nothing concrete. It’s just that I smelled something familiar when I saw those first patients. But if anyone in this city had seen anything like what I’m thinking of…well, everyone would know about it. In any case, I think I’m going to find that hotel you mentioned and get some sleep. I might get you to introduce me to this Captain Essex in the morning, though. If you don’t mind, I mean.”

“Sure. If you think you can help figure out the source, I’ll do whatever you want.”

“Whatever I want? Well, in that case –”

“Get your mind out of the gutter.”

She said it with a note of annoyance, but Elijah saw the interest in her eyes. That was enough to buoy his mood for the entire walk to the hotel. In fact, he was distracted enough that he briefly forgot about the horrible suffering he’d witnessed over the past few days.

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