Path of Dragons

Book 4: Chapter 58: Structure

As he left Isaiah’s office, Elijah had no idea what to do. The situation in Hong Kong sounded dire, but Elijah was in no position to help. He only had six months before the Trial of Primacy, and he had a lot of work to do before he would feel ready for whatever challenges it would present. On top of that, he only had a vague direction – east – to go on, meaning that finding the city would be incredibly difficult.

Perhaps things would be different if he’d personally met the two emissaries, but that just wasn’t the case. They’d left Seattle over a month before he’d arrived, and there was no telling where they’d ended up. Even Isaiah wasn’t sure. So, as concerned as Elijah was – the way it was described, the undead were a grave threat – there wasn’t much he could do about it.

The rest of the meeting had been productive. Elijah had looked through a report on the items looted from the Adventurer’s Guild, and he’d seen nothing that fit him. There were a couple of unarmed weapons, but neither were better than his Weighted Gloves. He saw a couple of Rings of Anonymity, too. And a few pieces of armor that gave minor attribute increases. However, nothing really caught his eye. Besides – Isaiah’s people would need all the help they could get. And while Elijah wasn’t particularly selfless, he felt that it was best if he left that low-quality gear to Isaiah and his army. So, he collected his payment – fifty gold was no small sum – and told Isaiah that he’d return sometime in the future before heading out of the capitol, shifting into Shape of the Sky, and taking off.

A few minutes later, he landed outside the giant greenhouse that was the Garden, shifted back to his human form, and headed inside. He found Lucy not long after, where she was busy showing K’hana around.

“This place is quite impressive,” the elf was saying as Elijah approached.

Lucy responded, “And we’re planning an expansion soon, too. Seattle’s population is mostly stable, but we still get a trickle of refugees each month. My dream is to grow enough food that nobody ever has to go without.”

“You think you can do that?” asked Elijah as he approached, his tone a bit skeptic. “There are a lot of people who live here.”

Lucy gave him a small smile before she answered, “I think so. Eventually. Isaiah’s agreed to subsidize my costs. He wants the same thing I want.”

“Easier to control people if you’re the one handing out food,” Elijah stated. He still didn’t trust Isaiah – not completely. Maybe the man’s heart was in the right place, but from Elijah’s perspective, people in power usually only cared about keeping it. And on top of that, the notion that Isaiah could easily spy on the entire city made him feel violated in a way he couldn’t really explain. Benevolent or not, Isaiah’s abilities made Elijah uncomfortable.

“Good men can be corrupted,” Elijah said with a shrug. “Lots of dictators start off with the best of intentions.”

That much was certainly true. History was full of people who’d gained power with the hopes of changing things for the better. But bit by bit, they were corrupted by that power until its pursuit was all that was left. Sure, they had excuses. They believed that whatever moral sacrifices they had to make were justified. Even someone like Roman, who’d killed hundreds, if not thousands of his citizens, had clearly felt that he was doing the right thing.

So, how long would it be before Isaiah succumbed to that same way of thinking? The path to Hell was paved with good intentions, after all. When utopia was at stake, was there anything a leader wouldn’t do? If he could remove that one bad apple to save the bunch, would he hesitate? What if there were two bad apples? A hundred? A thousand? Where was the line, when perfection was seen as an achievable goal?

Elijah shook his head, saying, “I hope he’s as good of a person as you say. And I hope he maintains perspective. If he doesn’t…well, you can always come and live in my island paradise.”

“Did you just invite me to move in?”

Elijah shrugged. “Maybe. As friends,” he said with a grin. “Open invitation and all that. Did I mention it was an island paradise? I mean, my beaches are infested with giant crabs, but they’re not that strong. I like to think of them as mascots.”

“You know I’m not going with you, right?” Lucy answered. “I have my Garden. There are people here I care about. I can’t just abandon my home.”

“Oh. Right,” Elijah said, running his hand through his hair. “I was only joking.”

He hadn’t been. If he’d had his way, he would’ve moved everyone he cared about – which was a short list – to his island. Or at least to Ironshore. The rest of the world just seemed far too dangerous, and not just because of the wildlife. Monsters being monsters, Elijah understood, but when people descended into despotism, it just felt worse. Hopefully, Isaiah would prove immune to the temptation of tyranny, but Elijah wasn’t going to bet on it. After all, there was a very famous saying about power and corruption that seemed very appropriate to Elijah’s experiences with civilization in the new version of Earth.

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“You weren’t, but that’s okay,” Lucy said, reaching out to put her hand on his. “Maybe I can visit someday. You’ve made it sound like a wonderful place.”

Her familiar touch brought up a host of memories Elijah wasn’t really prepared to confront. Once upon a time, he’d loved Lucy. He still did, even though it had faded from a teenager’s fiery obsession to something far more sustainable. He wasn’t even sure if it was a romantic love anymore. Perhaps they were only meant to be friends.

Elijah sighed and said, “It’s probably not as great as I make it seem. Like I said, it is infested with giant crabs. And it rains a lot. Plus, we’re pretty isolated. But my treehouse is pretty cool, if I say so myself.”

“I’d like to see it someday.”

“It’s a date,” Elijah said with a smile.

After that, there really wasn’t much else to say. So, after a couple of goodbyes, Elijah left the Garden behind. He didn’t immediately take to the air, but instead walked through Seattle for what he hoped would be the last time for a long while. He didn’t outright hate civilization, but spending any time in a place like Seattle – or Valoria before it – left him feeling like he was coated in slime. He would be glad to leave it behind.

But still, he forced himself to walk through some of the more populated areas, just to ensure that things were better than when he’d arrived. That was when he finally caught sight of the city’s tower. It was a twisted structure that looked like a funhouse mirror version of a castle’s parapet.

Isaiah had given him a USB drive with all the information they’d gathered on the tower, which was quite a lot, all things considered. With only a few days’ worth of study, he would know everything there was to know about it. From enemies to strategies and layouts, it was everything he would need to challenge the tower in relative safety. On top of that, as part of the deal he’d made with Isaiah, he had the right to do so, even if he’d have to wait until a slot opened up. And yet, he had no interest in running through a tower at the moment. Not only did he have other things he wanted to do, but risking his life for a couple of levels and a few trinkets just wasn’t appealing so soon after everything that had happened in Seattle.

For better or worse, Elijah had begun to sour on towers. They were a good way to advance, and he knew he’d have to run them if he wanted to keep up with everyone else. However, they also seemed so pointless – assuming that there were others around who could keep them from overflowing. Using his power to fight in the real world was much more preferable, as far as he was concerned.

In any case, he had no intention of challenging the tower at this point. Perhaps he would have time for it later. So, after he’d wandered around Seattle for another couple of hours, he threw himself into the air and flew to the Circle of Spears. His passage didn’t go unnoticed – a huge, rainbow-colored reptile flying across the sky was unignorable – but he was gone before he could cause too much commotion. As soon as he reached the dolmen, he opened a gate to the Dragon Circle and stepped through.

Not long after, he returned to Argos – or more specifically, to the Temple of Virtue – to keep his promise of healing. To let everyone know that he was around, he climbed to the roof, then channeled a little ethera into the statue atop the temple. The spear in the warrior’s hand lit up, becoming a beacon that could be seen throughout the town.

It was the agreed upon signal that he was around, and soon enough, injured and sick people had begun to climb the steps toward the temple. By the time they reached the top, Elijah had already summoned Healing Rain, and the first person to step into the rejuvenating cascade of precipitation let out a gasp. The same – or similar – scenes presented themselves each time someone arrived.

Only a few injuries were bad enough that Elijah needed to use Soothe or Touch of Nature, but one was particularly serious. The woman in question had a wound on her arm that had been so thoroughly infected that, in the old world, it would have necessitated amputation. It fell before nearly a dozen casts of Touch of Nature, and the woman dropped to her knees and thanked him profusely.

Elijah didn’t much care for that attention, but he knew it came with the territory. If he was going to help people, then he needed to grow accustomed to praise.

He stayed at the temple for the next twelve hours, and in that time, he lost count of how many people he’d healed. It was almost as cathartic for him as it was for his patients. If everything else went to Hell, at least Elijah could always take solace in the act of healing.

Finally, he healed the last of them, and once he sent the man on his way, Elijah deactivated the beacon and, at last, headed home via the Roots of the World Tree. Thankfully, using it to teleport himself back to the grove could be activated from anywhere, though it still took quite some time to activate the spell. Regardless, he soon arrived back in his grove, and when he did, he couldn’t help but take a deep breath and bask in the dense ethera of his island.

After speaking to Nerthus for a few minutes – the spryggent was quite proud of some of his gardening accomplishments – Elijah retired to his treehouse, where he took a long, scalding shower. Even as he relaxed, and his muscles unkinked, he found himself pondering the future.

He only had about six months to go before the Trial of Primacy. Six months to push himself as high as he could go. He needed to train, as well. To take his equipment more seriously, too. And he needed to prepare Carmen and Miguel for his absence. Thankfully, six months was a decent span of time, so he felt sure that he could accomplish his goals.

After his shower, he pulled his laptop out of his satchel and started making plans. He was capable of keeping it all in his head, but there was something about putting it all down in a word processor that made things so much more concrete. Fortunately, he didn’t have to worry too much about power. With the converter he’d bought in Seattle, as well as the high density of ambient ethera, the laptop had all the electricity it would need.

Perhaps that meant he could power all sorts of electronics. Maybe a giant television. Or an electric coffee maker. Any number of small appliances would come in handy. He suspected that obtaining those would require a trip back to Seattle, though, and he didn’t really have any desire to return to that place.

So, he focused on the task at hand, making plans not just for himself but for Miguel, too. After all, the boy’s training had been a bit haphazard of late. Elijah aimed to fix that. The key to improvement was consistency, which was a lesson Miguel needed to learn.