A/N Ok, the timeline I found online for Lodoss says that Fahn ascended the throne in Lodoss calandar year NRC (New Royal Calendar) 496. Events of Draconic Knight begin in late NRC 509/ early 510 note my timeline is going to be different than canon. The events of Chronicles of Heroic Knight start in 514 but will not be happening till NRC 537/8 here and then onwards.
This is the last chapter of Draconic Knight; Chronicles of the Draconic King will follow in the same story.
Chapter 17: Glimpses of time
NRC 512
For a country that was only a few years old, Draconia was quickly becoming a powerful nation. In economic terms the country was second only to Valis and Allania, exporting goods such as grain, dairy products held in preservative rune laden bottles, and runecrafted devices meant for agriculture. All were equipped with special self-destruct runes that would cause the device to implode if it was tampered with or any attempts to reverse engineer the runes on it.
Xapferey made it known that he was happy to trade certain runecrafted objects, but with the caveat that the devices weren't tampered with or reverse-engineered. The copyright contract magic was woven into all the sold and the normal Draconia owned devices. The buyers were also made aware of the warnings before the purchase was confirmed. A primary clause of the runecraft purchasing contract was that a magical list would recognize those who had tampered with the devices and the buyers were legally obligated to report thefts of their purchases under truth spells (in the case their purchased device was truly stolen).
With magic, Draconia began taking a list of all those who bought runecrafted devices and with magical cameras the buyers were also photographed. The building database was to track purchases and to weed out spies.
The military had undergone another decent period of growth, each army group now stood at 3100 troops. The army itself was well funded and all were fully equipped, well trained, now the powerful and awe-inspiring Super Repeater crossbows adding to their considerable arsenal. The power the new crossbows added meant that Draconia's northern and southern neighbors of Allania and Marmo were more likely to hold to the non-aggression pacts and buffer zone in the case of Allania than risk a confrontation.
Mages were being trained and educated in the Draconic language and they added to the runecrafting manufacturing capacity of the realm.
NRC 514
Xapferey was quite nervous when 514 rolled around, as he knew that the events of the Chronicles of Heroic Knight began in this year. But Marmo was silent aside from troop actions against the resistance of Kanon. Ashram had been reported by Malika to be firmly situated in Marmo at the time, while Beld hunted the resistance.
From what Xapferey knew, Ashram would have been in the north in Allania at this time, but clearly his changes had really screwed up the timeline if not altered it entirely beyond his control.
'Well, no child deserves to hear of their parent's death, so I'm happy for Fianna at least," the disguised Dragon mused. She and Etoh were now firmly together and courting as events suggested. He drummed his fingers on the desk quietly worrying himself into a frenzy before he shouted, "THAT'S IT! I gotta do something before I drive myself crazy… Malika have you found what I was looking for?"
"Yes, 5 days away at warp 7. Want me to do it?"
"No, I'll do it, I've always wanted to see one. Where's Deedlit?"
"On her way here with Malkira… ugh, there's no way I could slip away for this… forget the black hole… Let's just toss the damn thing into the sun."
"Toss what into the sun? And what's a black hole?" Deedlit asked as she came in.
"Karla's circlet, I have it locked up where it can do no harm and I was going to dispose of it. As for a black hole, that involves a more detailed explanation. Computer hologram projector of topic I am speaking on… subject black holes."
The computer beeped in acknowledgement as a projected image began displaying as Xapferey talked.
"Consider the stars at night, they are suns much like our own, and different in many ways, some are younger, older, or even dead. See when a star is large enough and it runs out of fuel to burn, it then explodes in what's called a supernova. What's left however compacts inwards so densely that it becomes a black hole. Each large body creates a pulling force called gravity, except the gravity of a black hole is so powerful that not even light can escape its pull and everything is compacted and warped, even time becomes warped and slows down when near a black hole. Now normally a black hole cannot be seen by the naked eye, what can be seen is the matter spiraling inwards to oblivion; this is called the accretion disk. A black hole is basically the galaxy's waste bins… or rather that's what I called them when I was a child."
"And there are none in close proximity?
"5 weeks away at maximum speed, at warp 6 which the Flyer can sustain for long periods, possibly a few months… the exact math eludes me I'm not a physicist and only have a high school physics class under my belt."
Deedlit raised an eyebrow; all that from 'just' a high school? "How much more advanced were your people?"
"Hmm, if we take the timeframe and compare… I'd say we've had about 900-1100 years of development over Lodoss… economically, socially and militarily… just learn the basics and the advanced stuff before moving on to college levels."
"It's fine Xapferey. Considering how literate your society… no your world is, I understand why you want to build my knowledge from the beginning," Deedlit replied "Well, our knowledge," Deedlit said with a smile as Malkira squirmed in her arms slightly as the child was carried to bed.
With a smile on his face, Xapferey went to bed that night alongside his High Elvin wife.
NRC 526
Royal chambers of Draconia
More than a decade had passed for Lodoss and with it came many changes. Xapferey Manaweaver was standing on the balcony of his chambers looking out at his realm and capitol city. He mentally made a list of everything he had done in Lodoss and what he needed to do next.
'Hmm, Wagnard needs to be removed period; he cannot be trusted to stay out of events in any form. Two possible outcomes as I see it, death or exile beyond Forceria. The problem is getting to him and keeping him out, not to mention finding a planet to exile him on. But If I do that, someone else may attempt to resurrect the Destroyer in a way I have no counter for or knowledge of. Then, logic would dictate that the best possible outcome is to remain watchful of Marmo and Wagnard's palace or temple or whatever he calls it. If Kardis is about to rise, damn the consequences as I'll saturate the whole isle of Marmo with photon and quantum torpedoes.'
A yelp broke Xapferey out of his thoughts as he went to see what was wrong with his daughter. Malkira had grown into a lovely young woman, and she was the spitting image of Deedlit with gold eyes. There were some token facial similarities to Xapferey's human form, but beyond that Malkira had no direct resemblance to him beyond her rapidly forming Draconic traits.
Malkira's nails and teeth had changed, as after her baby teeth fell out, to be replaced by more Draconic fangs. Her eyes had changed to molten pools of gold like her father's and much like the full Dragon, Malkira's eyes glowed when she was angry. Her nails and teeth had changed, as after her baby teeth fell out, to be replaced by more Draconic fangs. Her fingernails had grown into claws and she copied many of her father's techniques for care and upkeep of her Draconic traits and as Xapferey walked around the corner Malkira sneezed a gout of flame out of her mouth.
"WHOA," Xapferey yelped and reflexively rolled out of the path of the flame. Another sneeze sent another gout of flame as Xapferey realized what was troubling his daughter. Deedlit was nearby being shielded by Undine the water spirit and wearing a rather put upon look.
"Little help please Xapferey," Deedlit begged.
"At this point there's nothing we can do. Give it a week, it'll run its course," Xapferey said as he twitched his finger to cast a spell to regrow Deedlit's singed eyebrows.
Deedlit groaned as Xapferey held her in an attempt to be comforting as Malkira continued to sneeze fire on the other side of the room much to the continued irritation of the female Manaweavers.
Malkira had quarantined herself for the duration of her fire breathing outbursts and thankfully, the half-Dragon managed to avoid burning anyone or anything to the ground. Once she'd gotten it under control, Deedlit was glad for it as it meant that her daughter had an additional defense against any attackers.
After the fire-breathing outbreak, Xapferey took Malkira to begin training her in the usage of a breath weapon. Malkira though surprised Xapferey by working it almost naturally into the martial arts style she was developing.
The changes continued as she went through her Draconic puberty; her claws reached their full lethal length and the cranial ridge began pushing outwards through her forehead, with new bone spurs growing out of her skin until the ridge ran across her forehead from temple to temple. Things settled over the next few weeks before Xapferey found Malkira quietly cursing over her broken PADD. A choice Dark Elven curse sent Xapferey's eyebrows towards his hairline before he flicked his fingers and Malkira found her mouth filled with soap.
"GAH!" Malkira coughed and burbled for a few moments before her father felt she had learned her lesson and ended the spell.
"I'm not sure if I should be impressed or disgusted…" Malkira's curse had questioned the breeding and sexual preferences of various beings. "I certainly hope you didn't come up with that yourself. Now if you excuse me I need to go kill your uncle," Xapferey said getting up to go deal with his foulmouthed friend. As he was about to leave, Malkira grabbed his arm to stop him.
"It wasn't uncle Nethalus father. It was something I heard aunt Pirotess say."
Xapferey stopped and turned back to his daughter in shock. "Pirotess? Miss prim and proper? ?" He asked.
"Aside from her wardrobe choices," Malkira muttered under her breath. It was true; Pirotess had become more conservative in dress since joining and helping in the formation of Draconia.
"Trust me Malkira this would be considered highly conservative by her standards many years ago."
"Okay…" Malkira trailed off as she presented her broken PADD to her father for fixing.
"Let me guess, you broke it because of your strength grew again."
"Yes," Malkira groaned as she rolled her eyes.
"It's not that bad Malkira, I'm still going to be growing until I reach 1200 years old. Besides it won't be too bad until your wings grow."
Xapferey stood up and Malkira followed after he gestured for her to come with him. The two proceeded to the council chambers where a meeting was arranged and the others filed in to take their seats first came Slayn and his wife Leylia the Court High Sorcerer and Court High Priestess. Jebra the Royal General, Woodchuck the Minister of Security, Ghim, the Dwarf and Minister of Construction and Architecture entered next. Parn, the Captain of the Royal Guard followed by Nethalus and Pirotess who came from overseeing the Defiance and other Flyer class vessels under production.
"Gentlemen, ladies welcome. We have several important things to cover in this council session so let's get started. First order of buisness, Parn, you are now a Major, congratulations." The young man accepted his congratulations from the others with quiet dignity and a murmur of thanks. "Now then, we have three important topics we need to address. First order of business, your new HUD headsets are ready, please put them on and activate the new system with the codes provided.
Manaweaver, A. Xapferey 289201003
Manaweaver D. Malkira 345210125
Manaweaver Deedlit 397299017
Manaweaver T. Nethalus 989130111
Manaweaver Pirotess 197834562
On it on it went until all the council members logged in with their new systems until the loading screen activated. Each received the text across their HUD system.
Welcome to the Magical Information Repository Network, your access codes have been logged and authorized.
"A magical version of the internet… how long have you been laying the groundwork for this?" Nethalus asked with a respectful grin.
"It's in the infant phase my friend, in time our whole realm will be connected by MIRN. This is only the beginning, soon magic and advanced technology will be blended, all of you are aware of Project Defiance and Flyers 2-5. In time our realm will leave Forceria for other worlds and we need to start using MIRN to evaluate and start selecting crew as our space fleet expands. We need qualified people for engineering, tactical and command."
"Can MIRN be expanded? How far is its range?" Jebra asked.
"Right now the only people who knew about MIRN were myself, Deedlit, Nethalus, Pirotess and Slayn. We didn't want to say anything until this was complete. But for the moment MIRN can only be seen and accessed through the series II HUD visors that we are currently using. We need time to program layers of access and encoding for them. Once that is done, and then we can begin making MIRN more available to the kingdom."
"Sounds fair milord," Woodchuck said as he smirked to himself thinking at how easy it would be to properly catch and punish troublemakers. The former thief, and the current Minister of Security was still sour over his treatment in Allania (20 years in prison for a petty theft); as such he was very supportive of the legal mentalities of Draconia and the ideas derieved from Canada. Having a lawyer provided for a defendant was a very novel idea for him and he loved the entire change, as Xapferey had been kind enough to lend Wood copies of his old textbooks as he marveled at the legal systems in the lands Xapferey came from.
"Now we will need to begin building runic transmitters and repositories as we build the network's infrastructure… what you're seeing here," Xapferey projected the image of a future repository in front of the council. "Is a prototype, it is equipped with both a machine and runic structures that allow it to both remain out of phase and cloaked," Xapferey said.
"So unless one has both the ability to unlock both machine and runes, the repositories cannot be accessed except by MIRN," Slayn added. "Rather I should say, they cannot be physically accessed." Jebra nodded in agreement with the proposed security measures.
"All right, now that MIRN has been introduced and readied, we have to begin slowly grooming those who can keep our forays into space a secret until we can make a proper space station and orbital infrastructure."
"We can set MIRN to look for traits and qualifications," Nethalus added getting a nod.
"Mmph, this station will require years of work before we can use it properly," Ghim added as he used MIRN to see what Xapferey was suggesting. "It can be done once we get people properly trained… this… holodeck device will be excellent for it, we can put them in lifelike situations with none of the danger."
"This for the far future… Now I have received word from my benefactor that in some time we will be receiving refugees from another world far from Lodoss. We need to be prepared for this, which means a slow gradual expansion of cities so we have room for these refugees."
"That we can do, and it'll fit in with our expansion plans as our population grows," Ghim grunted. "How long we got?"
"About 11 years, give or take a few months," Xapferey replied.
"Plenty then."
"Yes," the council then turned to other mundane matters for the next hour and a half.
NRC 527 September 5th
Malkira whimpered as she lay on her stomach, she had woken screaming in pain causing both of her parents to come running and the EMH activated in her room. It didn't take long for them to realize the problem she was having. Currently two mounds had formed on her back and they were rippling and shifting about under her skin. Recently the mounds had finally breached the skin on her back and were pushing themselves out and revealing themselves slowly as her new wings. Finally the hybrid teen stood up and unfolded her wings to their full 14-foot span.
"Urg, I'm gonna go take a shower," the half-Dragon muttered as she went to wash off the blood, sweat and slime from the effort of finally growing her wings.
Post NRC 526
Sircans Star System
Xanroth
Jastar city
Xapferey Sharnoras turned his attention back to Forceria as he pondered the change and the flows of fate.
"Oh… hello, this won't work at all… so much for Merlin and Malkira… it would never work… oh well, tweak here, snip there… and we are good to go… Let's arrange the crossing for the Camelot salvageable population… that's what a good 11,000 troops to Draconia's army and another 50,000 people total… not bad, but less I expected. Oh well, time to get to work, then I can call it quits for assisting them."
The Cilarista emperor vanished into the shadows to deal with things.
Camelot that same time
"Ah Lord Alecnor, I've accepted your proposal," Arthur Pendragon said to his after he had spent two weeks discussing the events and proposal with Merlin, the court physician Gaius and the Knights of the Round Table. I will need to push a couple things but everything will be ready for you on the other side."
"I understand, my people that wish to come are gathered in the lower town, all who wish to remain are doing so or fleeing the lands before nightfall."
"Then I will see you down there and prepare the portal for you… oh and Arthur… about Gwen…"
"I already made my peace with her, I will be a noble in a new land… regrettably Gwen is a commoner, and with the increased scrutiny from king Xapferey and his allies and neighbors… perhaps there's another in Lodoss for me."
"I'm sure there is," The Cilarista emperor said with a knowing glint in his hidden eyes."
Once in the Lower Town of Camelot, Xapferey Sharnoras conjured up the portal and the refugees slowly tricked through carrying as many supplies and personal objects as they could manage in the provided carts. While the trusted knights including Arthur and Merlin, carried the vast majority of Camelot's treasury including as many salvaged and forgotten (illegal) tomes of magic as they could find. Once behind them the portal was shut; and henceforth the lands of Camelot would become known as the lands of perpetual night, where only the bravest would cross and only the braver still would live there.
The Cilarista emperor nodded to himself and shunted time forward 10 years for the lands of Lodoss before he blipped away leaving no evidence of his ever being there.
July NRC 536
The portal opened and disgorged the refugees to where a small contingent of Manaweaver troops waited for them lead by Draconia's Crown Princess. Arthur felt himself unable to stop staring at the beautiful and exotic woman that was coming to greet them, considering the traits that obviously marked as that of a race unknown to him.
"Welcome Lord Pendragon and refugees from Camelot, I am Malkira Manaweaver Crown Princess of Draconia, my father send myself and an escort to bring you to Draconia where we will get you settled in and sort out everything required to properly welcome your people as they join ours."
"Thank you Lady Manaweaver, I hope this endeavor will ease my original misgivings on the situation."
With that the Camelot forces allowed themselves to be lead towards the great capitol city of New Vancouver.
With his lands secure and refugees come, Xapferey Manaweaver will have new challenges to face, some foreseen, others unknown. The Chronicles of the Draconic Knight have ended.
The Dragon King arises.
A/N Well, that took far far far far far longer than I wanted. I had little to inspiration for the early parts… don't worry my readers, the story will continue, in this… posted story but in the Chronicles of the Dragon King. Arc 1 is over… Arc 2 begins and with it the timelines of the events the Chronicles of the Heroic Knight.
