Chapter 27
"Once upon a time, in a land far, far away—"
"Really? You are going to start your story like that?" asked Merlin, raising his eyebrows.
"It's not that bad," pointed out Morgana, "I've read many good tales that start like that."
"Children stories, maybe."
"So?"
Merlin looked at her for a second. "I've trouble picturing you reading those kinds of stories."
"Aithusa liked them," she explained. "Besides, there is still much you don't know about me, Merlin."
"Silence, kids," Dragoon said. "I'm the one telling this story; I'll start it however I want to." He cleared his throat. "So...
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.
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Once upon a time, in a land far, far away, there was a brilliant and handsome sorcerer, whom no foe could ever defeat. He traveled through the land, from one place to another, killing monsters, bringing criminals to justice and stealing hearths.
("Honestly?") {"Let him talk, Merlin."}
He didn't do it for the money, he had enough wealth to settle down and live the rest of his life in peace. No, he did because he was searching for an answer, one he had been looking for over a hundred years. That sorcerer, if you haven't guessed it yet, was me.
{"Wait! Did he just say he is over a hundred years old?"} ("Well... he is kind of immortal... and incidentally I think I am too.") {"WHAT!?"} ("We'll talk about it later.") {"We are not going t—!"}
'What kind of answer was I searching for?', you may ask. Due to some events of my past I was obsessed with finding a way to travel back in time, to fix things that had happened a long time ago. My quest had taken me to the tribes of the ancient forest of Mirkwood, and the clans of the Red Mountains. I visited the floating city of Atlantis and walked the halls of the elusive Dark Citadel, that changes its location and appears only at night. I even tried to get answers from your Crystal Cave, but all I get was the worst hangover ever. All my efforts seemed to be in vain. No matter where I went, I didn't find anything more that rumors and old myths, all of which ended in disappointment.
I was almost going to give up in my quest, when one day I heard of two men who were gaining power a lot faster than any normal man could. Those who have power usually have the answers, so I set myself to finding them. I became even more intrigued once I heard legends about a tattoo that both of them hold in their arms. A dragon biting its own tail, the mark of the first dragonlords.
{"The symbol of Ouroboros?"} ("You know about it!?") {"Of course I know about it! Didn't you study the seventy seven symbols of magic?"} ("The seventy what?")
Finding them was the easy part; they were kings of their own city. Personally, I don't like people who uses their magic to conquer others, but I didn't have to be friends with them, only ask them if they knew anything about a spell to go back in time. Of course, I couldn't just reveal that I wanted to know that; to sorcerers knowledge is more precious than anything, and if they realized how interested I was in that information there was no say what they would ask in return.
At first glance the city seemed like any other, but from the moment I stepped into it, I could feel something wasn't right. It was like everyone was trying hard not to show fear. Besides, there were many more guards than necessary moving around the streets. It was obvious that something was going on there, but I was on a quest, so I promised to myself that I would look the other way and do what I went there to do.
("Morgana, I bet you two silver coins that he is going to break that promise before the night falls.") {"Bet you three that he doesn't last until dusk."} ("Deal.")
So... I was almost at the castle gates when four guards approached me and demanded to know what I was doing there. Usually I don't react very well when people demand things of me, but since I didn't want to start a fight, I managed to politely answer them that I wanted to have an audience with kings. Apparently, that wasn't something that happened a lot, because they raised their spears and pointed them at me. As you can probably guess, I'm also not a fan of being threatened with spears, but I behave and asked what was going on. They answered that no outsider meets with the god kings. For future reference, if someone you've just met calls himself 'god king', you would be wise to distance yourself as far as possible of that person.
Anyway, since I still had to talk to them I told the guards about how important I was and all that, but it didn't seem to matter much to them. I was about to just blast them away when I saw it. In the door of the temple, a giant carving of the symbol of Ouroboros. So, in one last attempt to act peacefully, I removed my shirt and showed them my tattoo. The instant they saw it they lowered the spears, bowed and started apologizing, with their foreheads touching the ground.
{"Goddess! Is he one of the first dragonlords!?"} ("No, he inherited the tattoo.") {"How?"} ("Well, there are two ways—")
You can talk about that later. As I was saying, the guards were occupied begging me to forgive them, so I just walked past them and entered the castle. It was like all the luxury that was missing in the town suddenly appeared when one crossed those doors. There were precious stones decorating the walls and statues made of crystal on each corner. The ceiling had a painting of a great battle and the floor was filled with golden tiles, which I can't say for sure if they were made of gold, but I think it would be a safe assumption to make. There were more guards there, but they mimicked their friends and also went to the floor at the sight of my tattoo. I won't lie, I might have enjoyed that a little bit.
After a few more doors I reached what looked like the throne room, only that there were not one, but two thrones. Behind them, the most mismatched pair of people I've ever met were discussing something, but they stopped suddenly when they saw me.
"Who are you!?" asked the bigger one, moving towards me. "Who let you in here!?"
In hindsight I probably shouldn't have done what I did next, but I couldn't help it. I climbed a near chair and spoke aloud.
"You have the honor to be in the presence of the astonishing, the amazing… DRAGOON THE GREAT!" I exclaimed, making a bow.
"Who do you think you are playing with!?" asked the same guy, who didn't looked pleased by my introduction.
("Have anyone ever been pleased by your introduction?")
"I'll enjoy crushing your bones," he added, grabbing a giant axe he had on his back. He started moving faster and I was almost ready to draw my swords when the second guy talked.
"Roth, stop," he simply said. "Look at his arm."
I was amazed of how quickly this Roth guy listen to the other one. This is another tip for the future: if some guy who looks really strong follows the command of another, you should be wary of that one even more; sounds obvious, but it's important enough to remark anyway.
"Another one of the tattoo bearers?" asked Roth in surprise, looking at my arm. "Still, doesn't that mean—"
"That means he's our guest," the small guy interrupted. "Let me introduce ourselves, I'm Ilko, and the hot headed man in front of you is Roth; technically we are King Ilko and King Roth, but I think we can leave those formalities outside this room; don't you think so, Dragoon?"
"I don't see why not. I apologize for intruding like this, but your guards were unable to carry a message. Apparently they hold the tattoo bearers in very high esteem."
Ilko let out a dry laugh. "Yes, I've tried to tell them once and again to stop that, but that only made us looks even more noble and they started to bow even lower," he said, after which moved to the one of the thrones and sat. "So, Dragoon, what brings you to our great city?"
"Curiosity, mostly. It has been a long time since I met anyone with the dragon tattoo, and two of them n the same place is something very strange."
"True, we are not a very sociable people, but just look at what a pair of us together can accomplish," he said, spreading his arms and looking at the ceiling. "Just imagine what three of us could do," he said, obviously as an offer, but he didn't give any time for me to answer anything. "Unfortunately you came at a bad time, me and Roth were discussing city matters, but you are welcome to join us for dinner tonight, I'll tell the servants to prepare a room for you until then. "
"I thank you, but I've never felt too comfortable inside castles," I said. A lie, but even I'm not stupid enough to sleep in the same building as two tattoo bearers I've just met. "There is an inn I liked near the city gates, I think I'm going to be staying there."
"So be it, but you will be joining us for dinner tonight, I bet we have much to discuss. I won't accept a no for an answer," he said with a smile. If you didn't get it, that was a threat. All the interaction between powerful sorcerers is always very cloak and daggerish. Anyway, I had to eat and I wanted to know more about them, so that suited me.
"Of course, it would be an honor to eat with two kings."
"It's arranged then," Ilko said, while Roth made a grunting noise, "I'll send for you when it's time".
"There is no need for that, I—"
"I insist! This streets become dangerous at night."
Again, that was just another way to keep an eye on me, but I couldn't just deny his offer, so I just made a small nod of acceptance and left. As I was leaving I could hear that Roth started arguing with Ilko, but couldn't understand exactly what they were talking about. Once again, every guard hit the floor at the sight of me, and no matter how much I asked them to stand up they stayed the same. Until this day I have wondered how did the kings order their men if they couldn't stand up in their presence, but anyway...
In my way out of the palace I made sure to cover my tattoo, I had drawn more than enough attention already. I started walking towards the inn, which in all true I haven't given a second look, when I heard someone calling me from an alley. He was wearing a cloak so I couldn't see his face, but he signaled me to follow.
("Please tell me that you didn't actually follow the cloaked stranger to the dark alley...")
Obviously, I followed him.
("Obviously...") {"In all true, Merlin, you probably would have done the same."}
The figure kept walking ahead of me until reaching what it looked like a dead end. He turned around and revealed his face. 'He' turned out to be a young lady with a very pointy sword, and she had a few friends with her. One thing that caught my attention was that even when they outnumbered me six to one, her hand was still trembling. That was probably the only reason I didn't just attacked them at once.
"So... what's this about?" I asked.
"You are coming with me," she said, taking out a rope to tie my hands with. "I'm going to take you to our leader, and don't even try to—"
"Alright," I said, extending my arms.
"Really?" she asked. You should have seen the look in her face, it was hilarious.
"What? Do you want me to fight?" I asked back.
"No, it's just... I knew that you were all cowards!"
I didn't answer, just put on a friendly smile. She tied my hands and walked through a secret entrance which led to a series of tunnels. After some time we reached some kind of hidden city filled with people. Well, calling it a city may be a bit much, it was an underground settlement, and the people there didn't seem doing very well.
"Father! Father! Look what I've bring you!" the girl yelled.
A man in front of us looked up. He was helping an old lady move around, but he called another one to fill his place and started walking towards us.
"What is this?" he asked, looking at me.
The girl rolled up my shirt and showed him my tattoo. "It's one of them father, I've captured him," she told him.
"Goddess! Are you crazy!?" he asked, yelling. "Bringing him here! You have doomed us all!"
"Father we can learn about him, take its power, we can—"
"You are a fool! You don't know how powerful they are, you haven't seen what they are capable of, he can kill all of us!"
I had decided to wait and see how things developed, but the father looked really troubled, so I decided to intercede.
"And why would I want to do that?" I asked.
For a second they both looked at me as if they had forgotten I was able to speak too.
"Shut up!" the girl exclaimed. "You want to subdue us, to make us your slaves!"
"I don't need any slaves, I can manage on my own," I simply replied.
"You think I'm just going to believe that? You are just like the others, you just want power and wealth."
"Actually, I already have enough gold, and while it may be true that I seek power, it's not the kind any of you can give me."
"Do you think you can get out of this with just words? Do you think we are stupid!? The second we set you free you'll tell the kings where we are!"
"Well, you are in luck then, I'm very good keeping secrets."
The girl looked ready to blurt out another of her angry lines, but her father interrupted her.
"What's your name?" he asked.
I was going to make one of my incredible introductions, but that rude girl spoke first.
"His name is Drogoon, or something like that..."
Can you believe it? 'Drogoon'... Who would name himself 'Drogoon'!? I tell you, if it wasn't that I wanted to know more about them I— Alright, alright, don't look at me like that, I'll keep going.
"Dragoon," I corrected her, "my name is Dragoon."
"Dragoon... that name rings a bell," said the father. "I've heard some stories about a sorcerer called Dragoon the Great, but you can't possibly be him."
"Oh, but I am. You have the honor to be in the presence of the—"
"Father, you know him?"
"I know about him," said the man. "He is the defender of truth, savior of the innocent. So handsome that even succubi fell for him and so clever that the gods themselves ask him for advice—"
("Oh, come on, he did not say that!")
Fine... fine... just don't blame if the story gets boring...
"I know about him," said the man. "He's supposed to be some kind of hero, or at least that's what the stories said."
"Who are you people? Why are you hiding beneath here?" I asked.
The man took a second before answering. "We are the Catha, I don't know if you've heard of us."
"Yes, you are experts in using magic to torture people."
"It wasn't always like that. Our ancestors used their magic to find the truth where it would hide, to solve disputes and punish criminals. Now, the kings force us to use our magic like that. We want to be free of them, and for that we need your help."
I looked around. I couldn't believe that those were the Catha. Before then I imagined them as cold and evil sorcerers, but all I could see in that place was people, just people, and they were scared.
"Look, I sympathize, but I actually need a few answers from those two, and I'm not even sure if I could manage to defeat them."
"That's not why I'm asking you, just help us escape, just that, we'll take care later."
"Why can't you escape yourselves? You managed to get here..."
"The entire city is protected by a magic barrier that marks everyone who leaves without the kings consent and makes possible for the kings to track them. If we leave while that barrier is still up there will be only a matter of time before we are caught. We need you to shut the barrier down."
"How?"
The father and daughter looked and each other and then back at me. "We... we don't know."
"Yeah... that would have been too easy," I said, smiling. "Look, let me think about it and I'll let you know when I've decided something."
"We can't let him leave," the girl said to her father. "He's going to tell them where we are, he's going to betray us! "
"He won't," his father said, looking at me.
"How do you know!?" asked his daughter.
"He could have escape easily already, and yet he didn't. He could have killed us all, and yet we breathe. It's no coincidence another tattoo bearer came to this city in our moment of need. He is here to save us. He is the answers to our prayers!" And yes, he actually said that.
"Look, I'm sorry to disappoint you but I haven't been sent by anyone and I didn't know about you until just now. Me being here right now it's nothing but a coincidence. However, I'll see what I can do."
"There are no such things as coincidences," replied the man, wearing a slightly creepy smile.
"Riiiiiight... So, I must go now and we'll keep in touch. It was nice to meet you," I added, looking at the girl, who was still grabbing the hilt of her sword with her right hand.
.
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Outside, the sun had began setting. I marched to the inn and rented a room. I had just managed to lay on the bed when a man knocked on my door to let me know that the kings were inviting me to dinner. I was going to ask him to come later, but since I couldn't tell him why I hadn't had any rest, I just went along.
That day was the first of a series of very busy weeks, where I would try to find out what I can about time traveling, at the same time I gave as few information as possible, all while I held secrets meetings with the Catha and tried to find out a way of disrupting the magic barrier that covered the city. If you two ever feel like you have too much in your plate, just remember I've survived that.
I'm not going to bore you with all the details of my conversations with the kings, but there are a few things that are important for my story. First, I learned that the magical barrier was generated by a gem that very unfortunately hanged from Roth's neck. Second, the time travel topic had come out a few times, and Ilko had implied that he might had some information about it. Now, I was expecting him to name his price.
As for the kings themselves, I didn't learn as much as them as I would have liked. After those weeks, all I knew about Roth was that he loved fighting. And I don't mean it in a good way, he was very obsessed with it. He spent his days either training, dueling or sharpening his axe, and nothing else. I know you think that I'm exaggerating things, but I'm not. The one time I heard him say something good about anyone else was when he talked about the blacksmith that made him his first axe. I think he even got a little emotional about it. It was a very strange situation.
Finding information about Ilko turned out to be even harder. This guy changed personalities as one would change clothes. One second he was being polite and the next he was sending a servant to the dungeons for spilling his wine. That wouldn't be so harsh if it wasn't for the fact that the people sent there seemed to never showed up again, and according to how much the servant fought back, he probably knew that too. One day I tried to find out what was going on, but the kings had enough guards and magic safeguards that moving through the castle unnoticed turned out to be impossible, even for me, and since I had to keep pretending to be in good terms with them I couldn't look as deep as I would have wanted. I did find one thing though, some notes, Ilko's, describing how many times one can kill and resurrect the same men before those spells stop working. If there was a moment that compelled me to help the Catha, it was probably that.
One day, Ilko asked me to come to the throne room and proposed me a deal: he would tell me everything he knew about traveling to the past in exchange for some help dealing with some rebels he had in his city, who were —you guessed it!— the Catha. So now I had to actually choose between helping those people or learning something that might help me in my quest.
("And what did you do?")
Really, kid? What do you think I did? I came up with a plan, of course! A plan so complex that those sorcerers would never see through the brilliancy of it! Never! I was going to lure Roth away of the castle with false pretenses and then, when he least expect it, I would attacked him and steal his necklace, making possible for the Catha to escape unharmed.
("So, an ambush...")
Well... yeah. But a very complex ambush!... Just... just let me tell the story.
I pretended to accept Ilko's offer and I told him that I was investigating the city, when in all true I was meeting with the Catha to arrange their escape. Lucky for me, they had been trying to get away for some time now, so most of it was already done. In the end, all came to get rid of the barrier, which meant that I had to take the necklace from Roth.
So, back to the ambu— I mean, complex plan. When you want to lure someone, an important thing to know is what that person desires, what makes him wake up in the morning, what are those things that matter most to him. As I said, for Roth that was fighting. I managed to send him a anonymous message challenging to a duel after the sun had hidden, in which I dared him to come alone. Now, I doubted very much that he would receive challenges to a duel very often, so he was going to show up, that wasn't in question. As for if he would come alone... that part was a gamble.
For the meeting, I chose an alley in a corner of the city which I had determined was the best place for this. It wasn't very good for actual fighting, but the plan was not to fight altogether, and it was secluded enough that no one would walk in there by chance. I placed a magic trap in the alley which activates when someone steps on it and paralyses its victim, simple but effective, now I only had to wait.
The night came, and with it came Roth. As I expected he was alone... and angry. He looked very angry. I probably shouldn't have insulted him as much in the letter. Anyway... he walked into the alley, stepped into the trap and after a flash of light he was paralyzed. I felt pretty good with myself at that time. I just climbed down from where I was hiding and took the necklace. I was about to destroy it when a giant fist punched me in the face.
I tell you, Roth really, really, shouldn't have been able to move for at least hours after that spell, so I was truly surprised, and not in the good way. That was when I noticed the red in his eyes and realized what was going on. Roth was a berserker, a type of sorcerer whose powers are all about battle, and they are very difficult to defeat. Incidentally, paralyzing spells don't work as well on them as one would hope. However, there was one good thing: I didn't have to defeat him, just grab the gem and leave.
Apparently, Roth had guessed my thoughts because when I moved for the necklace his axe hit the ground just where I would have been had not stopped a second before. I couldn't let my guard down with him, so I drew my two swords and got ready. After a few parries I realized that fighting him like that was pointless, his strength and speed were way too much for me to handle, so I started using another approach. Just like in our fight, I made mirror images of myself, copies if you will, and sent them to fight him. The point wasn't to defeat them, but to distract him.
Once and again, his axe went through one of my images only for it to be shattered into pieces. Still, is not funny seeing how you are decapitated once and again, and I knew that I couldn't just keep making those forever, so using an invisibility spell I walked past him and grabbed the necklace that was still resting in the floor. Another foe might have grabbed the necklace before me, but one good thing about berserkers is that they don't think much once they started fighting.
I thought I was in the clear when Roth turned to where I stood and swung his axe towards me, who was still supposed to be invisible. I broke the spell and dodged the hit, barely. I raised my hands and started throwing fireballs at him, which actually hit him, but didn't seem to slow him down that much. I needed something that could hold him, so as one last try I made a spell that made some quicksands appear beneath him. That seemed to do the trick, because every time that Roth tried to get out of there by force he only went deeper. I decided to leave before he realized he could use magic to do that.
"Are you telling me that's the best you can do?" asked a voice above me. I looked up and there was Ilko, glancing down at me. "I must say, I expected more from the legendary 'Dragoon the Great'."
"What can I say? I'm having an off day." Before he could do anything I concentrated some magic in the gem and it blew to pieces. "But at least I got the job done."
"Yes, I think I must thank you for that."
"Come again?"
"You get rid of the Catha, didn't you? I bet they'll be gone by morning and I'll have control of my city once more."
"You planned for this to happen?"
"It was more like a win/win situation. Whatever you chose to do it would work on my favor."
"You should know that I don't like being used."
"Who does?" he said, with a grin on his face.
"Fulfill our deal then, tell me what you know about time travel."
"Oh, I don't know anything about that," Ilko said, making a dismissive gesture. "It's impossible, a fool's dream. There are stories, of course, but there are just that, stories. Besides, if I knew something, do you really think that I would share it with you? "
"There is no harm in asking," I replied, shrugging. "So, are you just going to let him in there?" I asked, pointing at Roth, who was still trying to get out of the quicksands.
"Maybe just a bit longer," he replied, with cold eyes. "He has to practice calming himself."
"So, what now?"
"Well, before anything I have to offer you one last chance to join us."
"Sorry, but I must decline."
"As you've said, there is no harm in asking," he said, smiling. "Then I think I must kill you."
Before I could reply he raised his hand and black tendrils came out of the shadows and towards me. I blinked away, but the tendrils just changed their direction and started coming at me once again. I could have fight them, however, since the Catha were free and Ilko knew nothing about traveling to the past, there was no reason for me to remain there. I summoned the winds and before the tendrils could reach me I had teleported away.
.
.
.
"That was the last time I saw any of them," said Dragoon. "As for the Catha, I heard they managed to get away safely, and while some of them eventually went back to use their magic for torture, others chose a different path. They are still telling stories about that day, only that the last time I heard it I was as large as a building and had to fight an army of dragons to set them free."
"I don't understand, what does any of this have to do with us?" asked Merlin.
"Can't you guess?"
"The ones coming," interceded Morgana, "the ones behind everything that has been going on, is them, isn't it?"
"Yes," Dragoon answered, nodding.
Morgana didn't replied, she just stared intensely at the ground.
"So, what are we going to do?" Merlin asked.
Dragoon looked at him and smiled. "Easy kid. We'll train, we'll fight, and we'll win."
"Oh... anything else?" Merlin asked, failing to hide a smile.
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A/N: I hope you liked it!
The problem with the last chapter is that it makes every other chapter look bad xD. To be perfectly honest I could have made this much longer, reveiling much more about the kings and such, but it's probably already longer than it should as it is. This "flashback" helps give a few more information about the kings and how they know Dragoon, but the main story is halted in the meantime, so it's better to go back to that :p.
Also I changed the formatting a bit so Dragoon would be the narrator in this one. It created some weird things as Merlin and Morgana's comments, but I think it's understandable.
As Dragoon said, this is supposed to be the last one of his stories; let's see if I can stick to that xD.
Thanks Howarand, AJsRandom, AndreKl, Patiku, CHARLES CHUKU, The Forrest of Fanfic, JACarter, NightsAnger, mersan123, Meri Ley, hithere, Lady Flurryous for the reviews =D
The Forrest of Fanfic = Special thanks for that great review!
NightsAnger = Well, Dragoon is kind of both those things xD. He wants to do good, but he's sure that his way to do good is the best way possible. As for Kilgharrah you are right that I don't like him very much, but to be perfectly honest in the series he was kind of a controlling jerk who ends up breaking his promise, attacking Camelot and killing who knows how many people. For me, Merlin forgave him far too easy :p (although to be honest, Morgana is in a similar situation xD). Still, there will be more of him ahead.
hithere = Special thanks for that great review! I understand perfectly what you say about the two voices, thanks for noticing :p!
Lady Flurryous = Special thanks for the great review! Yes, they are supposed to be dragonlords too (the great powers come more from the fact that they can live longer rather than the tattoo itself :p). This topic will be addressed in the next chapters.