"What Is This Rodent?"
Starshadow Military Academy, Myrkir
After leaving Sunfyre, staying only about an hour, Sonja headed for the Academy where her younger twin daughters were attending school. Though called a Military Academy, it covered all curricula to prepare its students for their future paths. There were a few specialized paths of study it didn't cover except for basic introductions such as magic.
Her daughters only had two more years of study, the oldest, Phaedra, was studying law, politics, and civics. Ophelia, the younger twin, studied history, literature, and archaeology. They were very clear about their own interests. Sonja had assured Phaedra that she could study whatever she wanted, not just preparing to take over for her one day. However, Phaedra had assured her she was studying what she wanted and had plenty of time to explore other interests outside of her school days.
Sonja didn't argue further and let her do as she pleased.
She didn't want to cause too much of a disturbance, so she landed a bit away from the school and transformed. It was early spring, so there was still a chill in the air, but she still removed her military style coat and replaced it with a dark cloak. As she walked toward the gates of the dark stone school campus, she saw a young woman standing outside with a boy of about thirteen or fifteen.
The boy kicked a pebble at her angrily and arrogantly. "I won't take the trolley! Transform! You fly me home! Dad said you have to fly!" he shouted.
The girl had the unique look of a young Dragon during their Changing Age. She also looked tired and wore a dress that was a few years old and too big for her. The boy, on the other hand, was dressed in a little lordling suit. Even Ludvig never dressed so ostentatiously.
"We're taking the trolley. My wing is bruised, and I can't fly," she said in a dull voice. "Now, come on, father wants you home for dinner," she said with a little more firmness.
"No! You'll fly! I want to fly! You're lying! It's not my fault you're a klutz and hurt yourself because you can't fly straight. Fly me home now!" The boy actually pushed the girl.
Caught off guard, the girl stumbled back and fell, landing hard on her backside, and jarring her arm as she fell. She cried out. She hugged her arm against her body, taking deep breaths, her face pale from pain.
The boy lifted his foot, seemingly ready to stomp on her, but he was suddenly lifted up by his uniform jacket roughly. "What is this rodent dirtying up the streets? Where did it come from?" Sonja asked coldly.
The boy struggled and tried to kick out at whoever was holding him. The girl gasped and looked up at her. She struggled to get to her feet. "Please, ma'am, put my little brother down," she said, slightly alarmed by the stranger that came out of nowhere.
Sonja sneered slightly. "This thing is a baby Dragon? What gave it the nerve to put its hands on a woman?" she asked coldly, shaking the boy.
"Get your hands off me, you old, perverted chyasytim!" the boy shouted.
"Ellerby!" the girl automatically scolded.
Sonja ignored the boy. "Who's your family? Where are you from? Don't lie to me," she said, staring at the girl.
"Don't tell this chyasytim anything!"
Sonja used her free hand to put her hood back, showing her face. The girl's eyes widened and curtsied unsteadily. "Your Grace," she greeted. "I'm Melaina Darkbane. We come from Elmdale, a few miles to the west," she answered.
"Chyasytim! Why'd you tell her!" Ellerby shouted and tried to kick out at Melaina. The boy was so enraged, his face so red, that he didn't even register what Melaina had called his captor.
"Is that the only word you know?" Sonja gave him another shake. She finally dropped him and gave him a slight kick to the bottom, knocking him unsteady, but didn't hurt him. "This is how Denisoff Darkbane teaches his children?" she scoffed.
"Who are you to talk about my father?" Ellert rounded on her, trying to swing on her. Sonja had already caught his fist by the time he recognized her face.
"Have you taken civil lessons yet, boy? Do you know the punishment for attempted assault of a civil servant?" she asked him with an eyebrow cocked.
Ellerby stumbled back, face now pale. "Melly, take me home," he demanded and began to stride away.
Melaina frowned and reached out to grab him with her good arm. "That's the Duchess, you weren't dismissed," she said, once again firming her tone. Ellerby jerked away and tried to kick her again, but she side-stepped.
Sonja flared her nostrils. "You have legs. Hurry and catch the trolley. I'll talk to your sister," she said to the boy coldly, staring at him.
Ellerby flinched at her tone. He slunk off, then took off running once he got far enough away.
"Your Grace?" Melaina asked.
Sonja put her hood back up. "We'll see the school Healer," she said and began striding through the gates.
Melaina paused. "I don't have permission to enter," she admitted.
Sonja frowned. "You didn't attend?" she asked.
Melaina shook her head. "I only attended the village school," she answered. It was not fun. Her family was a moderately comfortable Dragon family. For her to be the only Dragon in the village school when all her brothers were sent to the Academy sent a signal of her place in the world. No one would stand up for her. She wasn't some tragic figure where every single person in her life hated her. It wasn't so melodramatic. She made friends with other kids she went to school with, but there were always bad actors. Her family never helped when she was bullied, usually even scolding her for being late or disheveled.
Sonja nodded and gave her a temporary pass. "Come on. You must be in pain. I won't ask how you got injured. I don't need to know the specifics," she said.
Melaina took the token gratefully. "Thank you, your Grace," she murmured. Sonja just nodded slightly and continued walking. Melaina followed behind. She led her to the Healer's office of the school. "Get treated. Let them see to your wing as well. Show them the token I gave you. They'll help. Keep the token. If you ever need anything, bring it to Starshadow Castle," she said and left her there.
Melaina gripped the token and curtsied to her back. "Thank you, your Grace," she said quietly to her back and then entered the building to find a Healer.
Sonja went to the dormitory where her daughters resided while they were in school. It was already well after classes were finished. She checked in with the dorm supervisor, who recognized her, and greeted her. She nodded and went to the floor where her daughters resided. After a perfunctory knock, she walked in.
The two girls looked up when she knocked and were surprised when their mother came in. Phaedra sat at a desk writing on a piece of paper. She'd removed her uniform jacket and shoes. Her hair was long and pulled back at the temples.
Ophelia was laying on her stomach on a bed flipping through a book, her hair was pulled in a bun. With the same blue eyes, and dark eyes, and dressed the same, for most people it was hard to tell them apart, but it was easy for Sonja.
"Mom!" they said at once and scrambled to get up.
Sonja held up her hand. "Pack your things. I'm taking you home for a while. I have something to tell you, but only when we get home," she said.
Phaedra and Ophelia looked at each other, but quietly put their jackets and shoes back on and gathered their books and supplies. Their mother wouldn't come for them in the middle of the school week for nothing. Once they were packed up, they left the dormitory. The girls couldn't shadowwalk yet. They were only fifteen. She took their hands and walked into the shadows with them.
--
Silvermoon Keep
Darius and Britiana led Sariya and Delaney out of the Grand Duchess Residence of the Keep and into an open lobby-type area. There were a series of arched wrought metal gates in a semi-circle around the entrance of the residence. Delaney tilted her head. "Elevators?" she asked.
"Elevators?" Britiana asked.
"Boxes in a mechanical tube that goes up and down," Delaney answered the basic concept of an elevator. They would make sense in a building that catered to Dragons and non-dragons, especially if there were several floors.
"Not...quite?" Britiana said. She approached the bank of gates. "They're called porters. They work on a principle similar to the spell I showed you, but less powerful and on a smaller scale," she explained and brushed a hand over a protruding crystal on the gates and it receded upwards. The four of them entered the cavity within. The gate descended again.
She brushed another crystal on the inner wall. "Gatehouse," she stated plainly. The crystal lit up. There was a slight feeling of motion. They went crystal dark again, and the gate raised once more. They stepped into the busy Gatehouse, which was the official entrance of the keep to the public, officials, and employees.
It was large, neat and tidy. There was a seating/waiting area with a fireplace, a front desk area with several clerks directing people or answering questions. There were many more of the Port Gates in the Gatehouse than in the Residence.
People coming and going didn't even glance at them.
"So much to learn," Delaney murmured.
Britiana paused, then shook her head. "You need technomage engineers for things like this. Can witchborn learn things like that?" she asked curiously as they walked through the Gatehouse toward the main entrance.
Delaney smiled. "Yes. I didn't realize there was a term for it. Technomage," she deliberated the world. "My aunt built an enchanted computer network that only witchborn can find and access," she answered.
"Ooh. I don't know what that is, but it sounds intriguing. I have a feeling that we have a lot to learn from each other," Britiana declared.
Sariya and Darius shared a look. They were both unable to enter this conversation.
When they exited the Gatehouse, they all looked around. The Keep was huge, the main building seemed to be carved from the mountains, and it was already so far away from where they stood in front of the entrance that the grounds within must be massive. It was the first time Britiana and Darius saw it in person and not images from their pendants.
Nothing on Thelessia could compare, and only a few things could compare on Terranthea. Delaney shook her head. No, even the Great Wall of the East and the Pyramids paled in comparison.
The city of Silvermoon wasn't that much different. It was large with cobblestone looking streets, and many buildings of varying sizes. But the first things they saw were the transit area. In a circular square there was one huge stone archway carved with many Emphyralian Draconic symbols. It was twice as tall as it was wide, plenty of room for an adult Dragon to pass through easily. In orderly sections around the square were more arches that were about twenty feet high by ten feet wide.
The square wasn't deserted, metal trolleys floating on the ground were pulling up to and away from a few of gates that had been labeled, going to various parts of the city.
"The Dragon Gates," he said, looking at the large, abandoned arch. "The big one was how we traveled to other worlds for trade and diplomacy. The smaller ones connected to other parts of the planet," he explained to Sariya and Delaney.
"They no longer work?" Sariya asked.
Britiana shook her head. "Somehow, the Dragon Hunters were able to intercept the coordinates and send people through the small ones without anyone knowing. Eventually, there was no way to salvage the network and stop them, so they had to destroy the network. Our uncle and a team had to manually shut them down on the other worlds in the Network a few years before we were born," she explained. "But if we can use the spell I found as a basis, maybe one day, we can restart a new, better Network," she said, hopefully.
They were silent for a while. Britiana sighed. She strode forward. The others followed her.
"We don't need a trolley for now. One of the first places we're going to see is an inn one of our elders ran before the Plague. They didn't have any surviving heirs, so the property reverted to Mom," Darius explained.
"It's very close to the Keep because it entertained wealthy guests or even foreign dignitaries that wanted to see more of the city than just the Keep," Britiana picked up. "It might be a good place to turn into a haven for the witchborn and set up the transfer point," she added.
"If it was made for Dragons, I'm sure there's plenty of room," Sariya quipped.
Delaney chuckled. "That's true. I felt like I could fit a hundred bunk beds in my rooms," she said.
Britiana and Darius couldn't argue. They grew up in a world mostly built for humans. Even they were surprised by the size of their rooms. "That's why we thought of the inn," she said.
Delaney nodded slightly. She followed them out of the transit area and into the city proper. Lining the main street were a number of businesses. Shops, restaurants, hotels and inns. They walked for maybe ten minutes before coming to a property protected by an ornate gate. Darius tapped it with his identity token, and it swung open. They walked into a spacious yard with an overgrown garden.
The building itself was four storeys and had a stately appearance. It wasn't made of stone, but a mix of stone and wood and a tile roof. The windows were large and stately. "It's made for Dragons?" Delaney asked.
Britiana snickered. "It's bigger on the inside. You may not be able to tell, but so is the Keep," she said. She used her identity to open the door. The air was stale, a little dusty, but nothing broken, there was no damage, and the furniture was covered. The door opened into a lobby where you could check in and be led directly to a room or go through a double-door to a tavern-type area where food and drink would be available with a bar.
They explored it. They discovered the kitchen was set up with an outside door; a door to a massive pantry; a door to deliver the guests in the rooms; and a door to the tavern area. Out the back was a yard with an old well, stables, places to raise egg layers, an empty drakery, and more overgrown gardens.
There was another room on another side of the building that was a three storey library with sitting rooms and tea tables, and lamps for guests who didn't want to stay in their rooms or be in the more boisterous tavern. Large double glass doors led to a covered veranda and a pleasant walking garden.
After exploring the first floor, they checked out the basement which stored a lot of wines of different makes, storage rooms, nothing surprising. They then checked out the rooms. The first floor was nothing special, the cheaper rooms but still large enough for Dragons. The second floor was larger. The third floor was suites. The fourth floor was made into a home for the innkeeper with plenty of rooms and its own facilities.
Delaney went from room to room taking pictures and videos. The view was higher than it seemed from outside. There was plenty of room for her family now, and if it were to expand in the future if that's what they chose. She walked back out to the sitting room where the others waited on her. "I love it. There's no need to look further. It's close to the Keep where you said the Mage Tower was located. It's near what we'd consider "downtown". I love that there's a private place for us, and a place for the witchborn refugees," she said, feeling emotional again.
Britiana beamed. "There's a storage room near the laundry that seems redundant. It's big enough to draw the spell," she said. "We'll have to assign someone to document anyone coming through, but that's not a big deal. It's better that they arrive here with familiar people and settle in before exposing them to the outside first thing," she explained her thoughts.
Delaney nodded.
"Guards as well. Not everyone who comes for help from you will do so with good intentions," Darius said. "We'll have to sit and plan the logistics," he said.
Britiana nodded. "You can work that out while Delaney and I work on the spell," she said.
Darius nodded. He was very willing to help Delaney's people, but not at the expense of anything going wrong. They didn't need a repeat of what happened with the Dragon Hunters.
"Now that that's settled, let's go shopping!" Britiana said. She really wanted to explore the city. It was nice walking along the streets without a glamor. Here on Emphyralis, their appearances weren't eye catching in the least. They were just more people. Perfectly ordinary. Even Sariya didn't garner attention. Dark Elves, while reclusive, still had business and traveled the world.
On Thelessia, they'd be considered ethereal, almost angelic. They'd draw too much attention, good and bad. So, anytime they were in public there, even as children, they had to glamor.
No one argued with her, they all wanted to explore the city further. Delaney wanted to take more videos and pictures. She had to show the others how the phone worked for a few minutes before they understood it was just a non-magical device. But they admired the ingenuity of it.
After exploring the nearby city, and even buying a few things (on loan from Britiana and Darius), they all headed back to the Keep as it was nearing midnight, and getting colder as the moons shone down on them.