Path of the Dragon Mage (Nomad) Demon Nest (3) (Patreon)

"They can't be dragons," Starella said. "They... simply can't be!"

"What kind of ugly, stunted--"

"Roan!"

Thankfully, the nest guardians didn't pay attention to the three of them. Though they'd come out of their bows, they remained turned toward Corvus as if he were the magnet to their iron filings.

They shifted as a group, several members shuffling positions to let one large beast step forward.

He was clearly one of the oldest, with an odd grayish hide. His skin was decorated here and there with scared slashes as if he'd suffered through claw marks. Through Corvus had his night vision, the light cast by the wall of glowing runes helped pick out the finer details. The nest guardian's pupilless eyes were so dark blue that they looked back.

Species: Nest Guardian

Level: 77

"Sire...?" It asked in a low gravelly voice. The measure was slow, like hearing a turtle speak. "What... are sire's... wishes?"

"Wishes?" Corvus repeated.

It looked from Corvus to the wall of runes and back again. "The guardians..." he said slowly, "are under... your command."

"Corvus, what is going on?" Starella demanded.

"Are you okay?" Gwen added.

He started to nod but then winced. Adrenaline was washing out of his system and moving his neck meant pulling on the tissue around his dislocated shoulder. It hurt. "It should be fine," he said. "They won't attack. Come over here. There's something you should see."

"I can't see my hand in front of my face," Gwen said in exasperation.

He frowned. He knew his night vision helped tremendously, but he would have thought that the additional light from the glowing runes on the wall and the collars of the nest guardians should provide some dim light.

... Except he had several abilities to view magic and runes. They didn't. There might be no light at all.

The moment the guardians stopped attacking they'd closed their jaws over the energy colorful energy balls. His friends had been plunged into darkness.

No wonder they were grumpy.

He looked at the old guardian. "Those energy balls in your mouth," he pointed to his own mouth. "Can you make, um, non-dangerous light with them? My friends need to see."

Was it his imagination or did the nest guardian look amused?

"It will be done."

Many of the guardians opened their wide mouths and let out the light balls which drifted up to the ceiling.

From Gwen, Roan, and Starella's murmurs the light was more than enough to help them see.

"Those are my friends," Corvus said. "Don't hurt them."

"We have... their scent. They may pass... freely through... the nest."

Sure enough, the nest guardians parted to allow the others a path to Corvus.

"Are you talking to them?" Starella asked in an undertone.

They couldn't hear the guardians either? Then again, Corvus hadn't heard a word out of them until he'd completed the runic puzzle.

"I am." He turned to the large guardian. "Do you have a name?"

"Once... long ago."

Corvus waited a beat.

"Can you tell me your name?"

"Yes."

Another beat.

These dragons were quite literal. "What is your name and rank, if you have one," he asked bluntly.

"Granite. I am... the Guardian."

"Thank you, Granite. I'm Corvus."

"I can... see that."

Granite was literal, but he definitely had a sense of humor

By this time the others had joined him, all looking nervous. However, they looked whole and uninjured except for Gwen who had scrapes on her palms. She shook her head when Corvus asked if she needed help.

"What happened to your shoulder?"

"I forgot to ask Starella to slow my fall," he said wryly.

Starella paled. "I told you I didn't have much control!"

Roan cut across them. "What happened? Are these things going to let us leave, or what?"

Corvus nodded. "I believe so. I can speak to them. I'm -- well, I changed subclasses."

"Again?" Gwen demanded. "Did you just do that?"

"And I gained a lot of levels since then."

Gwen rolled her eyes though she looked more affectionate than exasperated.

"Then tell them to get out of our way," Roan said. "We're getting out of this hole."

"Not yet. We have things to settle, first."

Many things.

He had questions -- many of them -- for Granite. His shoulder needed to be attended to. It hurt with a dull, aching throb that sharpened every time he came close to moving his shoulder. He needed to discuss Roan and Starella's new Paths.

And, of course, there was the minor problem of the nest. Judging by the fact his friends hadn't commented on it... it must still be in shadow.

First things first. He went through the notifications.

Congratulations! You have chosen the subclass: Draconic Diplomat.

+3 Wisdom, +2 Intelligence.

Ding!

Leadership has been moved to a General Skill slot.

Ding!

You have gained a new skill!

New skill: Foreign Languages

Ding!

Due to your current subclass (Draconic Diplomat) Foreign Language skill has been moved to a Leadership Subclass

He read through it in a flash. Though his subclass hadn't been his first choice he couldn't complain about the perks or the outcome.

He had been on the verge of choosing the Soldier subclass which would have had him kill speaking, intelligent creatures.

Cold realization iced his blood, and oddly he flashed back to his first taste of combat. Back when he'd been fresh out of the palace. Himself and his old Master, Solt, had camped out. There, they'd been attacked by Lupis Wolves. He'd managed to defeat one and swear that he saw a flash of intelligence behind its eyes before it died.

Solt had called them demons, but were they?

"Corvus? You okay?" Roan touched his shoulder -- his bad shoulder which hung at an awkward angle. Corvus flinched away and the nest guardians around him hissed.

"It's fine," he said to them and Roan both.

"The hell it's not. That shoulder's dislocated, isn't it?"

"Do you know how to set it back?"

Roan exchanged a glance with Gwen. "... No."

Corvus nodded and turned to Granite. "Tell me--AHH!"

The second he turned his back on Roan, stupidly strong hands grabbed his shoulder and his neck on the other side and then with a wrench and a wet pop that was felt more than heard, shoved the joint back into place.

The flash of fiery pain almost buckled Corvus's legs. Then in an instant it was gone, replaced by a dull ache that was much easier to deal with.

Several of the nest guardians let out low threatening hisses and started forward.

"Stop!" Corvus commanded.

They froze in place though new balls of energy glowed threateningly within their mouths.

"What did you do?" Starella demanded to Roan.

Roan shrugged. "It wouldn't work if he tensed up. He couldn't see it coming."

"That is not how you properly reset a joint," Corvus said. He rolled his shoulder in experimentation. It was sore but there was no restriction to his movement or tingling. It was fine.

Roan grinned. "You're welcome."

"You're an ass," Gwen said but then turned to Corvus. "Now, tell us what's going on."

Corvus quickly explained the runes on the wall. From the puzzled looks on their faces he could tell they couldn't see it, or the collar of runes around the nest guardian's necks.

"I... wrote my name in the last rune," he said. "I think that transferred the power of command to me.

"So you're saying anyone who can see runes may swan up here, write their name on the wall, and gain command over these dem--these creatures?" Starella’s voice was full of dismay. She'd grown up in the atmosphere of the palace. Her first worry was betrayal.

"They'd have to get through the nest guardians first," Corvus said.

"We got through them."

He shook his head. "They couldn't hurt you or me." He turned to Granite. "One of the runes restricts you from injuring a royal?"

In answer, Granite reached to touch a rune at the base of his throat. It looked like a stylized droplet.

"The family of our... first King..." Granite rumbled. "Though the blood... has diluted over... time."

That droplet was meant to represent blood.

Corvus nodded, one suspicion confirmed. "The man who set this up was a king. Tell me his name."

"Grigory... Companion to BloodBane."

BloodBane. What an ominous name for a dragon. It also didn't ring any bells.

He looked to his cousin. "Do you remember a King Grigory?"

"We never had a King Grigory, but that was the name of a prince," she replied. "Fourteen--no, fifteen generations back."

Roan stared at her. "You just know that? Off the top of your head?"

"Lineage is important."

"Wait, this Grigory guy enslaved them?" Gwen demanded, indignant.

"I think so." Corvus turned to Granite. "Tell me why he set this place up and what he charged you to do."

Granite started speaking. It took a long time.

Corvus listened and didn't interrupt though he dearly wanted to at several points. Finally, he said, "Thank you." And turned to his friends.

"Back in the ancient days, the dungeon was the heart of Meadow City. It was a place where Pathwalkers could come, trade their looted goods, level their paths, and use the port to go to other lands."

"What other lands?" Gwen asked. "Demon lands?"

Starella answered. "We weren't always at war with the demons. Occasionally, our two kingdoms were allied for the common good against another. That was before they fell into darkness."

"This was before the onset of the Blight, too," Corvus said. "He was a Prince who'd hatched a dragon, BloodBane. Granite says his Path was of the healer."

Starella looked a little startled but said nothing.

Roan, however, was never one to keep his thoughts to himself. "Wait, didn't you say dragons have their own magic? So the guy's a healer with a creepy blood dragon name..."

"I know where you're going with this," Corvus said. "There's no evidence he's connected to the start of the Blight."

"No offense to your dead ancestors but I wouldn't put my money on it."

Corvus wouldn't either. Especially with what else Granite told him. "There was... upheaval in the palace. The king, Grigory's father, died. The oldest son wished to claim the throne even though he hadn't managed to hatch his dragon yet. Walking a Path isn't a guarantee. He tried to declare himself regent until his egg hatched--"

Starella snapped her fingers. "The war of seven brothers!"

"Exactly," Corvus said.

"What?" Gwen and Roan asked at the same time.

Starella turned to them, eyebrow raised. "It's only one of the most famous civil wars in the kingdom's history."

"Oh, king-stuff." Roan made a show of digging in his ear and flicking the wax away. "I never cared for that."

Starella started to puff up but Corvus interjected. "It's a misnomer anyway. There were ten siblings in total, including four sisters. Seven of them had hatched dragons." The winner was Queen Parken with her dragon Aquila.

She was Zriah's great-grandmother, he remembered. By the time Zriah hatched Daffodil, Royal Dragon hatchlings had already become rare.

"Anyway, Grigory knew he had little shot at the throne. He came down to Meadow City and began building his own base of power."

Granite rumbled unhappily. Corvus corrected himself. "Granite said it was meant as a sanctuary, but... well, we'll get there. Anyway, while he was here, he came across Granite's kind. They call themselves Night Dragons. They're subterranean, live in caves and places with little light."

"But the system calls them Nest Guardians," Gwen said.

"Grigory renamed them," Corvus said flatly. "He used runes -- and I'm guessing some blood magic -- to chain them to a set of commands. They etch the runes on new hatchings to pass down his orders. One of which was not to attack Grigory's decedents."

"I thought he was part of a civil war against..." Roan started and then looked slightly disgusted. "Ohh."

"All them nobles intermarry with one another," Gwen said hotly, coming to Corvus and Starella's defense. "It's not so different than Dad trying to marry me to whats-his-face in the other clan. I bet you go back far enough and there's some relation between him and me."

"The protection doesn’t extend to every descendant, but through his direct bloodline," Corvus said. "Thankfully, or else we'd have to worry about every noble. But that's not all he did. This place -- this dungeon -- generates rewards for Pathwalkers out of local materials. Back in Grigory's day, this was a place of thriving trade. A merchant could come to the store and get a base price for goods. It may not be as spectacular as they'd get selling in the open market, but it was reliable. Grigory changed that and sent the guardians to go scouting at night -- to seize loot from demon mobs under his name and return it." He looked at them all. "We all wondered how the ratkin were so decimated. We took care of some, the jungle took care of others. The rest fell to the Guardians. They took the essences and loot back to the store."

"That's why there are so many essences you can exchange for tickets," Gwen said.

Corvus nodded and took a breath. "And that's not all they've collected over the centuries."

He looked to Granite. "Show them. Light up that far corner." He gestured to what he could see clearly, but what the others needed additional light to see.

The guardians once again opened their jaws and release the brightly lit orbs which floated across the cavern.

Gwen must have had a sight enhancement because she saw first. She sucked in a startled breath.

Laying on a bed of soft sand were hundreds and hundreds of glittering royal dragon eggs. And, sitting to one edge as if freshly placed stood a blue egg with a speckling like constellations.