Path of The Dragon Mage (Nomad) Answers to Unasked Questions (Patreon)

Note: Really enjoyed the theories on if Roan and Gwen does/does not get a dragon...

Quick note that I plan on posting another chap tomorrow! Hope you all had a happy holiday if you celebrate and a fun weekend if you don't!

Starella started pushing past nest guardians to get to her egg. “Let me through! Let me through!”

After a gesture from Corvus, they did.

She staggered over a dip in the rock and then fell to her knees in front of the egg, scooping it up. Her hands ran over the shell for cracks. Then turning to look over her shoulder, she said, “He’s okay!”

“Are those what I think they are?” Roan asked.

“They can’t still be alive,” Gwen said, also staring.

“Nothing can break the shell of a royal dragon egg,” Corvus said. “The eggs in the Palace hatching ground have been waiting for centuries for a prince or princess to pick one. The trick is finding a fertile one.”

Gwen nodded. She had heard a version of this from Corvus before “So, most of those ain’t fertile.”

“Yes,” Corvus said.

“No,” Granite said.

Corvus swung around to look at him. “What do you mean?”

The Guardian gave him a look. “We are… nest guardians. The females…. Know the bad eggs from… the good.”

His eyes widened and he barely noticed Gwen’s urgent, “What did he say?”

Corvus looked out at the hatching ground again with new eyes. It was extraordinary enough that there was a secretive nest at all. Out of the couple hundred eggs which filled this cavern he assumed a good handful were handful.

All of these were fertile.

By this time Starella returned with the egg in the crook of her arm. She caught the look on Corvus’s face. “What is it?”

He wasn’t sure how to tell her — or if this should be kept secret. To buy himself some time he said, “It’s nothing.” He turned to Roan. “Tell me about your Path.”

Roan gave him a look as if he knew that Corvus was changing the subject on purpose but decided to play along. He looked smug. “Had some weird choices, and I could’ve stayed a Horseman but…” He looked at Gwen and squared his shoulders. “I think I found something good. It’s called Path of the Defender. Got added toughness and another fun trick. I get a sorta warning a few seconds before someone around me’s been put in danger.”

Corvus remembered Roan putting himself in front of them all a moment before the glass panels crashed in. And he seemed to be right in the way to take the blunt of the damage when the nest guardians had attacked.

He didn’t regret his path, but a forewarning sense and physical toughness beat night vision and ambidextrous.

Then again, Corvus had been the only one to see clearly in this cave. And he couldn’t count the number of times his ambidextrous advantages had given him bonuses.

Gwen, naturally, had other opinions. “So, you’re staying as one of them guard?”

“Nah. They gave me the uniform but I haven’t taken the oath of duty yet.” Roan’s eyes twinkled. “There’s been so much happening with the ratkin fight and coming down here that it was overlooked.”

Corvus got the impression that it had been ‘overlooked’ on Roan’s part. He’d probably been told to report to someone to take to oath and then ‘forgot’ to show up.

“It was one of the only Paths where I got to keep Cloudy.” The mirth drained from his expression. “I heard you guys talking about essences. Think there’s something that can fix her foot?”

“Roan, there’s essences in there that will let her fly like NightShade can,” Gwen said.

“And I’ll run the dungeon again to get more tickets, and buy more.” Roan glanced at Granite. “If that’s allowed.”

“That is… up to… the king…” Granite looked at Corvus.

“It’s fine,” Corvus said for the benefit of all.

He was happy for his friend — more than happy, really. Roan had accepted the Paths easily. Had he been jealous over Gwen and Corvus’s magic and skills? How could he not have been. And it had to be a weight off his shoulders to find a way to help CloudStrike.

Gwen smiled at her brother, too. She stood taller as if she’d shed an invisible weight off her shoulders. It was one thing to share magic and abilities with Corvus — he was an outsider to the clan and he knew he was a little odd because of his upbringing. But having her brother walk the Paths must have been a affirmation of sorts. She wasn’t as alone as she’d been before. And he’d chosen a Path that wasn’t in conflict with her own.

Speaking of that.

Corvus turned to Starella.

Starella looked briefly rebellious but then Roan spoke up.

“What did you get, Star?”

“Star?” Gwen repeated.

Starella’s pale cheeks flushed red but the smile she turned on Roan was warm. “Naturally, I was given the option to choose Path of the Royal. The branches were… straight forward.”

Corvus nodded, remembering when he viewed that Path two years and what felt like a lifetime ago.

Starella hesitated. “There was only one other which allowed me to keep Cosmos.” She looked down at the egg. “And that was the Path of Gravity. The choices were much broader.”

“Gravity?” Roan asked. “That’s like when you fall down?”

“You got the Path of falling down?” Gwen sounded mildly horrified.

“Gravity is the thing that determines how much things weigh,” Corvus explained.

“It has nothing to do with the weight of things. It’s how objects with mass are attracted to one another.” Starella corrected primly. “That’s what gives you weight in the first place. It's a perception based on how much gravity you're experiencing.”

They all stared.

“Just so you know, Corvus,” Roan said. “That’s what you sound like when you try to explain runes to people.”

Starella looked disgruntled. “One of my special attributes was basic gravitational understanding. It gave me Gravity Lore a as a general skill. What are the differences between general and skills and others?”

“General’s have subclasses. They’re kinda like a base of a tree of skills,” Gwen said.

She nodded. “I also received Royal Blood.”

“Me too,” Corvus said. “The charisma perk and the combat penalty?”

Starella nodded again. “I received another penalty, too. It’s hardly fair but the messages — the system said my mana pool only increases in conjunction to my Gravity Lore skill. I started at fifteen points of mana. What were yours when you started?”

Ah, that explained why she’d been so open about her own Path. She wanted information in turn to compare herself. Corvus covered a smile.

Never change, Starella.

“Thirty,” Gwen said.

“Fifty,” Roan said with a smug look at his sister.

“It’s much higher now,” Gwen snapped.

“Fifty,” Corvus said.

“It seems I have work to do,” Starella looked out to the eggs and to the nest guardians. “As do you, cousin.”

“What do you mean?”

“These eggs can’t stay here. They must be added to the royal hatching grounds.”

The nest guardians had stayed silent while they talked. But her words caused a mutter of low growls. No one needed to understand their language to know they were unhappy at the suggestion.

To her credit, Starella leveled a glare around. “It’s illegal to have royal eggs outside the palace.”

“And it’s foolish to only hatch an egg or two in a generation,” Corvus said. “The system hasn’t been working. And even if it did… eventually, we would run out of Royal dragon eggs.”

She sniffed. “Not for generations.”

“It doesn’t matter. We have the fix right now.”

Gwen’s hand found his own. She wrapped her fingers around his palm and squeezed. “I know that look. You’ve thought of something big.”

He wasn’t going to deny it. At times it felt like he had so many questions they all stuck together before they could find their way out of his head. And at other times it was like the questions generated answers all their own.

He needed to learn the how and why of the runes that bound the nest guardians. He had an obligation to free them from their service, if at all possible. He needed a way to leverage this dungeon for the good of the city – and that meant the Pathwalkers in it. He needed a way to deny Daffodil the victory of securing the last of the Royal Dragon eggs but also ensure the species went on… not only for Charm’s sake, but for the world. And he needed to both uplift his cousin in her new Path and remove her as a possible threat to the throne. That meant siphoning some inherent power of the monarchy.

And here was a way to do it all in one swoop.

“Yes,” he said and took a breath. “There’s no reason why Royal Dragons need to be companions to future kings and queens at all.” He looked to Granite. “Tell me how you add items to the dungeon’s store.”