Chapter: 246 Bonus - De-arg (Patreon)

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De-arg swayed ever so slightly as the wind shifted.

With the barest of efforts, he tensed his body just so and realigned himself atop his perch. It was a constant thing, these subtle shifts.

As the wind was ever changing, so must he be.

He sat within the ‘C’ shape of the protian weapon, which balanced on the very pinnacle of the building at the center of his House’s hold in this city.

There was nothing higher in the hold than he, himself, at that moment.

The world-fragment spread out below and around him, and he basked in the feel of ancient stability.

A solidity and reality that existed nowhere else he could find.

Stability.

The basis of who he was.

He could grant it or take it away, but that was such a paltry explanation.

Many saw it as balance, but it was so, so much more than that. He had mastered the simple manipulation of balance as he’d learned to walk, the two obviously intricately interconnected.

His family had been servants of this House, his growing years within this place likely heavily contributing to his understanding.

For the majority of his aging, he had sought strength by exerting his power on chemicals, gaining nuance and control, while facilitating or preventing their reactions.

As he had neared his current age, he had enjoyed affecting groups of people and their interpersonal cohesion.

He was no mind-mage—he shuddered at even the thought of being mistaken for one of those—but it was easy to tip the stability of a group dynamic one way or another.

The skill and true test in it was in the specifics of how the people stayed together or split apart.

It was always entertaining to watch groups of travelers decide to investigate dangerous locations, only to split up and look around separately rather than as a unified group.

The nudge barely took any effort, though it was a delicate thing, and each time showed different aspects of the concept of stability, highlighted by its very lack.

But that had lost its luster after a few decades of entertainment.

Now? Now, he focused on something deeper: The stability of the spirit. Specifically, his own.

A truly centered, stable spirit, when coupled with a similarly stalwart body, was untouchable and virtually impervious to harm of any kind.

He had used favors earned from nearly every Pillar of the House of Blood, as well as many of the Eskau, by requesting that they might strike him a single time with all of their strength.

His foundation had been unmoved, his being unassailable.

He did not have the arrogance to believe that he could harm those above his ranking, but he was utterly confident that they could not harm him, either.

Even time had lost its ability to shift him.

That was the oddest thing of all.

As he’d become unmoored to the passage of time, he’d found much in life had lost meaning.

What did it matter if lesser beings came and went, were birthed and died? They were but flickers in existence.

Thus, he had passed centuries with barely a care in this world.

His own Pillar had long since found others to fulfill the day to day duties, which De-arg had once performed, but despite that inconvenience, the turtle-folk man had only been encouraging in De-arg’s quest for true, inner peace.

Only Meallain really disturbed him anymore, though he made it a point to deal with threats to his Pillar swiftly and harshly. Kindness deserves kindness in return, after all.

But the elf…older than he, himself, and from a naturally much longer-lived race.

Ahh, the blessings of birth. Still, he had surpassed his birth; he had become more.

Meallain’s latest request surrounded a human girl, and unlike he’d expected, she wasn’t simply an interesting candidate to serve the House as a fount of power.

No, she was an Eskau in her own right, supposedly equal to himself and Meallain in rank, as silly as that notion was.

Still, she had a spark to her.

Her physical stability was admirable for one so young, and there was a power behind her mental stability, which didn’t seem to extend to her emotions or her spirit.

Her spirit seemed to be utterly united with her soul, with her gate, and was thus both stable and in constant turmoil. He found that portion of the child grating to examine, so he simply didn’t.

As to her mind? If he were honest, he would pity the mind-mage who tried to sway her thoughts or consciousness.

He smiled at the thought, having to shift slightly to account for the movement and rebalance. He did not bother to exert his power for something so paltry.

Even were I to gain dominion in her head, and do my utmost to undercut her mental stability, I would still bet on her against any save the Mind-Flayer, may his power never be seen again, may his like raise us all to be better versions of ourselves.

After a moment of reverence for the fallen, he turned his thoughts back to the girl.

It had an odd feeling, too, her mind. It wasn’t that it was an immovable mountain. Instead, it felt like a children’s toy he’d seen ages ago. No matter how one threw it, or pushed it, or turned it, it always righted itself in the end.

Truly a fascinating approach. Almost no thought to resistance, only recovering. The experience of analyzing her stability of mind had reminded him of his youth, when he was still discovering new aspects of his power.

If he were honest, it made him like the girl just a bit and almost made it worth the trouble of working with her. Too bad she’ll be dead in a few hundred years. Likely not worth any emotional investment.

Speaking of emotions: in contrast to her mind, the girl’s emotions were a pile of cooked noodles, oddly inert for all their lack of stability, but what Meallain had requested was that he aid Tali’s physical and martial solidity.

De-arg had complied. After all, Meallain usually left him be for at least a year or so if he agreed to her requests without complaint.

The last time he’d fought back, she’d pestered him monthly for a decade.

Awful in the extreme.

His thoughts continued to return to the girl, however, to Tali.

A gated human of surprising magical density, and not one of the wild humans from the north.

Who knew our own stock had such strength in them? He shook his head, moving unconsciously to maintain stability throughout the practiced motion.

The use of founts was a necessary ill, a sacrifice of the few for the good of the many.

That Tali held to her own power, rather than allowing it to increase the magic density around herself was a testament to the fact that gated humans couldn’t be allowed to advance.

If they did, magic would die out from the world, and the few humans that survived would be gods among children. That was if the world survived at all. Gated humans had an odd ability to undercut the stability of reality, the more powerful they were, the more that was in evidence.

True, regardless of what happened to the humans, or others of higher races, he would be as he was, his stability unshakable, but many others would suffer or die.

The sovereigns would interfere long before that happened, ambivalent or no, the diminishment of magic would affect them all, even if only obliquely.

With a minor shifting, his perch began to slowly swivel, giving him a beautifully sweeping view of his surroundings without the need to turn, himself.

It was nearly the time for his next match with the human, and Meallain would be insufferable if he were late.

His turning view of the hold tilted sideways, and he fell, unconcerned about the long drop.

He took a moment to enjoy the pull of the wind against his clothing and fur as he fell, over far too soon.

The barest flexing of his will kept the stones he landed upon from breaking, as well as his own legs from giving way.

With the smallest of smiles, he strolled through the garden towards the training yard, already hearing the oddly resonant crack of weapon upon weapon, and the firm, powerful exhales of battling Eskau.

So, the dragonling is with the child, then? The distinct intonation of Reidh’s breathing made the answer clear. His obsession with each of the younger Eskau that visit is inspiring to witness.

It didn’t hurt that Reidh’s efforts usually resulted in De-arg being left alone. Truly inspiring, how much his good work aids me.

Tali was, as usual, a flailing mess of limbs and weapons, though her movements were slightly more refined each day.

He held himself from breathing too hard, lest he knock her over. After all, it is rude to interfere in another’s fight.

Soon enough, the dragonling was done with his antics.

Still, De-arg refrained from thinking ill of his compatriot, after all, not everyone could have their power rooted in true stability.

The girl thanked Reidh before turning to De-arg. “Eskau De-arg.”

“Eskau Tali.” There it is again. A shimmering in her mind and spirit at her own name. The young were so odd. Some are named after their forebears and after those died, the name became a reminder, undercutting their mental state with sadness. It must be something like that.

He could ask, of course, but he didn’t honestly care that much. After all, he’d decided not to invest, emotionally, in the girl. I am required to train her, martially, nothing more.

“I am ready when you are.” She was standing in a relaxed state, feet shoulder width apart, hands at her sides, back straight.

He couldn’t help but smile. “Are you now?”

He moved to the side, making a thrusting motion with his hand to throw off her perception of things.

With a slight flexing of his power he slipped through the cracks in her aura control, and exploited a slightly over-bending in her right knee.

It had been minute, a fraction of a fraction, but it was still there.

Tali’s eyes widened as, from her perspective, a slight gust of wind from his thrusting palm had caused her to lose strength in her leg and tip to the side.

To the human’s credit, she took that for the beginning of their fight, which it was.

Her weapon whipped into her hands as she used her own fall to add power to her attack.

It was a glaive that came down towards De-arg. Wise use of reach.

He didn’t bother moving, simply breaking the weapons stability as it tried to cut him.

Protian weapons are inherently morphic, weakening their foundation. His own wasn’t an exception, though he had long since worked toward fixing the flaw.

He had mostly succeeded.

The girl’s weapon reformed on the other side of him, a benefit of morphic weapons: they came back together after being disrupted.

That was a boon worth the price.

To her sight, it would have looked like he moved out of the way and back so quickly he seemed to stay still.

Even enhanced eyes are easily fooled.

He smiled. Now, the fun part. He hesitated. For me at least.

He seized the world with his will, and stabilized the moment.

Sadly, he did not have the power to stop time utterly, nor did he put his full effort forth. Instead, he simply caused himself to drag, a rock rolled along by the river of time, but much more slowly than the water passed.

He stepped forward at well below his top speed, arriving in front of her before she’d finished that first swing.

He had to hold the stability of the air around himself as he moved to keep it from being disturbed by his passage, but that was a nearly unconscious action and had been for a very long time.

The young are so slow. To be fair, he was required to hide their true ranking, so this girl had no idea that she faced a Revered.

After all, all Eskau of the House of Blood were required to hold the appearance of being a full rank lower than they actually were, after they exceeded Honored.

Except Pallaun. De-arg kept himself from shuddering, if barely. That avalanche cursed man never displays anything at all.

But, that was neither here nor there. The poor girl thought she was fighting a mere Honored at the moment, as she had been when faced by Reidh, though that was a true picture of the dragonling’s power.

She will learn in time.

But they were sparring. He looked up and saw her eyes widening. Oh, she’s noticed me, then? Good.

With an exaggeratedly slow movement he poked the hip of her still planted leg, introducing a backwards spin to her fall.

To her credit, Tali kept good head control, and even maintained her eyes on him as she twisted away, only allowing her head to turn when it could twist all the way around with her motion, only losing direct sight of him for an instant.

She still has her mirrored perspectives too, wise use of power, that. He simply walked around her as she fell in what seemed to be glacially slow motion to him.

Early in his life, he’d had to fight against the tyranny of gravity, mainly that it pulled him downward too slowly.

That had been a problem solved ages ago. So, now he moved at whatever pace he wished, within reason.

When Tali sprawled out on the ground, spinning to her feet with somewhat remarkable grace and quickness for her rank, he was in place to tap her on the back of the head with his staff, causing her to begin to crumple forward and down.

He spoke evenly as he moved around her, weaving stability of meaning into his words so that he didn’t have to slow his speech to be understood by the human.

“You seek advantage, you seek momentum, but you do not have a proper foundation.”

She tucked and rolled, reorienting on where he had last been.

He tapped her back foot with his own, knocking it from beneath her. “How can I teach you to move, when you do not even know how to stand?”

He was being a bit…overly critical, and he knew this, but something about the girl was intriguing. He wanted to see if she could do it, if she could actually grasp the concepts behind true balance, even if just briefly.

And thus, his afternoon progressed.

He occasionally let her strikes come nearer to him, some even touched him at his allowance.

To his consternation, he still could not disrupt the stability of her flesh and bones, that was reinforced and locked down to the point that he would have to break her before he could break her in that way.

That, he was not willing to do.

He spoke in idioms and axioms, and mixed in some things that were just plain nonsense to alleviate his own untaxed mind.

Yet somehow, the girl improved, if fractionally, and when the elf came to take over teaching Tali, the girl thanked him for his lessons, even having the audacity to question some of his more…creative fictions.

“Eskau De-arg? How can one be as stable as the rain, and as fluid as a frozen moment?”

He kept the smile from his face, simply fixing her with a level gaze. “You will know when the time is right.”

Without another word, he departed, ignoring Meallain’s inquiring look.

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