Dragon's Tale 81 (Patreon)

“What do you want?” I asked, rather than asking exactly what she could do for me. Not because I fully believed that she had the ability to cure me — as most of the experimental notes highlighted gruesome failures.

While the experimental notes she had shared were hard to comprehend fully, they all had one thing in common. Even the best success was limited, even the most resounding success was limited compared to my survival. 

Yet, those failures all told me one thing. Dragon hearts was something even more complicated than I had assumed. 

She was my only path to continued survival, at least one that I continued to be a human, as I had no idea just how long I would have been contained in my transformation. 

Ironically, they had sent such a precious healer to cure a slave, giving me an option to get away, but ultimately, that wasn’t too surprising. It wouldn’t be the first extravagant noble move that caused a true disaster. And whether it was being a ploy to take me down for some reason, I didn’t even give a second. A plan like that simply had too many moving parts to success, making it an idiotic strategy.  

Though it was depressing to remember just how close I had come to total annihilation, using the heart as a weapon for the last stand, only to survive by monumental, miraculous luck. 

“Good question, heretic,” she said, once again making me curious why she had used that particular word, but I let that slide. It wasn’t as important as her demands. “I need an escort in my travels, of course,” she answered. “And I believe I have the ability to pay the necessary price, don’t you think?” 

Whether she had the ability to do so was questionable, but that didn’t change fact that she was offering me more information than I could steal even if I had visited every single patrician library, or even decided to visit other countries. 

My information-gathering abilities were nothing in comparison to the full range of abilities of House Junia, and my unnamed sorceress represented the distillation of that information, along with unmatched expertise on the topic — otherwise, they wouldn’t have gone all that effort to keep her prisoner. I doubted House Junia was lacking in sorcerers. 

“I do,” I said. A simple, unadorned description, yet it was all I needed. 

I accepted her offer.

I didn’t bother questioning her about her ultimate objective, or asking her to prove my trust was not unfounded for one very simple reason. 

Ironically, that reason was the number of failed experiments she had displayed. Those were enough to convey her commitment to the strategy. The information she had shared with me revealed that I represented an excellent piece of experimentation for her ‘employer’ and by capturing me, they could have completed the research much quicker. 

Yet, she clearly believed that completing the research was not in her best interest. Instead, she took the risk of inviting me to her meeting despite knowing that several hours was I needed as a sorcerer to disappear completely. 

Not that I blamed her. My own experiences with ‘Master’ Antonius were enough to show that a relationship between a master and a slave was never reciprocal, no matter the benefits one provided. My success had given Antonius and the Dacian School the success they needed to stand against the combined attack of Gallic and Bestiaries schools, even allowing them to reverse the situation rather spectacularly. 

As thanks, I was stabbed in the back in a very spectacular manner. 

“Good, what’s the plan then?” she asked, only for her eyes to widen in shock when I reached to touch the bars that had separated her cell — her very luxurious cell, but a cell nonetheless — and broke the wards. “Right now?” she gasped in shock. 

“Nothing like the present,” I answered. I had always liked to act decisive, and more importantly, I didn’t have unlimited access to Junia estate. I had no idea whether I would be invited again despite the potential influence I had on Atia. 

Especially since it was more than likely that the next invite might be delivered to Olivia’s house, or might happen in the house of a different friend. And even if I had been invited directly, there was no guarantee that it would coincide with the visit of that many nobles. 

Nobles that created an excellent scapegoat for a potential breach. After all, who would suspect a poor barbarian slave, where there were several suspiciously ambitious nobles in assistance, each with myriad reasons to sabotage House Junia’s overambitious experiment. 

Under the shocked gaze of my newest ally, I quickly drew several runes, their nature slowly breaking into the wards that secured her into her cell — separate from the outer wards around the cell that I bypassed. Normally, that many security layers were supposed to make it harder to break, but ironically, it made my job easier, creating a magical shadow I could hide under while I worked on inner wards. 

It took less than a minute for me to successfully create a temporary breach. “Let’s go,” I said, and she stepped out, not bothering to pick anything from the room. Smart, I thought, even though I had spared a sad glance toward the piles of paper that filled the room.

Taking them along was too risky, and not because they might be tracked magically. Carrying piles of paper was hardly the best possible disguise. 

“How?” she gasped as she walked toward the opening, shocked at my speed. 

“You have your strengths, beautiful, and I have mine,” I said with a smile, deliberately acting mysteriously. Since we were about to ally, it was better for her to know that I wasn’t just a simple sorcerer with a unique affliction — wasn’t that a ridiculous definition for my case — but another mysterious entity with his own abilities and secrets. 

Since we were going to cooperate for a foreseeable future, showing off a bit to raise my value was the better idea. 

Before she could step through the gate, I raised my hand. “Wait,” I ordered. 

“Why?” she asked, naturally suspicious. 

“To make sure you don’t have any kind of tracking spell on you that would trigger the moment you get out, of course,” I said. 

That made her stop for a moment, which was understandable. Because to see if there was any detection spell on her — especially ones that were subtle enough to avoid her attention — I needed to push my magic directly into her body. 

A move that could as well turn into a deadly attack. 

She froze as she weighed her trust — one that was born from reading my needs — and her life. I couldn’t help but smile at the irony. She was facing the same dilemma that I had faced just moments ago. 

To her credit, she didn’t ask whether she could trust me, smart enough to realize just how stupid such a question would have been. Yet, regardless her final decision wasn’t in doubt. She let out a sigh as she closed her eyes, and took a step forward. 

I put my hand on her temples, and infused her body with magic aggressively, carefully examining every part of her body, a task that was much more difficult than just breaking wards. 

Perfect time for some casual talk. “So, tell me. What’s the deal with calling me a heretic?” 

“You dare to use the Imperial Blessing of Divine Pearl despite not having the approval of Jade Emperor,” she said between her clenched teeth, confirming that it wasn’t just a generic term of any Roman that earned her distaste. 

I felt special. 

“So, if that makes me a heretic, what does committing all those experiments make you?” I asked, but seeing her eyes tighten, I didn’t follow up with her on the subject. 

It was clearly a sore spot for her. 

Instead, I focused on her body, quickly unraveling a few subtle wards that had been integrated into her body, with a level of skill that surprised me. Luckily, a flood of mana was enough to catch most of them. 

“Now, take a step forward,” I said, but kept my mana on her body, blanketing her. It proved to be a smart precaution, because, the moment she had stepped through, I had caught another, even subtler ward triggering, no doubt to inform the guards about the breach, but with my mana surrounding her, it was much easier to prevent. 

Yet, that was not the end of my precautions. I carefully wrapped her with my mana, creating a cocoon around her, one that worked to erase her presence. Meanwhile, I had split my attention, the other half infusing the wards through the runes I had used to breach them, carefully observing the changes. 

I rapidly blocked three alarms, each geared to trigger once they failed to notice her presence in the room. 

With that done, I turned my attention to my nameless sorceress, who was doing her best to suppress her nerves under my direct command. I was tempted to continue a few more minutes, to teach her a lesson about blackmailing me. 

Unfortunately, I didn’t have time to waste on that. 

“Let’s go,” I said as I pulled my mana off her body, and turned my back. 

All that remained was to escape from a prison that was built to keep a sorceress prisoner.