B4 Ch35: Round-Table (Patreon)

Arthur could barely wait to get back to the barn and tell Brixaby all that he had discovered.

He found his dragon excitedly talking to Joy. His blood red eyes were bright, and his chest was puffed out with pride. Turning, he saw Arthur and boomed out, “Arthur! Let me tell you about my grand accomplishments!”

“Oh?” Arthur came over and glanced around. It seemed that Brixaby’s metal refuse pile which he did not allow anyone to touch or even look at too closely – was bigger than usual. Also, he’d been working on an unusual piece over by his anvil. Was that a flat outline of a duck? A duck with teeth?

“Did you have a breakthrough with your weapons?” Arthur asked, hoping that awkward medal silhouette wasn’t supposed to be a dragon.

“I finally acquired my first class!” Brixaby let out a roar of delight that literally shook the rafters and sent dust sprinkling down on them. “It is a marvelous one! Fit for me. Tier two!”

And Arthur was momentarily distracted as Brixaby went through the benefits and attributes of his class. He wasn’t exaggerating… They were quite good. Even better in some ways than Arthur’s only other Tier 2, cooking class.

He was briefly… Well, jealous was too strong of a word, but envious that Brixaby had happened upon something so productive. Other than his Stealth class, which he had gotten by way of a card, when was the last time Arthur himself had gained a class?

Uncomfortably, Arthur realized that unless he focused more on his skills, he was in danger of falling behind his own dragon. As usual, he was stretching himself too thin.

But it was hard to feel overly worried when he thought about his own news.

His expression must have given it away because Brixaby finally stopped his boasting and gave his rider a knowing look. “You have a secret you wish to share? Did you finally expand your heart deck?”

“Ohhhh.” Joy swung her head around to him. “Did it hurt?”

“No, it’s not about my heart deck,” Arthur said. “But I think I found something just as good.”

Then he told Brixaby briefly about what he believed was waiting for them down in the dark heart. He didn’t care if Joy knew as she was part of the retinue. Besides, her little squeal made Arthur grin.

The slits in Brixaby’s eyes actually expanded and contracted several times in excitement.

“If this is true, we should gather my retinue and go down there now. Why are we waiting for it to open?” He looked around wildly as if hoping Sams and Horatio would show up at any second so he could order them to accompany him. “We have three strong dragons… even if two are slightly underfed for the moment. No one would dare to stop us!”

Arthur shook his head. “Let’s say we do that, we’d still have to battle our way back out. And at that point it would be against an entire city who thinks we’re cheaters, right after the reshuffling has distributed powers right and left. No, Brix,” he added sternly when the dragon opened his mouth to argue. “It’s not worth it. That card is ours. We’re going to get it and we don’t need to cheat to do so.”

Brixaby grumbled, wings slumping.

“Besides,” Arthur added, “Don’t you have a new class to explore?”

That did it. Brixaby perked up at once. “Yes, very well, but woe to anyone who picks up that card before us!”

Arthur didn’t disagree.

****

Cressida and Horatio came in later in the evening, both with their own tales to tell. Cressida apparently had a relaxing, though not particularly fruitful, time in the library.

“Their scholar’s guild, which they call a library, is four stories tall and full of books,” Cressida said, “Though the history section is less than two shelves. Most was about this city and written in the last few decades. So, I asked a worker – a librarian—” she added carefully in the new language she’d acquired, “and he said that this city is one of the largest holdouts on the continent,” she paused for dramatic effect, “from the time before cards.”

Arthur and Horatio glanced at one another. Off to the side, Sams and Joy were eating yet another bison lunch and Brixaby listened nearby while fiddling and twisting a metal wire into an odd shape.

“Time before cards?” Arthur repeated slowly. “There was a time before cards?”

Cressida nodded. “Apparently, it was a magic-less time.”

Horatio asked the next logical question. “So how did they fight scourgelings?”

“They would have no dragons,” Brixaby said with authority. “We are created with cards in our cores.”

“We did see a lot of machines in the abandoned cities,” Horatio said, and Cressida nodded. “They’re all sort of rusted out now but maybe that’s how they kept the scourgelings at bay… well, right up until they couldn’t.”

Arthur shuddered, glad he lived in the here and now when things made sense. “Anything else, Cressida?”

“No, but I’ll be going back tomorrow,” she said with relish.

With a nod, Arthur turned to Horatio. “It looks like you and Sams had fun.”

Horatio’s shirt was spotted with scourgelings blood that smelled fairly rank. He grinned. “Those sheriffs practically cried with joy when they saw me and Sams fly up. Apparently, a bunch of Uncommons were really ripping at the northern wall.”

Brixaby’s head whipped around to him. “They did not tell us they needed our assistance.”

“Yeeaah, well I got the feeling there’s a bit of distrust there, and no offense but knowing how you two operate, I can see why.” Horatio held up his hand to forestall any argument. “I’m only the messenger here and it wasn’t like the wall was about to be breached – they were only Uncommon – so it wasn’t an emergency. They definitely appreciated the help, though.”

With that, he held out his other hand and showed off five Uncommon shards.

“That’s good, but you would have gotten more if you were hunting scourgelings with a hive,” Cressida pointed out. “I’m sure you killed more than five scourgelings.”

“I did, but there’s such a thing as ingratiating yourself with the locals,” Horatio replied. “Besides, all that practice helped work out a couple of kinks in the new light card—”

He started to say more but stopped as the door to the barn creaked open.

Everyone turned, tense. Was it thieves? One of the over sheriffs? Some government officials who didn’t appreciate dragons in the city?

Marion popped his head in, saw Arthur, and said, “Oh, this is the place. Your directions were a little unclear.”

In all the news, Arthur had forgotten that he had invited Marion and Soledad for dinner and plans. He hurried to welcome them in, and introductions were made all around. Though, of course, Horatio was already aware of Marion from his time in Buck Moon Hive.

Cressida nodded to them with the dignity of a former noblewoman.

Soledad’s eyes, however, were all for Joy and Sams – the latter of the two who took up fully half the inside of the barn. “These are your dragons?” she asked, eyes wide as she gazed at Joy. “Oh, she’s so beautiful. She’s a she, isn’t she?”

“Of course I am,” Joy said. “You can tell girl dragons from the shape of our head.” She turned hers to the side. “Not as wide and if we have horns, they lay flatter. How do you know Arthur and Brixaby?”

“Me and the people I was traveling with were caught out in the dead lands.” She turned to give Arthur a smile that was only slightly sarcastic. “They’re proper heroes.”

“I assure you, I did most of the work,” Brixaby said.

Arthur caught Cressida giving Soledad a long look, but he couldn’t dwell on it for long as he had a dinner to put together. Thankfully, pulling already prepared meals out of his Personal Space didn’t take long. Soon, the humans were sitting at a cluster of chairs around a rough table. The dragons ate on the other side of the barn, as no one wanted to be splashed flying bits of bison. Even if Brixaby’s portions were cooked, he wasn’t always the cleanest eater.

Arthur waited until the meal wound down before he spoke. “So, now that we’re all here, I wanted to talk about the heart. Assuming you two still want to join us?” he asked Marion and Soledad.

Soledad sucked in a breath. “Yes, of course. But why would you have us? We’re both cardless, so it’s not like we can be of any use.”

“It’s a reshuffling. You’re going to be useless for long there. I’ll need a good, solid team.” He looked at Marion. “Do you still have that illusion card?”

Marion nodded and brought it out of a pocket with a slightly pained look. He showed it around.

Go Clone Yo’ Self.

Rare

Illusion

This card grants the wielder the ability to create illusionary, non-corporeal clones out of him or herself. These clones will all be visually exact to the original. The number of clones depends on the amount of mana assigned to the task. These clones have the ability to act independently. However, they cannot exert a physical force upon the environment. When struck by a outside, physical force, the illusion will be dispelled. The wielder may resummon the illusion at any time, at the cost of additional mana.

This card uses and unlocks mana. 

“That’s a good one,” Cressida said. “If you don’t mind me asking, why haven’t you used it?”

He sighed. “It doesn’t exactly fit my build.”

“You don’t have any cards, from what I’ve heard,” Horatio said bluntly. “You don’t have a build.”
Cressida elbowed him and spoke to Marion in a kinder voice. “What do you want for your build?”

Marion seemed to hesitate for a moment, almost as if expressing his wish was embarrassing. But he must have found his inner strength because he lifted his chin. “I want to heal.”

“Well, even as a healer you’re going to need some way to defend yourself. Making multiple copies of yourself is a good way to confuse your enemies.” Horatio jerked his chin at Soledad. “Or give it to her.”

“I don’t know if that’s what I want, either,” Soledad said.
Exasperated, Horatio threw his hands in the air. “It’s a perfectly good card. I’ll take it, then.”

He reached out, but Marion jerked it back on instinct.

Horatio grinned at him. “Gotcha.”

“Etch, that’s no way to treat a prince,” Cressida said.

But it was Marion who spoke. “I’m not a prince any longer.” His eyes, however, had not left the card.

Arthur had kept quiet during this little exchange, but he had to ask. “Is it because it’s not a Legendary card?” He spoke gently, not trying to shame Marion. Honestly, he wasn’t sure if he could stomach a Rare card if he somehow lost his Legendries.

A flicker of pain crossed Marion’s face. “No, that’s not it, either. I suppose… while I don’t regret my choice, I do always live with the constant reminder that my card is gone. If I put another one in my heart, I want it there forever. I’ll never take another card out of my heart again, so I must be completely sure I want it there.”

The table fell awkwardly silent.

“Okay,” Arthur said with a nod. “Well… think about it. You’ll have a week or so according to the best estimates. Maybe less. And that’s why I brought you all here today.” Arthur looked around at all of them, making sure to meet every eye. “We’re going to be a team down there. And yes, it may be rough. Brixaby and I plan to go down to the deepest part of the heart and get the most powerful card we can get our hands on. That means we’re going to need to trust one another. I’ll lay my cards out on the table, if you guys will, too. At the very least, we’ll need to know each other’s major abilities.”

Horatio and Cressida looked slightly uneasy. Though they were part of Arthur’s retinue, people did not just give up the secrets of their powers on a whim.

Soledad snorted. “Well, that’s easy. You know I don’t have any cards.”

“That’s not all,” Arthur said. “I’ve heard a few times that the dark heart focuses on your needs. So, we’ll need to hear them, too.”

“Easy again,” she said, crossing her arms over her chest. “I want to stop the damn heart from erupting fully, and I want to kill scourgelings. I figure the best way to do both is to get a dragon.”

Cressida made a surprised sound. “What kind of dragon? What rank?”

“Best and most dangerous I can get,” she said immediately. “A real scourge-killing menace. I don’t give a fig about the color, but I want it to be as powerful as possible. Rare.”

“Rares are born every few years in the hives,” Cressida said. “You may have to wait.”

Soledad narrowed her eyes as if challenged. “I can do that.”

There was a strange, unfriendly tension between the two of them, but Arthur couldn’t figure out where it was coming from. He started to speak, but Marion got there first.

“As we’d already discussed, I don’t currently have a card.” His eyes flicked down to the pocket where he’d stored the illusionary card. “But I’d like to think I would make a good healer. Perhaps, even a research healer. I want my life to mean something.”

Horatio spoke up next. “Me and Sams have light-based combat powers. There’re more colors out there than your eyes can pick up. Some of them get real hot and they can blind or burn without even seeing them. What do I want?” he shrugged. “To get stronger, I guess. Maybe collect more cards on the way.”

Soledad jumped in. “That’s not good enough.”

Horatio bristled, but Cressida rested a hand on his arm. “No, she’s right, Etch. Tell them what you told me on the way here.”

He cast a dark look around to everyone, but then in a switch of mood, shrugged. “I thought I had made it when I linked up with Sams. He was my father’s dragon, and carrying on his memory and being a dragon rider was all I wanted. But afterward… there wasn’t much to do. It was a triumph, but an empty one. We were still low ranked in the Buck Moon hive and set to be that way for a long time, ‘till I got ‘seasoned’.” He made air quotes around the word. “I didn’t like the idea of struggling for decades just to get some respect, or join some jerk’s retinue – no offense, Arthur. I just wanted to be a good dragon rider. But… Killing scourgelings is an endless grind. You wait around until the eruption, beat them back, and then go on with the rest of the day or week. I wanted it all to mean something. I wanted to know there’s an end to the war.” He shrugged again. “I know it’s all kind of scattered, but it comes to the same thing: I’m tired of feeling like I’m running in place.”

Arthur had no idea his friend had been going through all of this, and he felt bad he’d never asked.

I need to be a better leader, a better friend, to my retinue, he thought.

Cressida’s power and wishes for the dark heart were all straighter forward. “I use mana shields and have fire and water elemental summons. Joy has poison in her claws, if it comes to close combat. She’s meta, which means she has flashes of insight that come as quests, so if she tells you to do something, then do it.” This was aimed at Marion and Soledad. “As for what I need… well, I need to make Joy stronger – to make her the truly spectacular dragon I know she’s growing up to be. I want her to have all the best opportunities possible. It’s what she deserves.”

And abruptly, Arthur was the only one who hadn’t spoken.

“First, my needs. I was given a hint of what was down there, waiting, if we can delve deeper enough. It’s a Legendary card that is in the same deck as my existing cards.”

Horatio whistled.

Marion nodded. “A Legendary trio. Suddenly, I understand why we’re so far away from my father.”

“Legendary? And you have two of them?” Soledad looked at Arthur like she just discovered he could grow an extra head.

“Yes. No one knows about that in this city, other than you guys. So needless to say, I’d appreciate it if you kept that to yourself.”

Arthur took in a breath. He’d asked everyone to lay out their powers, but as the leader he had to do more.

So, without further ado, he reached to his chest and projected Master of Skills and Master of Body Enhancement for the room to see.