The Golden Scales

4: Where no light shines

"Well, what I want to tell you is completely serious, and I do not want for you to laugh about it. I have pondered exactly how to tell you for two straight days, but it is difficult to do so without you thinking I am crazy.

Lady Elora had been practising that speech for a few hours, and she couldn't believe the moment had arrived. Her champions were, sincerely, less than she'd like to perform the terrible task of fighting the General, but she had to do with what was available. And what she had were two warriors, an assassin, a stranger, and an abyss mage.

She would've preferred a squadron of elite knights and renowed monster hunters, but this was all she had. Because the servants in her mansion weren't as well trained in combat, of course. But this group listened to her and they could be efficient in the right hands. And she hoped hers would be those right hands.

"I've been investigating in my books, and it happens that I am not the only one from here that is what many of your kind would consider 'a monster'. Of course it is an insulting term, but I belong to a species that is rare enough for you to consider me such. I have lived for five hundred long years, enough to make many elves see I am way older than them. I was here during the battle of the Bridge of Herzing, the last battle of the Vigil Imperium. And I shall continue here for many years.

"It so happens that my former colleague, lord governor Vendramiec, the General leading all armed forces in the city of Hope and the surrounding lands, has also lived for a long time. Even than I did. He doesn't even hide his true name, claiming it is the same his ancestors had. But I was investigating, and found out his secret. Lord Vendramiec, the General, is, in actuality, a golden dragon.

She made a small pause to breathe some air, and so those listening to her could feel the terrible weight of the revelation she just dropped on them. A primordial force, a monster from the beginnings of time capable of fighting with the strength of the world-making gods, for dragons were their messengers and representatives in the mortal world.

"Not all dragons disappeared the day they lost the war. Most were sealed and forced to sleep an eternal slumber they cannot wake up from. Others fled, hiding in the most faraway corners of the planet. And the latter, those with the ability to change their form, decided to hide among their butchers. Vendramiec is one of those. A dragon who led their troops during the war, obtaining the title we know of General. In fact, he might have been one of the best generals under Fafnir, the first dragon.

"Dragons, it is said, cannot die. They were created before even than the idea of death. But there is a way to kill them for a fact. They say Heratar, the first dragon slayer (and also one of the first monster hunters that existed) created a special kind of weapon, the dragonslayers, enchanted in a way that they trapped the soul of the dragon and kept it inside of it, trapped and essentially killing the creature. I have located one such weapon, hidden on an ancient tomb under this city, below the lair of the ettercap monster you killed. And I suspect the General wants it as well, so nobody can kill him. And that is why I intend to accompany you down there.

"I know not what Vendramiec is doing in Hope, but he does know I have discovered its secret. And he knows mine. He ordered my execution because of that, because he knew if I reveal his true identity, the whole city would go for him. We've had our differences in the past, but the military control he's exercicing and the fact that he's a dragon... well, I fear thinking what he might be planning.

She put her hands on her hips and sighed. The speech was good, yes. Probably made her sound convincing and not like a crazy woman. She looked at the empty chairs. If the ghosts in her head thought those were good enough arguments, the adventurers might think so as well. It could be the moment to drink something to celebrate, or perhaps read a bit and forget her problems for a few minutes. But she didn't have such time.