Legend of Ransera

"The dragon seems to have made a compass of me," he said. "I know not how. If the Order had an expert on dragons, I imagine they would have sent them along. Then again, I do not know how the Order operates. I would like to follow this... magnetic north while it lasts and see if we can't locate the child in question without returning to Zaichaer first. We can always seek aid later. Perhaps they will be in a large enough settlement that there will be an Order or coven presence and we can seek help more locally.

"And then there is the matter of the child. I will have to defer to you and your knowledge of Zaichaeri law. The dragon didn't indicate what they wanted the child for. I would not personally want to feed a child to a monster, though perhaps that is not its design. Do the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few?"

Kaus asked this of the captain in all earnestness.

Whatever his answer, the child would be their only bargaining chip.

Kaus took wing once more, wanting to feel as though he were moving through the air himself, following that inner urge. The airship could easily follow him. He was agile in the air, and fast enough, but no match for the airship for speed over long distances, and he wasn't trying to escape.

Given his head, Kaus would follow the guidance bequeathed by the dragon until he could triangulate a likely point. Then, he signaled to the airship, and dove. The captain might have preferred to send men down with him, and he certainly could. Kaus just didn't wait. They didn't have unlimited time.

As they were in accord, Kaus and the airship located the growing settlement with all due haste. He only made it so far before he was stopped, but thankfully, the captain sent backup and then he was allowed to follow the guidance of the fell dragon.

Approaching a dugout home, he thought he felt a thrill of something like excitement, or perhaps it was his bile rising. There seemed to be a similar sort of aura as emanated from the dragon, although this was like a drop in the water compared to a raging river. Eyes down as he gathered himself, he noticed someone's attempt at stability: a flagstone upon which the wooden door frame attempted to assert order on the nature. It was cracked, however, and looked sharp, likely to tear at a person's feet.

As he took a steadying breath against the nausea and dread, he reached out with his mind and his aether and fused the two pieces of flagstone together, smoothing away the sharp edges. These people had plenty of challenges out here; a little help might go a long way.

It was as he was looking up that the child emerged, barreling straight into him. He staggered back a bit with a "whoa!" But he was strong and tall, at least compared to a human, and so he caught them.

"Pardon," he said and, once certain they wouldn't fall over, he leg to and stepped back. Kaus knew his wings would earn him immediate distrust. Thankfully, he had airmen at his back and while he personally thought their military a bit totalitarian, the people seemed to take comfort in their presence.

"I am Kaus Leukos. Were you aware there is a dragon looking for you?"

Kaus observed, then took a steadying breath. If he hadn't his wings, but instead an airman's uniform, he might have seemed a paragon of young Zaichaeri masculinity. Alas, he wore layered robes in the Kalzasern style, bound and tied, though, so as not to flap overmuch in flight. And alas, his wings weren't going anywhere.

"I am under a sort of geas to subdue a dragon that has been moving through Zaichaer for some time now. I am collaborating with the fine airmen of the Sturmreiter to do so with the blessing of First Minister Dornkirk. We tracked down the dragon. It said it sought a particular youth, and put it into my mind to find that youth. Its guidance led me here, to you.

"I do not know why it seeks you, and I will not force you to meet it, but I am here to ask for you to come with me in the hopes that a diplomatic solution can be found. Zaichaer has seen too much upheaval in recent times."

He had left out details, but that was the long and the short of it. Kaus fell quiet, allowing the strange tale time to percolate through the child's mind. The airmen would corroborate his story in as much as they could, not having been in his dreams nor in the full presence of the hollow one. They could convey the child close enough that Kaus could make the necessary introductions.

"Eventually, it will come here. Its presence is... powerful. I do not know that it would harm anyone, but I cannot know. Will you come? I would give you as much time to consider as possible, but I do not know how much time we have."

He only felt the dragon vaguely now, eclipsed by this weaker but closer imitation of its aura, but he supposed a dragon, even a hollow one, could move quickly when need arose. And if it was having trouble tracking down this child, he didn't doubt it could track him down now.

The young Synnekar lord looked from child to elder, curious but not questioning. Startled by the turn of negotiation, he glanced at the ranking airman before answering.

"I did not come prepared to negotiate payment. If you have requirements, let me know and I will see that they are met." To the elder, "I cannot say. I cannot imagine why a dragon would seek some particular child. While it is... dreadful... I do not think it evil." To the child, "If we negotiate such that you decide to come, and if it becomes clear the dragon means you harm, I will stand between you. I might triumph. I am no mean elementalist nor warrior. My geas bids me subdue it, one way or another. At the very least, I could slow it down while you escape to safety and payment. But even if you decide not to come, you must flee, for it will surely seek you here. I can feel it coming, inexorable as death, but not so comforting. Whether or not it means you harm, should it come here, people will suffer for its presence."

Kaus hadn't been knighted. Rather than seeking his own career, he had chosen to stand by his sister, and did not see it as a true sacrifice for she was half of himself. Knight or no, he had been raised with a certain sort of honor. It was not strict in some ways; he had been encouraged to find his own truth. In other ways, it was deadly strict; whatever he decided was right, he was expected to seek it with all his might.

He sniffed. Not sure why, he turned back to the elder. "What do you think the dragon wants with the child? It has been in Zaichaer for some time now, searching."

Kaus didn't say anything else regarding payment. From what he understood, the foodstuffs and medicines Kala had sent via Blue Star had been continually given out to the people and, as Zaichaer recovered, good were spread out to the wider territories it claimed. But here, he could see that while the government was helping them survive, they weren't all yet thriving. He could not blame the child for bargaining; Kaus had rarely gone a day without a full belly himself. It was not for him to cast judgment.

But as the captain, a Zaichaeri, backed him up, it seemed the deal was struck. He himself was paying more attention to the strangely out of place man trying to advise caution to the kid. Kaus nodded with due respect to him, and when the kid offered his hand, Kaus spit in his own and clasped his hand without any show of disgust.

Kaus had been to the Atraxian Expanse, met desert nomads for whom the sharing of their body's water was considered holy. If he got sick, well, his sister was a healer. In any case, should he be forced to do battle with the hollow dragon, a minor infection might be the least of his worries. White, but vaguely green. Yes, there was an unhealthy feel to the dragon's aura that might be described as a nauseating green; Kala often spoke of auras and aetheric patterns in metaphors, so he was used to it.

Acting on sudden intuition, he looked at the man once more.

"Would you like to join us, sir, to advocate for the child?"

Whatever the decisions made, Kaus would accompany the child to the ship, not flying ahead but rather getting to know the child he was putting in danger, even with their consent.