Chapter Fourteen

The next morning when Draco woke up he saw Galrin and Lienna sitting around him, waiting for him to wake up. As soon as he started moving Galrin asked him impatiently, “How many more elementals do we have to capture?”

Draco thought it over for a minute then said, “Spring is already upon us, meaning we don’t have much longer until the annual tournament which would be our best chance to slip in Ragnarock headquarters. I didn’t think hunting the other elementals would take so long, but I guess we have to cut corners for the sake of time. We should capture an aqua dragon, a phoenix, and a lightning dragon. We can get the phoenix and lightning dragon in Uryaen, the aqua dragon we will have to find somewhere in the ocean depths.”

Lienna and Galrin looked at each other then back to Draco and Lienna said, “Alright but from now on we do this our way, you will ride on my back across the ocean and along the way I will search out for an aqua dragon. After finding one Galrin will go down there and bring it back to you weakened enough for you to seal. Then we go straight to Uryaen with no stops, it should be a day’s trip so have your meals ready to eat when we go.”

Draco didn’t want to rely so much on the dragons powers but he didn’t get much of a choice either. So after breakfast he hopped on Lienna’s back, using a torn part of his pants he made a small rope to tie around her neck so he could hold on. When he was ready she took off; fast. They didn’t slow down at all until reaching the ocean less than an hour later, and then she cut her speed in half and began searching with her strange powers to find an aqua dragon.

At some point she must have found one because Galrin dived into the ocean waters and Lienna told Draco to get a card ready. She kept going, but her pace was slowed again. Not long after descending into the water Galrin returned with a large deep blue dragon, a little smaller than him floating helpless to his side; unmoving.

Draco sealed the aqua dragon right away and Lienna sped right back up. He had to use some magic to keep himself on her back while he ate because she wasn’t slowing down at all. Even as night fell Lienna didn’t slow down, Draco was tired and a little hungry cause eating was hard but he knew as long as he didn’t need to use much magic he’d be fine.

They arrived at a coast line hours before dawn and Draco ate the last of his food, only now realizing he was down to so little then went to sleep. The next day he woke up he rode on Lienna’s back again trying to figure out exactly where he was on Uryaen. According to his map he was just about 100 miles north of the city Issaran, they went directly south until the town was in sights, by then Galrin went back into his card for the time being.

Draco rode on Lienna all the way to the town and she only returned to the card after they got above town, where Draco hopped off and casually floated down to the ground. There was a small crowd gathered around staring at him, but he ignored them and went straight to the nearest food market to resupply and eat. He bought enough to fill his bag once more with foods that would last for days without much care and then moved right on.

As soon as he was outside the town Galrin and Lienna came forth and he hopped on Lienna’s back again and they went east to the fire lands. From the skies the fire lands was a sight to behold; with its orange and red grounds, numerous volcanoes and even large cracks of Lava in some areas. He could feel the heat even way up there and things only got hotter as they descended near the largest volcano in sight.

Draco was sweating within minutes while Galrin went to the top of the volcano to grab a phoenix. He returned a minute later with one just like the aqua dragon, and not for the first time Draco was glad that Galrin was on his side. He sealed the phoenix away and they moved on heading to the thunder plains to grab the final elemental a lightning dragon.

The thunder plains were trickier to navigate and for Lienna to search in so finding a lightning dragon took a few days. After that Galrin and Lienna took some time to rest because they would need their strength at Aeon Toris. While they rested outside on the outskirts of the thunder plains Draco flew to the town of Yarend in the north to grab some new clothes.

There was only a few tailoring shops in the town and Draco went to the most recommended one from asking around about them. First he bought some new clothes and threw away the old ones which were covered in dirt, and torn up. Then he talked to the master tailor in private over some tea.

The master tailor at the shop there was an elder man with a short grey hair and fine fitting clothes. They spoke in his back room when Draco told the elder mans apprentice who was at the counter at the time he would pay him 30 crystals just for seeing him. So when the elder man got in his apprentice told him and the two went to the back room to talk privately.

Right away Draco handed the man the crystals then asked, “Would you be able to make a pair of clothes designed exactly like Ragnarock guild members?”

The elder man sipped his tea eyeing Draco carefully to see if this was some sort of elaborate joke or not. When Draco’s face hinted nothing of the sort the man said, “Well not exactly like them because I do not have their templates, but base on memory I should be able to replicate it fair enough so that it looks exactly like it from first glance.”

He took a sip of his tea before continuing, “But why is it that a young man such as yourself would want such clothes? You do know that I can get into serious trouble if Ragnarock discovered I had created even a copy of their official uniform.”

“Indeed,” Draco said emotionless, “this is why I came to this smaller town and not a great capitol for this sort of thing. It will be near impossible to trace it all the way back to you if they even cared enough. Besides I only have use for them for a few hours tops then afterwards I will burn them and only you and I would know of this transgression.

“Anyways how long do you think it would take to make this for me?”

The elder man finished his tea then thought it over, “Well,” he said, “after your measurements, about two weeks.”

Draco leaned in closer and said, “I will give you 400 crystals if you can measure me now and then finish it by tomorrow.”

Once more the elder man studied Draco’s face to see if this was a rouse or something; it was not. Reluctantly the man said, “Yes, for that kind of money I can have it finished tomorrow.”

With that Draco pulled out two white crystals from his bag and put them down on the small table pushing them to the elder man. “Half now, the other half tomorrow when you have finished my order and it is to my liking.”

The man scoffed, but took the crystals into his pocket then had Draco undress to his underpants so he could get him measured properly. Afterwards Draco went to an inn to wash up a little and stay the night, Galrin and Lienna knew he might be gone a few days at most so he didn’t need to rush back to them.

The next day Draco returned to the shop, the elder man had just finished the duplicate uniform not an hour ago and was taking a very short break. Draco could see the dark bags under his eyes; the man must have been working since the moment Draco left and all night as well without sleep or hardly any breaks.

He studied the uniform, checked the material to make sure it wasn’t some cheap cotton or wool, it was high quality silk. Satisfied Draco thanked the man, paid him the rest of his due and carefully folded the uniform back up into its box and took off back to see Galrin and Lienna who were waiting for him.

They gave him little time to eat before he had to hop back on Lienna’s back and soared across the land to the coast. There they stopped so Draco could rest and then eat, then they were off again across the ocean heading to Aeon Toris. Time to time Lienna slowed down enough for Draco to eat but he didn’t get to rest, not until a couple days later they made it to their destination.

The three of them landed on the far eastern part of the continent where they would be safe from prying eyes. There Galrin and Lienna went back into their cards and Draco flew east resting little until he reach white stone road. He walked down it at a fair pace until he finally reached the capitol.

Elysian was exactly as he remembered it all those years ago, overly glamorous and filled with fancy people. He starred down at Ragnarock headquarters with great disdain, “Soon” he told himself, “soon you will be no longer.”

When he was able to get over himself Draco realized that there was no grand celebration going on, and that the capitol wasn’t bustling with magicians like it should be. Draco didn’t know if he was too late or too early so he asked around to see how long until the grand tournament. It was two weeks away, he had gotten there with plenty time to spare.

He found the nearest inn and paid for a month’s worth of a single room and then spent the next two weeks carefully combing around Ragnarock’s headquarters pretending to be a normal person just admiring the great architecture. Through in those two weeks he discovered only a few viable entrances. The first two were windows which he would have to break to get in, and that would be very noisy. The last and most likely one was a balcony that appeared to be able to overlook the city.

From the balcony were two simplistic doors that opened inward into Ragnarock. Draco would have to float up there silently at night and if it was locked he could quietly melt the handle off and push it open. He didn’t know where it led into, but it was the best way in so he could only chance it. Then again that’s what the robes were for, if anyone spotted him inside he would just act like he was running errands or something and was in a rush.

And the more he thought about it the more he realized his plan was absolutely terrible, but he had nothing more and time was out as it was now the grand tournament and magicians were flocking to the capitol for days. It was a weeklong event so Draco would wait a couple days until he made his move.

Finally the night had come when he was ready; he had bathed earlier that day and now dressed in the Ragnarock uniform. It was not a perfect replica but it was a damn good one, and only after carefully study would anyone be able to notice otherwise. He only needed it to look perfect at first glance anyways.

It was early in the night as celebrations were going on and everyone’s attention was set to some sort of parade going through the main road in the capitol. This was the perfect time. Dressed up in the uniform Draco casually walked from the inn to Ragnarock headquarters to the spot below the balcony keeping his head low the whole time.

When he got there he looked around to make sure no one was watching, and when he was content there wasn’t anyone around looking, he hovered up to the balcony. The doors were in fact locked so he did melt off the handles and simply pushed them open. The room beyond was a well-lit hallway that lead down to more double doors.

Draco took in a deep breath let it out then continued on. Inside Ragnarock headquarters was luxurious, bright, and very welcoming. There were some guild members walking about the halls going down corridors or just generally chatting here and there. He tried to avoid them best he could, but mostly tried to act normal while wandering around no clue where to look first for weak points.

As he wandered around nobody paid him much attention at all, only the occasional glance but for the most part they just went on with their business which was perfect for Draco. Gradually he found himself going further down, like there was something below the building drawing him lower. And the lower Draco got the more this strange force began to pull him until Lienna whispered in his head, “There is something downstairs, further down.”

“Yes,” Draco responded in his thoughts and not his words, “I feel something pulling me down there. I think it is worth investigating.”

The strange force pulling Draco down also seemed to guide him to every stairwell going down, even the ones that were far out of the way. Eventually he came to some stairs that led down into a straight hall with only one path and one set of doors at the very end. It was beyond those doors that something called out to Draco, “Closer,” it said without a voice. “Come closer child.”

Draco found the voiceless call too alluring to resist and he went forth ignoring his better judgments that now sat at the back of his mind. He opened the doors beyond to find a large round room that was built almost like a temple. And In this room sat nine different pillar constructs that were about twelve feet up in the air and almost half that around. Each pillar glowed a distinct color; representing all nine elements.

The pillars surrounded some sort of strange insignia marked into the ground with curved lines overlapping one another in perfect symmetry. Slowly Draco walked forward closer to the center of it all until a loud slam behind him brought him back to his senses.

He turned around and could hear the footsteps and aggravated talking of numerous people quickly approaching the room. Panic seeped into Draco and he looked around, there was no place to hide and only one exit or entrance. He reached behind his uniform for the cards in his belt he would have to make a surprise attack and sacrifice one of his lesser elementals to make a quick escape.

But before Draco could pull out a card or gather too much energy Lienna half shouted in his head, “Stay still and release any energy you gathered.”

Draco was still in a partial state of panic, but he had come to trust Lienna and did as she told him. His breaths quickened as the people came closer until in a flash of blue light he went from being in that strange underground area, all the way to Tenma isles.

Galrin and Lienna were already emerged from their cards when Draco realized exactly where he was. It took him a couple minutes to figure it out and he asked Lienna, “Teleportation, how did you do that?”

“Special talent, it cannot be taught,” Lienna said hastily as if recovering from a great loss of stamina.

“It must consume a lot of energy huh?” Draco asked concerned.

After a minute Lienna said, “No not that much but…” she trailed off briefly. “You heard it too didn’t you Draco; that voiceless call, drawing you into the center of that room?”

Draco hesitated briefly then said, “Yes I heard it as well, what was it?”

“The very thing we’re trying to stop from destroying us all.”

Draco sighed then started to relax when he suddenly exclaimed, “Crap! All of my stuff, I left it back at the inn in Elysian!”

“Alright,” Lienna said slowly, “I will teleport you and I back to the road a mile outside the capitol on Aeon Toris, but you get to your room grab your stuff and return to me right away got it?” She finished her sentence as a statement more than a question.

“Yes I understand,” Draco said. He didn’t desire to spend any more time in the capitol anyways.

Exactly as she said she would Lienna teleported the two of them to the white stone road within a couple miles of the capitol. Draco was still in his false Ragnarock uniform so that prompted him to move faster.

The parade was still going on when he returned so he was thankful for that, but still stuck to as many back streets as possible to his inn. Because he went out the window of his room he had left it wide open and snuck back in the same way.

Once inside his room he shut and locked the window and changed back into his normal clothes, and swiftly burned the uniform into ashes which he wrapped in a small cloth to take with him to scatter to the winds as an extra precaution. Then with his bag and the small cloth, tied up with the ashes of the uniform, Draco walked outside the Inn casually and left the capital never looking back once.

When he got to Lienna, she teleported them back to the isles where Galrin was waiting. As he then scattered the ashes to the winds Lienna and Galrin both asked, “What do we do now?”

Draco tossed the cloth into the waters and said, “First I’m going to try and sleep, then we go with plan B. The only way now to find their weak spot inside is to officially become a member of Ragnarock by winning the annual tournament. Once an official member I should have the freedom to wander around day and night with you two by my side in secret so that we may find their weakness and destroy them once and for all.”