Path of Dragons

“He looks so pitiful,” Sadie said. “Are you sure we can’t –”

“There’s an ethereal cage around him,” Dat said. “If any of us try to breach it, we’ll end up just like him.”

“I know. I just want to put him into a more…dignified position.”

“I ‘an ‘ear ‘ou,” Elijah muttered, though his speech was rendered almost unintelligible by two factors. First, he couldn’t actually move his mouth, making hard consonants very difficult to enunciate. Second, his cheek was practically glued to the floor, which really wasn’t conducive to clear communication.

But to Sadie, the worst part was that his body was folded in on itself. Bent at the waist, with his knees and cheek in contact with the floor, he looked like a toddler sleeping in a particularly awkward position.

Fortunately, he didn’t seem like he was in any danger of lasting harm. With his high Constitution and Regeneration, along with Ron’s healing, he would be fine in the long run. Still, Sadie couldn’t help but feel a little sorry for him, even if he had brought it on himself.

Elijah mumbled something that no one could understand, so Dat knelt beside him and, after a moment, said, “He says not to worry about him. Just do what we came here to do.” He leaned in again, then grinned. “He also says that Dat is the most awesome bro in the group. His words. Thanks, bro.”

Sadie shook her head and smiled. Leaving him where he was was probably the best option. After all, they had a great opportunity before them – better than anyone could have anticipated. So, they couldn’t let Elijah’s issues derail them. With that in mind, Sadie said, “Does someone want to…um…keep him company while we search for information pertinent to the challenge?”

Kurik sighed. “I’ll stay with the idjit,” he stated with a shake of his head. “Gives me a chance to collect my traps anyway.”

Once that was established, the group reestablished their intended topics of research. The first was obviously about the challenge itself – chiefly anything concerning the First Mage – but at the last moment, Sadie added something else.

“What can you tell me about the Shadeborne Sect?” she asked the disembodied voice of the Librarian.

That had been on her mind ever since she’d forced the surviving elder into absolution. The rest of the group labored under the assumption that she’d used some new skill to push the elder into surrendering to execution, but Sadie knew the truth. She hadn’t used any new abilities. It was the result of Confession and Sense of Sin, both of which had been temporarily augmented by a strand of Faith.

Even then, none of it would have been possible if the elder hadn’t been beset by crippling guilt. Sadie had only forced her to confront those feelings, and the result had overwhelmed whatever sense of self-preservation the elder had possessed. Such a strategy wouldn’t be viable in every situation, but it had been the perfect way to confront the circumstances of that challenge.

Still, Sadie’s actions had left an indelible mark on her own mind, and she wanted to know more about the surrounding details.

Fortunately, the Librarian was quite accommodating on both counts. She – and the voice definitely sounded distinctly feminine to Sadie – led the members of the group in two separate directions. The method of her guidance was interesting. Without a corporeal – or visible – body, the Librarian instead created a trail of blinking lights for her to follow.

As Sadie made her way through the library, she was awestruck by the wealth of information available. If they’d had the time, she could have spent weeks among those shelves, just reading through the contents of one crystal after another.

However, she quickly discovered that doing so would be quite counterproductive. Most contained completely irrelevant information about the societal structure of Ka’arath, detailing the history of various organizations, countries, and even a few empires. The Librarian was perfectly happy – bordering on giddy – to explain as much. That led Sadie to ask a question that had been on her mind since she’d first heard the disembodied voice.

“What are you?” she asked.

“I am the Librarian.”

“No – I understand that,” Sadie stated as they entered a new section. “But what is your nature? Are you a spirit? A construct? Were you –”

“You are not authorized for that information.”

“But –”

“This section is quite fascinating, as it concerns pre-system history. We were quite primitive at that time, so details are very limited. However, through rigorous study, historians have discovered many interesting details. Does this interest you?” the Librarian asked, completely moving on from Sadie’s previous question. That was more than a hint that Sadie should do the same.

It took a few minutes before, at last, one of the blinking lights flared brighter than all the rest. “We have arrived in the appropriate section,” the Librarian stated. “Modern history. Please follow me as I direct you to the shelf dedicated to the Shadeborn Sect.”

Sadie turned down the aisle, following it for nearly fifty meters before she reached a shelf that glowed with solid light. When she retrieved one of the crystals, she discovered that it worked identically to the guides purchased from the World Tree.

The first in the row of crystals revealed much the same information they already knew from the guide Elijah had discovered in the challenge itself. The second went into more detail about the sect’s formation, but the third was far more interesting:

The War Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site. In the year 331 RTE, in the twenty-seventh age, the Shadeborn Sect targeted a young Sorcerer named Yloa of the K’hnam clan. At that point, the one who would become the Lightning Emperor was only recently advanced to Demigod status, and yet, he had already been marked as one with great potential. ℞ÁΝՕBÊṨ No one knows for certain why he was targeted for assassination. Some believe it was due to his family’s long opposition to the systemic oppression against ta’alaki. Other Scholars postulate that he made powerful enemies in his rise as a Demigod. Still others have suggested that the assassination order was the result of a personal vendetta. Regardless of the reasons, the Shadeborn Sect attempted to kill him during a family gathering. It immediately went wrong, and a battle ensued. Young Yloa managed to survive, but his entire family was killed. He blamed his ta’alaki allies as well as the established ruling class of ka’alaki. He eventually published the famous Ir-kan, a scathing rebuttal of the current social order that, in turn, launched a rebellion that would eventually become the War that raged across the entirety of Ka’arath. As to the Shadeborn Sect, all but one of their elders was held accountable for their crimes. Most were killed by agents of Yloa, but many were captured by other authorities. The lesser members of the sect were largely spared, though not out of choice. They were infected by a disease native to the Umbra, which transformed them into creatures of shadow. Yloa’s path needs no explanation. His vendetta enveloped the entire planet, and at present, he rules with an iron fist. There are hints of rebellion, though. His former allies waver, and even the Druids have called for resistance. In this Researcher’s opinion, it is all too little and far too late. Yloa is too powerful. He is on the verge of Transcendence. More troublingly, he is also fully committed to his own philosophy. He is an idealist who truly believes that his way is the only path to salvation. If he is pushed to the brink, he will do whatever it takes to win. Outside of mutual destruction, there is no stopping that combination of power and commitment. We can only endure and hope he tires of our planet and moves on. Only then will we be allowed to recover.

The text didn’t end there, but Sadie had no interest in what followed. It was a mixture of historic details and philosophy, neither of which had any bearing on her or her mission. By contrast, the introduction was interesting, even if it didn’t contain much new information.

The next few crystals were mostly useless, detailing the fallen sect’s philosophy. It all sounded very noble, focusing on ridding the world of those people who’d both established themselves as evil as well as too powerful to be held accountable by most normal means. However, Sadie knew just how hollow that philosophy was. In the end, the Shadeborn Sect had been no better than any other group of murderers. They killed not for the greater good they claimed to espouse, but rather for the same reasons everyone else killed. In some cases, assassination was the result of personal vendetta. In others, it was transactional. But despite what they claimed, they were rarely motivated by the plight of the oppressed.

Their philosophical treatises did mention Angels quite often, though. Specifically, they seemed to emulate mythical Angel Inquisitors, though none of the texts explained much more about them. When she asked the Librarian about the subject, she received no response.

So, Sadie continued on, reading more about the Shadeborn Sect. It wasn’t until she reached the very last crystal that she discovered something else interesting:

The Castle of Whispers The fabled Castle of Whispers was not built. It was grown. Using the soul of an Umbral Spirit as fuel, the sole surviving elder of the Shadeborn Sect grew the castle via a forbidden ritual. It is said that those with powerful sensory capabilities can hear its pleas for an end to its captivity.

It went on to explain the suspected method used in the ritual, but even the author admitted that it was only speculation, noting that information on such processes was very difficult to come by. Sadie understood why, too. The idea of trapping a sentient creature’s soul just to create a stronghold – it was abominable. That knowledge also served to soothe Sadie’s conscience somewhat. Executing the elder had been the right thing.

Perhaps that was the point of her research.

After reading only a little more, Sadie decided that she’d learned enough. With that, she returned to the library’s lobby, where Elijah remained in his awkward position. His eyes were closed, so she assumed that he’d somehow fallen asleep. However, when she drew closer, she could feel the fluctuations in the ethera around him.

“What are you doing?”

He mumbled a response, but it took Sadie a few seconds to understand what he meant. “You’re cultivating?”

He grunted, though he didn’t open his eyes. Sadie could only wish she had the sort of dedication he possessed. He wasn’t always working on something – he spent plenty of time just exploring with no real aim – but he worked as hard or harder than anyone she’d ever seen. That was an admirable quality that, until very recently, she’d not really noticed.

Before Sadie could say anything else, Dat returned.

“I think I found the answer,” he announced, holding up a crystal. “Or the Librarian found it. I just read it.”

Sadie took the offered crystal, and when she read it, her eyes widened. “This isn’t going to be easy,” she said.

“What’s new?” Dat responded.

That was true. Each of the challenges – save for the City of Toh, which didn’t count because it wasn’t a first-clear – had been impossibly difficult. It was easy to think that the only reason they’d survived was due to luck, which was likely accurate, at least to some degree. However, it was mostly because each member of the group knew how to play their roles. If anyone had been missing – or lacked the skill to do their job – everyone would have already died.

She re-read the text:

The Tower of the First Mage Traditionally, the Tower of the First Mage has played host to the senior-most faculty of the Academy Arcanum, which is the preeminent institution of learning on all of Ka’arath. Due to that reputation, the First Mage has historically been regarded as one of the most powerful people in the world – both politically and in terms of progression. So, when the final First Mage set himself against the Lightning Emperor, it required a response. For his own safety, the First Mage activated the Tower’s defenses, which were among the most powerful in the world.

The rest of the essay described the defenses in great detail, though due to a change in tone, Sadie expected that it had been altered by the challenge. That made sense, because there was absolutely no way they would ever gain access to the Tower of the First Mage if it was strong enough to hold a Transcendent at bay.

Even so, Dat’s supposition that they had a difficult road to travel was spot on. Hopefully, they would be up to the task ahead. But the way was clear, which was all she could really ask for.

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