Savage Awakening 578. War Plans (IV)

“I’ll see you out there,” said Reina, looking quite pleased.

“When will you join me?” he asked.

“Not at the start, since I’ll be needed in Dragonspire Command,” she said. “And if this goes as long as we’re projecting, I won’t be able to be with you every hour of the day. But in the critical moments, I’ll be there. And I know—”

She saw his look of concern.

“—it’s different from the last war. I know there might be some fights, especially the most dangerous ones, where it’d be hard for me to help directly, or even at all… But even then, I’d still want to buff you before you go in. Just so when you fight Malzareth’s best, I know you’re at your strongest.”

He was good with that.

She then gave him a rundown of some of the states of the various factions. The Thundercrest and the Azure Flame were some of the most exposed factions, but they also had the biggest armies. The Steelheart had a few of its heavier hitters coming out of long-term solitary training to join the war. This was the case across the galaxy, actually—the Hegemon Ranking, which covered Empyreans, was going through a pretty big shake-up. Six names had entered the Hegemon Ranking Top 30 in the past decade alone—a massive change by Dragonspire standards.

“The Endless Shadows’ First Ancestor, the Witch-King, just sparred Thalia and held her to a draw,” Reina told him, eyes bright. “She’s currently #6 on the Hegemon Ranking, so challenging her like that was huge news across Dragonspire.”

“Nice.” Thalia was the fiery head of Mount Thundercrest and still a pretty good friend of Reina’s, as far as Zane knew. Reina had met the lady last war, when the two of them had shared a command and her Silver Winds had supported Thalia’s Huntresses. The last he’d heard the two of them still kept in touch.

“There’ve been a few big friendly exhibition matches while you’ve been gone,” Reina continued. “The Cult of Eternal Ice’s Carved Saint—he’d gone into seclusion at the heart of a glacier ages ago, trying to make his physique eternal. He’s broken out just for the war, and he’s reclaimed his old rank in record time. There’s the Thousand Seas Tribe’s Stormweaver Saint, challenging for a Top 5 spot and almost winning it… I could name three or four that've shown up in just the past few years. I could find you some of the film if you’d like.”

“That’d be great, actually.” If he had to guess, Noughtfire and the Barbarian Sage would be among these old legends taking up the sword again, so to speak. Just hearing about it got him kind of hyped up.

“It just feels like all these hidden masters are coming out of the woodwork,” breathed Reina. “It’s just in time, too—it’s difficult to tell exactly what Malzareth plans on sending our way, but… going by our preliminary readings, we’ll need all the strength we can get. We can’t tell for sure, but the common wisdom right now—which both Noughtfire and I seem to share—is that they’re going to try to slam us. So we’ll need to be ready when the time comes.”

She gave him a complex look. “It’s always hard to know what’s going to happen for sure. And maybe I’m just... maybe I’m not seeing this clearly. But Zane, I know you. I just have this feeling…”

She went quiet for a bit, looking at him hesitantly. “This shouldn’t be like the defense of Earth, or the Beginning of the End,” she said. “When you really were the only one who could stop that Monster from taking down all of us. There’s a galaxy's worth of powerhouses ready to defend us. But some part of me just feels like we’ll need you.”

Zane understood what she meant.

“I hope I’m wrong,” she said quickly. “But that man—and that woman, facing down Malzareth in the mural you saw in the ruins, with a slew of Empyreans downed next to them…”

“I don’t think that’s necessarily destiny,” said Zane. “I don’t know if it’ll come to that. But I get what you mean.”

He wasn’t sure if that mural should be interpreted so literally. He wanted to be strong—strong enough to fight Malzareth. That meant being among the elite of the elite. He just doubted he’d be the only man capable of standing in front of Malzareth in the end. There were folks like that Striker, for instance. There had to be folks out there like a young Barbarian Sage. Even the present-day Sage, and Noughtfire too—those folks still gave him an impression of unknowable strength.

He just had a gut feeling they wouldn’t go down easily.

Maybe Malzareth was massing a galaxy-shaking army out there. But he knew humanity had some killers too. Folks he’d be quite keen to fight alongside in just a few decades. 

“Again,” said Reina, looking a bit worried. “I don’t want to get ahead of myself. It’s not founded on anything concrete, and I don’t see Dragonspire falling easily at all, but—”

“But if it comes down to me, if I have to make a stand… I’ll be ready,” he promised her. He felt like he’d promised her something similar quite a few times before.

She held his gaze and nodded. “I know you will.”

By now, she knew he was good for that promise.

***

Reina liked to book out the most exclusive restaurants in the World Tree whenever he visited. That night, they’d have dinner at this restaurant called the Aeolian, which served cuts of some of the galaxy’s finest fowl.

But first—

“There’s someone who wants to meet you.” Reina said only that, gave him some instructions and a grin, and left.

Which was how he found himself at a stone lookout in some of the lowest of the World Tree’s upper boughs—still plenty high up. The lookout wasn’t very trafficked. It was pretty simple—just a line of cobble hugging the trunk. There weren’t many boughs nearby. The ones he could see were speckled with cozy, simple one-story clusters, puffing chimney smoke. The whole place was doused in ample sunlight.

The main attraction here was the view. You could get some pretty spectacular sights from basically every bough of the World Tree. But this view directly overlooked one of the World Tree’s prettiest boughs—a vast bough featuring lake after lake, hundreds of miles across, which sparkled from dawn until dusk. Little fishing boats could be seen all along those lakes, slowly drifting in the breeze.

“Zane.”

He turned—and there stood a handsome, sharp-featured man in simple linen robes.

It was Haxorax, the first Prince of Dragons.

“Hey there,” said Zane, giving the man a wave. This was a pleasant surprise. “I kind of forgot you were here. Or rather—I guess I thought you would’ve left by now.”

Haxorax smiled. “It’s taken some time to heal, but… I believe I’m about ready to do just that.”

Zane could feel the guy’s mind. It felt nothing like the man he’d fought, whose soul felt like one big clenched fist. But now the cracks in his soul had faded—gone to scars. They’d likely never heal, which was a shame, Zane felt. His father had done a number on him.

But the guy didn’t look unhappy at all.

They looked out over the setting sun.

“Hell of a view,” said Zane agreeably.

“It is,” Haxorax agreed. “I’ve come here every week for the past... It’s nearly five years now.”

They stood there, just watching the sun make its slow arc. A flock of steel-winged birds drifted over the lower boughs, blazing golden in the light.

“It feels far shorter than that,” said Haxorax.

His soul was quite bared. Zane’s Great Sage Mind meant he was pretty good at intuiting folks' feelings, usually, but most kept up some kind of guardedness. Haxorax didn’t seem too bothered with it.

“I’m ready, I think,” said Haxorax after a while.

“What are you thinking?”

“I… have a duty, Zane.” He cast Zane a glance. “My father vanished into the far recesses of this galaxy. He took several Hegemon Rankers with him—an enclave of the dragon race left too. In the years since, the dragons have become… restless. On the verge of splintering into factions, and Elder Kajax, whom I deeply respect, was only promised to be a temporary leader.”

“I’m indebted to you, Zane. And to Mistress Reina—for lending me a place to stay. For lending me the expertise of her Grand Alchemists. The reason I chose this lookout was because the Grand Master Yveltan—”

He nodded at a little cottage in a bough above—“lives there, and has been supplying me with Rax’s Soulmend Brews all these years. He was graciously coaxed into it by your mate. I’ll not forget this.”

“Don’t worry about it,” said Zane, who felt quite chill about the whole thing. He was just glad the guy was doing better.

It was kind of incredible how you could go from fighting to near-death one moment to wishing a fellow well the next. But that was dueling for you, he supposed. He hadn’t spoken with Haxorax for ages, but he still felt like he shared a kind of pact with the man. The kind of understanding you only got when you brought out the best in each other.

Haxorax just shook his head. “It’s my debt to repay, Zane. I will.”

“Alright.”

That seemed to take some weight off Haxorax’s shoulders. “It’s time,” he said softly. “In honesty, this has been the first peace I’ve known since perhaps I was a child... You can’t know how much that means to me. There are kin waiting for me back home, and... I’ve rested long enough.”

He lifted his gaze higher, taking in the stars.

“You’re headed back to the True Dragons, then?”

“I will, but not immediately. The race of True Dragons values strength above all, and my strength is not up to standard. Not as I am now… But my soul has healed to the point that I can safely take in Creation once more. There’s one place left in this galaxy where I can aspire to do that.”

He pointed to the depths of space. “There,” said Haxorax. “Where the stars meet the endless void… the Edge. I hope to go there, take part in the bounty hunts, slaying Boss Empyreans and winning myself Shards of Creation. If I can prove myself there, I’ll return to my homeland and take the role I promised.”

Haxorax seemed quite set on it. He also seemed in quite an introspective mood. “The race of dragons has only known that strength comes through dominion,” said Haxorax. “That’s all their leader had shown them. I… I believe there can be another way. That there must be—I feel I must prove to them that a dragon can be strong without being cruel… and I suppose I must prove that to myself.”

He added that last bit quietly.

“Best of luck,” said Zane. It seemed like the guy had some soul-searching to do, but Zane felt pretty confident a training arc would fix him up. 

“I’ll meet you on the battlefield, Zane Walker.” Haxorax nodded. “It’s been an honor.”

They shook on it. And that was the end of that.

***

A few days before Zane was set to leave for the Barbarian Sage’s boot camp, they got an unexpected visitor. Dya of the True Phoenixes showed up at their gates.