Path of Dragons

Book 8: Chapter 12: Looking Forward

Elijah lay awake, cradling Sadie in his arms and wondering just what he’d done to deserve so much happiness. Despite the horrors that had preceded his return to the grove, the past week had been filled with contentment and joy. And most of that could be laid at the feet of the woman beside him.

Sadie was still asleep, and without her bulky armor, she seemed so much smaller and far more vulnerable than usual. In that moment, with her breath coming deep and steady, she was no longer the powerful warrior. Instead, she was just a beautiful woman who’d miraculously – and likely despite her better judgement – developed feelings for him.

For his part, Elijah was smitten. He wouldn’t have characterized it as love – not yet, at least – but the seeds had been planted. With proper management, they would bloom into something much greater.

Alone, he and Sadie were formidable. But together, with real emotion backing them up, they could be so much more than they could ever be alone.

For now, though, he knew he couldn’t let his imagination run away with the fantasy. He’d done that before, dreaming of the future while neglecting the present, and he wouldn’t allow that to sully his nascent relationship with Sadie. Instead, he vowed to simply live in the moment and treat her the way she deserved to be treated.

She needed it, too. Not just in the sense that everyone needed human companionship, either. After Dat’s death, she’d become uniquely vulnerable. She had no other friends and few interests that weren’t rooted in the idea of fighting for her people’s survival.

It would have been tragic if it wasn’t for Elijah’s refusal to accept that he couldn’t do anything about it. As it was, he’d spent the past week trying to distract her from recent events. And to a certain degree, he’d been successful – at least judging by her enthusiasm for everything he had to offer. But he feared that her scars were too deep to truly ignore.

So were his, if he was honest with himself.

Certainly, distractions – if he even dared to call his time with Sadie that – helped. In the moment, he could think of nothing but her. But guilt and grief were never far away.

“Don’t stare at me like that,” Sadie mumbled, her eyes still closed. “It’s creepy.”

“I’m not staring,” he lied, even as he ran a finger along her bare shoulder.

“You are,” she countered, finally opening her eyes and turning to face him. “But I suppose I’ll allow it.”

“So generous,” he said with a grin.

“What distractions do you have planned for today?” she asked, obviously having guessed the intent behind the full itinerary that had characterized the past week.

“Nothing much. Just the grand opening of the hot tub,” he answered. “Nothing you’d be interested in, I’m sure. I’ll let you know how awesome it is.”

Indeed, Elijah had checked on the site the previous day, and with the ash lotus having reached maturity, it had set the artificial spring’s temperature to near boiling. Without their incredible durability, they never could have stood it, but with their high Constitution attributes, it was probably perfect.

After that statement, Sadie was eager to get the day started. So, Elijah watched as she rose from the bed of moss and headed to the shower. Before she went inside, she looked back and said, “You’re staring again.”

“Might be the best part of my day.”

She rolled her eyes, but she did give him one of her rare smiles.

Elijah added, “Might not want to shower just yet. Still have training this morning.”

“Ugh.”

“I thought you’d get into the whole training thing. You definitely know how to put in the work,” Elijah said.

“That’s different,” was her reply. “This is…I don’t know…like a vacation, I guess. I don’t work out on vacations.”

Elijah shrugged. “I never really took many vacations in my old life,” he acknowledged. Of course, with his apathy towards his chosen profession, as well as his choice to set up shop in one of the world’s most well-known paradises, one could make the argument that Elijah’s whole life had been a vacation. That was before the cancer, though. “So, I’ll have to take your word for it. But come on – a little training is a good way to start the day.”

“Or we could do something else. Something more fun.”

“Training is fun.”

Once again, she rolled her eyes. “You know what I’m talking about.”

Elijah chuckled. “I definitely do,” he responded, climbing from the bed. A moment later, he’d stepped close, and their lips came together. After that, they lost themselves to passion, only coming up for air a little while later.

Immediately, Elijah asked, “Training now?”

“You really do have a one-track mind.”

But Sadie had no other reasons to deny him, and what followed was a morning full of physical exertion – and not the amorous kind. Rather, they took turns lifting heavy boulders, swimming or running laps around the island, and engaging in light sparring matches against Nerthus’ helpfully-provided tree men.

In all, it was nice practice, but to Elijah, something was obvious – they’d both outgrown normal training methods, and they needed to get a little more creative if they wanted to progress.

Sparring against one another helped, but even then, their matches lacked a certain intensity that was necessary if they wanted the exercise to do much good. The problem was that Elijah didn’t really know how to make things harder. Boulders only grew so heavy, after all, and he didn’t find swimming through the ocean that difficult anymore.

It was just one more problem – most of which stemmed from ignorance – to add to the list. Perhaps he needed to visit the Branch to see if he could find a few solutions. Otherwise, his list would grow so long that he couldn’t keep track of everything.

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One thing he did have a handle on was cultivation, though. Elijah knew that he was more talented than most, but he only had to watch Sadie struggle with it to understand just how far ahead of everyone else he truly was.

And she was a couple of steps below him, where things were much easier, too.

In any case, Elijah had read in one of his guides that reaching the next stage of body cultivation – called Bronze – was far more difficult than previous advancements. He hadn’t even truly begun to attack the advancement itself. Instead, he was only in the preparation stage. Utilizing a technique he’d developed himself, the goal was to suffuse different parts of his body with ethera. Bones came first, then organs, muscles, and finally, skin. Only when he could push each one to bursting would he be ready for the next step – breaking everything down via exposure to incredibly destructive forces – which promised a level of pain he’d never experienced. And that wasn’t even the whole of it, either. Progression wouldn’t come cheap, and part of Elijah dreaded pushing ahead.

He knew it wouldn’t be fun, and according to the guides, this point of progression was responsible for the vast majority of cultivation-related deaths. Partially, that was because finding a proper environment, which wasn’t terribly common on most developed worlds. On those worlds, they were regarded as strategic resources and under heavy restrictions imposed by dominant factions. Getting access was reserved for those who could benefit those factions.

Everyone else had to look further afield, which meant braving wild and uncontrolled places where anything could happen.

And then there were the destructive elements themselves. Bathing in lava was the example given, and if the cultivator overestimated their ability to withstand the heat – by even a little – they would be melted.

There were alchemical solutions, of course, but those were incredibly expensive and reserved only for scions with immense wealth. On Earth, Elijah was pretty well off, but in the context of the wider universe, he was a pauper. So, that wasn’t really an option for him.

When he’d asked Biggle about it, the Alchemist had laughed in his face before making it abundantly clear that it would take a century or more of hard work before he reached the level necessary to concoct such a potion.

In any case, once he and Sadie completed their training, they headed to Ironshore. Sadie wanted to have lunch with Carmen – the two had struck up a friendship – while Elijah had a few errands he needed to run.

First on the list was a trip to meet with Kurik, who functioned as his liaison with the local hunters. Thankfully, the dwarf was around, which wasn’t a guarantee of late. Not only did Kurik have plenty of responsibilities, most of which he’d taken upon himself upon their return from the Trial of Primacy, but he’d grown even more distant when he’d learned of Dat’s death. His solution was to retreat into the mines and focus on building more defenses against another dark elf invasion.

By comparison, Ron had taken it much better, though Elijah hadn’t missed that the man spent the next couple of nights drowning his sorrows in a bottle at one of the local taverns. In any case, they had a proper memorial planned for when everyone was ready to face the reality of what had happened.

“Did you get it?” asked Elijah, stepping into what had been affectionately dubbed the Hunter’s Lodge. It was a building on the edge of the city – right next to the wall – where Ironshore’s Rangers and Explorers were headquartered. Ostensibly, the reason for its existence was so that they could coordinate their efforts, but mostly, it was just a place where they could congregate and tell stories about their hunts. Kurik spent a lot of time there – at least when he wasn’t in the tunnels beneath the city or out in the wilderness where he was truly comfortable.

Kurik looked up from where he was sitting in the corner, smoking his pipe. It was a new affectation, but it definitely fit him well.

“Yeah, I got it,” he growled, opening a small portal via the Key of Twisted Ethera he wore on a thong around his neck. A second later, a barrel slammed onto the floor. From what Elijah could tell, it was large enough to hold at least thirty gallons. Maybe as much as forty. “Best fat they could find. Came from a bear that was huntin’ our hunters. Woulda left it alone, but for how aggressive it was. Sure you understand.”

Elijah did, though it hadn’t been that long ago that he’d killed a bunch of hunters for doing something similar. Certainly, what they’d done was pointless murder, and the bear in question had been a guardian – which made a difference – but Elijah had since accepted that he couldn’t stop people from going down that road.

He regretted killing those hunters, even if, at the time, he’d felt completely justified.

Regardless, if he wanted to make soap, he needed fat. And he didn’t really have the time to go out and hunt beasts of appropriate level. So, he’d hired the task out, and judging by the ethera wafting off the contents of that barrel, he’d been right to do so.

“What level was it?” he asked.

“No higher’n a hundred. No lower’n seventy,” Kurik answered. “Good ‘nuff?”

“Good enough,” Elijah answered, pulling his folio from his pocket. He transferred the agreed-upon fee, then asked, “How are you doing?”

“Makin’ progress,” Kurik answered. “I’ll tell you what – if them dark elves try another invasion, they’ll be sorry for it. Might not kill ‘em all, but we’ll take a big chunk out of ‘em before they get here.”

“That wasn’t what I was talking about, man,” Elijah said.

“I know. But it’s what I’m talkin’ about.”

After that, Elijah gave Kurik what he wanted, which was an opportunity to talk about all the death and destruction his traps would wreak upon the enemy. Pointedly, he didn’t address the grieving process. Kurik had spent more time with Dat than anyone but Sadie, but he was clearly the sort of dwarf who kept his feelings on the inside.

Until they exploded.

When that happened, Elijah didn’t want to be in Kurik’s way.

Upon hearing the story of Dat’s death, Kurik had been ready to take it out on Nico, saying that the Healer had let him die on purpose. Sadie disputed that, and Elijah was inclined to agree. But if Nico had been there, Kurik would have certainly attacked the man – consequences be damned.

Elijah envied him that attitude, because in the wake of Dat’s death, he’d wanted to do something similar. Dropping Nico from the spire had been an option that had flitted through his mind. But he’d refrained, largely because he knew what that would do to his relationship with Sadie. More, he suspected that incompetence, rather than malice, was the reason Nico hadn’t acted.

Elijah stuck around for a while, but eventually, Kurik ran out of things to say. So, when the dwarf’s conversational skills had been exhausted, Elijah headed out, barrel thrown over his shoulder.

After that, he dropped by Biggle’s shop, where he picked up some other ingredients he needed for his latest batch of soap making. Thankfully, they fit into his Ghoul-Hide Satchel, which made walking around the city that much easier.

When he returned to Carmen’s smithy to reunite with Sadie, he found that the pair were engaged in a deep discussion about the origin of Sadie’s sword. It was a fantastic weapon she’d earned in a tower, but it had clearly seen better days. Unfortunately, Carmen didn’t think she could repair the notches along the blade.

Finally, Elijah remembered something important.

“Oh. I meant to tell you about this sooner, but it kind of slipped my mind,” he stated. Then, he went on to tell her about the elephant’s foot he’d found outside of Hong Kong. “It’s extremely powerful, and I was thinking that you might be able to use it for something.”

Carmen tapped her lip. “Hmm. I just got a new ability a few levels ago that might help me. Energy Shielding. It’s supposed to protect me from harmful effects, but I don’t know if it would do anything against radiation. I’d be willing to try, though. Get me a small piece, and we’ll test it out.”

Elijah agreed. Then, not wanting to waste any time – after all, there was no reason to, what with his ability to teleport – he headed to the grove and used Roots of the World Tree, focusing on his individual transportation. Immediately, he appeared in the center of the Circle of the Hunter.

Predictably, the clouded leopard was there, and it was hungry. Elijah had come prepared, though, and he tossed the creature a grove fruit before transforming into the Shape of the Sky and setting off for the ruined nuclear reactor.

It didn’t take long for him to reach his destination, and when he did, he was more than a little surprised by what he’d found. The energy in the area was just as potent as when he’d left, but some of the corrosive nature had dissipated. But that wasn’t what truly drew his attention. Rather, he was far more interested in the sunflowers, which had all grown to the size of houses.