“So, do we have an actual plan or are we just charging in and hoping for the best?” Visk asked as they sat down next to the stump at the center of the goblin village.

  Those already sitting around the stump were: Edith, Cassia, the old goblin known as ‘Croaker’, and Sir Kenneth. I had settled on my belly nearby, close enough to speak but not crowd the others. Everyone else relevant to the discussion was either recovering from their injuries or too busy to participate.

  The current topic of conversation was how to rescue Magnus from the Wizard who had kidnapped him.

  “We’re still working on a plan,” Edith responded testily. She tapped a rough sketch that she’d spread on the surface of the stump with one finger. “Between me and the young shite sitting across from me, this is what we can recall of the region beyond the Cloudshear Mountains.”

  Visk and I both peered at the sketched map. I’d never seen the area in person, but Visk seemed to recognize it. They picked up a charcoal stick that Edith had left lying nearby and scratched a couple of notes on it. “Me and… the others came across the Cloudshears here-” They drew a careful line on the map. “- to here. We never went towards Osteriath. The whole place is chock full of Wizards. Think your bad guy is there?”

  “That’s what we had speculated,” Sir Kenneth said, trying to be helpful. “He said he was a ‘Senior Lecturer’ at the Collegia Qaetil Aelnas-” Edith cut the knight off with a ‘tsk’.

  “That means ‘The School of Killing People’ you twat,” she said with a growl of annoyance. “Typical wizard. Tells you nothing but the truth, while still lying through their teeth.”

  “His name was also Mortimer, Edith,” I rumbled from overhead. “Didn’t you tell me once, that if your potion failed I ought to seek a man named Mortimer, in Osteriath?” The older woman grit her teeth. Her fist clenched on top of the paper for several moments before she took a deep breath to calm herself.

  “Yes, I’d considered that. I was too distracted to recognize it when you landed with T’laanga, but it's possible they are the same person. It’s still a little hard to believe. The description Raban gave me matches some of what I remember, but the mannerisms of the Wizard he met and the man I knew are… completely different.”

  “How do you know Mortimer, the one you’re thinking of?” Cassia asked quietly. She was busy fletching some new arrows for herself since she’d lost most of hers not long ago. “I don’t think you’d send me and Sanguine looking for a mad wizard on purpose.”

  “He… the Mortimer I knew taught me a great deal about Alchemy,” Edith said with a deep sigh. Despite having a new cabin to sleep in, she looked like she’d not slept in days. Worrying about Magnus was eating away at her. “I already knew a decent amount from my travels, but he said there was much more for me to learn. He didn’t care much about coin, which was a great benefit as I was… rather poor at the time.”

  “This Mortimer, the Alchemist, he helped you for free?” I asked suspiciously. While I’d met kind people in the world, such as Edith herself, it seemed to be an uncommon trait for humans. “What did he gain from teaching you?”

  “I’m not entirely sure,” Edith admitted uncomfortably, raising one hand to trace the broach in her hair. “Sometimes he would have me sample a new potion that he was concocting, but there was always a lot of testing before we ever got to human trials.” She moved her hand to pinch the bridge of her nose. “I wondered if maybe he was after the… limited magical Talent I possess, but he never asked about it directly.”

  “Well, maybe the Mortimer you knew and the kidnapper just happen to have the same name?” Cassia suggested optimistically. “Osteriath is a big city right? There can be more than one person named the same thing, without people getting confused like in a small village.”

  “Either way, an educated man such as an Alchemist would know more about dealing with Wizards than most,” Sir Kenneth tried again. The man was still trying to justify his and Sir Raban’s continued survival to Edith. Raban would not live long without continual aid, even though Edith had successfully removed the branch through his gut. “Perhaps you can visit this man to see if they are the same person?”

  “I’m not going anywhere any time soon if yer friend wants to keep breathing,” Edith said with a sigh. “Magic or not, he came within a hair’s breadth of dying. If I leave him to his own devices, he’ll kark it as soon as my back’s turned.” Cassia went to speak, but Edith waved her off.

  “And don’t ask about the potion I gave ye lass. That was bloody mad of me to use on ye. Only reason we didn’t explode on the spot is because we have some innate Talent. Yonder knight-on-a-kebab doesn’t have a lick of magic in his body. Even what Sanguine used to keep him alive pushed what his flesh can handle to its limit.”

  Sir Kenneth glanced up to me fearfully, but looked away quickly when he noticed me watching.

  “Croaker, other gobs, no go,” the older goblin grunted from where he sat. Sparrow was still the ‘official’ liaison between me and the goblin tribe. Croaker had quickly shown his skill in gathering herbs and general common sense to Edith. He tended to stand in her shadow for when she needed something done. “Gobs not welcome, in human city.”

  “So if Raban will die from moving, that means Edith needs to stay and take care of him. And if the goblins are out, that leaves…” Cassia looked between Visk and Sir Kenneth. “Us three?”

  “I’m going as well,” I interjected, a deep rumble rising out of my chest. “I swore to rescue Magnus. I am not going to leave it to others.”

  They all stared at me for a long moment.

  “Sanguine… you can’t go into a city full of Wizards,” Edith said firmly. “They’d go after ye like a pack of hyenas to a choice slab of beef.” I narrowed my eyes at her, growling under my breath. Edith pointed her finger at me in turn. “Don’t get hissy with me, mister! I’m the one that asked ye to save Magnus, so ye’d better listen good!”

  Edith smoothed out her apron and skirt, huffing through her nostrils.

  “Wizards are almost always bad news. I was lucky that I got out of Osteriath with a bit of knowledge and the clothes on my back. T’laanga… scolded me thoroughly when we met each other again afterwards. He wouldn’t go anywhere near the place. The only reason I even suggested ye go looking for Mortimer is because I thought he’d be different, and yer situation was especially desperate."

  “Now that ye are this big, trying to hide yer presence would be impossible. Ye’ve been working hard on hiding yer magic, I can tell. But with the amount ye’re carrying around just being yerself, it’d be like ringing the dinner bell.”

  “So I’m just supposed to stay behind and wait?” I growled. “I won’t let others go into danger just to save my own hide.”

  Before the discussion could fully go off the rails, Visk spoke up. “It’s not like the Boss has to go through the city like a bull in a china shop, right?” When several pairs of eyes landed on them, Visk’s ears twitched. They pushed onward and kept speaking.

  “I don’t figure most of you are too experienced with… sneaking around. But you need people with multiple skill sets to break into somewhere dangerous and get out alive. I’m a fair hand at doing actual skullduggery.” Their moonlit eyes flicked up at me before they looked back to Edith. “But you need someone who can talk their way into places, someone who can fight, and someone to make sure everyone gets away.”

  “The knight can handle the talking bit, since no one would expect a face like that to be full of shite.” Sir Kenneth looked like he wanted to object, but kept his mouth shut when Edith glared at him. “And Cassia is getting really good with her bow, right? I figure between the three of us, we might be able to track down the kid’s location. Then the Boss can swoop in, yank us off the ground, and fly off over the horizon before anyone’s the wiser.”

  Silence settled over the group for a minute as we considered the proposal.

  “I do have one question for ye, Visk,” Edith said eventually. “As much as I appreciate yer suggestion, why do ye want to help? This would be sticking yer neck out for someone you don’t even know.”

  Visk reached up and rubbed their fingertips across their ears gingerly before answering.

  “W-well the Boss is gonna go whether I help or not, right?” My amber eyes were settled on Visk from overhead. Their words sounded true, but there was more to it. “If he goes and just smashes his way through the place… they’ll probably end up catching him in a trap and I… I don’t want that to happen. So…” Visk had their eyes planted firmly in the dirt now, their ears twitching constantly.

  “... I guess that settles it then,” Cassia remarked with a thin smile. “Sanguine said he can’t sense anything wrong with Magnus yet, correct? We can take tonight to prepare and leave in the morning.”

  “So, uhm, Boss…,” Visk said to me as we walked back into the caves that led to my Den. “There’s something I needed to tell you.”

  “What is it, Visk?” I asked, pausing mid stride. We stood in the large cavern where the lone pomegranate tree grew. Weak sunlight spilled in from the opening in the cavern’s ceiling. Visk walked around my side until they were looking me in the eye.

  “There’s… I’ve been doing some looking around these caves, right?” Visk said nervously. “While you were asleep or busy doing other stuff. They go pretty far down.” My eyes tracked up and down Visks’s body. They seemed to be uninjured, so whatever they’d found probably hadn’t been dangerous.

  “Was there something interesting in the caves, Visk?”

  “Ah! Well, yeah Boss, there was,” Visk replied. They pressed the tips of their fingers together in front of their face. “You remember how I mentioned there might be an entrance to the World Below?” They quickly continued speaking as I gave off a low rumble. “There’s not! Not exactly. I checked. But there is a door.”

  “A door?” I asked thoughtfully. “So not a natural part of the cave, then. Did you try to open it?”

  “N-no Boss!” Visk said, shaking their head vigorously. Their white hair rippled back and forth across their shoulders. Visk often kept it tied up in a ponytail behind their head, but they’d been leaving it loose lately. “I thought you might want to… to go check it out before we left? Just in case it was dangerous.”

  Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

  Visk wasn’t wrong, I supposed. If this door opened up into the caves connected to my Den, I’d want to at least block it off until I could investigate it properly. I’d hate for something deadly to come out while I was away rescuing Magnus.

  “Very well. Show me to the door, Visk,” I rumbled softly. Their eyes immediately lit up in excitement and they turned to lead the way. Whether they meant to or not, Visk gained a distinct pep in their step.

  “It’s over this way Boss. There’s a lot of twists and turns, so stick close to me!”

  I shook my head before following after. While this was interesting news, I suspected that Visk was still up to something. If this proved to be a distraction, I could always pin them to the cave wall with my claws until they admitted what game they were playing.

  True to Visk’s words, the path to the hidden ‘door’ took expert navigation to follow. I’d finally been able to detect some of Visk’s scent recently, but I still needed to keep a close eye on the elf to make sure that I didn’t lose them. For their part, they regularly stopped to make sure I was still close. Several of the gaps that Visk was easily able to fit through proved difficult for a dragon of my stature.

  At the end of the twisting path was a stone gate. The tunnel we’d been travelling down ended abruptly after turning a corner. Visk waited for me right at the corner, bouncing up and down on the balls of their feet. When I turned the corner, they held out both of their slender arms to the ‘door’. “Tada!”

  “... Visk, this is more than a door. It looks like the entrance to a castle,” I said slowly.

  Once again, Cassia’s storybooks were the only point of reference I had for such a structure. Twin stone slabs rose from the floor of the tunnel to near the ceiling, where they met a reinforced head jamb. In front of the stone doors was a portcullis, wrought from some manner of dark metal. One end of the portcullis was embedded in a worked stone slot on the floor, while the other vanished into the ceiling.

  There were handles on the inner doors, but no visible means of raising the portcullis to access them.

  “W-well I guess that’s true Boss,” Visk said primly. “But it’s really interesting right? There’s no sign of there being a structure down here til you get to this gate. Normally there’d be something like, mine workings… or something.”

  “That’s two ‘somethings’, but not many specifics, Visk,” I mused out loud. “But this is an interesting find.” I reached forward with one claw and attempted to scratch the metal of the gate. These days, I had to be careful to not scratch iron pots and pans with my claws due to their strength and sharpness. The dark metal of the gate, surprisingly, chipped my claw without a scratch. “Very interesting…”

  Visk seemed to be quite pleased with themself as I continued to examine the gate. There were close quarters in the tunnel due to my bulk, but they happily shifted back and forth in front of me to avoid being pressed into the tunnel wall. When I tried to examine the gate with my Vitae attuned eyelids in place, I was shocked to see the gate as a void in the world. It looked like someone had painted a black swatch over my eyes.

  “Whatever this is, it will not be easy to investigate,” I eventually concluded. “I probably won’t be able to brute force it open. Even if I could, I’m getting a feeling that I shouldn’t.” The elf seemed disappointed by this news. Their ears wilted downwards. “We’ll come back to this when we don’t have a rescue mission to plan. Let’s back out for now and figure out how to block this tunnel off.”

  Backing up out of a tunnel is not an easy thing to do, as I’d learned early in life. Thankfully this wasn’t a life or death situation, so I could take my time. It took me a while to reach a point where the tunnel widened out enough for me to turn around. Visk followed after me, still looking glum.

  As I concentrated on the stone around me, I was able to sense something like thin veins flowing through it. They were natural flaws in the stone, razor thin splits where water and natural stress had broken the earth apart. With a careful breath I blew some of my magic into the cracks surrounding the tunnel leading back towards the Stone Gate. Once the cracks were full, I gave a mental push. “Close.”

  Behind us, the stone slid together and closed. The tunnel leading to the Stone Gate was blocked off seamlessly to the naked eye. Visk gave a small gasp of surprise, but recovered quickly.

  “Gee Boss, aren’t you worried about getting it back open?” They asked me softly. “I know you have a lot of magic, but that’s… that sure was something.” Visk's tone still sounded dejected, which was beginning to bother me. I knew that they had been excited to show me the door, but surely they understood why we couldn’t pry it open right now?

  “Visk,” I rumbled at the elf in a low tone. They were standing down the tunnel from me. When I said their name their ears shot upwards towards the ceiling and they tensed up. “What aren’t you telling me?”

  “I-I-I d-don’t know what you m-mean, Boss,” Visk muttered as they reached up with both hands to try and restrain their ears. “E-everything’s f-fine!” I caught the smallest whiff of the elf’s scent. Visually, it would almost be invisible with the softest tinge of cream-white.

  The signs that a human might give did not match the elf. Their face remained almost placid even when Visk was extremely nervous. I suspected that the way they spoke was a learned behavior, rather than something natural to them. Only their ears and the tiny hints of their scent while feeling powerful emotions likely reflected their true intentions.

  I’d only known Visk for a little while, but I was growing increasingly certain that they chose to portray themselves as much more pitiful and weak than they actually were.

  My chipped claw extended out and nudged Visk. They took one step back, then another, until their back was against the wall. As carefully as I could in the confined space, I spread my other claws and braced them against the stone surface around the elf.

  “Viiisk,” I said again, more forcefully. “You’ve been doing good until now.” A certain word made them tense up from that sentence, but I wasn’t able to figure out which one yet. “Tell me what is going on. You stuck your neck out by offering to help Magnus, but now you’re acting… suspicious. If this is a game, we don’t have time for it.”

  Visk’s ears were vibrating so intensely that I wondered if the elf was about to fly away. Words seemed to fail the elf for a minute as they opened and closed their mouth several times. All that came out was a couple of small squeaks that reminded me of a prey animal. When eventually Visk did speak, it came out as a rush.

  “I-wanted-you-to-praise-me-and-say-I-did-a-good-job!” Visk spat out. The slate colored skin of their ears darkened to the shade of the Stone Gate’s portcullis. I stared at Visk. Visk did their best to shut their eyes and stare at the void behind their eyelids. Their ears continued to vibrate intensely.

  “What?” I said, truly baffled.

  “What?!” Visk whimpered. “J-just forget I said anything! It’s fine. I’m fine.” The elf tried unsuccessfully to wriggle out of my claws. I tightened my grip just a bit.

  “Visk… if you want me to praise you, you don’t need to… Do whatever this is,” I told them slowly. “It’s the same, if this is why you offered to help Magnus.” Visk continued to struggle weakly under my claws for a moment before they slumped against the wall.

  “Just kill me now,” Visk mumbled to themself. “Just set me on fire or close the stone up around me.”

  “You know I’m not going to do that,” I said before finally letting them go. Visk slid down the wall until they were sitting on the floor of the tunnel. “I’ll praise you all you want, but whatever this is, I don’t understand it. Is it an elf thing?”

  Visk grabbed onto both of their ears to hide them, presumably before they could get any darker.

  “N-no… It’s a ‘me’ thing,” Visk whispered eventually. “I’m… I’m weird, even amongst other Dok’aellen.” The elf was doing their very best turtle impression. Even though they couldn’t shrivel up into their own body, they were putting in a solid effort.

  “... Visk, I’m sorry, but you’re going to need to explain more clearly.” As carefully as I could in the confined space, I settled down onto my belly and brought my head close to Visk. “I already swore to not tell anyone about you speaking…” I squinted as I tried to remember. “Bashellen?”

  “It’s bhash’aellen, Boss,” Visk mumbled. “It’s the… ‘secret’ language of the gullae.”

  “And those are…?”

  “Elves, Boss. At least the low caste ones.” Visk sat up straighter against the wall of the cave. “I’m not a history nut, y’know? Don’t really go in for obsessing about bloodlines and that kind of stuff. But the basic version is that we’re… not like humans.”

  “If you’re born to a family of dirt poor farmers, a human will likely grow up and live their whole life to be another dirt farmer. But things can happen. A human can be born as a Sorcerer, or run off and be taken as an apprentice by a Wizard, or go fight in a war and get turned into a knight!”

  Visk spoke with uncommon emotion. Fear and anxiety were common when they spoke to me, but as I’d thought earlier, those were probably affectations. This was likely as close to Visk’s true thoughts as I was going to get.

  “With elves… if you’re born a gullae, you will die a gullae. We have some natural magic. The higher ‘rank’ you are, the more you get. Dark elves like me are naturally good at blending into the shadows and sneaking around, but that’s all we’ll ever be good at. No matter how hard we try, we don’t ever grow.”

  “You said that the ‘gullae’ are low caste. That means you’re servants?” I asked carefully. Visk nodded glumly in response.

  “Got it in one Boss,” they said bitterly. “There’s us, the jang’aellen, and the yodd’aellen. That’s… uhm… I guess they call ‘em ‘wood elves’ and ‘soldier elves’, though most people call the ‘soldiers’ just Elves. Different jobs, but we’re all just gullae at the end of the day.”

  “There’s a different kind of elf that you serve?” I continued asking. This was all brand new information to me. Human fairy tales talked about elves like they were mythical creatures dancing in the woods. Visk’s life sounded much more complicated, if rather depressing.

  “Oh if they caught you calling them an elf, they’d…” Visk started to say, before they wilted again. “They’d get really mad and try to kill you. I’ve never met one in person, but they’re called the Aella’dareen. It means… something like ‘those who are honored’.”

  Visk looked me right in the eyes. Their moonlit orbs watered slightly. “Boss, I know you’ve already sworn to never mention this to anybody… but please. Please. If you ever run into other elves, don’t mention any of this. Act dumb, like we’re just pointy eared humans.”

  “I’ll try,” I said with a sigh. “But what does this have to do with you being praised?” Visk slumped, defeated. Perhaps they’d been hoping to distract me from that topic with their people’s history.

  “I… I just really like it, okay?” Visk whimpered. “I promise that’s not the only reason I’m helping.” The elf looked completely wrung out. This conversation had taken a lot out of them.

  With another rumble, my head dipped down and nudged Visk on their face. I rumbled into their ear. “Good elf.”

  I watched as Visk went completely still. Even their ears stopped twitching. They stared at me with glassy eyed shock for a long moment. Without warning, they shot out from beneath my head. Visk moved faster than I’d ever seen. Their feet slapped the hard stone as they ran down the tunnel away from me, completely abandoning all stealth in favor of fleeing as fast as possible.

  ‘Why was their scent happy, if that’s their reaction?’ I wondered to myself.