Path of Dragons

The night was cold, and Wilhelm definitely wasn’t dressed for it. So, Elijah only led him a couple miles out of town before he stopped and made camp. There weren’t many trees in the steppes, so wood was at a premium. That meant that he was forced to use alternate fuel for his fire. Thankfully, he’d stocked up on coal and dried grass during his previous stint in Khotont. And with his laser pointer firestarter, it was a breeze to get a nice flame going. Elijah even dragged a couple of collapsable camp chairs from his satchel, completing the cozy scene.

“What happened to your clothes?” he asked as Wilhelm leaned close to the flickering flames. “I’m sure you didn’t come here wearing that.”

“I…I regret to say that I experienced a bit of bad luck,” the German man said. His accent wasn’t thick, but Elijah had recognized it all the same. “Ah, I miss my coat. It was Simple-Grade, you know. Waterproof. Very durable. Practically armor in and of itself. Now, who knows where it ended up? If they had just given me a little more credit, I could have won it back. I’m certain of it.”

Elijah didn’t miss the hint in that statement, but he had no intention of giving Wilhelm any money with which he could gamble. Clearly, the man had a problem, and Elijah wasn’t going to contribute to it.

“Here,” he said, reaching into his satchel and retrieving a set of warmer clothing and a thick coat he’d used before getting his Cloak of the Iron Bear. They’d been sitting in the bottom of his Ghoul-Hide Satchel since then, forgotten and unused. Wilhelm took the offering with no small degree of gratitude, layering the clothes over his own pitiful outfit – which consisted of a pair of thin pants, a cotton shirt, and a pair of cheap sandals. Elijah also gave him a blanket, admitting, “Probably should have stayed in town.”

“It’s not too late to return,” ventured Wilhelm, clutching the blanket around his shoulders. It was cold enough that his breath misted with each word.

Elijah considered it for a moment, but then he shook his head. “I don’t think that’s a good idea,” he stated. Part of it was that he just didn’t like staying in cities anymore. It was a bit of an odd situation. Usually, he looked forward to visiting new settlements, and he loved the idea of sleeping in a bed or enjoying novel foods while meeting new people. However, he’d become increasingly uncomfortable with dense civilization, meaning that after the initial burst of excitement that came with new experiences, he usually found himself wanting to head back into the wilderness where he was much more comfortable.

But the other reason Elijah didn’t want to go back into Khotont came down to Wilhelm. The man clearly had a potent gambling problem, and the city’s residents were more than willing to take advantage of that. He’d even gambled away his clothing. So, it wasn’t a big stretch to think that if Elijah let Wilhelm stay in Khotont for even a day more that the man would end up on the wrong side of more gambling debt.

Elijah didn’t so much care about the man’s well-being – outside of what normal human compassion dictated – but he did want to know about the so-called Conclave. And if it was an organization of import, perhaps he could garner some goodwill by helping their member.

There were a lot of assumptions at play, but it wasn’t as if Elijah had gone out of his way to help the man. His release hadn’t cost much, and Elijah hadn’t really changed his plans to cater to Wilhelm’s comfort. So, if the Conclave turned out to be a grandiose name for a weak organization – or worse, a fabrication on the part of Wilhelm – Elijah wouldn’t have lost much.

Still, he was eager to know more, so he broached the subject, saying, “You mentioned a Conclave. What is it? And why are you in the steppes? Are you an Explorer?”

“Sort of,” Wilhelm answered noncommittally. “Do you have any food? Water, perhaps? They didn’t treat me poorly while I was in custody, but they were not terribly considerate of my needs, either.”

Elijah sighed, then reached into his satchel and retrieved a strip of dried meat – it had come from one of the lizards around Seattle – as well as a large tin cup, into which he poured some water from his Everlasting Canteen. He handed both to the slight man, who took it with no small amount of gratitude. Wilhelm ate with gusto, tearing into his meal with a fervor that suggested he hadn’t eaten well in days.

Maybe the Mongolians hadn’t treated him as well as Elijah had expected.

Regardless, it wasn’t long before Wilhelm answered – around a mouthful of food – saying, “The Conclave of Travel is an organization of Scholars, Sorcerers, and Tradesmen who have begun to delve into the secrets of long-distance travel via teleportation. I am one of the founding members, and my job is to find appropriate locations and establish anchors so that our Ethereal Artificers can create portal locations.”

His explanation was laced with pride, and to Elijah, it seemed well-deserved. There was already a teleportation feature inherent in the system of Branches scattered throughout the world – and the wider multi-verse, he assumed – but those had a significant downside in that using them was incredibly expensive. Elijah was likely one of the richest individuals in the region, and the price of using Branch teleportation even a single time would have bankrupted him a hundred times over.

So, the notion that someone would have taken it upon themselves to create their own teleportation network was unsurprising. According to everything Elijah had learned, that was a common response to the terrible expense of the Branch’s version. Still, Elijah hadn’t expected it to have gotten very far. After all, Earth was still in its infancy, so he expected it to be quite some time before it caught up to the rest of the multi-verse’s level of progress.

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“How does it work?” Elijah asked.

“How is your grasp of mathematics?” was Wilhelm’s responding question. Then, with a grin, he launched into a mathematical explanation that reminded Elijah just how much he hated the subject.

Finally, after a few minutes of Wilhelm’s excited recitation of advanced equations, Elijah cut him off, saying, “The basics. I don’t need to know the numbers.”

“Ah. Right. I sometimes forget that others don’t share my…enthusiasm for mathematics,” he said with an embarrassed smile. “In the simplest terms I can manage, we tap into the world’s ambient ley lines. Some people call them roots of the World Tree, but we prefer a more neutral term. Regardless, Earth is covered in a dense web of these ley lines, and usually, the locations where they intersect are places of immense power. Normally, that’s where natural treasures appear. My job is to find these places, create an anchor so that our Ethereal Researchers and Tradesmen can travel to those locations and establish a portal apparatus.”

For a moment, Elijah was speechless. The revelation that they were so close to creating a teleportation network was quite the bombshell, and it left Elijah with a host of questions. But one rose above them all, and he asked, “How many have you found? And how close are you to getting it up and running?”

“Ah, there’s the rub,” answered Wilhelm. “I’m one of the only people capable of traveling through the wilderness with any reliability. Of course, without my bicycle, I will move more slowly, but my feet were, as they say, made for walking. I will manage to find one at some point.”

“One? So you haven’t found an intersection yet?” Elijah asked with disappointment. Then, he continued, “You have a bike?”

“I do! My pride and joy. When I was young, I would make up all these apocalyptic scenarios in my head,” the man eagerly explained, skipping over the first question. That told Elijah the answer. Wilhelm continued, “Zombie invasions and the like. I loved watching those sorts of films. But over time, I came to see all the mistakes they made. For instance, why does everyone go after automobiles? Why do they want to use motorized transport at all? Bicycles are very common, are suitable for all sorts of terrain, relatively easy to maintain, and, most importantly, only require an able-bodied person to operate. So, the moment the world changed, I found a bicycle shop and took my pick.”

“I see,” Elijah mused. It made sense, but for his part, Elijah would always prefer his own two feet – or wings, as it happened – over any wheeled contraption. “And that’s why you can travel through the wilderness? Is it a special bike? Do you have a class that uses it or something?”

“Oh, no. It is just a normal, albeit high-quality bicycle. I’m an Explorer by archetype, and while my class incorporates some Scholar-type abilities, I remain an Explorer,” Wilhelm said. “As I said, my job is to find the ley line intersections. I couldn’t do that very well if I had to worry about monster attacks every few kilometers.”

“Have you found many intersections, then?” Elijah asked, returning to his previous question.

Wilhelm sighed. “Regrettably, no. The intersections are difficult for me to perceive, even with my abilities,” he admitted. “I can only sense them from a maximum distance of a hundred meters. However, there is hope!” the man said, thrusting his finger into the air. “With every point of ethera I gain, my detection radius increases by half a meter! I merely need to gain levels in order to accomplish my mission.”

“Hmm,” Elijah said, one facet of his Quartz Mind whirling with the possibilities. Suddenly, a few things clicked into place. Perhaps the feelings he got when he was looking for places to build his dolmens had nothing to do with the natural treasures he usually found, but rather, it was possible that he could sense the intersecting ley lines. His very first dolmen hadn’t been built around a natural treasure, but he had still known precisely where to put it. So, after a moment, he asked, “What if I were to lead you to one of these intersections? What would that be worth to you?”

Wilhelm’s eyes lit up. “You know of one?”

“I feel pretty confident that I can find something like you described. So, what kind of a reward are we looking at? Also, how long does it take for your Conclave to build the portal apparatus? You said you’re the only one who can travel safely, right?”

“Ah…well…”

“What?”

“When I left a few months ago, they had yet to crack the code, so to speak,” Wilhelm sighed. “They were close. The math all adds up. However, we are missing the key to bring it all together. If we could see an actual teleportation, I feel certain that we could finish the project. The entire Conclave is working towards earning enough ethereum to pay for a teleportation via the Branch so that we can study the process.”

Elijah felt a smile spreading across his face. He didn’t know if Roots of the World Tree functioned on the same principles as the Branches’ teleportation feature, but he was willing to bet they were similar enough to give the Conclave some insight into their own research.

“And what if I could show you a teleportation? What about multiples? Could you do something then?” Elijah asked.

“Are you so wealthy?”

“I get by. But that’s not really the point. Do you have the skills necessary to use that information?”

“I do not. But I do have equipment meant to record any spatial anomalies. I’ve yet to see one, but theoretically, they should exist. With that equipment…ah…there’s a problem.”

“You gambled your equipment away.”

“I did.”

“I’ll get it back,” Elijah said. “Now, what do I get if I help you?”

“What do you want?”

Elijah narrowed his eyes. It was a good question. He was capable of traveling very quickly, but a teleportation network would still be very useful, especially considering that his dolmens were limited in number. Hopefully, that would increase when he upgraded his core – which was still an ongoing process – but he didn’t know by how much. If it was only one extra dolmen, then the teleportation network would be far more valuable to him than if it was ten more.

Regardless, it would be helpful.

“Free teleportation once you get your network up and running. Also, I want to dictate where the first apparatus goes,” Elijah said. “For that, I’ll get your equipment back, and I’ll provide a demonstration of teleportation.”

Of course, Wilhelm tried to negotiate, but he had no leverage at all. So, he ended up caving to Elijah’s demands. With that, the deal was struck, and Elijah resolved to return to Khotont in the morning so he could recover Wilhelm’s equipment. Then, he would get to work on holding up his end of the bargain.

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