Rieven looked at Big Red. He was smaller than the statue above them. While the monument stood kilometres in the air, the actual article was only about sixty metres long. There was plenty of space for him in the shuttle bay, though it felt much smaller with him present. The dragon sounded irate, the rasping rumble of his breath coming quickly and louder than expected. He looked Rieven in the eye and thought became a distant dream. He felt connected to Big Red, and it felt like jumping in a freezing pool. His body heat was being ripped from his body. The warmth of his blood was seeping out into the cool floor. He was going to drop a cold corpse and there was nothing he could do about it.
Master Sergeant Ono’s voice came over the squad comms, “Boys, no sudden moves. If we have to melt his face off, we will, but that’s not going to be any fun and I don’t plan on dying today. Let the commandant do his thing, be ready to melt those minnows below him though. We will not wait for him to sort them out if they decide to attack again.” Strangely, hearing Ono’s voice broke the connection between him and Heat Death Virabdhara and Rieven could think again. His body quickly began to warm as he cycled axiom through the laces in his body. More and more he began to think that his hind brain was trying to kill him. At least now he knew why a dragon that breathed fire was called Heat Death. That was insane. He immediately ceased lacing axiom through his body and brought his faceplace back to prevent it from occurring again. Hopefully it worked; he never wanted to hear the phrase ‘stone cold’ again.
He reached behind himself and pulled the kinetic rifle around his shoulder and flipped the safety off, setting the butt against his shoulder. He wasn’t about to be eaten without arguing about it. Big Red moved to speak and Rieven’s entire formation took two steps back, every weapon aimed at a target. He paused for a moment to see if the formation would do anything. When they did not move from their new position he demanded, “What have you done?”
That voice was an assault on its own. Rieven’s whole body heard it, not just his ears. Big Red looked down at what used to be his envoy, then looked back at Rieven’s face, trying to look him in the eye, but thankfully the interference of the faceplate prevented that strange connection from forming. Rage burned in Rieven’s chest at the thought of what the dragon was trying to do to him because his envoy was an asshat. He switched the external comm function on his suit on and his voice ground out, ice grinding against stone.
“Are we going to talk and understand each other, or are you talking now and then eating us later? Because I’m happy to just jump to the eating bit – no need to argue if that is where you are determined to take our relationship, I’m curious what dragon steak tastes like.” His whole body was tight and his weapon was on a hair-trigger.
Big Red breathed in deeply and then breathed out slowly, like an angry man trying to regain his temper. A few moments later he said, in a much more reasonable volume and tone, “What have you done?” Rieven could see the flash of intense hubris and dislike that shone in the dragon’s eye for a moment. Well, that was telling, he thought, Big Red is not the good guy he presents himself as. Perhaps I should treat him like a more intelligent greenie? Step smoothly now. Don’t want to crack the ice I’m walking on. Slow is smooth, smooth is fast. He repeated that as a mantra a few times in his mind and then replied in a measured voice, though one still cool.
“I have done what was required. You sent a stonefish to host me. I have acted in good faith. I have accepted the Sword of Consequence. I have received your son with honour. I have endured the condescending dragon who piloted that shuttle here.” One of the dragons flinched at that. “I have three times been insulted. I have been falsely accused of both having no honour myself and of staining your honour. I have, as consequence, cleaned your house of the rot within, for a stonefish can harm both master and guest.
“You are lord of this vessel and the life that resides therein, and of the fleet which surrounds you. I am the same for my vessel and for the Imperial Fourth Navy. Do not test me any longer. I am not prey. I am the commandant of the Void Stalkers.” The other dragons hissed at that in shock. Rieven looked at them briefly and his tone of voice shifted even lower, “I am disappointed to find that guest rights do not exist in this empire, for if they had, these dragons would have acted as honourable dragons rather than flighty fish.”
Some of them flinched, ashamed at his words, others hissed in anger.Big Red did not blink. He looked to his left and the sunlight reflecting off a mirror there began to bunch and to gather in front of his face. Rieven watched what looked to be an axiomated recording of the events from his receiving Jackie Boy to this moment, complete with sounds and even smells (according to the readout on his HUD, which he could see now that his faceplate was active again). It was impressive because light was tricky to axiomate for the Operatic Empire, yet this dragon did it without thought.
As the recording moved along, Big Red’s face grew darker and darker, until by the end he was snarling at the dragons below him. They had knelt in prostration and were silent as the grave, some looked to have stopped breathing to make even less noise. He looked at the one that had flinched when Rieven mentioned piloting the shuttle. “Eye to eye and soul to soul.” At the command the dragon looked up at Big Red. Two moments later it fell to the floor, dead and cold.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
Big Red addressed the rest of the welcoming committee, “My realm has been dishonoured by bottom feeders.” He turned to Rieven and his voice rasped out quietly, “You have been mistreated and you have been maligned. I would make it right, beyond the price you have already taken and for the service you have done for me, unasked” there was a little ire in his face as he said the word ‘unasked’, gone so quickly Rieven thought it might have been imagined if it weren’t for his intense study of the dragon’s face, looking for any clues as to his next action. “What price would you name?”
Rieven, not relaxing, pondered this. He flipped to his private channel with Ono. “Ono, what does your boy want for his trouble?”
Ono laughed. “Oh sir, it was no trouble at all. Still, the boy must have something as a trophy. For his part, get him the claws and the fangs from that thing, that plus the suit recordings of the event will get him bragging rights anywhere in imperial bounds. For the rest of the boys, let them execute the lil fishies in front of us as payment for him almost killing you with the eyes of death. I call the one on the right, gotta get me some dragon claws somehow.”
Rieven smiled to himself. That was reasonable. As for himself, he wanted salvage rights. This was his chance. He addressed Big Red, “I wish for three things: One, for my men to execute those minnows at your feet. Two for their bodies to be remanded to my custody. Three: Salvage rights on all destroyed or disabled ships from greenie’s fleet.” The dragon looked like he’d gotten off easy. He smiled sharply and immediately said, “Of course commandant, those three items are yours. I will even gift you the contents of the ships claimed as well as the shuttle you arrived on.”
“Done!” Rieven said. That was perfect. It was just what he had hoped for and while he guessed that he could have gotten more, a lot more by how quickly his terms were agreed to, he was happy. That was the most important part in a deal, even if he overpaid. Big Red stepped back to allow them to handle the minnows. Ono’s team moved forward and at his command in the team channel they fired their kinetics. Their guns echoed loudly in the stone room and blood sprayed in chaotic patterns. The firing continued until five more dragons had changed shape. None caught fire. Four of the squad were assigned to drag the corpses onto the shuttle, taking great care to keep track of which was whose kill. Couldn’t have the wrong trophies go to the wrong person, after all.
Big Red spoke then, regret in his tone, “Upon review, it would appear that Rising Sun Ahknahten has buried his spines deep within my flesh without my knowledge. I will take steps to correct this.” A working of faded red appeared in a triangle around the dragon and the shuttle, with the shuttle at the tip and the dragon at the base. “There, now no one will hear what is about to be said. The custom of ritual combat originated to provide satisfaction for slights of honour and for personal grievances. It can be to the death, but that is not the norm. Your rite of ritual combat with Rising Sun Ahknahten will, should you be victorious, result in the loss of his nature; for he betrayed himself when he attacked your navy and your victory will prove it to him and to the Empire of the Celestial Skies.
“His orders were to ascertain your Lord Admiral’s intentions and convey them to me. He did not. He attempted to play the game all weak dragons play and he played it poorly, as did those whom your men are removing from my floors now. They were players in his game.
“Though your ritual combat will not be to the death, I tell you now, with my son as surety, nothing you do during the rite nor anything you say shall hold negative consequence, nor shall he heal from any damage you impart. The working in the Room of Rites will guarantee it; they shall close, but they shall scar and never regenerate. The lesson you teach today shall be writ on his body for his life’s duration. Additionally he shall lose his nature and become Ahknahten only. The Rising Sun will be permitted another claimant.”
Rieven was silent for a moment, taking it all in. That was a knowledge dump and no mistake. He flipped to Ono’s private comms channel, “Ono, you hear that?”
“Sir, I’ma have to skin mine and hang that skull over my bunk. I don’t know what you’re going to do with the info you just got handed, but if you don’t get a trophy from greenie, I will never forgive you. Worlds without end.”
“Thanks Ono, that was helpful,” his voice dripping with sarcasm. I don’t know about trophies, I still have to see how big this guy is. To that end he spoke to Big Red. “Thank you Heat Death Virabdhara, for that information. How large is my opponent?”
“He is about half my growth.” Rieven felt much relieved. He figured he could survive this, and maybe get a talon, or even a whole claw if he played his cards right in this upcoming combat. “He will most likely move to ban you from using those kinetics, now that their power has been proven in the Paradisiacal Halls.”
Rieven found that not surprising. In fact, that was the least surprising thing about this whole experience. Having an opponent vying for advantage and attempting to tear down his own advantage felt like an old friend.
The dragon continued, “There is, however, a complication. In your righteous indignation you have named your nature. This by itself would not be too troublesome, were you a dragon, but you are not. This is compounded with the fact that you named your nature after one of death’s aspects. That is not done, not since before the lost families were destroyed by the Wythgoesh. It has since become the omen of doom, both to its bearer and to others. To make matters more controversial, you named the aspect that was last claimed by the most prominent of the lost families, the Drakes. Their deeds and their hoards are legendary. You will have such obligations to fill that I do not envy: to make the Drakes proud of your deeds will be no small accomplishment. Glad you should be that they are dead or you might never accomplish it.
“If you defeat Rising Sun Ahknahten this day, your name shall be ratified in the stars and all rights and privileges of being Named in the Empire of the Celestial Skies shall be yours.
“You will have become your nature and begun your hoard well, young black dragon.
“Or to put it in your language: Black Drake.”
