Master of Dragons: Stage 3

Luna could feel a strong vibration on her thigh dragging her consciousness back from her brief slumber as her ilac's alarm triggered. The Driver seat was reclined and moved as far back as possible while the lights were off, the air conditioning was on running gently blowing cool air towards the Nature Fae. Luna's eyes gently opened and drifted towards the clock part of the display on the dashboard which as expected shown the time she set the alarm. Luna managed to show up relatively earlier then she agreed to meet Akeya thanks to a few favors from some local friends. When Luna first arrived in Minstrel she soon crossed paths with a Musketeer squadron led by Captain Timothy Johnson, who were traveling in their caravan, saying they were bound to take the wind magic powered train south.

Due to their pleasant experience working together in the past, Captain Johnson offered to let Luna ride with them on the Musketeer's exclusive train car, which would cut down the journey considerably for Luna and taken off a deal of stress. The ride was relatively uneventful, with mostly talk between Luna and Timothy about the struggles and drawbacks of Fiore mages handling international jobs and how it effects the local mages, then about the issues with joint assignments. Luna tried to advocate for a more neutral stance and saying that Fiore mages aren't better then anyone else and if everyone is trying to work towards a better end, that they should work together. However the discussion then turned into a debate over economy saying that Fioran mages are slowly taking work away in other countries from their local mages, before delving into a heated argument until Luna finally reached her stop. Once she did she retrieved her Harlem again from the storage on her private space station via the Infinite Improbability Chronometer. Once on the path she arrived at and drove through Pathetiqement, the town closest to the area of the next dragon.

Luna studied the book for what it had, since it referenced the town but she went further and researched through an article on the lacnet, and was astonished by what she found. The village was nothing but a withered shell of the days it had housing glorious warriors who would go onto inspire a small number of folkore and songs, in an long past era where the small town was a bustling city, until the wisps came. The town would soon become the edge of the abnormal as the area around the southeastern coast would be overflooded with wisps, mysterious spirits of wind. While they seem harmless, there have been a number of tragedies and victims that died under mysterious ways. However the town that relied heavily on their greatest warriors who seemed to be able to face gods, until one by one each returned a shell of themselves, each more withered then the last before all of them gave up fighting and settled into cowardice ways as they spent their lives crying out to all ears about the dangers of the wisps, and as time dragged on and more and more adventurers fell prey, the city dwindled more and more as they were now at the mercy of the wisps. The city fell, and the population dwindled as those that were either disbelieving and annoyed with the faith, or those that desperately feared the wisps lefts. The town slowly drifted into paranoia as the town was renamed to a more fitting name, Pathetiqement, which in Minstrel meant "Pathetical" to reflect it's current nature.

When Luna drove through the city she couldn't help but witness the strangeness as they offered up a third of their crop yield and deliver by attaching them to sacrificial pigs that run off into the woods. From what Luna heard this was meant to be some form of appeasement for the wisps to spare the small population of the village. Luna read through the tome that the town's long standing cowardly nature plus the wisps of wind magic in the area would make for a excellent condition for a wind dragon. Easy cover trying to blend in as one of them, supply of prey waiting yet being almost undisturbed, seemed to be an idea set up for Aeran. Eventually when Luna approached the area she was to meet with Akeya, the shadow Dragoness she was significantly early so she reclined her seat and took a nap.

However once she had awoken she looked around and couldn't see nor sense Akeya immediately however she knew the twilight dragon was not one to be seen unless she willed it. She reached over to the other seat and grabbed the open tome that the mysterious wizard given them outlining all the dragons before giving one last look to the parts about Aeran the wind dragon as she committed the facts to memory before she would close the tome and adjust the seat back to default position. She opened the door and got out slowly, looking around, dressed in a navy blue t shirt, a thigh length blue skirt and dark running shoes."Alright Akeya, I know you're out there, make yourself known." She said casually, merely half certain about declaring the presence of the twilight dragoness. She took a shot to see if Akeya was in fact there waiting for her or if she was late at this poinr. Closing the car door she walked around and sat on the foot of the bed as she opened her senses to the forest around, sensing all the forms of life but there was an ominous feeling in the air, one that would be harder to poinpoint the source of, but in all honesty Luna merely thought she was sensing the wisps, all of them.

Luna knew she was ill equipped to handle the specters, leaving her to only hope and speculate perhaps the twilight dragonness was. "Well this is going to be fun..."

WC 994
PWC 994
TWC 994

Reaching the location which Luna had chosen as their meetup spot was a simple affair. Once she was high enough up in the air Akeya could practically orbit around the planet, crossing the heavens and reaching her destination long before the mortals chained to the world below could even hope to see it in the distance. Once she was at the right coordinates she shot towards the ground, remaining invisible for the moment and also halting her descent once she was about a hundred meters above the land. She could feel that something was off here, and that it was a serious situation.

This southeastern part of Minstrel enjoyed a soft and warm temperate climate: the nearby ocean regulated the temperature to prevent extreme changes and provided moisture for plants and animals to grow. The wind which came from the sea also brought the warmth from Desierto, which meant that even during winter this area was relatively pleasant. Overall while this place wasn't quite tropical it should be the kind of climate which would make life thrive and civilizations wish to expand into the area. That was what Akeya had been expecting, and she'd figured that the air dragon, Aeran, would also find it a pleasant location to set up a lair.

Instead it looked like a significant portion of the area was plagued by some phenomenon which caused an unexplainable low temperature along with an excessive amount of humidity. Rather than a pleasant temperate climate this looked like someone had taken a swamp and cooled it down considerably, even if the flora and fauna still were more suited for the more modest climate that the dragoness had been expecting.

Well, the source of all this wasn't too difficult to imagine: Aeran had to be responsible for this. Akeya closed her eyes as she focused on the world below her, spreading out her sensory abilities. Dragons could easily become powerful enough to affect the environment inside their territory. Fire dragons were known for turning their lair and the surrounding lands into charred wasteland, possibly even awakening a volcano if they were particularly powerful and aggressive. Dark dragons had a preference for locations which were already dark, such as underground caverns or deep valleys where the sun rarely reached, but their presence could result in an almost permanent night.

Air dragons were varied, as the element of air was flexible and malleable. Like Terranora, the desert dragon, an air dragon could have an affinity for the hot and dry climate of the desert, creating giant storms filled with skin-scarring sand. They could carry with them the frosty gales of the tundra and the glacier. They could hold themselves aloft with the fresh breeze that travels across the plains and the hills.

In this case it looked like Aeron was the kind of air dragon who had a knack for cloud and mist. Perhaps he had the blood of a water dragon in his veins as well and it had influenced the nature of his own element. Either way, Akeya and Luna would have to deal with the fog that covered the lands. If it wasn't for Akeya's sharp eyes she wouldn't even have been able to see the ground. As it was she had to narrow her gaze.

She could, however, see the village which Luna had talked about, the one that the nature fairy would rather they avoided to not draw too much unwanted attention to themselves. Even from a distance, with the fog hanging low, Akeya could see that this village was one which had once been larger but fallen into decay and disrepair. That was most likely the result of Aeran's presence: even if he kept to himself the change in climate would have been bad for the crops. Plants might like water but being continually drenched promoted rot, and if this fog was persistent it would limit the sunlight and the warmth the plants required.

The dragoness considered investigating the village a bit further, but before she could settle on a decisive course of action she spotted something else. Some strange vehicle, fuelled by mana, moving through the verdant terrain and even through the village before heading straight towards where Akeya was supposed to meet Luna. Now that the vehicle was a bit closer the twilight assassin could also sense the fairy's presence: ever since Luna had snapped during the fight with Terranora she'd been harder to track. Maybe it had to do with the process of the divine slayer magic changing her nature? Or maybe that harvest goddess had done something... She needed more data to be sure.

However she also had the question what that vehicle was. She thought she'd heard of such a thing before, but she'd never actually used one herself or studied one up close. Was that what was called an automobile? The name implied that it was self-driving, which was strange given that there were plenty of vehicles that did that. Maybe it referred to the exact method applied to achieve such a result? Most self-driving vehicles relied on some sort of spirit or artificial semi-sapient magical entity. Akeya didn't sense a second presence (Luna being the first) so maybe the interesting aspect of this vehicle is that it could move itself without relying on some entity providing the thrust?

Strangely enough Luna didn't immediately get out of the automobile. Akeya waited patiently, then when the pink-haired fairy finally appeared she slowly descended, still invisible and hidden. Luna had proven herself useful up until now with no apparent hostility, but Akeya didn't trust easily. It would take a while before she'd consider letting her guard down, and even when she did... it was always good to have a card up your sleeve, even against close acquaintances.

"I am here, yes. I thought the goal was to avoid drawing attention to ourselves?" Touching the ground Akeya rendered herself visible again, stepping forward and glancing towards the vehicle Luna had been using before returning her focus to the fairy. "That aside, given that you moved through the village have you learned anything useful? This fog suggests that Aeran is applying his powers to the area, either consciously or unconsciously." She lifted a scaled and clawed hand to watch some of the fog glide through her fingers. "I must admit I had expected a dragon with an affinity for warmer winds, given the location. Perhaps he instead resides here because of the ocean."

WC: 1,079
PWC: 1,079/10,000
TWC: 2,073/20,000

Luna was becoming accustomed to the presence of Akeya, albeit a chill down her spine she was able to maintain her composure as the assassin closed in on her. She was mostly calmed by the fact that worrying does nothing, if someone like Akeya wanted her dead she wouldn't even get half the glimpse before she would be facing her final moments. However the fog itself was making visual contact a tad more difficult, however she assumed that she would just need to bare with it for the moment. Luna was not surprised however to hear that Akeya had some knowledge of the route the Fairy took to arrive at the rendezvous point and figured there was no use asking where Akeya was looking from. "Yeah, I believe I said it would be best if a Dragon and a Fairy, in this form I easily pass as human to those without a developed sixth sense. Which coincidentally happened to be every natural born citizen. Normally I could pass off as a sage to anyone that senses my aura but albeit not really stopping to talk no one paid me any mind." She explained to the Dragoness before trying to ease into what she learned through her research and first hand observation. 

She imagined that the dragoness might have a sizeable knowledge of reading crowds but was not quite sure whether or not Akeya had access to lacrima net, local contacts, or did any sort of historical research. "I'll spare the obvious comments on the state since you most likely' saw the ruins of the old city. Pathetiqement was actually once a bustling city of great warriors and joy, a bit like Magnolia that stood proud and tall. Until the fog and wisps got stronger one day, and the once proud warriors went off to slay the wisps." Luna explained briefly while keeping an open mind to sense the area around for any oncoming wisps. "However one by one then group by group they all returned shriveled husks of the men and women they were when they left, cowards scared of the shadows as they preached about the wisps. The best recovery any of them got was working desperately working at a farm to ensure offerings. That began a slow decline as those who were in disbelief of the wisps left and those that gave into the paranoia began to be more submissive to the elements as the city withered into a village in ruins. Interesting thing is, no one ever got a good look at the wisps, and few have seen them and lived, or recall them strangely enough."

Luna looked around and noticed a pair off tracks in the dirt before gesturing to them. On closer inspection and with the scent of pig and decomposed vegetables in the air accompanying her as she delved into her next point. "Tales are fuzzy as they divulged throughout history but they have countless explanations for the wisps, and several rituals for how to appease them. The most common of which is every five days they released overstuffed pigs with a sack of spiced produces into the forest as an offering. Strangely enough no pig corpses ever been found. None of the other rituals are of note as they are pure superstition, onion candles and coating a statue of a god in lambs blood while burying the ashes. Weird stuff but if the town wasn't renamed to translate the pathetic, odds are they'd be called Paranoïaque instead."

Luna had a few theories regarding the rituals but she had a feeling Akeya would rather her restrain them to the most pertinent for the matter at hand and how Aeran the wind dragon fit into the story of the town and the wisps. "While common theories are that the city's arrogance offended some ancient god, or all the glorious triumphs resulted in creating wind demonic wisps hell bent on vengeance, I think our mutual friend is more to blame. Which would make some sense when you consider the facts of climate, free source of food, entertainment, and seclusion it's more then likely Aeran is responsible."

Luna began to wonder what sort of dragon Aeran was as eh seemed to possess something of a manipulative and/or sadistic personality, brutally shaving down a strong city to a shell barely recognizable of it's former self intentionally or not was incredibly brutal. "Aeran is clearly no joke, I don't find it a coincidence that there was always a survivor from the old days, unlike Terranora, this dragon uses their strength cunningly." Luna began to speculate as she tried to sense beyond the area around, wondering if this fog was either natural or a result of the Dragon. Her left thumb and the side of her index finger rested on her chin as she tried to think about the situation. "Still, I also got to speak with a Musketeer on my way here, one who I got a few favors with. He gave me passage in the Musketeer's private train which saved me some time. I asked him about the area and since his time he hasn't really heard of anyone ever coming through the area and encountering much. The wisps are essentially immortal unless you have a master level wind mage, or a wind slayer of any sort Which is probably a benefit to Aeran."

Luna sighed as she started to regret leaving Mai in Ace of Spades, although she balanced out the pros and cons of bringing Mai along onto a job like this one. Cons being an incredible delay and she was worried the impression that Mai would make on Akeya and subsequently how that could affect the twilight dragon's opinion of Luna. The pros of bringing the Storm Goddess Slayer would be that she could probably eat the wisps away and prove to be effective against the wind dragon. "I personally have nothing that would prove effective, save for drastic measures. Personally I believe we should avoid the wisps as much as possible as fighting wind itself is difficult unless you have something in mind." Luna took a pause as she decided to stop providing information and attempt to reverse the tables and probe the dragoness to see if she had anything of value to add. "Anyways, the tome doesn't have much, just an illusion of the dragon and mentioning that the dragon was illusive to reports. Did you see anything of note from above or find anything I missed?"

WC 1084
PWC 2078
TWC 3157

Akeya raised an eyebrow as Luna defended her decision to drive straight through the village by arguing that she could pass off as a human. "I assume that the idea would be to hide our presence, not to merely hide our species. Because that vehicle of yours isn't very common or subtle." The pink-haired lady might have a point that she looked like a normal human with her default appearance, but that automobile was far from discreet. Akeya knew very little about that kind of thing and she would spend a large amount of her free time reading and researching: for people living out here in the open Luna's vehicle would most likely be almost otherworldly. And the dragon they were here for, Aeran, would also most likely have some interest in the strange form of locomotion.

However they weren't here to argue about what counted as discreet. What's done was done, and continuing to point out the risks of prior actions would be better left until after they were no longer in the territory of another dragon. This Aeran seemed to be a bit less openly aggressive than Terranora, given that there was still a village in the area at all, but even so he wouldn't just leave two powerful outsiders alone after they'd already come so close. If he was here: that was almost certainly the case, but Akeya preferred to remain open to alternatives so she wouldn't be completely caught off guard when things got strange and unpredictable.

When Luna explained that the ruined village used to be quite grand and filled with warriors before they all got scared off by the mist and the wisps Akeya snorted. "I guess they were more used to straightforward fights than tricky situations like these. We'll have to make sure we don't make the same mistake." As she spoke she glanced at their surroundings, emerald eyes scanning not only the physical but also the arcane. Whatever force was behind all this, whether it was Aeran or something else, there was no denying that brute force wouldn't be the correct answer. As a powerful dragon Akeya might be able to level the area but that... would be a dumb idea.

She shook her head when the fairy expressed some confusion at the lack of concrete data on the wisps. Given what they knew so far it wasn't strange that the orchestrator of this warped place would prefer to keep things as vague and difficult to understand as possible. "That's intentional. People have a harder time overcoming their fears and doubts when they're left guessing about the source." She wasn't about to be afraid of Aeran or his wisps or anything, but she did know a thing or two about how you had to manipulate people's weaker parts. She herself often didn't bother given that she didn't have much desire to control people anyway, but that didn't mean she was ignorant.

Following Luna to where there were some faint tracks, accompanied by the smell of pigs, Akeya raised her eyebrows. "...I see." That actually was important to know. If this ritual of sending a spiced up pig into the woods actually appeared to be effective that meant they had an additional clue as to how to get to Aeran. It might not be a certainty that it would work, but when you were starting out you had to keep in mind every possibility and not dismiss any just because they weren't absolutely certain to work. You could afford to be picky when you had plenty of options.

She remained silent for the rest of Luna's explanation, watching their surroundings even as one ear remained on the fairy so she could keep track of everything her companion had uncovered so far. Truthfully it wasn't much: Aeran clearly was dedicated to keeping all the answers hidden so people couldn't uncover the secret of his presence that easily. "And yet that man knew about it..." She shook her head as she looked straight at Luna. "It is most likely Aeran yes, and he does take a more secretive approach than Terranora. A difference in what they want out of their territory I guess. Regardless, right now we know little other than that nobody knows much about the situation and that we might have to deal with a great many ethereal nuisances." She narrowed her eyes at that, but before she could continue her ears twitched and she glared off into the distance.

Far, far away, there was the sound of pained moaning.

The twilight dragoness remained motionless for a moment, trying to pinpoint the sound, then shook her head before turning back to her companion. "...We'll have to be careful. For now, though, we don't have much choice but to follow the pig tracks and hope they lead to somewhere useful. I couldn't find anything from up above: the mist is so thick that even with my eyes I couldn't completely pierce it. It's almost certain that Aeran is somewhere in this area but we'll have to put in some more work before we can hope to find him."

"As for the wisps... I don't have any wind magic but I should be able to do something about them if they become bothersome. Although I'd first want to study them if possible." Light and dark were both elements which were good for dealing with difficult enemies like those. They often were linked to the spiritual.

"It might also be prudent for me to hide in your shadow for now. A magical mist with wisps floating about is definitely going to include some tricks to try and split people up, so the more we stick together the better." When going up against a dragon Akeya wasn't going to be careless and just assume that she would be able to deal with the problem on her own, especially with such limited information on the enemy. She might be the stronger combatant between herself and Luna but having the fae around would still be hugely beneficial. "It also might give me an opportunity to-"

Akeya fell silent as she sharply turned her head. Something was moving between the trees, but now that she was focusing on it there was nothing there. The dragoness let out a soft hiss as she tried to sense any magic, but there was a lot of mana in the air thanks to the mist so it was hard to pinpoint anything. "...We might already be watched."

WC: 1,083
PWC: 2,162/10,000
TWC: 4,240/20,000