Path of Dragons 8 - Chapter 43 - Parting Ways

“I’ll just leave it with you,” said Elijah. 

“What?  Are you leaving already?” asked Lucy, still leaning over the microscope.  Apparently, the tool was useful for seeing ethereal flows in addition to magnifying its subject.  She looked up.  “The Summit’s still ongoing.”

Elijah shrugged.  “I have things to do,” he said.  “Sadie is going to take notes for me.”

“Elijah, this is about the fate of our world.”

“I’m aware,” he said.  “But I think I have a lead on an unmarked Primal Realm.  I’m going to go check it out, then report back.”

“You should stay,” she said.  “I’m close to a breakthrough with this seed.  You should be here when I crack it.”

He rubbed the back of his neck.  “Talk about cracking and breaking that seed makes me nervous.”

“Don’t change the subject with a joke, Elijah.  This is serious.  You really need to stick around,” she insisted.

“Would it help if I said I was going to rescue some people?”

“Not really.  If they were really in danger, you would have already done it.”

That was true.  The plane crash survivors were definitely not safe, but if they’d survived for as long as they had, then they weren’t in immediate danger of getting wiped out.  No more than anyone else, at least.  That was one reason he hadn’t already gone to rescue them.  However, with Isaiah’s description of the conditions surrounding Primal Realms, everything had clicked together.  Now, he felt relatively certain that one hid within the storm. 

Which didn’t bode well for the survivors, but that was why he’d finally chosen to go help them.

Mostly.

As he’d already told Sadie, he also felt that it was against his best interests to remain in Seattle.  If he didn’t leave soon, he knew he’d end up doing something he’d regret.  Time and distance were the only cure for the anger he still felt simmering within. 

He really needed to get a handle on it, though.  He’d never been a particularly angry person.  Sure, he’d had his moments, but no more frequently than anyone else.  Now, though, it was like a burr in his mind, steadily digging deeper with each passing moment. 

“Elijah?  You there?” asked Lucy.

“Yeah.  Sorry.  Just stressed, I guess,” he lied.  “Are you seriously close to figuring it out?  The seed, I mean.”

“I think so,” she said.  “But it’s not just me.  I have seven Botanists and Horticulturists looking into it, too.”

Elijah looked around the empty laboratory.  “Are they invisible?”

“It’s the middle of the night, Elijah.  They have families.  Lives.  In case you haven’t noticed, there’s a lot going on in Seattle.  Most of them are down at the stadium enjoying the games.”

Elijah frowned.  He’d checked in on those, but he’d been disappointed to find that the combatants weren’t allowed to use skills.  That was probably for the best – considering the damage some people could do – but it was definitely a letdown.  Thankfully, they’d taken measures to ensure the safety of the fighters, including having multiple Healers there. 

Regardless, it was an interesting spectacle, watching a pair of superhumans duke it out.  Apparently, there were team events as well.  For those, the arena would be transformed to mimic one of a dozen or so battlefields.  It was all in the welcome packet Elijah didn’t read, so he had no idea how it was all accomplished.

“What about you?” Elijah asked. “No interest in that kind of thing?”

“I couldn’t even go to your boxing matches when we were kids,” she said.  “There’s no way I’d watch something like that.”

Lucy was a gentle soul, and not for the first time, Elijah wondered how she’d managed to survive.  He’d heard her story, but he knew there had to be more to it.  Perhaps she’d just gotten lucky. 

“All work and no play makes Lucy a dull girl,” Elijah said, sitting on one of the stools.  “What do you do with yourself when you’re not investigating a seed that could very well save hundreds of thousands of people?”

“I’m here pretty much all the time.  This place requires a lot of attention.”

“No pastimes?  No hobbies?” he asked.

“No time.  You probably know all about that.”

“Not true.  I have hobbies.”

“Really?  Do tell.”

“Well, I make soap, for one.  Apparently, it’s a big deal.  I could probably focus on that and live a happy life if I wanted,” he revealed, reaching into his Ghoul-Hide Satchel and grabbing a bar.  He tossed it her way, and she caught it.  “On the house.”

“She read the attached paper label. Elijah’s House of Soap?  Really?”

“I thought it had a nice ring to it,” he said, grinning.  “I also garden.  Not a lot, mind you.  My spryggent man-servant takes care of most of that, but I definitely dabble.  Plus, I took up amateur archeology during the Trial of Primacy.  And believe me – it’s way closer to Indiana Jones than real archeology out there.”

“Then you’re doing it wrong.”

Elijah shrugged.  “Maybe.  Probably.  My point is that I have hobbies.  Oh – I’m also raising some fox kits.  Kind of.  I mostly just let them loose on my island, but they’re still alive, so that counts as raising them.”

“You live…a different sort of life than I expected, Elijah.”

“You only live once, right?  Might as well cram as much in there as you can,” he replied.  “I’ve seen some wondrous things since the world changed.  Things you wouldn’t believe.  Not that long ago, I spent hours swimming through the ocean with a hyper-intelligent dolphin.  I have a self-perpetuating hot spring that I built from a little water and a magical flower.  Hell, I live in a treehouse.  Like, not a house in a tree.  A tree that is also a house.  And that’s not even counting the stupid clouded leopard.  Beautiful creature.  An asshole, but still…”

“You get around, don’t you?”

“I guess.  But that’s probably one of the reasons I can’t stay here.  I look around at all this, the pretty buildings and the men with guns, and I’m super impressed.  What you all have done here is amazing, even with what’s going on down below,” he said.  She started to respond to that last bit, but he spoke over her.  “Not judging.  Not my place.  No one’s being mistreated, as far as I can tell, even if those people aren’t exactly living the high life.  My point is that when I look around at all this, I find it hard to really appreciate it.  Not when I know that only a few miles away, there’s a turtle named Snappy that’s at least the size of a cargo van.”

She narrowed her eyes.  “How do you know?”

“What?  It’s kind of hard to miss a turtle that size.”

“No – its name.  Can it speak?  Did it tell you?”

“Of course not.  That’s ridiculous.”

“Elijah.”

“What?”

“You know what I mean.  How do you know its name?”

“My nephew named him a few years back.  It stuck,” Elijah revealed. 

“Ah.  That makes more sense.”

Elijah rocked the stool back and forth a few times.  “Well,” he said.  “I guess it’s about that time.  Keep working on that seed, okay?  I’ll check back in…I don’t know…a few days, maybe?”

“That soon?”

“I don’t know.  It’s hard to tell with me.  I’m a little distractible sometimes.”

She let out a laugh.  “Sometimes?”

“Well, most of the time.  Whatever.  It’s not a big deal.  I definitely don’t need medication, no matter what people say,” he insisted with a grin as he pushed himself to his feet.  He gave her a hug, saying, “Seriously, though – if you figure that thing out, it could save the world.  No pressure.”

“Gotcha.”

With that, he excused himself and headed across town and back to the rooms he shared with Sadie.  He’d already said his goodbyes a few hours before, so she wasn’t around.  After gathering his things, Elijah headed down to the market to meet with Rakhan and gather his wasp carcass.  He still wasn’t sure what he was going to do with it, but he wasn’t going to let such prime materials go to waste. 

From there, he transformed into Shape of the Sky – much to Rakhan’s shock – gathered the crate in his talons, and launched himself into the air.  Then, before the city’s defenses could activate, he used Lightning Rush.  It transformed him and his cargo into a bolt of lightning that streaked away, not stopping for hundreds of miles.  Once he’d returned to his winged form, he glided along as he reoriented. 

He’d gone in roughly the right direction, but he’d overshot his destination by quite a long way.  So, he was forced to bank around and fly back the way he’d come.  Fortunately, Elijah could cover quite a lot of ground in a hurry, so it wasn’t long before he reached the Circle of Spears.

Once there, he used Roots of the World Tree – which had just come off cooldown – to open a portal.  Normally, he would have used the individual-teleportation function, but he’d learned long ago that carrying large cargo prevented that.  So, he’d had no choice but to open the portal.

After shoving the crate through, Elijah followed, and in seconds, he was once again in the center of his grove.  Only when the arch wilted did he finally relax, though. 

“Back so soon?” asked Nerthus, who was sitting next to the tree.  Across from him was Hope, who was clearly trying to cultivate.

“Don’t mind me.  Just dropping in for a few minutes before heading out again,” he said.

“What is that?  It smells unnatural.”

“Just a giant wasp carcass.  No big deal.”

“Please remove it from the grove,” Nerthus sighed.  “It upsets the balance.”

“On it, chief,” Elijah said happily.  Then, he focused on Hope. “Hey Hope.  Cultivation’s lookin’ good!”

Before she could respond, he once again took on the Shape of the Sky, latched onto the crate, and took to the air.  In moments, he was flying across the strait and into Ironshore, where he caused a bit of a ruckus.  Not unsurprising, considering they probably thought he was still in Seattle.  A few people pointed at him and ran to go tell their friends he’d returned.

He landed outside Gavina’s shop, then transformed back into his normal shape before knocking on the door.  “Hey, Gavina!  I’ve got something cool for you!”

As it turned out, Gavina definitely didn’t agree with his assessment, reminding him that just because she worked with leather, it did not mean that she was an expert at butchery.  She tried to shoo him away, but Elijah refused to go anywhere until she told him who could help. 

“Go to the Hunter’s Lodge!  They can do it!” she shouted, brandishing one of her knives at him. “Now go!”

“Thanks!”

The hunters were a little more helpful, though none of them had any clue who could make use of the wasp’s carapace.  So, Elijah’s next stop was Carmen’s smithy.  She wasn’t there, which meant he found her at the Forge of Creation.  The building was coming along nicely, and Elijah expected that it would only be a few more weeks before its grand opening.  Despite having a less complex design than a lot of the buildings back in Seattle, it had a more solid feel to it – which reminded Elijah of something Ramek had once told him.  Building structures wasn’t difficult, what with skills and spells.  However, true works of art incorporated ethera into every aspect of their construction.  Nothing epitomized that rule better than the Forge of Creation.

Perhaps that was why he wasn’t quite as impressed with Seattle as he probably should have been.  The whole place had felt soulless to him.

Regardless, he quickly found Carmen, who directed him toward the place he should have visited in the very beginning – the butcher shop.  There, he found a large dwarf hard at work. 

“Aye, I can do it,” he said, his beard tucked into his shirt behind his thick, leather apron.  “Leave it here, and I’ll get to it asap.  You want the meat too?”

“I’ll take whatever’s useful,” Elijah said. 

“Gonna cost ya.”

“That shouldn’t be a problem,” Elijah replied.  After all, he’d made quite a lot of money in Seattle, so he didn’t have to worry about that kind of thing in the short term. 

After agreeing to a price – which still stung Elijah a little – he headed back to the grove to make a few final preparations for his planned trip.  That involved emptying his Ghoul-Hide Satchel of all those superfluous clothes and packing a bit of extra food and water, as well as his camping gear.  He didn’t intend to be gone long, but as he’d noted with Lucy, he had a habit of getting sidetracked.

Once he was wearing his armor and had everything packed in his satchel, he took up the Verdant Fang, said goodbye to Hope and Nerthus, then once again took to the skies.  He didn’t fly far out to sea before initiating the transformation into Shape of the Sea and dropping into the ocean. 

After that, he used his powerful fins to propel himself through the water and in the direction of the storm.  It was about time he got around to rescuing a couple of crash survivors.