Rúloaña is the third child of Elöthian and is wife to No'alan. While both are deities of magic Rúloaña is the patron to almost all elven arts. As a child before the ascension of her family into divinity, she was almost constantly in trouble for sneaking out to either give funds to artisans or to learn their craft. She is often mistaken as a love goddess by nonelves due to her frequent depictions in art her husband would rather have only in their own house, but she is not and in fact does not consider erotic arts to be art in and of themselves.

Tallian Feros

I frown at the crystal that marks Adrian’s current position, it broke the pattern of moving eastwards just as it had before our attack a week ago. He’s been in the same village for an entire day. Before he avoided them or only stayed for half a day. Something is going on, we are four days before our next attack and I had hoped that he would continue to make no change in his actions.

I already have the men patrolling more than normal but I can’t shake the feeling something. . . The crystal moved, no keeps moving. . . He seems to be making sweeps in the direction of our fort. How can he be traveling so quickly? He must be flying but a draconian's fly speed isn’t this quick. . .

I look put the window and frown at the rain, he can call down lightning. The buildings are warded against it but only so far. I see a shadow of a flying creature from the window in a flash of lightning as the crystal passes over my location. The first bolt in the storm, or one he called down remotely?

No he doesn’t know where we are and the storm will make his search for this place difficult. Though the lightning may be a problem if the elementalist does find us before the storm moves on.

When a second bolt strikes against the wards I begin to worry, but the crystal continues to move away sweeping a different section of the sparse woodlands. Then an alarm bell rings to my left, spatial disturbances? But the wards don’t read any intruders. Why would you bridge space and not use it to speak by the outer walls?

Then some sort of fireball explodes from inside the wards. That shouldn’t be possible, we keep antimagic fields around the barracks to keep this very thing from happening. . .

Adrian

Best thing I found in my piles of mostly random stuff in Void Cache, C4 or maybe the firearms but C4 was something very useful at the moment. There wasn’t much but when Life Radar told me the majority of the men were in a single room of the base it was worth trying. When the sound of the blast collapsing that part of the complex rang out over the winds of the rainstorm I just had to look back and smile at the smoke and dust cloud.

It wasn’t part of the plan I made with everyone else, but I don’t think they’ll complain. Another pulse of Life Radar tells me most of those in the room are now dead and a lot of people are running to the explosion.

Should I take advantage of this? I don’t think I’ll overwhelm the shields against lightning yet but maybe. . .

I inhale feeling a warmth build in my chest as mana pours into my lungs for a few seconds, and bend space to make a connection between just in front of my mouth to one of the rows of men charging towards the bombing. And exhale releasing a beam of light through the small portal.

I don’t see exactly how much destruction it caused but there was a flash of light behind me so it did manage to get through. I wonder how many of these I can get off before they find a way to block me? Or should I start stealing the valuable metals between lightning strikes?

I probably shouldn’t spend my mana on putting things into Void Cache at the moment though, I can always do so after the attack. . .

Tallian Feros

When an explosion of light coincides with another spatial disturbance, an attack through a portal? But the cost the amount of mana that would be spent. . .

I pull up the small mirror and the amulet keyed to Adrian, weary of what the kitsune might do. The last time I used this she altered the image as Sargent Brightblade claims happened during the attack. I really do not want to see the Holy One molested by strange creatures again.

Luckily, the kitsune is not in the image as the mirror begins to show a black dragon flying in a rainstorm but that can’t be right. I can see how a draconian can be mistaken for human if they don’t use any of their subhuman abilities but a dragon would never manage to pass themselves off as human so convincingly for the error in the information I was given.

I almost throw away the mirror before I see the black dragon exhale a beam of light that suddenly vanishes into the air before it. A beam that look very similar to once that flashed into existence just outside my window.

Not an illusion, we’re being attacked by a dragon, a dragon that has enough mana to just attack remotely through small portals? We don’t have anything with the range to hit it from here. . .

I run down the hall, descending a flight of stairs that only leads to a single room at the exact center of the encampment, ward control. The dim glow of a blue crystal that the mages here constantly feed mana to sustain is the only light in the room filled with writing and gemstones mounted into the stone as foci and control crystals. I don’t know exactly how they all work but I reach for the one that control the Dimension Lock.

We won’t be able to receive reinforcements or messages out and it’ll drain the crystal in only a few hours but without it there’s nothing to stop that dragon. The jewel slides across a small line of runes before it begins to glow and I let out a sigh of relief.

This will stop the dragon’s current method of attack but how did it show up instead of the half breed? Did it eat him? Or worse was he riding that dragon? He did have an entire pack of werewolves that we had no information about a dragon would be just as hard to get to do your bidding. . .

Another alarm goes off, the alarm for the entry of nonhumans without the restraints a prisoner would have. Did the dragon already come to attack more directly or was it a distraction for another force?

He has a pack of werewolves that appeared loyal to him, but would they work with a dragon? Generally, no but some packs do. I could check where they were, but the Dimension Lock interferes with exact placement.

Shouts of “dragon!” answer my question, the alarm is from the dragon. Hopefully the dragon’s bane bolts will be enough, but we only had a few made. Two draconians require far less than what I fear this dragon may. . .

I run back up to the main area of the building, my knights do not have the training they need for dragons, they were never meant to be put against a flying foe or at least not one that can fly naturally. When I finally reach the roof, I can see smoke rising from more than a few of the smaller buildings and the flickering of flames as they are slowly put out by the rain. My men are running around, organized as best they could be against the terror of a dragon; spread out to keep its flyby attacks from taking too many at once in squads of three. Two holding shields and polearms to cover a third with one of the heavier crossbows from the armories.

The thunder of the lightning strikes continue to ring out, preventing any communication of significance from passing between the men. The lightning granting glimpses of a creature flying in the storm as only something controlling the lightning could. The elementalist must be with the dragon, the crossbows won’t work well against wind barriers. Antimagic bolts will likely lack the power to pierce the dragon’s hide while dragon’s bane bolts would be blocked by the magical winds.

We have to force the dragon to land, keep it earthbound. The magi of the Order of Exaltation in the basement should be able to handle that part once they arrive, unless they already fled. No, they wouldn’t have left already. There wasn’t enough time between the start of the attack till the Dimension Lock for them to finish their preparations to escape.

A moment later just after a group of my men dies under a beam of light. A beam of light, only one dragon has that power, Radiance Dragons. But they have been friendly to the Holy Once for centuries, only a few of them serve him but none are hostile to him. Yet, here is a dragon that is most definitely not a radiance dragon using their power. Is the beast masked by an illusion? Have we displeased the Holy One?

My thoughts are broken as a man in the white gold robes of the clergy walks up to me, “SLAY THE BEAST FOR THE GLORY OF THE HOLY ONE!!!” echoes over the storm, sending my ears ringing as a divine power washes over me, lightening my mood and strengthening my own power.

“We need an Earthbind” I say to the priest, unsure of my volume but he hears me and nods before pulling a small net of gold wire from his sleeve.

With a flick of his wrist it flies off to the dragon, seeking it unerringly as it dodges the expanding net only for it to me taken from behind. The world turns white for a moment, all sound ends and all I can see is a purple blur as I stumble finding myself on the ground. I touch the side of my head, a warm wetness. . .

Slowly my vision comes back, my hand wet covered in blood before my face. I look around in a panic, the dragon is gone. The golden net that held it laying on the ground with a single man standing in its center. The man we were assigned to kill.

He looks around with a surprised smile at the destruction that surrounds him, the charred black corpses and rising smoke as he walks out of the pit that attack blew in the ground and I know that dragon was not his ally; that dragon was him. . .

Adrian

It takes me a moment to heal myself from the electrical burns and the damage to my ears after throwing everything I could into a lightning strike. Metal cages, or nets, do not in fact stop electricity from harming what is inside of them if the charge is large enough. At least dragon scales are far less conductive than everything else that was around. . .

Careful as I step over the molten slag that was once part of a finely woven magical golden net I look around to find a lot more destruction than I was expecting. Patches of molten glass? are scattered around the charred remains of the soldiers yet I don’t feel any backlash building. Why? Did they expect that this is a possibility? Why then did the last time I rained down death and destruction I suffered from a backlash?

With a snap, I find through Life Radar that there are some people still alive underground but aside from a few everyone on the surface is dead and my five friends are roughly five minutes away. Now what to do? The plan was if I could remove as much resistance as possible but if I do any more I might destroy something important. . .