“That’s insane,” Adam said, still trying to process all the information. ‘So that means, what, it’s been two thousand years since Blackwater Crisis. Since then, the Iyr has pretty much kept all its lands? Aldland has basically remained stable since then, and Aswadia too?’

Adam rubbed his head, trying to massage the information into his brain. “So that means the Dragon is at least two thousand years old?”

“At least, yes,” Jurot said. “She may be closer to three thousand.”

“Insane. Does that mean she has a Spark then?”

“I would believe so,” Jurot said, though he couldn’t say for certain.

“Wow. How strong is she?”

“She is the strongest, save perhaps Lord Stokmar,” Jurot said, thinking about how the pair would match up. One was made by the Gods, the other was a being out of reach of Divine influence.

“Damn. How strong is she compared to the Chief?” Adam asked, unable to contain his excitement.

“The Great Elders together would find it difficult to defeat her,” Jurot said.

“Together?”

“Yes.”

Adam shook his head slowly. “That’s insane.”

“That is what it means to be an Ancient Dragon.”

“So does that mean Strom is pretty damn strong too?” Adam asked, not knowing that Strom had already defeated Jurot’s grandfather, Kitool’s grandaunt, the Chief, and other Iyrmen simultaneously.

“Yes.”

“Crazy,” Adam whispered. “I knew he was strong, but…” Adam tried to understand just how strong that could be, trying to use the mechanics of the games he had played before. “So if Lord Stokmar didn’t wake up, that Gold Dragon would have been the strongest in the entire land?”

Jurot nodded.

“Crazy,” Adam whispered again.

“As a Dragon, her wealth also assists her. Dragons gain a small boost to their strength from their hoard.”

“The hoard of a Dragon whose collected taxes for thousands of years…” Adam stared into Jurot’s eyes. “Insane.”

“Yes.”

“How much stronger is she then?” Adam asked.

“It is a small amount, but enough to surpass other Dragons of similar age.”

“Wow…” Adam made a mental note to behave in the capital. “Do you think…” Adam began to whisper. “You think they ever think about killing her for her gold?”

Shamia leaned in too, feeling equally as naughty. They had moved on from such a dark topic, so she was glad to push away thoughts of the Empire for now.

“I do not know,” Jurot admitted. “It would be a death sentence. Killing a Gold Dragon is a taboo, as they are at the least favoured by the Gods, even if they work outside their influence. She must also have many great traps protecting her lair from her millennia of protecting the capital, and it would be inaccessible to most.”

Adam whistled. “Whoa…”

“It would be a terrible idea to do so. She grants great magical boons from her presence alone. The capital is only prosperous due to her influence. It is so large that it holds the entire population of North Aldland inside a single city.”

Adam whistled again. “Whoa,” he said, again.

“If the capital wished to create an army, they could create twenty thousand soldiers in the span of days.”

“Whoa.”

Jurot nodded.

“Just that one city outnumbers the Iyr by so much…” Adam said.

“It holds a greater population than even Hakor,” Shamia whispered.

“It is the third greatest defended settlement in this entire land,” Jurot said.

“Third?”

“The Iyr is first, the Elvish lands are second.”

“Ah,” Adam said, nodding his head. “Right.”

“The walls of the capital are great, but it is the existence of the Gold Dragon which makes the capital almost impregnable,” Jurot said.

“What, do Dragons go through menopau-,” Adam said, though he was unable to complete his joke as he slapped his knee and howled with laughter for the second time that day.

Adam wasn’t howling in laughter when the groups arrived later that evening to bathe. “Thank you,” he said, accepting the barrel of food with open arms. “We’re going to be feasting tonight.”

As dinner was made, he heard something from James, the leader of the harem party. “What was that?” Adam asked.

“Nothing.”

“That’s what I thought,” Adam said, smiling at James, watching him as he entered the baths with the rest of his harem.

Adam caught Mikayla’s glare. She clutched her staff tighter, pulling it to her chest, scowling at the Half Elf.

“Is there a problem?” Adam asked, sighing.

Mikayla stared at the group as they ate. “Aren’t you ashamed of yourself?”

Adam furrowed his brows, looking to Jurot. ‘Are you seeing this?’

Jurot nodded.

“Ashamed of myself for?”

“Not only did you damage all our loot, but you also forced Oliver to hand over a barrel of food,” Mikayla stated. “Even if you surround yourself with… Iyrmen, you should have some manners.”

Adam sucked in air through his teeth, and the tension in the air became thick. Jurot stared at the Half Elf, prepared to calm him down if need be. The others glanced between one another confused.

‘There’s no way she’s that dumb, right?’

“I’m sorry you have to hear that sort of thing, Lady Shamia,” Adam said. “I spoke with Oliver about handing over some food so that we could treat you well, and even though we helped them with killing their birdcats, they still didn’t want to hand over food to help you and yours.”

“That is not what I meant,” Mikayla said, clutching her staff tighter, letting out an exasperated sigh. “Forget it, you wouldn’t understand.”

“There’s one thing I do understand, and it’s that you aren’t going to be bathing in my fu-,” Adam paused, recalling that there was a Noble near him. “You are not going to be bathing in the tower I summoned.”

Mikayla raised her brows in surprise. “What?”

“You heard what I said.” Adam returned back to his meal.

“You can’t do that.”

“Why not?” Adam asked. “It was a tower I summoned with my magic. If you don’t have the ability to show a modicum of respect, then you need to leave. I don’t know who you think you are, and how you can possibly think that you can come into my camp, to use my tower, all the while behaving like a, as you might say, savage.”

“I am no savage!” Mikayla growled at him.

“You best watch your tone, girl,” Adam said, noting James quickly stepping out, having slipped out of half of his armour.

“What’s wrong?” James asked, quickly stepping in front of Mikayla, holding out an arm to protect her.

“Nothing,” Mikayla said, withdrawing away from Adam, towards the tower.

“If she steps into my tower, I’m going to beat her unconscious,” Adam warned.

“Adam,” Vonda called, calmly. “There is no need for that.”

“I assure you, Sir Vonda, there is a need for it,” Adam said, standing. “If she takes one step into my tower, I’m going to beat her unconscious.” Adam glared into James’ eyes.

“No you won’t,” James said.

“You can’t stop me,” Adam said, “Even with your armour, even with your companions beside you, you wouldn’t be able to.” Adam raised his hand, twiddling with his ring. “I don’t need to cast Fireball to deal with you, but if I need to, I’ll be sure to drag your crispy corpse back to Oliver. Then I won’t need to worry about destroying half the loot with my Fireballs, because we’ll have more to be spread between us.”

James swallowed, glaring at Adam. His mace was right at his side, and his amulet was still across his chest. However, even with them, Adam was a difficult, if not impossible, fight for him. “We’ll bathe and leave, and you won’t hear from us again.”

“I dare you to give me an excuse to beat you,” Adam said. “Go on.”

“For the sake of my good Lady, would you be willing to forgive her?” James asked. “Lady Ebony will surely bless you.”

“Oh, I’m sure,” Adam said, keeping the man’s eyes on his own with his glare. “I’m going to love beating her.”

“You would not show Lady Ebony respect?” James asked, trying to invoke the name of his Goddess again.

“You may love Lady Ebony, but I’m rather partial to Lord Sozain. Matter of fact, I might even have to send him another soul tonight.” Adam’s eyes remained glued to the Priest’s.

“Iyrmen… can’t you do something about this?” James asked, unable to take his eyes away from the Half Elf’s.

Mikayla remained stunned, gripping onto James’ shirt from behind. “Do something about your Elf.”

Jurot stood as the two other members of the harem party appeared, wondering what was taking so long.

“If you do not leave now, I will drag you out,” Jurot said, his eyes narrowed slightly.

Kitool and Jaygak both stood too, noting the dark look on Jurot’s face. They, who had grown with Jurot, understood things had escalated too far.

“Come,” Kitool said, approaching the Wizard. “I will guide you out.”

Jaygak followed Kitool for a few steps, before stopping, standing between Jurot and the Wizard.

James glanced between the Iyrmen, noting that something had gone wrong. “Mikayla, go with the Iyrman.”

Mikayla gasped, gripping his shirt tighter, but she relaxed her grip and followed Kitool out. She ignored the gazes against her, turning beet red.

Once she stepped out of the outpost, Jurot sat down, returning to his meal.

“You better not be celebrating your Goddess in the baths,” Adam said. “I don’t want to clean that up.”

James swallowed, slowly retreating to the tower. Once the group was out of sight, the camp returned back to normalcy, in some sense.

“Are you alright?” Shamia asked.

“Don’t worry about it,” Adam said.

“Did you have some prior issues with that party?”

“We saved their lives and the Wizard tried to accuse me of rape,” Adam said, simply.

“Oh.”