“Oi. Oi! Get away from me, stupid thing! What the—shuba? Shuba…shuba…where have I heard…SON OF A ONE-WINGED WYVERN! WHICH DUMB, STAR-FORSAKEN IDIOT IS TALKING WITH THE DARK LORD?! OI! WHAT IS MY ESTEEMED WARDEN DOING?”

The elder sighed deeply. Calling on his magic, he spoke. The words themselves were redundant, the meaning expressed by his spirit. It was the first language, the one spoken by the primal forces of existence. “Please relax, Ezo.”

“WHAT DID YOU CALL ME, YOU PURPLE WORM?! A FEW CENTURIES HAVE MADE YOU DELUSIONAL!”

He sighed as the water began to bubble intensely, steam rising from the sea in a thick curtain. The elder couldn’t endure the heat and returned to the shore. The brown-scaled guard quickly appeared beside him with the boulder he used for a seat, putting it right on the shore. He helped the elder to sit while the red guard cast a spell to protect him from the heat. Prepared, the elder dipped his tail back into the water.

“My apologies, Majesty Ezossoa. I meant no disrespect.”

“OF COURSE YOU DID, WORM. YOU THINK YOU CAN DO WHATEVER YOU WANT WHILE I AM TRAPPED BY THE POWER OF MY SIBLINGS. A FEW CENTURIES MOCKING ME AND YOU THINK YOU’RE ONE OF THEM, DONT YOU, UPSTART?”

“I could never.”

“I MAY NOT BE ABLE TO ESCAPE THIS PRISON BUT I CAN STILL DEAL WITH A FEW INSECTS!”

“Of course, majesty.”

“ARE YOU MOCKING ME? HORNLESS BASTARD. Ah, forget it! I can’t be bothered to argue with an insect. Come on, brainless puppet of my brother. Isn’t it your job to purge this world of anything beyond the Horned Court’s influence? Come get this little shit floating around me.”

The elder was unfazed by the sharp words and bitter tone. In the beginning, being insulted day and night by someone he had greatly admired, regardless of her crimes, hurt. After centuries of being the Defiler’s personal pair of ears vaguely disguised as the warden of her prison, he had become numb to her barbed tongue. Despite her posturing, there was nothing she could do to him. He simply had to harden his heart to her anger.

“You know I cannot tread too close to your prison.”

“Lazy reptile. Have you been sitting on your tail for so long you’ve forgotten how to take action?”

“If it is a servant of the Dark Lord, it is harmless. There is no need to take action.”

“That! That disgusting attitude you’ve inherited from your masters. I despise it. Useless bastards like you are free to eat good food, sleep on soft beds, and shit where you please while I’m trapped at the bottom of the sea. It goes beyond being unfair. It is obscene. All of you disgust me. And go away you little bastard! ARGH! I’m going to kill whatever idiot is messing around with that twisted goat!”

The elder sighed. The Defiler’s anger wasn’t undeserved. The Dark Lord was one of the worst of the invaders the estrazi had repelled. Before the Night of Falling Stars, he likely would be hunting down the offending summoner.

The noncorporeal shubas were hard to kill and such a gesture would be pointless. They weren’t even the Dark Lord’s hands. They were akin to strands of hair, easily replaced and never missed. It was much more effective to trace their celestial connections to their summoners and end the threat at the source.

Now, such a small thing was beneath his notice. The Dark Lord was a terrible creature whose mere presence invited madness and mayhem but, unless someone invited one of its greater servants into the world, it was a being of little consequence. The Defiler and the second calamity had to be his priorities. “You should calm down, majesty. Your temper isn’t good for your health.”

“My health? I wish I could care about my health but because of you spineless fish, I couldn’t die if I wanted to. The stars know I would return to the Abyss rather than suffer this endless humiliation.”

“I meant your mental health.”

“HAH! Did you care about that when you locked me in this darkness with nothing but my own thoughts?”

“You’ve maintained your sanity remarkably.”

“That’s because I refuse to give you bastards the satisfaction of losing my mind. Spite can be more powerful than mana.”

The elder smiled as the bubbling sea calmed down. In the beginning, the Defiler would rage for weeks on end. She would never admit it but time had mellowed her. While no amount of time could ever erase her hatred, he dearly hoped that when the time came, she would be willing to listen.

“I’m not joking, stupid warden. You don’t want the Dark Lord sticking its fingers into this realm. Forget the argument I had with my siblings. That thing will plunge the whole world into darkness. Find the stupid summoner and tell them to stop before they do something they can’t take back.”

“…maybe I can do something. If you are willing to honor the debt.”

“Debt? Why should I take on a debt for you to do your job? Fine. Let the perverted goat walk sideways over our oceans. I’ll be perfectly fine.”

“Oh? Then you are willing to let the creature feed on you? I’m sure centuries of punishment will have bred endless resentment.”

“…resentment doesn’t begin to describe it. And while the thought of that creature running its tongue along my spirit is revolting enough to make me wish I could stab my tail through my eye, the thought of being indebted to an actual insect elevated by my siblings whose brain is so small that you not only do their bidding without question but worship those fools is even worse. I want to immolate at the mere suggestion.”

“Do you despise me so? Even after I have been your sole confidant for so many years?”

“Is that something you think you should be rewarded for? To me, it’s in the top three reasons I want to destroy you to the last heir. I’d mount your head on my horn as I devoured your children if I thought I could manage it without vomiting.” The Defiler chuckled. “And who says you have been my only confidant?”

“The outsider still whispers to you?”

“The fact that you mention him with disdain while praising my siblings shows how worthless you really are. Yes, he speaks to me.”

“That’s impossible.” As powerful as the outsider that gave rise to the calamities was, it was not stronger than the will of the world. It couldn’t casually intrude on their realm, not even its voice. If it even cared to contact its first true agent now that she was useless to its goals. From the way the majesties described it, the outsider was not a creature of compassion or sentiment.

“You can’t begin to understand the depth of his power. Don’t believe me? Should I convince you?”

“Please.”

“Like I would! I won’t give you the slightest insight into his designs. Squirm at night as your fears keep you awake. Gift of sight aside, you have to wait and see like the rest. And he loves a show.”

The elder grimaced at the wild laughter that followed the ominous prediction. He cut the flow of his magic and pulled back his tail. The world went silent.

A motion of his hand brought his black-scaled guard to his side. As a hand touched his shoulder, strength poured into his tired body, allowing him to stand with his walking stick to support him. If it were two centuries ago, the magic could infuse him with enough vitality to leave him as energetic as a hatchling. However, there was a limit to everything.

The older he got, the more magic it took to keep him healthy, until it was all the brood could do to prolong his life and keep him comfortable.

The Defiler’s words were troubling. It was possible, even likely, that she had preyed on his fears for petty revenge but with the emergence of the second calamity, he couldn’t afford to ignore them. The uninformed thought that those blessed with the sight simply sat still while the world revealed its secrets. That wasn’t untrue, as the elder’s affinity troubled him without any efforts on his part, but true insight required work.

He could see the entire life of an ancient king after touching his crumbling crown but the crown had to be unearthed first. If he wanted to see the coming troubles, he needed information. Clues. Given he was far beyond finding them himself, it was time to dispatch his own agents.

If the Defiler wasn’t lying and was in contact with the outsider, it would have to be through an intermediary. Someone in this realm that acted as a conduit for the outsider’s will. Perhaps a third calamity. If so, they needed to be found.

The world was a large place to search. His agents could scour every continent for years and find no trace but the elder had a hunch. The intermediary had reached out to the Defiler. There was a good chance they would reach out to the second calamity. Maybe even gravitate to them.

His daughter’s journey would lead her to the second calamity as she searched for the man whose fate was tied to her own. It would be a simple matter to put his agents in the force she would ‘convince’ to follow her. Just in case. If the majesties blessed them, perhaps they could also find the summoner inviting more catastrophe into the world.

He placed a hand on the shoulder of his guard and guided him away from the shore, the others naturally arranging themselves in a protective formation. With his tail, he motioned to the silver guard. “Carry a message to the Great Mother. We need to speak.”

The estrazi were a race that understood hierarchy. No matter his importance, the elder never deluded himself as to his authority. For the agents he had in mind, he would need her approval.