War of the Dragons - Chapter 4
Arcantos let the air out of his lungs as he watched Tryndamous fly away. The surprising well of courage that he had drawn on to stand firm against the High General vanished, leaving the dragon feeling empty and exhausted at the ordeal, despite having expended minimal energy in the battle of words and knowledge in which he won.
Still, he had no time to dwell on such things, especially as like he had told Ace, they had a lord to tend to. As the rest of their patrol-mates converged on the still carriage, he turned to the veiled dragoness who had yet to speak. "Your Lordship, I ask for your permission to prepare your loyal guards for a water burial. Whilst such warriors are surely worthy to be sent into the sky beyond, or be accepted into the embrace of the great oceans. We do not have the means to preserve them in the ways of the East, and we will have to make do with the river they died next to."
The dragoness considered Arcantos at these words, her expression hidden by the veil she wore. Whilst her eyes could be seen, they gave nothing away and Arc had to concede that the Eastern dragon was a master at keeping her emotions hidden from the outside world. Through Arcantos knew that it didn't necessary mean that they had a better handle of those emotions.
"Very well. You seem reasonable adept at my culture. However, I will keep a careful eye on your preparations to ensure you do not make any mistakes." Arcantos winced at the last word as the Lord settled down on the front of the carriage, the others arriving not longer afterwards. From the looks of it, most of them were in awe of Arcantos for having been able to get the High General to back down. In fact only Nova looked at Ace for instructions.
"Gather up the bodies of the guards." Ace instructed sharply, snapping the patrol out of the beginnings of their hero worship. Much to the relief of Arcantos. "We are to give them a funeral in their custom." Unfortunately, Ace had to glance over to the bipedal dragon, and this gave the patrol a sharp reminder of Arcantos' knowledge.
"Eastern Burials have strong similarities to Western Burials, the first steps of preparation are the same throughout all types of burial. The burial they shall receive is a Water Burial. It is mostly similar to an earth burial, only instead of digging a hole and lowering them in before covering them, they are lowered into the water. We all know how to set-up for an earth burial, correct?"
Luckily, any remnant of awe vanished as Arcantos talked, the sombreness of the situation sinking into them all and having them fall into a silent seriousness. His question was met with a nod, and they turned to Ace, ready for the instructions and tasks they were set. However, before the patrol leader could speak, Arcantos continued.
"I have a small request however." Whilst the patrol was surprised by this continuation, Ace simply nodded his head for Arc to go ahead. Which he did, after lowering his voice. "The Lord is a master of concealing her emotions, but I do not believe she is unshaken by the events that has befallen her. If it is alright with the patrol, I request to be allowed to fetch the Squad's official comforter."
Ace quickly nodded at this, with Nova smirking in amusement as she nodded as well. The rest of the patrol followed suit, various degree's of amusement on their faces as they agreed. However, these looks vanished as they turned back to focus on the funeral. Arcantos left the group, heading back to the clearing which they had waited for the caravan, aware of the Lord's eyes following him as he flew away.
The patrol quickly got to work on preparing the bodies for their funeral. It was standard work, getting the bodies into the correct position. As warriors, this was on their backs, exposing the softer underbelly to the sky and with their forelegs crossed. Wings tucked neatly by their sides - which normally required binding - and tails left to gently splay out from the body.
Of course, this was done after they were moved to quickly made earthen platforms to rest them on. For the water burial, these would be tipped up to let them slide into the river. Moving bodies around was not easy work, especially when one was trying to get them into a specific position without bruising or damaging them in anyway. It wasn't like the patrol had much experience at preparing burials, simply knowledge of how to do it.
By the time the bodies had been lain out, a process which took a solid hour, Arcantos returned. Walking, instead of flying, and carrying something in his crossed arms. The eastern lord soon discovered what it was, as Arcantos came right up to her and deposited it directly next to her. The dragoness blinking in stupefied confusion at the bundle of fur and feathers that made up the sky cat which curled up next to her, and meowed at her.
Whilst they had no cloth to drape over the bodies, they could create a funeral shroud with woven light ice. Which had the added benefit of melting in the water, through it wouldn't melt during the process of the funeral. Being warriors, the dragons were giving nothing to take with them except the armour they wore and weapons they wielded. The gaping big holes that the High General's attack had torn in the armour was patched as best as they could with the limited time and materials they had, along with any weapons destroyed by the attack.
Due to the eastern tradition of wearing armlets to identify their rank and element, the patrol had no need to place a traditional funeral breastplate onto the guards. Which was a good thing, as they had no way of making one with the materials they had at hand, let alone knew the dragons well enough to create a fitting breastplate.
All in all, preparing the bodies for their funeral took around two hour to complete. Afterwards, Arcantos headed back around the carriage to talk to the Lord, who was busy stroking a purring cat. Whilst her facial expressions were masterfully controlled - aided by the veil admittedly - her body language was much harder to control. So Arc was able to tell that she was more relaxed than she had been an hour ago, making him smile. It seemed that the annoying furrball was still good for something still after all.
The smile vanished through as he stepped forwards, making another noise for her head to come up, and the stroking foot to pull back. The body language tensed up as she constructed walls around herself and the western dragons that now surrounded her. Which Arcantos could sadly understand... they were her enemy, and any emotion allowed to slip through the cracks was a potential weakness that could be exploited.
"The preparations are complete your Lordship." Arcantos informed her formally, stopping some distance away from the carriage and standing at ease. Not budging even when the cat jumped off and trundled over to rub against his legs. "We will move a respectful distance away for you to say the last goodbyes and to send them on their way. Afterwards, we will be willing to discuss the next steps to be taken to aid you."
"I need no aid." The dragoness said shortly as she stood up, staying on the carriage as she spoke. Arcantos shading a guess that it was because she did not want to look up at him under any circumstances. "What you shall be giving to be is compensations. Remember that. Now, I want your patrol to retreat to whatever camp you have before hand and pack up. Return here after an hour, and I shall be ready to talk." Arcantos simply nodded, not commenting on her message and instead walked back to the patrol who had been waiting for him. Arc briefly amused that he of all dragons had become the spokes-dragon for the patrol, before he focused and spoke. "She wants us completely out of sight, back at 'camp' for a good hour."
"That's a long time, do the Eastern Dragons has an ridiculously elaborate funeral ritual or something?" Nova asked with a snort, small licks of flame escaping from her nostrils at the action. Arcantos again decided it was best not to comment on the dragoness's mood, and instead answered her question truthly.
"Not that I am aware of no. I believe that she simply desires to say goodbye properly. These guards might have been friends and maybe even lovers of hers. This is likely the only chance she'll have to let her emotions out, and have the time to clean herself up to hide it."
"Seriously?" Nova asked, snorting again as she spoke. "You telling me that the whore is afraid to let her emotions show? That its completely okay for her to let anyone stick a cock in her if they have enough cash, but she can't show any grief? Damn, its a wonder a slut like her gets any business at all. Then again, I guess personality doesn't matter, only the looks and skill."
"Firstly. She is a Courtesan." Arcantos said coldly, fixing Nova with a same hard stare that the High General had faced after a similar comment. "Secondly, she is a Lord of the Eastern first and foremost. Her reasoning for hiding her emotions is the exact same as our reason to stay emotionless during battle. Emotion allows for identification. Identification opens up vulnerabilities, and vulnerabilities allow for defeat. We are her enemy. After all we came lead by the one that murdered her guards, and our mission was to do exactly that. Why should she allow herself to show any vulnerabilities to use at all?"
This quieted Nova, as well as the others. Arcantos realized he was breathing hard, and his blood was pumping. The bipedal dragon turned to calm himself and to regain his composure as Ace stepped in. Swiftly assuming command and getting the patrol over to the clear to collect up all their gear. By the time this was done, Arcantos had calmed down.
Whilst Arc was content to sit by himself, thinking through his stories once more. It always amused him how action always seem to kick his imagination into overdrive and let him get past problems that had been troubling him, or easily write down a couple of chapters. However, to his surprise after ten minutes, Nova called out to him, beckoning for him to come and join her and Ace. He hesitated at this offer, as he didn't like Nova too much and he preferred his own company. But as Arcantos got up and moved over to join them, realizing that he was likely going to spend a lot more time with the patrol then he had previously expected.
"So Ace just told me bout how you managed to get Tryndamous to back down." Nova said as Arcantos sat down, nodding her head at the impassive darkness dragon. "And it struck me that you defended the Lord as being as Courtesan against him as well. Your the culture freak here, so you would know more than me. So sorry for calling her a whore."
Arcantos was surprised at Nova's apology, not having expected the fire dragoness to even know what the word sorry meant from her attitude. However, he soon recovered and gave her a small smile. "Apology accepted." He said, through he was quick to add. "However, apologizing to the Lord might be a bit of a difficult task."
"Huh?" Nova said blankly, scowling slightly in confusion. "Watcha mean? Its not like she has super-hearing or anything. She couldn't of heard us from her place at the front of that carriage of her's."
"She's a air dragoness." Arcantos explained easily, through knowing that Nova would likely not make the same connection as him so quickly. Reviewed his though process in order to further explain himself. "Air dragons can manipulate sound - at least sound through the air. Not only is Sontius a clear example of this, but there's known masters of air who could control air. Using air manipulation to enhance your hearing isn't exactly heard of... please excuse the pun there. But with bubble's of sound able to be created, I wouldn't be surprised if its possible. Especially for Eastern Dragons who have a much finer control over their elements then us. As well as a stronger natural affinity for air."
"Huh." Nova stated again, through now her scowl had vanished, replaced with a more thoughtful look. Through this soon vanished as she shrugged her wings. "You got a point bout that. Still it ain't no clear thing and I don't really have any interest in befriending the gal. Never gonna see her again, so lets just get the mission done and head back to camp."
Arcantos had nothing to say to this, not having actually considered the idea of the unlikelihood of seeing the Lord again after they said goodbye. Nor actually the thought of befriending her, he just disliked dragon's being labelled so foully. As he had nothing to say, Arcantos changed the subject, asking curiously. "Nova, do you have something against Courtesan's or prostitutes?"
"W-what?" Nova said, visibly surprised at the question, making Arc wonder if he had accidentally hit a nerve. A theory that was swiftly backed up by how Nova curled her tail defensively around herself and said. "No! I... I just have a bit of history with them, and they rub me the wrong way. Nothing major." Arcantos thought it was actually very major, but didn't press on the subject. Not that he have a chance as Nova turned the conversation away from her rather swiftly. "Why did you ask anyway?"
"You were pretty venomous towards the Lord about her being a Courtesan." Arcantos said with a shrug of his shoulders at Nova's question. "I've seen other dragons react about it, and they mostly displayed disgust. You however, got rather angry and aggressive about it. Meaning that you likely have a strong hatred for such a position."
"I do not." Nova muttered, but it was a half-hearted defence, and both he and Ace knew it. In fact, Nova knew it as well, so she quickly changed the subject. This time picking any random thing that came into her head. "Anyway. What's your odd element usage? You know mine and Ace's. So its only fair that you share it as well."
Arcantos titled his head at this logic, thinking that if that was the case, everyone should reveal how they more naturally used their elements compared to the traditional way of doing things. But it seemed that Nova for some reason considered him to be the part of a group now, or well. More than likely she was just blurting out the first question that came to mind and added some hasty justification to it afterwards to make sure it didn't seem random.
"Its actually a two-fold change." Arcantos said, deciding that he didn't exactly have anything to hide. Plus he had the sneaking feeling that he would prefer to have Nova and Ace as friends and allies, especially with the High General likely having a strong hatred for him. "First, instead of finding wind manipulation easy, and lighting manipulation much more difficult. Its the other way around for me."
"That's gotta be handy." Nova said with small smile at the thought. "Finding lighting to be easy? Damn, its a wonder they don't let you use that more. There's a good reason why its considered to be the second strongest form of elemental manipulation right after aether itself."
"Its deadly more than strong." Arcantos disagreed with a small shake of his head at Nova's statement. "Lighting is impossible to dodge and temporarily disables a dragon's muscles when it hits. But it doesn't have the same flexibility as more traditional elements, so I'm actually grateful for the army helping me to use wind manipulation much more effectively."
-
"Still, I never seen or heard of you using it, and something like lighting usage would shoot around the camp real quick." Nova said, not exactly dismissing Arcantos' comment, but not exactly acknowledging it either. "And if it falls under the entire 'You use elements differently' thing. Doesn't that mean you forbidden from using it? Why would they do that?"
"Envy." Ace said simply, surprising Arcantos with his abrupt comment. Nova just her head to look at him, arching an eye-ridge to prompt him to continue. 'She most likely used to Ace by now' Arc mused as Ace explained. "As stated, lighting is considered to be the second most deadly element around. But this is offset by just how damn difficult it is to learn. Yet alone to use effectively. To have a young-blood flinging around lighting as if he was Thor and well... you can understand why dragons would be pretty upset about that."
"Huh." Nova looked at Arcantos again, considering him for a few moments before nodding. "Yeah, especially as he doesn't exactly have the look of a great warrior. Or the charisma to get away with it. Hell, he's not exactly a good warrior at all. Your in the bottom seven fighters of the squad after all. Your lighting powers probably knocks you up to just average."
"Thanks." Arcantos said dryly, before shrugging his wings and saying. "I don't mind to be honest. My lighting isn't all that powerful. I said my different elemental usage was two-fold remember? I've learned how to use my lighting effectively in battle thanks to my tutor back home. But its not my most natural form of manipulation, which whilst effective in a pre-planned battle, is much less effective in something like a brawl."
"Can you stop being so enigmatic?" Nova said with a huff, even growling a little in irritation as Arcantos managed to neatly dance around the subject. "Stop telling us about what your different lighting usage actually is, and tell us how exactly its different exactly! That way we might be able to understand what the damn your talking about."
Arcantos flinched at Nova's outburst, actually shifting away from Nova and towards Ace. Of course, this was noticed by both himself and Ace, and whilst Ace didn't react, Arcantos swore that he was mentally smirking. Straightening up Arc mentally cleared his throat. Trying to direct Ace and Nova's attention by sheepishly rubbing the back of his neck and talking. Hoping they didn't notice as he tried to subtly shuffle back into place.
"Ah haha. Yeah, sorry about that. I got a bit carried away there." Now back in place, Arcantos dropping his arm, resisting the urge to clear his throat as he continued. "Anyway. To answer your question Nova? How I manipulate lighting is both simple yet complex at the same time." A warning growl told him to hurry up so Arcantos came up and said bluntly. "Magnetism."
"Magnetism?" Nova said, her surprised and confusion written all over her face. Ace of course remained impassive, with Arcantos confident that he already knew about it. "What, you mean like creating fields that attract or repel metal?"
"Pretty much." Arcantos said with a nod at Nova's question, a small smile on his lips as he relaxed once more. Noting that Ace had sat up more than previously, meaning that he was actually interested into what his power could do as well. "But that's massively simplifying what it can do. Like saying light dragons can make bright light, or darkness dragons can make things dark."
"So what exactly can you do with it?" Nova said, her normal grumpiness vanishing as her curiosity took over as the gears in her head turned. "I mean, I can think of a few usages myself. Like, repelling enemy weaponry, or even enemies themselves in that metal armour of their's. Hell, I suppose you can give them a brief yank to disarm them or pull them off balance. Not to mention it will be impossible to disarm you."
"Your still thinking rather basically." Arcantos said with a shake of his head. Through he had to hastily throw up his hands when Nova growled in annoyance. "H-hey! I'm not saying their bad ideas or anything. Its just your only thinking about the pushing and pulling part of magnetism. Your not thinking about the fields themselves."
"What's the difference?" Nova snapped, her grumpiness coming back in full force at Arcantos' unintended insult. "Magnetism is about fields of pushing or pulling metal. How the heck am I not thinking bout the fields?"
"He can manipulate the fields." Ace said, looking at Arcantos as he spoke. The blue dragon nodded at this, getting an irritated snort from the fire dragoness. Undeterred, Ace turned to look at Nova, explaining. "He can manipulate the shape and form of the magnetic fields. Changing and control how the pushing and pulling effects are actually applied. For example, to modify your suggestion of pushing the enemies away. If he instead moves that field above them, he can push them down and pin them in place."
"Huh." Nova said once more, mulling other what Ace had explained to her, and what it meant. "So he can uhhh... oh! If he has good control of the fields, he can put a repulsing field around his swords so that he can deflect enemy weapons, making it impossible for them to block or parry his attacks. Of course the field will have to be weak enemy so it doesn't budge the enemy and their armour, but that shouldn't be too difficult."
"Wait..." Ace said, Arcantos watching with amusement as the two dragons went through a similar process that he went through with his tutor. Through he was confident that the old goat had sussed it all out from the beginning and wanting Arcantos come to it himself. "If Arcantos can manipulate the power of a magnetic field, alongside the size of it. Couldn't be make a super intense magnetic field that is so short-range close to his sword, that when its effecting armour, instead of pushing it and its user away, it rips the armour apart and allows the weapon to dig into their scales?"
"That... is awesome." Nova said, a grin growing on her snout as she considered this idea. "Not to anyone trying to block or parry the attack would likely break their hand as their weapon is flung far from their hand.... actually come to think of it, wouldn't the weapon be pushed into their bodies? So they try to block, only to break their hand and cut themselves and get hit? Magnetism is awesome!"
"Against armoured and/or weapon wielding enemies." Ace correctly gently at Nova's excitement, smiling himself a bit. "As Arcantos said, in a simply brawl, where the enemy has no armour or weapons, then the Magnetism becomes useless. No mental to effect and Magnetism can't exactly hurt dragons either."
"Suppose." Nova said with a small huff, her cheerful excited mood vanishing rapidly. "Still, its not like Arc is stuck at using it at the enemy. He can use it to throw his swords and then pull them back... or just give his swords a bit of extra speed and power behind his cuts. Hell, he could use his armour to give himself a boost of speed, or quickly change direction. Likely gonna hurt, but if it means he dodges a lethal attack, it'll be worth it."
"I... hadn't actually thought of that." Arcantos said, surprised that Nova had managed to come up with a new idea for how to use his Magnetism. Considering he had known of it for fifteen years and Nova only knew about it for ten minutes. It was quite a feat... then again, his tutor always said familiarity could also cause stagnation. Whilst a new perceptive could easily bring new ideas to the table, as seemed to be the case here.
"Heh, and your meant to be the smart guy of the group." Nova said with a smirk, looking rather smug. "Still, suppose we can't blame you. Not like your actually using your magnetism in battle or anything. So I doubt you can actually implement them effectively in battle."
"Its not like you use your lances of fire in battle either." Arcantos shot back, feeling a little stung at Nova's remark. "And I'm still up to par with my abilities thank you very much. Me and Teprogia often spar in our off-time, with me using my magnetism in those battles."
"Huh, and here all I thought you and your girlfriend did was snog in your tent." Nova said, bluntly making Arcantos turn beet red and splutter, trying to form a coherent response and denial to Nova's claim. But the comment flustered him too much to think straight... so he was pretty lucky Ace stepped in with a sigh.
"For the last time Nova. Just because Teprogia spends a lot of time in Arcantos' tent doesn't mean their boyfriend and girlfriend. If that was the case, than I would be your boyfriend and you would be my girlfriend as you spend a lot of time in my tent either."
"I'm just teasing, no need to get snippy." Nova snapped angrily, making Arcantos flinch in surprise. "Sheesh Ace, when are you going to learn to take a joke?" The jolt of adrenaline from Arcantos' surprise managed to clear his mind... 'So... Nova wants to be Ace's girlfriend huh? Only reason I can think of why she got so snappy when it was brought up'
"The same day you learn when a joke is appropriate or not." Ace replied coldly. Arcantos quickly realizing that he had stumbled onto a rather touchy subject for the two of them and that he likely shouldn't be sticking around for this discussion. "How many times must I tell you? Making fun of dragons for supposedly 'liking' another dragon is not funny at the slightest."
"Says you Mister 'I don't care about anything but revenge'!" Nova spat back, flames shooting from her nostrils and encouraging Arcantos to make a hasty retreat. The conversation was quickly getting very personal and emotional very quickly. "Just because you lost your family doesn't mean you have an excuse to act like a complete asshole to those who do care about you!"
"Don't bring my family into this." Ace said with a growl, glaring viciously at Nova and completely ignoring the bipedal dragon that had quickly stood up and hastily made his way over to his tree. Luckily, the rest of the conversation was muted, Sonitus looked over to the two and sighed. With a wave of his hand the two of them were silenced to everyone but themselves.
"Well... that conversation went well." Arcantos commented dryly to himself as he settled down against the tree that he had been against to start with. Watching the two dragons argue furiously silent with one another... it was actually a little amusing. "Still, least I do have a new way to use my magnetism."
Luckily, Ace and Nova didn't argue for the entire hour. In fact, after ten minutes, Nova just got up and stalked to the opposite side of the clear. Sitting down and refusing to acknowledge anyone... and from the looks of it, she was probably angrily muttering to herself, whilst Ace looked like he was sulking.
And he was likely still sulking when the hour was up and got to his feet. From how Ace curtly ordered the patrol to move out before heading to the skies, Arcantos was beginning to think that their bad mood was going to last for the rest of the day. Especially with how grudging Nova was to follow the order, as it meant she would have to acknowledge Ace did actually exist.
The patrol soon arrived back at the carriage, where the Lord was waiting for them. Her eyes and veil hiding any signs that she allowed herself to feel any emotions during her time alone. The bodies of the guards having vanished, through the patrol knew that they were likely in the river now. Ace indicated for Arcantos to step forwards, once again nominated as the speaker of the group.
"Your Lordship, do you have suggestions as to how we may perform our compensation?" Arcantos guessed that giving the dragoness the first voice in the discussion was the polite thing to do... he never exactly got the complicated stuff about manners. The eastern dragon studied Arcantos coldly for a few moments in silence, just enough to make him worry before asking pointedly.
"Do you know of our practice Q? bèi?"
"Sevenfold... yes. I do." Arcantos said, feeling himself growing cold at this question, desperately hoping that the Lord was thinking of asking for that. Seeing how she was silently looking at him, Arcantos knew he would have to explain it. "Its the practice of paying back a wrong-doing seven times over. If you damage someone's goods, you pay them back seven-times the amount to repair it. If you steal someone's goods, you pay them back seven-times the item is worth. Or six-times and return the item."
"And if you kill someone?"
"If you kill someone... you must do their job for seven years, or seven times the amount of time their sworn onto it, whichever is longer." Arcantos finished, knowing that his tail was twitching nervously behind him as he quite bluntly said. "Those guards were sworn to serve you for life weren't they? Are you asking for us to serve you for life?"
"That is my initial thought." The Lord said, and Arcantos swore he was going to have a heart-attack before she said. "However, I do have an understanding of your barbaric culture, and I am merciful. So I am willing to wait until one year after your have finished in the army before demanding for your service. As long as you escort me to my destination at the border first."
"And what gives you the right to demand something like that from us?" Nova demanded, stepping forwards with a growl, glaring up at the silver dragoness, and ignoring Arcantos signalling her furiously to quite down. "Just because your a Lord of the East means you have any power over us."
"Its quite simply darling. I either be merciful, and have your service later on. Or, I have you and the rest of your squad exterminated." The Lord said coldly, looking down at the fire dragoness, and ignoring the deathly silence that fell at her statement. "You killed five life-sworn guards of a Lord, each one is worth ten ordinary guards. So that means I could demand the life of fifty of you, which covers the forty nine that makes up one of your squads I do believe."
The silence that followed was an extremely chill and tense silence. As the patrol stared coldly up at the defenceless Lord, and the Lord stared right back. Undeterred by the fact that they had saved her life, and that without her guards she was vulnerable to their wrath. Eventually, Arcantos was the one to break it, trying to stop more bloodshed.
"What her Lordship said is just a possibility. The belief of Q? bèi is that the act of the repayment allows the wrong doer to redeem themselves for performing such an act in the first place. Through it only goes so far of course. A-and if someone is dead, they can't redeem themselves of their crimes."
"He is right." The silver dragoness said, her gaze focused on Arcantos, studying him and making him squirm under that penetrating look as she continued. "The payment I ask is one year after you are finished in the army. To come and fill the roll of the dragons that have been slain. Whilst this is a lifetime service. I am willing to drop it to just seven years... if you perform amiably of course."
"And its not like we will be forced to only be guards." Arcantos said quickly as he recalled an important cultural belief of the eastern dragons and he turned to eager address this to the patrol. "Eastern dragons have a strong believe that one should be strong at a multitude of tasks. Even life-sworn guards have a secondary job or occupation. So the jobs and occupations that you were planning to take up after the compulsory three years is a strong possibility."
To Arcantos' relief, the tension of the patrol was dissipating now at his words, the six western dragons mulling over Arcantos' information, thinking about the suggestion of being a guard AND working on another job as well, and how such a task would be possible. All except Ace, who was staring coldly up at the Lord, studying her with the same intent she gave Arcantos moments ago. Scrambling to ease the tension even more, Arcantos continued.
"P-plus, the experiences in the eastern country would give us access to a new market. Seven years would give us time to get known and familiarized with many dragons. Creating connections that we can use when we return back home. Our knowledge with eastern culture and eastern dragons would grant us a significant advantage."
"You think of everything don't you?" The eastern Lord said, making Arcantos turn back to face her. Her tone was... different. It wasn't admiration, far, far from it. Yet it didn't have the same coldness that had been with her previous conversations. Ace seemed to have picked it up as well, as after Arcantos failed to respond after a few moments due to his surprise, the darkness dragon spoke.
"He's our tactician. Its his job to think of everything. And in my personal opinion? I think he's actually the best tactician of all of the young-bloods serving currently. He simply isn't so strongly acknowledged due to his unconventional style of thinking isn't appreciated by the higher-ups and is often constrained by the 'rules of engagement' that they give us."
"I ain't sure bout being the best of the young-bloods." Nova spoke up, even as Arcantos turned his head to look at Ace, his eyes wide with shock at weighty statement. "But ask anyone in our squad, hell even the actual army members in charge and I'm pretty sure they'll acknowledge that Arc is the best tactician in the squad, but is simply too unconventional to be publicly stated as such."
-
The rest of patrol nodded in agreement, leaving Arcantos rather stunned and the Lord examining him with a touch of curiosity... an emotion finally showing through the mask that she had constructed around herself. "I forgot about your Westerners heavy emphasize on specialization and whilst it is no surprise that is in place in the army I am surprised to see it at work even among the young-bloods and your patrols." The dragoness let the silence linger on for a few moments before shaking her head.
"Still, that matters now. What does matter is your compensation. I ask for you to escort me to my destination, and after you have finished your service in the army. I will give you a year to come into my service as a guard. Of which you will serve me for at least seven years, potentially much more depending on how well or how ill you perform your duties. Is that acceptable?"
Ace didn't answer right away, but instead turned to seek an answer from the patrol. Arcantos need no questioning, as he had already seen it as sufficient. The others through, had to be convinced... which Arcantos has succeeded at. As one after the other, each member of the patrol nodded in silent agreement. All but Nova, who just looked at Ace for him to know her answer. Turning back to the Lord, Ace spoke.
"We accept your deal."