The Newt and Demon

Waiting for Tresk to return from the lizard islands was more painful than sending her off. Theo should have known she would get up to no good. But as he stood on the streets of Broken Tusk, his eyes turned to the sky as he tracked her progress, he wondered if he would have asked her to do anything differently. Viewing her memories, he watched as she attempted to negotiate with the lizard people. The people of Saetalein Ya’ax weren’t open to negotiations. Without the influence of gods or ascendants, they had cultivated some powerful reagent farms. Farms they weren’t willing to share.

Sprawling greenhouses dotted the landscape of the lush islands. Including greenhouses that could mimic the phase of the moon. While Theo wasn’t aware of any upgrade that would help this happen, it was possible he could use mundane greenhouses infused with Tero’gal’s power to dedicate to the Soul Bloom. For now that didn’t matter. A marshling rode a dragon-goose, a bag filled with the necessary flowers tucked away in her local dimensional storage. She refused to allow him to see the ‘goods’ before she returned.

“I’m not trying to play politics here,” Salire said, rubbing her hands together nervously. “But isn’t this going to be a problem?”

“I imagine we’re looking at a massive problem, Salire. Our diplomatic relations with the lizard-folk is rocky to start. Tresk will kick off an incident with this.”

“Oh, that’s lovely. Because we need another incident.”

“I would’ve done the same thing, though. Time isn’t on our side.”

Theo sensed a disturbance in the air behind him. He narrowed his gaze, turning to sense a familiar energy radiating from the center of the road. A line appeared in the air, dragging itself from top to bottom until pooling shadows spilled out. A moment later, the gap widened. After a few breaths, a carriage drawn by demonically infused karatan burst forth. Hooves scraped against the cobbles, sending sparks into the air as Galflower did her best to bring the cart to a stop.

“I need some potions!” Fenian shouted from atop the carriage.

“He really just does the one thing,” Theo said, releasing a sigh. Tresk was still quite distant from the town. It would take her a while to get back. “What are you looking for, Fenian? Thought you swore off hunting everyone down.”

“Well, yes… But this will help our scheme!” Fenian shouted, jumping from the carriage. He landed with grace before Theo and Salire, a wide smile painting his face. “I’ll gather three allies for our plot. Powerful people who want nothing more than to see Kuzan dethroned.”

“Might not be the best idea to say that out loud.” Theo shook his head. The gods could hear what they were saying… he thought. It was hard to say after the latest seal went into place. After a moment, he sighed as dramatically as possible. “What do you need?”

“A decent list of things, actually,” Fenian said. “And I might destroy something important… Do you have a potion that can destroy metaphysical things?”

Theo produced a Dragon’s Breath Potion from his inventory, holding it out without looking Fenian in the eyes. It was the same potion he had planned to use on the elf during their duel. “Anything else?”

“A return potion, something with slowfall, Dexterity, health potions… Hmmm, do you have anything that makes a person fly? Oh, and something with future sight.”

“That’s all?” Salire asked, scoffing. “What are you doing, storming the palace in Tarantham.”

“Yes, how did you know?” Fenian asked.

“Seriously?” Theo asked. “How many times have you kicked that hive? Is there much left to kick?”

“Stop being such a bura in heat.”

“I don’t get the idiom.”

“Stubborn,” Fenian clarified. “Oh, fine. I know you’re going to accost me until I tell you my plan. I’ve been looking for someone—not my wife, I know where she is—for a long time. Thought he was in the queue, but I have some more information. Also, I know where Jan and Twist went and about when they’ll arrive.”

“Kuzan is holding this person?” Theo asked. Fenian’s plans had become transparent now that he wasn’t hiding the important details. “And you think Jan and Twist will join the cause?”

“Oh, yes. Once they learn what happened. Back in the old world, something very similar happened. A leader assumed the position of Death, betraying the trust of us all. They’re still as sore about it as I am.”

“Sure. Why the hell not?” Theo asked. “We’re not killing a bunch of people, are we?”

“Ah. I have a secret weapon,” Fenian said with a wink. “I’ve been saving it since I got here. Under the notice of anyone. Stealthy and all that.”

“Salire, could you fetch his junk?” Theo asked. “Bring a few bombs for good measure. You never know when you’re going to need to blow something up.”

“Really? That easy?” Fenian asked, confusion washed over his face. He withdrew a sack of gold coins from his inventory. “I was going to dangle this for a while. Listen to the sound of all those coins clattering.”

“I mean… Do you have anything I need? Greenhouse Seed Cores, high-level Monster Cores. Food?” Theo asked.

“We can work something out,” Fenian said, watching as Salire scampered off. “Seriously, Theo. This is going to be important. My last attack on Tarantham was in search of this man. But I remembered something he said back in the day.”

“What’s that?”

“He was the Guardian of the Shards back then. I was thinking about how much Kuzan enjoyed his irony. What better place to keep your enemy?”

Theo wasn’t so sure about that. He was at a point where he had conflicting information about where this guy was. Some people said he was in the queue, some thought he was on the mortal plane. Perhaps he was in both at the same time or some nonsense like that. But it hardly mattered. Fenian was like a dog with a bone. There was no reason to keep him from trying to do something like this. A nice jailbreak might help get his mind off of things.

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Some people responded to stress by turning inward. People like Fenian reached out, trying to change their environment to remove that stress. If storming Tarantham made him feel better, then why not? There was nothing like an outlet to get rid of the jitters.

“Sounds like a solid plan,” Theo said.

“Really?” Fenian asked. “Oh, don’t you want to fight about it?”

“I don’t want to fight, no. I want you to keep busy. So, you can have these potions. But could you help with the food situation? Perhaps even with some ferrying duties?”

“After I check this off my list, I have little else going on.” Fenian shrugged, his vision going glossy as he thought. “Yes, I suppose we have an arrangement. Oh, excellent. The beautiful woman with my potions.”

Salire blushed slightly as she handed over the potions. She had gathered from Theo’s stock of dangerous potions, along with the useful ones.

“I hope these are okay,” Salire said.

“Those are fine,” Theo said. “Oh, can I call on you if I need help with the lizard-folk?”

“Why? What’s going on with the lizards?” Fenian asked.

“Tresk just stole some very rare reagents from them. I don’t think they have much of an army, but you know.”

“Oh, I know all too well. You’ll have a pile of gold or my sword when the time comes. Whichever the lizards prefer.”

For all Fenian’s flaws, this was the reason Theo had stuck with him for so long. Things could get messy, especially in a world that needed to be restarted. It wasn’t something he liked to consider, but force was sometimes the only way forward.

“Unless you need anything else, that should be it,” Theo said.

“Thank you, my dear alchemist. You’ve been the best investment I’ve ever made.”

Without giving an overly long farewell, Fenian turned away and mounted his carriage. He clicked his tongue, turning it around and heading back through the Bridge. Tresk was heading in hot, pushing Alex as quickly as she would go.

“That elf is dangerous, isn’t he?” Salire asked.

“I’m not sure ‘dangerous’ is the right word so much as catastrophic. He’s a messy thing caught between two worlds. When he generated his Throneworld, he made it look exactly like Iaredin before it had changed. I think he just wants his old home back.”

“That’s sad.”

Theo shrugged. He couldn’t remember a time where his world had stayed the same for too long. The constant change of his life had hardened him against such things. Until he arrived in Broken Tusk. Now he was doing everything he could to preserve what was here. Bringing everyone to Tero’gal was easy. Almost effortless. But taking the landmass and the buildings added a level of unneeded complexity. But he couldn’t do it any other way. Each stone set in the cobblestone road was more like an old friend than anything he remembered from Earth. He’d do anything to preserve it, and that seemed selfish.

“Nostalgia isn’t always sad. We put these things around ourselves to bring back a sense of how things were. Not because those things were there. But because those things remind us of a different time.”

“You’re getting too deep for me,” Salire said. “This is why you’re not allowed to sit still for too long.”

Theo nodded in agreement. She was right. But soon a dark shape appeared in the sky overhead. Had Tresk been feeding Alex more bones than normal? Her progress between dragon and goose had increased its pace. She was now more dragon than goose, although she kept most of the feathers there were large spots where he could only see scales. The horns on her head had elongated, twisting to appear like that of a ram’s. Her webbed feet were gone, replaced with clawed hands. The tail was nothing new, but it had gained a few sharp barbs on the end.

“More dragon than goose,” Theo said, watching as Alex landed on all four of her limbs. She swiped her tail from side-to-side, puffing out a breath of fire.

“We robbed them!” Alex shouted into his mind. “Robbed them blind!”

“We tried to negotiate,” Tresk said, withdrawing the bag from her dimensional space. Theo checked the contents quickly before placing it in his inventory. Without the power of the green moon they would fade quickly. “But those guys are weird.”

“Did they see you stealing the blooms?” Theo asked. “Should I reposition some guns?”

“Did they see me?” Tresk said, laughing. “Come on. Do you know who you’re talking to?”

Theo didn’t respond. He just glared at her for a while until she broke.

“Okay, one guy might have seen me. But he looked like he was near-sighted. And I’m super fast.”

Theo nodded, opening his administration interface. He put a note for Zan’kir to reposition some guns to the bay’s approach. After that he re-tasked the tiny navy to patrol further south, along the coastline. It would give them all sometime to do, and it cost them nothing to prepare.

“Anything else of note happen?”

“Not really,” Tresk said with a shrug. “I told them about the end of the world and they claimed to already know. While I doubt they’ll accept my invitation, I asked if they wanted to join the party.”

“Was that before or after you stole their stuff?”

“Before,” Tresk said with an eager nod. “You always gotta ask nicely before you do crimes.”

“Salire, we should process these immediately,” Theo said, ignoring the eager lizard. “How much space do we have?”

“Enough if you want to do a full run. We have stock of the Suffuse Potion and Burning Regeneration, so that’ll save some time.”

Theo clasped a hand on Salire’s shoulder. “That’s some incredibly forward-thinking.”

More blush spread across her cheeks. “Thanks.”

“Theo and Salire, sitting in a tree…” Tresk sang, dancing around. “How does the rest go?”

“I’m not telling you,” Theo said, locking the rhyme away in his mind. “A man can give his apprentice a compliment without it turning romantic, Tresk.”

“Yes. You’re married to me, anyway.”

Theo tapped his chin, his tail whipping through the air. “Hmmm. That’s more like getting married to yourself. Or rather, combining yourself with another person and marrying the result.”

“Either option is weird,” Tresk shrugged.

“Do you have any romantic inclinations?” Salire asked.

Theo grabbed for the locket at his neck, finding only the old amulet given to him long ago.

“He thinks he’s still married to his dead wife.”

“Tresk!” Salire shouted, looking aghast. “You can’t say stuff like that.”

“What? Just because he won’t say it doesn’t mean I won’t. He had trouble dating back on Earth as it was. Hard to find someone you like when the world is falling apart. Then he ‘retired’ and met this lady. What was her name?”

“I’m not telling you,” Theo said, folding his arms.

“Anyway, he swore it off after that. Said he’d be married forever, so he didn’t have to worry about it.” Tresk let out a sigh. “What a tragic story.”

“Not really,” Theo said. “That’s just the way things worked on Earth. I was lucky to have anything, seeing as our population had dipped to dangerous levels by the end. Anyone who made it to the sun exploding was lucky in my book.”

“Yeah, but we ain’t gonna let that happen here, right?” Tresk asked, making a fist and pumping it. “Lemme get a ‘hell yeah!’”

“Hell yeah!” Salire shouted impulsively.

“Hell yeah,” Theo said with far less enthusiasm.

“That’s right. We’re cool. Everyone standing here is cool. Even Alex.”

Alex honked, releasing a small stream of fire. Fire made most things cooler.