Rise of the Devourer
Book 3: Chapter 20 — Arrival

Noah watched from the airship’s deck as their destination began to appear in the distance. The clouds slowly began to part as the airship lowered itself and the island of Drakonias began to appear. He’d already seen the place on map, but watching an island structure in the shape of a dragon sprawling out over the ocean with his own eyes was a completely different experience altogether. Noah spotted many creatures flying and swimming around the island, almost all of them draconic or carrying some remnants of dragon heritage with them. A myriad of wyverns circled over the islands, high up in the skies, as the airship passed silently by, leaving Noah staring in wonder.

“What do you think, impressive isn’t it?” Kaelan asked, stepping out to the deck next to Noah before leaning casually on the handrail.

“Yeah,” Noah replied, still taken aback by the beauty. The place looked a lot like the tropical islands he’d often seen pictures of back home, with vibrant sandy beaches and lush green forests surrounded by Azure blue seas. But on top of all of that, this place also had dragons. Noah couldn’t help but smile to himself. “It really is.”

“Just wait till we get to the city, we have some of the best food out of anywhere, I’m not even biased about that,” Kaelan said, grinning at Noah.

“Sounds fairly biased,” Noah chuckled.

“Actually, in this one regard I believe him,” Aurelia said, walking out to the deck from behind the two of them. “Sorry, couldn’t help but overhear. But also, Drakonias, as secluded as it may be, is known for some of it’s famous delicacies. There’s a lot of things you can only find here, and I’ve seen nobles often boasting about getting their hands on some, even all the way down south in Nyxis.”

“Exactly! It’s one of the reasons why I had trouble traveling outside, and don’t particularly enjoy going to the central kingdoms even though they have more resources. Like, don’t get me wrong, I love all the celestial artifacts and their new fangled magic systems and everything, but the weather is gloomy outside of select seasons with all the rain and snow, and the food relatively bland. Hard to stomach that, quite literally,” Kaelan said.

Noah tried to picture a cold but well developed county with bland food and gloomy weather in his head, and he got the imagine of Kaelan sitting in a chair in a distinctly british looking location, while sipping tea and eating fish and chips. He couldn’t help but laugh at the image.

“What’s so funny?” Kaelan asked.

“Nothing… just… we have a place back in my world that sounds very similar,” He said.

“What’s funny about that?” Kaelan asked, raising an eyebrow.

Noah spend roughly the next ten minutes trying to explain exactly why a british draconian guy walking around would be hilarious, The draconian got weirdly intrigued and even Aurelia seemed curious, both listening to him talk with great detail. Eventually settling on a terrible imitation of a mock british accent.

"Oi mate, I've 'ad nuff of dis cheap stuff. Tis rude to bring this innit? Spend you some five quids to get earl grey if you want me skills here. Rather schewpid of you not to. Right then. I'll be off back to me world then. Cheers,” he said before bursting out into laughter at the absolutely stupidity of it.

“I don’t get it,” Aurelia said, looking confused.

“Yeah, I don’t think I get it either,” Kaelan replied, seemingly losing interest. “Anyway, I’ll be returning to check on my team. Need to make sure Val isn’t still sleeping. Let her go and she can snore the day away,” Kaelan said, before heading inside.

Noah continued to laugh to himself every few moments even after the Draconian man’s departure, before finally calming himself down. Taking a deep breath in, he wiped tears off his eyes. “Man, I guess it doesn’t translate very well. Damn it. Now I want to somehow get access to the Internet again. As fun as a fantasy world can be, I really miss the memes.”

“That’s probably the first time you’ve said you miss something from your home,” Aurelia said. “Most outerworlders tend to be more distressed and have a much stronger desire to return, you’re certainly a special case, Noah.”

“Really? Huh. I guess… so? I think I would’ve wanted to go back a lot more if magic didn’t give you guys indoor plumbing, night time lighting, and the general bare minimum of conveniences that I have grown used to. But to have all that plus magic and want to go back…” Noah shrugged to himself. “This has been like the best vacation of my life so far.”

Aurelia hummed to herself. “A vacation, huh?”

“Well, not exactly. But… I just figure if I could have traveled back home I would’ve felt the same way. Free from… everything. Society, jobs, money, rent, it was a lot. This, comparatively, is a lot better. And I’m rich as well,” Noah replied.

“I suppose we did earn a lot from our last quest,” Aurelia said, glancing sideways. The islands were just underneath them now, as the ship began to make it’s preparations for landing. “Let’s head inside. The wind spells should be activating soon.”

Noah nodded, following her back in.

There was a buzz of excitement from the people inside, their long journey finally at an end. Noah spotted Erwest standing next to the map which showed their location in real time. Zax stood nearby, working on some kind of a magical device.

“How far away are we?” Noah asked.

Erwest glanced back at him, before turning back around to the map. “We’ve entered Drakonian from the eastern end. There’s three main islands, and we’ll be heading to the central one, to the capital located here. Drakoria,” Erwest said, zooming out the map to show a city at the dragon shaped island’s chest. “Also called the Dragon’s Heart.”

“Should’ve seen that coming,” Noah replied.

A few seconds later, Noah heard Ariella’s voice from what sounded an awful lot like a microphone, though he could detect the wind magic actually being used to project her voice.

“Alright folks, the long journey is nearly at it’s end. Despite the few hiccups and a near catastrophe, this was all in all a rather successful trip.”

People cheered back in reply to the woman.

“In around five minutes, we’ll be landing in Drakoria’s airship port, after which all of you will be free to go about as you please. The ship will be here for a week as we recharge the core and stock up supplies, before we’ll be leaving on the return journey. Many of you will be here with us on the way back, and many more won’t be. For those who will stay on the island, I wish you best of luck on your goals and endeavours. Especially to any taking on the trials.

That is all from me. We’ll be back here in five months time for another trip,” Ariella said, before the words cut off.

Noah felt the magic flare all around the ship, wind swirling as they began to rapidly descend downwards. He walked up to the windows, looking outside as the city began to appear in all it’s glory. He could see soldiers flying around the ship, guiding it on it’s way down before an anchor sank down to the ground, being set in place, slowly reeling the ship into place.

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A few tense minutes later, Noah felt a thud as the ship touched down.

“Welcome to Drakonias, people!"

The gates of the ship began to shudder open, chains moving and magic flowing through the ship. The passengers all began to gather, before making their way out and Noah decided to not jump out or teleport out but instead to be patient this time.

Partly because Kaelan didn’t seem to be doing that, which was quite the surprise.

As the two parties gathered together, Noah made his way out of the ramp leading into the port. The bright sunlight flashed onto him as he took in the air.

“Weirdly refreshing to be on solid ground again,” he said.

“It is,” Aurelia replied.

Sky, the sky-serpent apparently agreed, cheerfully spinning all around Snow. Shadow seemed content to simply be sitting inside.

“I should probably let Tony and Bun Bun out as well,” Noah said.

“Maybe after we’ve found a place to stay at,” Aurelia added.

Their conversation got interrupted when a Draconian man wearing a uniform walked up to the ramp. He shared the same scale color as Kaelan, but his tone was slightly darker, and the man had more visible scars.

“Uncle Valros!” Kaelan cheered, though the other man did not look nearly as happy. Walking closer, glaring at him.

“Don’t you try to gloss over this boy. You were supposed to be back three months ago,” the man said.

“You know how it is with adventuring, a month, three month, it’s all hard to say. Aren’t you happy I’m back safe and sound?” Kaelan said, shrugging.

“Try telling that to your father,” the man said.

To Noah’s surprise, Kaelan visible shuddered. “Come on, can’t you please talk to him this one time. Please?”

“Boy, I’ve saved your hide too many times. Now you will have to deal with it on your own,” Valros said, before he glanced towards the rest of them.

“I thought your party only had two people?” he asked.

“Ah, right. This is Valeria and Seraphina, my party members. And these guys are friends we met on the way, they’re also giving the trial,” Kaelan said.

Valros looked at Valeria and Seraphina first, inspecting them. Without a word he glanced sideways towards Noah’s party afterwards. “You might want to—“

“I told them. They can’t. But they’re growing pretty fast so it might be possible,” Kaelan interrupted.

Valros hummed, before his gaze landed on Noah. “Wyrmblood huh. I see why Kaelan took an interest then. Hard to see it nowadays. You could have a shot,” Valros said.

“Thanks,” Noah replied.

Lastly, the man’s gaze went to Zax, and for a moment he simply stared at him silently, eyes turning ever so slightly wider. Turning away, Valros looked at Kaelan.

“These… are your friends, yes? You should invite them to stay.”

“Oh, right, of course,” Kaelan said, before looking at Noah and his party. “You guys wanna stay at my place while you’re here?”

“Would that be alright? There’s quite a few of us,” Aurelia asked.

“No problem, we’ve got more than enough rooms,” Kaelan said.

“He didn’t tell you guys but he’s actually fairly important here. Like a noble,” Seraphina said.

“Wait, you’re a noble?” Aurelia asked in surprise.

“We don’t really have nobles. But my father is fairly important. He’s the— what do you call it. He’s a sworn protector of the king. One of the royal guards, and he looks after parts of the kingdom,” Kaelan replied.

“We would be glad to invite his friends to stay for the duration of the trial,” Valros said, and though he was quick about it, Noah saw him stealing glances at Zax.

“All of us really appreciate it,” Aurelia replied.

Noah let her handle any discussions, glancing towards Zax.

“What’s happening?”

Zax, unlike Noah, did not show any indication of their communication as he replied.

“We think he hasfigured out our identity.”

It was a struggle for Noah to not instantly stare at Zax in surprise. He tried to keep his expression neutral as he continued.

“How? Did he see through your magic somehow?” Noah asked.

“No, we don’t think he did. In fact, this is even more interesting than some simple counter spell,” Zax replied, polite smile still maintained on his face.

Noah didn’t break stride, continuing polite talks with Valros and listening off handedly to Kaelan talk about the city, and it’s history all the while his eyes continued to scan Valros.

“What’re you two doing?” Aurelia’s voice spoke in Noah’s head, almost making him jump. Instead, he simply stumbled for a step before catching himself.

“Is something wrong?” Kaelan asked, glancing at Noah.

“Uh- no, I just tripped. Not used to brick roads all that much,” Noah said, tapping his foot on the ground.

Kaelan seemed to buy it, returning to his tour guide of the place as they continued to walk.

Briefly he glanced towards Aurelia in surprise. How had she used telepathy? Zax had made a spell link between the two of them, so Noah’s mind resistance training had taught him how to use that to talk to Zax, but he was fairly sure Aurelia didn’t have that, and didn’t know telepathy, at least before now.

“Why’re you looking at me like that?” Aurelia asked, once more, the words projecting to his mind.

Noah reached out to Zax. “How is she using telepathy?”

“We built in the feature into your bracelets. At close range, you can reach out to one another and communicate through the spell present in it. We had told you this,” Zax said.

“Oh,” Noah said, realizing he’d never actually paid much attention to what his bracelet could do. He sent a pulse of mana, feeling the spell activate silently, and found a vague sense for his own bracelet being linked to all the members in his part. A prompt popped up in front of him as he did.

Form a telepathic link to party member: Aurelia Fauster?

Yes/No?

Noah clicked yes, and felt the link form.

“Wow, this is neat,” he sent, feeling oddly excited.

“You didn’t pay attention, did you?” Aurelia sent, giving him a side eye. Noah ignored her look, feigning ignorance.

“No idea what you’re talking about. Anyway, Valros figured out Zax’s identity. And he’s saying it’s not because he broke his spell.”

“What?!” Aurelia exclaimed, stopping in her step, almost tripping over herself as well.

Kaelan glanced back. “Not used to the roads?”

“Not used to the roads,” Aurelia replied, latching onto the terrible excuse with a simple nod.

“You two need to stop acting like children,” Ernest added, shaking his head.

“Zax’s identity was found out,” Noah sent back.

Even the paladin stopped, but only for the briefest of moments, before catching himself as he continued onwards.

Snow looked up at the three of them, and Noah decided he may as well let her know too. The girl’s eyes widened in surprise, but of the three of them, she had the least obvious reaction.

“Sky tells me the big guy is terrified,” Snow replied to them.

“I guess that means we won’t get attacked at the very least,” Noah replied, before glancing at Zax. “Do you think it’ll cause problems?”

Zax remained quiet, not replying to Noah as he continued looking at Valros, eyes flicking around, clearly inspecting something.

“No. We don’t think it will. And we might’ve figured out how he found us out.”

“How?” Aurelia asked, looking towards Zax.

Noah internally noted to tell her to learn to be less obvious. It was more difficult than people realized to talk to someone without actively looking at them. It had taken him some practice with Zax before he got the hang of it, and if he wasn’t paying attention, he still sometimes did turn his head.

Zax continued after another long moment of silence. This time, all four of them stopped in their tracks at his words.

“We think he knows another dragon.”