Find Me

“There weren’t always dragons in the valley.” Garret adjusted the parchment in his hands and reined his sleep-plagued breathing into submission. The professor’s lectures were interesting, but the ridiculous nature of a packed and warm theatre made for great conditions to fall asleep in. “Archeological findings date the oldest dragon bones to the early fourth century. It is presumed that they migrated there, something like how birds migrate south every winter.” The professor’s tone was beginning to sour. “Upon finding the valley to be filled with wildlife and hospitable for sustaining their colonies, it is presumed they simply just stayed there. But take it from me--“

The bell signaling the end of the hour chimed over the campus.

“Remember you have a report due in two weeks regarding ecological zones and the unique fauna within them,” the professor said as the students packed their satchels. “If any of you should need my assistance, I will be in my office until sundown every day except next week.”

Garret packed his things slowly, watching as all the second and third years in the class darted out as fast as they could. But with the rest of the day open, there wasn’t a whole lot for him to do, save hitting the books for his thesis. But constantly studying demonic literature has the unfortunate side-effect of acute depression and anxiety. But as Garret decided to head out for lunch, a rather sullen looking woman appeared with Professor McGins, his supervising professor.

“Garret,” the professor said. He had a look Garret was becoming more and more familiar with every day when he asked if there were any other state-sanctioned demonic rituals being performed. “Would you happen to have a spare moment?”

“Is now the best time, Professor?” Garret stood up and walked towards the theatre’s main doors as he spoke. “I was just about to get lunch.”

McGins shook his head. “I’m afraid not. This is Sergeant Higgs.” Garret offered a hand to shake, but the sergeant’s stern expression was enough of a greeting as is. “I’m afraid you’re being sent to Helias.”

“The City of Slayers? Professor, you know they can’t conscript me.”

“You’re not a soldier, Mr. Alfredson,” the sergeant said. “You’re going to investigate something for us.”

“Can you at least tell me what this is about? Isn’t there another professor or someone more qualified to do your investigation?” Garret tried moving past the sergeant, but was stopped.

“I’m afraid that’s not possible. As it stands, Duchess Carlisle has requested your help specifically. At nightfall, there will be a caravan passing through by way of the capital bound for Helias. We will rendezvous with them when they arrive, and I have orders to carry you in a bag if I have to.” Garret’s exasperated resignation was all the sergeant needed. “I will see you tonight. Good day.” As she walked away, Garret noted the slight limp in the sergeant’s gait; the way she favoured her right leg and how her body stuttered when she stepped forward.

“This is a joke, right? Please say this is a joke.”

His professor simply shook his head. “Let’s get something to eat. No good comes from a decision made on an empty stomach.” Together they marched to the University’s dining hall, placing a seat at the faculty and alumni tables as food was brought to their table. A simple vegetable and meat stew with fresh bread may have been a little meagre, but it was more than enough for Garret, who ate his fill before interrogating the tenured professor.

“What the hell was that?”

“Well, that’s no way to begin a conversation.” McGins ripped a piece of his half-loaf and dipped it into his stew. “I received a letter from the Duchess herself, asking for anyone I knew that can help her with an investigation. Obviously, I replied saying that there were many qualified people who investigate for her, and recommended many officers I know that could solve a good mystery. I thought that would be the end of it.” The professor stared out at the dining hall, and Garret followed his gaze, watching as students and professors alike found tables to sit, eat, discuss, and laugh at. “But I received another letter this morning by way of Sergeant Higgs. The Duchess needs someone who knows something about dragons and demons. There are many draconic scholars in this campus, but there aren’t many willing to study demons in any capacity. I’m sorry Garret. You’re the only one.” McGin offered a sympathetic expression, one that Garret was unwilling to accept.

“Find someone else.”

“I can’t. There’s no one else.”

Garret shook his head. “Find someone else.”

“Even if I tell you the investigation may help in your research?”

“You can’t cover this pile of crap in sugar and tell me it’s any better Professor. I don’t want to go. You’re telling me I have to go to the city which is infamous for being most under siege by dragons. All to do what? Fight crime? Find a murderer? Locate the Duchess’s lost dog?”

“Keep your voice down,” McGins whispered. He slid a folded piece of parchment across the table. “This is the letter I received. It should answer any questions you might have.” The hourly bell chimed again. “Use what’s left of your day to get any last affairs in order before you leave. I’m sure you’ll be able to get some research done when you’re there.”

Garret grumbled to himself as he departed from the dining hall. With five or so hours left until nightfall, he returned to his dorm room and packed a rucksack full of clothes, a satchel with all of his research, and the little silver left in his coin purse. Before he knew it, dusk had started to settle over the horizon, and the vibrant blue skies above his head were turning a fiery orange and pink. The thought of staying in his dorm room and hoping that Sergeant Higgs simply forgot about his existence did play around in his mind, tumbling around like a magpie in a bank, but the reality was he had to go, less the sergeant broke down the door and escorted him in chains.

No, if he had to go, he’d at least be free to make that choice.

The caravan arrived just as the first tinges of purple appeared on the eastern horizon. Garret was so engrossed in the textbook he was reading he barely heard the Sergeant’s calls.

“Where’s the other one?”

Garret looked up at the Sergeant. “What other one?”

“The other person McGins found for the investigation.”

It was at this point Garret heard hurried footsteps on the stone walkways, and the ravenous intake of air. Out of the corner of his eye, saw the smallest first year he ever saw, with a rucksack twice her size and probably filled with more than she’d need. She was liable to collapse from exhaustion until Garret stopped her in her tracks by grabbing onto her bag.

“Sorry I’m late.” Her voice was high pitched, and even in the oncoming darkness, the white tattoos lining her eyebrows and chin were clearly visible. “I needed to make sure I had all the equipment I needed.”

“Aren’t you a little young to be an expert in dragons?” Garret asked.

The girl smiled gently, but with a hint of annoyance. “Is it the robe? It must be, right?” Garret nodded. “I’m actually doing my doctorate. This robe is the smallest one available.”

“My apologies,” Garret said, recognizing the seniority. “Shall we be off then?”

The two of them boarded the Sergeant’s carriage amidst the crates and boxes of what Garret assumed were swords and bottles, and nestled in for a long journey. His introduction to his companion was brief, and he barely gleaned any detailed information on his companion, and probable partner in his task. Before him sat Mara, assistant professor and graduate student in draconic anatomy. Any further questions were greeted by snoring.

With nothing left to do, Garret pulled out the letter McGins gave him, and with a carefully low voltage lightning spell, conjured enough light between his finger tips to read the letter.

Dear Sean,

Why else would I be coming to you for help? I have already exhausted all possible investigative possibilities, including all of the scholars on that list you sent me. Again, as I explained to you before, I suspect the possibility that demons are involved in some way. To that extent, I have no means of determining it, and the priests in this city aren’t even ordained in a holy institution, nor have they made the pilgrimages priests are supposed to make.

Therefore, I need the next best thing to an ordained priest, and that is a scholar studying demonic magic, or demons themselves. I know you have one student who studies such things, one Garret Alfredson, right? You might have forgotten, but Helias has its own university that has several old faculty professors from your campus. As such, the stories of Mr. Alfredon’s fascination, in fact I would hazard to call it an obsession with the demonic, has turned him into a sort of outcast in the academic world. Luckily for me, his expertise may be exactly what I need. Additionally, I need not only the best draconic scholar you have, but one who is also willing to tread into certain danger to assist in the analysis.

I will make sure your pupils are kept safe whilst in my charge. For as long as we’ve known each other, have faith that I know how to keep scholars safe.

With kind thoughts,

Megahn

P.S. Rupert is alive and well. The soldiers have treated him like a good luck charm, and are making sure he is both well fed and in shape. I’ll be sure to let him know you love and miss him.

Before he knew it, the caravan arrived at Helias’s front gates to the outer ring, or what was left of it. The massive archway where the heavy reinforced doors were supposed to be, was instead wide open, soot marked the stones where an explosion broke out, and the remnants of old ramshackle dwellings were nothing but smoldering piles of charcoal and ash. He could hear the wreckages speak through their burning, the way a house would cry in a windy storm, and each snap and pop was just another inch the wood drew closer to death. A gentle wind passed through the caravan, and Garret thought he heard a whisper in his inner ear, but thought nothing of it as the silence returned.

From the outer ring, the caravan arrived at the center ring, where massive stone doors with runes engraved in its outward face. Garret noted their symbolic protection against fire, and the magical reinforcement they were providing. As the caravan passed through, a low-pitched hum came from the doors, meaning that the magic fields were still up and running.

The center ring was where Garret saw the citizens of Helias, all in terrible shape, but more well off than most poverty-stricken areas of the Royal Capital. The people were well fed, and the soldiers weren’t abusing their power by shoving people around and/or extorting them for all they were worth, a feature he’d only ever read accounts of in historical records. Children and elderly folk approached the caravan as they trotted through, only to be held off by a few of the guards at Sergeant Higgs’s order.

As they approached the Inner City, Garret noted the craftsman ship of the gateway. The door was made entirely of metal. The same fire protection and reinforcement runes that adorned the gates to the Center Ring were on the ones before him, with additional runes that he didn’t quite understand were there, like they were part of a larger magical incantation. The runes for “east” and “break” adorned either side of the gate, and when they opened, the runes glowed a faint shade of red.

By far, the Inner City was the cleanest. If Garret had woken up one day in the Inner city, he wouldn’t have been able to tell he was in Helias. The cobbles of the streets were replaced with cut and polished stones, and the houses and dwellings in this part of the city were inspired heavily by royalty. Undoubtedly, they served as mostly administrative buildings, though he held suspicions some higher up officials were using them as their own housings. The barracks of the city’s guard outnumbered anything in a domestic setting that Garret had seen previously. Each barrack was positioned to form a defensive perimeter around the Scholar’s College, and at the very center was a spire that served as the dwellings for the Duchess and her family.

Sergeant Higgs stopped the caravan at the main courtyard of the college, and ordered several guards to help unload the supplies within. Garret and Mara jumped out at this point, hoisting their bags with them and watching the soldiers work. Each was observably weary, like they just finished a major battle, but they moved with purpose.

“Alfredson, Grimm, with me.” Sergeant Higgs led the two through the college to the dining hall, which was packed with students and soldiers. As the dawn sky crawled over them, there wasn’t a whisper of conversation amongst the people there. “Grab something to eat and eat it quickly. You have an audience with the Duchess in an hour. If you get lost, I won’t send a party after you.”

Garret nodded and walked with Mara to the queue where several kitchen staff were busy handing out food. A rather gruff looking man in his late sixties handed a bowl of rice porridge with chunks of turnip. A quick smell told Garret they only added just enough salt to give it the slightest bit of flavour. Food rationing, he thought.

“Do you want to swap bags?” Garret asked Mara.

“I can carry my own baggage, but thanks.” The small scholar led them to a secluded area of the hall, and in the oppressive silence, they felt compelled to whisper.

“It’s not a question if you’re able to or not,” Garret said. “I said want. ‘Do you want to swap bags?’ For whatever reason, you don’t need to say. But I will say my bags are considerably lighter, and filled with much less equipment.”

She gave it some thought before resigning. “What brought this on?” she asked as she unshouldered her pack and stretched.

Garret shrugged as he handed her his. “More of an apology, I figure.”

“For what? Also, what do you have in here? It’s so light!”

He swore several segments of his spine unaligned themselves as she hefted Mara’s pack. “Nothing. Just clothes and a couple books.”

“Don’t you have equipment that you use for research?”

Garret gave a resigned expression. He would’ve shrugged if he could’ve, and spooned some porridge into his mouth. “Not everyone’s willing to conduct research on demons. And there’s not a lot of easily replicable experiments to perform to begin with.”

“You’re a cautious one.”

“All my research has been done with books and proprietary knowledge of demons. I’d talk about it if we had time, but right now I’d give anything to just get the rest of today over with and get a hot bath.”

Mara nodded her head in approval. “A bath sounds great.”

They ate in silence as the dining hall grew quieter. Students and scholars were departing, and half of the soldiers present took their time in leaving, putting on their helmets and adjusting their weapons as they did so.

When the hour came, Mara and Garret scraped the bottoms of their bowls and exited towards the main corridor they entered from, and found Sergeant Higgs waiting for them. With a curt nod, she led them further into the campus and to the central quad, where the corpse of a dragon lay in a crater of broken stones and dust. For the most part, a lot of the dragon’s corpse was still present, though it did show some bloating in the stomach.

A woman in ornate armour turned as they approached. She was older, not old, maybe later forties at the latest, hair as red as fresh blood, and a scar tracing its way from her ear to her chin.

“I never thought Sean would send students,” she said.

“Duchess Carlisle,” Sergeant Hiss said with a bow. “These are-“

“Garret Alfredson. Second year masters in daemonology, and as far as I’m concerned, leading scholar in demons and all things unholy. And Mara Grimm, soon to be doctor of dragonkind. A pleasure to have you both.”

“You honour us, your Ladyship.” Garret did his best to bow, but nearly tipped over with the weight of the pack going over his head. With assistance from Mara, he managed not to fall on his face. “I must ask you, since I know we’re here to investigate something, possibly of demonic origin, can you show us the body?”

The Duchess smiled. “You’re looking at it.”

“You mean, the dragon corpse?” Mara bolted forward, unhindered by any guards present or even the Duchess. “Can you bring my pack Garret?”

From a distance, it looked like a dead cow with how it , but he grew to appreciate its size as he got closer. Each leg of the dragon was at least three and a half meters long when extended, and the head was larger than any creature’s. Its black scales were softer around its nose and eyes, only turning larger and sturdier as they covered the rest of the body. Large leathery wings acted like a parasol, casting a very dark shadow over the crater in its lower abdomen.

“I was hoping you’d be able to shed some light on the subject,” the Duchess said. Garret placed a hand on the dragon’s snout, and watched as Mara vented some of the gas in the corpse’s stomach, letting a foul stench of decaying flesh disperse over the area. The Duchess covered her nose and made a face as she tried to speak, but couldn’t force enough air out of her lungs to form a sound.

“Well, if you’re looking for a diagnosis on this dragon,” Mara said wiping her brow. Already her robes were covered in rotting gore, “I can have one ready for this evening.”

“We know how it died,” Sergeant Higgs said. “One of our Slayers killed it with a wind-magic spell.”

“I don’t know about you Sergeant,” Mara said as she cut out a segment of the dragon’s flesh, “but taking down and killing are two different things when talking about dragons like this. And a wind-spell is not how this lady died.”

“As for me, Duchess,” Garret said grabbing his pack. “If you want my opinion, determining if the dragon was possessed is impossible.” He turned to face the noblewoman. “What makes you think demons are involved anyways?”

The Duchess merely blinked, taking a step back from the corpse and regained a measure of composure. “When it attacked the city, there was a voice in my head. I couldn’t understand what it was saying, but I knew the meaning of it.” Garret raised an eyebrow. “That must’ve not been helpful, I apologize.”

“Oh, it’s very enlightening.” Garret looked over the corpse again, the image of it flying through the air grew itself in his mind. “You can think of demons like children who don’t respect others. They take what they want, eat what they want, and speak in babbling only their parents a few others understand. Every record of demonic possession says that they linger after the person they possessed dies, watching the chaos unfold.”

“You’re saying the demon is still in the city?” Sergeant Higgs asked.

“Not right now, no. The people in this city are too happy for a demon to be around.”

“Happy? The people of Helias are happy?” The Duchess's voice shook a little bit. “They’re starving, and what resources we’ve diverted to them are barely enough to feed them all.”

“And you care about your people, Duchess. Another sign demons aren’t in the city anymore.”

Sergeant Higgs leaned in close to the Duchess’s ear to whisper, but Garret knew what they were saying. “Your Ladyship, it’s clear Mr. Alfredson isn’t taking this seriously.”

“What is it you really want Duchess? Why am I really here?”

The Duchess stepped forward until there was barely a foot’s length between them. Her voice was a little louder than a whisper, but if Garret lost focus or the wind blew the wrong way for even a second, he would’ve missed the undeniable venom dripping from her words.

“You are here because I need you to help. This dragon belongs—sorry, belonged—to a very personal friend of mine. We have searched high and low, in every shadow behind every building within the city limits, and have begun searching beyond. Now, if you cooperate, I will personally fund the next six years of your research projects whether they be for your thesis or not.”

“And if I don’t?” She stepped closer.

“Then I will see to it you are indefinitely denied any academic opportunity the only thing you will be doing will be shovelling dragon shit in the aviaries.” Garret stood silent for a minute, though he didn’t need that long to decide. He could tell the Duchess meant every word, and that she knew that he knew that too. With a satisfied look on her face, she stepped backwards and placed a hand on Sergeant Higgs’s shoulder. “Sergeant Higgs will show you and your partner to your accommodations whilst you’re here.”

Despite the fact Garret didn’t want to be in the city to begin with, and that his academic and scholarly endeavours were being threatened by someone who not was not only of a higher station and had no business interfering with his work, he felt something when he arrived. It wasn’t fear or anxiety, but a lingering sense of sadistic optimism. If a dragon could be possessed, he had an obligation to observe and report it in his research. More than anything, this was what he was looking forward to, and he felt like a child getting a bag of sweets.

Come then, a voice in his head said.

Find me.