RavensDagger

  Chapter Two - A Dragon's Strength

  48th Day of Spring - Year 1758 of the Goldehe Sapphire O

  Maldrak stepped out of the captain's and out onto the ship's deck. He was immediately hit by a wave of warm, humid air as soon as he crossed the threshold between the room and the outside.

  The Sapphire O was known for being rather warm, especially in these parts where they were still out of sight of the mainnd.

  Men were moving about the deck, some tending to the ship, adjusting the sails or mending some of the lines above. A small part of the crew were hanging off the side of the ship on wooden pnks held up by long ropes. They were scraping barnacles off the hull. They were particurly tenacious around this part of the o, or so he had heard.

  Moving around and up to the quarter deck, Maldrak o the helmsman and one of the ship's officers who was discussing something with the man before moving on towards the poop deck at the very back.

  The Geidings had been his ship for some twelve years now. It was a three-masted carrack he had purchased from a mert pany that used to travel from Draya Calyrex to Oraya Lyscara and back. The very same trip they were embarked on at the moment.

  At the time, it had been something of an unnecessary purchase. The cost of upkeep and training and the dog fees was only barely worth the value in having a ship of his own to travel upon. Now, however? The cost of ships, he imagined, would have jumped up signifitly, and maritime trade was going to be a tentious issue.

  Piracy was going to rise. He just k. But that would be an issue for the future. At the moment, the Sapphire O was yet safe, and if it came to it, the Geidings had aire cohort of mages aboard, and these weren't o-graduates, but well-studied and capable masters of the are arts.

  Pirates wouldn't be an issue for very long.

  He found that especially true as he stepped up the small tilted dder onto the poop deck.

  "How goes it?" he asked.

  There was a broad-shouldered man standing there, his shirt removed so that he was merely in trousers, a fact that exposed his well-muscled frame to the elements.

  He was covered i at the moment, though it didn't seem to e from exertion. Around him were the three puppets they'd only fihe day prior. They id on the ground, only one of them trying and failing to stand itself back up.

  "Maldrak," the man said. "It's certainly going. These three are as coordinated as inebriated ostriches and only half as graceful."

  Maldrak nodded. He had expected as much. "Do they have any potential?"

  Jorvin Ashheel was a mage-knight of some small amount of repute who had e to be in Maldrak's service a few years ago as a retaihe man able caster, though his passion y in the martial arts and applying his are knowledge to those. It made him a formidable knight, though he was now more white of hair than he had once been.

  "Too early to truly tell," Jorvin replied. He gestured to the one puppet standing itself back up. It had a small Three carved onto its chest. "That one is tenacious. The other two are taking loo tell their elbows and knees apart. They're worse than war dolls would be."

  "Hm, I suppose that was a risk that es with the particur way these were created," Maldrak said.

  "Most war dolls I've see exactly graceful, but they at least walk and stab a spear forwards," Jorvin said. "What's up with these three?"

  "They have more plex minds and souls. To leave sushackled means to some of the... base programming that the mass-produced war dolls you may have seen are usually given. And war dolls are usually crafted from the body of the deceased directly. These three have very little of their inal bodies left. It's nearly all artifice."

  "What's the advantage?" Jorvin asked. "I've never known you to pick the worst option uhere's something others don't know."

  "It's not an unknown fact. Puppets created in this way must learn to move on their own, but they aren't limited to the strict meical motions of a uppet. They may be worse, or they may grow to be better. Give them some time and they may even learn some of those martial arts you enjoy so much."

  Jorvin snorted. "I'll see about that," he said.

  "I hope you shall," Maldrak replied with an easy smile. He gnced eastwards, towards where the mainnd would be showing up soon. "We have another few days before we enter the shore."

  "They barely walk," Jorvin replied. "It'll be a waste of resources to send them out as they are."

  "I have some pns with regards to that," Maldrak replied.

  "Oh?" Jorvin replied. He narrowed his eyes, then turned his attention back to the puppets. "Yoing to allow them to collect fragments?"

  Maldrak smiled. Jorvin was a keen man, no matter how brutish he might seem to some. "Exactly."

  "Dangerous," Jorvin replied.

  "I trust that it will end well," Maldrak returned easily. "With that in mind... are there any s with the puppets at the moment?"

  Jorvin rubbed at his . "They're clumsy, but we'll have to see if they improve in that regard. My biggest is their fragility. They're made of wood. I've seen some uppets at certain paces that were made of goht steel. Golems that take a knight on in a fair fight. These three? A farmer with a fork could pin one of these to the deck with no issue."

  "A fair point," Maldrak replied. "These bodies are temporary."

  "Is that wise? They will learn to move with these, and then you'll give them greater bodies?"

  "I first hem to prove a point," Maldrak replied. "Or rather, to prove their worth."

  Jorvin shook his head. "Hardly fair. You're sending a squire out to defeat a dragon with nothing but a stid a pat on the bad promise to give them armour and a spear if they live through it."

  "Not a dragon, no," Maldrak said. "I have a challenge pnned out for these three. Something suitably easy. If they overe that, then I'll improve them. They will, in a way, scale their improvements based on what they aplish."

  Jorvin hummed. "That's a lot of pressure. Are you certain that we wouldn't be better served making ndfall ourselves?"

  Maldrak hummed, then shook his head. "Wait here a moment," he replied.

  The Magus left the poop deck, returning all the way to the main deck where he soon found himself speaking to the officer on deck. Soon, a bucket was lowered off the side. A few moments ter, it was raised up, filled with half a dozen barnacles.

  He ied these, then nodded and plucked o before strolling back up to the rear of the ship where Jorvin had stood the three puppets bato their feet. They swayed a little, and when he sighem to move, the three stumbled in his dire.

  The man ducked under a wild swing, kicked the leg of the first puppet down, spun, grabbed the arm of the sed, and pulled it into the third who tried to keep her feet but who iably crashed onto the deck.

  "Martial arts already? I expected you to start with something simpler," Maldrak said.

  "You gave me leave to train them, and that's what I'll do. Besides, what would be simpler than this?" Jorvin asked. "It's not as though they tire, or feel pain."

  "I thought, perhaps, walking?" Maldrak asked.

  Jorvin chuckled. "Nah. Learn to run first, I say. Is that a barnacle?"

  "It is," Maldrak replied. "Sit the puppets up, they may want to observe this."

  Jorvin had the puppets stand back up, a task which seemed difficult for all three. Staying up was just as much of a challehough they managed for now.

  "This is a simple barnacle if examined by an untrained eye," Maldrak said as he raised the rocky lump. "But this one has fed on flesh. Now, it's dragon flesh a thousand times removed. Likely this is a barhat has fed on some detritus that washed into the o, or perhaps a tiny piece of the flesh of a fish that ate the remains of an animal that ate another animal that in turhe remains of a dragon. Dragon flesh has a particur magic that allows it to... survive throughout the of life, no matter how many times it is digested and redigested."

  "How tenacious," Jorvin replied. "I imagihat that particur barnacle would be a poor meal, then?"

  Maldrak nodded and observed the bars shell was harder, very slightly ed, but also scaled to some small degree. A cerous growth ushing out of its side, and it seemed to weep. His are senses pai as something vulgar and putrid. "Indeed," he replied. "But when it is destroyed..."

  The Magus summoned fme, and the bar up into a small bze of tained fire. What was left after a bare moment was a small bed puck that the Magus tossed over the side. He plucked something out of the air. A small, translut thing, no bigger than a dowher, and a thousand times as wispy.

  "This is a fragment of a dragon's strength. It is what made the nation we are going to visit so obsely powerful, because most living things ed these with every meal and breath. This, here, is power, and I io allow these puppets to e it and use this same power to transform into something more."

  ***