“What do you even do for a living?” I asked Marie as she walked ahead of me, having picked me up according to her, “On her way home from work.” “And what kind of work do you have ends at noon?”
“You…don’t want to know” she said with a sly smile and wink as she laughed, “This way” she added as she led me down an unfamiliar part of Ashdale. I’ve lived here for quite some time and this place was…not one I recognized at all, I couldn’t tell where I was in the relative span of Ashdale nor could I recognize any landmarks around me.
“Where even is this in Ashdale?”
“We…like to keep this place to ourselves.” She said as she stopped in front of an alley then flicked her hand and the air seemed to shimmer and far down the alley…was a door. I looked at her confused, but followed a few steps behind, the alley was barely wider than my shoulders, the doorway was larger than the alleyway should be able to house, the thick dark wood framed with draconic elements. “Dragons…of all kinds like to keep ourselves…connected, we’re all so rare.” She added as she knocked roughly on the door with the side of her fist, an eye-slot opened as a set of glowing orange eyes occupied it.
“Password?” they asked, Marie said something in the draconic tongue. “Who’s he?”
“A friend.”
“Mariadron, you know we do not allow non-dragon people inside without…valid reason” they said
“It’s just Marie, I’ve not gone by my full name in ages” Marie said, “He’s here for business, there is a contact whom is a patron of our establishment that he needs to talk to.”
“Who?”
“Varga”
“Ah…I see, he’s in trouble with some demons?”
“No, no…just an impossibly powerful artifact that is linked to his father’s realm.” Marie said, nearly dismissing the severity of the situation.
“Marie?” I said quietly to which she motioned for me to be quiet.
“He good at secrets?”
“Of course, dude…he’s a demigod, you think they’re running around out there in numbers like mortals?”
“Fine” they said before closing the eye-slot sharply, the sound of multiple locks undoing before the door swung open.
“Welcome…to the Dragon’s Den” Marie said as she motioned for me to walk ahead, her hand moved to the small of my back pushing me ahead as I walked ahead to feel that bubble like feeling of being in a pocket dimension and found myself in the top floor of a massive…not theater, but its not not one. It appeared to be a massive restaurant with a live band, the sound of people playing darts and billiards rattling in the air, the smell of cigar smoke and brimstone thickly in the air from the sheer volume of draconic races that populated the area. There is a dance floor along the bottom floor where a handful of people were dancing, the smell of roasting meat wafted past as a goliath woman carrying a tray with an entire roasted boar walked past to a table with only two people sitting at it. Everything was made in the richest materials possible.
We were standing at a doorway along the top floor which was open to the two lower floors, the entire building was an ovate shape: dark red velvet wallpaper with dark wood paneling along the bottom and dark hardwood flooring with thick carpets over it, ornate dragon wrapped pillars marking the inside with no railings as people just flew from floor to floor which was also shown by the lack of stairs, the staff just seemed to have levitation cuffs around their wrists allowing them passage between the floors. A theater met with a smoking lounge met with a billiards hall, restaurant, dance hall and everything that was just so steeped in luxury and money to the point where I felt poor in comparison. I saw a group of older looking men of draconic races sitting around a poker table with a massive pile of gold coins, bills of various currency, gemstones and artifacts piled up in front of them. I looked back over towards that table with the two people and the boar and saw only a skeleton remained.
“Ah…I love this place.” Marie said
“What…what is this place?”
“Dragon’s Den…it’s a…weirdly enchanted place, a lounge for dragons of all kinds to mingle and see how many of us out there are left.”
“And…why would Kálmán Varga be here?”
“His cousin owns the place, plus…he technically is a dragon.”
“His cousin?” I asked as I followed her as she just walked towards the edge then jumped off the edge and her fin like wings spread a bit to slow herself as I sighed before flicking my fingers for a feather weight charm and stepped off letting myself be caught by the magic and just lazily fall down to the ground floor beside her.
“The magic she put on this place connects it to like every major nonhuman city in the world, but with magic that strong…for just a single person, it only appears once a week…Sunday.”
“Why Sunday?”
“Because what day is better…for a hellish dragon like me?” a voice asked making me jump as I looked behind me, “Hey, Marie…saw your text, Kal and Anthony aren’t here yet, but they should be soon, something about traffic.”
“It's what they get for living in New York” Marie said
“I know, I know” She said, the woman I saw was quite tall, pushing six feet and was built like she could bend a car in half with a single arm, broad shouldered, muscular and beautiful in a terrifying way: these solid violet eyes with slit white pupils, collar length eggplant colored hair, all sharp reptilian teeth and a massive pair of ornate horns curling off her temples, her entire figure was covered in scales of purples, black and bone grays, her voice has low, husky and raspy, thick with a cockney British accent and her hand was atop a thick black cane with a lion head shaped top, she had massive black claws on her hands, three pairs of huge wings were nestled against her back and matching tails wafted around her legs at least six of them, smaller horns adorned her brow, cheekbones and jaw, she was leaned softly on the cane much more so for fashion rather than need and was dressed in a high waisted black jeans patterned with skulls along the sides and a tucked in black tank-top covered in an ornate black harness that wrapped around her entire torso and down her arms with a backless and sleeveless purple plaid floor length kimono around her, destroyed and edged in fringe, covered in safety pins, sparks, chains, zipper teeth and similar things, all of her jewelry was covered in spikes, chains and studs and a pair of bright purple extremely pointy toed boots on her feet with massive heels and thick platforms, in the hand resting atop her cane was also one of those super long and thin cigarette holders: black and ending in a weird hydra like piece in gold where the center head was holding, not a cigarette, but weed by the smell and heavy clouds of smoke that blew out her slitted nostrils. I can see why these two like each other.
“Jewel, this is March…March, this is Juliana…daughter of Lucifer.” Marie said
“…what?” I asked looking over at Marie as Juliana laughed.
“Just Jewel” she said holding her hand up, “But…yes, Lucifer is my parent, though my other parent is a dragon, hydra to be specific, but Luci is also a dragon…so…doubly dragon” she said before laughing as she shifted her hand around, “Kal is one of the very first sea serpents and sea serpents are dragons, plus the two of us have always been close so he enjoys being here to see me, though…when you told me about how your friend here needs to speak to him specifically, I asked Kal to attend today…so…he should be here soon. It’s always obvious when he walks in, everyone here…sees us archdemons as…divinity.” She said before laughing, “Enjoy your time here.” She added as her huge wings spread, each had to be over twenty feet long each as they beat once and she rose all the way to the top floor.
“Is it normal…to not be able to feel your legs?”
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