Chapter 7 - Leaving Thelessia
"To Adona with It."

Guennit remembered Britiana making a magical copy of their map and wandering off to do more magic on it. What she actually did was enchant it to track the Dragon Hunters. More accurately it was to track the people that resonate differently than Thelessia. The map recorded them as well as the Dragon Hunters.

They saw the group in the mountains, there was also the other group moving quickly toward them. They weren't sure how they were traveling. Delaney hadn't seen any vehicles, but that didn't mean they didn't have any.

Darius and Sariya set out to intersect them part way. There were less than ten left. Between Darius's skill and Sariya's shadowbane laced arrows, they didn't expect to have too much trouble.

They both had a lot of stamina and could run far and fast, but Darius tried something first. He concentrated with a destination in mind and then used his hand to split the air, making a glowing crack with faintly misty edges. He took Sariya's hand and stepped through while pulling her along. They ended up about a mile along their path.

"What was that?" she asked.

"Voidwalking. That's only the third time I've been able to do it," he answered. Voidwalking was different than Voidjumping. Voidwalking was using the Void to get from point A to point B on the same physical plane, whereas Voidjumping used an anchor to cross time-space-dimension, which was what caused a snap-back unless the Voidrifter was strong enough to resist the gravity of their starting point.

He scoffed. "To Adona with it," he said and began changing. He changed into a young Silver Dragon with a slight blue hue. He was a little bigger than Britiana at twenty feet high, and forty feet long. His wingspan was also about forty feet wide. He knelt down, lowering his shoulder. "Come up," he instructed.

Sariya was surprised. They'd said before that Dragons rarely let people ride them. She was also honored. She climbed up and settled at the base of his neck. He took a few running steps and jumped into the air, flapping his wings to gain altitude. Sariya leaned forward so that the wind wasn't whipping her face too badly.

They shot off at incredible speed. Darius scanned the ground as they flew. It took less than twenty minutes before they saw the Hunters speeding along on two-wheeled vehicles that hovered above the ground and moved at incredible speeds. The Hunters spotted him.

"Can you hit them?" he asked Sariya as he slowed his speed a bit.

Sariya sat up and looked at the hovering vehicles coming toward them. "Yes," she answered. She unslung her bow from her back and adjusted her position so that she was kneeling. She pulled a poisoned arrow from her quiver. She nocked it and shot. Then another and another.

By this time, the Hunters had seen the Dragon. They weren't afraid and even laughed at the arrogance. Flying Dragons were nothing to them. It was even better that it was already in its Dragon form, so they didn't have to force it.

They were beginning to stop their vehicles to grab their anti-flight weapons. It might have been better if they hadn't stopped, that made them even easier targets. Three of them were shot with arrows one after the other.

They didn't expect that blasted Eoduun to be riding the Dragon. Some started firing their plasma guns at them, others continued to try to get the anti-flight weapon set up, but Sariya was faster than they were and shot three more before Darius had to dodge the plasma blasts.

He landed nearby and Sariya immediately jumped off his back and ran into the woods to take cover, while he took to the sky again. Now was not a good time for his Change to go wonky, so he stayed in Dragon form. He made another pass at the Hunters. Six were dying and the remaining three, including their leader, Ull, and Kith were left. Ull and Kith released their anti-flight weapon, a missile that could track him through the sky.

He knew about them; he still wasn't worried because they assumed that the Eoduun was with him. That was until arrows protruded from their necks.

The leader was alone, having taken cover. He was angry and tried to find the Elf's location. He wasn't worried about the Dragon, until the Dragon suddenly dove. Right in front of his eyes he saw a tear rend the sky and the dragon disappeared into it, but the missile didn't. It hit him and exploded.

Darius popped out of the rift several yards away and transformed again. He blew out a breath of relief that nothing had gone wrong. Only the leader, Ull, and Kith were dead. The others were merely poisoned and dying. Darius approached the group. Sariya joined him. He began collecting the vehicles with his cloak. He hadn't seen anything about these vehicles in the information about the Dragon Hunters on the moonsong crystal he owned. The Technomages would probably love to study them.

Sariya prodded an unconscious Hunter with her foot. "What should we do with them?" she asked.

Darius looked at them disdainfully. "Gather the armor and weapons. We probably shouldn't leave the bodies to kill scavengers," he said.

"The shadowbane would kill them, too. It would cause a chain reaction and affect the whole area," Sariya agreed.

"I'll handle the bodies," Delaney said as she came out of the shadows. She scrunched her nose. "Some of them aren't dead yet," she said.

Darius took a dagger from his belt. "I'll deal with them, you two help me strip them," he said.

At the end of the gruesome business, Delaney evaporated the bodies. Darius transformed again and took to the sky while Delaney took Sariya through the shadows.

--

Delaney and Sariya were the first to return to the village and were surprised by what they saw. Several buildings had been destroyed and Chrystianna was sitting in a stately chair in the square, sipping tea with several bags of silver and gold at her feet.

She smiled when she saw them. "Everything went well?" she asked.

Delaney nodded. "Yes," she said.

Chrystianna sighed in relief. "That's great. It's all thanks to you, Sariya. If we had something like shadowbane, maybe it wouldn't have taken a hundred years to get the Hunters off Emphyralis," she said sadly, looking at the tea in her cup.

It wasn't that they hadn't tried poison on the Hunters, but their constitutions were tough, and they were highly adaptable. It seemed like every time they found something that'd work, they'd be able to counter it. She shook herself out of her reverie when she saw Britiana flying overhead. Her daughter landed and had a strange transition where her face remained reptilian for a while before finally changing into her own face.

Chrystianna hid her chuckle behind her teacup.

Before Britiana could pout too much her brother arrived from a crack and landed and kept a tail for a while. 

"I checked on Guennit and the company. They're on their way back after defeating the mountain trolls,” he said, ignoring the stubborn tail.

Chrystianna finished her tea and put her things away. "Then we'll go to them. I don't want to stay in the village a minute longer," she declared, fluffing her skirts with a sniff. She looked at Delaney and Sariya. "Do either of you want any of this?" she asked, poking a bag with her toe.

Sariya and Delaney both shook their heads. Sariya was a hunter, she didn't need a lot of money. She could survive. Despite their reputations, Eoduun also wouldn't allow one of their kind that was pregnant to fend for herself. She had no worries about herself or her baby.

Delaney also rejected the money. As a high-level witch, getting by or getting rich wasn't anything she was worried about either. Even though they lived modestly, the Crowley family had been quite wealthy and had plenty of priceless family heirlooms.

"Very well, all for the company then," Chrystianna declared. She transformed and grabbed one of the bags. Darius and Britiana transformed and grabbed the others, taking flight.

Delaney took Sariya's hand again and walked into the shadows.

She popped out where Guennit and the company were hiking down the mountains, tired but in good spirits.

"Holy God of Light above!" Guennit exclaimed when they saw them suddenly pop out. Although they'd seen the cat-witch transform, they'd never seen anyone pop out of thin air.

Delaney chuckled. "Wait ‘til you see what's next. Rest while we wait," she said mysteriously.

Guennit didn't argue much, he just signaled for the men to come to halt and rest. They gladly complied, sinking to the ground to either sit or lay. Some of them were injured, but not so badly they couldn't move. They'd done field first aid until they could get to a doctor. They'd live.

One of the men laying down suddenly shouted and grabbed a companion. "Monsters! Monsters!" he screamed and pointed at the sky.

The others saw them and reacted, preparing to get up and run.

Guennit saw the calm demeanors of the two women. "Stand firm!" he shouted. Though terrified, the men did so, but they vigilantly huddled together.

The three Dragons landed and tossed the bags of money in front of them before transforming back into their humanoid forms, each briefly sporting fluffy white wings before they, too, disappeared.

"Are they demons or angels?" one of the men uttered with wide eyes.

"Neither. We're Dragons," Chrystianna said with a kind smile. She gestured to the money. "The bribe that the village was given by the Dragon Hunters to set everything up," she explained.

The men finally came back to themselves and looked at the money. It was more money than any of them had ever seen in person. Guennit reacted first and went down on his knees and bowed to her. "May the God of Light bless, my lady," he declared.

Chrystianna laughed. "I don't need his blessing, but I thank you for the sentiment. It's only fair, my family brought you danger. It's what you deserve," she said as she helped him up.

Britiana nodded. "That's right," she said and pulled a Silver Dragon scale with some etching on it. "You can't use this for no reason, but if there's ever anything you need enough to cross time and space, use this to contact us," she said. It was slightly easier to communicate through time and space than travel. Still, this scale pushed her abilities to their limit. It was definitely rare and precious.

Guennit took the scale in a daze.

Darius took his forearm. "It was a pleasure working with you. All of you. You were my brothers, and I will miss you all," he said. The company was touched and echoed his sentiments.

Britiana sighed. It was too bad they couldn't say farewell to Uncle and the gang, but every time they parted, they said farewell as if they would never see each other again. She took out a vial. "This should help with healing the injured," she said. "Mix a few drops with water," she instructed.

"Are we all prepared to leave?" Chrystianna asked. Everyone gave an affirmative answer. "Lord Raziel. We're ready," she called out.

Raziel appeared with his sharp-toothed grin. "As her Grace bids," he said, and tore a rip in the sky and gestured. "Guests first," he said to Sariya and Delaney.

The two looked at each other, braced themselves and stepped through the Void.

Chrystianna gave her children a push so Darius and Britiana stepped through the Void into the cozy living room of the Silvermoon Keep's family wing. There was a familiar face waiting for them, shocking them. "Dad!"

"Elias!"