A short while later

  North of the Varle

  We eventually found our two companions on the northern bank of the little stream Varle, battling not one, but two of the vile creatures. Though not identical to the one we had fought, they were clearly of the same ilk: twisted, unnatural, and grotesque. One skittered on all fours like an oversized lizard, its back covered in heavy armored plates, while the other flapped through the air on tattered, bat-like wings. Despite their differences, both shared the same eerie, nightmarish quality as the fiend that Jioan and I had slain.

  Our companions were holding their ground remarkably well against these unnatural fiends. Both of them were Nefilim, the species often considered the most mundane of the eight Cemareli: Lacking fur except for a bit of hair on their heads, possessing neither wings nor tails, and covered only by thin skin in place of scales or a tough hide, it was easy to see why some of the other species might dismiss them. Yet, what Nefilim lacked in physical traits, they more than made up for in sheer determination - a trait our friends were demonstrating as they adamantly stood their ground against the grotesque monstrosities before them.

  Claudia Zerin, with her long, wavy blonde hair, was clad in sturdy-yet-flexible scale armor. A member of the tan-skinned Casoro People, she was the only one of our group originally from Selim. By chance, our paths had crossed on Makariba after she had run away from home in search of adventure. United by a common love of freedom, and going wherever the wind took us, we soon started calling ourselves the Wild Geese.

  Back then, she had been but a little girl with big dreams, but she had soon grown into a skilled fighter. It also had become apparent that - just like Jioan - she had a special talent: Through Iserialogy, she could not only enhance her own abilities but also enchant her weapon with elemental energies.

  Presently, her great axe Gryphclaw was wrapped in a cloak of Iserial fire. She brought it down repeatedly on the armored shell of the reptilian fiend, her strikes unnaturally swift - no doubt the result of enhancements she had cast upon herself.

  Marius Zerin, meanwhile, was of the black-skinned Faracaro People. He had short, curly black hair and wore tribal leather armor. We had met him in the Sebil Badlands of the Ungani Savannah in Pelagia, several years after forming the Wild Geese. He had been a young man at the time, and had fallen head over heels for Claudia, abandoning his tribe in favor of following us, whether we wanted him to or not.

  At first, Claudia had been annoyed by his tenacity, but that had changed after Marius had repeatedly proven himself quite the capable fighter. His weapons of choice were javelins. Like Claudia, he had a special talent: He could imbue his weapons with Iserialogy, which caused them to explode with elemental force on impact.

  Presently, he demonstrated this by hurling one such imbued javelin at the flying fiend. The creature tried to dodge, but the projectile still caught it in the shoulder. The moment the javelin struck, it burst into a storm of pointy rocks, tearing through the fiend's wing membranes. The creature shrieked in agony, plummeted, and crashed into a patch of shrubbery several Kanfeltoj away from Claudia and Marius.

  Judging by the way things were going, the two of them would likely have emerged victorious even without our assistance. With the two of us joining the fight, victory was all but assured. As soon as we got close enough, Jioan leapt off my back, shifted into Retafilo Morph mid-air, and landed on the armored, reptilian creature with a powerful kick. Meanwhile, I focused on helping Marius keep the winged creature grounded, cutting off its every attempt to take flight.

  In the end, Marius finished off the winged fiend with a powerful Haerinero-imbued javelin that erupted into a shadowy explosion. Tapping into the vast power of the element of Darkness caused him to suffer a measure of Iserial backlash. However, with Claudia and her Fauna Iserialogy nearby to patch him up later, he could afford to be a little reckless.

  Meanwhile, Claudia used the brief moment while Jioan was keeping the reptilian creature distracted to cast Lightning. Armored though the fiend was, the searing energy of the Lycro Iserialogy still passed through its body unimpeded. The reptilian creature spasmed, involuntarily exposing its more vulnerable underside. A few powerful hits from Claudia's axe then finished the job.

  After the battle, Claudia went around casting the Naleiro Iserialogy of Spark to heal everyone’s wounds. Having joined late in the fight, Jioan and I had gotten off relatively easy, while Claudia and Marius were in more dire need of patching up. Still, it wasn’t the worst we’d endured. Our epic battle with the giant berserk Epiphra near the town of Zedmar in Pelagia still held the record.

  That particular battle had been a turning point in our lives in more ways than one. For one, Claudia had found the great axe, Gryphclaw, buried in the body of the titanic beast. A fierce-looking weapon with a serrated leaf like the talons and beak of a Gryph, it had a slight orange tinge and was engraved on either side with images of a Gryph brandishing its talons. Even more remarkably, it was fashioned entirely from Creametarium - a mythical and indestructible metal, the secrets of its forging lost to the ages. And then, spurred by the thrill of our victory, Marius had officially proposed to Claudia. By that time, the two of them had grown quite fond of one another, so she had naturally accepted.

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  Claudia had gotten pregnant soon thereafter, and decided to return to her home town of Selim with her new husband. Marius had naturally been happy to follow her wherever she chose to go, and since neither Jioan nor I had been to South Rida yet, we were happy to accompany them as well.

  And here we were now. More than eight years had passed, during which Claudia had first given birth to a daughter and, more recently, a son. Their son, Bokay, was now just over a year old, while their daughter, Sylvia, had turned six two days ago.

  During that time, Claudia and Marius had not entirely given up on their adventuring lifestyle, but they had toned it down significantly since becoming parents. Instead of embarking on long expeditions into far-off lands to face Dragon-knew-what threats, they now focused on handling whatever troubles arose in the principality of Fagnos, never leaving Selim for more than a few days at a time.

  Meanwhile, Jioan and I still roamed a much wider area. In fact, we had only just returned to Selim in time to celebrate young Sylvia’s birthday. It was pure chance that we had also arrived precisely as this new crisis emerged.

  "You lot got any idea what in Rekada's name those buggers were?" Marius asked in his usual aloof tone. "Cuz I sure ain't never seen nor heard o' nuthin' like this!"

  I shook my head. "I'm afraid not. It would probably be wise to..."

  I was interrupted as the ground started shaking beneath our feet. It only lasted a few moments, but it was strong enough to knock Marius off his feet. The dark-skinned Nefilim said something that I will not repeat here as he got up and brushed the dirt off his leather armor. Meanwhile, I looked at the others in concern.

  "That's the third quake today, isn't it?" I asked. "They're getting more frequent."

  "Actually, it's the fifth," Jioan corrected me. "While you were happily flying in the sky, us earthbound folks had to endure two more of these."

  "It’s actually the sixth," Claudia interjected, her tone firm. "Another one happened just before you arrived, and then these things attacked us."

  "Yo, if you put it that way, sounds almost like there's gotta be a connection between these things," Marius observed. "I mean, them quakes started, like, what? Three days ago? And when did ol' Colran say the first of those buggers showed up?"

  "Three days ago, just before Sylvia's birthday," I said with a grim tone. "That settles it. We’ve got to consult Reverend Lucius about this right now!"

  Some time later

  In the great library of Selim

  Reverend Michael Lucius was one of the oldest and most well-renowned citizens of Selim. He was a Seraph, resembling a Nefilim but slightly larger, with a pair of majestic wings sprouting from his back. As a Seraph of the Aclesia Caste, his wings were of the purest white, standing in striking contrast to his magenta priest robes, which were emblazoned with the golden Comet-Star of the Novean Faith.

  During his decades in Selim, Reverend Michael Lucius had not only served as a priest of the Novean Faith but had also been a strong advocate for education, helping to organize and, in no small part, founding what was now known as the great library of Selim. In fact, it was there that he preferred to spend most of his time - either teaching others or immersing himself in one book or another. As such, the library was our first stop when we came looking for him now.

  Today, however, we found him not reading a book but rather organizing piles of books that had fallen from the many shelves due to the recent earthquakes. Unlike other parts of Ceal we had visited, Selim was not a place where quakes normally occurred. As a result, there had been no precautions in place to prevent the books and scrolls from toppling out of the shelves.

  The library resembled a literary battlefield, with books and scrolls scattered across the floor. Some had fared relatively well, while others had lost their covers, and hundreds of loose pages were now strewn throughout the room in messy heaps.

  Reverend Lucius stood in the middle of the room like a seasoned veteran general, overseeing a small army of volunteers. Those were valiantly attempting to restore order amidst the chaos, careful not to step on any loose pages, books, or scrolls. Since Reverend Lucius was still in his priest robes, it was clear he had rushed directly here from the church after the morning service.

  At first, we had some trouble getting him to listen to us, the elderly Seraph prioritizing the well-being of 'his' precious books and scrolls above all else. However, as soon as Claudia began describing the creatures we had encountered, his demeanor shifted in an instant. Without hesitation, he put one of the older volunteers in charge of cleaning up the library, then ushered us out of the building and toward his tower.

  The tower stood just across from the library, nestled in the middle of a small park with open lawns and a couple of trees. It was a hexagonal, highly symmetrical structure, about two Kanfeltoj wide at ground level and six stories high, with a pointed roof. Each story was slightly wider than the one below it, making the top floor roughly one-and-a-half times the width of the ground floor.

  Getting up to Reverend Lucius' study involved climbing a spiral stairway built along the inside of the tower. Fortunately, like most other buildings in Selim, the tower was designed with the large size of the Seraph in mind, so even I, as a Dragon, had no trouble fitting through the door and walking up the stairwell.

  The same couldn’t be said for all Dragon Clans. Anything larger than the Jylcra Dragons of the Clan of Fire would have trouble fitting up this particular stairwell, and only the larger halls and buildings of Selim could accommodate the imposing Ekyro Dragons of the Clan of Earth.

  The Seraph's sudden change of heart earlier had everyone on edge. Most of his volunteers were either his students, fellow librarians, or Novean Faithful, so the fact that he didn’t want to discuss our findings in front of them spoke volumes. It wasn’t until we finally reached his study that he shared the full gravity of the situation with us.