Lands of hope

“You want yakwa?” Surt offered Marda a bright fruit from the Nashar forests with a promising smile. “Just tell what’s the joke”, Marda understood that krakalevns had long ago poisoned all the local nature, and many souls had already been spent on healing the dragons when they were dying, hunting local animals and plucking fruit growing in the coastal thickets… Souls which could have been better used. Surt with the insanely-happy eyes chewed yakwa, spat on the palm it’s big bone and threw it out the window. “The earth has been cleared of poison in two horizons. I can’t guarantee a larger diameter, but it can be expanded if we get a better understanding of how pyramids work.” “Indeed?” Marda frowned as she went to the window and looked out at the greenery, then turned sharply to the male. “Surprisingly, yes. And how much energy did you spend on this?” “It doesn’t require energy. I was thinking of clearing nature at the top of the newly built pyramid, so that I could concentrate more on the terrain. The result was stronger than expected. Not as large as the krakalevns', but probably only because we built their reality control lens at random, without precise adjustment, and don’t know all the components of this magnifying device.” “Now I’m even more surprised!” Marda laughed. “Luck is in your hands, Surt! If even without proper technology you could arrange such a thing…” “Thinking about thoughts is also useful,” Surt said vaguely, but then got down to business. “It seems to me that Darkness also knows about something similar, or knows from the very beginning, so it builds two pillars and a temple. If it weren’t for her domineering attitude, I would have found it useful.” “Whatever Darkness does, it’ll do the dragons no good. And herself, too. The problem is that her victory will attract those who still doubt the choice between freeing their own will and accepting the will of Darkness.” “What are you thinking then?” Surt flapped his wings against his flanks. Marda wrinkled her mouth and tapped the paintbrush on the floor. “So that fewer dragons die. This is more important to me than my pride.” If only Namira would think similar… Surt had no doubt that building the towers would require the use of a large amount of energy, which Darkness would send out to those of its supporters who would not immediately agree to burrow into the earth and transfer their body, soul, and mind to the mistress’s possession. “Is there anything more important to you than a dragon’s life?” Surt squinted one eye at his companion. She answered without hesitation: “Two dragon lives. Or three.” “And for me, it’s the life of a smart dragon compared to the life of a retarded dragon. Darkness interferes with the process of natural selection, like a Light one gardener in the genome of flowers, growing eye-pleasing but unviable species.” “Not viable without help, protection, and control,” Marda said. “But a fool will have children to teach, while a dragon preoccupied with its own clever thoughts will forget to breed in its enthusiasm for science.” “Us, reality controllers, will never be a lot, we know. There’re only enough of them in Nashar now because Amenemhat called them here. If we don’t get smart now, in a hundred years there’ll be as many fools on the Hope coast as there are in Hardol, only they will worship Darkness, not a demiurge. Name horns a hay — will be pierced anyway”. “Then name the hay horns”, Marda handed Surt an empty notebook, a rare item in the age of crystals. “Hide away in Darkness’ dogmas the way to get rid of its dominion and the way to rise above the Universe. The mopes you so afraid won’t understand, but will remember verbatim as Light ones their commandmenty, and smart nerds will decipher and find a life longer than one wants to give Darkness.” Annoyed, Surt rolled up the notebook and attacked Marda with it, trying to stick it under her tail. “That’s how I’ll hide the teaching in Darkness! Who can decipher it?!” The fight between Surt and Marda wasn’t going to happen only because there came a real enemy, a common enemy. They sensed this as soon as the pyramid disappeared from the city — as if it had never been built. “Krakalevns realized that we prepare for them”, Surt frowned, discarding the paper. “But they weren’t the only ones attacking us,” Marda said. “We need to take off and collect the dragons before it’s too late!” “We need to come up with a weapon that can fight off nonexistence!” Surt flowed out of the entrance window, but Marda doubted he had flown to explain what had happened. He didn’t even want to waste time on those who didn’t understand anything the first time. Therefore, Marda took it upon herself to issue a battle alert, especially since the disappearance of the pyramid surprised the dragons so much that some didn’t realize that the enemy had done it. And the enemy didn’t stop with the first strike — at intervals of a fraction of an hour, other houses began to disappear, and sometimes even the dragons flying outside, while the enemy was still not visible neither by normal nor energy vision. No one expected this. It would be fine if the enemy was invisible, but it was impossible to fight a nonexistent enemy. In the city of krakalevn nav at least showed itself and it was clear from whom to run! Surt, after an hour of thought, flew to Tagirion. “Any explosive powder left on the ships? Put the barrels and sacks of it in a makeshift pyramid.” He hurried to obey the order, because the frightened brain was only capable of following orders, no matter who gave them or why. Still, no one has come up with a better idea except Darkness Incarnation. Namira didn’t believe that nav was teleporting buildings and dragons, not just removing their very existence. But her method of fighting was much more radical and costly. She released some of the black energy, attaching it to the houses, and vampirized for this purpose everything that came under her paw. She didn’t save dragons: “My requirements for you have not changed. I am invulnerable to navs, and if you don’t become me, you won’t win.” Contrary to her expectations, there were few willing to join in: it was impossible to force the dragons to acknowledge Darkness, only the weakest and far more cowardly than Tagirion himself. And such ones have already been submitted to her for a long time. The explosive pyramid was quickly erected, and Surt stood on top of it, placing the crystal containing detonator soul under the top bale. It looked suicidal, but right now Surt was concentrating all his magic and thoughts on protecting himself, and if nav was only stealing objects, the plan would work without further involvement from the dragons. The triangle at the top of the pyramid was needed only for greater realism of the bait. Incarnations could have stopped Surt, but they didn’t, seeing that nav’s attack did nothing to help their plans. And the chance to get rid of Surt was very tempting. The explosive pyramid disappeared as suddenly as the stone one, and only slightly less unexpectedly. Surt barely managed to spread his wings before falling to the ground. He grinned and flew over to dragons: ‘If the enemy doesn’t steal anything, then you well done, you did the right thing. I would draw his attention to the right target, and you would dissuade him from grabbing something else.” “You are also a good man, willing to sacrifice your life for the sake of dragons,” Namira admitted. “It’s a pity that you value your character above your life, but I’d be happy you to be me.” “Of course you’re glad. But my mother didn’t give birth to me, not you.” “What a speech”, Namira spread her legs out to the sides. “If not for me, then for death. I intend to strike back and retake the city we left last time, will you get in the way?” “A good city, take it while they give, and I’ll take the rest for myself,” Surt said goodbye, with a gesture blessingIncarnation of Darkness with the” Three Suns " of the Light, and flew to Amenemhat, to explain to him what happened, not wasting the time of the other dragons, who didn’t understand anything. Namira looked after him with a cold stare. “I’ll take it all. But not immediately.” Nav was no longer deleting anything, and the rest of the city was safe.