1. The briefing

The lights in Rayne’s room powered up and the sounds of wind chimes and drums started, morning. Rayne knew if he didn’t get up and turn the alarm off the music would change to harsher chimes and the drums would get louder. He rolled over and got up, hitting the button to shut off the alarm before it turned blaring. He took a quick shower and got dressed. Black cargo pants, a black t-shirt, and black boots was standard for all Dragons if you weren’t in combat gear. He looked in the mirror and his reflection looked back at him. He had never thought about it much but as he looked at the pale silver eyes staring back at him and the silver hair he kept cut short, he was reminded of how different he looked that anyone else he knew. There had been people he had met in the last couple years that assumed he was older because of the shade of his hair until they realized it wasn’t grey but silver, like platinum infused with moonlight. Ryan used to make fun of him for it when they were kids, until they got older and she saw that someone pointing out the color of his hair and eyes made him uncomfortable. Afterward and when they first both chose the path of fire magic to start, she had started calling him Ember as their own private inside joke.

Rayne left his room and headed to the next door down. He rapped on the door. The door slid open, and there was Ryan, same outfit, auburn hair pulled back into a ponytail, green eyes sparkling as she smiled at him.

“Good, you’re awake already. Join me for breakfast?” he smiled. Mornings usually started like this since they’d joined the Dragon except on the days after returning from a mission when everyone slept in. When they were younger Rayne was usually the first one up. Ryan didn’t get a lot of sleep while she had the constant nightmares so she usually was still in bed when he got up. He used to run into her room and pull the blankets with all his might to drag her off the bed to make sure she got up, but that was before they were MAGUS members and when they were still kids. Rayne liked this time of day, it was his little bit of time each day with her alone talking about whatever they wanted to talk about or just enjoying each other’s company without anyone watching them, everywhere else they were examples for their squad and for Dragons outside of their squad and appearances mattered. But not first thing in the morning, at this time of day the only people that would see them together were usually whomever was on kitchen duty at the cafeteria, and anyone with kitchen duty was far too busy to see anyone else. They were still on the compound though so he couldn’t just reach out and take her hand.

“Yeah, we better get something now. By the time we get to the cafeteria, I’m sure Sebastian will have materialized since he never sleeps.” She chuckled. While not technically true, Sebastian they had noticed since he became part of the squad seemed to almost never sleep when they were about to go on a mission. Out in the field it was the same. He took longer watches when needed and seemed to be the last one to go to sleep and the first one up. Nobody really knew anything about his life before being part of the squad so they all assumed his childhood had been rough before joining the Academy or even in the Academy. Really the only thing that Rayne knew about Sebastian outside of his interactions with him on the job was that he had a sister that lived somewhere in the city.

They passed through the common room, then the central hub of the compound and to the cafeteria. When a Dragon first select the element, they were given a room among others that selected the same element. Each section of an element had a common room that also served as a training room which connected together into a main hall and cafeteria through a series of hallways. From the main hall, the rest of the compound could be reached, the armory, the mixed squad training rooms, shooting ranges, briefing rooms, and magical practice rooms. The officers lived on the second through sixth floors of the compound and the seventh floor was only used for when a gathering of the Dragons’ leaders was called and the apartment of the Great Wyrm if he or she chose to live in the compound or was unable to make it to his or her own home for some reason. The Great Wyrm was the head representative of the Dragon branch of MAGUS. The office was given to whomever was the most recognized and best Dragon from among their peers. They also represented the Dragons as a member of the Council of the MAGI, the High Council of MAGUS that made all the important decisions. The council consisted of five members, the Great Wyrm and the Grand Sage which was the Lore Keeper’s equivalent, as well as the three top Justicons.

They grabbed some breakfast from the line and found a table to sit down. They always had a few basic options, oatmeal, powdered eggs, different fruits and juices as well as coffee. Meat was harder to come by since humanity didn’t really have the space for herds of livestock, but any form of vegetation could easily be grown with the help of some magic. Humanity certainly did better now food wise than shortly after the invasion before they could change localized environs with magic and tech.

Sure enough they sat down, started to eat, and there was Sebastian with his bowl of oatmeal and steaming cup of tea sitting down as if he had just walked out of the space next to the table.

Ryan laughed. “Told you he never sleeps.”

Before long the other two members of the squad, Moose and Fred joined them. They wouldn’t see Commander Dakka until briefing time. He tended to take his meals separate from the rest of the squad. He didn’t see any issue with Rayne as his first officer eating with everyone else, but the commander came from a military family and was of the opinion that a leader socialized only when necessary. He was always around if they needed him but he was from a different generation and had spent more years as a Dragon agent than the rest of them combined. He was a lifer though. The Commander regardless of what he had seen in his years of service would never transfer to another branch. He would either give up his life in service as a Dragon, or he’d retire and still end up going to one of the outlying communities to keep protecting someone or something.

It was a quiet breakfast, mornings were always like this. Everyone gathered their thoughts, getting ready for whatever they were about to be sent off to do. Only Rayne and Ryan had any inkling just how dangerous this mission would be, but they were used to it. Dakka always gave them some kind of advanced notice if it was something big so they were used to holding their tongues when the others were around. It had actually started out as Dakka only telling Rayne but after the first couple months the commander realized that Rayne couldn’t hide anything from Ryan. Even if he didn’t say anything, she would still be able to pick up on his cues subtle as they could be because she’d grown up with him.

Rayne got up “Well, let’s get to this.” He grabbed his bowl as the rest of them go up and did the same, putting them in the bus tub on the way out. They made their way out of the cafeteria and back through the central hub toward the rest of the complex away from elemental halls. They headed down the hall past a few training rooms until they found Commander Dakka and Blackclaw in one of the briefing slash war rooms.

The commander and Blackclaw were standing behind a metal table with topographical maps scattered it across. Dakka grabbed the maps and folded them up, handing one to Blackclaw, putting one in his pocket, and leaving the rest on the table where everyone else picked one up and stowed it away as they filed in.

“Well agents. For those of you that don’t know this is Blackclaw Stormwolf. He’ll be working with us for this mission.” The squad all nodded to him as they spread out around the table. Rayne watched each of them as the news set in. All of them knew the significance of his last name. Fred and Moose looked a little surprised but not much else. Sebastian in typical fashion didn’t show any emotion at all to the introduction.

Commander Dakka put his hand down on the edge of the table, on a carving embedded there. The table lit up and a three dimensional image of their maps showed up. It showed a zoomed out image to the west of the city. Dakka touched the map and drew along it, his finger leaving a trail of purple sparks leading out of the city, to the west, into and along a valley and out the other side until he stopped just on the far side of the valley. He circled the area where he stopped and looked to Blackclaw. “Go ahead and give the details we need.”

Blackclaw stepped forward and his voice rumbled out of him. “So where Commander Dakka pointed out is one of the outer villages of our tribe in this area. Two weeks ago the village was attacked by some fae creatures. They had gotten word in enough time ahead of the attack that some of my own village were able to ambush the fae when they attacked. As I’m sure you know as well as we do, fae soldiers usually either know when to retreat or go down fighting. We slaughtered them as they came into the village. My pack was able to circle behind them and we captured the two leaders of the attack force. We slaughtered the rest with nothing that couldn’t be healed on our own side. These attacks have been coming more and more lately and it’s telling us one thing. The Spring and Summers are getting sloppy and anxious. Unfortunately for your kind and ours, that can only mean that soon they’ll be bringing the hammer down so we need to strike. One of the leaders didn’t make it through giving us any serious information, but we……persuaded the other.” His face gave an almost wolfish grin at the last part. “The satyr that was leading the group confirmed what I’ve just told you. The Spring and Summer Court Fae have tired of us “bees buzzing around their land”. They are ready to either end your kind and mine, turn us all into slaves, or ship us to the vampires as food even though most of them remained behind in their home plane. The satyr revealed to us that one of the Spring Fae has made her home here.” He put his finger down and drew a line from the site of the village up into a nearby mountain to a cliff overlooking another valley. “He yelled that we’d never make it through the forest leading through the mountains to the stronghold of his Lady. If we can get close enough, I’m sure that we can take her out or at the very least put a huge setback on any plans she has, perhaps destroy part of her forces to buy time for a full out attack.”

Rayne asked the question on everyone’s mind. “Wait, what do you mean Spring and Summer Court Fae? Are there really any differences among them other than everything in their chaotic whims?”

Blackclaw chuckled. “My apologies. Humans don’t know what we do. You’ve only seen part of the war. We lycanthropes and particularly us werewolves have been fighting the True Fae for centuries untold. I was born here, but there are still stories and sometimes communication with the home plane. We pass them down through our packs, tribes, and the spirits remember on both sides. As you are aware I’m sure, the True Fae separate themselves into four courts, one for each season. While as far as we can tell they are like the vampires and don’t age, you’ve only ever seen two courts worth. When the portals were first opened, it took the collective magic of all four courts and the vampires. The Winter and Fall courts entreat well with the vampires because of their dark nature, but aren’t so fond of their Spring and Summer kin. When they first started invading, it was forces of all the Vampire Lords and all four Seasonal Courts together, that’s why you were so easily overrun, along with the fact that the stories say your world didn’t have magic. It wasn’t until after you were pushed to near extinction that the Winter and Fall Courts along with most of the vampires went back to make sure that their holdings were still in place. The permanent opening of the planes changed not only your own world but the other one as well. It was only at that time that my kind found out the reason for the world shifting and was able to slip through to this side. There are still some of us fighting on the other side, but my tribe is in the minority in that we thought you were worth fighting for, to give you a chance to take your world back. The Stormwolves are only numerous and powerful on this side of the portals. We outnumber the other tribes on this side because we were one of the few that would actually come through to see if you were able to stand on your own against them if given the right information. The rest is history you know. We tried to teach you our magic, it didn’t take. You learned to harness it on your own terms, then attacked us as if we were the same as the vamps and fae, now we’re here, making amends and attempting to work together. The point is that the Fall and Winter courts are darker as are their forces, but they are content so far to stay on the other side, the Spring and Summer courts by their nature like to spread out. The vamps occasionally come through to work with the fae, supplement their forces, but they also mostly stay there. The Spring and Summer Courts are mostly the ones that are here currently. They are particular in some of their soldiers. They tend to use satyrs, pixies, brownies, dryads, and trolls, but you won’t tend to see too many giants among them. Usually only the smaller ones of their kind and few at that. While it’s accurate to say the True Fae are incapable of lying, they have had millennia of practice telling half-truths and they specialize in manipulation. The different courts however tend to focus on different versions of manipulation. The Summer courts focus on feelings of anger and spread like fire, and Spring court focuses on things like feelings of happiness and love. As we all know both of those kinds of emotions spread quickly, but there’s a difference. When I say they focus on those kinds of emotions, it’s not like how we focus on the ability to control our shapeshifting or you really train on a particular path of elemental magic. It is part of their nature. The True Fae have no choice in the matter. The emotion associated with their court is intrinsic in each Fae. They see everything through a lens of that emotion. Absolutely everything is focused through that lens. Every moment of their lives is focused through the emotions of their Court. The important part is that’s why they seem so alien to you or I. They don’t experience emotions the same way. If for some reason you ever come in contact with one of them, keep that in mind. I find it only fair warning for you. With any luck, we won’t have such issues on this mission. We’ll sneak in, see what we can see, and hopefully take out some of this creature’s forces on the way out. The satyr told us that the Summer Courts are getting restless. Since it is summer, they are in charge of what the Fae do currently, and they are pushing the nearby Spring Fae to amass forces to reinvigorate the war on your city, which means crushing us in the process if needed. That’s why this mission is so important, it could mean the difference in your and our survival. I know things have been quieter the last couple decades. They’ve been allowing you to grow in strength because the True Fae believe you are nothing compared to them. It’s been an ongoing experiment, they like your ability to shift between emotions so quickly because they don’t. They once thought the same of us and we’ve been a thorn in their sides since, but like I said, they see everything through the lens of their courts’ emotion so they wanted to see the same of you. Now they tire of watching you like they got tired of watching us, and they’ll be coming.”

“So anything else we need to know? Any chance we’re passing your village that this satyr can have any more information extracted? I tend to have a way with getting information?” Sebastian asked.

“Yes, no, and no. Yes there is mor to know, but I’ll get to that in a moment. No we are not going by my village as its farther north and out of the way, besides no more information can be extracted from the satyr we caught. He died of natural causes, since one does naturally die when their face is ripped off by a werewolf’s claws.” That predatory grin again. “There is one other thing that you’ll need to know. We know that when it comes to the True Fae, you humans are woefully unprepared, however three things of note. The rules you know about defeating Fae creatures and soldiers are not the same as a True Fae, and your weapons won’t hurt them which leads into the second thing. Only cold iron can do real harm to one of the True Fae. Third and most important, as the True Fae cannot lie they are also bound by their oaths and promises.”

“Cold iron you say. As in a piece of iron that’s never been smelted or heated in any way, just pounded into a shape?” Moose asked “So are they like allergic to it, like you guys are with silver?”

“Good question Moose.” Commander Dakka piped in. He looked at Blackclaw. This hadn’t come up in their previous discussions regarding the mission since no human had ever injured and barely had even seen the True Fae. He wouldn’t have known to ask. Apparently Blackclaw was going beyond what was asked of him for some reason to give the squad as much info as could be helpful ahead of time. He wasn’t sure if that should make him feel better or more nervous. He was also glad to see their resident metal user and blacksmith was keeping up.

“Similar. There’s a difference though. Silver does cause us wounds that won’t heal as quickly as everything else, but we can still handle it. The True Fae can’t stand the touch of cold iron. It burns them just to touch it. Never underestimate them though. Just because they have a weakness for a particular metal doesn’t mean they’ll let you get anywhere near them. Just keep that in mind if one of you gets close to her, hopefully for all our sakes that won’t be the case. When I first got here I stopped by the embassy. The shaman there sent word ahead to your Lore Keepers. They already know about the cold iron but there has never been an opportunity like this. They had the R&D guys create these.” He pulled a bag from behind him and put it down on the table. Blackclaw reached inside and pulled out a blade. It was rough, dark dull grey, but a dagger nonetheless. “There’s plenty in there. Pass them around, make sure everyone gets one. I know a dagger isn’t prime choice of weapon, but it’s what your Lore Keepers could come up with on short notice. The good news is that magic so long as it isn’t fire can be used to shape the iron and it’s still effective against the Fae. However even your metal magic takes time because the metal can’t be melted or heated else it loses its efficacy against the Fae so this is what you get for now.”

Rayne took the bag, took out a dagger and started handing them around until everyone had one. Sebastian had two, but daggers were one of his preferences anyway. “Alright. Commander, you said we’re leaving tomorrow?”

“Actually that’s no longer accurate. Seems the higher ups didn’t want the possibility of the intel going cold. Go gear up, we leave in an hour. The path up the village has already been cleared. We’ll meet up with the sweeper team there and be on our own after that. Get moving agents.” Dakka clapped his hands together signaling the end of their briefing and the Dragons filed out.

When they were out of the room, Rayne spoke up. “You heard Commander Dakka. Gear up, meet back in the central hall in thirty.” Rayne looked back into the briefing room. “Blackclaw, you good with that?”

Blackclaw looked over and rumbled. “Yes. I have to make it back to the embassy to grab my own gear. I’ll be back.”

The Dragons separated, all going back to their respective rooms to grab their respective gear. Rayne made it back to his room. He opened up his footlocker and grabbed everything he would need. He pulled out the body armor and started putting it on. Standard issue Dragon armor. It was a composite of leather, cloth, and plates to cover vital areas. He strapped a scabbard on his back and his sword, a piece Moose had made a couple months prior. The blade was steel, lined with silver as there were still some tribes of the werewolves that still attacked on occasion. The pommel had a dragon’s head, the crossguard was simple but effective. He strapped on a smaller scabbard to each thigh and at the base of his spine. A blade went into his right thigh holster, the cold iron dagger from Blackclaw in the left, and another smaller blade in the back holster. Lastly he pulled on his gloves and long leather hooded coat. The coat was embroidered on the back with MAGUS’ symbol, a seven pointed star with a dragon rearing up behind it, a sword and book in front of it. Ready to go, Rayne just had to stop by the armory to grab a travelling pack. He left his room, and as normal Ryan stepped out just after him from her own room, headed in the same direction. She was geared up like him but instead of a sword strapped to her back she had a bladepistol sheathed on either hip and pouches along her belt for extra ammo. She had her hair pulled back and Rayne could see her tattoo peeking out above her armor as it had started to grow up the side of her neck. His was usually visible because it had grown up the back of his neck along his spine and had moved around the right side of his neck. The documents of the tattoos suggested that while it started as an eight pointed sigil, it would grow in different directions depending on what magic the owner learned or used. In theory that meant it could eventually cover the entirety of someone’s skin, but nobody ever lived that long. The theory seemed accurate considering anyone’s tattoo based on how it spread would be shaped differently to look like the element someone used most when it spread. Since Ryan’s ideal placement had been on the back of her left shoulder, the fiery magic didn’t have far to go until it crept along her shoulder and just started up the side of her neck.

They made it over to the armory, grabbed traveling packs and made it back to the central hall to wait for the others. Sebastian and Fred were already there. Sebastian eyed them when they came in and spoke low enough just for the four of them to hear. “Took you long enough. You two stop off for a little private time before heading over?” he chuckled as did Fred. Rayne and Ryan both looked at each other, blushed and looked away. Rayne spoke first “Moose still not here yet?”

“You know him, probably deciding what tinkering project he can bring along for while we’re traveling. You know his nervous habits have brought out some interesting toys for us to play with over the years.”

“True. Never amazes me the things that his mind comes up with, even if it only extends to mechanical and smithing things.”

“So Rayne, you notice Blackclaw kept glancing at you during the briefing?” Ryan interjected “What’s up with that?”

“I don’t know, but you saw when we first met him how he looked at my mark. Maybe it freaks him out because its silvery and looks like the moon or my eyes or hair. You know they don’t like silver in any form. Maybe he thinks I’m going to somehow cut him with my hair, hehe.”

Fred spoke up for the first time. “It’s not that. He’s a Stormwolf, the tribe leader’s son. He’ll be inheriting the mantle of leadership one day. You’re first officer, as far as this squad is concerned if something were to happen to Dakka you’d be taking over. In a way, you have that in common. Whether you’re ready for it or not, when fate decides it, you’ll be leader. Keep in mind as well that the Lycanthropes and the werewolves in particular have a fair number of long held prophecies that are unfulfilled so some of them look for meanings beyond the norm in everyday things. The shaman at the embassy is a friend of mine. Her mentor growing up was what they call a Seer. Lots of werewolves have an uncanny ability to have prophetic and symbolic dreams, but her mentor had actual visions. It was said that she could see glimpses of actual future rather than things that may or may not pass. She was apparently so acclaimed because nearly every prophecy she made came true somewhere within her lifetime, her first when she was only ten years old and it was something that happened across the country. The local tribes didn’t get word of it until weeks later so there was no way she could have known. They have a practice that often a pack or tribe leader weighs everything the shaman says even if they aren’t an elder because the shamans have a deeper connection to the spirits around them. It also means that werewolf leaders tend to look at everything slightly differently than we do, weighing all the time if something is part of a greater event that their shaman may have told them about.”

“You know an awful lot about this apparently?” Ryan looked at him almost accusingly

“I’m a nature mage. What else would you expect. I need to know more than most people what’s out there. It also doesn’t hurt that I was asked to help move in our lupine friends when the embassy was built. I spent a lot of time with the Esmerelda the shaman there, learned some interesting things about the werewolves, or at the very least general information and the local tribes. Before we turned on them, they tried to teach us their magic. One thing that came out of that was when we adapted to our own, nature mages were able to create spells that can change the shape of a person temporarily similar to what they do. The difference is of course we have more variety. I mean you’ve seen me change shape before, it’s not really all that different except how we go about it.”

“The difference is you aren’t a monster.”

“Ryan, we all know about your past and I’m sure you’re having a hard time dealing with this mission. Some day you will have to put aside your hate and realize that they aren’t all that different from us. I know you lost your parents to their kind, but there is good and bad in every species, well except the Fae and vampires, and nature. You know what, strike that. There’s good and bad in humans too and some of our worst can be just as monstrous even if they can’t change into physical monsters. I’m the oldest amongst us other than Commander Dakka and I’ve seen plenty good and bad. Just give Blackclaw a chance, you only have to trust him for one mission and you have all of us around as well. Including Moose.” Fred waved to the large man as he walked over.

Ryan decided not to argue any more. Fred was right even if she didn’t want to admit it. Fred was one of those people that didn’t waste words, very contemplative. When he spoke there was always thought behind it. None of them had ever figured out if that was a result of his choice of path or the other way around, if the magic made him stop and think, similar to the deliberate path of a plant moving to face the sun or turning their leaves to absorb more rain.

Moose was carrying his greathammer strapped across his back, had the same clothes, jacket, and pack as everyone else, but didn’t wear the standard armor. Moose was a metal magic user. One of the first and only spells he knew was one that made essentially made the outermost layer of his skin thicken and harden. He’d practiced so often that the spell has basically become second nature to him he needed only reaction time to put it up. It wasn’t all that uncommon a thing for metal and earth users to have something similar to this, and the standard armor interfered with the transition, but the jacket was cut large enough to allow for the extra space needed and wouldn’t fuse with the spell like the armor would. He was nervous so his hands were fiddling with something the others couldn’t see. His hands looked like they were just randomly moving around, he didn’t even have to look at what he was fidgeting with, eventually it would take shape with his unconscious movements. It was how Moose dealt with stress. When he couldn’t be at his forge working with metal, he would have with him what to anyone else would look like random bits of metal or small mechanical parts but in his hands would turn into something useful. It wasn’t that Moose wasn’t intelligence, it did take some intelligence to use any form of magic, it was just his mind didn’t always work the same as everyone around him, his thoughts would follow alternate paths, but when it came to new social situations sometimes those alternate paths took a little longer so a lot of people assumed he was slow in the head.

“I just don’t like it. A wolf shows up out of nowhere with info the nature of has the higher ups drooling about because we might actually be able to finally fight back after a hundred years. How can we trust it?” Ryan spoke up, she thought Moose might back her up.

Rayne had finally had enough. He didn’t feel one way or the other about Blackclaw or his kind but orders were orders. “Ryan I don’t want to do it but if it’s necessary I’ll tell the Commander your outlook is going to be detrimental to the mission. Do you really want me to do that? If there is something off about the mission, wouldn’t you rather be there to have our backs? And so you can rub it in our faces later on when we’re laughing on our way back after a successful mission?” he smiled despite himself. While he may adore her, he couldn’t put the whole squad in danger because she had an issue with an ally that had not shown any sign of ulterior motives.

Just then there was a growl behind them as Blackclaw came out of the tunnel. “I assure you agent Ryan, that my pack and tribe act with honorable intentions.” He rumbled. Ryan paled a little from embarrassment. It was one thing to make comments like she had when it was just Dragons around but not when and someone else was within earshot. “As for the information, as I’ve said, the True Fae’s minions aren’t bound by the same magical laws that they are so while it is quite possible the satyr was lying, it’s unlikely considering the amount of pain he was in. If it is going to be a problem, you and I can settle this the way of my people, with combat in one of your training rooms.”

She turned around and looked at Blackclaw. He towered over her as she was barely over five foot tall. Blackclaw had not changed clothes, still the same tank and pants, but strapped at his side was probably the largest battleaxe she’d ever seen. He had dropped his bag at his feet and reached inside. As his hands came out, he was putting on what looked like metal fingerless gloves that had blades on the back of them, weapons none of them recognized. “I don’t think that will be necessary. Know that I don’t trust your mysterious appearance, but I won’t interfere in the mission for the sake of my friends.” He looked almost disappointed, but she wasn’t sure if it was because he looked forward to fighting her or just did not want her along.

“Shall we go?” Rayne stepped in between them just in case.

Next Chapter: Chapter 4. The state of things