Tirren’s first reaction was shock, followed closely by fear. He checked the strange man in his manasight, and received his first glance at a masked Seidren. There was a glint to the man’s eyes. Tirren focused harder and saw a faint blue manasign reminiscent of the letter N there. This Siedren was Stone Tier Seidren, the height of the Seidren Earth arc. He hurried into the clearing, and when he saw the mana bikes, his eyes flashed and he made a bee-line for the bikes.

  Tirren moved to intercept the stranger, but he quickly sidestepped Tirren to eye the bikes. “Slow down, our master will not excuse your taking of our bikes.” Severin called out. This seemed to catch the man’s attention, and he quickly asked. “Who is your master?”

  Tirren was slightly puzzled at the reaction. Why would the Seidren care who their master was?

  “Master Devrius, a lord of Serventis.”

  With the pronunciation, the man withdrew his hand as if burned from the bike where it had rested moments before.

  “May I bear the privilege of escorting the Serventian’s servants out of the path of Pyrestagger the frozen?”

  “Yes you may.” Severin said, hurriedly packing camp.

  “There’s no time to pack, I'm afraid.” The strange newcomer said. He grabbed Severin by the jacket, stuffed him into the sidecar, then jumped onto Jefremov’s bike.”

  Tirren followed suit onto his bike. The stranger started the bike, and peeled out of the clearing. Tirren quickly followed as best he could.

  “As they made their way along the rough road, Tirren couldn’t help but ask. “Are you sure this PyreStagger is following you?”

  The Seidren looked extremely annoyed at the question, but shook his head in the classic sign for yes.

  Tirren did not ask any more questions as they drove through the forest.

  They drove in silence for a few minutes, Tirren on the side opposite of Severin's low-to-the-ground sidecar.

  They drove for tens of long minutes , and the weird Seidren seemed to be getting more and more agitated. The dirt road they drove along was much rougher than the smooth stone or dirt of a proper Serventian road. Tirren missed his home, and surely not for the last time.

  Then the bike with the stranger and Severin was braking hard, and Tirren barely managed to slam his own brake in order to avoid a collision.

  “What was ….”

  A woman stood in the road. Tirren immediately felt the raw power exuding from her and he tumbled from his bike. He distantly recognized that his bike crashed to the as he fell. Once on the ground he struggled to rise. He looked over and saw Severin in a similar state, but the driver was holding himself up on his knees with one fist jammed into the road and the other on his own knee, straining to hold himself upright.

  From his place on the road Tirren saw something in his peripheral vision. It was something enormous and silvery as it landed behind him.

  It was a Dragon.

  The woman standing in the road spoke briskly and with a tone that brooked no disrespect.

  “Cern, hand the stone over. This was a foolish quest indeed.”

  “Don’t kill me! I’ll give the stone.” Cern struggled to say.

  “Umm.. no. That doesn’t make any sense. My master won’t let you walk away from a slight like this.”

  Cern raised his hands and two separate foot and a half blades appeared hovering over his hands, composed of solid ice mana.

  “You would fight a dragon companion?” The woman said with a laugh.

  Cern pointed his hands at Severin and Tirren. The ice blades followed suit and pointed at them as well.

  “I’ve got two Serventians. You can’t kill me before I kill them. Let me go, or you can try running for your life for a change.”

  The pressure holding down Tirren lightened immensely.

  There was a long, extended pause, as everyone watched each other. In Tirren’s head he heard.

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  IS THAT PYRESTAGGER? I REMEMBER WHEN HE WAS A HATCHLING. HE HAS GROWN. HE WOULD NOT BE HAPPY TO KNOW I WAS HERE, I HELPED MURDER HIS CHILD.

  Tirren tensed up as he heard that chilling news from his ring. It suddenly became very important that nobody knew what his ring was.

  “Sorry if I’m interrupting, but I’ve just got to hear the story!” Jefremov said loudly from between the dragon's two front legs. The dragon jumped backwards in a short hop of alarm, and Cern looked at the newcomer.

  Tirren’s eyes were too slow to perceive the exact movement, but while Cern was turning to look, the dragon companion moved.

  She crossed the distance in a blur, and mana erupted from her outstretched hand. It gave the distinctive impression of both a metal, most likely silver, and a royal presence which Tirren somehow knew was the aspect of a dragon.

  Silver lines formed in a faint image of a dragon claw, and the woman’s hand came down hard onto Cern the Stone Seidren.

  Jefremov stuck his foot out nonchalantly, and the rolling form of Cern slid to a halt against his foot, stopping like a ball in a children’s game. The hostage taker had been thrown from his place between Tirren and Severin with one incredible punch. His head lolled with unconsciousness and there was a trail of blood between his resting place and the place he had been struck.

  Jefremov took a satchel from the man’s shoulders and continued walking towards the group.

  “I see you’ve got my disciples.” He said airily.

  “Do not touch that. If you bonded with it, I would be forced to take action against you.” The woman warned.

  “Jefromov Devrius, at your service. One of the outer lords of the Serventian Nobility. I’ll trade you the egg for my disciples, free from harm.”

  The woman frowned for a second, then said.

  “Glacie, the dragon companion, Elector of the shaded region of the ice spires, where you now find yourself. This is Pyrestagger the frozen, my companion. I will have the return of the egg, but a bargain is something that I don’t need from a pearl Seidren. I suggest you leave my land immediately. Do not assist the thief, he should die from his wounds. ”

  With that the dragon companion strode forward and took the satchel from Jef then leapt into the air. She landed astride the dragon, at the base of his neck. The dragon let out a joyful blast of a roar and leapt upwards.

  There were no parting words as she took to the sky.

  “You guys make the coolest friends.” Jef said.

  Once the dragon and rider were gone, Tirren immediately went to his packs and began searching for bandages. He found several, and brought them back towards the prone Seidren.

  “Didn’t you hear the dragon rider? She commanded us not to help this guy.” Severin told Tirren as he stepped in front of the prone form.

  “We can’t just leave him here. He’s hurt.” Tirren responded.

  “Did you even see what kind of Seidren she was? Severin asked.

  “I couldn’t get a good look at her, she hurt my mana sight.” Tirren admitted.

  Jefremov butted in. “She was Steel-Seidren. It was very kind of her not to crush your minds with her presence. An Elector. That’s… that’s like a regional ruler in the Ice-Spires. They answer directly to the Frost Father. Being an elector, she stands as a local leader of one of the regions of the Ice-Spires.”.

  “This country is ruled by the Frost Father. I’ve heard good things about him, and his choice of Elector shines a good light on him.”

  Tirren clenched his jaw and pushed past Severin. “I don’t care what level Seidren she is. We can help this guy.”

  Jef smiled widely and said. “As one who personally struggles immensely with authority figures, I applaud your bravado. Throw me some bandages, I’ll help.”

  They set to work, and soon they had Cern bandaged and thrown across Tirren’s rear seat.

  “I’ll just drop him off at the nearest city.” Tirren conceded.

  “We’re in luck. The first town is a bustling city called Najer, and we should start seeing people by tomorrow, and we’ll arrive tomorrow evening.” Jefremov informed them.

  He dusted off his hands, and turned to face them.

  “Before we reach civilization, let’s talk about our mission, the bloodfold. I understand that I may seem a little bit of a distracted master, but I have been busy. As a quick aside, I am also a firm believer that progress made by oneself is progress kept.

  I believe our quarry is inside the city of Najer. In Najer, Seidren usually do not leave their school or training halls unaccompanied by a master or teacher until they reach at least gravel tier seidren, one step above Sand Seidren. We will need to work quickly to raise you both to a level that is safe without me. With that said, I will also expect full courtesy as your master. If you are to be out, stay with me, always walk respectfully behind me, and do not speak out of turn.”

  Tirren interjected. “We were attacked by several sand-seidren in Serventis. Why were they free from their master?”

  Jefremov gave a pointed look at being interrupted that was accompanied by a small jump in his eyebrow, but he answered.

  “The perimeter of Serventis is patrolled by several incredibly powerful servants, not to mention some mana barriers that prevent entry, or notify the runelord. Those Sand Seidren walked in, because they could pass the barriers where others couldn’t. I assume our founding father, the runelord, did not consider them worthy of the expense of keeping out.

  I met their leader, an Onyx Seidren, but he had an unexpected weapon, and he got away.”

  Tirren interrupted again. “A Onyx Seidren got away? That’s three tiers higher than your own!”

  Jef smiled with a shrug. “He must have been scared off by my dauntless optimism, or perhaps he feared the natural defenses of Serventis. Whatever the reason, from what I’ve gathered, we are on the right track. He leads a sect, and I’ve managed to locate and talk to several members. They have a base of operations in Najer. Any questions, disciples?”

  “What will we do once we find him?” Severin asked. “If he is Onyx Seidren, what could we even do to him?”

  “Leave that to me” Tirren imagined for a second the barest flicker of the hottest rage passing over his jovial master’s face.

  “For you two, I have a rigorous training regimen!”