Chương 33: A Dragon’s Fortune

When the three of us finally caught up with Adrian, he was standing just inside the Aura's cave, silently surveying the destruction with the weary judgment of a man who knew better than to voice his thoughts. The cavern was enormous, larger than the entrance had suggested. It stretched deep into the mountain, disappearing into shadow beyond the reach of the pale crystal veins glittering across the ceiling.

Decades of dragon fire had scorched sections of the walls black, while enormous claw marks carved through the stone like scars left by something that had never needed to fear what lived beneath it. And there was gold everywhere! Coins, bars, goblets, crowns, broken jewelry, jeweled weapons, ancient statues, carved chests, silver platters, ceremonial armor, and gemstones the size of chicken eggs covered the cavern floor. There was enough wealth scattered around us to make a banker collapse from emotional distress.

Unfortunately, most of it was no longer where it belonged. The hoard had been violently rearranged, by me… My earlier blast of Primordial Ruin had done more than introduce Aurelion Ashgarde to the unfamiliar sensation of humility. It had also introduced her treasure to the thrilling concept of flight. Gold had been scattered across the cavern as though someone had detonated an entire treasury.

Coins were embedded in fractured stone, while shattered chests lay against the walls with their contents strewn around them. Jewels had rolled into distant corners, and several ceremonial weapons had been driven blade-first into the cavern floor. One golden statue had been launched headfirst into the cavern wall, leaving only its legs protruding from the stone. I stared at it for a moment before slowly surveying the rest of the destruction, a faint irritation settling in my chest.

Perhaps I had used slightly more force than necessary. Not because I regretted what I had done to the dragon, of course. I simply regretted scattering my newly acquired gold across half the cavern. It was wasteful, and I hated waste. Adrian glanced in my direction, seemed to understand exactly where my thoughts had wandered, and wisely chose to keep his opinion to himself. Celeste stepped up beside me and let out a low whistle as she surveyed the scattered hoard.

"That's a lot of treasure."

"It was neater earlier," Aura said. Aura stood on my other side in her small humanoid form, her platinum hair gleaming beneath the reflected crystal light while her little horns caught the glow whenever she moved. Her tail swished lazily behind her, and she looked far too pleased for someone whose home had partially collapsed and whose centuries-old hoard had been scattered by the woman she now called Master. I looked down at her.

"Aura, suppose you decided to leave this place and take your entire hoard with you. How exactly would you manage that?" She lifted her gaze to mine, and a bright smile slowly spread across her face. The smugness of her previous personality was shining brightly. I had seen that expression countless times on Celeste; usually moments before she did something that made Adrian sigh and turned my day into an avoidable disaster. A sense of impending trouble crept down my spine. Wonderful...

"That's easy, Master," Aura said, beaming with confidence. She raised one small hand and snapped her fingers, causing space itself to crack apart before us. A thin black line appeared in the center of the cavern. It split the air like fractured glass before widening into a jagged tear edged with gold and violet light. The interior of the opening looked ominous. It was not darkness exactly, but an impossible depth that made my eyes resist focusing on it.

The longer I stared into the rip in space, the stronger the unsettling impression became that whatever lay beyond it was staring back. Then the pull began. A violent force swept through the cavern, as though a miniature black hole had suddenly developed a taste for expensive things. The coins were the first to rise. Thousands of them shot toward the opening in glittering streams, clattering against one another like metallic rain.

Then goblets, jewels, broken chests, loose crowns, bars of gold, silver plates, ceremonial weapons, gemstones, and every other valuable object scattered across the cavern. The hoard vanished… all of it completely. I also felt the force, but it wasn't enough to truly move me from my spot. Adrian and Celeste also survived the pull without using much strength. Aura continued smiling as the treasure spiraled past us and disappeared into her pocket of impossible space.

Her tail swished behind her with smug little satisfaction. Within moments, the cavern was empty. You wouldn't have known a huge amount of gold once lingered within this cave. The spatial crack snapped shut with a faint pop, leaving behind nothing but dust, broken stone, scorch marks, and the tragic absence of treasure. Celeste pointed at Aura immediately.

"I felt that." Aura turned her head away. Celeste's eyes narrowed further.

"You tried to suck me in, didn't you?" Aura crossed her arms.

"Mother and Adrian didn't even move, but I felt that force pulling on my body." Aura huffed.

"Maybe you're lighter than you look." Celeste gasped. Adrian closed his eyes. I stared at the two of them.

"Enough. Both of you." My voice cracked through the cavern with more force than I had intended, and they immediately fell silent. At least that settled the argument for the moment, though I could already tell this rivalry was going to become a constant source of irritation in the future. With both of them finally silent, I turned to Celeste first.

"You're my daughter." I held her gaze, making sure she understood every word that followed.

"I care about you more than I have the patience to explain and far more than is remotely convenient." The anger drained from Celeste's face almost immediately. Her eyes softened, and her fingers tightened around my arm as though she had only just realized she was holding it. I let her enjoy the reassurance for a moment before cutting it short.

"But this rivalry needs to stop before the two of you destroy something valuable." Celeste's expression soured.

"She tried to pull me into a hole in space."

"I noticed."

"She did it on purpose."

"I noticed that too." Celeste drew breath to continue, but I shifted my attention to Aura before the complaint could grow into a full performance. Aura straightened beneath my stare, lifting her chin as though she had been summoned before a throne.

"You need to understand that being territorial doesn't give you permission to attack everyone who comes near me." Aura folded her arms across her chest.

"She's always touching you."

"Yes. Celeste does that constantly. The rest of us have learned to endure it." Celeste pulled back just enough to look offended, although the effect was weakened by the fact that she still had both hands wrapped around my arm.

"I do not do it constantly." A suspiciously muffled sound came from Adrian's direction. Celeste turned toward him.

"Do you have something to add?" Adrian fixed his attention on the cavern wall.

"Nothing at all." I faced Aura again before the argument could spread.

"Celeste is my daughter. She has stood beside me for longer than you've been alive, and she will continue standing there no matter how much it irritates you." Aura's tail flicked sharply behind her…

"You will not throw her, burn her, bite her, crush her, drag her into a spatial crack, or invent some new method of removing her from my side. Do you understand?" Aura glanced at Celeste, whose smile had already become far too smug.

"Yes, Master," she muttered. Celeste's smile widened. Without taking my eyes off Aura, I lifted one finger and pointed directly at Celeste.

"And you can wipe that expression off your face. You're not innocent in this, and you're not allowed to provoke her simply because you enjoy watching her react." If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. Celeste's triumphant smile weakened, though it didn't disappear entirely. When I lowered my hand, Aura's violet eyes rose to meet mine.

The arrogance that usually filled them had faded, replaced by an uncertainty that looked strangely out of place on a dragon.

"Do you also care about me?" she asked. The question caught me off guard. Aura was a dragon. I had no idea they could completely devote themselves to a person without their pride being wounded. A dangerous creature that had burned towns, demanded tribute, roared titles at me, and attempted to behave like a tyrant because something or someone had placed that idea inside her head.

Yet standing there in the empty cave, with her too-young face and wide violet eyes, she looked less like a monster and more like a child waiting to discover whether she had been accepted or merely claimed. I sighed.

"Well," I said carefully, "we have only just met." Her expression dipped.

"But," I added, because apparently I had chosen weakness today, "I do find you cute." The words felt foreign leaving my mouth. Horrifying, really… If the girl I had been two centuries ago could have seen me now, standing in a dragon's cave while telling a juvenile dragon that she was cute and allowing my fully grown vampire daughter to cling possessively to my arm, she would have assumed I had finally lost my mind. She wouldn't have been entirely wrong.

Aura's uncertainty vanished beneath a radiant smile, while Celeste released a small, wounded sound beside me, apparently offended that anyone else had received even the slightest measure of affection. I lowered myself until I could meet Aura's violet eyes directly.

"That doesn't mean you're allowed to terrorize Celeste." Aura's smile faltered as she glanced toward Celeste, who returned the look with open suspicion. Within seconds, the two of them were glaring at each other again, their brief obedience already forgotten. Wonderful… My warning had passed through both of their minds without leaving so much as a scratch.

I rose and took Celeste's hand in one of mine before reaching for Aura's with the other, placing myself firmly between them before their silent argument could become another physical one.

"Let's go." Celeste glanced down at our joined hands, and the last traces of her irritation quickly gave way to satisfaction. Aura studied the arrangement with considerably more suspicion, looking first at her own hand and then at Celeste's before frowning as though she were calculating which of them had received the better position.

"It's not a competition," I warned them. Neither responded which only confirmed that they both considered it a competition and had no intention of admitting it. Adrian surveyed the now-empty cavern before turning toward us.

"What about the towns?"

"As for the towns, they were simply victims of unfortunate circumstances," I replied as we started toward the entrance.

"What more can I say?" Celeste drew in a breath, undoubtedly preparing to repeat my explanation with far more enthusiasm than it deserved. A single look from me convinced her to reconsider, and she settled for tightening her hand around mine. Aura, however, nodded with solemn approval.

"Bad luck."

"It was just bad luck," I repeated as I gave a slight smile in the dragon's direction.

"That's not something you should repeat with pride," Adrian said. Aura looked at him.

"But Master said it."

"Master says many things," Adrian replied dryly. I looked at him. He didn't look sorry. Whatever… We made our way down from the peak with far less trouble than we had encountered while climbing it. Aura skipped more than she walked at my side, which was a remarkably strange thing to witness from someone who had been a three-story dragon less than an hour earlier. Her tail swished constantly behind her, and every time Celeste leaned closer to me, Aura leaned closer from the opposite side.

Celeste was nearly two centuries old, while Aura was only eighty-seven, yet the two of them behaved as though they were the same age. In truth, Aura had considerably more justification for it, although only barely. When we reached the car, Adrian slipped into the driver's seat without offering a single comment. He had clearly decided that keeping his hands occupied with the machinery was safer than involving himself in the emotional battlefield gathering behind him. He was a coward...

After climbing into the back seat, Celeste immediately pulled me in beside her. Aura entered from the opposite side before I could object, leaving me trapped between them with no room to escape. Pressed against my left side, Celeste claimed one of my hands while Aura settled just as closely on my right and took the other, as though they had negotiated the entire seating arrangement without bothering to consult me.

Adrian glanced at the three of us through the rearview mirror, his expression revealing absolutely nothing. The traitor was probably laughing internally.

"Drive," I said. Adrian started the engine, and the car carried us down the winding mountain road, leaving Crystal Peak behind. The return journey remained unpleasant, though it somehow irritated me less than the climb upward had. Perhaps I was simply too distracted by the young dragon pressed against one arm and my much older vampire daughter clinging to the other while pretending she wasn't jealous. As the rugged mountainside passed beyond the window, my thoughts returned to what Aura had told us earlier.

She had no clear memory of who had taught her to demand tribute, and that uncertainty was far more troubling than any name she might have given me. There had been no teacher, parent, rival dragon, cultist, thief, or whispering noble lurking inside her cave. According to Aura, the idea had simply appeared in her mind one day, already carrying the weight of instinct and certainty. Dragons demanded treasure. They burned towns and forced mortals to kneel.

The belief had never felt like an order because she had never thought to question it. Someone, or something, had shaped those desires inside her so carefully that Aura had mistaken them for her nature. That was not normal. At least, I didn't believe it was normal. My knowledge of dragon psychology was rather limited, considering I had met exactly one dragon and immediately renamed her. Still, any being capable of influencing a dragon's mind was worth remembering.

Whatever lurked behind Aura's strange behavior could wait until it was foolish enough to step within my reach. For now, I had a job to close. The Adventurer's Guild had better pay me properly. I had not killed the dragon, true, but I had brought her under control. That was arguably better.

With Aura under my control, the towns would be spared any further destruction, the demands for tribute would come to an end, and the threat hanging over the city had been neutralized without the mountain collapsing on anyone important. Should the guild find some reason to complain, I could always return Aura to them for five minutes and see whether their accounting improved. The sun had already begun sinking toward the sea by the time we returned to the city.

The Vaust Hotel and Casino glittered in the distance, its electric lights shining against polished windows. Even from the outskirts, the building towered above most of the surrounding structures, a monument to wealth, excess, and my excellent judgment. For one brief moment, Aura leaned toward the glass and stared at it with wide violet eyes.

"Is that yours?" she asked.

"Yes."

"All of it?"

"Of course." Her eyes gleamed.

"It shines." Celeste smiled smugly from my other side.

"Mother likes expensive things." Aura looked at her.

"Dragons also like expensive things."

"I noticed," I said. Aura looked up at me.

"Can I keep my hoard there?"

"I don't see why not." Aura brightened at once.

"Place it in our vault," I added with a smile, though the expression concealed a far more practical line of thought. Why would I object to having a dragon's fortune secured beneath my hotel, safely within my territory and, more importantly, within my reach? Aura's smile widened, blissfully unaware that placing her hoard in my vault had just put a dragon's fortune within my reach. Celeste leaned across me to look at her.

"Our vault," she corrected with a possessive little smile. Aura's delight faded as her violet eyes narrowed.

"My hoard."

"It will be stored in my family's vault," Celeste replied, tightening her hold on my arm as though that settled the matter. Aura's tail flicked sharply against the seat.

"But it's still my treasure." Celeste lifted her chin.

"And she is still my mother." Aura immediately pressed closer to my other side.

"She's my Master." I closed my eyes as the argument continued across my body.

"Adrian." His gaze met mine briefly in the rearview mirror.

"Yes?"

"Drive faster."

"I'm already driving as quickly as safety allows." I opened my eyes and stared at his reflection.

"I didn't ask about safety." Adrian released a long-suffering sigh before pressing the accelerator, sending the car surging more quickly down the road. He was a good man when it suited him. By the time we reached the Adventurer's Guild, the building was still bustling with activity, and the evening crowd around the entrance had grown considerably thicker.

Adventurers milled around the entrance, smoking, laughing, bragging, drinking from flasks, and doing all the little things people did when they wanted to appear fearless in front of one another. Then Aura stepped out of the car with her hand still wrapped around mine. The noise outside the guild vanished almost at once. Her small horns curved visibly through her platinum hair, while her tail swayed behind her with casual curiosity.

Violet eyes swept across the street, and a faint golden radiance clung to her skin, carrying enough heat and pressure to make the air around her tremble. No one needed an introduction. The adventurers gathered outside had spent the better part of the day hearing reports about the dragon on Crystal Peak. Now a horned girl had arrived from that same direction in Lady Vaust's car, carrying the unmistakable presence of something ancient, powerful, and decidedly inhuman.

Understanding spread through the crowd like a spark finding spilled oil. Several people stumbled backward. One man dropped his cigarette without noticing, while another nearly choked on the drink he had been swallowing. Hands drifted toward weapons, only to stop halfway as their owners realized that the dragon was holding my hand and leaning comfortably against my side. The fact that none of us appeared remotely concerned only seemed to frighten them more.

Aura studied the gathering with open interest, apparently pleased by the attention. Adrian stepped out without so much as adjusting his expression, while I remained beside her as though arriving at the guild with a dragon were no more unusual than bringing home an expensive pet. One adventurer finally managed to draw half an inch of steel before Adrian looked at him. The blade quietly slid back into its sheath. A wise decision…

Celeste emerged from the car beside me and surveyed the terrified faces gathered around us. The sight proved too much for her composure, and she quickly covered her mouth to conceal the laugh threatening to escape. Her earlier jealousy appeared to vanish beneath the sudden opportunity to enjoy everyone else's panic. Celeste had always possessed an astonishing ability to recover from her darker moods.

She could be jealous, dramatic, overbearing, clingy, and completely impossible, yet it rarely took long for her natural cheer to claw its way back to the surface, especially when an audience offered her something entertaining to watch. That didn't make her shallow. I knew her far too well to mistake her brightness for a lack of depth. I had seen her cry until she could barely breathe. I had watched her bleed, kill, grieve, and remain standing through losses that would have broken lesser people.

Her joy was not born from ignorance of pain, but from a stubborn refusal to let pain keep its hands around her throat. No matter what the world placed upon her shoulders, Celeste always found a reason to smile again. Sometimes with alarming speed. Almost offensively so. Despite her endless chatter, theatrical affection, and remarkable talent for grinding my patience into dust, she was exceptionally competent when it mattered.

She managed staff, finances, schedules, guest arrangements, contracts, entertainment, and the thousand small disasters required to keep a hotel alive.

"Secretary" was far too small a word for what she did. She enjoyed the title, however, because it allowed her to stand beside me and look pleased with herself. Unfortunately, Celeste was now standing beside me with the unmistakable satisfaction of someone who had discovered a new source of entertainment. She leaned closer, her eyes gleaming as she looked toward the guild entrance.

"This is going to be fun." I gave her a flat look.

"No, it's not." Her smile widened as another adventurer hurried out of Aura's path.

"It already is." Before she could enjoy the spectacle any further, I led the way into the guild with Aura still holding my hand. The entire room froze. Conversation stopped mid-sentence. Tankards hovered halfway to waiting mouths, chairs scraped once against the floor, and more than one adventurer went completely still with a hand resting near their weapon. Every eye turned toward Aura. Then those same eyes shifted to me, searching my face for some sign that the situation had spiraled beyond control.

When they found none, their attention returned to the horned girl walking calmly at my side. Their minds worked visibly, slow and horrified, as they attempted to connect the reported dragon threat with the small, horned girl holding my hand. The Guild Master appeared at the top of the stairs a moment later, likely drawn by the sudden and unnatural absence of noise. He stopped the moment his eyes settled on Aura, and the color slowly drained from his face.

"Lady Vaust," he said carefully as he began descending the stairs one step at a time.

"You have returned."

"Obviously." His gaze flicked toward Aura's horns, tail, and glowing violet eyes.

"And…the dragon?" I lifted Aura's hand slightly.

"Handled." Multiple voices let out a breath when I confirmed what they were all thinking. Aura puffed out her chest proudly.

"Master renamed me." Celeste immediately leaned toward the nearest stunned adventurer and whispered loudly enough for half the room to hear.

"She was much larger earlier." The Guild Master opened his mouth, closed it again, and then tried once more, but no words came. I smiled at his speechless expression.

"Now," I began, allowing my smile to sharpen slightly, "about my payment." The Guild Master's gaze shifted toward Aura, who remained proudly at my side, before returning to me. He then glanced past us at Adrian, who stood with his usual composure and somehow managed to look like the only responsible adult in a room overflowing with catastrophes. A nervous swallow moved through the Guild Master's throat.

"Yes, of course. Your payment." His sudden cooperation was reassuring. He was a smart man, after all, and learning remained humanity's most admirable survival trait.