Chương 62: Vision

The good news, if Orion could call it that, was that his private quest reward had done him the courtesy of spawning outside the warehouse. The more chaotic news was everything that happened immediately afterward. Golden Weave poured into existence beyond the warehouse's enormous open doors. Orion had barely finished registering the Status message above his head when his attention snapped toward it. The light gathered perhaps ten feet outside as threads became ribbons and ribbons became sheets.

The familiar golden helix tightened rapidly around a single point until something solid began taking shape within it. An egg. Orion stepped toward the doorway.

"Of course." Behind him, someone said something. The egg was considerably larger than the ones he had become accustomed to seeing around Drakehaven. Its shell was mostly pale gray, though faint circular patterns wrapped around it in progressively larger rings. They reminded Orion vaguely of ripples spreading across a pond. Or perhaps— A crack raced downward, then the entire upper section of the egg exploded. Orion threw an arm over his face as a burst of displaced air tore through the warehouse entrance.

It was hard enough to send loose parchment and dust spinning behind him. Something launched vertically from inside the egg. Orion caught only a glimpse before it vanished above. A longer body, wings, gray-white scales, and a larger body than he expected. He sprinted outside.

"What in the—" Orion craned his neck as the newly hatched drake climbed with astonishing speed. By the time he reached open ground, it was already little more than a shrinking silhouette against the sky. The creature had looked roughly deer-sized during the fraction of a second he'd seen it. Now? Tiny as it passed into the clouds. Orion stared upward.

"Come back?" Nothing. He tried again mentally, but the response was strange. Some basic awareness existed at the edge of his mind, telling him that the drake was alive, active, and apparently entirely content with what it was doing. Orion folded his arms.

"You were born twelve seconds ago." The drake continued upward. He had spent enough time around dragons that this somehow did not rank among the strangest introductions anymore. A gust of wind swept through the open warehouse doors behind him as Orion kept watching. The speck disappeared completely. For a few uncomfortable seconds, he could not see it at all. He had just completed a private quest, and the System had rewarded him with an egg. The egg then hatched instantly, and the reward had flown away.

Orion could already imagine explaining that to Aurelia. Yes, the new dragon is doing wonderfully. Where is she? Approximately somewhere above the clouds. At least the mental connection remained; it had not simply escaped. Probably. Roughly thirty seconds passed before footsteps echoed through the warehouse. Roy appeared first, with Dorian and Velara only a step behind. All three came through the doorway and stopped beside Orion. Roy looked around, then at the shattered egg.

"What happened?" Orion pointed. Roy followed his finger to the sky, though there was nothing obvious to follow. Dorian squinted.

"Did your reward leave?"

"Yes." Velara looked upward as well.

"Can you still sense it?"

"Yes."

"That seems preferable." Roy shielded his eyes from the sun.

"How high?"

"No idea." As if responding to the question, a Status window appeared directly in front of him. [[Echo Drake: Hatched]] [[Current Altitude: 4 Miles]] Orion stared. Roy leaned closer to examine the window that was apparently visible to him as well. Dorian could not see the message, but apparently noticed their expressions.

"What?" Orion pointed upward again.

"Four miles." Dorian blinked.

"What is four miles?"

"The drake." Silence. Dorian slowly looked toward the sky.

"She is four miles in the air? She hatched less than a minute ago."

"Yes."

"And decided her immediate priority was to climb four miles vertically?" Orion looked at him.

"That seems to be the situation." Roy continued staring at the Status.

"Four miles…" Orion did not need much explanation to understand how ridiculous that was. He had traveled distances shorter than that and considered them meaningful treks. The new drake had crossed the same distance vertically almost immediately after hatching. Another line appeared. [[Scanning…]] Roy's eyebrows rose.

"Oh." Orion frowned.

"What?"

"That sounds promising."

"Or terrible."

"Those aren't mutually exclusive." Orion looked skyward again. There was still no visible sign of the drake, which was unsurprising given how high up it was. The strangest part was how calm the connection felt; the Echo Drake had emerged knowing exactly what it wanted to do. The Status changed once more. [[Scan Complete]] A much larger display unfolded beneath it. No explanation came as part of it, but none was necessary. Roy's eyes moved across the Status twice, then a third time.

"It's a map." Orion nodded slowly. The display showed terrain from above; like a flattened representation rendered from the drake's perspective. Mountain ridges formed an almost complete ring around the edges. Forests appeared as textured masses with open plains separating them. Rivers twisted through the land, culminating at a lake in the center. Roy's expression changed.

"Not just any map, either…" Velara stepped closer. She had been all business since Dorian's office, but that lasted approximately two seconds after she saw the display.

"The Averin Basin." The resemblance was obvious. It was almost identical in general shape to the parchment map Dorian had spread across the table upstairs. The important differences began revealing themselves immediately, however. The parchment map had been static - this one was not. Large markers existed across the landscape. Bellhaven's position was obvious; a sizable dot resting on the eastern edge of the lake. Roy pointed.

"Bellhaven." The map reacted. Letters appeared beside the marker. [[Bellhaven]] Roy froze. Orion looked at him.

"Did you do that?"

"I don't think so." Velara watched the label.

"You identified it." Roy's attention shifted northeast. There was another marker very nearby that waslarge enough to register distinctly. Roy pointed.

"Drakehaven." The second label appeared. [[Drakehaven]] Orion smiled despite himself.

"So it learns."

"Or associates what we know with what it sees," Roy replied.

"Difference?"

"I'll tell you after several hours of testing." This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

"Of course." Roy's eyes were already racing across the map. There were other settlement markers, several aligned approximately with the dots on Dorian's parchment. Some were smaller than Bellhaven. One farther west appeared nearly comparable. Others were little more than minor concentrations against otherwise empty terrain. But those were not the only things that had been marked. Smaller symbols moved; a cluster on a road southwest of Bellhaven shifted almost imperceptibly.

An arrow extended from it pointing eastward. Another group farther north moved toward the mountains. A larger collection moved slowly through the forest edge farther west. Every few seconds— Blink. The map was refreshed. Minor details changed., positions shifted, and arrows adjusted. Roy leaned so close Orion almost had to elbow him away.

"The markers are moving."

"I gathered that." Roy ignored him.

"This one…" He pointed toward the eastern road, and the information responded. There were no names or intentions, but basic knowledge. A clustered group with multiple people and wagons travleing west. Roy's mouth opened.

"Caravan."

"Probably." Another marker classifying several figures and animals. Farther north, something much larger moved alone through open ground. Roy stared at that one longer.

"I don't like that." Orion looked; the marker was not identified beyond its scale. Large creature, moving south.

"Neither do I." Velara watched the display carefully.

"It cannot tell you what those people intend?"

"No," Orion said. Roy tested another marker. None had any indication about intentions. An armed-looking group could have been a patrol, hunters, escorts, or bandits. None of that was identified; just what could objectively be observed from above.

"I love your party over there," Dorian commented, "but some of us don't come with Weave-Vision." Roy did not look away.

"It's a map."

"We established that."

"A map that updates every few seconds." Dorian's expression sharpened. Roy continued.

"It shows terrain."

"Useful."

"Settlements."

"Very useful."

"And moving groups." Dorian stopped. Roy finally looked at him.

"People. Wagons. Mounted groups. Animals. Larger creatures. It doesn't seem capable of telling us who they are or what they want, but it tracks where they're moving." Dorian stared at him.

"How far?" Roy glanced over the display.

"Almost the entire basin." Silence. Dorian's eyebrows rose.

"A self-updating map that covers the basin?"

"Yes."

"And tells you when groups are moving across it?" Dorian's tone became increasingly incredulous.

"You're telling me that you just gained a drake that provides a real-time location for everything across the basin significant enough to pick up?" Roy looked at him. Dorian appeared to expect hesitation, perhaps even correction. Roy, however, did neither. His eyes held the particular mixture of awe and seriousness that only appeared when something had completely exceeded even his expectations.

"Yes." Dorian's gaze shifted toward Velara. He could not see the Status, so he needed confirmation from someone who could. Velara slowly nodded.

"My word…" Dorian looked back toward the empty sky. For once, he appeared genuinely speechless. Orion enjoyed the novelty, even if it only lasted perhaps three seconds. Awe spread across Dorian's face, then his eyes widened as his trademark grin appeared.. Roy saw it immediately.

"I hate that look." Dorian turned toward him.

"What look?"

"The one where something happens and somehow you immediately decide it should make money."

"I haven't said anything yet."

"You don't have to." Dorian gestured upward.

"We could sell it." Orion's head snapped toward him.

"No." Dorian blinked.

"I'm not selling one of our drakes."

"Not the drake, you brute."

"Then phrase things better."

"The information." Dorian stepped closer, his mind had clearly accelerated far beyond theirs.

"How valuable would it be to know that an unreported group was moving toward your settlement?" Roy's expression shifted as Dorian continued.

"Bandits." He counted on his fingers.

"Traders. Mercenaries. An army. A herd large enough to damage crops," he pointed toward the Status he could not see.

"Now they would know well in advance." Roy glanced toward the map again.

"They still wouldn't know what the group was."

"They wouldn't need to," Dorian shook his head.

"Information before contact is the advantage." A familiar phrase immediately bothered Orion. Information Is King. Apparently the System had not been subtle. Dorian continued.

"If a group of forty armed travelers is approaching Bellhaven from the west, I do not need your drake to tell me whether they're hostile. I just need enough warning to send someone out. Then I can investigate, prepare, move civilians, or simply make sure gates are staffed. That type of information is priceless." His grin widened. Orion was no businessman, but he understood anyway. He looked back toward the map. Now that he knew what he was seeing, the implications became worse.

There was a settlement perhaps twenty miles northwest of Drakehaven that he had not known existed until this exact moment. It was small, but still distinct. A group of travelers moved along another eastern path he had never seen. They might be traders, farmers, or even bandits. Orion did not know. That uncertainty almost bothered him more now that he knew the people were there. His eyes continued darting from marker to marker. Roy noticed.

"You're doing it." Orion frowned.

"Doing what?"

"Finding new things to worry about."

"There are people twenty miles east of Drakehaven."

"There have probably always been people twenty miles east of Drakehaven."

"That was better when I didn't know." Dorian chuckled, but Orion ignored him. The paranoia was already settling into his bones. Every marker was something he could potentially fail to protect against. Every moving group could become tomorrow's problem. But underneath that instinct sat another realization. He could now see them. For most of Orion's life, danger arrived when it arrived. A blizzard, bandits at the door, a boar in the woods, and now Velkaryn.

His entire Class seemed built around responding once the threat already existed. Danger Sense warned him when someone he cared about was in trouble. Brotherly Bond moved him toward them. Dragonscale Redoubt gave him something to put between danger and the people behind him. Dragoneye Scouts let him watch places he could not physically occupy. Now this— This gave him time. Orion's expression hardened.

"If Velkaryn attacks…" Dorian's grin vanished. Roy looked toward him as he continued staring at the map.

"We would have an unprecedented advantage."

"Yes," Dorian said immediately.

"If we can ally other settlements to the cause with this, we could get ourselves in a much better position." Roy nodded slowly.

"Early warning across the basin."

"Exactly," Dorian gestured.

"If Velkaryn moves a meaningful force through one of the mountain routes, we would know before it came anywhere near Bellhaven." Orion followed the roads on the map, where two major routes passed through the mountain ring. If anything entered openly— Tracked, updated, and observed from four miles above. Velkaryn could send anything. Orion would not necessarily know what they were, but he would know that something unusual was moving. He could investigate before it arrived, and prepare before anyone was attacked.

"This only works…" Orion continued.

"…if they don't find out." The implication took none of them long to understand. A new drake had been born, and it had not merely been a useful drake. This drake could potentially reveal military movement across nearly the entire basin. And currently living in Drakehaven was a sanctioned Velkaryn Arbiter whose stated job was to identify exactly this sort of capability.

"Sevrin can't find out," Roy admitted. Velara nodded instantly.

"No." There was no discussion and no debate. Nor was there a question of whether withholding the information might offend Velkaryn. Whatever advantages Sevrin's honesty had earned him, they did not include being voluntarily handed Drakehaven's most useful intelligence asset. Roy looked upward.

"Which means the drake needs to stay somewhere else." Orion followed his gaze. They did not even know whether the drake intended to descend soon. Still— Drakehaven was impossible. Hiding a deer-sized dragon permanently would be absurdif it were there. Especially one that needed to take off and climb miles into the air to use her primary ability. Bellhaven, however— Everyone slowly turned toward Dorian. He looked first at Roy and Orion, then Velara. His shoulders slumped.

"Why am I always responsible for re-housing the drakes?" Roy answered immediately.

"You're the one that stands the most to profit off of them." Dorian pointed at him.

"Besides you and Drakehaven, you mean?"

"Minor details."

"They are not minor details."

"You offered warehouse space."

"For commerce."

"Drakes are excellent for commerce."

"That argument is becoming increasingly expensive." Dorian looked back through the warehouse doors; Clover and Spark had both stopped working. Orion had not noticed when. Clover stood near the edge of his bay, flowered greenery shifting slightly across his body. Spark hovered beside him - both drakes were looking upward. Apparently they could sense their newly hatched sibling even when Orion could not see her. Spark chirped. Clover answered with a low sound from his throat.

"They already know," Roy said.

"So it seems." Dorian sighed.

"I already harbor drakes part time, I suppose. What's one more…" Roy nodded approvingly, though Orion was less certain. His instinct remained that the safest place for any of their drakes was Drakehaven. Near the ward, the family, and Aegis. In this case, however, that instinct had become increasingly difficult to maintain. Clover and Spark worked in Bellhaven regularly. Zephyr spent large portions of her time carrying Talia wherever she needed to go.

Quill followed Roy, and much of the family had grown beyond a cottage. Maybe protecting them now meant accepting that all of them could not stay beneath the same roof. Orion looked toward the Scale Soldier positioned inside Dorian's warehouse and the Dragoneye Scout still perched atop its helmet. He could see through it from Drakehaven. If anything happened here, he could know. If Aegis was nearby, he could gather enough Weave to teleport across the distance.

On top of that, this new drake seemed particularly difficult to attack while doing her job. Four miles presented complications for most attackers. Orion exhaled.

"Fine." Dorian looked toward him.

"She can remain here temporarily."

"Of course."

"I mean it."

"So do I." Roy smiled.

"Until we know what she actually needs." That was the next problem. What did she need for food? What did she need for sleep? How long did she remain airborne for? Did weather matter? Orion looked toward Roy, but he was already smiling.

"More testing." Orion sighed.

"Of course."

"Excellent," Velara added, her attention remained on the Status display.

"Does this new test of yours have a name?" Right. The drake - his drake. A small prompt had appeared at the edge of the map, waiting. For some reason, hesitation struck him harder than expected when he looked at it. Aurelia had named nearly every dragon in their family. Even when others contributed ideas, Aurelia had become the person who made the names feel official. Giving one without her present felt almost blasphemous. Roy seemed to notice the hesitation.

"You can wait." Orion considered, then looked back upward. No sign of the Echo Drake remained - only the enormous live representation of everything beneath her. The connection between them felt different from his relationship with the others. The private quest had been his. [[Protect What You Cannot Reach]] The Weave had responded first with skills, and now this. A creature whose entire purpose seemed to be extending his awareness farther than he could ever physically stand.

It was like having a Dragoneye Scout over an entire region. No, he did not need Aurelia for this one. It felt appropriate that Orion named her himself. He thought about the map, the altitude, and the tiny markers moving across miles of wilderness. He also thought about the ability to know what approached before danger was already at the door. Orion smiled faintly.

"Vision." Roy looked toward him. Orion kept his eyes on the empty sky.

"Her name will be Vision." The prompt accepted the word, and the Status shifted. [[Drake Successfully Named]]