Following our dinner, Lia and I take care of the few things that need to be done as we head towards the palace entrance to meet up with Aurelia and... whatever her name is. And perhaps I should have expected as much, but Aurelia isn't even here yet, even though uhh, what's her name has arrived.
"Remind me again, what's your name?"
"Vorenia, Vorenia Eunapia," she replies in an indifferent tone.
"So what made you a turncoat? I can't just be whatever Aurelia did to you? Aren't people like you usually as loyal as they get?" I ask.
"Why don't I take over," Aurelia says as she walks out the palace entrance, "Follow me, I'll explain as we go. The Eunapia family has been rumoured for a while to have trained all but the successor and the next in line in many unsavoury professions for the sake of furthering the family's power, one of which is, of course, an assassin. Although concrete evidence was something that was never found by anyone who tried to investigate in the past, so most have ignored this. From what I understand, everyone past the second child had to undergo hard training since they could walk and were treated very poorly. Normally this would induce quite the dislike for their family, but a brainwashing technique is used to keep them loyal. However, Vorenia here is naturally immune to mind-controlling magic, so unlike the rest of her siblings, she holds a great amount of dislike for her family. We have almost arrived, so why don't you finish this up by telling us what your other siblings do."
"Yes, my Lady. There were six of us who had been trained, my third elder brother, my eldest sister, and I was trained to be assassins. Two of my younger siblings are engaged in some kind of banditry, while my youngest sister is currently undergoing training, although I am not aware of what it is. I do not blame my siblings who have been brainwashed, but I can't forgive the rest of the family who put us through those hardships. My Lady, I hope you can allow me to personally kill them should the need arrive and if I may be presumptuous in asking, can you perhaps find a way to release the others from their brainwashing?"
"I do not mind in regards to either of your points. Anyway, we've arrived," says Aurelia, but this is just the outer wall of the city and it's not even the exit. "Wait, I know what your thinking. The reason we are here is to avoid prying eyes, I will teleport us to the opposite side of the wall and from there we will begin to travel towards the domain of Lord Gaoh."
Grabbing on to the shoulders of myself and Vorenia, we suddenly find ourselves outside of the city with its walls behind us.
"Alright, since we're all here, Cordelia, transform and give us a ride," Aurelia says as I glare at her, "don't give me that look, I was just joking. I'll go get Lia, just hold on," she says as she disappears and almost instantly reappears with Lia by her side, causing me to relax my gaze.
"Why not just teleport to the mountain? Wouldn't that be much easier?" I ask.
"Easier, yes, can it be done, no. I can only teleport a few metres in any given direction. So here's the plan, once we are further away from the city I want you to transform and give us a ride, you're much faster than any horse drawn carriage after all. Both me and Lia can give you directions, so if you get us lost it's your fault. Once we arrive, I'll handle calling for Lord Gaoh."
Moving at a fast pace, we quickly arrive in a forested area a little bit off from the city. Deciding that this is a good place, Aurelia asks me to return to my true form. Even though she was told beforehand, Vorenia is still surprised to see that I actually was the Dragon she encountered the other night. And unlike Lia and Aurelia, Vorenia doesn't have corrosion immunity, but Aurelia creates a carriage like thing with her barriers and straps it to my back for Vorenia and her to sit in. To my surprise, it doesn't add any weight to me and doesn't impede me at all from moving at full speed towards the mountain.
With my speed, what is normally a two and a half-day trip by horse was shortened to just a single day as we arrive at the edge of what could be considered the domain of Lord Gaoh. I shift to my humanoid form again once everyone gets off and we begin to climb up the mountain. As we are moving along, flashes of lightning brighten the night sky and are almost instantly followed up with thunder as the ground trembles with each flash. Aurelia is quick to point at that the bear is probably rampaging right now and that we should find a good spot to hide. Although a quick look around clearly shows a lack of decent hiding spots.
"Since we can't find one, then we should just make one. As an experienced hole digger, I suggest we make a big hole and cover it up while we wait for the bear to calm down," I say while creating four steel shovels.
"Now that you mention it, you are strangely good at digger holes. There is the giant hole you dugout at the base over at Dragspear and over the course of a night you dug out that big hole to kill those nobles who demanded our room," Lia says.
"This reminds me of when we were hiding from the Ligers, that was not fun and you didn't even help me."
"What did you want me to do? Those things were dangerous, especially for me!"
"Forget it, we should be able to get a sufficiently large hole for all of us within a couple of hours," Aurelia says.
"I just hope Lord Gaoh doesn't come over here before that," Vorenia says.
"With the luck of our scaled companions, I wouldn't be surprised if he was on his way here right now."
Mere moments after Aurelia says that we feel the ground trembling in a rhythmic pattern and the already short time between the flashes of lightning and sounds of thunder shorten further. In the distance, trees are being mowed over and pushed aside.
Lia looks towards Aurelia, saying, "you just had to say it, didn't you?"
"It's not my fault! You know that between your's and Cordelia's luck that this was bound to happen regardless!"
"My lady, sorry to interrupt, but Cordelia has already started running."
"Don't let her escape by herself! If we are going to deal with Lord Gaoh, then she's coming with us, after her!"
Grabbing onto Lia and Vorenia, Aurelia appears right beside me, saying, "don't think you can get away by yourself. We're all partners here, lets deal with this together."