“She was in danger.”
“It’s a simple question, Tristan. Why not?”
“The last person I expressed my affection for was taken from me,” Monty said, his expression hard. “It will not happen again.”
“What happened to your mother is not your fault,” Roma said, gently. “You were a child.”
“What happened to his mother?” I asked under my breath. “He’s never shared that.”
“That is for him to share with you,” Jean said. “Ask him one day.”
“I don’t see how my response to this question is pertinent to the matter at hand,” Monty replied, turning to Jean. “You, of all people, know the answer to that question.”
“I’m not the one who needs to know it,” Jean said. “The rules stand for a reason. Answer or forfeit the audience.”
Monty stared hard at the Auer. For a brief second, I thought he was going to turn around and walk back to the Dark Goat. A flash of anger flitted across his face—but then he took a deep breath and let it out.
“Fear,” Monty said after a moment. “I will not risk losing her. Expressing my feelings or emotions will cause her to alter her behavior. This in turn can expose her to danger she will not be prepared to face.”
“You underestimate her abilities,” Roma said. “Roxanne is a powerful sorceress.”
“I have never underestimated her abilities,” Monty said, still looking at the Auer. “Words have power. You feel she is my vulnerability? Yes, she is. So is my uncle; so is Simon. Anyone close to me”—he glanced at me—“anyone within the very intentional small circle of my family is at risk. I will protect them from those who would attack. If need be, I will unleash my complete wrath and tear this plane asunder to keep them safe, but I will not subject them to undue danger. Being close to me is enough.”
“You feel that justifies keeping your feelings from Roxanne?” Roma asked. “You don’t think she needs to hear the words?”
“Yes it does, and no she doesn’t,” Monty said. “She knows my feelings, and that is all that matters. No words can convey the depth of my emotion for her. And I believe that now, in accordance with the rules of the duel, I have answered the question posed. The matter is closed.”
Monty crossed his arms and stared at the Auer. Roma looked like she still had more to say, but the Auer shook her head. Roma nodded and motioned with one hand. The blue beams of the Archive Guard shifted to a deep green. The Auer turned and started walking.
“This way, please,” Jean said. “You have your audience.”
We followed her into the green beam. One moment we were in the park, and the next we were in a large lounge area surrounded by immense, rune-inscribed wooden bookcases. I looked around, taking in the area. The book cases were easily forty feet tall and twice as wide. They were arranged in rows that seemed never ending. I walked to one end of the closest bookcase and saw more rows.
The lounge area was a series of small desks, large sofas, a few wingback chairs, and a counter holding fresh fruits and water. It was a well-lit area, brighter than the surrounding space. When I looked down the rows of bookcases I noticed other pockets of light spaced out every thirty bookcases or so: small oases of rest in the desert of books we stood in.
“How big is this place?” I asked, looking around again. “This can’t all be on this plane. Really, why haven’t you gone digital? You could probably fit the bulk of this information on a few Fugakus and call it a day.”
“This is my reception area,” Jean said. “Information storage is several levels below us. We have a total of ten-thousand Orions which can exceed one thousand exaflops to process the several million exabytes contained within them.”
“Impossible,” I said, awestruck. “Something that fast hasn’t even been created.”
“I know,” the Auer said. “Rest assured, we have several, and most of the information you see contained within these books has been duplicated electronically. But we aren’t here to discuss the Archive’s computing power and storage, are we?”
She motioned for us to take a seat. She sat in one of the wingback chairs and waited.
“No,” I said, “I need to find dragons, specifically the Balfour Enclave.”
“Are you looking to test the power of Kali’s curse?”
“No,” I said, about to explain, but stopping myself. “Wait, do you know why?”
“What do you think?”
“I think you already know,” I said. “Roma said you can’t see the future, but you know what has already happened. You know about my conversation with Shadow Company and why they called.”
“I do,” Jean said with a nod. “Do you?”
“According to Douglas, they need my help,” I said. “Rott wants vengeance and Douglas wants—I don’t know what Douglas wants. This is not a usual Shadow Company mission, or at least it wasn’t when I was there.”
“You sound uncertain, why?”
“Rott was dead, and now he’s not,” I said. “I’m not one to talk about people not dying—in fact, I should be the last person discussing this—but something is off about Rott still being among the living.”
“His presence makes you uneasy?”
“I left uneasy the moment I heard his voice,” I said. “It freaks me the hell out.”
“Tristan, your thoughts?”
Monty was deep in thought as he sat in one of the other wingback chairs. He held his steepled hands in front of his face and looked off into the distance before answering.
“Rott’s motivations are simple to understand, at least on the surface,” Monty said. “He blames Simon for the loss he suffered and wishes to exact some measure of vengeance on both the dragons who killed his daughter, and the person he feels responsible for her death.”
“Except he’s supposed to be dead,” I said. “He blew himself up with an entropy bomb. I saw him.”
“You saw an explosion, we both did,” Monty replied. “We never saw what happened to his body.”
“What
