They had also talked of the likelihood that they were famous again. Matt had disappeared on camera, so they expected significant attention. By arriving so late, they might sneak home before anyone knew. If reporters were camped out at their homes, which seemed likely, this was a problem. They had been gone three weeks the first time, but now it had been three days and that wasn’t enough for people to stop watching, they assumed. For now, the plan was for Ryan to get his car and go get Anna. Matt and Eric suspected that their own vehicles might have been towed by now. Their priority was assessing their situation and then calling each other. Anna sighed, not wanting to deal with it.
Before and behind the supposed Ellorian Champions, a train of other riders accompanied them on their way to the Quest Ring. This included King Orin of Minari, his wizard Derin, the dwarven Queen of Morcanon and her retinue, and a host of revelers they had just partied at a banquet in their honor at Castle Arking behind them. Enjoying such an affair was hard when she knew, at any second, they could suddenly vanish to another quest, but she had pushed it from her mind as best as she was able. It seemed she had to do a lot of that these days. The thought made her sigh.
Just in front of her rode Jolian and her brother Brazin, both in human form and in their preferred tight leather of red or blue. The group had told no one of Brazin’s mental capture by the Orb of Dominion, to spare any humiliation or damage to his reputation. Once free of it, he had shown a level of humility and sorrow she didn’t expect from a dragon, not that she knew much about that. They had collected him at Valegis and rode him and his red sister back to the castle, leaving all others behind at Ortham. Farewells to Talis and anyone from the city had been brief, but they had earned more friends that they would likely never see again, as much good as that did them.
It had taken hours to implement Eric’s plan. First, he had Ryan try to break the Orb of Dominion into three pieces again with a different sword, which had shattered the blade instead. Only Ryan’s weapon, made of soclarin ore, could do it. Once broken, Eric, Ryan, and Matt had each taken a piece and walked away from each other in the Hall of Worlds. Twenty steps apart hadn’t been enough, because the shards tried to pull together once more, but doubling the distance prevented it from happening again. Eric had wondered if that was true, and with it proven, he told them his idea.
Leaving Anna and Ryan to heal people, and provide leadership, he and Matt had climbed aboard Jolian with one piece and been gone for two hours before returning without it. Then they experimented with bringing the two remaining pieces close together. The parts showed no attempt to merge, so they turned their attention to other matters. This had included a meeting with the rulers of Ortham to inform them of developments. They also arranged for those who had been enthralled to be sent home with necessary supplies for their journeys, whether to the town of Durba, Castle Arking, or wherever they lived. They offered Ortham some gems from King Orin for this, but in a show of appreciation, he had refused it.
And so they returned to Valegis for Brazin, who had proven to Jolian’s satisfaction that he was of his own mind again, not that they doubted this. They had questioned various enthralled victims before and knew most had only been dimply aware of having been compromised. Most spoke of feeling an agreement with orders given to them, as if they had long thought of doing the very thing they were commanded to do and now felt certain of its rightness. When the orb had shattered, they had suddenly come to their senses and been disturbed by what they had done.
And for this reason, Brazin seemed genuinely ashamed that he had killed his friend Sebast. Anna had felt bad for him, having seldom seen such troubled eyes in her life. Brazin was haunted, and she wondered if the same thing would befall her on returning to Earth and learning the fate of her friends. Inspired by a dread that this would be so, she had spent most of the night with the blue dragon, trying to help him and gain some understanding of what this might be like. In doing so, she admitted to some fear of what had happened in her absence without going into details, and he seemed to understand that they had this in common. The kiss he had given her had surprised and delighted her, the tingling feeling of a dragon’s kiss not something she’d soon forget. Had he just ruined her for regular guys? She laughed and looked fondly at his back as he rode before her.
That night in Valegis, with Brazin recovered, they had filled in Ogren and spent another evening in town. That had been the first celebration, where a small feast had been done in their honor, there
