Dragon's Wings

Chapter 36

Petri's message incoming, one of Vester's birds said. Vester paused in his surveying of fruit, frowning. It felt like there was something urgent about this message.

Regretfully, he put the fruit back in the basket, nodded to the stall owner, and headed towards a quiet spot he'd discovered the other night when checking over the market place. Hidden from the public, he waited for the crow to land.

It was Kyō. The crow landed on Vester's outstretched arm and stuck out a leg with a message attached to it. One message delivered for your eyes only, Kyō said.

Thank you, Vester replied, pulling out a small slice of apple he'd been planning to save for later. But Kyō deserved the reward for flying all this way—and quickly too. The bird's aching wings and tiredness were creating an ache at the back of Vester's mind.

Kyō took the apple slice carefully and began pecking at it. Meanwhile, Vester unrolled the message and began to read.

It was from Petri—and it was urgent, Vester had been right about that. It was about new intelligence they had found. And... it was big. Unbelievable really. If it had come from anyone but Petri, Vester might have questioned it—but it was Petri who had said it was true and Vester trusted his boyfriend with everything—his life, his heart, the world.

Many of the spirit realm breaches were created, forced into existence, and the spirits pulled through were being controlled by runes. Ones, Vester knew, that were only common to Muga Naturalak with its loose magic laws. That implied that someone had been taught here or perhaps originated from Muga Naturalak, Vester thought to himself.

Swallowing, he continued reading, wondering what else Petri had to throw at him.

There was more. Of course, there was more. There were indications that the person causing the spirit realm breaches—if it wasn't multiple beings—knew the position of the defensive forces of Muga Naturalak and Ōpunrando. That was... interesting. It said something, but Vester wasn't sure what.

It felt like trying to see a cobweb before you ran into it, invisible strands so tiny and small, but really the cobweb was much bigger than you could see. Vester felt so, so small trying to look at this massive picture of everything. There was something connecting them all—a tightrope he had to walk. But he couldn't find it and he was worried about walking on thin air. And, for all his birds and their wings, he was bound to the ground and could not fly.

Breathe in. Breathe out. Consider your options.

Petri's words—and good ones. He needed to consider something else, pull his mind back from what he was thinking himself in circles about.

Check the spirit realm breaches, Kyō suggested. Everything's very big, but start small. Look at their locations, and-

Look for patterns, Vester said. Thank you. The crow puffed out his chest. The flock always knew when to try and keep Vester from sinking too deep into his head, getting himself caught and tangled in his own thoughts. They did their best and he loved them.

This was probably the worst place to do it, but there was a wooden crate nearby which Vester placed the map on. Then, using some fruit he'd picked up, he began putting items where the spirit realm breaches where. When he was done, he stepped back to look at the whole thing.

Almost immediately, he spotted something interesting. Look at this, he said to Kyō. There are no spirit realm breaches close to Muga Naturalak. And there's only a small one in Ōpunrando, but close to their border with another country.

Sounds like someone's placing them in specific locations, Kyō said. And avoiding certain places. Is it likely that the person doing all this works for Muga Naturalak?