TBATE-A New Chance

23. Divulging Secrets

Arthur Leywin:

"You're who?" I stared at the man in the chair, flabbergasted. He had an aura of calm around him, with a wry smile plastered across his face.

"Mordain Asclepius... I used to be someone important. But now I'm merely a... refugee, as is the best way to put it." He said, rocking back and forth in his chair. In the blink of an eye, he appeared next to the coffee table by his side, in one of the lounge chairs, and gestured me to sit.

"Myre told me you'd share some things, if you're the one she was talking about." I said, seating myself opposite to him. Another chair simply manifested next to me, and he pointed to it, while looking at Sylvie, who then seated herself.

"A rare bunch get to call her by her name, but I'm not suprised, looking at you." His lips curved up slightly as he said that. He grabbed a teapot from the center of the table, and poured 3 cups of tea for each of us.

"You said you were someone important? What do you mean?" I asked wearily, as Sylvie sniffed her tea and a pleased expression manifested on her humanoid face.

"That ties up into what I'm about to share with you." Mordain said, wisps of his hair dancing along, making him the only particularly interesting thing in this shack.

"So, what is it?" I said, while Sylvie gulped down her tea like a thirsty camel.

"Have you ever noticed strange technology present in Dicathen? Floating cities, portals which are clearly not man made. Dimension rings which use a strange power to fuel their extradimensional storage?" He asked, taking a sip of his tea.

"Yes, why is that so important?" I retorted, deciding to try the tea for myself. Delicious, I thought.

"What do you think powers those technologies, I assume you've deduced it's not mana?" Mordain spoke, putting his cup down on the table.

An idea coalesced in my mind, and I activated Realmheart. How did I not notice this before, the particles of Aether were concentrated most around my dimension ring. So it must be Aether that powers those technologies!

"Aether! But who can use it to this degree? Did the dragons build all these things." I said, raising my finger to the air.

"Precisely. And no, the dragons are responsible for the death of these builders." He said, staring down at his feet with a saddened glare.

"The deaths of these builders? What?" I asked, chagrined. Myre and Sylvia didn't seem like the type to kill someone.
Kezess on the other side...

"A long time ago, a race of mages roamed this world. They called themselves, the Djinn..." Mordain started looking more and more distressed as he kept speaking.

"The Djinn?" I looked at him nervously.

"They were adept in using Aether, they were peaceful, and they built great things with it. In my youth, me and my childhood friend, Kezess Indrath, visited them quite often." He said, placing his hands on the table, his expression darkening further.

"You were friend with Lord Indrath?" I took another sip of my tea, as Sylvie gulped it all down from the teapot.

"He doesn't deserve that title anymore..." He said, glancing over at the single window in his shack. "We were often welcomed warmly by those people, we were showered by many gifts."

"So why would the dragons kill them all?" I said, trying to decipher the reason behind this.

"Once Kezess stepped up on his throne, he became different. He asserted his dominance, and he saw the Djinn's manipulation of Aether as a threat to his  rule. So he ordered their genocide..." He said, and what seemed to be a tear welled up in his eye, but he sucked it up.