Dragon's Tale 57

Both libraries and the act of reading were famously classified as boring, something that many of my fellow students had agreed on even when the books in question were magical. 

My raging heartbeat disagreed with their conclusion. Every time I reached for a new book, my heartbeat spiked wildly. And my fear didn’t just come from the risk of getting caught, even though that was enough to make me fear. After all, I was a slave and a spy at the same time, searching through some of the most precious books of a Patrician house, a crime that was not only worthy of execution, but worthy of a slow, drawn-out one. 

But the problem wasn’t just the danger of being caught. No, the real problem came from the nature of the books I was trying to read. Unlike the library in the lost city, which hadn’t been maintained for five centuries, the books in the library were in perfect condition. 

Unfortunately, their perfect condition included being charged with magic, both for the protection of their content and as a learning aid for the complicated concepts. Some books were even protected by unique wards to prevent access, even when they were hidden in the part of the library where only a few members of the family were allowed in the first place. 

I had no doubt that each of those books was worth the whole fortunes of a lesser family. Unfortunately, my limited time combined with the challenge of breaking through every single ward separately meant that even checking their content was not the best way to go. 

Luckily, some of the books had their names written on their spine, allowing me to shortlist my targets rather than opening them randomly and hoping for the best. 

“Let’s check you now,” I said even as I turned my attention to the external sources of magic. In particular, the Dragon’s Heart. After all, recklessly consuming one of those was at the source of my issues, along with my catastrophic ascension that was literally opposite of everything that was supposed to happen, resisting the elemental nature of Earth and embracing the side of the sky. 

After a desperate search, it took me almost two hours to find a section about Dragon’s Heart, in the depths of an old magical compendium, itself clearly older than the Roman Republic, because, on its first page, there was a note written by Tullus Hostilius Rex, who was one of the old kings of the Rome, long before a rebellion threw the reign of the kings and established the Republic. 

His reign was eleven centuries ago, and the book was potentially even older. 

Still, for a magic book, being old was hardly a problem. On the contrary, being protected with such care meant that the information it contained was likely very precious. It hurt me to ignore all the other interesting nuggets hidden in the book, spells, historical actions, and other events, but the conditions didn’t allow it. 

I started deciphering the section of Dragon’s Heart carefully — deciphering, because it was old enough to be filled with unfamiliar words and structures, forcing me to read carefully. 

[Dragon’s Heart is one of the most mysterious magical ingredients that has been discovered, carrying a source of near-infinite magical power as long as it was cared for carefully and allowed to regenerate. While it was named as Dragon’s Heart, there’s still a big debate about its name, some scholars claiming that the nature of the Dragon’s Heart was the proof for the Existence of the Dragons before the great deluge, the others believing that the name itself comes from the legends due to its nature. 

While some unproven tales marks the first known source as the Great King of Uruk, the first proven historical usage can be traced to Great Egyptian Dynasties before the Great Collapse, used to raise invincible chariot armies that were responsible for destroying the armies of the Set and other Earth God, allowing human dominion to expand into the wilderness.  

Also, it’s theorized that the power of their chariot legions raised by the Dragon Hearts allowed the Great Kingdom of Egypt to resist the mysterious armies of darkness that managed to destroy the great city-states of Mesopotamia as well as the great kingdom Hittite and the trading empire of Mycenaean kingdoms, proving its great potential. Unfortunately, many great priests of Horus and Ra had fallen in the battle, causing Egypt’s techniques of using Dragon’s Heart to fragment. Though, even in their nature, it is enough to ensure the continuation of Egypt despite their endless battle against the armies of Set. 

Unfortunately, despite its immense potential, Dragon’s Heart is one of the most fragile sources of magic, any attempt to break through its surface resulting in a deadly response from the Gaia, resulting in not only a violent discharge of lightning-natured energy, but also a corresponding response from the natural mana, causing in violent storms and flame explosions. For example…]

I had skipped the experimentations for a moment, focusing on the rest of the text, to identify possible other sources of information. 

[The city of Troy is another known location for Dragon’s Heart. While their expertise hadn’t reached Egypt’s peak, they were known to use Dragon Hearts in their possession in a unique way, empowering the nature of their piercing weapons. However, the extent and the potential of that practice are lost with the destruction of Troy and the death of many Greek heroes in the process. However, some experts believe that both the famous spear of Hector which empowered him enough to fight against great Achilles, and the infamous bow of Paris who ultimately ended caused Achilles’ death were empowered by a unique application of Dragon’s Heart, elevating the magical potential of the weapons to an unbelievable level.]

There were several more legends, referring to many other locations, from Britannia to distant plains of Persia, some even mentioning the mysterious land of silk and horses. Unfortunately, deciphering the rest would have taken more time than I had. 

I pulled back, taking a deep breath. Despite the relative shortness of the section, translating the section took almost all the time I could afford, afraid of missing a detail or mistranslating a critical section. 

Unfortunately, I didn’t have time to go into detail about each experiment, but considering their ultimately unsuccessful results, they weren’t that critical. However, before closing the book, I noticed one very important note. 

The note was clearly added later on, clearly indicated by not only the ink selection and the different writing style, but also the word selection and grammar structure. 

And it was much more interesting implications than some distant historical experiment. 

[After the disastrous results in the experiment in Pompeii resulting in the loss of the city and great damage to the population, experimenting with Dragon’s Heart in the borders of the Republic is strictly forbidden, as per the orders of the Temple of Jupiter.]

Interesting, I murmured, both in terms of the disastrous results, and the organization responsible for forbidding it. I was already suspecting some link with Temple of Jupiter thanks to the notes of Julius Caesar, one of the rare few that was freed from the arduous obligation of being a priest of Jupiter, and the fact that they were responsible for the law rather than the senate was just another evidence. 

Pity, it wasn’t exactly a simple place to sneak in, even compared to the estate of a Patrician. Other references were also interesting, particularly Egypt, as it was known that Julius Caesar had spent almost two years in Egypt in the midst of a very dangerous civil war, even though that trip almost caused him to lose the war. Of course, his stay was forced by the siege of the Egyptian forces, but that didn’t make it any less suspicious. 

For once, despite having twelve legions at that point, he only took half a legion with him for the trip, traveling only with his most loyal, most veteran legion. Considering the famous loyalty of the rest of his legions, the decision was rather curious. 

The other suspicious point was the response of the Egyptian forces. Even with a civil war going on, opposing Caesar, arguably one of the three greatest generals of history along with Alexander the Great and Hannibal. There had to be a reason for them to take such a risk, and secrets of Dragon’s Heart — arguably the strongest trump card of Egypt Kingdom since its inception if the assumptions in the book were accurate — seemed to be a valid reason for them to rage on. 

The problem, it pointed in two different directions. One was Egypt, its distance considerable enough to make a casual journey impossible, and House Julia, whose secret city I had already scoured in detail. After all, that city was hardly the best place for Julius Caesar to hide his most important knowledge. Most of the more advanced books were transferred by his heir, short-lived Augustus Caesar, who had fallen in the hands of House Junia’s heir, Brutus. 

Of course, Caesar was famously assassinated in Rome, when he was at the height of his power. At this point, his own estate was the much better destination to hide any sensitive information he managed to extract in his infamous Egypt trip. 

“Fuck,” I murmured after I finished the rest of the text, unable to find anything else that would help me. Of course, it wasn’t as bad as it could have been, as the information I had gathered didn’t leave me without a destination. 

There was still hope in the library of the Patrician house, whose heiress I had just fucked into the unconsciousness before moving on to her best friend…