No Red Dragons Allowed III

Selene sat down in the dining room and closed her eyes tightly, working hard to get some of it to go away while Jeeves worried about her health. The maid continued back to the kitchen to bring her dinner, and just as it showed up, the dev finally figured out how to cut out half of what she was seeing.

That was the first time an upgrade could have turned out for the worse for me…

As she sat there quietly with her elbow propped on the table, her hand holding up her head, her butler asked if she needed to be fed. "What? No, no, it's ok, at least now it is. Don't worry." Most of the new details were gone now, at least stored away in a quickly crafted log list if she wanted to get into the more advanced info on a particular object… like the molecular structure of each atom…

The empress picked up her fork and showed she could feed herself, smiling after the first bite. As she ate, the dev picked through the crudely built checkbox system she added into her character sheet to stop the overload and slowly turn them on and off for just the right amount of data to appear. Until she needed any of it, most of the data was reverted to the basics of the now obsolete one she just replaced, ignoring the now much higher-level tracking and basic stats of a target.

Jeeves, despite being a civilian model, was still a level 90 with her Steampunk Mechanical Engineering skill; until the Valkyrja or Bronze Team returned tomorrow, she wouldn't get full use out of it.

"Ma'am, sorry to disturb you; the prisoner is begging for an audience again." Selene growled in frustration as she chewed. "She's crying." The empress leaned back in her chair and looked at the time. The entire scanner project had taken an hour, with barely another twenty minutes for dinner.

"Alright, alright, I'll come by and see what she wants." The dev couldn't believe she was acquiescing to this request from a prisoner, even if she hadn't done anything beyond enter her empire. There were countries back on Earth that would do the same if immigrants came in illegally after all, the U.S. had done it before in the past on numerous occasions. That didn't exactly make it right, but it had happened.

After finishing her dinner, she got a long jacket from a closet and headed just out the front entrance then stopped. A helibot was waiting for her, but instead she decided to finally make use of the amulet she was now always wearing. A quick teleport to the small lobby and she was there without any travel time. Although it was much faster, it did disorient her a little bit. This made her feel that longer travel in any transports was still pretty useful.

"Ma'am, happy to have you here" a waiting security automaton said as it stood at attention. They both headed through checkpoints and locked doors, down two flights of stairs and finally reached the minimum-security wing. As they walked through the hallway of gated cells, most of them empty, she saw the rest of the adventurers sitting down on their clean beds with their dinner provided, eating and staring at her walking by. "Here she is ma'am."

Through the last cell gate was a dark blue short haired woman with a white wizard's robe on with a few emblems on the shoulders and the chest; it looked like it was part school uniform. Her blue eyes looked up at her in worry, then immediately put her tray down on the small desk provided and jogged the few feet to the gate. "Please, are you the warden?" she asked.

"I'm a lot higher up the food chain than the warden. You asked to have an audience, for what reason I'm still trying to figure out. Make this quick, it is starting to get late." Selene couldn't believe she was being so annoyed with this adventurer that she had just captured. She had a long week, though it was unusual that she'd be so ornery.

"Whatever crime you think we committed, you have to believe me, we didn't do! You have the wrong people!" she pleaded.

"The crime is light by most standards. You entered our borders illegally, you're being held for an unforeseen time until we can decide when to release you." The woman looked extremely confused.

"We're in Artinia, no one else is to the west of us. Which noble's lands did we trespass on?"

"You aren't in Artinia." The blue-haired woman looked dumbfounded, blinking and looking away, wondering where they had gotten lost.

"I was sure we were traveling west to the unknown valley… that was where my sister was heading…" she muttered out to herself.

"Oh, you headed west alright." She looked up at the empress and raised an eyebrow.

"Where are we?"

"You are in the Clockwork Empire, in a prison, in the minimum-security wing." Selene looked over at the panel to the left of the cell door and checked the name on it, Yelena Crowling. There was silence as she checked the profile information. Adventurer, iron rank, apparently a student of the Academy of Magic for Girls; her age was sixteen, with even her magic tiers recorded, up to tier 3. She wasn't just a magician. A quick glance at Yelena's neck and it showed an anti-magic collar wrapped around it, capable of restricting casting up to tier 6, with tier 7 hot on its trail once the research was complete by tomorrow.

"Please, we didn't mean any harm, we're just trying to find my sister. I… I'm begging you, just let us go and we'll be on our way, we won't bother you anymore."

"You didn't bother us before this, Ms. Crowling. However, the reasons we cannot allow you to leave is you'll probably blab about what you've seen here, or even what you would have seen here had we let you go on your way. I cannot afford to have that information spilled just yet."

"So you're going to keep us here?" she asked.

"At least until certain future events take place, then we'll release you."

"Please! I don't want to be stuck here for years!"

"Years? I'm pretty sure the events I'm speaking of will happen in less than a month." Yelena backed away from the cell door and stood there, trying to study the empress.

"You're going to invade Artinia!" she exclaimed, bringing her hands to her mouth.

"I've already invaded and taken quite a few towns and villages, along with two cities. The municipalities are far better off now without your kingdom mucking things up for everyone with their corruption… well, at least every place other than Paldos. That place is toast. No more slave trade."

"There's going to be so many lives lost…" the teenager said out loud.

"Actually, we've been able to take just about everything without much issue. It seems your people really hate the king and the government. It's been pretty easy to get everyone to accept my rule given their quality of life has improved by leaps and bounds, well, beyond that slave market city. Now, if you have nothing else to say, I'm going to leave."

"Wait!" Yelena yelped out. "I'm… we're just trying to find my sister! Please, have you seen… has anyone seen… I don't know…" the girl seemed to trail off as she shot her hand out with her fingers outstretched to keep Selene there for a few more minutes. There was hesitation in her voice. "A woman… long green hair… tall… uh, might have a big backpack on? She might have been asking about ruins. Kind of… well… an airhead?" she asked, hoping the empress would have some information or glean for her a tidbit that her sister was alright.

"I haven't the foggiest who you are referring to. We get a lot of travelers coming these days. Ruins? Is she some archaeologist?"

"Supposedly she's a palo… palto… p something."

"Paleontologist?"

"Yes! That's it!"

"So, she doesn't study human remains or history." Yelena seemed to furrow her brow a little and try to remember.

"I… think? I'm sorry, I just… she just said she studies ruins."

"Well I haven't heard about anyone trekking out into the wild to find ruins, not that the valley has many of those given that very little really called this place home beyond Gold Pine." The teenager's eyes lit up at that name.

"That place! She said she was going to stay there for a day or two! Please, we just came to make sure she was alright. We haven't seen her in weeks, she was supposed to come back a while ago." Selene crossed her arms over her chest and shifted her weight on her hips.

"Well any study of ruins tends to take months or even years depending on what was found. She's probably just dealing with lots of fossils with her crew." Yelena seemed to start picking at her fingers and averted her gaze.

"She… came alone…"

"Well, that was stupid of her. It'll definitely take years for any real artifacts lost to history to be found. Unless she's searching just for a few key things and doesn't care about the rest."

Some crews or individuals did go into ruins not to catalog and uncover ancient history though, they just went in to create a reputation and find special artifacts, destroying the rest. Quite a bit of human history has been lost to that form of carelessness just to make a name for themselves.

"She… she isn't like that! Well… ok, maybe she didn't think this whole thing through, but she really did want to bring to light what she finds, all of it!" the girl snapped.

"And how does she intend to do that without a crew? Logistics is a main factor. Transportation, supplies, medical, manpower, storage, tools and equipment, clean source of water, a refined form of cataloging so nothing gets lost… authorization from the empire she just entered. Does she have any of this?" Yelena looked down at the empress's feet, somewhat embarrassed.

"Look, I know my sister can be a little… she leaps before she looks… but she does have a good heart, I assure you! I'm just worried about her that's all, we weren't trying to do anything other than find her." The girl seemed to sink into herself, worried she'd never see her family again.

Oh, stop being a bitch Selene… what am I gonna do…

The dev sighed and rolled her eyes. "What's her name." Yelena looked up at her.

"Erina, Erina Crowling."

"Security in Gold Pine, any visitors matching the description of female, long green hair, tall, potentially outfitted for an excursion involving digging or mining? Might have not been all that put together in the head?" she asked over her coms.

"Affirmative, seen six days ago, heading northeast through the northern forest. No contact since ma'am." That meant she was either attempting to live off the land or bought enough dried supplies to last a week or more. A quick check of the trajectory sent to her told the potential locations the woman might have been at, with two ruins that she knew about. The valley was fairly boring, beyond Gold Pine at least. It was simply uncharted territory that she landed in. There were some mythical creatures and a few monsters that had lived here, with the animals being mostly left alone now, however it was just a quiet area; the land was pretty much set for a large city to expand in, provided the bottleneck between Boramar and Azaltos Mountains was protected near Glass Dale and "Steel Cove" was guarded with the shipyard.

"She was spotted in Gold Pine it seems." Yelena's eyes widened, though she was a little confused as to how the woman in front of her could know so quickly where her sister was.

"Can I see her? Please?"

"She's not there anymore of course." The teenager looked crestfallen, mulling over different outcomes of where she might have gone. "Is there anything in particular she was trying to find?"

"Just… trying to uncover lost history, that's all… sometimes it got her into trouble… or maybe it got me into trouble instead…" she tapered off and turned around, heading over to the bed to sit down and contemplate what she got herself into.

"Well, she'll be back eventually, the valley is fairly secure now. The only thing she'd have to worry about is wild animals, which aren't much of a threat really if she keeps her distance." Yelena just sat there, staring at the ground. "You'll be released eventually."

"But… what if… what if we could… what if she found something? She didn't come with a crew! Maybe… maybe if you do somehow find her, we could-"

"I'm not the police, young lady. I don't exactly have much time to go about trying to find someone from a missing person's report from a country I'm at war with." The teenager seemed to sink into her robe at being told off. Selene could already figure out what she was suggesting, to help with whatever dig site her sister had found. That would mean the other adventurers would come along as well.

Nighttime had fallen, with crickets heard outside. There was silence in the cell block as Yelena just sat there, defeated. As harsh as the empress seemed to be, part of it was just stress from work. The dev left the prison without another word, heading back to the lobby and using her amulet to get back to the palace. She decided to change out of the black dress and into some comfortable pajamas to settle in for the night, but something kept nagging at her which made her stop changing.

"Aaagh… fuck…" she growled out with no one around, mulling over the situation with the adventurers. As she sat down on her bed in just her underwear and bra, she pulled up recorded footage from ornithopters and security optics to see where this Erina had gone. What she found was the exact same direction the ruins of the small village were as well as the cave entrances to the ex-goblin hideout. The whole place had been vacant for some time since they cleared it out before, so it wasn't as if there was anything that could harm the woman. What she found just after seeing her leave Gold Pine though made her curious.

Behind Erina, leaving in the same direction, was another person with fiery red hair and a dark red cloak, carrying a large backpack. He could have been a porter contracted to carry bought supplies behind her, but he seemed to be too confident… almost acting like nobility. At the moment, there was no real nobility in her empire. Checking through different views from her automatons on both of them leaving she noticed something odd. The man seemed to have odd colored irises, red to be exact. It was probably nothing, potentially a red wizard that used fire, a pyromancer to be exact, getting some extra cash while visiting, though she couldn't be sure.

"God damn it… I swore I was going to have an easy night after the fucking scanner…" Selene grumbled out as she got up and started to don her armor. It was probably nothing, but she didn't want to have a recon team head through the area and find the corpse of the girl's sister, proving that she had come here only for bad news and to be thrown in a cell.

Walking out of her bedroom and heading towards the already waiting helibot she hadn't taken before, her Honor Guard followed her in, taking a quick trip first to the village ruins that had fallen to the supposed black plague. Once there, she checked each building quickly, looking around for secret entrances to some hidden cellar or camouflaged tunnel. With nothing found worth any interest, that now left the mountain cave network, which took all of a minute to reach. She called in a QRF to watch the cave entrances for the second time the dev would be entering those passages, in the event they had somehow bypassed the paleontologist or unknown man coming this direction. Then, she entered into the dark depths once more, this time without Bronze Team.

Meanwhile

Erina had made camp right in the middle of the ruins, her bedroll laid out near the dais that had nothing on it. The place was silent beyond the campfire that was burning away with a small pot cooking over it. She wrote inside her small journal as her hands rolled a small fragment around, one of many, trying to decipher the carvings on it. "This has to be the place, I'm sure I found it… at least I think it is. I hope they won't mind me trying to figure out why they abandoned it so long ago…" she quietly said to herself, her voice seeming very light and airy as if nothing was really bothering her.

There was movement behind a collapsed column, with a man sitting staring at her with his red eyes. She hadn't noticed him the entire time she was there, sneaking in the shadows the whole week, tracking her every movement. Erina stood up and looked at the wall behind the dais, trying to figure out where these fragments had fallen from. Once she found the few small openings, she tried to place it neatly into the holes, with it being a little difficult pushing through the rough sides. Once they were in place, that area glowed temporarily as a ripple of soft blue light rolled away from its position, disappearing after a few feet. Unbeknownst to her, those fragments had fixed an ancient circuit.

"Oh! So… that's what that does. I seem to have found out how some of this works. If I can decipher what it says, I wonder if… this does something…" again she spoke to herself as she scanned the wall and looked around. What she hadn't noticed was the ceiling far above had somewhat opened, a massive hole rending itself partway to allow view of the sky above. The man seemed to have a malicious grin on his face, as he watched and waited. She was doing all the work for him it appeared.

The green-haired woman walked to different rooms, at least the ones that weren't caved in or blocked off, to look for pieces that might have gotten carried away by small animals or bounced off. Another fragment, then another. There were a good twelve spots that looked like they could have these placed in, though she was only able to find six. Once each was in position, the hole above was about halfway open.

"Huh, I wonder if the whole thing needs to be completed or if there is something missing on the dais. It could be there are pieces worn down to sand already…" she started to look at the writing, the unknown symbols carved in and attempted to read what she could out loud. Unfortunately, she mispronounced far too much to understand what was being said, with part of the translation being similar to elven words, misconstruing the whole wall entirely due to that.

"Aaaaaahhh! I've had it with waiting and your incessant bungling of the language is infuriating!" The man snapped out as he scratched at his head furiously, with her spinning around quickly, though not exactly afraid. She caught him looking like a madman as his hands furiously pulled at his hair.

"Oh? Who's there? Did I accidentally get one of the words wrong?" she seemed to question, not really worried that someone had crept up on her in the dark.

"You got all of it wrong, you brainless mortal! This is why we look down on you inferior creatures! Scatter brained! You are food and power for our magic, nothing more! At least you found enough for those blasted fragments to open this place to the sky, enough for me to leave and come back!" he snapped at her.

"The sky?" she seemed to not understand what he was saying as she looked up and noticed the opening. "Oh! So that's what this wall does. It's some sort of control they used to allow entrance, like a door. Interesting." He stood up and stepped over the fallen support, hopping down and seeming to alter his appearance. He started to get larger, his face changing and becoming scaled. As his body warped and grew, wings expanded out in an incredible display, the cloak disappearing as he expanded into a giant red dragon. "Oh my. I don't believe your kind used to live here."

"It hardly matters. You trespass just as much as I, yet your imbecilic brain can't possibly grasp what you have found. At least you opened the way for me to come and go as I please. In time I will find a way to clear this rubble and figure out the secrets that this ancient Dragon Eyrie have kept hidden. An insignificant speck such as yourself has had minor use here, I didn't have to do much to get the door open." His voice boomed deep and intimidating… at least if it was heard by anyone else but her. She seemed oblivious to the danger. He flew up towards the half-opened ceiling and proceeded to break away the remainder of the door, with huge chunks of the seal collapsing down to the floor below. He got another third of the protective barrier ripped away, enough to allow him to easily slip back and forth through the ceiling entrance.

Erina took some shelter close to the wall, trying to keep herself from being flattened by stone and rubble. "Oh dear, I really got into trouble this time, didn't I?" she said nonchalantly, with the red dragon finally coming down and landing, the slight tremor of his weight hitting the ground sending her off balance...

"Now, what to do with you…" he said maliciously, his maw opening slowly as he slowly took steps towards her.

"I'm not sure I would taste very good, maybe we could come to some sort of-"

"Enough! I tire of your ditzy prattle! Be a good meal and go down quietly!" he snapped as he charged quick as lightning to eat her in on bite. Unfortunately, he wasn't quick enough.

A massive spike shot up from the ground and impaled the dragon, stopping his mouth mere inches from the draconologist, and launching it upwards to hang limply like some trophy. The empress stepped out of the shadows of the tunnel that brought her down and looked at her handiwork, {Molecular Reformation} proving it still had amazing use. The honor guard came up behind her, creating a small group of golden plating and regal jewelry.

Selene stood there looking at Erina. "Um… I thank you for your timely arrival. I believe that might have been the end of my research just then. I guess I wouldn't have been able to finish it here." To the dev's ears, her voice was so light and soft.

"Research? That's what you're worried about? You nearly lost your life all the way out here! I was gonna settle in for the night and… and… damn it, fucking conscience…" A piece of rubble fell from the opening high above, dropping on top of the dev who shot her hand up and caught it. A quick flick of her hand and it dropped a few feet away, with the red head clearly annoyed at the woman standing in front of her.

"I guess I didn't really think anyone would try and follow me to find this place, it has been abandoned for some time after all. Not very many people would care about these ruins, well… I guess robbers might want to see if there was any of their hoard left somewhere." The empress furrowed her brow and looked at her in confusion.

"What do you mean, hoard? Was this walking barbeque grill starter after some treasure here?" Erina turned around and looked at the control wall.

"I believe he hoped that the previous occupants here had left secrets that they didn't want others to get their hands on. Too bad it is in such disrepair, I wonder why they all flew away… oh, I'm sorry, my name is Erina, Erina Crowling." The green-haired woman turned back around, pushed up her glasses on her nose and stuck her hand out to shake.

"Your sister informed me about you." Selene didn't shake her hand. There was an awkward moment between them as the draconologist lowered her arm.

"Oh? I did tell her to stay in the academy; though, I also did say I would be back a week ago…"

"The academy? Oh, that was written down as well…" Selene questioned.

"The Academy of Magic for Girls."

"Ah. Well, that would explain the emblems on her shoulders obviously. Now, let's get you out of here, I've had enough crazy shit for one night…" The empress walked up and grabbed Erina's arm dragging her slowly towards the tunnel she had come from.

"B-but! But I've only really gotten a small chance to figure out the history of this Dragon Eyrie. Surely we can stay for another few days…"

"No permit, no ruins. Let's go, shovel bum." Erina was dragged through the tunnel and up towards the waiting helibot with her feet sliding across the ground, the entire time she was trying to pull away, but Selene's grip was solid.

"I need a permit? To unearth the story of this place?"

"You need a permit granted by me, along with a crew and security restricting this place for safety. For all I know, you could have dug up the Temple of Doom or something. Until I can wind down, you are in so much trouble…"

"Oh…" Erina seemed a little disappointed that she couldn't stay. "Can I by chance apologize right now? Maybe we can come to an agreeme-"

"No" Selene responded harshly.

"But my camp-"

"Your camp was stomped on by the giant pair of red alligator boots back there." as they finally reached the cave entrance and got inside the transport with the guards piling in. She tasked the QRF to stay there until tomorrow when a security detail would keep an eye on the now known about abandoned dragon eyrie.

Once the woman was taken to the prison, she was given the chance to talk with her younger sister who cried out of happiness for seeing her again. As they reunited, the empress got a chance to head back down the hallway. "Can we speak to you again, say, tomorrow?" Erina asked as she hugged her sister. "I believe we might come to an understanding…"

"Maybe. I don't think you realize the position you're in…" She continued walking away, leaving the prison and going back to the palace. She had enough of this little adventure in her own backyard. She spent the rest of the night mostly lying outside on a lawn chair drinking wine and listening to a recorded opera while staring at the stars.

"Fucking tourists."

30th, November

"So, he did what exactly?" Selene questioned an automaton that had brought in two criminals from Gold Pine. The first had attempted to kidnap a child from an up and coming family in the market for ransom money, while the second… had gone around stealing women's underwear from clothes lines.

"He has stolen exactly two hundred fifty-eight pairs of underwear, your majesty" the automaton replied. She sat there on her throne staring at the man in disbelief, his goofy perverted smile showing no care that he had been caught. She didn't know whether to be angry or surprised he could get his hands on so many, that would require some impressive climbing skills to reach some of the lines on balconies for some of the newer homes.

"How was he caught?"

"He fell from a second-floor balcony. Underwear launched everywhere in the street your majesty." The thought of this man falling down and his backpack exploding in panty confetti was a little amusing.

"What was the total cost of stolen goods?"

"Seventy-eight gold coins your majesty." The empress whistled.

"You don't really care that you took all of that do you?" she asked, staring at the squat man. He looked away bashfully, probably already trying to figure out how to scale the walls of the palace to take her bras. "Showing no remorse for actions, grand theft beyond ten gold coins limit, and attempting to flee that caused a very short chase for my security. The sentence is ten years, medium security, controlled access to any items nearby. I really don't care if you're a pervert or a kleptomaniac, we'll see if this needs to be extended. Also require psychiatric testing to see if there is something… broken… in that head of yours."

The man was carried off in cuffs as the kidnapper was brought forward. "Ah, I think I read the entire report on this one. Attempting to kidnap a child for ransom money from a well to do family who built themselves from nothing in Gold Pine."

"Yes, your majesty. This man had caused severe trauma to the child and the parents with clear evidence he wasn't going to return the child after the demands were met." Donovan and Melsia were back and to her left, sitting in smaller seats and providing their opinion on different subjects while they attended court.

"This man had intended to kill the child once he received his payment?" Melsia asked shocked.

"Indeed, my dear, indeed. Though I am against needless death… this man clearly deserves it" Donovan replied sternly.

"For your crimes against Gold Pine, with clear intent to snuff out the life of someone so young once you got what you want, death… immediately. I'm not having the prison spend one more day keeping you alive." The man seemed to smirk at her, his clothing seemed to be that of a high-class bandit with a coat that might have been stolen from a previous crime. As he was carted off outside towards the waiting transport to take him back to the prison, the dev tasked the security there to prepare for execution as soon as he was off the bus. It would take one bullet to his forehead and that was it, no need to even be humane about it. He certainly wouldn't have given the child a quick death.

"What's next on the agenda…" Selene muttered out as she checked the small clipboard provided. There were some grievances involving potential theft of property that was already handled with payment required from the second party, a request for an orphanage to be opened which was granted and provided funds for, a request for a very talented artist to carve a statue in the empress's image… and a peculiar man that was found building very crude equipment in his basement.