Chapter 5

The church was empty. The altar where Morgan had stood from before was deserted.

'Maybe she was in on certain days,' he told himself. It was perfectly valid for her to have a life outside of doing all the tricks of a fortune teller.

"So search came up empty, Morgan wasn't there," Damian said exiting the church and closing the door back. Lotte and Nico stood a few feet away stunned.

"She wasn't?" Nico looked surprised. Must have been a normal occurrence but not frequent enough to have been accounted for.

"And unless she took the egg with her it wasn't anywhere in the old church. Not even in the back rooms," Arthorias commented.

Well it's night now, we'll have to look more tomorrow, let's get ready for bed." Lotte yawned. She sat down on the floor and grimaced.

"Nico your guest rooms are so gloomy!" With that Lotte lit all the candles in the room.

One in each corner. Then she made the original lantern she had disappear.

"I'm surprised there wasn't a lab room or collection of books or something," Damian commented, mostly to himself. "She gave the vibe of knowledgeable witch when we first met, but there's no way to research even without her help if it's empty" he lamented.

"She's Fae like myself. I expect she took it all with her." Nico explained.

"All of it?" Damian asked incredulously. Nico nodded as though this was normal. Lotte looked at her brother and pretended to fix her hair. Arthorias frowned while he tried to remember what he was taught and read in the library about Dragons. If the egg died.. well if he wasn't having any effects fighting against the dragon while it wasn't trying, he had no chance when Landon got serious.

"Speaking of which, Damian why did you ask Landon that question? Wanted a second opinion for your second opinion?" Nico asked. Lotte darted around looking under the beds in the room and in the empty pieces of furniture.

"No I was just indecisive about how to handle the news. What Morgan le Fae told me. The sword said that I should ask someone without any biases. For some reason I figured Landon would be a good choice." Damian murmured.

"Without any biases? You saying Morgan after all the time she's been around can't be trusted?" Arthorias asked skeptically. He removed his armor so the black skin tight bodysuit underneath was revealed. He sat on the bed and tossled his blonde hair.

"It not that, although I don't know her so it's possible that she can't be, at least where I'm concerned.

"But it also felt like she had allegiances that don't line up with mine. Even if she can be trusted, there's nothing that says she won't filter information so that it benefits her." He noted.

Nico looked stunned "you're surprisingly observant."

Damian hummed in acknowledgement as he stood up and stared at his reflection in the sword.'I'll have to be careful around people like that,' he thought. He altered the angles seemingly fascinated by the different perspectives depending on what he positioned it over.

Hey! Lotte protested when he saw her reflection of playing with the pictures on the rug. Even though actually looking at her she was just aimlessly tapping on the floor.

"What're you looking at?" Nico asked as Damian angled the sword to catch a view out of the window.

"Oh don't mind him he's just using the blade as a makeshift mirror, everyone who uses a sword tries it at least once," then Arthorias thought about what he said.

"Wait that blade is not a toy you can't -" Arthorias started.

Lotte rolled her eyes. "Didn't you just confess to also doing it?"

"Huh that's interesting," Damian commented looking at the sword. This got everyone to stop talking and look out the window.

Looking in the reflection he saw the head of the village, Larkin hurrying off to a shed in the dark of the night. His lantern relatively small compared to Lotte's previous ones. Looking worried. Silently agreeing they all charged after him startling the man and possibly taking almost a year off his lifespan.

"Please it's just for my wife! She can't have children so I thought would raise another's."

He pleaded.

"You wanting to have children is understandable. But your actions have caused grave danger to the people of this village." Lotte explained.

"Give us the egg, Leader Larkin" Arthorias demanded.

"The egg was away from him for a while and yet he hadn't razed your home or made the village unlivable with a curse. Obviously he hoped to find it before he resolved that the egg was deceased," Lotte pointed out.

"Aside from you endangering people-" Nico started.

"You know it was a whole day before he noticed! Dragons are arrogant careless creatures. If anything he'd -" Larkin rambled hysterically, but his gray eyes were frantic and fearful.

"And yet the Dragons must be doing something right, even over the last three hundred years they've only increased. Until you came and chose to grab it, I expect the egg was perfectly safe where he left it. From the fuss he threw, you should have returned the egg as soon as possible," Arthorias scowled.

"Well we have the egg," Damian sighed.

"Seoul-Mundele will be fine for now." His fingers brushed against the matching rust colored oval shape pendant that looked like one of the pictures lockets Lotte used to wear. He was tempted to look inside it but he knew that sight wasn't for him to see. Otherwise Landon would have mentioned it's contents.

"What about him?" Nico grinned sardonically.

"Well, it is Landon's egg," Damian remarked.

"Surely you would not-" Larkin protested terrified.

"Take the law into my own hands? Of course not," Damian held the egg in his arms.

"Uh tie him up or something," he voiced as an afterthought.

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"Your dragon egg and pendant as promised,"

Damian held aloft in his hands the shiny rust colored large egg. The egg was little more than a foot in height and was understandably heavy.

"Thank You," Landon said taking back the egg and sneered venomously at the former head of the village. "I Should Kill You, For This Slight," he exhaled flames and the man wilted immediately. But wisely didn't try to beg for his life.

"However This Little One Is My Top Priority At This Time," he snarked, though he was letting him go get clearly hadn't forgiven him. And didn't plan to.

Turning to Damian, he voiced his opinion.

"You Asked Me, If In This World, Was There Such A Thing As Changing One's Fate? It Can Be Done, But Even Though Most Simple Of Desires Can Come At The Greatests Of Prices, Be Warned That The Efforts Of The Path You Pursue May Not Be As Light Or Fruitful As You Think," Landon answered his question.

Damian maintained a determined gaze. "I will keep that in mind," he voiced in response. 'But I can change the path of being branded a Villain and exploited for these people,'

"Take This, In Return For Your Generosity," Landon decided holding out a claw with a circular dark red stone the size of a small rock. Damian noted that like the egg, it felt warm to the touch.

"Since Her Death The Stone Had Done Nothing But Brought Me Misery."

He spread his enormous wings. From Damian's place on the ground they blocked out the sun, providing nice temporary shade.

As he said this Landon's own amber colored stone glowed faintly.

"Perhaps It Will Aide You In Your Quest To Rewrite Your Fate. The Fate You Did Not Ask For," he mused and flapped his wings taking flight.

The gust of wind created was so strong Damian drove the sword into the ground to support himself from being blown away.While he gripped it as tightly as he could manage, Lotte clung to her brother squeezing his chest as tight as possible so she wasn't blown away. Nico altered his weight with magic he stayed in place and Arthorias wisely grabbed his arm even though with his armor, he should have been considerably harder to blow away.

Arthorias opened his eyes last and looked at the sky. The Dragon was gone but the memory, one of many was etched in his mind.

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"Alright so the people gave us a carriage so we can store all our stuff" Lotte gestured toward the carriage.

Nico looked dismayed. "I prefer holding everything in my pocket dimension..."

Arthorias nodded as though he approved, something that made Lotte smile. "We'll need to keep watch for people trying to steal from our carriage,"

'Sounds like unnecessary work,' Damian sulked observing from his spot in the shade of a nearby the tree. Nico threw one of the gold charms on his jacket into the carriage.

"Tracking device, just in case," he smiled.

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The carriage had been magically charmed so it rolled on its own, courtesy of Nico and Lotte. No one wanted to ride in it besides Lotte who kept rearranging the supplies within it.

Everything was relatively fine untill out of nowhere, dirt was being thrown at Damian.

"Hey what the fu--" the dirt barrage continued followed by gleeful laughter.

"Good work on your efforts children!" A knight with short pale green hair and orange eyes cheered on the orphans. His armor like Arthorias' was lined with gold. But he'd taken off his gloves, likely to play with the children.

"Children?" Lotte parroted.

"HEY!! WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE TEACHING THOSE BRATS?!" Damian raged."When I get over there I'm bonking every last one of y-"

"Sssssshhhhh! Don't say those words!" Lotte kicked him in the shin.

"Don't you want to grow up big and strong and kick evil villain butt?" The knight asked.

"Yeah!! We wanna kick butt!" The boy exclaimed and his buddies cheered.

"Or get their butts kicked," Damian muttered sardonically, still sour from earlier when they threw dirt at him. Nico snickered and tried to quiet his laughs. Lotte facepalmed.

"We should have stayed in Seoul-Mundele," Damian grumbled.

"Why are you so hostile? They are just children,"

"Here see? I cleaned your clothes," Nico smiled as with a wave of his hand Damian's school uniform was cleaned. Due to all the walking Damian had taken to wearing the black jacket over his shoulders like a cape, leaving the white shirt visible.

'The effects and memory are unchanged!" Damian huffed.

"Damian isn't good with children he's not familiar with," Lotte lamented.

"I also think Damian hasn't forgotten that time when I was six I told my friends that Damian really liked dirt because of that one time he found a small ruby in the grass from someone's bracelet. So they threw as much as they had one of the days he came to pick me up from school.... He backhanded me for lying, getting his clothes dirt and for 'the whole thing being a mean prank' as he put it and then Dad made him apologize for overreacting,"

"Why are you telling that story with a smile on your face?" Damian asked tartly. He was looking down at her his face oddly cast in shadow. The sword in his hand position as though he was going to do more than backhand her.

"Eh?" Lotte tensed and sweatdropped.

"Oh a malevolent Aura!" Arthorias pulled out his sword. Nico looked at Damian concerned.

'That must have been a core defining moment for him. Possibly one of many. For Lotte it was a typical day of her doing her job.'

"Mathieu Logan! My good friend!" Arthorias greeted. The two embraced.

"It has been a while since I saw you," Arthorias commented.

"Oh great they know each other." Damian grumbled.

"That sword..!" Matthieu bristled, eyes widening at the sight of the Sword of Destiny.

"Here we go again,' Damian griped internally.

"Yeah what about it?" Damian asked.

"Now now, don't get hostile first,"Lotte smiled nervously. Damian deadpanned at Arthorias, then at Lotte.

He raised an eyebrow, "Anybody want to explain what is going on?"