“Only the Gods and my ancestor can determine that. Not that it matters if we don’t survive the dungeon.”

  Mira stared at him. “I’ll accept that for now, but I know there is something more. I tell you what, I’m gonna call you Dragos for now. I like it. It sounds cool. But maybe someday if you can share what’s bothering you, we will be close enough for me to call you Merrick.”

  It looked like he smiled at that point. It might have been intimidating, what with the rows of sharp teeth, but she got the impression that he was genuinely pleased with her response. “Now, we need to get moving. This portion of the dungeon is closing.”

  “Okay, but it just looks like an open field in every direction. Why are you going that way?”

  “I told you; this place was made for True Borns. The knowledge of what to do was placed in me when I was born.”

  Mira fell in beside him, although she had to take almost two steps for every one of his long strides. More than ever she was thankful for the physical conditioning that Daichi had insisted she perform. “Does that mean you know how to beat the challenges?”

  “Your experience was different from mine. I watched you struggle to adapt to the magic here. For me, the first portion was a lesson about the past. I believe the next is a test of my mindset rather than a combat-oriented challenge.”

  “Oh great, then we’ll get through this quickly. I really need to figure out how to get home,” Mira said.

  “Don’t get ahead of yourself. The third portion of the dungeon will be a physical test to determine if I have the strength to make good on what I learned in the first two stages. How that will be altered by your presence is beyond me.”

  Mira pursed her lips. “Then do you have any tips about the next portion for me?”

  “Only that my ancestor said that I should treat it as though it was real because it is designed to show the truth of my intentions.”

  “Okay, well I’m following you.”

  They walked for a while before Mira remembered she had wanted to ask him about something he said before. “By the way, what does ‘Uxor’ mean?”

  His shoulder’s trembled, but he began walking faster.

  Mira smiled to herself. She still didn’t know what the word meant, but her intuition told her it held the key to her freedom. She would wait. She could be patient when she had to be.

  They ended up walking for what felt like hours till they reached a stone wall. It appeared as though out of nowhere. One second it hadn’t been there, and the next a mist she hadn’t even known was present parted, and a stone wall was there.

  The wall rose so high that even her keen eyes couldn’t see over the top of it. “That’s one high wall,” she mumbled, mostly to herself.

  “Of course, it would have to be. How else would you keep a dragon from simply flying over the wall,” Dragos replied.

  Mira smiled. It made perfect sense. Then as she looked there was a doorway in the wall. Actually no, there were two. One was just about the size of the doors she had seen in elven cities. The other was much larger but stood right next to it.

  Each door had intricate carvings around them. The larger door was shaped with dragon scales and glistened a golden color. The smaller door had even more odd designs. One side of the door was carved with imagery from Earth.

  She saw her home, her school, a car, and other things that no one but someone from Earth would recognize. On the other side were intricate runes scribed into a staff, a book, a bag, and a belt.

  Connecting the two doorways was a dragon whose body was carved in such a way that it appeared to curl itself around both doorways. It began on one and curved into the other and then back out the first. They were entwined and held together by that carving.

  Above the doors, there were words written into the stone. Over the larger door the words were written in Draconian, but thanks to her language skill, Mira could read them. “Son of Flame and Claw find your true self within.”

  “Odd, I can’t read the writing over the smaller door,” Dragos said.

  “Hmm… that is odd. I can read the writing over your door,” Mira teased back.

  “I speak all the human and elven languages on Solun. Perhaps that is a dialect from Talos?”

  “Something like that.”

  Dragos arches an eye. “Are you not going to satisfy my curiosity?”

  “Are you going to tell me what’s really bothering you or what ‘Uxor’ means?” Mira asked back with a completely straight face.

  Dragos snorted, and small curls of flame shot out from his snout. “If that is the way it must be.”

  Mira nodded. “Everyone has their secrets, but friends can live with that.”

  “Friends.” The way Dragos said the word imbued it with a great weight like it was a stone hung about his neck. “Yes, friends, I suppose.”

  He stared at her for a few moments, and Mira thought he was going to say something half a dozen times. Finally, he blurted out, “I must take my path and you take yours. I hope to see you on the other side.”

  Then, without waiting for her to respond, Dragos stepped through the larger doorway and was gone. As he passed through it the doorway itself faded from the stone wall. All that remained to show that it was there were the missing parts of the dragon carving that would have been on that door.

  Mira took another look up at the writing over her doorway. It was in English. She checked and double-checked to make sure it wasn’t just common, which was now as natural to her as English had been. No, she was certain. This was English.

  Her mind raced. Did that mean that the Watcher had something to do with this? She hadn’t ever experienced things from home here except when the Watcher was involved. Then she realized that wasn’t entirely true. Her mother had received an item called a tabernacle that had allowed her to create an exact duplicate of their home on Earth complete with a working TV and ice cream in the freezer.

  Never mind how that worked in another universe. Clearly, the Watcher or someone here was capable of traveling between universes. It made Mira feel distinctly uncomfortable. She hadn’t ever considered issues like this before, but now in Eloria, she prided herself on being able to understand things.

  Then again, maybe that was part of the last lesson. Thinking you had everything figured out was a surefire way to know that you didn’t. Not that she would ever admit that to her mom.

  She looked one more time at the writing over her door. “Know thyself.” It was a rather archaic language. No one said ‘thyself’ anymore, but she recognized it as something she learned in school. It was some old Greek philosopher. Then Mira smiled as her greatly enhanced Intelligence allowed her to recall all the minutia she had absorbed in school.

  She might not have the ability that her dad had to access Earth knowledge, but if it was something she had learned at one point, she could recall it now. The statement was made by Socrates. Mira laughed as she remembered the images of how the old Greek dudes used to dress. She also remembered that the expression came from a temple too and was a part of three other admonitions.

  The other two were ‘nothing to excess’ and ‘certainty brings insanity’. Mira thought about it a moment longer. A part of her wanted to dismiss it as the ramblings of some old guy who wore a dress. Heck, Socrates was so old that even a Boomer would seem young in comparison.

  That was too easy though. Eloria might not know everything, but it did a good job of pointing her down a path. She certainly had been guilty of excess lately when it came to magic. And worse, she had been so sure that she knew more than those around her.

  Being pulled to Solun shook that foundation, but it was still part of her. It might behoove her to figure out what made her tick. Of course, the dungeon was only going to ask that question as it applied to the primary issue it was created for, but she might still glean some wisdom for herself from it.

  She remembered the lecture in history class about this like it was yesterday. Such was the power of her memory. One student had cited another source without giving the name. He had argued that knowing yourself was bad advice because people always changed—something about how a caterpillar who knew itself could never become a butterfly.

  Mira laughed at that. Getting to know who she was was itself part of her change. All her life she had lived in the shadow of her family. She might have struggled against what her parents wanted, but she had also been able to lean back on them. Now, she was truly on her own.

  With that in mind, she stepped through the door. Time to find out who she was.

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  “The great test is not what one does when they are weak, but rather how they treat those beneath them when the power is theirs.” —Praetor Nagos, Imperium.

  False Gods’ Fall dungeon- Solun- Mira Nelson

  Mira felt dizzy for a moment. It passed so quickly that she almost wasn’t sure if it had simply been her imagination. She heard a voice calling to her. It was one which she knew intimately, yet somehow felt foreign.

  “Momma, are you listening?”

  Mira looked down. Her son was tugging on her robe. Her beautiful son. He had her dark eyes and hair, but the glint of golden scales against his forehead and his strong build despite his youth were from his father.

  “Momma, are you okay? Should I get the healer?” The concern in the boy’s voice was genuine.

  He couldn’t have been more than eight or nine years old. No, that wasn’t right. He was only seven. How could she have forgotten her son’s age? “No, Derrick, there is no need to bother the healer.”

  “It isn’t a bother, Mother. She is only a slave. She serves at Father’s whim. Father’s and yours,” he corrected the last part when Mira arched her eyebrow at him.

  Something was wrong, but this felt so natural. “What is it that you needed, Derrick?”

  His expression fell. “You forgot? Today is the day. You promised.”

  At first, Mira had no idea what she had supposedly forgotten, but then the memory came back to her. “Of course not. You know it is important that we keep our word. Why is that?”

  “Otherwise the people will not trust us,” Derrick replied sharply as if he were reciting it from memory.

  “Exactly. You know your father is the strongest, and strength must be respected, but we must also be worthy of that respect. So, I will take you for a tour of the estate.”

  “But, but, Father said today was the day.”

  “We shall see. You have to prove yourself worthy. Riding your first drake is dangerous,” Mira said. The words left a bad taste in her mouth as they sounded like her own mother.

  Then she tuned her son out. He would make his arguments, but she already planned to give him his chance. Instead, she looked out from the balcony where they stood. Derrick’s clawed hand was still grasping her robe, not that it could cause any harm to the material. She had enchanted this herself, and there was no greater practitioner of enchantments in all of Solun than Miranda Dragos.

  The view was breathtaking. Purple mountains in the distance, rolling green hills, and golden fields being worked by the serfs, it was all hers. The land as far as she could see was ruled by her husband, and she stood at his side. The memories felt more like a dream today rather than reality, but she ignored that sensation. It was just a weakness of her past dreams. Eloria was conflict, and there was no room for softness. It was a bitterly learned lesson.

  A rush of girlish glee filled her up, and she looked down at her son. “Shall we go the fast way?”

  “You mean it?” His hands slid to the marble railing. The entire outside of their palace was marble hewn by the earth mages and miners who worked for them.

  “Yes, catch me if you can.”

  Then Mira jumped over the railing. She didn’t allow her ability to walk on air to stop her as she fell the two hundred feet towards the ground. It was only right before she struck the ground that she allowed a tendril of mana out to activate one of the runes in her belt.

  Instantly, she weighed no more than a feather and floated down the last few inches.

  Above her, Derrick was gliding down on his extended wings. He couldn’t take a full dragon form like his father, nor could he even yet fly with his wings. He was too young, but he didn’t need fear any fall.

  He yelled out, “No fair, you cheated.”

  Mira began laughing. This was joy, to be with her son. Something was missing though, and she couldn’t decide what it was.

  “Is it cheating for you to use your wings?”

  Derrick hung his head as he hit the ground while mumbling an answer.

  “I couldn’t hear you. Anyone who is old enough to ride a drake mount is surely old enough to answer a simple question.”

  “No, Mother, it isn’t cheating.”

  “And why is that?” Mira asked.

  “The Gods gave me wings that I might soar over the land. It would be foolish of me not to use what I have been given.”

  “Very good, and how did I beat you down?”

  “You used magic, Momma.”

  “Is that all?”

  “No, you took the risk. You leapt and then used your magic at the end,” Derrick answered.

  “Exactly, and life favors the bold. Isn’t that what your father is always telling you?” Mira pulled her son close to her and straightened up the armor that he was wearing. It was largely ceremonial given that he was only a boy. Or rather it would have been ceremonial if she had not enchanted it heavily enough to turn Derrick into a walking tank.

  The thought of a tank made her frown. It was a memory from a life long gone. She had been in Eloria what… 200 years? Or was it more? Not that it mattered. At 7th Tier and with her magic, her lifespan would nearly rival that of her lord husband.

  A group of armored guards came up to her while at the same time a young elven woman was running towards her. The guards bowed but didn’t say a word. They took up their usual position around her and Derrick. She was beyond being annoyed about the escort. No one had sought to strike at her husband through her for decades, but it never paid to become careless.

  The woman was out of breath when she reached her, “Lady Dragos, I’m sorry, I caught up as soon as I could.”

  “Think nothing of it, child.” For a moment, Mira couldn’t remember the girl’s name despite her having served in the house since being little.

  “I apologize, but Lord Terme from the Imperium is here to speak to you. He was waiting for you downstairs, but I wasn’t able to notify you before you uh… reached the grounds.”

  Mira looked at the maid who paled.

  “I’m sorry. It was entirely my failure, my lady. Please forgive me.”

  It struck Mira like a physical blow that the woman felt true fear. Was she really such a tyrant that the staff feared her like that? That wasn’t who she was, was it? Then she remembered her husband’s oft-repeated adage that fear and respect are bosom bedmates.

  “Lord Terme will just have to wait. I am spending time with my son now.”

  The maid bowed, and Mira turned to walk away with her son, but she heard an angry voice raised in protest. “That isn’t good enough. You have commitments.”

  Mira looked at the guards. “Take my son to the drake pits, but don’t let him touch any of the beasts until I arrive.”

  Then she spun on the short Lord Terme. He was a dwarf from the Imperium. The short man was much wider than a human, and she knew from experience that dwarves were quite strong, even if he was an enchanter. “About time, I’ve been waiting two days for an audience.”

  Mira felt her anger rise. “What of it? This is my home. You could simply have sent a message here. Or is such simple magic beyond your grasp?”

  The dwarf sputtered, “I… Why I ought to…”

  “You ought to what? You’ll do nothing. You know my husband’s armies would raze your pathetic holds and leave them smoking charnel houses.”

  “To think that I had such respect for the Grand Enchantress, the woman who made cojoined bags of holding while still a child and crafted the servitor runes. You were the first to achieve a nine-fold enchantment. I revered your name, but now you are nothing but a petty tyrant!” the dwarf yelled while up on his toes. His face was red beneath the thick beard that covered his face.

  “Who do you think you are to speak to me like that? And what do you mean by the first to achieve a nine-fold enchantment? No other has even achieved a seven-fold.”

  “I am a senior professor at the Imperium, only outranked in authority by the Praetors and the archmage. As to why I would speak to you like that, you should know. You once coined the term speaking truth to power. You loved the study and knowledge. I’ve read too much about you to doubt that, but then you lost your way.”

  Mira stepped back. His words stung her, even though she didn’t know why. “It couldn’t be helped. The cult was spreading discord. You know as well as I that after Talos fell, we couldn’t risk the same happening here.”

  “So you let your husband become as great a tyrant as any supposed monster from the past ever would have been?” the dwarf demanded.

  “My husband rules by his might and the appointment of the Gods.”

  “You can’t believe that. Wasn’t your mother a Chosen of the Gods before she died? You of all people should know better. As for your husband’s might, no one is saying that a Tier 7 True Born isn’t a force to be reckoned with, but it is your enchantments that have made him and his so-called dragon knights an unstoppable force.”

  Anger swelled within Mira. She didn’t create enchantments for evil. She loved the magic and had simply made things to help her husband. “You are very bold for someone who claims my power is to be feared.”

  With that, she reached into the pouch on her waist and pulled forth her staff. She had named it Twilight. It wasn’t alive, but as a nine-fold enchanted item, it was powerful beyond any man-made object. It had even taken on the status of a lesser artifact. The disconnect in her memories about nine-fold enchantments made her realize something was off, but she couldn’t be weak in front of a challenge like this.