All The Skills

Note: Second time this chapter has been posted, as the first time it was posted out of order. The original comments are gone because I don't want someone a couple weeks from now looking at them and thinking they missed a few chapters.

Brixaby circled around the top of the tower a couple of times to give himself and Arthur a view of the people waiting for them. As he did, he fanned out his extra set of wings in what anybody who had been used to working with dragons would know was a display of aggression. Judging by the unimpressed look of the authorities and some curt gestures to come on down and land, this seemed to shoot right past them.

Brixaby turned his head to glance at Arthur. "Should I give them a stunning shout? Perhaps just to that little one off to the side?" He gestured with one claw towards the only woman out of the three.

Arthur winced. "No, let's see what they want with us first." He hesitated. "But if they try anything, remember what we talked about last night?"

"Oh, yes, the flying lesson." Brixaby boomed this out loud enough for the authorities below to hear.

Brixaby came in for a landing in a way that only a dragon with his specific body type could. That was, straight down while managing to keep his body perfectly level. It was an elegant move, and one that happened to throw a wash of air straight downward, kicking up a satisfying amount of dust into the faces of the authorities.

Wisely, the woman and two men moved off to the side of the rooftop terrace to give the landing dragon some space.

Their uniforms were a slate blue color—now fairly dusty—and accented with gold trimming. The smallest of the three, the woman who had her hair up in a severe bun, also had extra gold pieces added to her left shoulder and the side of her arm. By the way the other two unconsciously gave deference to her, Arthur suspected that she was the actual leader out of the three.

Sure enough, as soon as Brixaby had fully landed and snapped his wings shut, she was the first to step forward. The largest, most burly of the two men kept half a step behind her, just to the right at her shoulder. He carried a notebook in his hand.

"I assume you are Arthur and Brixaby?" the woman asked, her voice dry. She stood in a parade stance, her arms folded behind herself, and she didn't look intimidated in the least. "I am told that you've been given an understanding of our language, so please don't play any silly games."

"We can both understand you," Arthur said pointedly as he dismounted from Brixaby. He didn't extend his hand for a shake, and neither did she. "Yes, I'm Arthur and this is my dragon, Brixaby."

"I am Over-Sheriff Walker," she said, "and I speak on behalf of the mayor in these matters."

Arthur's eyebrows rose, and just before he could speak, Walker continued, "From which kingdom do you hail? And I assume you come from one of their hives, as well?"

Arthur, of course, already had a lie ready on the tip of his tongue. "I’ve heard you call it the Faberge kingdom. And we come from Strawberry Moon hive."

This lie wouldn't hold up to scrutiny, especially if somebody had active communications with his old kingdom. He and Brixaby weren't exactly the type to blend in with a crowd. But if he could delay the time the secret inevitably came out, he certainly would.

Walker nodded. "We checked the records, Rider Arthur, and we saw that you two have not been formally signed up for the reshuffling."

This wasn't a question, but Arthur treated it like one, anyway. "We just came in last night. I wasn't aware that we had to sign up at all."

Walker nodded to the man behind her who started writing in his notebook. "Well, we'll get you signed up right now, and of course, you will have to pay your entry fees. You will be given one week from today," she said, and fell silent as the man – her assistant? – stepped forward to ask basic information, including the spelling of both their names and their ages.

Meanwhile, the third man stood slightly off to the side of the other two. From his practiced stance, Arthur suspected that he had some kind of combat card. He was backup in case this went south.

Arthur turned his attention back to the man with the notebook. He had a little bit of trouble with spelling his name, considering that the letters between the two languages were different. But Walker broke in and stated that his name was common enough in their kingdom. Though the way that they said it grated on his nerves. An extra emphasis on the ‘er’ at the end that made his name sound whiney to his ears.

Brixaby tried to convince the man his name was spelled with two X’s, but Arthur saw he only put down one.

"Now, well, now that we've got that out of the way," Walker said briskly, "we're here to explain the rules around here. New Houston is a free society, mind you, and we don't want any kingdom business interfering with ours."

"I don't intend to bring any part of the kingdom with me," Arthur said. "Brixaby and I came here to get away from that sort of thing."

She hummed under her breath but didn't say anything else. "There is another matter. I spoke of entry fees before."

Arthur nodded, unconcerned. He figured that Dannell would take care of that. He was selling their likenesses, after all, so he wanted them to look good.

Walker continued, "There is a way that you could easily make enough to take care of those fees, and also make complaints about your little adventure this morning go away."

Arthur stiffened. "Complaints?"

She glanced to the side at the man Arthur was starting to think of as her secretary. At her nod, he read off what looked like a prepared list. "Disturbing the peace, using a flying card, power, or skill without proper licenses, and of course, failing to register a dangerous animal."

"I am no more of an animal than you are,” Brixaby interjected, "though I certainly am dangerous."

The man continued, "In addition, you have been directly implicated in causing several different accidents throughout the city. There are reports of at least three different cart accidents that could be laid at your feet."

"What do you mean? We didn’t touch a cart!” Arthur asked, annoyed.

Walker answered this one with a snort. "People were watching a dragon fly only a few feet above their heads. And that meant that they weren't watching where they were going. Plus, you startled several animals, and there is one report of a small herd of bison becoming fretful enough to stampede."

He didn't even remember seeing a bison pen. That was the name these people had for those woolly oxen.

Crossing his arms, Arthur gazed at her with a steady look. He wasn't going to allow himself to be intimidated, and he had a feeling that Walker was going somewhere with this. He just wanted her to get to the point.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

Reading his expression, her lips twitched up in a very, very small smile. "As it happens, there is a way that you can pay your fees, make these complaints disappear, regain good favor among the citizens, and also earn extra money on the side."

Now they were coming to the meat of it, and Arthur suspected, the real reason why these three were up here. Everybody in the city seemed to have their own particular angle.

"And that is?"

"The dark heart is reaching its peak of power, so it’s spawning more scourgelings than usual. We've had reports from Undersheriff Domingo that you were some help with a Mega scourgeling, and that was without the assistance of your beast. What do you say about helping us out again?"

"Of course we will," Brixaby said, before Arthur could get a word in, "I would have done it anyway. Scourgelings should not be allowed to roam free." And, just in case anybody got the idea that he was doing this from the goodness of his heart, he added, "Also, most of those were Rare type scourgelings, yes?" His greed was obvious.

Walker shook her head. "Most will be Commons and Uncommons with some Rare. But you would be deputized on behalf of an Undersheriff, and as such, you would not be allowed to keep any of the harvest. This is law," she said, "and if you're caught keeping cards or shards from a harvested scourgeling, that is a crime punishable by jail time, dragon rider or not. All harvests go into the city vault, and the resulting cards are then given out to children who have come of age." She gave them a hard look. "You are dragon riders, so you know how important it is that everyone be carded as soon as they can."

Which was admirable and all, but Dannell had mentioned that children and their families had to pay back the cards with steep loans. And the cynical part of Arthur doubted that a Rare-ranked card would go to an orphan or somebody without any connections.

But… the other part pointed out that even one Rare ranked card was worth many Uncommon cards, and even more Common ranked. Those would certainly go to children in need. Even a Common card could stop scourge from taking root.

"I understand," Arthur said, "however, Brixaby and I are searching for new cards, too. We intend to prepare for the reshuffling. So, we demand first right—at a fair price—for any Rare card that we harvest."

Arthur, if we kill a scourgeling, the harvest should be ours, Brixaby muttered in his head.

Arthur glanced at his dragon, nodding his head in what he hoped was an acknowledging look that said, "Trust me."

Brixaby backed down.

"That is… reasonable,” Walker allowed. “But, we won't allow any shenanigans. You will be scanned for your existing cards and shards on your person before and after any battle. And yes," she said, "our particular scans do show cards in extra-planar spaces."

Well, that went Arthur's half-baked idea to shove anything interesting into his Personal Space. But, he still had something else in mind. "You mentioned pay?" he asked.

"I think you'll find it more than reasonable. The standard pay is one Rare card shard for every Mega scourgeling taken down. The same rate for lesser ranked scourgelings."

"Then it will be one card shard for myself, and one for Brixaby," Arthur said, "He is a person, even if he has scales and wings.”

“I do like card shards," Brixaby added, with a toothy smile.

Walker hemmed and hawed about this for a few moments, but Arthur sensed she would agree. Mostly, he had put up this front about the pay to keep up appearances. He didn't actually care. He had his own plans.

In the end, she agreed. “Fine. Let’s get you scanned in.”

The man who had been watching silently—the one that Arthur had thought of as the combat backup—came forward with an enchanted stick polished to a dark sheen. Runes glowed up and down its sides, unfamiliar ones. Arthur longed to take it and study it for himself, and he could see Brixaby's sharp attention.

"This is an enchanted scanning wand," the man said, "If you have any cards that are sensitive to magic or mana, you may feel a reaction, but I can assure you it's perfectly safe and won't affect negatively you in any way. Think of it as a seeking tool. It only counts the number of cards and shards in your possession."

Arthur hesitated. Discovering he was a Legendary ranked rider now would lead to awkward questions. “What does it tell you about my cards? The type?”

The rank? He wondered.

The man shook his head. “No one would put up with that. It only reports the number of cards and shards in your possession. Nothing more.”

That was interesting, and Arthur's thief class immediately identified the easy-to-exploit loophole. If he changed out his cards for ones he’d just harvested, how would anybody know?

"Okay," Arthur said, "me first." He didn't think that this was a trap, but he would rather take the risk than have Brixaby do it.

The man waved the wand at him, which glowed a bright blue as it sensed Arthur's magical potential. He then rattled off a series of numbers to the man with the notebook—none of them made sense.

Judging by the complete non-reaction of Walker and her men, it seemed that the enchanted wand didn’t recognize the rank or type of cards.

Walker nodded and turned back to Arthur. "It seems that your secondary card anchor is quite full. It’s not my place to say, but since you seem to have already found a sponsor here, you may want to consider upgrading it before the reshuffling."

Brixaby's cards were recorded as well. It only took a few moments, and Brixaby did not twitch an eyelid.

Walker nodded again, satisfied. "Now, your current card numbers have been recorded. At the end of every day, you will come to the Sheriff's headquarters to submit yourself to a new scan. It will only take a few moments. Once we confirm you have the same as before with another scan, and you will receive your pay."

"How do you know how many scourgelings we've killed?" Arthur asked.

"You will collect the chips from the undersheriff that you assist. They will be the one who will verify your kill and perform the harvest." She fixed him with a firm stare. "It is very important that you do not harvest the corpse yourself without the presence of an undersheriff. That is a class III misdemeanor, and it goes up to a felony if you’re caught stealing the cards."

"Understood," Arthur said, though he had no idea what a misdemeanor or felony was. Some words, it seemed, didn’t have direct language equivalents.

Satisfied, Walker and the two others returned back down the trapdoor, but not before leaving him a small, egg-sized object that looked like polished quartz. "This is a card anchor stone, given to most of our emergency services. If you're called to assist, it will activate with a buzz, and there will be an arrow which leads you to the location. After you're done, the undersheriff will clear the card anchor, and you'll be open to take the next call."

Arthur took it, and he was a little impressed despite himself. "You guys seem prepared for this sort of thing. Have you had other dragon rider visitors?"

This actually earned a full smile from the woman. "No, but we do have other combat teams-- adventure teams, as we call them here, who work with us in the same fashion. They’re also sharpening their knives for the reshuffling, so be aware of that. You may come across them, and my advice is to give way in case they want to kill the Mega scourgelings first. Many of them have been here for years. They've earned their seniority. Do you understand?"

It seemed that wherever he went, he was at the bottom of the totem pole, but that was the risk of starting over in a new place. "I understand," Arthur said.

After that, the three officials returned back down the trapdoor.

The moment it closed, Brixaby plunged his hand within his own Personal Space and pulled it back with a woven bit of metal which he fastened over the top of the trapdoor. This would be much harder to break through. The piece of wood that Arthur had used earlier was now in splinters.

The over-Sheriff had acted pleasant enough, but this had been more or less a shakedown. And Arthur suspected that things would not have gone so well if he had said no to the request to help out the city. Luckily, that had fit into his agenda as well.

"You have a plan," Brixaby said.

"Of course I do," Arthur said, "follow me."

At Brixaby’s nod, Arthur touched him and they both were transported into Arthur's Personal Space.

Normally, time stopped completely there, but Brixaby had natural nullification magic. It became a spot where the two could talk in peace.

Within an eyeblink, they returned to the real world with no one the wiser.

Brixaby flicked his wings in a self-satisfied manner. He was happy with the plan that Arthur had outlined.

Then the dragon glanced at the card anchor. "You think that we will have to wait long?"

"No," Arthur said, "I don't."

He was proven right less than an hour later when the card anchor started to buzz.

Arthur tapped the top to activate it, and a ghostly green arrow appeared over the top of the egg-like rock, indicating they were to head east.