The world according to d.., p.1
The World According to Dragons 3, page 1
The World According to Dragons
(Book Three)
By Harmon Cooper
Copyright © 2023 by Harmon Cooper
Copyright © 2023 Boycott Books
Edited by Celestian Rince
Proofed by Andi Marlowe
Art by Daniel Kamarudin
Font by Shawn King
Arcane Card design by Yulia Volska
Arcane Card art by Sor Cooper
Map design by Chaims Cartography
Audiobook produced by Tantor Media and narrated by Wayne Mitchell
All rights reserved. This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
Table of Contents
Contents
Table of Contents
Map of the Four Kingdoms of the Sagaland
Map of the Kingdom of Icenor
Map of the Kingdom of Middling
Map of the Kingdom of Southfall
The World According to Dragons (recap)
.Chapter One.
.Chapter Two.
.Chapter Three.
.Chapter Four.
.Chapter Five.
.Chapter Six.
.Chapter Seven.
.Chapter Eight.
.Chapter Nine.
.Chapter Ten.
.Chapter Eleven.
.Chapter Twelve.
.Chapter Thirteen.
.Chapter Fourteen.
.Chapter Fifteen.
.Chapter Sixteen.
.Chapter Seventeen.
.Chapter Eighteen.
.Chapter Nineteen.
.Chapter Twenty.
.Chapter Twenty-One.
.Chapter Twenty-Two.
.Chapter Twenty-Three.
.Chapter Twenty-Four.
.Chapter Twenty-Five.
.Chapter Twenty-Six.
.Chapter Twenty-Seven.
.Chapter Twenty-Eight.
.Epilogue.
Author’s Note
Map of the Four Kingdoms of the Sagaland
(Click to enlarge)
Map of the Kingdom of Icenor
(Click to enlarge)
Map of the Kingdom of Middling
(Click to enlarge)
Map of the Kingdom of Southfall
(Click to enlarge)
The World According to Dragons (recap)
Contains spoilers!
Book One
Jhaeros Shotaro Vos, or Twillo, as he was called by his mother, starts the yearly Artifance by getting a neck tattoo. Later that night, as he roams the streets of the city of E'Kanth with his cart full of mapstones and other rare items, he has a chance encounter with Princess Embla. The princess recognizes him from their shared youth, which could be problematic because of his past.
Twillo uses a hallucinatory dust to escape the princess, and is chased by one of her guards, an elven orc named Rowian. Twillo manages to escape Rowian by using one of his relics known as the Enkiro Ring of Animation. From there, he hides out in a stave church that is run by a pair of monks named Olaf and Vradon. It becomes clear Twillo needs to get out of the city due to his alleged assault on Princess Embla. Before Twillo leaves, he meets the tattooist from the previous night and gets information about a relic outside of Padrian Sands, one known as the Quill of Katzimo.
Twillo meets a mysterious elven man on his carriage ride to the northern city of Padrian Sands. The elven man turns out to be a kitsune in the form of a human, and the two become fast friends. Katashi invites Twillo to look him up if he's ever in Icenor's capital of Vendir.
In Padrian Sands, Twillo finds the fixer who has the mapstone for the Quill of Katzimo. Anneli Vrignava is an elven orc who works at a tavern known as Storgata. After he gives her a prized relic known as the Tongue of Ravenna Megren as collateral, she gives him the mapstone. Twillo visits his safehouse in Padrian Sands, one that is in an abandoned stave church, and heads to the desert.
Upon locating the cave where the relic is rumored to be held, Twillo notices all the signs of a terrible yokai known as a wolvencree. He waits to enter the cave until he's certain the beast is sleeping. As if by fate, another yokai known as a rake appears and releases a terrible sound, which wakes the wolvencree. Twillo is attacked and torn into two pieces.
A voice comes to him at that moment, asking him if he wants to soulbind. Without any other options, and bleeding profusely, Twillo agrees. The dragon known as Adventus takes shape and saves him. Twillo's legs are also restored.
What Twillo doesn't realize yet is that all of this has been orchestrated by Livia, the Goddess of Luck. He also doesn't know that the Goddess has been working behind the scenes to set him up for decades, starting with his father, Shotaro Vos, who became obsessed with a relic he thought would bring Twillo's dead mother back to life. The relic happens to be the wristlet that Twillo now wears, which was how he sparked the dragon in the first place.
The only problem now is that the wristlet isn't powerful enough to fuel Adventus for very long. To get stronger, and to summon the other two dragon forms Adventus can take, Twillo must visit vortexes and ziggurats. The vortexes are located across the Four Kingdoms. They were places where dragons could recharge. The ziggurats are hidden and Twillo will have to hunt for them. Not only that, Twillo will need to learn to cycle and use dragonessence. Adventus can teach him several things, but he's limited in what he can tell him because the Goddess that helped free the dragon—Livia—has wiped part of his memory.
Twillo returns to Padrian Sands and finds that Anneli the barkeep has left town with his relic. During this discovery, he also gets a first glimpse of what summoning power will be like by absorbing energy in the stave church. He meets with Vradon the monk, who is now in Padrian Sands studying. The monk tells him that the church back in E'Kanth has some text he can't translate in the crypt. Seeing it as a lead, especially because Adventus will be able to read the Sagic script, Twillo returns to E'Kanth.
Once in E'kanth, Twillo and Adventus view the text, which tells them of two ziggurat locations. The first location is near the Oraibi Monument in the kingdom of Southfall. The second is in the north, beyond the fjords of the City of the Dead. After getting dragonessence from the vortex in E'Kanth, and getting scolded by Olaf the monk for falling asleep outside and drawing too much attention to himself, Twillo heads to the desert kingdom of Southfall.
On his way to the Oraibi Monument, Twillo encounters a Stylite nun named Sister Tonandi. Once she hears of what he plans to do, she grants him the power to access his dragonessence core. She also introduces him to his dragonaura. In doing so, she forfeits this power herself. Twillo continues on, and eventually finds the ziggurat. The guardian of the ziggurat presents a challenge to him, one in which he is transported to a pocket realm and forced to fight alongside his father during the night that Shotaro Vos was killed. Before he's transported back to his world, Twillo also meets his former combat teacher, a woman named Renda, who reminds him how to cycle dragonessence through combat.
Upon completing the challenge, Twillo is granted the power of the ziggurat. This allows him to summon Adventus in his wyrm form, known as his vordic form. They are soon attacked by a dragon rider, one of the Senja. Twillo manages to defeat the Senja warrior while Adventus battles the dragon in the sky above. They travel back toward E'Kanth, and stop in Firebreath to recharge, where he encounters an old acquaintance in the form of a shieldmaiden named Rose. Twillo experiments with turning off his dragonessence entirely in Firebreath, which is something he'll have to do in the future to avoid detection.
Upon arriving in E'Kanth, he finds that Olaf has been killed inside the stave church. Twillo is ambushed by Rowian, knocked out, and taken prisoner. He wakes inside a carriage heading toward Vendir alongside another prisoner. Twillo frees himself from his cuffs and fights back against Rowian, leaving the elven orc to die in the desert. The second prisoner turns out to be Anneli. She no longer has his relic tongue, having traded it to a fixer in E'Kanth for a bracelet similar to the one Twillo has. Together, they go to the cave that contains the Quill of Katzimo and retrieve it, where they are attacked by a seemingly possessed wolvencree.
After being saved by Adventus, the two return to Padrian Sands to drop Anneli off. Twillo plans to speak to Vradon about the death of his life partner, but puts this on hold for the time being so he can reach the second ziggurat. He flies to Vendir, where he reunites with Katashi the kitsune. While having his old family sword worked on, Twillo trains with Katashi, who has spent time studying combat with the Brethren of the Tribute Islands. He also upgrades the sword his father gave him. The blade is now able to shoot a bolt of dragonessence.
Together, the two head to the City of the Dead. They encounter another Senja warrior, a female who nearly bests them. She escapes with her life after Twillo and Katashi are aided by Ash and other ashinagatenaga, the name for a yokai with extremely long arms and legs. After a meal and some recovery, Twillo ventures toward the sea with Adventus. They fend off a yokai known as an ohatsu and reach the ziggurat beneath the water.
Forced to go forward on his own, Twillo squares off against a large stone statue of an infamous kitsune named Corobashi. He uses his newfound skills to defeat the statue, and is given the power of the ziggurat as the walls around him come crashing down. Twillo is saved by Adventus, who is now in his dragon warrior form. They escape the ziggurat, to find a new dragon flying about in the air. This is Seondzus, a red female dragon now in need of a rider.
As Twillo returns to Katashi and the ashinagatenaga, Livia watches on. She does so in a melancholic way, aware now that Jecha has taken Rowian's body, who Twillo left to die in the Icenordian desert.
Jecha, the God of Carnage, now has a host.
Book Two
The second installment of The World According to Dragons begins with Twillo in the Stormking Mountains of Icenor, where he hopes to find a relic known as the Yamauba Paintbrush. After defeating a ghost-like yokai known as a goryo, he is rewarded with the paintbrush and a pair of gauntlets that glow with dragonessence.
Twillo heads to Padrian Sands next, where he plans to regroup, connect Anneli with Seondzus, his new dragon, and meet with Vradon to tell him of his Olaf’s death. Twillo is forced into a bar fight after trying to get information on Anneli’s whereabouts, but eventually learns she is in E’Kanth.
Things heat up the next morning when he goes to the Monk’s College to find Vradon, Twillo encountering Rowian instead. The elven orc is supposed to be dead. Before Twillo can confirm anything, Adventus takes his third form and tells Twillo to run. As he flees, Twillo spots Vradon in one of the windows of the college. He flies up to the tower using dragonessence and joins the monk, promising to explain everything later.
They are able to escape, and in doing so Twillo learns from Adventus that Jecha, the God of Carnage, is now in Rowian’s body. While this news is bad, the news Twillo must break to Vradon about the death of his partner is equally bad. After some time to process, Vradon tells Twillo that he has found several of the ziggurats and vortexes. He also mentions a passage about something known as Arcane Cards, which Twillo hasn’t heard much about.
They take several days to reach the eastern Middling city of Mending, where Twillo meets a relic hunter named Garnax at a tavern. Garnax tells him he knows someone Twillo should meet to ask about Arcane Cards. The next day, Twillo goes to the home of Ashimori, who teaches him about Arcane Cards after Twillo beats Ashimori’s pupil, Geneva, in a battle. Twillo is given a single card known as Ripple Tide and told to meet with a Magi named Marianne in E’Kanth.
To recharge his power, Twillo and Vradon go to a vortex on Mending Rock. From there, they seek out a ziggurat in Victrin Forest, where they are attacked by a Senja Warrior. They defeat the warrior. Twillo is given three additional Arcane Cards after figuring out he can absorb another person’s dragonessence core. He also takes the warrior’s wristlet, which contains a black dragon named Ramide. Twillo puts the wristlet on, doubling his power.
In E’Kanth, he has more of the dragonessence system unlocked by Marianne. Twillo is classed as C-Rank in Martial Arts Mastery, which he hopes to improve. While he works to upgrade his Core Eruption power using matches, Vradon locates Anneli, who has since retrieved the Tongue of Ravenna Megren. Katashi the kitsune also joins them and the three leave for Folke that night after agreeing to meet with Vradon in Seondzus.
They camp out using one of Katashi’s relics, which allows them to rest in a portal dimension. They train the next day and Twillo transfers Ramide to Anneli’s wristlet. They journey to Folke, where Twillo hopes to gather some supplies before they head to the Forest of Dawn in search of a relic and the next ziggurat. Twillo is surprised when the relic merchant turns out to be Vitharr, the God of Fate. Vitharr has a message directly from Livia. He tells Twillo to take out the Magi named Korin who is working for Jecha who is responsible for finding dragons in the Realm of the Formless.
After recharging at the vortex, Twillo, his dragons, and his companions head deep into the forest. They encounter a bear named Walth, who is the leader of numerous yokai. He offers to give Twillo the Brooch of a Demon Bear if Twillo can defeat him. Upon doing so, Twillo receives the brooch, which spawns a bear named Yasuna, who just so happens to be Walth’s sister.
Anneli completes the next ziggurat, and once she has done so, their group heads toward the mountains in the southwest in search of the final ziggurat that Vradon has discovered. They find a dead Senja Warrior at the entrance to the next ziggurat. Twillo takes her cards and core. He severs the wristlet on her wrist, which contains the dragon named Nalig. Katashi takes this one, and together, they complete the ziggurat’s challenge.
Their next stop is Seondzus, where they expect to meet back with Vradon. Twillo also hopes to confront Romulus, his father’s old friend. He suspects that the man knows more about his father’s death than Romulus has let on in the past.
Instead of finding Romulus, he encounters Princess Embla, the Crown Ravenna of Icenor. She has been led to Twillo by a tip from Vitharr the God of Fate. Now, Twillo knows without a doubt that Livia, Vitharr’s daughter, is blessing their journey. Embla tells him that Romulus is in E’Kanth, which happens to be where he needs to go to take out the mage helping Jecha find dragons.
Embla and Twillo separate from Vradon and Anneli, with plans to meet them in a week in the Southfallian city of Nalig. Once Twillo and Embla arrive in E’Kanth, they take refuge at a home owned by a woman who was once injured by Embla’s father. Before they go for Korin the mage, Twillo deals with Romulus alone.
What is supposed to be a conversation about the past and perhaps Arcane Cards becomes a fight once Romulus reveals the truth, that he was the one who sold Twillo’s father out so many years ago. He tries to attack Twillo and Twillo ultimately kills him, but not before Romulus tells him he has a few choice Arcane Cards at his home in Seondzus, which happens to be on the way to Nalig.
Before they leave, Embla and Twillo sneak into a keep and kill the mage that is freeing enemy dragons. They are chased by Renda, Twillo’s former sword instructor, and by Jecha, Twillo finally coming face to face with the God of Carnage. Jecha nearly defeats them, Renda seems like she may be dead after being consumed by fire, and Twillo and Embla are able to escape through their combined powers and the two dragons.
Twillo now understands what he is up against, and since he doesn’t have a lot of time to grow stronger, he will need all the help he can get from his friends, the power from more ziggurats, and Arcane Cards.
.Chapter One.
One Last Trap
Seondzus, the Middling city known as a winter and summer escape for the Four Kingdoms’ richest, was quiet. Too quiet.
It was late in the night now, the streets well-lit with the soft, distant glow of lanterns expertly made by the dwarves of the Tribute Islands. Even with the light, there were still plenty of shadows perfect for thieves and cutthroats, perhaps even Senja Warriors, to call home. But Twillo wasn’t expecting Jecha’s worst at the moment, not after what had happened a few hours ago on the outskirts of E’Kanth.
And what a battle it had been, Twillo forced into a fight with Jecha, who had taken the body of an elven orc named Rowian and now carried a pulsing red and black sword. Had it not been for Adventus and Seondzus, the two dragons he was able to summon, Twillo would have likely died, or worse, Jecha would have enslaved him somehow.
Yet he had made it. He had survived.
Princess Embla, who was with him now, had also played her part. And she had played it well. The Crown Ravenna of Icenor had proven to Twillo just how surprising her power was, and how much she had learned in the years of his absence. She could fight, she could use Arcane Cards, and she knew a thing or two about dragonessence.
Twillo only hoped it wasn’t a pyrrhic victory.
Being defeated by a mortal had likely stirred a fire in Jecha, one that could only be quenched by the carnage he was famous for. He might not have had the ability to easily resurrect more dragons now that Twillo had killed the Magi that was pulling them from the Realm of the Forgotten, but Jecha was still alive. He was still active, and the only way for Twillo to beat him would be to band with those brave enough to stare down the God of Carnage himself, and to get stronger.
Not an easy task for the shunned saracent from an Icenordian city known as Sparrow’s Rise, a relic hunter who had taken on this task after soulbinding with a dragon on his deathbed. But Twillo was up for the challenge. Now, he was able to use dragonessence, he had access to a dragonessence system. The more ways he could utilize the system, his relics, his Arcane Cards, and his combat knowledge, the better his chances.
