Spear of Destiny by James Baldwin (little bear else holmelund minarik .TXT) 📕

“I’ll make sure no one emerges out of the curtains to stab you.” He reached into the front of his Tuun herder’s jacket, and pulled out a long-stemmed pipe. “Do you mind?”

I grinned at him. “No, but Istvan will chew you out if he catches you smoking on the job.”

“Taethawn won’t.” Vash shrugged, already preparing his bowl. “As vices go, majza is not the worst. It keeps me alert, and it helps with pain.”

“Your arm still bugging you?” I motioned to his right arm, the mechanical one. He’d lost the original in possibly the most epic way imaginable: by punching a diving dragon in the face. Rin had replaced it with a high-end magical prosthesis. The first attempt had nearly killed him. The second implant was doing better, or so I’d thought.

“No, not the arm.” He shook his head. “The blows I took to the face smashed my sinuses into little pieces. They have caused me pain ever since.”

I cocked my head. As much as I liked Vash, there were a lot of things I still didn’t know about the guy. For example: why was he a self-described ‘kinslayer’ with fifteen dead relatives? “How’d you get them?”

“The scars?” He cocked his eyebrows as he lit his pipe, eyes closed. “My sister.”

I blinked a couple times. “Your sister smashed up your face? What the fuck for?”

Vash took a long drag off the pipe and shook his head. “Nothing I feel like recounting right now. But...”

“But what?”

“I may need to ask a related personal favor of you someday soon. That is, if this common scoundrel can request such a thing from a great and noble lord such as yourself.”

That got a laugh. “Cut it out, dude. You’re starting to sound like Istvan.”

He gazed piously toward the ceiling. “You are what you eat.”

I snorted, and turned back to Karalti’s sheet. ‘Navigail, read out Karalti’s new Path of Royalty descriptions for me.’

  The Path of Royalty

Grace, power, and charisma: three qualities embodied in Archemi’s queen dragons, some of the most powerful creatures to ever fly the skies of Archemi. Like the queens found in bee colonies, queen dragons are born to rule—but to do so effectively, they must advance in the Path of Royalty.

The milestones of the Path of Royalty are available at the same levels as those of her Combat Path (the Path of Alacrity). All milestones that would be accrued prior to her current level are gained automatically. By advancing your dragon’s level through battling and training, she will gain more abilities in both the Path of Royalty and Path of Alacrity at Levels 20, 25, and 30. The Path of Royalty does not have an Advanced Path option.

Abilities on the Path of Royalty can be leveled. By spending Lexica—the points used to gain new spells or improve currently known spells—you can improve your dragon’s Path of Royalty abilities from Level I to Level V.

Ooh—that was neat. Karalti’s Path of Alacrity abilities didn’t have any individual ability advancements, so that was a big change. I brought up the Path menus, scanning the new abilities Karalti had gained from her communion with Lahati:

  Level 5: Queensong of Life and Death I

As with all Paths and Advanced Paths, the Path of Royalty has a foundational ability key to the use and advancement of the class. For your dragon, this ability is her Queensong. The Queensong is a special, magically-charged vocalization which allows your queen to communicate with fellow dragons—and other species—at vast distances. It is unique to each queen dragon, reflecting and magnifying the elemental Words of Power written into their genes.

Your dragon has the Queensong of Life and Death. Once per day, she may emit a cry which—at her discretion—either restores 50% of her allies’ maximum stamina (to a maximum of 100 allies) or causes the Fear and Nausea debuffs to susceptible opponents (to a maximum of 100 enemies).

The Queensong is a magical ability, not a sonic attack, and is therefore not affected by the Mute status. However, powerful anti-magic fields (Level V or above) will nullify the effects of the Queensong. The Queensong will in turn degrade the effectiveness of anti-magic fields, weakening them by one spell level.

Level this ability to improve the number of daily uses, effective range, resistance to antimagic, and number of allies/enemies affected by the ability. Level 10: Wingleader I

Your dragon telepathically calls to your allied dragons, uniting them into a fearsomely determined unit. Your queen dragon selects up to 10 allied dragons who will instinctively form a unit at her direction, gaining immunity to fear for 10 minutes, +10% speed and +10% damage against one individual target. Level 15: Pack Tactics I

Your queen telepathically summons allied dragons into a savage fighting wing, directing them to encircle an enemy and tear them to pieces. You select up to 10 allied dragons to form a unit, who gain +15% aerial maneuverability and +15% speed against 5 or fewer targets for 10 minutes. If the unit can encircle the enemy, they gain +25% damage against those targets and one extra breath weapon charge. If an ally achieves a critical strike against an opponent’s vital area, they gain +25% additional damage to that strike. Level 20: Lifebringer I

Your queen dragon gains the ability to heal allies with her Queensong. By spending 80 points of mana, she can target as many allies as her Queensong is able to affect and heal them for 100 HP per unit. Level 25: Harbinger I

Your queen’s song turns dark and terrifying, instilling terror and sabotaging your foes’ will to fight. By spending 80 points of mana, your dragon’s Queensong induces the Terrified debuff in susceptible enemies and injures them for 500 HP. Terrified enemies in