Headed by a Snake

Zashleigh Yates stared into her amethyst spyglass... trying to make sense of the purple-scaled monstrosity she was looking at.

The mana it was giving off... it reminded her of the one time she saw one of the Holy Country's colossals. But... no Divine Armor looked like *that.*

Four scaled legs. Absurdly long tail. Huge, folded, leathery wings.

At the end of its serpentine neck was a horned head with a maw of full teeth.

A sudden noise ended Zash's observation and she ducked her head down behind the roof parapet. She even took off her Witch hat, pressing the brim against her nose and mouth to muffle the sound of her breathing.

The creature had sat up, sniffing the air as it looked around.

But the sound it made... Zash could swear it was like... the creak of an old wooden door.

Hiding was a stupid precaution. Dessi was channeling ⌈Stealth Bubble⌋, which made it impossible for anyone outside it to see or hear them.

If the dragon's senses could pierce through that, she and her squad would already be dead.

Still... she didn't like the bestial intelligence in the dragon's eyes.

They scared her.

Dragon.

Their physical forms scared her.

The purple one was patrolling with a full squad of soldiers-- and it was three times the height of any of them. With its tail included, though, it might have been 40 fulms long or more.

Their breath weapons terrified her.

Zash had heard the screams of her fellow sisters as they plummeted out of the sky.

She'd probably hear them in her nightmares for the rest of her life.

But the dragons' magic...

That made the Zeta squad's mission...

Ugh.

Zash was uniquely qualified for the task ahead of her.

The City of Making was something like a 'holy city' for artifice, hextech, technomagic, and all things between.

And what protected those dinky, greyhaired whitecoats?

Lots of things, actually.

Trained soldiers armed with modern, high-tech, and even futuro-experimenty weapons of war.

Some hundred suits of Divine Armor, each pilot with thousands of bells of flight experience.

Oh! --and then there was Making's so-called MMDS, a nigh-impenetrable, multi-layered, magical defense system.

The whole thing was powered and reinforced by natural leylines deep in the earth below the city. They weren't centuries-old, mysterious formations made with eroded rocks. Making was the most technologically advanced city in the Realm. That meant even their formations had to be updated to the modern era.

...Each one of the hundred arcano-technicians involved was at least as smart as Zash was.

The knowledge of the best and brightest minds in the Eastern States went into the city's defenses. Among the works cited included Lady Bella Sapphira, President and CEO of Sapphire Tower... as well as Lady Ophelia Moonwell, the leading expert in Arcanite and all things related to its technology.

Those two women were basically Zashleigh's religion; their industry-defining publications were her sacred texts.

...So the first problem was that the Sapphire Tower and its allies had to break through the city's defenses. The outer two magical layers protecting Making were designed to diminish the efficacy of large-scale attacks on the city's outer walls. Then, the innermost formation protected the city's heart.

If that heart was to prove unbreakable... it had the potential to draw out the battle from a single sun to... not that. And then, of course, that invited a myriad of opportunities for the enemy to strike back or get reinforcements or...

Hrmm.

--it was just bad news, all around.

But it wasn't *just* the massive brains and spiraling creativity of Lady Sapphira and the Arcanite Princess that Zash had to worry about.

Literal dragons had taken control of the City of Making.

When a smart woman buys a house, the first thing she does is change all the locks.

It was the same with Making-- and those facts were backed up by the Tower's informants. In the few weeks since the dragons' occupation, all their defensive formations became nearly unrecognizable.

Dragon magic...

Zash had done her dissertation on the topic-- her magnum opus.

She called: the Theory Behind Breaking Modern Draconic Seals.

It was catchy.

It made her the indisputable subject matter expert on the topic.

It was just...

--there was no such thing as a 'modern' draconic seal.

She read every printed book that had anything to do with *ancient* seals-- all already broken, of course. She had a plethora of other researchers' theories on what those seals did. Of course, she had her own opinions, too...

But all that together... meant that Zash didn't have much of anything.

She... and President Bella... were hoping... that *if* she could make it to the formations... her research and familiarity with the topic *might* allow her to decipher its workings. And if-- and that is a big if... and if she could get that far, she juuuust might be able to break it.

There were *really* too many 'ifs' and 'mights' in all that.

But she had to.

She was the only one who could.

A growl from one of her squad members brought Zash back to reality.

"Try them again, Heartsong."

Decemberleigh Gilchrist had puffed up her cheeks and crinkled her button-nose as she glowered down at the newest girl in Zeta Squad. The subject of her discontent was a girl named Heartsong, an Elven Fire Mage representing the School of Evocations.

"It hasn't even been five minutes," Heartsong argued. "In an emergency, we want to *conserve* our mana-- not burn it all on comms."

Though Zash didn't like hearing her squad members bickering like old women, she knew Heartsong was just following protocol.

The little blonde elf was easy to like.

Her grades were excellent. She had perfect marks on her physical fitness tests (though when Zash was her age, she did a little better.)

Heartsong didn't allow Dessi, her senior Witch, to bully her-- not even a little.

The elf's adherence to the Sapphire Tower's rules and standard protocol, though, was a little odd, considering the rebellious nature of most Witches.

It was also a trait perfect for a squad leader.

Heartsong didn't know it yet, but Zashleigh was absolutely going to fast-track the girl's promotion.

...But they all had to first survive the mission.

Zash took a deep breath and a slow, calming exhale.

The imminent threat had passed-- the dragon patrol had moved on. Every member of Zeta Squad was yet alive... but the sun was not yet over.

"Heartsong," She said in a quiet voice. "Go ahead and make the call."

The elf frowned, but adjusted her hat and returned a grim nod.

She brandished the Communications Crystal and charged it with mana.

[...Zeta-squad to any caller. Any caller, please respond.]

The magical buzz echoed between Zash's ears... and she held her breath, waiting for an answer.

Several seconds passed.

--and none came.

The sounds of distant battle along with death and dying, all too close, reverberated in the background.

It made Zashleigh question her call to ascend to the rooftops for safety.

Heartsong closed her eyes, her expression hard...

[Zeta-squad, any caller: we have two injured that are in critical need of medical attention. Our location is...]

"Hehe. I just... I jus' thought o' somethin' funny."

The pained laugh came from Lane. She had always been a thin, sick-looking girl-- and the fact that she was allergic to most makeup didn't help. But after a run-in with a cloud of green-and-pink magic sparkles, she looked more dead than alive.

Coughing up a half-laugh instead of more blood was a good sign. Still... she and Barnes both needed to be medically evacuated. There was only so much that field medicine could do for whatever draconic affliction was eating their insides.

"S... so you know how I used to be in Supply, right?" She said with a scoff, "I w's... the one that put in the order-- the one for those hideous Relay Crystals at base camp."

"That's what they are?" Dessi gasped. "Those things're huge!"

"And they're useless," Zash frowned, "since the enemy's using some kind of long-range signal silencer."

"N-nah," Lane said with a suspicious smile. "It's pro'lly not even the enemy... Have... you met anyone in Comms? Dumb... as rocks..."

"No way. You think Comms are dumb?" Dessi said, matching her friend's smile. "Now the girls in Evocs-- most brainless bimbos in the Tower."

A smile edged onto the corner of Zash's lips. She and her girls were in the middle of a combat zone and everyone was treating it like they were on their lunch break.

"Miss Gilchrist~" She said. "I feel like I should remind you that... Miss Heartsong is an Evoker."

"MehHh?" Dessi pouted, "Heartsong doesn't count."

"Heartsong," The elf in question replied, "Has saved the skin of her Senior Witch at least twice, this sun."

"And now the newbie thinks she's three times better than me," Dessi groaned.

"Ehehe..." A tiny giggle erupted from Lane, "Y'know, I heard that Heartsong's got a hot boyfr--"

"Hey!" A very insecure Dessi shouted back, "Shouldn't you be busy-- oh, I dunno, *dying*?"

"Yeah, yeah, sure thing," Lane waved. "Can I get a moment of silence, please?"

Zash closed her eyes, "If you need Dessi to shut up in order to die, you're gonna live forever, girl."

"...I'm like-- offended... but that was also pretty funny," Said Dessi with a wry smile.

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