Path of Dragons 14 - Chapter 31 - A Needed Respite

Elijah stirred.

For a moment, he forgot that Sadie had left him.  For a second, he convinced himself that she was the woman next to him.  But that delusion didn’t last long.  His bedmate was too soft.  Too pliant.  Too not-Sadie.

What’s more, Elijah’s memory was well intact.  He remembered the past week, and with perfect clarity.  Upon his arrival in Seattle, he’d spent a few hours just wandering the city.  And he’d come away impressed by how well everything fit together.  That feeling only strengthened when he saw the Domineum.  It wasn’t the largest building in the area, but it definitely had the most character. 

Its size also sent a message of exclusivity.  Not everyone would be allowed through those doors.

For once, nobody had tried to stop Elijah.  Instead, they welcomed him like he was a visiting dignitary.  Or royalty.  The room they gave him was more like a large apartment, and one with all the expected luxuries.  Silk sheets.  An expensive selection of alcohol.  And way more space than Elijah would ever need.

It even had a hot tub.

It definitely lived up to Isaiah’s billing, and for a while, Elijah just enjoyed the provided accommodations.  He sampled the booze, he played with the shower system.  He even watched television for the first time in decades.

But none of that could hold his attention for long, so he’d soon set out into the city.

Like a tourist, he visited all the highlights.  The lone remaining fixture from old Seattle was the Space Needle, which had been refurbished.  The football stadium had been replaced by a much larger structure they used to host gladiatorial games, while the other sports arenas had disappeared entirely. 

The city’s transformation extended much further than the comprising buildings.  The public transportation system was probably the most impressive part, and it obviously took some cues from the one in Gatehold.  Or maybe vice versa.  Either way, it was extensive, and with it, people could cross the entire city in less than half an hour.

Elijah was also happy to see that Isaiah had incorporated plenty of trees, bushes, and parks into the city’s layout.  That, combined with the lack of fossil fuels, kept the air crisp and clean.  It still smelled like a city, but it was at least tolerable.

The people were diverse, too.  Not only was every ethnicity there in abundance, but there were also a wide variety of races.  Elves made up the largest non-human demographic, probably because of the city’s alliance with the nearby elven city of Arvandor.  Briefly, he’d found himself wondering how K’hana was doing, but the curiosity was fleeting.  He hadn’t thought of her in years, and he suspected the same was true from her perspective.

If she was even still alive.

There was no guarantee there.  Elves aged slightly slower than humans, but Earth was an exceedingly dangerous place.  The death toll was unfathomable, even after the initial losses.

Elijah did see a few races he’d never seen before.  And a couple he hadn’t encountered since the Trial of Primacy.  Like the feathered people whose name he couldn’t recall.  Or some people who looked a little like giants, though only slightly larger than humans.  He even saw some reptilian people that reminded him of the Ka’alaki, though with more with newt-like features. 

When he’d asked about them, he’d discovered that they were a semi-aquatic species called naga, and that they had built a submerged city near the Court of Light.  Apparently, they’d been quite instrumental in conquering that Primal Realm, though Elijah suspected their help had been more logistical than anything else.

Either way, he found their presence in Seattle fascinating.

Eventually, his wandering led him to an expensive restaurant.  It was while he was enjoying his meal that he was reminded of something else he’d missed while he was on Gorveth. 

Companionship.

The impetus behind that reminder was his server, whose flirtations were so obvious that even Elijah saw them for what they were.  They had slept together that night, but she was gone before he even awoke the next day.  He’d considered going back to visit her, but the message seemed clear.  It was a one-time thing.

Elijah respected her obvious wishes.

But that night had opened the floodgate, and over the past week, he’d gone on a bit of a sexual rampage through the city’s bars and other gathering places.  He wasn’t particularly proud of it, and he certainly wasn’t so naïve as to believe that the women were with him because they liked him.

Maybe they did, after a fashion.  He liked to think he could be fun and personable when the situation called for it.  But he also knew that his obvious power and wealth played an outsized part in each encounter.

The moment he started throwing ethereum around, a certain type of person started to take note.  Most of them were women, especially when his tastes became obvious. 

Elijah’s eyes flickered open to reveal the woman beside him.

She was beautiful.  Half-elf.  Her ears came to a slight point, and her features displayed a hint of that ethereal, elven perfection.  But her human heritage served to soften it just enough to make her even more appealing.

Especially naked and tangled in silk sheets.

Not for the first time, Elijah realized how easy it would be to lose himself in the kind of life he’d been living.  The endless party was more than a little appealing. 

But he recognized how empty it could be.  Even after only a few days, he’d begun to tire of it all.  As much fun as he’d had with the woman next to him, he knew the connection was hollow.  It was a poor replacement for what he’d shared with Sadie.  For what he’d imagined coming back to her would entail. 

He sighed, then extricated himself from her slender arms.

Sitting on the bed, he rested his elbows on his knees and just stared at the expensive rug beneath his feet.  It was then that he realized how self-destructive his actions had been. 

Elijah had never been much of a partier.  Sure, he wasn’t averse to drinking with friends like Atticus, Carmen, or Kurik.  That could be fun.  But what he’d been up to since arriving in Seattle went a step further. 

And not in a good way.

He pushed himself to his feet, then ran his hand through his hair before picking up the telephone and calling room service.  His order wasn’t complex.  Just an omelet, some bacon, and a carafe of coffee.  But he knew from experience how satisfying it would be.

Domineum employed a high-level Chef, after all.  Everything they made would be of the highest quality.

Elijah was in the middle of confirming said quality with the gusto of a starving man when the woman awoke.  She fixed him with a sleepy smile before pushing her hair out of her face.  “Good morning.”

Elijah returned her greeting with one of his own, then added, “I ordered you breakfast, too.  Hope you like omelets.”

With that, he pulled the meal out of his Arcane Loop, where he’d stored it to maintain freshness. 

She sat up, completely ignoring her own nudity as she stretched.  “How thoughtful.”

“I’m a thoughtful guy,” Elijah agreed with a grin.

“But I’m going to have to take a raincheck,” she responded, finishing her languid stretch and climbing out of bed.  She approached, giving him a kiss on the cheek.  “I had a good time last night.”

“Ah, you’re leaving?”

“I have work,” she answered.  “We all can’t be independently wealthy.”

“I’m on vacation,” he protested.

“Like I said, I need to go to work,” she said, collecting her clothes from where she’d left them the night before.  Elijah watched her as she dressed, appreciating the show.  For her part, she seemed to take pleasure in having an audience.  Once she’d finished dressing, she sat on the edge of the bed and slipped her shoes on.  As she did, she reiterated that she’d had a good time. “Maybe we can do it again sometime.”

“Maybe,” Elijah agreed.

And then, without further conversation, she gave him another kiss on the cheek and left the room.  It was only after she was gone that he realized that he had no way of contacting her.  He’d met her at a club, and in retrospect, he didn’t even remember her name. 

“Ugh,” he muttered.

Maybe it was for the best, though.  It wasn’t like he was going to stick around.  The fact that she obviously knew that just made it easier to disconnect.  Still, it would make for a pleasant memory.

Elijah’s thoughts drifted away from his one-night-stand as he finished his breakfast.  Once he was finished, he took advantage of the suite’s luxurious shower, where he spent nearly thirty minutes just enjoying the feel of the high-pressure, scalding water.

After that, he drank another cup of coffee while watching television.  The offerings were pretty slim and wholly localized to Seattle.  No more thousand-channel services where a person could watch something from across the globe.  However, the news station did give him a sense of the climate within the city.

Not that he needed it.

He’d paid attention during his previous outings, even taking a few hours to visit the Undercity, where he confirmed that conditions were much better than they had been the last time he’d come to Seattle. 

It seemed that Isaiah had taken that little revolt seriously and had spent the past three decades working to right those wrongs.

Of course, the people down there were still mostly poor.  That was an inescapable fact of any economy.  Some people were just more valuable to the city than others, and they were compensated appropriately.  But everyone had what they needed to not only survive, but to maintain a culture of upward mobility that gave them a chance to escape their lower-class lives. 

That was as good as it was going to get, Elijah felt.

Once he was sufficiently caffeinated, he dressed and left the hotel room.  This time, he wasn’t on a sightseeing mission.  Nor did he want to visit bars or clubs.  Instead, he had a very specific destination in mind, and it constituted a long-overdue visit.  He should’ve done it a lot sooner.

However, on his way to the train platform, Elijah saw something he didn’t really expect.  He stopped in the center of a wide plaza surrounded by skyscrapers constructed of metal and glass.  Elijah didn’t care about those, though.  In a city like Seattle, they were a dime-a-dozen.

What did interest him was the statue in front of him.

It depicted a very familiar dragon, his clawed foot upon a pile of dead war elves.  And the artist had been extremely cognizant of the details.  Each of those corpses looked absolutely real, and to the point where Elijah wondered if someone hadn’t simply used dead bodies to create molds.

He focused on the plinth, where he saw a plaque.

“To the heroes who fought in the War Elf Invasion of 12.  We will never forget your sacrifices.”

The dragon was obviously meant to be Elijah.

It seemed that Seattle hadn’t forgotten his actions in that failed invasion, which filled him with mixed feelings.  He’d never really cared for attention, but he also couldn’t deny that he appreciated their gratitude.

Still, it wasn’t long before he moved on, arriving twenty minutes later at his destination.

The Silo had grown.

It had also multiplied.

What had once been a single vertical farm – impressive though it was – had become twenty such buildings.  Each one was nearly fifty stories tall, their glass façades glittering in the desert sun. 

Elijah approached the main entrance, where he informed the guards that he was there to see Lucy Graves, the head engineer in charge of the entire Silo project.  She’d built it from scratch – alongside her now-deceased husband – so she was quite an important figure in Seattle.

More importantly – to Elijah, at least – she was his very first serious girlfriend.  Any chance of a relationship had long since passed, but she was still someone he cared about.

Apparently, word of his stay in Seattle had spread to the Silo, because the guards didn’t give him any guff.  Instead, one of them escorted him inside, through the lobby, and to a silver elevator.  A few minutes later, he was led out into the thirty-second floor. 

The aura of vitality was the first thing Elijah noticed, followed by the dense humidity.  But none of it came close to his first sight of Lucy, who was dressed much the same as the last time he’d seen her.  Just shorts and a tee-shirt, reminding him a little of Laura Dern in Jurassic Park.  Not quite as tall, but the essence was the same.

“Hey,” he said with a shy wave.  “Long time, no see.”

She didn’t answer.  Instead, she just crossed the intervening distance and threw her arms around him in a tight hug.