Over Winterhold Castle, two beams of light continue to shine brightly in the sky—as the great sun sinks below the horizon and night falls, these two beams stand out starkly in the dark night sky, like two swords piercing the darkness, clearly visible within a few kiloters around Winterhold Castle.
These two beams might indeed represent two swords—the swords of Anzu and Typhon, and now, these swords are engaging in peace negotiations.
The private talks between the King and the Emperor have ended, and the general tone has been set during the confrontation between these two rulers. No one knows what they said in private, but since the formal negotiations are taking place as scheduled after nightfall, it ans that everything is proceeding roughly according to plan.
After the formal negotiations began, Duke Silas Loland, as the highest guardian of the kingdom in the eastern territories, entered the long hall of Winterhold Castle with his eldest son, Beltira Loland, and sat slightly behind the King’s side. From this position, he could see Andresha Wendell across the long table and, more importantly, the legendary, ambitious Typhon Ruler—Emperor Rosetta Augustus.
Rosetta Augustus wore a black coat with gold edges, an outfit that might be described as simple, yet it did not diminish the imposing aura of the Typhon Emperor. He sat directly opposite Francis II, his slightly somber and thin face showing a restrained smile. To Duke Silas Loland, he sensed a feeling of a predator living within the shadows, a predator brought into the light but still shrouded in darkness, smiling in the light but seeming to hide a different face in the darkness.
Conversely, Francis II maintained a calm and serene smile. The old King’s eyes seed to lack any oppressive force, yet they never left the body of Emperor Rosetta Augustus. His steady and powerful voice reached Duke Loland’s ears: "Seven hundred years have passed since the ancestors of the human nations braved the wilderness and established their kingdoms on the fringes of the continent. We have enjoyed seven hundred years of peace, but as many scholars have warned, we all know the wasteland has not receded a bit in these seven centuries, and although we are at peace now, just a wall separates us from utter disaster."
"The elves built this wall, but it is not as permanently reliable as we imagine," Rosetta Augustus spoke, nodding slightly, agreeing with Francis II’s words. "Now, clear evidence has erged that the monsters in the wasteland already have the ability to cross the barrier—this presents a common threat."
"So we have co together here, as our ancestors did seven centuries ago, seeking to unite against this threat," Francis II said solemnly, raising his hand skyward. "Our ancestors watch us from the realm of the Goddess of the Night. It is high ti, under the gaze and witness of the ancestors, to put aside pointless greed and disputes and jointly pursue the path of peace."
In the night sky, within the illuminated range of the two light beams, a swift and tiny bird fluttered through the light columns, letting out crisp cries as it flew higher.
It flew higher and higher, ascending within a few breaths to a place beyond the reach of human sight. Regardless of its flying speed or staying elevation, this small bird had surpassed the concept of an ordinary "bird." However, at this height and in the dark, the sentinels looking up from the ground could not see this counter-intuitive sight.
The bird flipped in the air, a sudden rush of magic power wrapping around its entire body, tearing the surrounding clouds into scattered pieces. Within a magic power stream filled with pale blue light, a massive form swiftly erged from the air and gradually coalesced into reality—hard azure-blue scales, a long and elegant neck, and enormous wings that seed to cover the sky. With these features erging, the forr "bird" had transford into a dragon.
The dragon adeptly adjusted its flight posture in the air, the brilliance of magic power rippling along its wings, relying on magic rather than aerodynamics to maneuver its heavy body at sharp angles in the sky. In its large golden vertical pupils, the two light beams of Winterhold Castle on the ground were still reflected.
The dragon gave Winterhold Castle one last look, then suddenly flapped its wings, continuing to rapidly rise to a height that no mortal could reach before it began gliding at the boundary of the atmosphere.
At this altitude, one could almost discern the faint curvature of the earth below.
After gliding for a mont, a faint golden light appeared before the dragon, quickly spreading into a crystal-clear concave screen, with complex curves and continually refreshing symbols flashing across it. Once those erratic lines settled, the dragon spoke in a solemn, low female voice: "Has reached the signal transmission altitude, beginning to report observation results.
"Anzu and Typhon, the two human realms, have begun peace negotiations. The negotiations are being held at Winterhold Castle on the border between the two countries and have entered a substantive phase...
"There have been no abnormal fluctuations of magic power detected across the continent. Since the last aberration invasion of the two countries, no further aberrations have been found in the northern parts of the mountain range.
"The magic-pervasive environnt at the top of the atmosphere remains stable... temporarily stable."
Lines and symbols on the concave screen wavered, and a responding voice erged soon after, clear despite the surrounding rushing air: "Do not forget the rules, do not intervene in the affairs of the Realm of the Mortals—unless they display sufficient variability or have co in contact with the Voyager’s legacy, dragons must not engage with the worldly affairs."
"Rest assured, the lesson of ’Inversion Tide’ remains vivid, I aced my history class," responded the blue-scale dragon in a light-hearted tone to the voice on the other side of the screen. "The fact that I’ve been sent out as an observer ans that the Five Kings Council trusts ."
"...They actually regretted sending you out by the third day when you went off burning human lands," said the voice from the other side of the screen, suddenly sounding a bit exasperated. "Besides, I don’t understand—do the council mbers truly not know that you have vision issues? How did you even qualify as an observer?!"
"Being an observer doesn’t necessarily require using your eyes," snorted the blue dragon, slightly dissatisfied. "No dragon in the holand is as familiar with this season’s human world as I am. Based on that alone, the council had to send out—"
As it spoke, the Blue Dragon awkwardly twisted its neck. "She" continued gliding but made an effort to lift her head and glanced at the densely packed bright stars in the high night sky.
The voice on the other side of the screen started to grumble again, but the Blue Dragon interrupted its companion: "Speaking of which, I wonder if it’s just an illusion, but I’ve felt like soone has been watching ..."
"Soone’s watching you?" The voice on the other side of the screen was full of surprise, "Where are you now?! Who could be seeing you?!"
"At the signal transmission altitude, the top of the atmosphere," the Blue Dragon awkwardly lifted its head again and continuously changed the direction of its gliding as if trying hard to avoid a persistent gaze. "I don’t know what’s happening—the gaze seems to be coming from above."
"Above? You... don’t talk nonsense, the Voyager left millions of years ago! Are you sure soone’s watching you from above?"
Listening to the voice sent by its companion, the Blue Dragon once again tried hard to look up at the sky. However, in the clear night sky, studded with countless stars, there was no sign of the Voyager. There were no fabled engine flashes like falling stars, no enchanting glow of a star gate opening, nor any brilliant flash of the starry path slicing through the night. The stars rely hung quietly in the night as they had for eternity.
"It must be my illusion," the Blue Dragon murmured, "there’s no way the Voyager could be coming back."
"...You scared the scales off !" The voice on the other side of the screen seed to breathe a sigh of relief but still carried a hint of complaint. "Alright, the communication is about to end. Continue with your mission. The next contact ti as usual."
The communication ended, and the floating projection in front of the Blue Dragon disappeared, but the feeling of being watched from above still lingered around the dragon.
"...Who would be so vile to set an Eye of the Mage in the stratosphere?!" Monts later, the dragon finally got angry, then suddenly flapped her huge wings. Fueled by a stormy gust of Magic Power, her enormous body started to make a sharp turn in the air, "I’ll spin you dizzy with just one aerial maneuver... Agh... Agh... cramp... cramp..."
In the Cecil territory, Gawain ended his connection with the satellite in astonishnt.
He was observing Winterhold Castle—after his first surveillance at noon, he had rested for a while in the afternoon and then continued this task after dinner.
Although after regaining the adjustnt rights to the satellite’s perspective, he found that the clarity of the surveillance image had significantly decreased. It was no longer as high-definition as when it was in a "satellite spirit" state, but a real-ti surveillance view still allowed him to observe the general situation of the border treaty negotiations imdiately. So, estimating when the negotiations started, he would keep an eye on the movents at Winterhold Castle whenever he had ti.
Up until just now, a dragon suddenly broke into his view...
He could be one hundred percent sure it was a dragon, and judging from the scale color and general outline, he felt that the dragon looked very similar to the one he saw when he first awoke from the grave in the old Cecil territory—just that he couldn’t be certain it was the sa one because no one knew whether all dragons looked the sa.
After the dragon suddenly entered his sight, Gawain’s full attention was drawn to it. This was the second ti he had observed a dragon appear since his "resurrection," and his imnse curiosity even made him montarily forget about the ongoing negotiations at Winterhold Castle—he imdiately began to track the dragon’s movents, setting aside the matters of Winterhold Castle temporarily.
But this didn’t have much impact, after all, Winterhold Castle’s roof was obstructing the view, and the current satellite perspective didn’t have a penetration function, so even if he continued to stare at the negotiation site, he would just be studying their roof.
He tracked the dragon for over ten minutes, and in the latter part of the chase, Gawain was surprised to discover one thing: the dragon could actually sense his gaze!
The dragon frequently lifted its head and changed its flight path; this was a clear sign that it realized soone was spying on it.
But what reassured Gawain was that the dragon seed to be unable to deal with the satellite in the sky. The massive creature was never able to escape from his gaze...
Until finally, the dragon evaded surveillance in a way that left Gawain dumbfounded—it was an exciting and thrilling high-speed maneuver, accompanied by a spiral dive directly toward the ground.
Faced with such an unexpected and technically demanding maneuver, Gawain’s speed in adjusting the perspective and focus finally fell half a beat behind, and he lost track of the dragon...
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