Chapter 746 — Dragon and Dragon
Blade of Dawn · Page 1 of 4
The frozen sea of the far north still carried its bitter, biting winds, but the eternal Great Barrier of Thalondor kept the dragons' homeland as warm and comfortable as ever.
Meheng Pernia awoke from her broad, soft bed, the familiar ceiling of her bedchamber reflected in her pale violet eyes. She stared blankly for several minutes, then blinked, drew a deep breath, and stretched out in a long, luxurious yawn.
"It's been so long since I slept in my own home..."
The blue dragoness murmured to herself, and lying lazily in bed, waved a hand to one side. The sensors set into the room received the command at once, and the slanted roof panel on one side of the chamber slid silently open; daylight poured in through the fully transparent polymer shell, scattering the dimness within, and one after another the various devices around the bedchamber stirred to life, a low hum rising from every direction.
A curtain of transparent polymer descended over the wall facing the bed, and upon it appeared a softly glowing ring of light. The edges of that image trembled as it produced a pleasant, mechanically synthesized voice: "Good afternoon, Meheng Pernia."
"Good afternoon, Omega..." Meheng rubbed her eyes and yawned, her reply slurred and indistinct—then, hearing her own words, she froze. "Huh? Afternoon?!"
"Yes. You have slept for eighteen hours. Please be at ease—this is normal. Your body required repair, especially your nervous system. Considerable sleep ensures your nerves recover as quickly as possible."
"But I had an appointment to meet with Speaker Anqian today!" Meheng cried out. "He'll kill me!!"
"Please be at ease, he will not. Speaker Anqian will merely deduct this month's Class II field stipend. There is no need for anxiety—it has already been deducted."
"...Damn it, I should have had you set an alarm! The kind that slaps you in the face with Arcane Missiles and Pyroblasts!" Meheng gave her hair a fierce tug, then, crestfallen, swung herself out of bed. "Fine, it's already this late anyway... draft an apology letter for me, and reschedule the appointment. And besides all this bad news—isn't there anything good?"
"Your heart has been recalibrated, and the spinal implant is fully prepared and ready for installation at any time."
"Well, that's something at least," Meheng shook her head, and still in her nightgown, headed for the bedchamber door. "Take me to the workshop... and get two units of 'Phantasm' booster ready for me while you're at it."
"At your service, Meheng."
The transport elevator installed within the dragon's lair ran silently and swiftly, and in a mere half minute carried Meheng from the bedchamber of her "humanoid residence" to her lair at the mountain's summit.
Stepping out of the elevator, Meheng entered a vast, enormous hemispherical hall. This immense interior space had been carved and rebuilt from the natural structure of the mountain: in its lower half great expanses of evenly hewn rock wall were still visible, and fixed upon those walls were quantities of polymer brackets and cable conduits, while the upper half was a tightly sealed alloy dome.
The hall was broad and open, yet all around its perimeter stood numerous mechanical devices and golden pillars engraved with intricate, magnificent patterns. Three of those pillars now stood in an active state, flowing light flickering across their surfaces, and within them certain objects could faintly be glimpsed.
This was Meheng's "dragon lair," a nest she had spent several thousand years painstakingly crafting. Compared with the "supremely ornate, exquisitely elaborate" style championed by most dragons of this age, her lair appeared rather plain—though in truth its décor had not always been this way.