The Lost Scion

The Lost Scion

## Blurb

**Be Careful What You Ask For…**

Alastair Stone has already paid off two of the three favors he owes his ancestor Aldwyn.

He expects the third to be big, but he has no idea *how* big.

Aldwyn reveals he has another scion—a man the dragon has sensed, but never been able to locate.

He wants Stone to find him.

The shocks don’t end there, though. Stone soon discovers the mysterious scion is a lot more familiar than he expected—which leaves him with a big dilemma.

Does he obey the oath he swore to Aldwyn and deliver the scion to him? Or does he take a desperate gamble and join forces with the only man he knows who has a chance to help him take the dragon down once and for all?

Before he can make that choice, though, he has to find the scion. That’s hard enough—but when he succeeds, he’s thrown into a horrific series of events the two of them must survive before they can even think about Aldwyn.

And meanwhile, Aldwyn has plans of his own…

## Plot

Alastair Stone is enjoying a dinner and theater date with Mme. Broussard, and finding her lovely company. He does ask briefly about her prophesy for him, but she tells him she never remembers them, and wouldn’t be able to make anything of it, so she prefers he not tell her more. Before they even finish dinner, Stone gets a call from Aldwyn to ‘return home’. Risking the dragon’s ire, he ignores it.

After the theater, Stone escorts Marie-Thérèse to a portal and makes his excuses, though he’s been hopeful their connection was felt on both sides. But Aldwyn was waiting, and probably not at all happy about it. Aldwyn demonstrates this by slamming Stone into a wall as soon as he arrives. He warns Stone that his friends are vulnerable, even if he choses not to kill Stone himself. This just makes Alastair angrier.

### Pause here a moment WARNING, Possible Spoilers Ahead

They settle down, and Aldwyn reminds Stone he has one more task to complete. In fact, he’d considered using that task to require Stone to agree to more. But, even without the oath-tasks, Aldwyn still has major influence over Stone as his sire, and can use him any time he likes.

The dragon goes on to explain that, prior to his imprisonment, he’d has as many was twenty scions. He’d thought Stone and Ian were the only survivors of the centuries. But he’s detected another, briefly, and only twice. Both times, the scion disappeared before Aldwyn could search him out - something that shouldn’t be possible. Perhaps Stone’s mundane technological friends can find him. He gives Stone three months to find the man.

The next day, while waiting for information Aldwyn promised to send, Stone reasons that, if the missing scion is powerful enough to hide from Aldwyn, he should be made aware of the dragon and his manipulating ways; Aldwyn didn’t forbid him filling the guy in. Aldwyn’s message arrives saying only that the scion hasn’t been sensed in four years and, prior to that, only twice. He gives coordinates that turn out to be in Monaco and Las Vegas.

Verity calls to ask Stone to a barbecue, which he declines, and asks how his date with Marie- Thérèse went. This brings her prophesy to mind: *You balance on a tightrope stretched between two massive rocks. You think the two rocks to be separate, but they are more entwined than you ever suspected*. Stone apologizes and hangs up on Verity. Was the reason Aldwyn couldn’t find his scion because the man wasn’t on Earth? Could one of the rocks be Trevor Harrison?

The timing fit; Harrison had closed access to Calanar four years prior and not returned, not since keeping Cassius from forcing them to leave the Gateway to Calanar open. If Aldwyn found Harrison, he could add things up, discover Calanar or force Harrison to reveal it, and use its magic-richness to tip the balance the dragons maintained. That would be dire for the dragons, Earth, and Calanar. He and Harrison needed to ally against Aldwyn – if he could figure out how to get to Calanar to tell him about the threat. He still had Harrison’s calculations; he had to get to work.

A week later, Verity insists he resurface and come for dinner. Stone fills her in as best he can without breaking oaths. She can’t help with his portal, of course, but she does suggest a mind-sharpening potion that could help him get through his calculations better and faster. The hitch she warns, though, will be that he crashes for a long sleep after the potion wears off. And, she says, check with Nakamura first, in case Harrison has actually been in touch.

Unfortunately, Nakamura has not even heard from Harrison in the last four years, which makes Stone worry what might have happened to him. He asks to see Harrison’s suite. Nakamura agrees, though he says the place is locked down. Stone does find it locked, but not warded, which is strange. Moreover, according to Harrison, the place - which resides in both dimensions – should have been inaccessible to anyone once he decoupled the two planes. Unless…something happened to the Nexus on the Calanar side and the Earth-associated parts snapped back into place. More evidence that something was wrong with Harrison, Calanar, or both. And Stone was the only one who might possibly find out, and help.

Back in Encantada the next day, Stone takes Verity’s potion. He wakes nearly 36 hours later to tons of calculations on his white boards, in notebooks, and on scattered papers. When he finally makes sense of his notes, he knows he needs to perform the ritual as close to the physical Nexus as possible – in Harrison’s suite. He’s also going to need more power, so his figures indicate an additional portal to tap into the island’s energy.

It takes over a week to construct the circle in Harrison’s suite. Verity insists Stone stop and come for dinner at one point. Again, he does his best to explain his behavior, but he makes it clear he’s holding back for her safety, not wanting her or anyone else to have knowledge Aldwyn (whom they don’t know about except in vague terms) can come after them for.

The day he’s ready to go, he’s about to begin the ritual when Aldwyn summons him. He lights into the dragon for interfering in his progress toward finding the lost scion. Aldwyn says he was to update him on his efforts, but Stone grabs at the loophole in their agreement: he was to find the man, but not obligated to keep reporting in. Initially angry, Aldwyn becomes slyly pleased. Stone has just demonstrated he can keep up with dragons and their machinations, making him even more useful. He lets Stone go, but threatens that failure to find the scion by the deadline will have dire consequences.

Stone performs his ritual and steps through to – nothing. He’s falling through fog, then a moonless night. Using levitation to guide and slow his descent, he finally touches down, but sees no sign of New Argana, or the Nexus tower. Afraid he’d landed in the Wastes, he takes cover under what he thought was a rock outcropping, but turns out to be huge chunks of rubble from a building. When daylight arrives, he finds he’s in the ruins of a town with destroyed buildings and vehicles, but no bodies. It looks old, too. Levitating for perspective, he’s horrified to see the ruins of the Nexus tower. Both that and New Argana have been completely destroyed.

As near as he can figure from the time discrepancy between Calanar and Earth, this might have happened as much as a hundred years ago. And still, there are only ruins, no bodies, as if the people fled before it happened. Continuing to explore, he also notes that the magic here fluctuates oddly. He approaches a strangely-shaped outcropping, and realizes it’s concrete, possibly a bunker. He uses large chunks of rubble to break a way through, exposing an area underground. The first chamber is empty, but the door leads to what appears to be the underground garage of the tower. The air is so stale and rank that he has to back away and wait to go in.

What he finds is a vast space full of vehicles, machines, and crates. And bodies. There are no signs of violence, as if the people were simply stopped in their tracks, whatever they’d been doing. There are at least a hundred people, all reduced to skeletons in rotting clothing, including children. Something catches his eye and, when he goes to examine it, he finds a human arm sticking out from beneath some rubble. It’s whole, wearing a familiar ring, and – it moves.

Digging Harrison out of the rubble takes time and care. As it was, Stone began to lose his magic grip on a huge beam, but Harrison manages to blow some rubble away and pull himself out in time before lapsing into unconsciousness.

Stone makes Harrison comfortable and checks for injuries, finding nothing serious. If he’d been injured, he’d long ago healed, though still trapped in the rubble. As he revives, Harrison learns he’s been trapped beneath the rubble of the Nexus tower for approximately a hundred years, and that all of New Argana is in ruins. Worse, everyone there is long dead. He says they were betrayed, but his memory is still hazy, so he doesn’t elaborate.

Stone goes to find water and returns to find Harrison up, standing over Errin’s corpse. Later, they find Kira. He tells Stone that a radical arm of the resistance had decided New Argana was bleeding off the best and brightest of the rebels, and set about destroying it. They succeeded in convincing the population they were under attack, and everyone sheltered in the garage beneath the Nexus. Then, they used gas or something to kill them all, Harrison included. As far as the damage, he has no idea what happened. After assessing the situation outside – the fact that New Argana’s protective shield is gone – Harrison goes to rest, telling Stone his own reasons for coming to find him will have to wait.

The next morning, Harrison hunts up a strange critter for food, then sets out to find the Nexus, the pyramidal pan-dimensional space that made New Argana and travel to Earth possible. He intends to use the Nexus to travel to the last stored point in time he used it, over a hundred years prior, and prevent New Argana’s destruction. Stone could do the same, going back prior to Aldwyn kidnapping Ian, then imprisoning him, and binding him to the three tasks. But he doesn’t seriously consider it; he likes his current life and couldn’t predict how preventing Aldwyn’s interference would change that.

They set out to search the area, determining the direction the tower fell, and heading for where its top would have landed. When they find it, Harrison says the mechanical parts can be repaired, but it runs on magic, and one of the crystals that conducts it has been damaged. He could find one in the cities, possibly, but they have no way to cross the Wastes. If he were to use a circle to return to Earth, any use of the Nexus from that end would wipe out his ability to go back and change things. Stone says it’s even worse than that, and he needs to fill Harrison in on why he came in the first place.

Alastair tells Harrison the story of the dragons, their exile to Earth, and their reproduction with human mages to produce scions. He goes on the explain about Aldwyn, his own sire, and the dragon’s machinations, leading up to his task to find the lost scion – Harrison. He’s come not to take Harrison to Aldwyn, but to warn him to stay away from Earth until they can find a way to get out from under the dragon’s influence.

Harrison says he won’t return to Earth in any case, until he can repair the Nexus. Stone says it’s fairly hopeless, but if he had any way to help… Then he remembers that scions can travel via ley lines. He has Harrison draw a map of Calanar’s ley lines, then they walk to the nearest, where he demonstrates using it to travel. Unsurprisingly, Harrison picks it up quickly. He even begins formulating in his mind ways that the method could be used between dimensions, since ley lines are universal.

They choose Drendell as their destination, traveling to a point just outside the Barrens, so they can arrive unseen. Harrison goes first and, when Alastair arrives, he finds the man under attack by a group of the magic-corrupted creatures of the Wastes. They fend them off then set off for Drendell, assuming they’d miscalculated and arrived farther out than they’d intended. Unfortunately, they’re wrong. The Barrens have become part of the Wastes, and the city’s borders have shrunk. The city itself is a ruin from what they can see. Then they find Temolan - broken and derelict and lying on top of parts of Drendell.

Harrison relates that he and Kira once thwarted a radical plan to sabotage Temolan and bring it down (House of Cards). Kira had found out that all the cities were connected via ley lines; bringing down one would have destroyed them all, as well as the ground cities and, potentially, the entire population of Calanar. With Temolan fallen, it’s inevitable that all the others had fallen, as well. There might not be anyone left alive to help them.

That’s proven untrue when a group of bandits surrounds the pair, armed with bows and knives. Stone and Harrison easily subdue them and Stone questions them about what happened. All the group has are stories passed down, but Temolan apparently didn’t just crash, but floated down. Apparently the Talented managed to control its descent. The loss of life was catastrophic, but not cataclysmic. Some kind of magical contamination forced the surviving Talented into Drendell, where they quickly laid claim to the best parts of the city. Harrison deduces this would be nearest the coast, where water would mitigate the effects of harmful magical fallout.

Letting the bandits go unharmed, the pair proceed farther into Drendell, to a square where they finally find a significant number of people. They’re trying to convince them that they’re not Zaps when two of the Talented themselves arrive with their usual superiority complex. Not liking Stone’s tone when he answers what’s going on, the man raises magic to punish him. Harrison immediately blasts the man, killing him. Stone questions his companion, a woman, learning that a Talented named Balanis might have a crystal or know where to find one. She can take them to him. But she begins to press her privilege to be again, becoming argumentative. Harrison kills her, as well. They leave the people to dispose of the bodies and head for the Enclave, where the Talented have taken up residence.

There, they find pristine white walls and beautiful towers, similar to larger ones Temolan once had, in contrast to the squalor of the rest of the cit. But it’s all illusion. Stone’s amazed to see the Talented live little better than the Dim of Drendell, in reality. Disguised as the pair who accosted them in the square, they fake their way into the Enclave. Rather randomly, they choose a man and invade his home. Harrison is the menacing one, while Stone does the questioning. The man tells them where to find Balanis, who lives underground, is a crazy recluse, and sees no one. They leave the man magically stunned before following his directions to Balanis’ residence.

Balanis turns out to be an irascible old man who doesn’t bother with disguises. His subterranean home is comfortable and quite real – no illusions. He also has utter contempt for the rest of the Talented. Unfortunately, he doesn’t have the kind of crystal Harrison needs. Guards arrive to search Balanis’ place, tipped off by one of the villagers. Balanis directs them out a hidden back way, saying the only place they might find one is in the ruins of Temolan.

Unlike in Drendell and the Enclave, skeletal remains are everywhere near Temolan; no one would approach to retrieve them, fearing magical contamination. Harrison had previously entered the city via a maintenance hatch with Kira, when the radicals of the resistance previously tried to sabotage it. He locates one, and he and Stone manage to pry it open enough to enter. Inside is full of desiccated bodies, as well, as they make their way to where Harrison suspects they’ll find the maintenance area where crystals would have been used.

As they walk, Stone, makes a quip in reference to Star Trek. At Harrison’s lack of reaction, he asks, did the man never watch television as a kid? He says no, he did not. Alastair realizes he has no idea of Harrison’s true age, and asks. Harrison says he was born in the 1950s, leaving Stone with a mental image of a 20-year-old Harrison in polyester disco wear.

When they reach an area where Harrison believes they might find crystals, he cautions Stone; something feels wrong in the area. Stone investigates inside various control panels, while Harrison goes to inspect a store room. When it seems Harrison has been gone too long, Alastair goes to find out why. He finds the room full of globular creatures that eat away at his light spell and shield. Harrison is buried in dozens of them, all attached to his shield, eating away at it. Harrison’s default reaction to any threat is to use overwhelming magical force, so it takes a minute to convince the man to drop his shield, depriving the creatures of food. Stone tosses a light spell and the creatures follow, and he gets Harrison out of there. He also has two crystals. Unfortunately, either the creatures have been eating away at the ley line that should be present or the fall of the city disrupted it, so they can’t pop back to New Argana from here.

They leave Temolan and find the ley line in the outer remains of Drendell, and finally return to New Argana. As Harrison begins his repairs, Stone warns him that successful in averting the disaster on Calanar or not, Harrison must not return to Earth during the four years he was missing, or he’d risk some kind of time paradox. Harrison says he plans to shift the time differential between Calanar and Earth to a 1:1 relationship when he’s finished with sorting things with the radicals. He also postulates he may be able to figure out how to travel ley lines between dimensions, giving him plenty to work on in the intervening time, while also avoiding the need to wait a hundred years on his end to return to Earth. Stone tells him about the island, with its high magic levels, and tells Harrison to put some thought to how they can use it against Aldwyn.

While Harrison works on the Nexus, Stone clears space and begins his circle. Harrison quickly has the Nexus back online and assists with the circle. Alastair tells him to plan to return to Earth ‘tomorrow’, subjectively, so they can plan their takedown of Aldwyn quickly, before the dragon can sense and find them both. The circle complete, Stone returns to Earth, and the Obsidian.

After texting Verity to say he’s safely back, and reassuring Nakamura that Harrison is alive and well, Stone flies home to avoid Aldwyn hijacking him via a ley line or portal. As he waits for Harrison’s return, he ponders solutions to the Aldwyn problem. He doesn’t actually want to kill him, just get the dragon to leave him the hell alone. He feels hampered by Aldwyn’s restriction on any of the other dragons helping him, but realizes, they are not restricted against helping *Harrison*.

Harrison calls to say he’s back, and was successful in turning back Calanar to prior to the catastrophe, and all of his friends are alive and well. He also says he is hiding himself from Aldwyn, and will explain when Stone arrives. Alastair flies, of course, and arrives at the Obsidian to a grateful Nakamura thanking him for whatever it was he did to return Harrison.

In Harrison’s suite, he learns the man has shifted part of the Nexus to Earth. With Stone there now, he shifts it back to Calanar, so Aldwyn won’t be able to sense them. Harrison relates that the radicals hadn’t been responsible for New Argana’s destruction. The insane alchemist, Millia, used her concoctions to corrupt the minds of certain individuals so they would smuggle poison gas into New Aragana. She also attempted to start a war by having Temolan launch a weak attack on Sholandre, assuming Sholandre would retaliate with lethal force. Harrison prevented her from succeeding, and exposed her to Olystriar, their sympathetic member of the Temolan council. Millia was publicly executed for her crimes. The shock wave from the falling cities that took out New Argana, and the poison gas that killed its population never happened.

In the intervening time, Harrison has rebuilt the Nexus, and it currently has a 1:1 time relationship to Earth. Moreover, he’s built a portal that will allow travel between dimensions. During his experimentation, he located a dimension with about 1/10 Earth’s ambient magic. If they can get Aldwyn there, and adjust their magical equations to maintain their connection to Calanar’s power, they can subdue the dragon. Harrison can build a second portal on Stone’s island, where there is plenty of magic to power it. The problem is getting Aldwyn there, then through the portal. Harrison proposes he, himself, would be sufficient bait.

They need help, and Stone remembers that the dragons have to strictures regarding Harrison. It’s a risk, since none of them but Mme Huan know much about Harrison. But Stone settles on Gabriel as their liaison, of sorts. He texts Gabriel, who arrives almost immediately, outside the Nexus area, where Stone meets him. Before Harrison calls to notify Stone he’s ready, Aldwyn summons Stone. Realizing this is his point of no return, he ignores the summons.  As soon as they re-enter the Nexus, Harrison subtly shifts them back to Calanar.

Gabriel is adamant that he will not assist in Aldwyn’s murder, but Stone reassures him that’s not their aim. They simply want to incapacitate him long enough to extract promises to leave them and theirs alone. In order to hijack Aldwyn via ley line travel, they’ll need some ritual and alchemical elements, and Harrison’s blood. Alchemy is not Gabriel’s strong suit, but he can see if Mme Huan is willing to provide what they’ll need. He also agrees to distract Aldwyn long enough for them to get their portal ready when it’s time. Gabriel agrees, but only after Harrison formally asks on his own behalf, since Gabriel can’t help Stone.

Gabriel leaves, returning to Earth, while Harrison gets started disassembling the critical parts of his dimensional gateway. The actual archway is not needed, as it can be recreated from items on the island. Stone spends some time with Errin, catching up, and very glad she’s still alive…again.

Finally, Stone and Harrison finish preparations and shift the Nexus to Earth. Stone texts Gabriel that it’s time and, while keeps Aldwyn’s attention, they pop to the island where Harrison sets up a shield generator that should hide their presence. They scavenge materials from the nearby resort and Harrison begins building his gateway. Stone uses the time to contact Verity and Ian to reassure them he’s alright, and to warn Ian not to use a portal until Stone says it’s safe.

Gabriel arrives with Mme Huan’s alchemical concoctions as Harrison finishes his gateway. He wants Stone not to underestimate Aldwyn. Once he leaves, the pair construct the circle to trap Aldwyn, using the alchemical blood as a kind of magnet. Stone has another vial of a substance also containing Harrison’s blood to apply to Aldwyn.

Stone pops to the Surrey house and quickly scatters the sandy substance on the floor and furniture where Aldwyn will come in contact with it. He calls for Aldwyn, and when the dragon arrives – in the chair he usually chooses – he’s angry. Stone placates him and says he’s found the scion, in Las Vegas. In fact he’s so happy that this will get Aldwyn’s attention off him for a while, he’d like to come along and see the two meet. Aldwyn doesn’t care; he just wants the location. Stone gives him the coordinates, and Aldwyn disappears.

Following close on his heels, Stone arrives behind Aldwyn in the circle on the island, and blasts him through Harrison’s gateway. The two men follow and the gateway closes, set to reappear in an hour. In a tiny desert dimension, the scions square off against Aldwyn, saying they just want to talk, now that they have him here where magic is weak. Aldwyn is furious, and lets loose with a blast that is just shy of killing power. In the battle that ensues, Alastair realizes his critical error: dragons are inherently magical. It seems Aldwyn is able to *store* magic within himself. He has another trick up his sleeve, as well, loosing magic that eats away at their shields. Stone and Harrison call up a last desperate blast that buckles Aldwyn’s shield. The dragon drops his attack and calls for a halt.

All three men are bloodied and exhausted. Aldwyn, though, is out of power, while his scions can still access their secret Calanar connection. Stone negotiates their cease fire, demanding that Aldwyn promise to cease his affiliation with them as their sire. While their blood bond can’t be erased, he can make an oath to leave Stone, Harrison, and anyone they care about alone. Aldwyn refuses to include Ian, however, in his renunciation of the sire-scion relationship. Stone concedes the point, since Ian is also covered as one of Stone’s loved ones. He also gets Aldwyn to agree to let Gabriel resume teaching Ian.

A day later, Stone is feeling relief. Harrison returned to Calanar, but plans to spend more time on Earth. He plans to bring more of its technology back to implement on Calanar. Ian is satisfied that Aldwyn won’t interfere with him and Gabriel. Stone reconnects with Verity, Jason and the others.

A month later, he receives a magical summons to New York City, from a dragon, no doubt. A quick message to Harrison confirms he received one, as well. When they arrive in a vacant office building and are directed to an elevator, they find themselves on the stage of an old-fashioned theater. In the seats, six dragons wait: Stefan Kolinsky, Madame Huan, Gabriel, Morathi Ababio, Thalassa Nera, and Vic.

Gabriel admits he informed the dragons of what had transpired, to the extent he knew. Aldwyn, too, had made it known that he’d rescinded his restriction on the dragons aiding Alastair and, now, Harrison. The dragons are curious how this came about, but Stone refuses to give any details. He does surprise them, though, when he says Aldwyn has renounced the sire-scion relationship with both him and Harrison. With their new status as ‘not scions’, Stone and Harrison are uniquely positioned to aid the dragons in keeping magic in line on Earth. The dragons want the pair to serve as troubleshooters. Stone points out that the transaction seems pretty one-sided. Harrison has his own ongoing concerns, and Stone wants to take the time to learn from him, as well as spend more time with his family and friends. They leave it at ‘we’ll think about it’, with Gabriel as their contact. At least for now, it’s time to slow down.

Meanwhile, Aldwyn is savoring his gains. While he may have lost control over two very powerful, if problematic, scions, he gained something much more valuable. He’s certain he’s traced the power Stone and Harrison used against him to its source – and, that he can determine how to get to that source.