The Sage of Tracking had little initial luck on his hunt. That was most unfortunate, because he dared not return to Maya without success. President Bluff might be a narcissistic buffoon, but his following was best described as a rabid cult. If one of the media figures decided that the Sage of Tracking hadn’t tried hard enough or, worse, intentionally failed his mission… well, then Tracking would have a real bad time.
Close to a year passed without any progress. Wandering across the multiverse with his team in a total waste of time annoyed him. Doing so on worlds tainted by miasma infuriated him. Yet his instinct and his insight agreed that the man called Dragonbane would be in the thick of things. The man had a hero complex, Tracking intuited.
His target would be the serious type who bought into the hype about the multiverse ending. Not entirely his fault. Foresight and Persuasion managed to convince a great number of people that events were quite serious. Bluff and his faction likewise convinced a great many that events in the greater universe were no big deal. The current theory being pushed was that the miasma buildup would be self-limiting, like a virulent plague that eventually burned itself out.
Tracking knew better than to listen to any of the propaganda. It was better to trust no one and pretend to back whoever was on top at the moment. That was the way of things these days. As far as events in the multiverse were concerned, the truth was probably somewhere in the middle. Things might get worse. It might even be fair to say such was likely.
In the end, though, what did the inhabitants of a true world have to worry about? Sure, Aes had fallen to monsters. That seemed to say more about the failures of the Titans and Orisha than it did about the degree of risk. Dragons were the true threat to those with power. Thus this mission to bring back the antidote to Dragons.
It made sense to store away Dragonbane for a rainy day. Sadly the man wasn’t easy to find. Tracking questioned the immediacy of the need to capture him as well. Dragons were said to be a once a century disaster. Well, the Terra incident had reset the clock. Tracking probably wouldn’t live long enough to see the next Dragon attack.
So he was stuck on a mission he felt unnecessary, risking his health and his life to avoid being labeled an enemy of the people by the nuts running his country. Not what he expected from life when he attained his insight.
At least traveling along miasma veins limited the amount of conflict they were exposed to. Many of the other search teams from Svarga were playing games of cat-and-mouse with Amaratti Lords and Mercom cyborgs. It was a real mess. In a sane multiverse, an Arahant with the right insight should be able to handle the task of retrieving Dragonbane in a short while. Instead, their prey remained at large while the hunters skirmished.
The only benefit to the in-fighting was that Tracking had managed to collect some valuable assets. Early in the year, the Sage of Concealment survived a conflict with the ancient Lord Malcolm. For reasons identical to his own, she wasn’t willing to return home to Maya quite yet. It was an easy recruitment. A little harder was convincing the Sage of Restraint and his followers to follow his lead.
Restraint brought twenty followers with him when he began his search. Ten warriors with masterpiece rune weapons and ten ritualists specializing in portals. All of them lived still. It was a testimony to the power held by the Sage of Restraint, whose realm allowed him to restrict others. Tracking had no idea what limits, if any, applied to the power. He didn’t intend to find out, either. It was fine with Tracking if the other Sage claimed credit for their joint success. Tracking just wanted this mission to be over.
They never had to spend much time on any given world. Tracking had a Reconquest uniform once worn by Dragonbane. With that in hand, he could sense the resonance of object to owner. It didn’t work across the primordial, but he could know within seconds if he was on the same world as their target – or even a world recently visited. He just needed to get lucky once.
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For a long time, fortune was not with him.
When they discovered that Jinn vessels were swarming a region near a miasma vein, Tracking convinced the others that they should canvas the area. And he got lucky.
The three Sages shared a sip of Tequila once they found the trail of Dragonbane. From there it was not hard. Tedious, yes, but not hard. Many times every day they would open a portal, have Tracking step through, and then decide. If the other world had echoes of their target, they all came over. If not, Tracking came back and they would open another portal.
Day by day, Tracking felt the sense of his quarry grow stronger. They were closing in on him fast. Then it happened. Tracking stepped through a portal and immediately knew he stood on the same world as Dragonbane. He retreated back to the threshold of the portal and made a gesture to command silence. Understanding his request, the Sage of Concealment joined him and flexed her realm to hide their presence. The rest of the group followed and they let the portal collapse.
Restraint gazed at Tracking with frightful intensity. The man perfectly fit the mold of a true believer in Bluff’s movement: domineering and joyfully cruel. He wasn’t forced to go on this mission by fear of reprisal. Restraint wanted to drag back the hero of Terra and lock him up in Abyss Penitentiary. He wanted to shake hands with President Bluff and then tour the nation to brag about how well he served Svarga.
“Well?”
“He’s here,” Tracking said.
“How close?”
“Half a world away, by my estimate.”
Restraint spat on the ground between them to show what he thought of the answer. One might suspect the Sage of Restraint to be patient. That just proved how misleading Sage names could be. The de facto leader of their group had the power to deprive others of their freedom. He possessed only the vaguest familiarity with the concept of self-control.
“Dragonbane visited many different worlds in a short time. How are we supposed to get to him before he leaves?”
Tracking chose his words carefully. “If we continue stalking him, we will eventually find our opportunity.”
“You’re saying we don’t go to him right now?”
“It is a vast distance, Restraint.”
The man bared his teeth. “You are fortunate that I need you.”
“I’m not delaying this mission. I want to return home as fast as possible.”
From then on, they followed Dragonbane. Tracking could tell not only when their target departed a world, but also sense enough of his ‘direction’ to accurately find the next world. His pursuit was locked in and he could not be shaken.
Though when they finally had a chance to place eyes on target, no one moved to engage. Tracking backed away until he was behind the rune warriors and the ritualists. Up front, Restraint stared at the beast they were supposed to subdue.
Dragonbane carved immense monsters apart with glowing cables while the resonance of a potent realm shook reality for hundreds of miles in every direction. “Garudas above, he’s an actual Sage,” Concealment muttered. They had gone hunting a rabbit and found a tiger instead.
The level nine man also had a retinue with him. They saw chaos bolts and weapon externalities. Should they somehow overpower Dragonbane, they would need to contend with his protectors. This was not a fight they wanted. When the battle ended, a Jinn shuttle descended to carry them into the sky. Tracking fixed the image of the shuttle in his mind and sensed its home: a Cruiser high above.
Restraint was subdued as they debated their next steps under the safety of Concealment’s realm. “I do not know if we can succeed against him and his allies. What say you, Tracking? How do we hunt someone stronger than us?”
“Cunning and patience,” he said. “If we keep following, we may discover him in a moment of weakness. Should that happen, we must take advantage.”
“And if it never happens?”
“We must pray that it does.”
