My new skills summons a drake. Well, the Vess version, at least. It has the shape of the creature, long neck, two wings, two taloned legs. Of course, it has the obsidian chitin and glowing red eyes of a Vess. This thing can fly, spew waves of acid and fire, and my soldiers' blades can’t even pierce its armor.

  I eye where the base of its neck meets the body, the perfect spot for me to ride. This thing is fast too, it could get to Ironhill, an all day trip on foot, in just an hour.

  “I can’t believe your gona let her ride it. What if she falls?” Sarah asks for the third time.

  Enna smiles her usual serene smile, “Her grace will be fine, the Vess will not let her fall.”

  “I’m still worried.” Sarah just won’t let it go.

  “It is not my place to tell her grace what she can and cannot do.”

  Sarah snorts, “You do that all the time! You literally did that the other day when she didn’t want to get out of the bath.”

  I blush and pout, “Enna is just like the rest of my Vess, she is under my complete control. Kinda.”

  “It’s easy to forget.” The hero runs her fingers through her hair, “Kinda?”

  I choose not to answer, instead approaching my new mount for a ride. Enna grabs me underneath my armpits and lifts me up onto the drake.

  Sarah still looks uncertain, “Well, I’m at least going to go with her.” She hesitantly approaches the drake, before steeling herself and leaping onto its back, settling down behind me.

  “Ready?” I ask her with a grin.

  She doesn’t look thrilled, “Yes. Let’s get this over with.”

  The drake leaps into the air and starts beating its wings, taking us soaring up into the skies. Sarah immediately screams and slides forward, hugging me tightly from behind.

  I notice her breath is coming out uneven and too quickly, “Sarah?” I yell back, “Are you afraid of heights?”

  “Yes!!!” The hero screams.

  I don’t make her suffer; I order the drake to land immediately.

  Sarah rolls off the drake and lands on her back with a heavy whump. I slide off and stumble, falling onto my butt. Getting up, I dust myself off and crouch next to the hero. I brush her hair out of her eyes, trying to make some sense out of the mess. My hair must be a mess too, going to need to get a helmet or hat for flying.

  I continue to run my fingers through her hair until her breathing evens out. Eventually, she opens her eyes and sits up, blushing. “Sorry about that. Flying in an airplane is one thing, but being exposed to the air on the back of a drake is too much,” She shakes herself, standing up, rubbing warmth back into her arms.

  “It’s okay,” I smile up at her, “And now I know your weakness!” I try to grin my most evil grin. It’s not very convincing.

  Sarah laughs all the same, “Sure, sure. When you go full evil overlord, you know how to get rid of me.”

  I hug her, “Sorry. I didn’t know you were afraid of heights; I wouldn’t have gone if I knew.”

  “It’s cool.” Sarah ruffles my hair, “God, your hair! Enna is gona have a fit.”

  I pout up at her, “Do you have a brush?”

  “Nah,” she smiles easily, “Anyway, you go ahead and have your ride. I’m gona head back on foot.” She jerks her thumb behind her, “Got grinding to do in the dungeons.”

  “You’ve been spending aaaaaalll day in there.” I whine.

  “Yeah, and it shows. I’m level thirty six now, having your Vess nearby makes it perfectly safe too. I gotta get levels before we get dragged into another conflict, if I can get my second evolution, I should be able to deal with most stuff for you.”

  “Don’t burn yourself out,” I part with the hero, “I do miss you, you know.” I look down, blushing.

  Sarah puts her hands on her hips, “Not my fault you sleep so much.”

  I stick my tongue out and Sarah laughs. I smile back at her.

  Sarah helps me climb back onto the drake, I wave to her before we lift off, shooting off into the sky. I hold on tight, I can see why Sarah would be scared. Honestly, I think the only reason I’m not scared is because of the reassuring connection I have to the Vess. I can sense its loyalty; it would literally give up its life before it let me fall.

  The human settlement is easy to see from here, a smattering of wooden houses. It’s only been a few weeks, but they have an established village already. Turns out, if you have superhuman strength and endurance, you don’t need power tools to build quickly.

  The drake banks to the east. If I look through the drake’s eyes, I can see the walls of Ironhill, black smoke rising from the town. Sir Oscar just rolled through with my Vess, he’s insane, a man on a mission. Sarah told me he is around level fifty five, the second highest leveled person in the kingdom, he has such a high endurance stat, he stays awake for days on end. The Karnakan army is starving and injured, they continue to lose ground, it seems like it’s only a matter of time until they are pushed out of the kingdom.

  “Enna?” I reach out with my mind.

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  “Yes, dear? How is your flight?” I hear back across our link.

  “Really fun! Sarah didn’t like it though. Hey, I had a question.”

  “Go ahead.” Enna encourages.

  “Are the gods real?” My drake banks west, heading back towards the hive.

  “Mmmm, a dangerous topic, if you were to ask the wrong people.” Enna cautions, “It depends on which gods you mean.”

  Wow, I didn’t think she would know. Having the combined knowledge of generations of Vess really comes in handy. “Grant said something about the Buried God. It got me curious. Sir Oscar is a member of the Golden Order too; they must follow a god.”

  “Indeed, Sir Oscar is a follower of the Golden Goddess, Sarah is too for that matter.”

  I raise my eyebrows, “Really? She doesn’t seem the type.”

  “She follows in name only. To my understanding, she was inducted into the Golden Order and allegiance to the Golden Goddess is mandatory.” Enna reassures me. Makes sense, I feel really bad for Sarah, she got forced into so much crap after getting summoned against her will.

  Enna continues, “The Golden Goddess is real.”

  “Seriously!?”

  “Yes, she has intervened in the lives of mortals several times throughout history, although she has been silent for a long time. It was her holy light that smote a past Vess Queen.”

  The drake flies slower and lower, circling the hive. It’s relaxing, I don’t want to land just yet. “So, we hate the Golden Goddess?

  “That is up to you, your grace.”

  “Well… I guess, fair enough? We were probably close to wiping out the human race or something at the time, right?”

  Enna doesn’t respond for a minute, “I do not know, your grace. I believe it was during a time when the Vess were strong and far spread.”

  “Sir Oscar doesn’t seem to hate us, he didn’t even know what we were.” I point out.

  “It is true,” Enna agrees, “Perhaps if he knew the history, it would be different.”

  “We’ll be careful around the Golden Order… What about the Buried God?”

  Enna snorts, “The Buried God or the Buried One, is a dead god. He no longer hears anyone.”

  “Wow, how did he die?” The drake finally touches down on the ground, I slide off into Enna’s waiting arms.

  She cuddles me close as I shiver, it was really cold up there! My caretaker begins walking me down into the hive, “I believe it was a few level one hundred heroes. A legion of Vess were involved in it too. I’m afraid it was thousands of years ago, I do not know anymore.”

  “It’s too bad you won’t talk to Taner, he would be losing it over this.” I’m still shivering, I got a lot colder than I realized. I wrap my arms around Enna’s neck, trying to absorb all the body heat I can.

  Enna doesn’t respond, continuing to ferry me further into the dark.

  “Any other gods I should know about?”

  We enter my personal chambers, and I am placed on my bed and wrapped in a blanket. “A few, perhaps.” Enna leaves to draw me a hot bath.

  Should I be concerned? I mean, it’s not like I can do anything about the gods, yet. “Are there any Vess gods?”

  I can feel Enna’s smile over our link, “Only you, your grace.”

  Enna scoops me up and deposits me into the steaming tub. I relax, enjoying the warmth. Closing my eyes, I look through the eyes of one of the Vess watching Sarah.

  The hero is deep in a dungeon, the first dungeon I ever conquered, actually. She has gone down far past the lizardman, killing the boss by herself.

  Her blade, gilded in holy light, cleaves through a hulking mass of flesh and sinew. The lowest levels of the dungeon have undead creatures, which Sarah is extra effective against. It is a challenge for her to clear it by herself, but she usually manages to do it every day. It’s honestly impressive, I would have to be doing that if I didn’t get the class I did.

  I offer a silent prayer for everyone who must struggle for levels.

  A death knight, basically a suit of armor animated by dark magic, brings its sword down towards the hero. Sarah parries it, the giant blade smashing into the ground while she cleaves a chunk out of its armor. She activates a skill; the death knight’s retaliatory strike bounces off the golden raiment that flashes into existence over her armor.

  The death knight catches her next attack on its blade, and activates a skill of its own, blade blurring and ripping her sword out of her hands. It spins through the air, landing in the ground blade first, waiting for its wielder to reclaim it.

  Sarah rolls under the next slash, parrying the next blow off her hand. The golden raiment takes most of the damage, but I still see blood. The knight takes a step forward and nearly takes her head off, then kicks her, sending her crashing into the wall and collapsing onto the ground.

  I’m about to order my knights to intervene, when she gets up, her golden raiment explodes, sending the knight back a step and her towards her sword. She grasps the handle and pulls it free, renewing the golden power in its blade. Her wounds seal up as she pours mana into whatever skill she’s using.

  She takes a low stance and lets the death knight approach her.

  Their blades clash in showers of divine sparks, going back and forth. Every strike from Sarah seems to chip the monster’s sword and melts its armor.

  I wonder if Sarah asked the Golden Goddess to smite the death knight, would she? Sarah is special, a hero summoned from another world, clearly blessed with holy powers. If the goddess were to answer anyone, it would be her. Maybe she needs to go through some more plot points first or she needs to be fighting against all odds so the goddess can pull a deus ex machina.

  Sarah smashes her enemy's blade to pieces, leaving it with only its metal gauntlets. I wince when the monster lands a punch with a sickening crack, that’s got to be a broken arm.

  Sarah flicks her blade and the offending gauntlet crashes to the ground, severed from the body. Her form blurs as she dashes forward, screaming and running her blade through the knight’s chest piece. A sudden flash blinds my Vess. When sight returns, I see the death knight collapsed in a heap of broken armor, Sarah standing over it, gasping for breath.

  She collapses shortly after; my knight moves in to protect her while a squire offers her water. Sarah sags against the squire, gulping down the water, sliding down to sit on the floor.

  My vision returns to my body. Enna is getting me out of the bath now that I’ve been warmed up.

  “Sarah works so hard, is there anything we can do for her?”

  Enna smiles gently down at me, drying me off with a fluffy towel, “We are already allowing her exclusive access to one of the dungeons, giving her all the XP we could be harvesting.”

  “Do you not like that?” I ask, looking up at my caretaker; she is so hard to read.

  She responds with a slow shake of the head, “No, she is of much use to you when dealing with humans. She is loyal too; one can never have too many allies.”

  “Mmm… I know! Can we build her a really nice house outside the hive? I know she probably doesn’t feel completely comfortable in the guest room.”

  “All you need to do is order it and it will be so, your grace.”

  “Do you think she would want to live with the other humans?” I feel kinda sad that she wouldn’t be as close, but I want her to be happy.

  “You will have to ask her, sweetie.” Enna smiles warmly.