Velena Ilagron was right. There was nothing much to see.
Their host had left the dining room, not wanting to expand on the bomb she had just dropped on them. When morning came, she made no mention of last night's conversation. She suggested they take a look around the village and be back for dinner, might as well do some exploring since they were already here.
Lukas, Katrina, and Jesse wandered through the streets of Ilagron Village, their footsteps echoing off the cobblestone walls.
The Kraken had chosen to remain in the pond. (Lukas made him stay in the pond)
The market square, once likely bustling with merchants and traders, was now little more than a series of empty stalls, their wooden frames sagging under the weight of neglect.
The few souls they passed kept their heads down, barely acknowledging them as they shuffled by, faces weathered and gaunt. It was clear that this was a place that had long given up any hopes of prosperity.
The streets were lined with crumbling houses, many with roofs patched up haphazardly, and the air had the heavy scent of salt and decay. There was no sign of commerce or trade—no chatter of business being done, no cries for fresh fish or goods. Everything felt still, suffocating under a blanket of poverty.
Lukas couldn't help but notice the hollow eyes of the villagers, the way they moved as if they were only going through the motions, as if all the life within them had been snatched away from them.
This was a ghost town, sadly just a dying remnant of what had been a thriving kingdom.
They had been hoping to find some clues about Rodan as he likely used the same portal to leave Linemall. Yet they could find nothing of value.
Katrina and Jesse were bickering as Lukas continued to take in his surroundings. They'd been at it all morning and it was starting to annoy Lukas quite a bit.
"We can't just leave Velena to face this alone," she argued, her voice firm. "She's fighting for her home, her people. We should help her! She let us stay in her home, she fed us even when she didn't have to!"
Jesse shot her a sharp glance, frustration flickering in his eyes.
"Help her?" he scoffed, his tone thick with condescension. "She's already made up her mind, Katrina. We've got bigger things to worry about. The whole point of this was to find Lord Rodan and bring him back. Helping Velena would mean we'd have the entirety of Nozar Kingdom on our backs, that's just asking for trouble that we don't need or want right now!"
Katrina stepped closer, her jaw set. Lukas put a hand between the two, just in case they made the decision to use their fists instead of their words.
"Velena's not some side mission, Jesse. This village might be falling apart, but it's still her home. If we don't help now, what kind of people are we? We owe it to her. My father would have wanted us to help her."
"Fuck is you on about, your father would want us to find him and bring him back home! Helping her with a lost cause won't get us any closer to finding the answers we need. We'll just be wasting our time and putting ourselves at risk."
"Well fuck you!" She shot back.
The tension between them simmered as they walked on in silence, each unwilling to back down from their stance.
It took a while for Lukas to realize that the silence was there because they were both staring at him, waiting for his own take on the matter. He cleared his throat, choosing his words carefully.
"Both of you need to relax. Though, Katrina has a point. Velena is a good woman, and I can see she's fighting for what's left of her people." His niece's face lit up, knowing that Lukas was supporting her side.
Lukas wasn't finished talking though.
"But we can't risk our lives going up against the Nozar Kingdom. If we get caught up in this fight, we won't be able to accomplish what we came here for: to find Rodan and expand the Merchant Guild's influence outside of the Seas. It is my responsibility that we all make it back home safe. So I have to agree with Jesse. Helping Velena might be the right thing to do but we not that dumb to put ourselves in that kind of danger, especially when it can be very easily avoided."
Katrina's jaw tightened, her hands balling into fists at her sides as she stared out at the empty village streets. She didn't want to admit it, but deep down, she knew Lukas was right. Jesse was kind enough not to rub it in (Lukas gave him the look) so they continued their rather mundane exploration of Ilagron Village.
The trio made their way down the cobbled street, the distant sound of rain starting to tap against the rooftops shattering the silence as they wandered further into the heart of the village.
They spotted a tavern with a sign hanging crookedly above the door, its wooden frame creaking as the wind pushed against it. Lukas decided that it was about time that they got some food in their bellies.
As they stepped inside, the smell of aged wood and stale ale greeted them.
The dining hall was painfully empty, save for the lone bartender who stood behind the counter, polishing a glass. He looked up as they entered, his face lighting up with an almost desperate enthusiasm.
"Well, I'll be damned! New faces! Welcome to Ilagron Village! I'm Jerry! That's short for Jeremiah." he exclaimed, his voice cracking from long disuse. He wiped his hands on his apron and gestured toward an empty table. "Please, sit! Sit! Order whatever you like! Please!" He practically beamed, clearly relieved by the company.
They exchanged a glance, unsure of what to make of the sudden warmth of his welcome, but sat down at the nearest table nonetheless.
"We'll have whatever you think is good, sir." Lukas flashed him a friendly smile and the bartender obliged without hesitation, stepping into the back to get them some food. He reached into his pocket to find some coins he could pay the bartender with but the man had already returned to start them off with drinks and when he saw Lukas reaching for payment, the bartender shook his head to refuse whatever Lukas wanted to give him.
"You're doing me a favor by giving this place some life! Don't even think about paying! It's on the house." The bartender quickly brought over a pitcher of ale and a few bowls of stew, his eyes gleaming with an almost bittersweet excitement. Lukas thanked him graciously before they dug into their meal. A dragon's appetite is never to be underestimated.
"Well cheers then, mate. Not many customers this time of day, huh…?" Lukas asked but from what he'd seen so far, he didn't think the tavern had many customers.
"Nope. You guys are the first customers I've had in a week, actually! I'm afraid I'm about to close up shop for good," he told them with a sigh, setting more food down in front of them.
"And why is that?" Lukas asked before taking swig from the cup of ale that the bartender had set in front of him.
"Business ain't what it used to be. It's a damn shame how much this place has changed over the last ten years." His face fell for a moment as he looked out the window, as though the village's gradual decline was finally catching up with him.
"The last ten years?" Lukas asked, confused. Hadn't Ilagron Village's decline begun centuries ago when the Great War had come to a close?
"Ilagron used to be so full of life!" He proclaimed, letting out a deep sigh as if reliving memories from a past life. "Ships would come in from all over. Nozar, Easthaven and even Khaitish up in those mountains of theirs. Goods, spices, textiles, fish... you name it, we had it. The docks were always full, and the tavern here? It was packed every single night. People came from all corners of the world because this was the place to be!" He set the glass down, his smile fading with every word he spoke of the past.
"But those days are long gone now. And bless the Countess Ilagron. She deserves nothing but the best. Fate has not been kind to her." He remarked, shaking his head in disdain.
"You mean Velena?" Katrina asked, intrigued now.
"Oh yes, Countess Velena! You've met her?" He asked, surprised that a newcomer would have known the current Head of the Ilagron Family on a first name basis.
"She was kind enough to let her stay in the Ilagron Estate during our stay here." Jesse interjected before Katrina could answer.
"Why did you say that fate has not been kind to her?" Lukas was curious now, pulling out an empty chair and gesturing for the bartender to sit with them. "Please, Jerry. Join us."
The bartender didn't need to be asked twice as he sat with them before answering Lukas' question.
"I suppose you could say the downfall of Ilagron started with the Ilagron Family itself," he continued, his voice tinged with a somber heaviness.
"The family used to be so strong, so proud. Even after they lost the kingdom that they had ruled over for thousands of years. But they weren't quitters. They knew how to make do with what they had. They kept the docks running, the trade flowing. The late Earl, Velena's son, was a good man. He was a great man. I watched him grow from a boy to a man. Kaelen Ilagron. It wasn't until he came to power that Ilagron became more than just a fishing village. He expanded the docks, set up new trade routes and brought in merchants from Nozar, Easthaven, even Khaitish. He struck deals, got the families involved in the global markets... and before long, Ilagron wasn't just a village. It was the hub. The heart of trade, where everyone came to buy, sell, and barter. The people respected him. They loved him." He paused, his voice faltering for a moment.
Jerry became quiet for a moment.
"And what happened to Velena's son? Where's he now?" Jesse asked but Lukas could already guess the answer.
Jerry's voice became no louder than a whisper as he answered Jesse's question with a heavy heart.
"One of the worst storms the coast had ever seen hit Ilagron. The ship he and his family were on went down, and the whole town mourned. It wasn't just a son they lost, they'd lost what was the future of Ilagron. Kaelen's wife, his son and daughter. All of them gone in an instant. That was a dark day for our town. And his father, the previous Earl... well he just couldn't recover from the loss. He died shortly after, and just like that, everything fell on our Countess Velena's shoulders."
The three did not say a word. Lukas was beginning to get a clearer picture about how it came to be this way in Ilagron.
"But you know what? Our countess bloody did it. Countess Velena held things together. Even after losing everyone she loved, the Countess of Ilagron stepped up and kept the town from completely falling apart. It wasn't easy, and it sure wasn't fast, but she did it. Slowly, the docks became busier again, the markets started to fill up, and for a time, we felt hopeful for what the future held for us." Jerry's voice was hoarse, threatening to crack as emotions overwhelmed him.
Lukas didn't hesitate to reach out and pat the bartender on the back, hoping it would give him some comfort.
"Hey, man. If it's too much for you to talk about, it's completely alright. Take your time." He knew that this couldn't have been an easy thing to talk about, especially to a bunch of random strangers.
This wasn't an interrogation, as much as Lukas wanted more information to get a better understanding of the current situation the village found themselves in. Jerry nodded and took a long sip of his own ale. As the bartender took some time to compose himself, Lukas found that he felt even more confused than before.
If Velena had done such an impressive job of shouldering the burden that was placed onto her, then why was Ilagron in the state it was now?
He was about to find out as Jerry cleared his throat to continue his story.
The bartender's voice dropped to a hushed whisper as he leaned in closer, a flicker of fear in his eyes. "Pirates are not uncommon, especially if you're in the trading business. So at first, people thought it was just another band of rogues. They started off with small ships but as time went on, they became more and more bold. They became enough of a problem that Nozar sent one of their Three Admirals to apprehend him. They didn't stand a fucking chance. They say that in an hour, their leader destroyed an entire fleet of Nozar battleships and slaughtered the Admiral they had sent after him. One of the three bloody admirals!"
Even Lukas knew of the Nozar's Navy, for it was the most powerful military force in all of the human kingdoms. And the admirals were the strongest of them all.
"And after he annihilated that fleet, it didn't stop there. No, that was just the beginning. He set his sights on everything. All the seas that contained the trading routes—the very lifeblood of this village—he began to torment and plunder all the ships that passed through these waters without mercy. Ships that tried to pass through, carrying goods of any value, were dragged beneath the waves, never to be seen again. No merchant could make the journey without fearing for their lives. The trading routes that once brought prosperity to this village? Destroyed. Every ship that sailed them was an easy target for that man. No one dares to sail the waters, not with that monster out there. They're scared.. and for good reason. To this day, he remains at large." There was a hint of anger in his voice that Lukas could detect but it was masked by an immense fear.
Lukas realized that Jerry was scared of that pirate. All of them were.
"Can you tell me more about this...man?" He asked, curious about this man who seemed to have single-handedly ruined everything for Ilagron.
"They say he wields magic that controls the seas, with storms following wherever he goes. That's what makes him so dangerous and it's why no one's been able to bring him to justice. The water itself obeys him. Ships caught in his path are torn apart, swallowed by waves of his creation. He leaned in closer, voice lowering to a near whisper, as if afraid someone will overhear him."And they say... he can turn into a monster. A creature with scales like black stone, eyes that glow with power. He's a beast of the deep, a terror that no one can escape. No ship has outrun him, and anyone foolish enough to challenge him never lives to tell the tale. This pirate isn't just a man; he's a goddamn nightmare! Because if the Admirals of Nozar can't even keep him in check, who can?"
God damn, could this bartender tell a fucking story. Katrina and Jesse had even stopped eating to give him their full attention, hanging onto his every word.
But something about that description immediately jumped out to Lukas.
Magic that could control the seas?
The ability to turn into a monster, a beast of the seas?
"And what's his name, Jerry?" Lukas asked, the feeling of dread rising within him.
"They call him the greatest pirate that Hiraeth has ever seen: Rodan, the Leviathan of the Deep."