Miradey

Curse of the Ironheart Dragon

"A well-crafted blade like Silverbough's—reduced to ash," Neiren said, shaking her head as she reported what she'd witnessed of the beast during incident the night before to Doria Draco. These creatures are cause for the concern of my people. "They cannot be allowed to roam free."

"I am aware, Sister Neiren, as do they concern us all," Doria said. "I have summoned Charlotte Ironhart. The woman was staying in town at The Crown. I think she can shed more light on the darkness her family has spawned. You are welcomed to stay when I speak to her, of course."

As one of the Envoy of The Peoples, Neiren often spoke with Doria and Drase on a variety of matters concerning Dragones House and their allies in the lands surrounding the village. She represented the interests of at least one group of the Firsts, that is the first peoples that inhabited the land. After William Hunt and his ilk took the land, they didn't exactly forge friendly relations with the life already living here. It was a grievous mistake that Dracos had been trying to manage. There was no undoing it. There was only working to build amicable bonds with other magical beings and peoples now. Doria would like to think they'd been successful so far for the most part.

Ironhart arrived, entering Doria's study moments later dressed as she had been before, having left the trappings of further finery behind her in that cursed mansion.

"It is quite late," she sniffed. "Whatever could you be summoning me at this hour for, Lady Draco?" She glanced at Neiren standing by the bookcase as though she wanted to comment on her presence then thought better of it.

Neiren kept her own demeanor towards the white witch unreadable, even though she knew very well what her and her ilk thought of the indigenous peoples of the land.

"Tell me more about the mining, Charlotte," said Doria. "Tell me more about the creatures."

"These details simply cannot wait?"

"They simply cannot."

For a moment, Charlotte looked between Neiren and Doria. She raised her chin and sat in the chair across from Doria in front of the fire. She stared into the flames for a time, lost in a horrifying memory, before speaking again.

"Terrifying things came out of the shadows and into the light in those final days. Cursed, the whole lot. I knew not what was happening until Minnie saw one of the dreadful things...spewing curse metal into the collector for the forge. Until those who received shipment came to Ironhart Manor...changed."

"They were no longer human."

"Sometimes there was more than one. They joined those in the mines. It is how I lost the manor. Ironhart was overrun."

"You never discovered what was causing the sickness? Or what was changing the enslaved witches into these beasts you speak of?"

Charlotte shook her head. "But I'm certain the sickness caused the change."

"None survived?"

"None."

Increasingly troubled by what she was hearing, Doria paused as a memory came to her. "I heard a story once. In my travels. About a wizard who slew a dragon. An iron heart beat in the dragon's breast, said to bear magical properties beyond wonder, and that alone was enough to drive the wizard to boast that he would slay the creature. That was what was so amazing about it, you see. He tussled with and fought with the dragon for five days and five nights, they said, wearing it down with wounds carved into its tough, spined hide, wearing it down in the hunting of him as it shrieked its rage. If the dragon tried to flee, he entrapped it with jinxes and curses, determined to have the creature for himself, dead or alive.

"On the sixth day, after having cruelly blinded the dragon and covered it in wounds, the wizard drove a lance through its heart, killing the dragon. He took its heart, its hide, the metal spikes growing out of its body—the wizard took everything he could, cutting up the dragon and melting down the metal. Wealth and riches found him when he bartered the dragon's parts and the metal carved from its flesh. He had many weapons and ornaments forged from the metal. All seemed well for the wizard who slew the iron-hearted dragon until one day his son fell ill. The young man soon breathed smoke and groaned that his insides burned with the strange sickness. Soon, the son's body began to change, growing scales and fur as his eyes grew dark and fiendish. All the greatest healers could not find or fix what ailed the son. In an act of mercy, the wizard tried to slay his son. To stab him through the heart with a knife. Before it touched flesh or blood, the blade turned to dust and faded away. From that moment on, anything made forged of iron or metal was devoured as though by time in the boy's presence. He became a monster that no weapon could slay and from that day forward, even grieving the loss of his son, the wizard found that his fortunes were reversed. Everywhere he went, he was hunted by creatures like the one his son had become. In fact, anyone whosoever touched the objects made from the dragon's body turned into cursed beings."

At its merest air, metal turns to dust in the presence of iron drought. This illness was iron drought, but in human flesh.

"You think this has something to do with my ancestor?"

"I think the wizard in the story is your ancestor. The curse spreads itself wherever there is Ironhart blood, Doria murmured. It returns to the blood over and over again... Gathering her thoughts," Doria looked Charlotte Ironhart in the face and continued. "Draco House has been investigating your mines for a time now, Ironhart. Hearing what you have to say, I've put a few more bits of this messy puzzle together. For example, you are wrong. I know that at least one person survived the horrors of your mines."

"Well," Charlotte said, brow jumping. "Who?" As if a name would mean anything to her.

"A young witch. Miradey. Now a knight. She escaped from Ironhart. She wasn't the only one to survive but she was the only one to survive in a form you should recognize as human."

"That is not possible."

"It is. You sought to bury the mines. You failed. Your decision to seal off the tunnels and caverns came too late. Some of the creatures inside escaped. Miradey made it her mission to stop them from harming the people of this village. She trained hard and grew into a splendid Knight of the Order."

"Very clever. She must be, to have pulled that off. Such a feat is impossible since the slaves of Ironhart are magically bound to the mines. They cannot leave there. Not in human form anyway."

"Whatever else you know about the Ironhart mining operations and its history, I need to know," Doria told her. "You may remain here in Draco House until you are of no further use to me or the threat from your property is resolved. With that said, I suggest you get to setting your affairs in order. Plan your path from here forward."

In the firelight, Charlotte suddenly looked worn around the edges.

"I am glad it is gone. All of it."

Doria's expression darkened angrily. "After you've lived a life of luxury, of course. After you've profited at the expense of others. After the damage is done. Who wouldn't be glad to be rid of the burden on one's conscious once it is no longer profitable."

Charlotte stood. "I believe I shall take my leave now," she said stiffly.

"You can return to your room at The Crown or you may kindly inform one of the draco that to take you to your room."

With a small dip of a curtsy, Charlotte swept from Doria's study.

Neiren stepped forward and said, "Some curses are very tricky, Lady Doria. This one is quite powerful. Given how it started, if only you knew what the heart of the curse was, you might be able to break it."

"What do you mean?" asked Doria.

"It is said that some curses, ones that are born of bloodshed and pain, can be broken if you can appease the source of the curse—its heart."