42.2. The First Flight - Part 2

I wake up lying quite comfortably under a warm blanket but I know immediately that it's not my bed. The minds in my vicinity are all Draconian but I don't recognise any of them. At least my migraine mitigated so I can think clearly again. But where am I? Definitely not in Liana's skyscraper. I try to move a little. I lost three feathers but it seems I'm otherwise unhurt.

"Are you awake, Your Majesty?"

Someone gently pats my shoulder because I'm all snuggled under the blanket. Reluctantly, I peek out. There's an Earthborn woman with dark green skin and red hair I've never seen before. She smiles at me encouragingly and touches my arm. Her rooty tentacles curl around my wrist.

"I tried to heal your migraine but with no result," she says sadly. "I can't find the source of it. I'm sorry, Your Majesty, I'm still so unskilled."

"W-where am I?" I rub my eyes.

"In a safe hideout," another voice speaks up. A bulky Dragonkin is standing next to the Earthborn lady. "We had to get you away from the riot, Your Majesty."

"A riot?" my heart skips a beat. "How long was I out?"

"Two hours," the Earthborn woman says. "Long enough for the videos to go viral across the globe. More than ten people were filming what happened to you. Those idiotic humans had no idea what they were doing when they ripped your feathers."

"But it was bound to happen sooner or later," the Dragonkin shrugs resignedly.

"What to happen?" I don't understand and try slowly sitting up. "Ohh," my head is still spinning.

"For humans to finally show their true colours," he says with an ominous grin while the Earthborn lady helps me sit up.

"Who are you? How did you know where to find me?" I ask and fold my wings close to my back.

"Fortunately, we were in the vicinity when the first messages of your sudden appearance started trending on social media," the Earthborn woman explains. "We hurried immediately to your rescue. We're one of many local communities of Draconians that decided to stick together for safety reasons. My name's Iyapa."

"Zirand," the Dragonkin seconds.

"Thank you for saving me," I whisper, not wanting to imagine what might have happened to me if they didn't show up. "I need to go back or it might develop into a political catastrophe. Did you contact the AstraTech's skyscraper already? Are they on their way to fetch me?"

"No," Zirand shakes his head and is looking at me strangely. "Not until you learn what's really going on."

"W-what? What are you talking about?" I blink, confused. "You want to keep me here? I order you to release me at once!" I try my Emperor's influence but I know my voice is too weak for that because of my migraine. "Ouch," I massage my temples.

"We won't hurt you, Your Majesty, calm down," Iyapa tries to envelop me into her roots again but I jerk away.

"Did you save me just to abduct me?" I accuse them even though I don't feel bad intentions from them. I can feel lots of hate towards humans, though.

"We'd never hurt you, Your Majesty!" Iyapa repeats urgently. I relax a bit but not because of her words—because I can feel her sincerity behind them.

"We just want to show you a few things before we contact the embassy," Zirand says and hands me a tablet. "Play the video, please."

I frown at him but take the tablet and push the play button. At first, I have no idea what I'm watching but when it finally comes to me, shiver goes down my spine. It's a compilation of various videos showing how Draconian are being cruelly mistreated by humans all over the world.

"B-but...," my voice trembles. "I... we... we were trying so hard to prevent that!"

"I know you were," Iyapa says, broken-hearted. "If it weren't for your influence, Your Majesty, it would be much worse than that. We suspect human governments are censoring the Internet and the media, meticulously deleting all evidence. But it's impossible to filter everything with the sheer amount of information being posted online."

"How could we not know? How do you know?" I ask and wipe a tear that escaped my eyes.

"Well, we're not dealing with politics 24/7 so we have time for other things," Zirand explains. "And we're in contact with common Draconians who have to go out at least sometimes and are struggling with money because they lost their jobs. It's hard to imagine how the little folk live when you're meeting only rich influential Draconians who are forming governments all over the world."

He's right. Absolutely right. We got too isolated in our skyscraper, especially me. They isolated me. Maybe not for this purpose but the result is the same. I lost a healthy contact with common Draconians. Geez, they won't even let me go to the cafeteria anymore. I have to do something about that as soon as I return.

"We want to show you around the building if you'd be so kind and cooperate," Iyapa asks me gently. "Are you well enough to walk?"

"Hopefully," I nod and try slowly standing up. My head spins but sleep helped a lot and I'm able to walk slowly. "What is this place?" I look around, realising only now it's not really an apartment. It's too battered, old and badly equipped.

"A squat," Zirand sighs. "We're sorry to bring Your Imperial Majesty to such a place but you need to see how most of us who were disowned from our families live."

He opens the door leading into a spacious hall. It turns out to be an old office building or something like that. My eyes widen because it's full of Draconians—all ages and races. Their eyes fixate on me the moment I show up and the hall gets unnaturally quiet before an uproar erupts.

"His Majesty is awake!"

"It's really him!"

"Is he okay? He doesn't look okay."

"Thank God Zirand and the gang rescued him in time!"

I'm taken aback but Iyapa puts her hand on my shoulder. "Your Majesty, could you talk to them? They need encouragement more than anything."

Before I manage to answer, I'm seated on a stool and the Draconians flock around me. I have no idea what to do because everyone starts pushing and for a second it resembles the human crowd that scared me so much.

But then I calm down. There's no malice in their minds. They're pushing to get closer but not a single person here wants to hurt me. It's pure curiosity. And hope. They look at me and see hope. I study every single one of them and my eyes water. These people lost their homes, families and jobs. They're homeless.

Their clothes are still human with adjustments as they don't have any money for expensive Draconian fashion on demand. They left with just a backpack and found others in the same situation. Strong in numbers but hiding. How many hidden communities like these are there all over the world? Do we have any connection with them? Does Liana know? Did we possibly neglect a huge part of our population?

"I'm sorry," I'm crying at this point. "I... I had no idea it's that bad."

But nobody's blaming me, they're genuinely overjoyed to see me even though I was living in safety and luxury, oblivious to what's really happening to common Draconians. I nod that it's okay to touch me and suddenly there're countless hands on my wings. But I don't mind. Their touch is gentle and something like ripping my feather as a memento doesn't even cross their minds.

Surprisingly, my migraine gets much better after just a few minutes. I'm surrounded by more than three dozen people but it doesn't hurt my telepathic brain. On the contrary, it relaxes me. These are my people, everything's okay. My head stops spinning and my mana harmonises. I'm able to cast spells again.

"Anyone need healing?" I offer. There're around ten Earthborn within the crowd but they don't look like high-levels.

"Opal was assaulted when trying to get some money out of ATM yesterday," someone shouts because the person in question seems too shy to approach me on their own. The crowd pushes them to the front.

It's a Dragonkin female, quite small for her race. Is she still a teenager? She can't be more than seventeen and the Dragonkin mature slowly according to the lore. Humans see her as a monster, I guess that's why she was assaulted, but she's actually really cute by the Dragonkin standards. Fefnir would certainly go crazy about her.

She hesitantly puts her right hand forward—her wrist is sprained badly. I didn't train healing, I managed only once before, but somehow I know that my wish to help these people is enough. I gently take her scaly hand into mine and form an intricate transfiguration pattern around her wrist. I release my mana and the pattern locks onto her skin.

"It'll be slowly healing your hand for twelve hours," I say. "Sorry, a level 15 spell is the best I can do so far but your wrist should be okay when the symbol disappears."

"Thank you, Your Majesty," Opal bows to me, full of admiration and gratitude.

"Anyone else?" I look around.

Three more people are pushed in front of me with injuries inflicted by humans. I put a healing spell on all of them, hoping I'm easing their suffering at least a bit.

"You can't go to hospital?" I ask, quite tired now after four spells that are significantly higher than what my untrained body would by normally able to handle.

"Not without valid health insurance," Zirand shakes his head. "Which we lost with our jobs. And we're also afraid to go there. Some of those videos we showed you were from hospitals."

"Please, don't!" I notice Iyapa was holding her phone the whole time, recording my deeds.

"The world deserves to know how kind you are," she says with a smile and hits post.

"Why didn't any humanitarian help reach you?" I sigh out. "Didn't you ask for asylum in the skyscraper?"

"We're not as unfortunate to ask for charity," Zirand says proudly. "Besides, the embassy is employing only those who can be most useful these days."

"Most useful?" I clutch my hands. "Who decides that?"

"We get it, Your Majesty, we really do," Iyapa says understandingly. "The embassy can't go over a certain capacity and none of us here has qualifications relevant to running the new government. All manual jobs were taken weeks ago. Don't blame the Viceroy, I'm sure she's doing her best."

I'm sure she is but is it enough? Nothing we've accomplished so far seems enough. Not when people like Iyapa and Zirand have to hide. I decide to talk to these people and get to know their circumstances. I shiver when I realise that if I wasn't the Emperor or didn't have Erik, I could end up here with them. Or die when my wings were coming out.

I carefully listen to every single one of them and I'm putting together a picture in my head. Such diverse life stories. They all come from very different backgrounds, education and even faiths. Yet, they're here now together, scared but united.

"Are you hungry, Your Majesty? You must have spent a lot of mana on healing," Iyapa asks me, concerned, after the fourth group I talk to. I've lost a track of time completely. How long have I been here anyway? Damn, Erik must be worried sick!

"I'm okay, don't waste your rations on me," I shake my head and take a hand of a young Clawfang woman who comes in front of me as part of the fifth group. She's a fox, the same as Emi, but with differently coloured fur.

I connect to her just as I did with the others but this time I freeze. I feel two minds inside of her?! One that is her own and the second one... still unconscious and tiny. Wait a minute! Does that mean...? NO WAY!

"You're pregnant!" I blurt out in shock before I realise I can't justify my claim without revealing my telepathy to them.

The woman opens her mouth and stares at me.

"I... I missed my period this month but I thought it's just stress...," she's looking at me in disbelief. "Am I really...? How do you know?"

I slowly slip my hand onto her stomach. There's no doubt. She's carrying a baby. And it's a Draconian. I notice a Clawfang vulpine male stepping nervously behind her. I bet he must be her partner. They look like a nice couple.

"Your Majesty, if it's true," Iyapa gulps excitedly and connects to the Clawfang woman the Earthborn way to confirm it. "Our races have future! We're fertile! How did you know, though? Celestials don't have any skills for medical assessment."

"She can't stay here. She needs better accommodation, proper nutrition and medical attention," I say, ignoring her question. "I'm taking her with me to the embassy. Her partner can come as well, of course. As for the rest of you..."

But I don't get a chance to finish that sentence. The door bursts open and the Royal Guards storm the place. Draconians standing all around me are pushed away with a telekinetic wave and just a second later I find myself being held firmly by Vermiel.