I Raised A Black Dragon

If there was a factory beyond that lake, it made sense that the lake was clogged up with magic. And amongst them was where Adrian’s cloning research took place. 

Noah was uncertain of what to do. In front of her was, potentially, an industrial zone where vast amounts of magic were produced. And behind her was a town that was seemingly abandoned. She did, at least, back away from the lake. There was only so much of the stench that she could handle. 

There was still no sign of Perri, the fairy she had sent off to track down Kyle. When she did find Kyle, she would be able to relay his location back to Muell so he could transport Noah there with little fuss. 

Unsure of how long she was going to wait, Noah sat down on a rock and rummaged through her bag until she found her spyglass. 

Through the spyglass, she was unable to spot any factories. The lake seemed to stretch on for miles, seemingly with no end in sight. 

“A vast lake with this amount of contamination, and no factories in sight.”  Noah mused aloud to herself. “A underground pipe that carries waste materials from far away?” 

Her thoughts were interrupted when Muell rapidly tugged on her arm to get her attention. 

“Noah, they’re here! They’ve found us!” Muell was breathing heavily, and glancing in the direction of the town. Noah leapt to her feet, scattering the contents of her bag onto the ground.

“Muell, cast your invisibility spell again!” She scrambled around trying to gather up her belongings and shove them back into her bag. 

She wondered how they managed to track her down to such a remote location, and what they wanted with her. 

As she shoved everything back into her bag, she stumbled upon Largo’s Eyeball. She wondered what eye she was hiding: the one that saw everything or the one acted as a projector. She had lost one of them whilst aboard The Angelic, and thought she would never find it again. However, there was a chance that those chasing her had the other eye. After all, they were affiliated with Yulem, the same person who sent out the first wave of assassins after her. 

“I won’t know until I try, I suppose.” She said as she tapped the side of the eye. Instantly, a screen was projected from the iris. Noah yelped in surprise and dropped the eye, watching as hooded figures appeared on the screen. Panic set in her stomach when she could see four pairs of eyes staring at her, and quickly checked that Muell’s magic had worked. To her immense relief, she was invisible and the assassins couldn’t see her. 

“It seems like she does have the other eye. She must be using some invisibility magic.” One of them turned to the person to their left. “Run the tracker again. We should be able to find her again even if she has vanished.” The assassin pulled out a small scanner and held it up to the screen. A few seconds later, they lowered it to check the screen. As Noah nervously waited to see what they would do, a horrifying thought crossed her mind. They already knew where she was, as they were radioing support to track her down. The moment she got her eye out and connected to the other one, they had her location. Usually, she kept it buried inside her bag, thus the connection between the two eyes was weakened, or outright severed. 

If she had just placed the eye back into her bag without fiddling with it, she may have been able to escape without alerting them to her location. 

She cursed herself for being clumsy and dropping the content of her bag, which allowed her to come into contact with the eye in the first place. 

“Look, the screen is crystal clear. She’s got the other eye, I’m sure of it.” One of the people stepped forwards and stared directly into the camera. Though their face was covered by the hood, Noah felt like they were staring directly into her soul. “Enjoying the show? Thank you for using the eye, and showing us where you are. Now, be a good lass and turn yourself in.” The assassin held up a radio, and gave it a quick shake. “Don’t bother trying to run. We’ll be able to catch you soon enough, and we’ll bring back up.” 

Noah rubbed her arms, desperately trying to figure out what to do. She could throw the eye away, but it would be pointless if they already knew where she was. Plus, provided she could get the other one back, it could be useless later on. 

“Alright, alright.” She uncurled herself and lifted her head up to address the camera, not wanting to give the impression that she was inwardly terrified. “You win. I’ll turn myself in.”