Melita had to admit that this was the most embarrassing and humiliating landing she had ever made since hatching—though her landing accident rate had always been relatively high among her kind due to carelessness or the occasional malfunction of her visual components, appearing before Speaker Andar in such a rolling, scrambling state was truly a first.
Without a doubt, it was all because of implant malfunctions. The disappearance of the Omega System had caused all sorts of auxiliary implants to shut down, and being without the visual enhancement system had left her unable to adapt...
But no matter what, the embarrassment and pain of a failed landing vanished like smoke in the next instant—when she saw that familiar aged dragon, covered from head to toe in the marks of implant modifications, Melita's mind was instantly filled with nothing but astonishment and delight.
Speaker Andar was alive. Even High Priest Heragol was alive.
Three dragons stood beside the enormous crash crater. Two of them were dragons Melita knew well and had believed to have died in the final battle. Only Barrogel was unfamiliar to her—the true identity of the Dragonblood Grand Duke was a secret to ninety-nine percent of Tarlonnd's dragons, and Melita, despite being a member of the council, was no exception.
It took Heragol, Andar, and Barrogel quite a while to learn the general situation in Tarlonnd from Melita and Duke Mor, and to understand the changes that had taken place on the land after they left the planet.
"I truly never expected... to see you return alive," Duke Mor said, looking at the three old friends before him with an indescribably complicated expression. He was one of Tarlonnd's few remaining ancient dragons, yet during the final coming-of-age ceremony, he had remained on the planet to resist the