A pale blue halo spread outward from around the inspection gate. Accompanied by Artificial Intelligence Omega's voice announcement, the barrier opened, and the gate leading to Tarlonnd stabilized before Noreta.
The elegant white dragon beat her wings and glided beautifully through the navigation Light Rings before the gate. Behind her, the barrier entrance contracted shut, sealing out the howling cold air of the Arctic Ocean.
Noreta lowered her head, enjoying the comfortable temperature created by the weather controllers. Verdant mountains and hills stretched across her view, while low-altitude transit networks crisscrossed between cities over the land. Amid the familiar scenery of her homeland, she took a deep breath, filling all four of her biological lungs and both sets of mechanical lungs with clean, warm air.
Tarlonnd had been springlike all year round, at least for the past four thousand years. But further back, this continent had also been covered in ice and snow, or blanketed in seas of lava and fire. Dragons, a race trapped in a cage—their long civilization was as dull as their long lives. Over ages measured in millennia, the Elders' Council reset the weather controllers roughly once every ten thousand years to alter the continent's "appearance." In the current cycle, Tarlonnd's "theme" was spring.
This was one of the few permitted forms of "nonsense" beneath the gods' watchful gaze. It had no real purpose, but the dragons never tired of it.
A few meaningless thoughts flashed through her mind as Noreta began descending. She circled the outer Mountain Peaks barrier once, then flew straight toward Agondor, headquarters of the Mithril Treasury nestled among the mountains.
Between towering peaks, magnificent and splendid Agondor bathed in dim sunlight. This long day was nearing its end, and the giant sun that had ruled the sky for nearly half a