Something heavy weighed down upon the great, elder dragon who appeared full of melancholy all of a sudden as he placed a single, foreign word – or perhaps name – into the void of silence: Aliostar. Indeed, his voice conveyed feelings of sadness or regret when he revealed unto the renegade sorcerers just whom he was to take them to in the far reaches of Jevog Denûm’s volcanic spires. Jillian had long suspected that their “contact” could by no means be a regular person, or indeed a human at all, and was thus not entirely caught by surprise that it was nothing less than another dragon that they were seeking out. This Aliostar sounded like an ominous kind, one whose ire was more deeply rooted and of a darker nature than the mere hubris of Lailonsaire with which she had looked down upon mortals like Jillian. Defying the latter had probably earned the witch the dragon’s respect, even if it would never admit anything of the sort, but standing up to this Red sounded like a particularly foolish idea. In fact, visiting him at all seemed a terrible idea, and Gerald must have felt similarly, for he voiced his concerns without delay. As he had practically taken the words from Jillian’s mind, she did nothing and simply looked at the old dragon expectantly.

His explanation was unsatisfactory for the witch. Having been defeated and forced into hiding would surely serve as a catalyst for the old Red’s hatred, rather than dull it down over the centuries she imagined – she knew firsthand just how prideful dragons could be, and although Renold had not said whose held he had gotten when he overcame Aliostar, she suspected it may have been humans, as humankind had once hunted down many of the great beasts. Whatever wounds he might have suffered that day were surely all but insignificant compared to the scars they must have left upon his ego. Relying on the hope that he was too lethargic to attack them, and too weak to actually kill them before they could escape, seemed like too many uncertainties to count on. Moreover, she harbored doubt as to their actual necessity of needing his expertise in particular, because there must be others with similar abilities. In fact, they probably had one amongst them right then and there!

“The reason we’re looking for this Aliostar is because he is a summoner?” Jillian asked, slightly irritated, “Why him? I thought Crone was supposedly the mistress of all known kinds of magic and such. Surely summoning must be amongst her list of masteries, no?” she continued, casting a glance at the ancient hag, “If it is, then this entire undertaking seems like a very dangerous prospect for a dubious gain. Call me a pessimist if you will, but I don’t think he’s going to help us. He has no reason to. Even if he would, there’s no way to be sure that he even could give us an answer.”

Jillian shrugged and sighed: “I’m not liking this.”