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Darzarath sat still in front of the screen. Her office was perfectly in the dark safe for the flickering glow of the images on the screen.

The extensive display covered a surface that would equal that of a small cinema theatre for a human, but for her it was little more than a comfortably sized screen. In front of her, the screen showed pictures that filled her with anxiety and anticipation. Technical drawings and diagrams for the most part, undecipherable to anyone but a keen technical eye. To her they meant a possible hope. The door chimed, and before Darzarath could answer it opened a sliver, letting in a faint light in the room. She quickly flicked a claw on the enormous dragon-sized keyboard in front of her and the screen shut off, and the lights in the room turned on.

As quickly as the door opened, it soon closed as a human figure walked in.

"Lady Darzarath, is everything okay?" The human asked as she approached the dragon. "You've been shut in here all day long."

"Yes, Martifia. I'm fine." Darzarath sighed. She looked down to the young woman that was her assistant.

"'Fine' is a relative statement." Martifia said as she sat on a chair in front of what was the dragon's desk. "You've been nervous ever since you came back from your... day off. Something happened, something that distraught you, but you're not keen on spilling it."

"Sometimes I regret allowing you to finish your psychology courses." Darzarath sighed. "Yes, something happened. Nothing directly bad, no one got hurt, but... It was not the best outcome."

Darzarath looked closely at Martifia. She'd been her trusted assistant for a few years now, and she had come to trust the human as much as the human trusted the dragon. Always looking dashing, today Martifia was wearing a dark blue dress, with a small red ruby jewel on her collar. An unusually expensive chocie of attire for a normal work day, Darzarath noted.

"The Council wants access to my Library. I cannot do that in good conscience, knowing what I know of their intentions." Darzarath explained. "They think I befriended mortals for the sole purpose of studying them. To determine their weaknesses. To understand how to destroy them."

Martifia listened in silence to the dragon's words. In spite of her self control, she could not keep herself from being uncomfortable at those last words, but Darzarath was not finished yet.

"They believe I've built weapons to destroy mortals. To... 'purge' the world of what they consider vermin." Darzarath continued, growling at the mention of how her kind considered mortals. "The problem? Yes, I did build weapons, but not to destroy mortals. But to kill dragons."

Martifia's head perked up at that reveal.

"My Library by itself contains nothing but raw, basic technical concepts. They think they will find all they need in it. But they'll be lacking the very thing they claim to have over mortals."

"Which is?" Martifia asked. "What would they lack?"

"Vision." Darzarath said. "They lack the vision to fully understand how smaller elements make for a larger entity. It is this lack of vision that drives them to consider your kind nothing short of a pest. They consider all humans alike, with no distinction. Similarly, humans at large consider all dragons as nothing more than cruel and animal brutes driven by greed. In truth, both sides are wrong, and both sides lack the vision needed to determine their victory or supremacy."

"Then... why are you so worried about them accessing the library?" Martifia asked.

"Because even though they lack vision, they are far from stupid. Some of them can well outsmart me if they had reason to. The reason why we never crossed claws is because I have mastery of what they could never understand. They need me, just like they need my library if they want to find a way to destroy mortals." Darzarath explained. "I fear for what lengths they are going to do to obtain what they want. I know that they've done highly despicable things in the past for lesser motives. I do not wish to witness first hand what would they do if they decided that my Library and me were their best options."

"I... I don't know what to say." Martifia breathed. She was speechless in light of such revelations.

"You needn't say anything." Darzarath said as she stood up.

She walked around the desk to reach closer to Martifia. She had just confided in Martifia something that only very few of the most powerful dragons in the world knew. The dragon appreciated that the young woman was level headed enough to not lose her cool to this piece of information, but she was clearly shaken.

"Martifia, I know that this is a lot to take in, but I would be grateful if you kept this to yourself." Darzarath said as she laid down next to Martifia, or at least as close as she could given her size. "I know that the Council has eyes and ears where they matter, and at this point I can no longer afford to be as lax as I have been before in regards to matters of this importance."

"Yes. I... I understand." Martifia said.

"Good. Good." Darzarath said, nodding. She looked up to the large digital clock on the far wall. It was late afternoon, and the sun would soon set. "It is getting late, now. You should take leave for tonight."

"I... Yes, absolutely. I already had plans for the evening, but I just didn't imagine that the day would take such an abrupt turn."

"Oh, so that's what's the fancy dress is for." The dragon taunted.

Martifia tried to look straight into Darzarath's eyes in a pretense of offense, but she couldn't hold the eye contact for long as she started blushing. Darzarath let a slight chuckle escape, which quite unsubtly made the room vibrate just enough to make Martifia feel as if some heavy hammer was being swung against the ground. She never got quite used at witnessing such a large creature expressing emotions so visibly.

"Very well, enjoy your evening." Darzarath said. "You know where to find me should the need arise."

"Thank you, Lady Darzarath." The woman said as she got up.

After Martifia left, Darzarath returned to her computer. Once again she looked through her files, every bit as apprehensive as she was earlier. Talking with Martifia soothed her heart, but her mind maintained its turmoil. She went deeper into her files. Past the newer and more sophisticated technological patents, past the mass produced and common use electronics, beneath layers of security that she herself put in place to ensure their safety, laid more important files. One of the first things she did after the mortals invented a way to transfer material documents into digital format, was to scan and preserve her oldest notes into her company's safest servers. Not just any kind of notes. Alchemy, study of ley lines, astronomical observations and studies to link elemental powers to celestial bodies, arcane infusion of metals and crystals, and much more. Darzarath had kept all of that, safe from the decay of time and the short retention of mortal history. She had an endgame in mind, and the Council wanted in on her plans.

Other dragons discounted her inability to harness most types of magic and magic schools and disciplines as a consequence from her lack of study, but it couldn't be farther from truth. She did study magic, probably more than some of those that called her ignorant on the matter, but because she just couldn't use such magic, she could never prove her words and her worth. Her plans were ambitious. This world after all could only offer her so much, that there had to be something else, something more beyond this world. And she found with astronomy. One time, she had come to make acquaintance with a mortal astronomer, a noble whose wealth, wits and wisdom afforded him the leisure to gaze at the night sky with large telescope that he had specifically commissioned for the purpose. Curious about the contraption, Darzarath set out to establish a connection with the noble. The young man was very amused that a dragon, of all beings, would come to him as a student. They spent many years together, and as they did so Darzarath learned of other worlds beyond the one she was born.

"The wonders of the powers of nature stretch beyond our sky and our horizons." He had told her. "Countless worlds of incalculable complexity, at distances such that no man alive would ever see them with their own eyes if it weren't thanks to a contraption born of our curiosity."

"Do you think that those worlds are anything close to ours?" She had asked.

"Perhaps, perhaps not." He said with shrug. "Our eyes can only let us in on so much information. To find out what those worlds host, one can only go there and witness for themselves. Who knows, maybe one day you'll be one such witness, or you'll encounter someone who was such person."

"You sure are a dreamer, aren't you?" She laughed. "Nothing made by man or dragon, or elf, or orc can reach beyond the highest clouds. The attempt alone to construct such a thing is absolute folly!"

"Ha! Mayhap you may be right." He responded. "I might indeed be losing sight of what us mortals can or cannot do. One can challenge nature so far after all..."

She had to eat her words back however, as not even half millenias later a mortal nation had managed to send someone beyond the highest clouds and back. An astronaut. And then they did it again, and again, and again, and every time it happened, she was dumbfounded that the mortals had managed to progress so much in so little time. Sure, she did have her part in making it happen since she did invent some of the technologies that space program used, and still uses to this day, but she had never though that her old friend's words would come so close to come true.

Her screen was now showing a sheet of her old notes overlapped with a modern photograph. It was a planet, part of this world's solar system. It was cold, dark, but it seemed to have an atmosphere nonetheless. She brought up its most recent data. Compared to that modern data, her old notes were rather spot on, if lacking in detail all the same. Not too big, no moons, no particularly visible surface features, and from what little light it received it seemed to have a blueish-white color similar to clear ice. She could never tell if it was actually ice or not, but the recently acquired scans from several years of probe missions said that it could well be dry ice mist in the atmosphere. She shivered at the thought of flying in that, but she wanted to do that anyway.

She looked at the clock on the far wall. It was midnight. She had just spent hours reminiscing while browsing the scans of her old notes. Typical, but unnecessary, she noted. Darzarath flicked her claw on the keyboard again, this time shutting off the computer directly.

Tomorrow she would continue with her browsing, but for tonight she needed to collect her thoughts and let herself afford the rest that she likely won't have much of in the coming times.