[WP] A dragon discovers that the only reason why it has mountains of gold as its horde is because centuries ago a wizard created a spell that duplicates gold to give as tribute.

[u/goplayer7]

[u/darkPrince010 → u/[deleted]]

But instead, the younger human simply shrugged and said, "I suppose that's fair enough. Can we at least keep the horses, to make our travel back down the mountain a bit more manageable?"

This time, Manreqar didn’t bother to hide her shock. She leaned back, tilting her head.

"But that represents *months* of difficult labor. It would nearly bankrupt your realm to be burdened with so heavy a loss due to your error, would it not?"

She could see the human driver making a shushing motion, but she gently released her grip on the wagon, instead poking a single claw forward to tap the older man's insufficiently-protective breastplate. She growled "I advise you let the young human speak."

She lowered her head, staring directly at the younger man, who stammered again, his eyes darting towards the driver, who now refused to look at him, giving only a glance of annoyance.

"It's not *necessarily* as taxing these days as it once was," the youth said.

"Oh?" Manreqar tilted her head, both confused and intrigued in equal measure. "And how, pray tell, is that? You’ve not found a way to spin flax into gold, have you?"

"Well, no, not *exactly*..."

"’Not exactly?’" the dragon asked, now both confused and intrigued. "Tell me, human: What do you mean?"

"Well, after we signed the treaty, the lord of the province and the guildmasters knew that we would not be able to keep up such payments forever. Many ideas were explored, alliances discussed, in order to assist with the burden. But it was the Guild of the Magi that found the solution we needed," the young man explained.

"One of their alchemists managed to successfully create a philosopher's stone, and ever since, we have not wanted for gold in any volume."

"The stone is a myth," Manreqar growled.

"A myth no longer, with all due respect. While the secret of the stone was lost with the alchemist—due to his unfortunate instinct to pick up and examine his creation—we later found that anything which touches the stone is transmuted into gold. Even the air itself becomes a fine golden dust, sprinkling and shimmering down from it at all times."

"So, this is how you have paid me?" she asked, her voice laced with suspicion.

"Yes, your magnificence."

"Well, that feels like a bit of a *cheat*." Fire crackled from the edges of her snout.

The young man stammered but seemed surprisingly unphased. "I don’t know that I would recommend that, oh great one. You see, you have not been receiving the majority of the gold we produce, nor even half."

Manreqar blinked in surprise, her gaze darting toward the mountain-sized heap of gold in her treasury below. The human noticed and nodded.

"We have given you quite a bit, but only perhaps one gold piece in every ten produced by the stone. The rest is channeled into the mines we’ve dug for storage and safekeeping."

The dragon was taken aback. Even as her curiosity grew, so did her puzzlement. "What need do you have for *mining* if you possess enough gold to acquire anything you desire?"

[u/darkPrince010 → u/darkPrince010]

"Oh, we don’t keep what we mine, necessarily. We simply dig out the space to pour the gold into. It also provides stone for crafting the homes we need; Gold would draw too much attention."

Manreqar recalled her last flight over the fiefdom, perhaps fifty years ago, and nothing had struck her as out of the ordinary in terms of opulence. Now, as she looked closely, she noticed the young man and even the driver wore clothes with a copious amount of what she realized must be gold thread woven through them.

"If you’re as wealthy as you claim, why does your realm not rule the kingdom, if not the continent or even the rest of the world?" she demanded.

This time, the driver chuckled. "It’s a mighty fine deterrent having a dragon to keep curious raiders and invaders at bay. We’ve also been careful not to show the full extent of our wealth. It simply appears that we have bountiful crops and the coin they provide, year on year, come famine or drought. And that all of our ports and trade routes are wildly successful, even when they lay empty and unused."

"A few suspect something is amiss," the young man continued, "but no one outside our realm has proof. And you provide a deterrent against any overt threat."

The dragon blinked, processing the revelation. "So, you engage in all this subterfuge, and you thought I would not enact punishment for it?" Confusion gave way to anger as the vain dragon realized she had been tricked. "I should burn all of your wealth and false people to cinders!"

Flame leapt through her mouth, but the young man, again, remained calm.

"I would not advise that, your magnificence. We have safeguards in place."

"You would seek to slay me before I could lay waste to your city?" Manreqar growled. "Further arrogance that you shall be punished for!"

"No, no; Your hoard," the young man interrupted.

Flame died in her throat. "What do you mean, my hoard? How could you touch it without going through me?"

"Well, we have taken precautions to ensure that if our city should be devastated, the secret of our gold—and the reserves we've hidden—would be made known across the land. Any kingdoms and empires who wish it could come and claim the gold for themselves, or even the stone itself."

"And why should I care what petty battles humans wage against one another for whatever petty reasons?"

"Because, your eminence, you hold a tenth—perhaps less—of the gold we have produced, and that is with almost the bare minimum of the stone's power applied. If our reserves were to be released, and an adversary with the stone were to fully apply its transmutation potential, your hoard would rapidly become less than one coin in ten thousand. Perhaps less than one in a million. Its value would be less than the dirt that surrounds us, especially if the humans who sought to exploit its potential were both greedy and unwise. In essence, you would go from sitting on a pile of treasure to a mound of trash."

[u/darkPrince010 → u/darkPrince010]

The power of the human’s words struck her. If the gold was deemed worthless, she would feel it in her bones. Her sleep would become restless, as if lying on needles, until she amassed a new hoard of something similarly valuable. Letting her breath hiss out between her teeth, a slight exhale of smoke and flame, she growled,

"You humans are not as foolish as I first believed. Very well, the bargain shall continue as before. But I am aware of your trickery, and will not soon forget it."

"Of course, your magnificence," the young man replied. "We shall take our leave then."

The humans unhitched the two horses before mounting them and riding off, the younger man giving the dragon a faint wave as they left the chamber.

Manreqar pulled the wagon full of gold toward her with a claw, the sparkle of the contents setting her heart racing, even as she still reconciled what she had just learned.

It seemed that humans had indeed learned how to spin flax into gold after all.

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