Dragon Aster Trilogy (29 page)

Loki focused on that as the phelan somnus was now shooting and cutting down their attackers by sword and gunfire. The moment he could feel all the wind under his wings again, he lifted himself back in the air, and retreated as more phelan joined the fight.

Sybl found herself locked in a Vision of the past, standing in front of the Eternal Waters. She was on a beach again, but this one was different. A shadow lay in the sand, but as she looked closer she could see that it was not a shadow, but a wingless dragon. His long fur moved not with the tide’s breeze, but from his own estus energy within. His entirety seemed like a static rift in the very essence of reality.

With one of his lazily stretched out hands, he tried to playfully catch an Iynx. The white, cat-like creature avoided capture in playful swirls of sand. “I’ll squish you if I have to,” Moon said as he set his hand and claws over the white cat like a cage. “Now where did Asil go?”

Sybl looked back at Moon as the dragon focused its gaze in a different direction down the beach.

“Tenu, have you seen Asil? I can’t find her anywhere.”

“You know she hates parties, particularly her own. You would have better luck finding her on the Torian Continent, on the battlefield.”

“Should you not be at the celebration with the rest of them?”

“I have the same view as her when it comes to any kind of celebration,” Tenu replied, as her long black hair hung in stillness around her body. “But she’s been so depressing as of late that I feel it like a contagion.”

“When this war is over, Damek won’t be the most beautiful one in her eyes anymore,” Moon said as he looked at the Iynx who had sat down and was content to listen quietly. “He’s the one who has been weighing her heart down with despair.” He lifted his claws off of the white cat then. “I found a beautiful one with golden hair like the stones of the Sylvan City and blue eyes like the skies of Earth. I have only to catch him before he finds a way back to his world.”

“A Sentry?”

“This one is different. I’ve been watching it for weeks now, and they only think that I cannot see them through the invisibility they cloak themselves in.”

“I don’t think the Caelestis would want you to start a war with Earth,” Tenu said.

“They will not miss one of their own. They have no emotions to attach themselves to one another. It’s an Iynx, like this one,” Moon said as he nudged the cat with the top of his claw, “who has learned to adapt and become independent from Hino in its thoughts and actions.”

“And you claim to have emotions?”

“I feel her constantly,” Moon replied as he dragged his claws through the sand. “I can feel her more than anyone else.”

“Do you feel remorse for the enemies you have killed? Or pain when a comrade is struck in battle? Do you feel loved when others sacrifice themselves to better your existence? Or betrayal when they forsake you?”

Moon didn’t answer the mermaid right away as he took his hand back in. “Were you so different once? You may have taken on the emotions in that body you wear now, but have you learned all there is to having them?”

“You are fortunate that you have my pity, or else I would smite you down for that comment,” Tenu replied as the waves rose higher. “Have you not so much as tried to ask her to give you a human form and soul like she gave Damek? Have you thought about what will happen if they take what you do as an act of war—or worse yet—if the creature devours and absorbs your power instead?”

The Iynx’s ears perked up with more interest to the conversation.

“It won’t come to that. Besides, I have every right to take it for being on this world. Maybe they need a solid reminder to keep their spies away.”

“What makes you so sure?” Tenu asked as she walked closer to the wingless dragon. “Have you ever stopped to think that Asil doesn’t love you, before you put us all in danger with your senseless idea to try and win her heart? You still have no idea how to hold it without shattering it to pieces.”

“Asil does love me. When I am as beautiful as that Sentry, I will be the one she looks at. She will love me more than Damek, because I have nowhere in my heart where she isn’t there.”

Tenu shook her head and then started to wade into the water, before vanishing under the next wave.

Moon stood up and put his front hand in the Eternal Waters, creating a Rift to enter the Keol through.

“Moon, wait!” Sybl cried after him.

The black serpent stopped and looked back, but he didn’t seem to see her. But the Iynx looked directly at her with his green eyes.

Loki unsomned and sat down amongst the densely positioned trees of the woods, setting Sybl who remained asleep on the ground beside him with his cloak for a pillow. He didn’t know if his somn had used her energy to heal and escape, but he could only guess that it did with how exhausted she was. While the heavy, dark estus energy of the Atrum loomed over them, it made just about everything exhausting. Loki told himself to be more careful with somning with Sybl in the future. The last thing he had expected that day was the phelan who had taken his Princess on the Torian Continent later help him escape with her.

He looked around the forest, trying to get some idea of where they were now. It was a good time to be lost in the world, with most of its inhabitants currently hunting them both down.

A memory of the look in his brother’s eyes before he had fled Mer City went through his mind, and he shook his head to the side. Loki had made his choice to save the Princess, while Lintrance had chosen Solar who was reborn in the body of his daughter, Rose. His daughter who would have killed Sybl had Aragmoth’s grace not been watching over her. With Rose came the monster that was the Phoenix.

Loki still couldn’t fathom any of it, as she had been a normal girl, much like Sybl. Now her soul was in the fire serpent that had emerged from the Keol as a titan. The Texts read that Solar was forever separated from her Ancient—but somehow it wasn’t anymore, and he didn’t understand how or why.

He set his hand gently on Sybl’s hair, praying that Aragmoth was keeping an eye on them still. He thought about everyone back at the Dragon Caverns and Toria, and the few descendants of Moon who remained, Cecil for one. He couldn’t bring himself to think of how Cecil would react on finding out his Bond was all the while, Solar.

There was no saying what would become of Loki’s home, or his life for that matter. He was once so much closer to being called a Prince of Toria. But now Fevre was dead, and with him died any chance he might have of being someone more. All he had left now was his Princess.

An eerie Call went out through the trees, drowning out his thoughts with its saddening song. It was followed by a howl.

Loki looked around in fear, before picking up Sybl into his arms in case he had to quickly somn in defense. For this was the territory of the True, and no Ancient or eminor was safe from the predators that preyed on spirits.

The scentless, massive dark spirits, surrounded them as the wind came to a complete stop. When the red eyes of one of the phelan looked directly at him, he held Sybl tight enough to squeeze her awake.

“Loki?”

“Sybl, stay calm.”

She looked at what froze him in place. “Whatever you do, don’t somn.”

The trees seemingly moved aside, as the True walked over to them. The wolf-like, black creature was easily the size of a small house, but it didn’t so much as leave a footprint where it stepped.

Loki’s light green dragon Ancient wrapped itself around them as tight as it could. It was now little more than an appetizer.

The True continued to watch him. Loki could feel it rummaging through his thoughts. For all he knew, it could have seen his entire life in the time it took to blink. “Wait a minute… Jasper? Is that you?”

“Loki? So it is you. You are a long way from home.”

Loki let out the longest breath of relief, as he loosened his grip on Sybl who remained stunned that the True was speaking. “How are you over here?”

“We travelled the Keol after my town of Berion was flattened by an Aeger kyrie. High Priest Kas has been giving my Pack refuge at the Sanctus, and we do what we can to protect it in turn.” Jasper turned his red eyes to Sybl, before releasing a great deal of his estus energy to shrink to a much smaller size. “My apologies, my Lady Caelestis. My old mind took a moment to believe you were both here outside of a Vision.”

“It’s fine,” Sybl replied. “Where’s Kas now?”

“He should be along shortly. The griffins have lost his trail. Come with me. You both will be much safer at the Sanctus.”

Loki got to his feet with Sybl, figuring that was the best place to go for now, if anywhere.

The fires from the torches alongside the Sanctus’ streets glowed brightly, blanketing its shadows in warmth. With the breeze created by the energies from Atrum’s Aur and Toria’s across the Eternal Waters, there was a constant imbalance of static energy in the air. Half of the white stone temple was interwoven into a high cliff that rose above and over it like a roof. Blue flags and fabrics fluttered in the wind, signifying a place of peace.

But the peace was not matched by a phelan and a griffin, who fought across the tall grass inside the perimeter’s wall. Then the griffin fluttered up onto the high wall and sat down on his cat-like haunches, facing the opponent he had left below.

“Once again, I am the beautifully winged, glorified proof that the griffin species were created in perfection to reign in godliness,” Gwa said as he stretched out his dusty-red and white feathered wings at his sides. “I shall now sit on my great wall of conquest and gloat over your misfortune.”

Kenshe growled angrily at the griffin from the ground below. The wall was more of a decoration now than an added defense, as there were numerous chimeras living at the Sanctus who could easily fly over its height. Like his irritating friend. “Yea, so self-righteous, you think destroying the world will make it a better place.”

“If you stupid dogs would stop eating everything in it for a min—” the second he started the word, he felt the sharp hit from someone’s psi trying to get his attention. Gwa looked back and across the field with his perfect eyesight to see Jasper approaching. Then his eyes quickly fell to the ones who were with him. “Who do you suppose Jasper dragged out of the woods this time?”

“Huh?” Kenshe asked, jumping up to the top of the wall as if its height had suddenly became irrelevant.

Gwa took to the air to get a better look, as Kenshe jumped down the other side of the wall in a race to get to them first.

Sybl nearly fell off of Jasper’s back when the griffin swooped down over them before landing. But his landing was cut short when Loki somned by instinct, and caught the half bird’s neck in his teeth. Then he threw him to the ground with enough force to snap its neck. If Loki were bigger.

“Hey! Easy! He’s an ally!” Jasper shouted at Loki, clamping his teeth down on the dragon’s wing until he let go of the griffin. “That is Gwa, one of Master Kas’ Custos.”

“A griffin?” Loki replied, then spat out its white feathers into the tall grass.

Sybl looked back at the creature, as it was sitting on its bird-like tail now. Its chest and head puffed up, as if his feathers were statically charged. It was almost enough to cover his bird-like front legs and talons. It had stopped shaking, as if it had been accustomed to predators tackling it to the edge of death.

“She’s so perfect!”

Sybl had no idea what to say back, as its brown, not yellow eyes watched her from its eagle-like face. The griffin puffed his feathers out some more, until he looked like a fluffy piece of popcorn. It caused three times as many white and rose feathers to snow from him. It was hard to see the enemy up close on a normal day, and now this one was going out of his way to appear cute.

“Jasper, what have you been telling her about me?” The griffin next to cried, as its feathers dropped as if suddenly hit by a torrential rain.

“Just unsomn already,” Jasper said with a shake of his head.

Gwa did so, and he now stood in his human-like appearance that his white mist had left him in.

Sybl looked more closely. His skin tone wasn’t pale white like other griffins she had seen, but darker. Gwa’s knotted white hair had light rose streaks and eyes remained brown.