Dragon Aster Trilogy (37 page)

“I…well, you’re busy. That and this one is from Earth, so it makes me feel better.”

Kas raised one eyebrow, figuring that this topic didn’t need an argument. He took her hand, as the fear that she might yet take off and hide hadn’t left his mind, and they walked from the room and down the hall. Then he let her go.

She took his arm as they walked downstairs, and around the staircase to the exit that led to the gardens. Sybl tried to focus on nothing, as the dozens on dozens of people applauded and welcomed them. She drowned it all out, only nodding and smiling where it felt appropriate. All the while Kas tried to pull her mind to full attention, but she just retreated further into nothingness, edging the point of fainting.

“There be wraiths in the flowers. Her Lady would be safest not leaning against any.”

Sybl looked up at Xirel’s purple eyes. She looked around the garden then, and found only the both of them within it. It was as if everyone else had been blocked out by a thick, white fog. Instantly she felt better. “Are you…?”

“Yes, I have mastered a few talents with Thread over the years,” Xirel said, looking briefly around at his handy work. “While there are some chimeras who are by far more masterful Awls, making a mess of Threads to the point they disappear tends to be easier for me.”

“Thank you.” Sybl smiled as she thought his latest mess was nothing short of brilliant, right down to its timing.

“Thank you for coming, and in such a beautiful sparkle of silver. You outshine my youth a thousand times over.”

She looked at his silver hair that he likely tried to restore some luster to for the occasion. He looked like an ancient elf who carried his wrinkles with more pride, as even his ears were just a bit sharper near the tips. His long purple robe made her think about Kas’ roses. She smiled at the thought, and then looked back at his purple eyes in curiosity. “Are there any colors that chimera can’t see?”

“Most colors can’t be seen by us, except for those of us who are Awls. I must say it was strange and beautiful thing to go from seeing black, white, grey and red, to a spectrum of colors that could never be all named.”

“At this rate Earth will take over Aster, just by their Sentry alone.”

“I don’t think that’s Hino’s intention, Sybl. I think he just wants a peaceful balance, as you did once. There are millions of Sentry, and only a handful here of his finest to fill out and help where they can.”

Sybl looked across the gardens to where Loki watched her through the fog Xirel had created. “I hope you’re right.”

Soft music started into their silence, and Xirel took her hand in his. “May I have the first dance?”

She followed him to what she could only guess was the center of the garden, and tried not to look at his feet as he led her.

When the song was over, the fog slowly faded out. Then he let her go with a bow. “If you find yourself overwhelmed again, I will be nearby.”

“Thank you, Xirel,” she said in turn, and then looked as Loki stepped up to take the next dance from her. When her stomach jumped from the sight of all the people again, he quickly brought her attention back to him.

“Why are you so nervous around others?”

“I think right now I’m more nervous around you.”

“You don’t owe me an apology, so don’t even try. Lintrance tried to kill you. The sooner the world forgets that he was my brother, the better. I’m grateful that Kas was able to silence what happened as well as he did.”

Out of reflex alone, Sybl reached for her neck where her matching necklace to Cirrus’ had once been. If she forgot him again, she wouldn’t be able to forgive herself.

Loki brought her eyes back to his. “I was hoping that you forgot about him.”

“If it’s not you blocking him out of my memories, then who is doing it?”

“I don’t want to rat anyone out. Especially as all of this has proven that you can be happy without Cirrus.”

“No, I can’t. We go back a lot farther than anyone is seeing or understanding,” Sybl replied.

“But things change. And all he ever did was hurt you.”

“That’s not true. How much more pain have I caused him in turn? All because of what I am.”

“Sybl, listen to me,” Loki pleaded. “You took my heart before I so much as met you in person. I can protect you now. Forget about him and move on. Everyone else has already.”

Sybl looked away from him and to the grass under her. “I’m sorry, Loki, but I haven’t.” She looked around the crowd for the closest way out, and retreated from the garden. When she was far from the noise, she turned her head when another voice called out to her. One that took a moment to remember from back at the Harbor.

She lifted her dress up and walked through the tall grass, as several Custos watched her carefully from afar. Then she nearly tripped over the one who had been calling her. It was the griffin somnus from the Harbor. Her first instinct was to cry out for help, until he caught her ankle with his sharp nails.

“They took him. Gloria, Delare—our ship...everything… Help them, please!”

She kneeled down, and touched him to heal his wounds that looked to have been done by gunshot. Just as she did, his eyes rolled back and he died.

Kenshe skidded to a stop next to her in his phelan form, but before he could say anything, he saw the griffin somnus. “How did he get past our perimeter?”

“He was one of the ones to help me at the Harbor, before Loki found me,” Sybl said, and wiped a tear from her eye as she stood up straight again.

“I’ll see to it that his body is taken care of. Go back to the party before Kas—”

“I don’t give a damn about partying while people are out there dying because of me!” Sybl cried at him. She turned her tears towards the Triage Woods, where the Atrum lay beyond their Borders and beyond her power of saving.

“You can’t hold yourself responsible for saving everyone,” Kenshe shouted back. “You’ll drive yourself mad unless you stop it!”

“Someone has to take responsibility. If not me, then who?” Sybl crouched back down, and looked at the griffin somnus’ hand. He held what looked like a silver chain. She gently opened his hand, and lifted what was her necklace, complete with the golden fairy on it. “Delare must have taken this off of me when he pulled me from the water…”

“Sybl!”

Sybl got back to her feet, and looked to where Kas walked over to her.

“What are you doing out here? And alone—?” He stopped on the sight of the dead griffin somnus, and frowned deeply. “How did this get past our Custos?”

“He helped me back at the Harbor, and now he’s likely dead because of it.”

Kas looked at Sybl, and then back at the corpse. “Our Custos do not use guns. Whatever he did to bring this Fate on himself has nothing to do with us. Go back inside.”

With nothing more that she could do, she turned and left Kas in the field. In her hand she gripped the blood-covered fairy pendant.

Three days later, Kas meditated in silence in the center of the Shrine. He looked so peaceful despite the tension that was building all over the Suzerain Continent. There was no way to tell for certain all that would happen once his father died, and with him, the possible collapse of the Atrum’s Order.

“Kas.”

“I am not prepared to talk to you again. Please bother me later,” he replied to Sybl.

“How long were you blocking Cirrus out of my memories?”

“I have not blocked anything out of your memories.”

“Then it’s you who are the worst liar!”

“It does not matter what you remember of that monster, because he is dead!” Sybl stepped back as Kas had released enough of his rage to frighten her. “You are not seeing the chain of consequences you have possibly created,” he added, forcing his voice calmer. “By seeking out the light half of the Dragon Moon, you got yourself killed by him in the past. Aragmoth has collected his soul for punishment. If there is any righteousness in the Great Dragon, then Cirrus’ soul is gone forever. He is never coming back, and this is where you forget him.”

“Why are you so determined to erase everyone around me from my life? Even your own friends!”

“There are rules that must be followed to maintain order,” Kas replied.

“Are you maintaining order, or are you only concerned about how perfect you look to our allies?”

“I only wish to protect you.”

“I never asked you to,” Sybl snapped back.

“You never had to.”

“Is that how you thought when it took you so long to find me on Earth?”

Kas let out a long sigh. “It was impossible to reach you while you were in the city.”

“Until Daath conveniently found me and inflicted enough damage onto my back to make them throw me into foster care, for being some self-inflicting freak. Then one impossible occurrence after another, they moved me from house to house until I was finally dropped within your reach.”

Kas turned his head slightly towards Sybl, but continued to look at the ground.

“All the Iynx and Awls are connected to each other. You saw me come to Aster by Daath because Gei saw it.”

Kas got to his feet and caught her shoulders in his hands. “You are the only family I have ever cared about. Without you, I have nothing. Why can you not understand this?”

“You are trying to control me!”

“Only because you lack the ability to keep control over yourself. We are opposites, even in this life. Unlike you, I do not hesitate when it comes to protecting those I love. I will not risk losing you again.”

Sybl stepped away from Kas, even more furious. “I get it now. You don’t just think I’m too human to be the Caelestis, you think I’m too crazy to be her.”

“That is not true. I only wanted to take every precaution, as the estus energy from the Atrum’s Aur amplifies your negative emotions.”

“And yet you are purposely doing everything you can to infuriate me!” Sybl shouted at him.

“You are supposed to always be mad at me.”

“And if I’m not?”

“Then I am likely mad at you, which I prefer not to be.”

Sybl looked on the verge of screaming at him. She might have, if a low hum hadn’t gone out from one of the ayame Callers within the Sanctus.

Kas listened for a moment as the Call was quickly matched by the other Callers. A hollow image of a dragon was passed from one psi to the next in fear. He sent his psi in search of the White Death in all directions, but the dragon was using his invisibility, creating a great deal of hysteria as everyone tried to spot him.

Sybl found him first. A large body of stars, camouflaged against the few that pierced through the estus Aur, lay on the glass ceiling. Then two, light blue eyes gave a center to the impossible gravity that Cirrus made with his command over the wind.

With little more than a prayer and a breath between them, Kas took Sybl’s arm and carefully backed them away. Everything and everyone in the Sanctus stopped when Kas’ psi was heard by the other Callers, as the very breathing air was held hostage by the dragon.

“Master Kas! The White Death is…” Jru paused in his run to them, and looked up to what the High Priest stood paralyzed in his gaze under, “…here.” Both of them instinctively looked at Sybl.

“I can’t make out what he’s saying,” Sybl said, with panic in her voice.

“It is the Aeger trying to speak,” Kas replied, trying to keep her fear from overwhelming him in turn.

Moments later, the dragon struck the glass with its claws and sent it raining down on them. The White Death landed in the center of the Shrine and let out an infuriated cry, before charging for them.

Yri’s mentioning of an Awl who was sent to kill her brother, Fevre, had Hain guessing just which one would be dense enough to take up such a task. Or which one wasn’t playing by the rules, just as the High Priestess hadn’t been. If it truly was Damek, he had to know just how many strings Vanir was able to pull in his use of the Awl kind. For if Vanir was able to separate, manipulate and then enslave Damek’s Eminor from his soul, that meant that no Awl was safe. The scarier scenario was that Damek was consciously doing it all himself.

When Feryl caught up with Hain in Atrum City, he had brought with him Sybl’s request to save Delare and Gloria. In Hain’s search to do something incredibly stupid, it had ultimately been delivered right to him.

Hain tucked his long, straight brown hair behind his ear as he tried to pick up on their trail that had ended at the Atrum. He regretted having thrown all the soldiers from Vanir overboard the GLORIA on the trip over to the Torian Continent, as he didn’t anticipate needing to question one later. Now they were fish food.