Chapter 34:

I stood there, watching for a long moment as he flew before heading back over to where Nova still stood, also watching as the morning light gleamed off his dark scales. Pressing my palm against her foreleg, I felt her jump under my touch, and bright violet eyes snapped down to mine. 

'Are you okay?' I asked, looking up at her as the dawn shimmered across her opalescent scales. 

'Yes, I'm fine.' She whispered, but I could tell that she wanted to say more. 

'Nova, we promised, no more secrets. If there's something bothering you, please just talk to me.' I watched her for a long moment as she continued to watch Xavier before lying down in the snow, and I moved to sit with her, leaning back against her side as she curled in around me. 

'There is still a lot more that we need to tell you. We were waiting until we knew for sure that you had fully accepted everything, and I was honestly expecting Bane and Xavier to be here to help out a little, but I guess now is as good of a time as ever.' I just looked up at her for a moment, but her eyes were still locked on Xavier's form, now high in the sky as he flew. 'It just shocked me a little, that's all. Xavier is so similar to how Bane had been when we first found each other. It's honestly a little uncanny.' 

'Well, to be fair, Bane did have a significant impact on Xavier's life. He's probably all but raised him since he was fifteen like you did to me.' 

'While that is true, it goes far deeper than that. This is going to sound really odd at first, but bear with me here. In simple terms, Bane and I are actually Xavier's great-grandparents. She paused for a long moment, allowing that revelation to sink in. Bane was the king who stopped the slaughter of the Celestials in the first place and gave a time of peace back to the realms. Back then, Celestials weren't as you know them to be today. They had magic of their own and didn't rely on familiars. They also typically had feathered white wings and were known to be the race that was closest to the Gods themselves. Only the lower Celestials were human, like they are now. I, however, was born into the royal Celestial line without magic or wings. Back then, the war was still raging, although the Alliance was far outweighed by the might of the Beastial forces. Due to me not having any magic, I was deemed useless and sold off as a slave, and was sent to the Beastial kingdom, specifically into the palace in Carnavia. That is where Bane found me. Just like you and Xavier, we were also mates, although Bane has always been far less sharp-tongued towards me. Long story short, after claiming his mate, he was able to claim the throne from his father and ended the war. However, by that point, the only thing left of the Celestials were all magicless humans. Bane pulled all of the Beastial troops back out of all other kingdoms, and eventually, the Celestials started to rebuild. Appointing a new royal line and recovering from their losses, but it was tense. Everyone was on edge, considering we had essentially only created a truce rather than signing any sort of treaty, because without Celestia having a royal line, no one was capable of representing their Kingdom. By the time they had rebuilt enough that we could sign a treaty with them, Bane and I stepped down from our positions and allowed our son to take over, along with his queen. The first act he made as king was to go sign the treaty with the other three kingdoms, but Xavier already told you how that ended.' 

I took a moment, allowing all of that to set in as I thought back through everything they had both told me. 'Wait a moment, so are you telling me that all familiars were once Beastial citizens?' 

'Yes, every single one of them were once Beastials. Although only the first seven of us can remember our past once in our original forms, and our memories are triggered. Xavier triggered Bane's memories when he saw him shift for the first time, and because of that, when I bonded with Bane, it triggered mine. We were two of the first seven to choose this path rather than death. Once we had watched our kids grow up and have kids of their own, this was our last act of good faith towards Celestia before we both stepped down, and it also served to provide our people another option rather than death. Bane and I have always been true mates, so binding our souls for an eternity rather than just dying wasn't exactly a hard decision for either of us, and on top of that, it served to balance the power of the Kingdoms once more. As you know, we weren't the only ones to choose that path, though; several others followed after us, and several more still choose this option.' 

'But then, how could Bane have bonded with Xavier?'

'Technically, we can bond our souls to any race, but the veil is too far from any of the other kingdoms. Celestia is the only Kingdom where the veil is thin enough for us to be able to pass through and bind our souls with the people in the Kingdom.' 

I nodded, looking up to where Xavier was all but a speck of black against the brightening sky. 'So then, when you chose to allow your soul to be reborn like that, your true form became a dragon, because you were bonded to Bane?'

'Not exactly, in order to be the mate of a true dragon, your soul must be that of a dragon itself.' 

'But you were a Celestial...'

'And so are you, but you have the soul of a dragon, Ari. It's why, even now, you long to be in the sky with him. You, though, you're far stronger than I've ever been. As you know, I'm not a warrior. I've always run too far on the timid side of things for that. Bane is the only reason that I am considered a fighting familiar. You, however, are strong. It's why you're the mate of the strongest dragon of our line so far.'

'Wait, are you telling me that Xavier...'

'Is the strongest dragon ever born to the royal line. Ask him what ability Bane granted him.' She told me, lifting her head to watch just as Xavier landed softly in the snow beside us once more. 

'Bane gave him that energy ability. I already know that.' 

She giggled at me as I looked up at her with a slight shake of her head. 'Just ask him. He'll tell you the truth. It's not my place to speak.'

Well, that wasn't cryptic at all... Shaking my head at her, I got up, heading over to Xavier just as his form shimmered before shifting back. 

He turned towards me as I walked right up to him, leaning in against his chest as I wrapped my arms around his waist with a smile. I felt his eyes on me, slowly looking over me for any sign of uncertainty or discomfort, but he wouldn't find any. 

I looked up at him, giving him a soft smile. That had apparently broken through to him. His arms came around me, holding me there against his chest as a slow grin spread over those full lips. He carefully tucked me in against his chest as Bane swooped down from high in the sky, landing right beside us in his large form now. 

I was happy to lean into him further, though, glad that he didn't feel nearly as tense as he had when we left this morning. "You seem quite happy for someone who was left sitting in the snow." He commented, and I just grinned at him as I pressed my cheek against the center of his chest, listening for a moment to the calm, steady rhythm of his heart. 

"Why wouldn't I be? It's not every day that anyone gets Xavier Knight to open up to them. Especially enough to trust me with a whole other side of him that no one else knows about. Plus, I just had a lovely conversation with Nova about how she and Bane are apparently your great-grandparents. Definitely a little weird, but interesting." 

"Yeah, I was wondering when she would tell you everything about them." I raised my eyebrows at him. No snarky remark? No smart ass comment? I waited for a moment just to make sure I had heard him correctly. 

"Are you feeling okay? Because the Xavier I know would have had at least something snarky to say." I asked, making a show of pressing the back of my hand to his cheek, but he just grinned at me with a slight shake of his head. 

"Sometimes I do know when to shut my mouth, princess." Bane snorted behind him, sounding about as close to a laugh as a dragon could get, and it solidified my assessment when Xavier promptly flipped off the huge dragon, causing Bane to snap his teeth at him as I giggled at the pair of them. "Look, I still find it extremely weird, and honestly, I try very hard not to think about the fact that my great-grandpa has seen me in some very compromising positions. Trust me, it doesn't get any less confusing or awkward, no matter how many times he explains things." I looked back at Bane and snickered once more. If a dragon could roll their eyes, he just would have. 

"One question, though, Nova told me that you were the most powerful dragon ever born to the royal line."

"Sorry to burst your little bubble, but that's not a question, princess." He teased, and I rolled my eyes. 

"Glad to see you're not dying on me, but my question was, what ability did Bane grant you?" 

He grinned at me. "So you didn't tell her?" He asked, looking behind me at where Nova still sat, and not only did she look a little offended, but Bane snapped at him for even suggesting that his mate would do such a thing. Xavier barely even glanced at the surly dragon before looking back down at me with a grin. "He granted me a slight boost in speed and agility." My eyes went wide as I just watched him for a long moment.

"But your power..." I whispered as I looked up at him, watching as a slow smile crossed his lips. 

"Stems from the pure energy that I can draw on in my dragon form. Unlike any of the others of the royal line, I don't breathe fire at all. I control pure energy and can direct it into whatever form I need it to take. In this form, I can only draw on enough of that energy to make it look like an ability that Bane could grant me, and the boost that he actually does give me is natural enough that no one can tell the difference." I was absolutely dumbfounded to say the least. All of that power, that was just him, not Bane, not anything else. Just Xavier.