It's a dangerous game they've been playing. Has the Queen figured out the truth? Or is something else about to happen.... If you are enjoying the story, consider leaving a gem or two in appreciation. Thank you for your continued support. :)
[Primus] I should feel grateful, but as the night wears thin, I feel the weight of fear and expectations pressing down on me like a layer of sodden earth. If I am to be buried, let me funnel into the rock and soil beneath us and dig a tunnel to the Solar Kingdom and reclaim my mate. Or even better, let me burrow myself within her so deeply that I drown in her scent, our bodies interlaced so tightly that I forget where I end and she begins. But I can’t do that, not yet, not as things are now. There is too much at stake. I would never forgive myself if my happiness came at the expense of my family. I know that if I leave, if I were to jump off the tower and fall into the welcoming embrace of my element, even if they didn’t catch me in time to stop me, others would suffer. Like the two drakaina working right now to keep me safe despite their own personal risk. Especially Kora, her whole family is at stake. But she is determined that we all leave here, and for that to happen, we need
[Carnelia] “I am no god,” I look from one face to the other. These dragons are asking me to rely on their wisdom and trust their judgment, but their actions and words speak of madness. “I am just a drakaina who misses her mate and wants to go home.” “You might not be a god,” my father admits, “but I think you’re becoming something very close to it. Look at what you’ve managed, Stella. Even threatened, very few dragons could rise the way you did, the way your mate did when he saw his mother’s death and feared for his wife and children. I was expecting you to find your way out, to finally take your mantle as my heir,” he looks at my hooded cloak and smiles, “I knew you were special when you were still nestled inside your mother. To see you evolve into something sublime is beyond my greatest expectations. I had no idea this is what would happen, but look,” he points to my brow, “you even wear the Crown of Shadows.” Looking more closely at my reflection, I find that along my brow in a
[Carnelia]Turning slowly, I can feel the burn of eyes watching me from the darkest corner of the room. Somebody has seen me arrive.But who? Did the monks sense my departure and follow me through the void? Did Thalan? I thought moon dragons could only travel short distances, jumping between locations that they know. They shouldn’t have been able to make it here even if they had tried, because no moon dragon has ever set foot in this keep.And yet, someone powerful is here, lurking in the shadows.“Come out,” I shout at what appears to be nothing, stepping towards the darkness.The darkness ripples, and along with it, the room itself seems to fold. It’s like everything I see is barely more than a curtain hiding the truth.And then I see the outline of two faces, peering through the darkness–one bright and one dark. Like the moon and stars themselves, they appear first as a hazy glow edging their outlines as their shapes slowly fill and they become solid. Even before they are completel
[Carnelia]My breath stops a moment before my heart does, my body growing as cold as the floor that I lay on. Just a moment before I had been fighting with everything I had, but there were just too many of them. I thought I could be strong enough, but I couldn’t. In the end, no matter how hard I fight, they continue to win. Because I remember this feeling, I’ve felt it before when my sisters strapped me to that golden chair and throned me in light: This is what it feels like to die. Only this time, there will be no resurrection, no phoenix rebirth.“I’m sorry,” are my last words and my last thoughts as my soul separates from its casing and I rise from the ground, leaving my body behind. Floating above it all, I look down at a dreary scene. My lifeless body with my mouth slightly open, my eyes unblinkingly staring at nothing is laying in the middle of the room as the moon elves move around me, taking my baby and most of her next and placing it within a golden crate. and see the moon
[Carnelia] My blood runs stone-cold as I stand, eyeing the moon drake before me. Doesn’t he realize that a dragon with nothing to lose is a dangerous creature, and a mother with only one child left is even more terrifying? Setting my egg down gently in its nest, I remove the amulet from her shell and, grasping the stone tightly within my fingers, I hold it aloft like a brand, letting its dark energy flow around me like a cape. I will not let this monster beat me. I will become a monster if it is what is needed to keep both my daughter and myself safe. I guess, if anything, this has taught me a lesson. The only way anyone I love will ever be safe is to get rid of the drake standing before me. He and my foul sisters and anyone else who has done their bidding. I need to scour the world clean and start fresh on their entrails. First, he dies, then I rescue my father. Pulling on the dark part of me that I try to keep hidden, I let a touch of madness shine from my eyes as I reach forw
[Carnelia]Lifting his finger to his lips, my father signals for me to wait. He must sense that others are listening, waiting to hear what he has to say. But why? Does the Grand Magus suspect the truth and that her earlier behavior was just an act?The room is silent, amplifying the noises around us. There is a low hum radiating from the walls, the sound of several layers of dragons, stacked on top of each other, deep within the mountains. Sun dragons, the magi and their alcolytes, each powerful enough to warp reality and call the power of the stars. I never stopped to wonder why they live so deep within this mountain until this moment, seeing how close the Grand Magus is to the Moon Queen. I had been told that the moon drakes stay to themselves, that they are too different from other dragons to want any kind of sustained interaction. And yet, a son of a moon king married a daughter of the sun–my own mother and father. How did he end up at their court to meet her and for the two of th