Dragon Aster Trilogy

12: ATRUM OF THE PAST



“Asil, what are you doing here alone?”

Sybl opened her eyes to find herself in a Dream of what could have only been the past, as she turned to look at Damek standing behind her. She looked then to dark castle of the Atrum and saw that the city around it did not yet exist. This was where most of the eminor on Aster lived three hundred years ago. She remembered as this being the place where she had apologized to him for overreacting with fear to the phelan he had created. After he had brought Kas back to her by sacrificing one of the giant, wolf-like spirits. “I wanted to see you,” she said simply.

He stopped walking a meter from her and didn’t say anything in turn.

“You’re not wearing your armor,” she said, noting that the golden chest, gauntlets, pants and helmet he always wore was not on him. Plain clothing combined with his light brown hair that fell over his green eyes made him look ordinary and not like the enemy he had become.

“After what happened between us, I didn’t feel like fighting anymore,” Damek said, and then he looked at the shadows that hid nearby.

Sybl reminded herself that this was just a memory and that starting a fight with him here would give her nothing for answers. “I had no right to get angry at you like that. The phelan are beautiful and powerful creatures for battle. If anything, they are even more magnificent than the Nightmare Eaters of the first Aster.”

“They are yours,” he said, pulling his festra from his back and handing it to her.

“They’re your army,” Sybl said, but took the weapon anyways. Three thousand names enslaved for the purpose of warfare was not something she wanted him to keep, even if this was just a memory.

Damek shook his head. “All this has shown me that the choices I would have made on the first Aster are not suitable choices for this one. This is your world. I gave this to Asteria once, so the names bound to this weapon are now your army. You can make new wishes, but you cannot alter the ones made in your past. My most significant wish will always be for the happiness of my most beautiful Fay, for you will always belong to me.”

Sybl stood her ground as he touched the side of her face and kissed her forehead, sending a freezing chill down her spine. Then she woke up in a bed with her bladed, staff-like festra lying next to her.

“Morning, Beautiful,” Gwa said from the chair he sat reading a book in. “You alright?”

Sybl sat up and looked around her room, before looking back at him. “Yeah, I’m fine.”

“Did you see any of your memories?”

Sybl shook her head.

“Well it was worth a try. Maybe Sial didn’t have them. But you might want to get a move on, as your Bond already left for Toria.”

“He what?”

“I tried to stop him, but he wouldn’t listen.”

“This is bad. I don’t suppose you can fly me over?”

“I’m sorry Beautiful, but I can’t fly that far and that fast. If we got caught in the Aur storm, we would be roasted over an open ice field.”

“What about to the Harbor?”

“The ships can’t sail on ice—”

“I know,” Sybl said and picked up her festra. Then she ran past him and out of the room.

Gwa followed her downstairs and somned when they got outside, only this time the phelan soldiers were ready for them.

“Where are you going, griffin?” one of the phelan somnus asked.

“Get out of the way,” Sybl said threateningly.

“We have orders to keep you here, Caelestis,” he stated.

Sybl lifted her festra and caught the Threads she wanted from the soldier around its end. Then she pulled the weapon back harshly, and the somnus buckled in pain when his spirit did. Sybl quickly grabbed onto Gwa’s feathers and pulled herself onto his back, where he then sprung into the air for the Harbor.

“I’m glad I’m not bound to that weapon,” Gwa said. “But what are you planning to do, Beautiful?”

“Catch my Bond and skin him for leaving me behind.”

Gwa laughed and set them down on the docks. Most of the Harbor was hiding in their homes from the cold.

Sybl jumped down from his back and walked towards the edge of the frozen waters. She began to sing, and after a few minutes, several True appeared on the ice in the distance. “I’m heading over with them.”

“You sure about this?” Gwa asked as he looked up at the massive phelan spirits that could likely swallow him whole if they wanted to. One lay down, and Sybl climbed onto its back.

“I’ll be right back.”

Gwa didn’t feel like he was in a position to argue as the True stood up again and started across the Eternal Waters. “Be safe.”

Don’t worry.

He sat down and watched her go, knowing that was all he would be able to do in the meantime.