Dragon Aster Trilogy

16: BREAKDOWN



Cirrus hit the wall of his room with all the anger and despair that had built up in him. The frustration of feeling like he could do nothing would tear him apart. Then Damek would be right there to scrape up what was left of him to put to use. Cirrus didn’t have it in him to go on if something happened to Sybl or if he was turned into her enemy. He felt so out of place in it all. There was a knock at the door, and he quickly mopped the tears from his face with his hands. “Come in.”

Cecil opened the door, and turned his senses to where he heard Cirrus. Then his sphere of water floated into the room to give the blind dragoon sight. “You alright?”

“I’ve been better.”

Cecil closed the door behind him and walked a few steps closer. “I think you’re overreacting. You haven’t so much as given her a chance to explain anything.”

Cirrus wasn’t understanding what Cecil was talking about. He was angry at himself, and he couldn’t begin to guess what Sybl could ever do wrong to make him angry at all.

“They aren’t much like they were thousands of years ago,” Cecil continued. “Even if they were, I think you’re overreacting.”

He finally caught up to what Cecil was talking about. “You think I would be jealous of her feelings for Kas? That’s ridiculous, Cecil. He’s the only family she has, next to us.”

“Well I don’t mean Kas as much as I mean Sybl being able to have a child.”

Cirrus blinked at Cecil, then looked at Moon. He had never thought about that till Cecil mentioned it. “If she can craft Daath back to life from a mere bone, I’m sure she can have a child.”

Moon lightly shook his head.

“Why not?” Cirrus asked.

“Her energy is too turbulent,” Cecil explained in the Eminor’s place. “A child can’t grow in her while battling her aeri and estus energy that she can switch between instantaneously.”

“It doesn’t change anything. It’s not like I would risk having a child with her after I killed my own mother by being born. I wouldn’t chance my bloodline being Cursed for it.”

“Well if that’s not what you’re upset about, then what?” Cecil asked.

Cirrus swayed on his feet, before sitting down on his bed and dropping his head to his hands. “Every one of my thoughts keeps going over what Damek said. That I can’t keep her without his help. Sybl’s going to find a way to free Nafury from Daath, with or without me.”

“That thing was not Nafury. It’s the monster that destroyed him so it could weaken you. If either of you breaks, this war is over. You have to find a way to do what I didn’t see in time to do with Rose. If she had died… I don’t know what I would have done. But I know what I felt and what I was thinking when you struck the Phoenix out of the sky.”

Cirrus calmed down and listened.

“I…” Cecil turned away, and he closed his clouded, orange eyes. “I felt that something was different. It was as if our Mei had become a meaningless mark.” He looked at his wrist, where the silver marking now glowed strongly again. “It was like everything between us suddenly died. But you can still feel Sybl, right? So make her listen to you before it’s too late.”

Cirrus looked at the glyph on his right arm that glowed as he thought about Sybl.

Cecil thought on the matter in silence for a while, before turning to Moon who lay down near the wall. “What if you gave the fight to him?”

“What?” Cirrus asked, baffled by the idea. “You mean go berserk on purpose? That’s insane, even for me.”

“Moon can destroy Damek. It’s in him. But it’s not in you and it’s not in Sybl.”

“Moon is an Eminor,” Cirrus argued.

“An intelligent one fashioned for war. An Eminor who isn’t a slave to the festra. With Sybl’s Aur near him, he’s untouchable even against Damek. Nothing can stop Sybl if we use her in the right way.”

“She’s not a weapon of war!” Cirrus shouted at Cecil. “Aside from the Sylvan Aur within her, she’s just a human girl!”

“She is the reincarnation of Asil, the Caelestis of War. Aragmoth is a planet of Eminor created for vengeance, so what do you think his right hand is!? Think, dammit Cirrus. If you don’t want her to be that weapon, then stop being such a blasted coward! Simera and the Nafury we knew aren’t here to tell you what to do anymore. Now it’s your turn. Cause that’s all that’s left of Fate now,” Cecil said, as his water globe floated near Moon. “She’s calling you, now get up and answer her. I expect Sybl to be there for your inauguration.”

“My what? As General?”

“No, you dimwit. Seriously? Did no one tell you?”

Cirrus just looked at him blankly.

“Your father was Simera.”