Dragon Aster Trilogy

24: HEIGHT OF WARNING



Sybl stood on a dark rooftop in her city back on Earth. The same one that had started it all. A home and a life that had all been a lie. After all her time on Aster, she had forgotten what it felt like to stand out in the rain during a storm. The rain drops were surprisingly warm against her skin. The city took shelter, and she alone knew it to be not any normal thunderstorm. The clouds overhead rumbled, and she looked back up to see a flash of lightning. Sybl didn’t feel afraid despite being on one of the higher apartment buildings of her old city.

After a while, the rain turned into snow and she looked around for the enemy who was capable of challenging the weather in such a way. Her eyes caught sight of Damek’s golden armor and the unfailing glow of his green eyes. He was watching her from the rooftop of another building. This was where she saw it would end, and there was nothing he could do to stop her.

‘Between Heaven and Hell there are Fay.

Those in darkness have seen into the future.

Those blessed by the light would shine it on the past.

They see all destinies within the Threads that they touch.

There is a Heaven for each of us…

‘But I will not find mine here.’

She jumped and spun around as Damek appeared instantaneously behind her.

“You have disappointed me, Asil. I could have given you everything if only you would open your eyes to the truth of the power that I am. If only you would understand that my will is the only outcome that will come to pass.”

“Killing everyone won’t get you what you want,” Sybl replied.

“It is only a matter of time before they see,” Damek said, walking till he was next to her to take in the view of the city. “And that time is very soon.” He looked back at her as several bolts of lightning struck the buildings and towers in the distance. “Do you remember how the energy storms of the Dragon Moon tore the first Aster apart? Perhaps the remains of him will remember as well when I am done.”

Sybl let out a cry of pain, then grasped her left arm with her Mei. It felt like Damek had sent the angry fire of a thousand destroyed worlds through her body. She looked helplessly at her arm as Damek’s Curse returned to her, only this time he had intertwined it around her Mei to Cirrus.

“Shall I continue? I can make you suffer as much as necessary until you remember that there is no escape from me.”

Sybl didn’t have a breath to dodge him when he suddenly grabbed her by the neck and whipped her off of the side of the building as if she were a mere doll. She screamed before she hit the street. Only she didn’t hit concrete, but what felt like a soft bed. A familiar bed.

A loud rapping came at the bedroom door, and she looked up as her foster mother stormed into the room. She looked disapprovingly around, before leaving Sybl in peace to contemplate the madness that was getting more and more confusing.

But peace did not live here. It was a cruel joke that her first foster home was; a boy’s home. She wasn’t a boy, and she didn’t feel she deserved to be punished for what happened in her lie of a life, now that she knew the rooftop incident wasn’t her fault.

She touched her neck and found her golden fairy there. This was one of Damek’s mind games that he had no doubt designed to try and break her. Sybl could only guess this day of nightmares was about to get a whole lot worse. She left her room when someone collided with her hard enough to throw her down the stairs. She landed on the middle turn against its window bench with a squeak. Once everything stopped spinning, she looked up at the top of the stairs where the two boys had vanished. She squinted to make sure she was seeing right and reminded herself that this wasn’t real.

She pulled herself up and rubbed the back of her head where a bump wouldn’t get the chance to rise against the healing power of her aeri. Sybl headed down the rest of the stairs and towards the front door. Just a nightmare. Just a nightmare… She ran out the door and felt Cirrus’ thoughts touch her mind. He had followed her here. Sybl looked at her Mei that still had Damek’s Curse intertwined with it, and feared that Cirrus had no idea how to navigate Earth. It would be up to her to save him from this round of nightmares.