Dragon Aster Trilogy

15: SCALDING FAIRY TALES



“Any mer yet?”

Cecil faced Cirrus as he landed on the large rock near him. With so much water around them, his blind cousin was able to use his Ancient to watch the coming Aur storm from the waves.

“You know, if you let go of her for a moment, she won’t evaporate.”

“If someone were to drop you in the middle of Earth without a friend or a set of wings you could use, you would be as fearful as she is right now,” Cirrus said.

“Yes, but I would also have the capacity to see that I didn’t belong and come back. What are you doing, Cirrus? Your father is going to burn us alive with this. The minute Dyaus sees her, he will drag her back to Earth himself.”

“I’m not sending her back, not before I turned Nafury’s bones over in his ashes with my own hands.”

“What does Nafury have to do with any of this?”

“She’s the Prophecy. The reincarnation of Asil.”

Cecil laughed briefly, before shaking his head as if some water had gotten into his ears. “By all the caels, make me deaf as well so I can say that I didn’t hear you just now.”

“You remember the lashings Simera gave to the Prince when he was caught Dreamwalking?”

“Who doesn’t? His blood still won’t come off of the walls in that room.”

“Sybl is the one Nafury saw when his Trial of Somn almost claimed him. She is wearing his necklace.”

“So he lost it, and it washed up on Earth where she picked it up. Humans value gold too, and the floor of the Eternal Waters has countless undiscovered Rifts.”

“None of this is a coincidence, Cecil. Why aren’t you hearing me?”

“Because you have no idea what you sound like right now. Why in Aragmoth’s name would he allow the reincarnation of Asil to come back as a human—and on Earth for that matter? It doesn’t make any sense.”

Cirrus sighed loudly as he tried to stay calm against his cousin’s stubbornness. “Dyaus can’t take her back by force unless all the Elders agree to it.”

“If Lintrance had ever been taken seriously as an Elder, I would actually have some hope for you.”

“Lintrance doesn’t create a conflict unless it’s necessary. That’s the only so-called weak difference you see. He holds his position just fine by keeping the other Elders in line with that fact.”

“Do you know what you’re getting yourself into? You have seen what happens to humans on our world. We both have. If she stays here and survives long enough, that will not stop Time from taking her. A piece, if not all of your soul will die with hers and well before its time. Spare yourself the pain and let her go now.”

“Is that why you think Rose left?”

Cecil didn’t answer, as he continued to watch the Aur storm from the waves that clashed up against the rocks. “Why are you asking me to stick my neck out like this? Because you believe she is the Prophecy, or because you have already fallen in love with her?”

Cirrus didn’t answer.

“This distraction won’t cure your guilt. It’s going to be what loses you to it.”

“I’m already lost in it, yet I can feel Sybl leading me out. If I can guard her against fear, pain, and regret in return, then I want to stay with her. If the right hand of Aragmoth can’t point me to the answers I need, then there is no one else who can.”

“I’m going to assume that you saw the Mei on her arm as well?”

“The phelan know who she is, and one of them got to her already. They had no intention of sparing me back at the Canyon because of a truce; they only backed off when you and Lintrance showed up. They were more interested in catching Sybl once I was no longer in the way. But I won’t let them have her. I have always been there for you and Rose, and what I’m asking for here is a chance.”

Cecil sighed and pulled his sight from the water and back into darkness. “Don’t do it, Cirrus. She’s too young and too naive to have any idea of what you would walk into so blatantly. I don’t care if she can prove she is the Caelestis or not, she is still a human and their souls don’t shatter when they leave you. Take the Mei off of her and kill the phelan, fine. But if I see your mark on her, then you’re on your own.”

Cecil reached down from the rock and touched the water, before forming a sphere of it and bringing it before him so he could see again by it. Then he spread his dark blue wings and took to the air for the wind tunnels that led back into the Caverns.

Cirrus looked out across the water, as the Atrum’s Aur reached with its darkness over the ocean just enough to be able to feel the heavy air it made. He was tired from despair and tired of having waited so long, just as Simera had once been. But unlike their King, he didn’t have to follow his own feelings or thoughts across the unknown alone. Instead, he had only to follow Sybl and to where Aragmoth’s will would lead them next.

So he would.