Dragon Aster Trilogy

26: UNMASKED FLIRT



Loki found Sybl tossing about in her sleep, and he quickly thought back to what Simera had done when Serena had a bad nightmare. He tried to hold her down, before she struck him and the mask from his face. Before he could reach for it, she stopped struggling on waking and looked right at him.

He froze and held his breath.

“Loki?”

He let go of her and turned away. She stopped him before he could reach his mask to put it back on. There wasn’t much point to it anymore, as it was too late to hide anything. Any hope he had—

“What are you hiding?” Sybl asked as she set her fingers over his eyes. She felt for another mask that might explain the green, star-like markings over them. “That is awesome.”

He tried to stay cool until she finally freed him from her gentle touch, as her thoughts made him dizzy. “I didn’t paint my face.”

She laughed and checked her fingers to make sure. “Then you’re a horrible dragoon.”

Loki’s expression froze.

“For thinking that I’m so shallow. You have amazing eyes.”

Loki found himself able to move again, and fiddled with the mask in his hands. He had never taken a genuine compliment for his appearance before, unless it was from his mother or Cirrus. She snatched the mask away from him and put it on her face. Loki smiled when she brushed her brown waves back with a hand, then lifted her head higher as if bestowed with an armor of immense power.

“I should be the one wearing this, as you just reminded me that all my makeup is on the outer-side of the planet.”

He laughed as he could feel she was truly upset about not having it with her, and got up to follow her out into the main hall. Her thoughts finally slowed down enough to contemplate where the ceiling was on looking up.

Loki remembered how Serena always had a hard time navigating in the dark. He sent his Ancient to ignite the unused fireplace that had been built into the main room.

“I’m going to guess this isn’t Toria,” Sybl said as she looked at the stars and moon.

“It’s the new Toria, complete with a knight-Prince and a Fay Princess,” Loki said proudly as he set his Ancient next to the fire, to make sure it kept it alive. Then he smiled when her psi didn’t buy into it. It was worth a try. But when her energy suddenly changed to something darker, he stood still and listened for feedback from her psi to what he had said so wrong.

“So you think this too? That I’m some kind of reincarnated Goddess?”

“I…” Loki knew he had to pick his next words carefully. He walked over to her and reached to touch his mask, but she stepped back. “I think you are whoever you want to be.”

“Is this ‘Princess’ who you and your brother keep calling me have anything to do with this Fay thing?”

Loki was thankful that her psi was still untrained, as she might have been able to see into his thoughts right then. She had the right to know, but it wasn’t his place to tell her. Not like this. But there was still an angle he could shift the question towards. “What do you know about your father?” It worked as her thoughts changed direction.

“I don’t have a father.”

“Even I have a father, Sybl,” Loki said.

“So what was he like?”

“The most uninvolved dragoon a son would never ask for to be a member of his family.”

“At least you knew him,” Sybl replied, and sat down before the fire to watch its flames that danced to their own crackling.

“Did your mother never tell you about him?”

“I only asked once.”

“And?” Loki asked.

“And what?”

“What did she say?”

“She told me to forget about him because he very much forgot about me.”

“Was there ever a question in your mind that maybe your mother wasn’t really your mother?” Loki questioned.

“Look, I know who my mother is and where I come from, okay?”

“No, you don’t.”

“And you do? Next you’re going to tell me that I’m some alien, too.” Sybl stopped then, as Loki’s expression could only mean that he didn’t take to the word ‘alien’ well.

“Is that what we are to you?” He had taken it as a direct strike, and Loki turned away with a silent nod.

Sybl took in a deep breath and tried to start again. “Look, I’m sorry—”

“It’s fine. I get it. I mean, you have a whole lifetime on Earth. You don’t know me or anyone here.”

“It doesn’t mean I don’t want to know all of you.”

Loki assessed the validity of her words, and then forced himself to reset his thoughts as well. He looked up to the missing ceiling of his castle. “So how high should I build it?”

“Huh?”

“The ceiling.”

Sybl looked up as she was about to give a rough estimate, before realizing that his take on measurement was likely a lot different. “Feet or dragon feet?”

Loki looked back at her, confused. “You measure by feet? That’s crazy.”

“No it’s not. But I can’t become that tall.”

Loki somned and carefully tried to stand on his hind legs, before falling over onto her.

Sybl ducked as his spirit fell on and around her, harmlessly phased out, before he staggered back out of instinct to regain himself.

“Sorry.” He tried again with a bit more grace. Cirrus had made it look easier than it was proving to be for him. He began to stack his hands, until she started to laugh at him. “What am I doing wrong?”

“You look like a dragon mime.”

“A what?”

“Uh, it’s like a—” Sybl stopped.

“Like a what?”

“Like a mimic.”

“No, you thought clown,” Loki corrected her.

“No, I thought mime.”

“No, I’m pretty sure you thought clown.”

Sybl replied with a closed-mouth scream at him.

“Exactly what is a clown?” But when he looked back after finishing his measuring, she had taken off through one of the mouse-holes he never got around to patching up. He would have to work on those.