Dragon Aster Trilogy

33: STARS OF PROMISES



“That one.”

Cirrus opened his eyes to the memory, and looked up at the stars he floated under, just between the world and the further reaches of space. He looked to where Sybl had in the past at the white-lit moon. Only in this memory it was darkened by an eclipse. Hey, I said star. I’m not big enough to carry that one back.

“Who says it’s not a star?”

The Texts. The simple fact it doesn’t glow by itself...

“Well, if this moon is just a reflection, then everything is a reflection of light up here, including the stars and nothing is glowing entirely by itself or has any weight of its own.”

Well in that case I’ll have to come back for it.

“Don’t think I won’t hold you to it.”

I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Sybl’s desperate cry for help was the last thing he had heard before it was silenced entirely. She was somewhere in the Keol under him. He could feel the monster that took her begin to consume his thoughts in turn. But his impending madness was refusing him when he needed it most. When he needed a way to save her.

When a demon smiled, the world burned. Cirrus was left to drown the monster within him with sorrow. He didn’t want to be alive, not if he had to endure it alone. Cirrus could stop now and leave his body to become colder and die, and left adrift in the vastness of space for all eternity. Then he would be able to share his loneliness with the stars. Maybe there, he could feel her again. Maybe she was already waiting for him.

‘Cirrus, the storm isn’t dying down,’ Lintrance said in concern. ‘How long can you keep us breathing up here?’

Cirrus brought his mind out of memory and looked at his cousin. I can’t feel her anymore.

‘She isn’t dead. Sybl can’t be dead. Even if that is Vanir’s Awl, a pluma one would answer to her first.’

How can you be so sure? How do we know that this is a pluma? It’s in the Keol and plumas burn up in there.

‘I saw it when I had found Sybl before you did. It’s because I’ve been ignoring this agent of death that it has been causing nothing but one tragedy after the other. Plumas are descendants of Iynx, who were once Sentry. Iynx are soulless, but the way this one looked at me would suggest otherwise. I can’t help but think it might be something else entirely.’

Like what? Cirrus asked by psi, not knowing how much more he could worry without bursting from it.

‘Sentry can’t enter the Keol. Yet this pluma can. It almost sounds like the story of Daath. An estus demon masquerading around as a pluma Awl.’

She doesn’t have any of her former life’s memories back yet. Is it possible he’s trying to trigger her memories by tormenting her?

‘It’s possible. This Awl might be the only way she could have been brought here through a broken Gate. Daath was a cael. Now he’s using her to lead us to a possible watery grave. We’re the only ones left who have not sided with Yri and the Atrum.’

So the question is why does he want us dead? Because he is answering to Vanir, or because of something else? He had enough chances to kill me.

‘We hold most of the Texts, but I’m willing to bet that Daath hasn’t caught up in his reading on us. Maybe he’s confused and doesn’t know exactly where our kind fits in.’

A cael that is lost and confused. That’s all we need. Cirrus’ memory flashed back to that of Nafury and what he had emerged from the Rift as during his Trial of Somn. He remembered fearing that he would never see his Prince again.

“Cirrus, what’s wrong? You look at me as if I’m a ghost.”

Nothing, Cirrus had replied to his Prince, even though it was far from the truth. Nafury had emerged with the dragon form of a monstrosity. His flesh was torn in some places deep enough to expose the bone. His wings had holes that went through the webbing. His flesh was a rotten dark brown, and his face where his deep sapphire eyes once glowed were now green and held by sinking sockets.

A monster, just like the one he had seen in the memories of Sybl’s mind. One able to take the soul of his Prince. You scared me. Are you in pain? The question Cirrus regretted asking, as he touched Nafury’s face with both his hands and his aeri energy to try and heal him. But he would never heal again.

But exactly when was his soul lost? Cirrus closed his eyes tighter in thought.

‘Cirrus?’

An image of the destruction of the Fay Wall passed through his mind. They had all lost their minds for a while after its collapse and the death it brought. The Aeger was to blame for the attack. They were after him.

‘What?’

The attack on the Fay Wall. They wanted Nafury.

‘But why? As a cael wouldn’t he terrify them off?’

Not if he was infected with the Aeger. I’m willing to bet that the same way he has been taunting me and triggering the Aeger to drive me mad, it also had the same effect on the plumas. The last place the Prince left a mark of his blood was on the Fay Wall, after scratching it from his anger at me from our fight. They must have picked up on his scent and thought he was behind it.

‘But we didn’t raid the Canyon for months before it all happened.’

No, we didn’t. But Simera did. He also did so after he bled Nafury with a whip. The blood didn’t come off the walls in the room, and there’s a chance Nafury’s Aeger blood didn’t come off our King, either. Simera could have spread it through the Canyon.

‘Ever get the feeling Simera is missing on purpose?’

This Awl is somehow Nafury’s somn. The Eminor of Daath. The Prophecy from Serena said that her son would be the one to lead the Caelestis back to Aster. Asil’s here. If this is Daath we’re dealing with, the Aeger would have a feast on his estus energy and easily drive him mad before anything else.

‘So what’s the plan? Kill the Prince cael and save the Princess? And we have never seen the full extent of Nafury’s power. He always held back.’

The pendant in Cirrus’ hand moved as the monster did, towards Mer City. But that didn’t catch his senses as much as the Keol did. You see that?

‘What?’

The Keol is frozen.

‘Wha…?’ Lintrance asked as he looked into Cirrus’ psi for what he sensed. ‘Ice…how…?’

Nafury, Cirrus said in certainty. That’s his power right there.

‘And the Atrum owns Mer City now, and all the Gates—’ Lintrance stopped thinking there as the same thought went through his and Cirrus’ mind at the same time.

He’s going to try and bring her back. Cirrus turned and aimed his sights back for the ocean, as the storm continued to rage over it.

‘Don’t be crazy! That static will tear you apart!’

You remember that game you used to scold us for when we were kids?

‘No, we are not—Cirrus!’ But it was too late as the dragon unsomned and then fell for the ocean, sending a fury of opposing bolts at him. He twisted and spun out of their paths by inches, his only warning to their burning strikes was the spark they made just before they darted at him.

Lintrance had no choice but to unsomn and follow his air supply.

Cirrus avoided all the Threads that he could. The estus and aeri static channeled their wrath towards his way as thin streaks of lightning. Nafury.

“I saw her Cirrus—I saw the Caelestis! She was so beautiful but so sad.”

I see her now too. Cirrus missed a Thread ignite before him, and it sent a paralyzing surge of pain through his body. Lintrance dove faster and caught him, setting his focus straight again as the water approached and they took back to their dragon forms.

Cirrus pulled his power of air upwards enough to slow their fall into its fastest safe dive, before they entered the water side by side.