Dragon Aster Trilogy

8: DESTINY MASKED



A flash of light passed Sybl’s eyes. Then the haze faded as if by a warm sunrise. Only there was no sun on Aster. She had gone around the Harbor in circles to find nothing. No one answered her either, leaving her to wonder if she had turned invisible and was the last one to realize it. She had dozed off in an alleyway, and awoke to find someone standing before her.

“This is so out of bounds, Princess! You’re in big trouble!”

She had to blink a few times to see the dragoon standing before her. His eyes were masked in silver and his body was cloaked in black. Only a few strands of his thin, light green hair escaped from under his hood. “Loki?”

He caught her in the air when she sprung to her feet to hug him, and he returned it. “I am never playing hide-and-go-seek with you again. This was too much.”

Sybl didn’t know what to say, so she gave into the weight of the breakdown within her, and started crying on his shoulder.

“Hey, hey,” he said, catching her face between his hands. “It’s alright now.” He took her unicorn mask off of her face, and then took off his silver one. “Here, just in case anyone is following you, they can follow this unicorn instead.” He slid his mask over her face and put the unicorn one over his own. “Now you have to stop crying, or you’ll rust it.”

She smiled, and then lifted the mask just enough to wipe away her remaining tears from under it. “How are you here?”

“It’s complicated.” Taking her hand, he led her out of the alleyway and into the street where the festivities continued. “And you really know how to get lost in a party.”

“It’s my birthday. I think,” Sybl replied, trying to process both his presence and everything else at once.

“It’s missing—like everything,” Loki joked, as a float went by with bright decorations in the parade. Then the idols of the caels it carried were set on fire as a part of the show. “Okay, well maybe not everything. It’s time to go.”

Sybl and Loki lost their presence in the crowd of people. Everyone was extravagantly dressed in suits, satin dresses, and festively decorated masks to cover their faces. She stayed close to him, as somehow he was able to navigate the streets with ease and towards an exit from the Harbor. But it was blocked by four Falls soldiers.

‘I’ll get you out of here, Princess. Hold on.’ Loki looked up then to where his somn hovered high above detection. He left her thoughts for a moment to command his somn, and it immediately responded by flying about and grabbing several Threads in its mouth. Then it unleashed a rain of fire around them.

Loki had hoped the guards would move and follow after his distraction, but they didn’t, even as the panic spread of there being a dragon nearby. Several floats and tents turned into pyres.

So he tried a more direct approach and landed his somn behind the guards, startling them. His somn attacked the griffin somnus soldiers in a connecting fury of claws, teeth and fire. It would have not been able to harm the unsomned souls without Sybl with him.

Sybl and Loki ran towards where his dragon somn had cleared the exit, and it enveloped them in a light green mist before pulling them both into it. Once he had control of his dragon form, Loki spread his wings and took to the air away from the Harbor.

But they weren’t out of the clear yet, as two fully armored griffins flew straight for them. One collided directly with his wing, sending the claws of its sharp talons through his skin.

Loki let out a cry as he unleashed a flare of fire at the half bird, half lion, but it only reflected harmlessly off its black armor. The second one caught his other wing, and both of them forced him to land in a painful drop. His back leg went limp for a moment before his aeri energy within him healed it.

His wings torn, Loki frantically tried to think of a way to get out of this one alive. He slipped away from a chain that was thrown at him, and ducked when another griffin swooped over. Then something invisible caught the same griffin and pulled it from the sky.

At first he thought by miracle it was Cirrus, but instead it turned out to be a phelan Awl only meters away from him.

“Heal your wings and get out of here with her! Move!” Hain shouted at him.

Loki focused on that as the phelan somnus was now shooting and cutting down their attackers by sword and gunfire. The moment he could feel all the wind under his wings again, he lifted himself back in the air, and retreated as more phelan joined the fight.