Dragon Aster Trilogy

23: WHIPPED



Sybl couldn’t endure hearing Gwa’s cries of pain from the whipping he was given. She stormed out of her room and downstairs to the dungeons. One of the guards she ran past grabbed her, before quickly letting go of her when she glared at him.

The two Custos she reached after refused to move from the door. It was enough to infuriate her to push them out of the way with her strength, before her foot found the door and kicked it open. “Stop it!”

The phelan somnus stopped with his next strike of the whip. Sybl ran at him and tore it from his hands.

Gwa shivered as he pulled his shirt back on and over the three lashings he had taken that quickly bled through. “Sybl…”

“My Lady—what are you doing here?” the Custos asked. “He has to be—”

“He’s being punished for my idea. I was the one who said I needed some air, but not at the cost of this. I’m tired of it! Everyone constantly getting hurt because of me!” The somnus stepped back, following his somn’s instincts as a precaution to her temper.

Gwa caught her arm and pulled her away as she broke into tears. “You crazy woman. I knew what I might be in for—it’s just a whip.”

“It’s not just a whip,” Sybl replied bitterly. They went to his workshop and Gwa shut and locked the door behind them. She helped him peel off his shirt that had stuck to his dried blood. Sybl then touched his back and let her aeri heal his torn skin. “What did they do to Kenshe?”

“They think he has the Aeger, but I’m hoping he just lost it because he wanted to protect you.”

Sybl looked at the blood on her hand.

Gwa turned around and used his tattered shirt to wipe it clean as best he could. “I shouldn’t have taken you outside of the Sanctus. I never wanted you to get hurt.”

“It’s not your fault. This is all my doing.”

“Well, what doesn’t kill you, teaches you something. Next time I will scout the area I’m kidnapping you to, first.”

Sybl didn’t reply, as she thought about the other dragoons at Toria. She couldn’t stomach the idea of the Aeger being used against the descendants of Moon. All of them twisted with madness just like Daath had been, just by being stripped of all their hope. Rose simply fell to the worser side of it all, because her Phoenix was a useful destructive power that Sybl was not. Rose likely already remembered all of her past life as Solar, and all the hate towards her that came with it. Sybl could have just as easily fallen into such a Fate.

“Hey, cheer up. It will work out,” Gwa said.

“Unless I raise the Sylvan Aur, it will never work out. People will keep dying to this Aeger.”

“Well, I’m not losing you for a light that has been lost for three hundred years. You’re more important as you are now. The Aeger takes those who lose hope, first. You need to stay alive so hope can stay alive. There is no light that can replace you.”

Sybl smiled briefly. “Thanks, Gwa. I’m going to look for Kenshe.” She turned and left his workshop at that.