Dragon Aster Trilogy

33: ALEXIA



Kas stopped at the center of the dungeon, far below the Sanctus. They had chained Cirrus to the white stone ground, not just with shackles, but by spikes through his wings and hands. The pain could have been nothing less than excruciating, but the dragon didn’t struggle. He didn’t even hear him so much as cry out in pain. “Cirrus.”

The dragon only watched him with his glowing light blue eyes. The glow meant he was facing the Aeger, and not actually Cirrus. Sybl’s healing effect looked to only last while she was near that person. “And the Blood Tears shall rain from the sky, and Aster will cry out as it is drowned from its stolen souls.”

The phelan somnus guards jumped to attention, aiming their spears from where they had been standing as still as statues before.

Kas stayed them, as an unfamiliar chill filled the room to accompany the voice that was not Cirrus’. It was a female’s. “Who are you?”

“It was I who brought about the end of the first Aster.”

“The Dragon Moon,” Kas said in disbelief.

The dragon tried to move its hand, but it could only move a few blood-covered fingers. “Aragmoth’s avatar cannot hide forever. I will destroy you and this realm that should have never been allowed to exist, by whatever force is necessary.”

“Sybl and myself were on Earth—why did you waste your chance then?”

“He is too powerful.”

“Who?”

The dragon didn’t answer.

Kas thought back to when Sybl had been driven to the rooftop by the Curse that Damek had put on her. It was possible that Damek still had a distinct power advantage over the Sentry. It might also have explained why he was able to take Sybl from Earth without any of them intervening. “What is your name?”

“The Sentry have as many names as humans have invented gods,” Gei said as he joined Kas in the dungeon.

“This monster must be dealt with. We cannot hold it here.”

“It is our thoughts, feelings, connections and actions that define the strength of our soul with memories. The Sentry in him is blinding his soul of hope. For Cirrus, his hope is Sybl. For Asil, it is Moon. They are separable only by life and death, and not even by that. This Sentry has tried to break their binds of love, and has only succeeded in making them stronger.”

The white dragon began to struggle as if its life depended on it when Master Gei approached him.

“You still fear me. That is a good start.”

“Can you exorcise him?” Kas asked.

“I have foreseen that this would happen. But I will not lose Sybl now for the sake of a love that an entire world’s collapse could not destroy before.”

“Is Cirrus even still in there?”

“His soul is fragmented, his memories are torn open, and it has left him vulnerable to this corruption. The part that loves Sybl is what keeps him alive and here. It is his shame and regret that makes him a prisoner in his own body to this Sentry.” The giant white cat looked at the dragon. “Release yourself from that body at once, Alexia.”

“Did you just say Alexia?” Kas asked Gei, with his eyes now wide.

“Some years ago, a Sentry fell from Earth who did not agree with Hino’s will to leave Aster in peace,” Gei began, and started to walk in a circle around the dragon. “She came here, with the help of the dragoon, Dyaus, only to find that not all of the fallen of this world were soulless. But no matter what she did, Simera would not start a war against the Atrum and eradicate the Awls. His wrath remained focused on the Casus Beli Canyon, as long as the plumas replenished their numbers after his attacks. Alexia’s final act of desperation to kill the Awls is Cirrus, the true son of Simera, who she possessed and has been haunting since.”

“What?” Kas exclaimed. “You cannot mean that he is a Prince?”

“Simera is gone, and so that makes him rightfully the King of Toria. This madness of the Aeger in him is not truly the Aeger—but Alexia’s wrath trying to make him into a martyr that would give her the war she wants. He is the light half of the Dragon Moon, the very beacon of the hope for peace that reached out to Asil so many years ago. Only Alexia did not foresee that Simera would prevent her from having a child with Dyaus. Simera transferred Cirrus’ soul into her instead, against her knowing. The child born did not grow free of its soul’s past memories, despite her having possessed him. As such, he became only a fraction of the monstrous enemy he could have.”

“How did Simera have that kind of power? Was he an Awl?”

“There are many of the first Eminor choosing to be reborn, not all of them are phelan.”

“Why does she hate Awls so much?” Kas asked.

“Because we were the last four fragments of a hope for peace from the first Aster. Along with its means to bring it about, being your soultwin. The memories of the Four Generals spread to the other Awls here on Aster. Now all remember that we left Earth not to come back to destroy it with a larger army, but to forever escape it. We stayed on Aster in peace. But Alexia’s jealousy and hate for Asteria taking Daath knows no end.

“Eventually her hate spread enough over the Earth to make Hino cause the Great Flood thousands of years ago that in turn created the Dragon Moon. Then that calamity of jealousy, hate and fear went straight for the first Aster. She hasn’t stopped since. But within that calamity was Cirrus, and it was those first Threads of love that saved Asil. And ultimately the rest of us.”

“Aragmoth saved my sister, Master Gei.”

“Aragmoth was able to save her body and soul, but she would have never awakened if it were not for Cirrus’ voice calling her out of his darkness.”

“And Damek?” Kas asked.

“Damek has lost his hope for peace. It is a hope only Sybl can return to him if his vengeful spirit is to stop. No one else can. But his hate has grown wings.” Gei looked back at the dragon. “I will not ask again. Remove yourself from that body, or I will tear you out myself.”

The white dragon’s eyes glowed back in defiance.

“So be it. Restrain her,” Gei ordered the guards, and they somned and dropped their weight, teeth and claws on the dragons limbs, neck and tail. Gei expanded in size, and he sent his teeth into the dragon’s right wing. The sound of bone and flesh being torn made Kas look away, as the smell of blood consumed the air of the room. Gei did the same to the other wing, and the dragon stopped struggling as its blood flooded the floor.

Kas dared to look back at the shadow the red blood held within it as Cirrus had unsomned into his human-like form, unconscious. His reflection wasn’t of an Awl, but who looked like a human woman, also lying down. Then with a ripple, it was replaced with only his image.

“She will sleep, unless her wings touch an unholy one capable of restoring the hate she needs to sustain herself on Aster. Cirrus is now free of his own self-loathing for the death of his mother that he was in no way responsible for.”

“Will he return to normal?”

Gei shrunk to the size of a cougar and walked over to Kas. His white face and neck was stained with blood. “Only Sybl can help him recover now.”

“Is this what happened with your wings?”

Gei trembled from the memory. “I removed them shortly after I had found your mother for the first time, before we built all this.” He looked around the room, as some of the golden Threads trembled. “But it was not enough to save her life from Vanir’s wrath in thinking you and Sybl were mine. It was not enough to change Fate and stop Aragmoth from taking her into death and from me.”

Gei stood quiet for a while. “Kira was so upset. She told me that I was too beautiful to do such a thing. For a while, she had me convinced that what I did was a sin. I pray that she understands now that I tried. I pray that you can forgive me one day as well. I only did what I could to change the Fate that Aragmoth’s will imposes on us to a tolerable level.” He looked away, before walking out from the dungeon.

The unholy, now-black wings of Alexia were dragged out of the room behind him, and the doors closed. Kas looked to where Cirrus lay with the blood around him having dried up. It was cracked and in shards, as if his soul were a mirror that had fallen to the soil of the wrong world.