Dragon Aster Trilogy

34: REGRETS



“You back to your old self yet?” Loki asked, as he went into the prison cell they had given Cirrus to recover in.

Cirrus looked back at him from the stone brick floor he sat on. His long, blond hair was stained red with blood, and his light blue eyes had lost their brightness. “I would be better if they let me out of this cell.”

“Sybl could still die because of you.”

Cirrus looked away from Loki as the dragoon circled around to face him. “I wasn’t in my right mind. You know I would never hurt her.”

“But you did,” Loki added, weighing his words down with as much guilt as they could hold.

“What do you want from me, Loki? Why are you here?”

“Kas has ordered the evacuation of the Sanctus, and that leaves the question of what to do with you.”

“So that’s why it’s so quiet. Did they move Sybl to the Efereal Mountains as well?”

“I’m flying back to the Torian Continent,” Loki replied, changing the subject. “I think we owe the others of our Line the decency of determining and recording their deaths.”

“And you’re not going to bring me along, are you?”

“I never said that.”

“Cut the bullshit, Loki. When two dragons want the same female, only one gets her. You’re just trying to find an excuse you can stomach to get rid of me. Just go.”

Loki stepped back. “For what it’s worth, I’m sorry that things turned out like this.”

“And I’m sorry that I didn’t leave you to drown during your Trial of Somn. It’s always the weaker ones who crush the hearts of others the most.” Cirrus looked then to the puddle of water on his side of the bars that gave no reflection of Loki.

The dragoon turned and left him at that.

Cirrus looked back at the wall, as he thought about what his cousin had said. He touched his necklace that was Sybl’s, as it had been switched when Daath had given Sybl his after stealing it at the Casus Beli fields. Lintrance had taken Sybl’s back from Fevre, and he had taken it from him. She still slept, and Cirrus had guessed that they had forced her to stay unconscious, for she had never slept for so long at once. There was no telling what else he had done to hurt her while he was possessed by the Sentry.

The loneliness in his heart was a tearing that wouldn’t stop if he didn’t try and set things right. He stood up and went to the bars of his cell, grabbing them with both of his hands. He felt weak without a somn as he tried to bend them, and the heavy estus energy from being on Suzerain Continent didn’t help.

Cirrus tried to think, before his eyes went back to the puddle on the floor. For a moment, he thought he was seeing things, as to make a Rift from solid rock was impossible. Or at least, it was supposed to be impossible, as the water stretched across the floor in blackness. Now all that was left was the risk of going through, and finding what waited for him on the other side.

His mind thought back to when he had gone after Sybl to rescue her. The monster of fire was what had done all this. If he had been faster, stronger, then they would have been safe and together on the Torian Continent, away from all this madness. He cursed himself for being so stupid before to have the curiosity to want to see this side of the world. This wasn’t the other side of Aster; it was the edge of its oblivion.

He continued to watch the Rift as it stopped expanding. It stayed with what seemed like an eternity of blood in it to wait for him. It made him remember the Fay Wall collapsing and killing so many of their daorans and younglings. It made him think of Nafury, and how his blood was what had made the Aeger plumas tear it down.

Perhaps it was the monster that had taken his Prince that awaited for him in this abyss. Patient and cold. With his only other option to wait and be burned alive by the Phoenix.