Dragon Aster Trilogy

36: NEPHENA



Sybl looked up at the walls of the ice cavern around her. Everything was frozen, but it was strangely warm. Yet she had no idea where she was.

She walked through the hallways and caverns in circles for some time, until coming across a corridor that was blocked by a massive bear. Its size took up the space into it. “Could you move over by chance?”

The bear only continued to sleep.

She looked around for something that would have more effect than her fists, and found a wooden stick. Going back to the giant butt, she struck it as hard as she could. But the black bear continued to sleep.

“What are you doing, Sybl?”

She glanced back at Xirel, before striking the bear again. “I’m beating this bear with a stick!”

“I can see that. But Geolan only speaks Chimerian.”

Sybl held back her next strike, as Xirel asked the bear to move in his language. Immediately it stood up and took one step to the side, before lying back down to fall asleep. Only then did she recognize the bear as the one who attacked Gwa.

“Yes, Geolan is very grateful for you having cured him of the Aeger,” Xirel said on hearing her thoughts.

“But the cure only lasts when I’m nearby…”

“Chimera are not effected by the Aeger the same way eminor and Ancients are. It’s more like a passing cold of depression for us. Likely because we are not entirely of Aragmoth.”

“A cold? So far this ‘cold’ has sent people I know to the grave, and the one I love most there and back again with madness.”

Xirel nodded his head to the side. “I understand that you are hurt, even if my metaphor missed it entirely.”

Sybl peered down the hallway that had a faint light at its end. “Where am I?”

“You are in the Efereal Mountains.”

“Unconscious,” Sybl added.

“What makes you say that?” Xirel asked.

“Because I don’t remember waking up after Gei planted my face in the floor.” She walked down the hallway, and Xirel followed.

“You are safe here, Sybl.”

“You call this safe? The Phoenix will cook this mountain like an oven if it finds out I’m here. Let me out.”

“It is freezing outside, and there are many angry spirits about. You are not ready for warfare in this lifetime.” He moved like his stag somn had in the realm of death, slow but with strength in his steps.

“I’m not ready to sit here and talk while my brother dies on the battlefield.” Sybl reached the end of the corridor, only to find another cavern. There wasn’t going to be any getting out of this labyrinth if Xirel had specifically designed it to hold her.

“You need not walk in circles, Asil. Come to me. Free me and I shall show you the way out.”

Xirel turned his head in concern, in the direction of the psi that had found Sybl.

Sybl recognized the voice in her head. She headed down the hallway of her next best guess, before coming to a much larger cavern that was supported by massive statues of chimera. Livry stood as a giant pegasus sealed in ice, holding much of the ceiling up with his wings. Beside him were statues of several other of the first of Nephena’s children, all equally as huge. “Are they alive?”

“No,” Xirel replied, keeping his thoughts and ears keen for the unaccounted voice of moments ago. “Livry died at the Casus Beli Canyon, from Nephena’s wrath. The others died from various circumstances.”

“I remember now. I killed some of them.”

“It was a different Time, Asil. But you have reincarnated with understanding and an open mind. You do not hate us as you did before.”

“No, now you bow to the ones who were made to serve you. You punished the imperfect, but imperfection lies not only in appearance. Free me and I will help you purge those of my children who betray you in this Time. My own children who have imprisoned me in here!”

She looked then at Xirel. “What is your abnormality that makes you a chimera?”

Xirel blushed in response, then retreated into his mind of complex wording to find just the right way to explain it. On sensing her lack of courage to enforce the strength behind her question, he decided to turn it on her. “Would you like me to show you?”

Sybl pondered on the consequences of saying yes, but she wasn’t going to chicken out. “Please.”

Xirel pulled his white robe off of his shoulders, exposing only his pale chest.

Sybl went over to him, and started to count his ribs that went through his thin physique with her fingers. “You only have eight pairs of ribs...”

“I was not much of a runner in my younger days, either.” Xirel put his robe back over his arms.

“We were all different back then. You would have killed me if you found me on a battlefield.”

“No, I don’t think that even back then I could have hurt you. I understood your reasoning, even if I did not agree with it. I knew that you thought like you did because you felt alone for too long. Loneliness is a room that caves in when the spirit gives out.”

“Where is Nephena’s spirit?” Sybl asked.

“We do not keep it here.”

“He lies! I am here. Search deeper.”

Sybl turned to do just that. After descending some stairs to the lower levels of the Efereal Mountains, she stopped on them to find a wall built directly in front of her.

“It is not safe down here, Sybl. Please, let us return—”

“She has tried to escape already, hasn’t she? That’s why this wall is here.”

“I do not freeze in ice. So they have encased me in this airless tomb! Free me! I have served the Time for my punishment. I have learned my lesson. I will not repeat any actions that will lead me to endure this torment again!”

“She is lying,” Xirel countered.

“But she is behind this wall,” Sybl added, putting one of her hands on it.

“Sybl, please understand. After Damek’s strike, she became mad with rage. To free her now would cause unmeasurable consequences.”

“I can help you. Give you back Moon. Free me and I will give him to you. He waits for your heart to forgive and free him. I will give him to you so you can destroy Damek and avenge me!”

That was enough to make Sybl decide, and she set her other hand on the wall.

“Sybl, please stop!” Xirel pleaded.

“The Caels are no one’s prisoner.” She closed her eyes and focused her thoughts through the wings of the world that made these mountains. Sybl thought back to Aragmoth’s making, when the Great Dragon went from being a black void to becoming the second Aster. She thought about the peaceful world of death within him that he had protected her in for so long. But no peace was meant to last forever.

The stone began to tremble, before it cracked and crumbled to the ground. Xirel vanished from where he had been standing behind her, and Sybl looked into the darkness that the wall revealed. She gathered the courage to step inside, as six eyes looked her way.

“Do not look at me, Asil. I am not beautiful anymore. They have taken my beauty, and I wish to keep my pride.”

“Nephena.” The body of a male-looking lion that was female shifted its paws across the floor. Her goat’s head that grew from just behind her neck and mane grated its teeth. Her tail was that of a snake, possibly an anaconda from its size. The shadows that Nephena hid in did not hide the memory from Sybl of just how immense and terrifying the Mother of all Chimeras still was.

“Asil, I will keep to my word. Take him. Take him and kill Damek. Kill him so we can all stop hiding in shadows. If only for a time.”

Sybl looked down at the floor of the dark chamber, where two light blue eyes looked back at her. The creature stepped into the light that came from behind her. She could see that it was Moon, as tiny as he was when he was given to her for the first time.

“He will show you the way out. Now go. Go before Damek takes my dragons for himself. Go while I make sure my children do not impede your wishes anymore.”

Sybl picked up the tiny fur-covered black serpent in her hands, and Moon coiled around her arm. He absorbed her memories into himself at the pace of her pulse. After several moments, Moon looked back at her with recognition in his eyes, full of memories. Then she looked back at Nephena. “If I kill Damek, he will simply reincarnate. How do I make sure he never returns?”

Nephena walked around in a circle. Then she walked around the opposite way. Finally, she lay down and curled up like a lion, as her goat head and snake tail fidgeted in their psi discussion in and out of the light. If Nephena was crazed, then there was a good chance that her other two heads were not.

“Hino is waiting for his chance to strike him,” the goat’s head spoke.

“Weak. You must poison him, weaken him, break him from the power he takes from Aragmoth. Then strike him. Then all will strike him,” the snake spoke next.

“He’s draining the Great Dragon? How?” Sybl asked.

The goat’s head and snake looked to discuss it amongst themselves again, as the lion head of Nephena sounded as if she was snoring.

“Too many nightmares, too much power,” the goat’s head spoke. “The Aeger is Aragmoth’s defense against the Sentry. It makes the Eminor and Ancients powerful, and solid in existence to defend against enemies.”

“Damek feeds off of the Aeger, the Aeger that is everywhere,” the snake added with a hiss.

“So if I raise the Sylvan Aur, however I do that, he will be cut off from his power source and it will cure the Aeger. But he will also be able to strike against Earth.”

“You complicate so much,” Nephena said with a wide yawn, and her long white teeth shone through the darkness. “Why do you concern yourself with Earth? For the Sentry? For the Awls? You make no sense. Earth is a planet of stupid, soul-filled creatures who do not deserve such a gift. Your humanity has made you stupid. ”

Sybl swallowed her words, in the hopes that it would taste less personal.

“Asil,” the goat’s head said. “Do you have anyone to care for on Earth?”

Sybl thought on it, and then shook her head.

“Is there no family or friends? Children perhaps?”

“Not quite old enough for that, and no, there is no one.”

“Then this is not a complicated decision. All that you value is here, on Aster,” the goat’s head continued.

“Raise the Aur,” the snake said, “and stop the Aeger. If Damek goes for Earth, it will be his own downfall.”

“You were never or will ever be the extent of power that he is. He thinks the Sentry are weak, pitiful even,” the goat added. “He does not know the truth of what awaits him.”

“And what’s that?” Sybl asked.

“Oblivion,” Nephena added. “Only his Creator can completely destroy him. You mended him once, but he remains a creation from Hino. But to stop him, you must heal the Aeger. You must weaken him. You are the only one who can weaken him. Hino waits, and there is no saying how long he will continue to do so.”

“Weaken him, eh?” Sybl looked at Moon on her arm, who listened patiently. “So how do we make you bigger, really fast?”

Moon blinked his light blue eyes, and then returned a single thought to her.