Dragon Aster Trilogy (28 page)

“I’m proud of you, Feryl,” Hain mocked, as he took a sip of his beer. “Urio actually found something you can do without screwing up.”

“Ha ha. Enjoy your beer, Boss. The next one I won’t guarantee what I put in it.” Feryl left then to attend to other customers.

Hain only shook his head. He had been poisoned before, and it was interesting in the least.

Urio laughed, as he remembered the rogues taking off terrified at the sight of Hain’s true form that he concealed with his human-weave of Thread. Unless he was unconscious.

“Bunch of dumbasses those guys were. After all the trouble they went through to kidnap me, only to take off and leave me tied up to die.”

“Three days.” Urio chuckled. “It took me and Feryl three days to find you in that gutter of a hole they dragged you into.”

“Yeah, I remember,” Hain replied. “I can’t believe they thought I was still a Custos who they could ransom off. Kas would sooner pay them to kill me.”

“The kid doesn’t hate you, since you’re still useful. We were much the same to you once, and you dropped us when we became useless.”

“I didn’t drop you guys. But it’s just not the same as before,” Hain objected.

“You mean without Kira holding us all together.”

“Yea…” Hain sighed.

“Well, the Sanctus has lots of Callers now. Including the ones from Jasper’s town. Is it true a single kyrie made a mess of the town of Berion?”

“They say it was Kas’ pet kyrie, because whatever did it didn’t leave any trace of its memory behind to blame otherwise. But an Aeger kyrie can’t flatten a town with Thread, or even a stampede of its kind.”

“Who do you think did it?” Urio asked.

“Kas and Sybl were attacked in the Keol by Daath.”

“Daath?” Urio replied, choking his own drink back up. “As in the Eminor of Damek?”

“Yea, that one. Only it didn’t look to have its soul with him. But Daath would have that kind of power. Jasper isn’t a pup, and neither is his ayame.”

“Where is it now?”

“I don’t know. Sybl was the last one to see it, and now…”

“Poor girl.” Urio sighed. “Well, don’t give up hope yet. If she is the reincarnated Caelestis, then I doubt Aragmoth’s Keol would kill her.”

Hain looked out the window, not so sure. A white unicorn stared back at him. He immediately let go of his empty glass, until it clicked into his foggy head that it was just another masked somnus. “You win this one.” He hastily picked up his sword, and pushed his chair back with his legs as he got up. “Let me know if Hell surfaces before I wake up. Better yet, don’t.”

Urio chuckled as he watched Hain walk through the chairs and patrons, before heading upstairs. He looked out the window and pushed his long white ponytail to his back, trying to see what Hain did. But only the colorfully dressed crowd attending the Lunar Festival continuously passed by, in a steady stream of thirsty customers.

The masked ball that was held in the Sylvan Tower danced like a synchronized rainbow of color. Kas watched it for a while, then looked around to find himself oddly in a Vision of the past, when he was still Erebus.

He wore all black to further illustrate that he never approved of Solar’s extravagant parties. But it never stopped her from adding him to her rounds of false pleasantries.

“It’s a shame your sister is so consumed by her warfare, that she won’t so much as appear to sing for the Festival.” Solar touched her red curls to make sure they were still perfect, as she stopped on the step he sat on.

Erebus looked up at Solar for a moment, before looking back across the main hall.

“She dishonors us all by her endless warmongering. A simple hearing of her voice would remind her people that she fights for a peaceful future, and not more blood.”

“It is not your place to tell my sister what she should and should not do, and your attempts to do so do not sit well on my stomach.” Erebus got to his feet and straightened his military-cut uniform.

“Then make her at least call the Feharin Army back to our shores,” Solar pleaded and caught his arm. “There is nothing on the Torian Continent that we could need.” Solar’s green eyes flashed from the candlelit decorations as their flames could not hide her own selfishness.

“Asil is convinced that there is a dangerous evil emerging from there, and I will believe and follow her as should you. She is our Caelestis, and everything she has done has been for our own good. You should show some respect to those bleeding with her on the battlefield, while you curl your hair here.”

Solar slapped Erebus across the face with her fiery rage behind it. “That monster is the only reason your sister is still in that throne of power she corrupts.” She stormed upstairs at that, her long red waves swaying back and forth behind her.

Erebus touched his face for where it might have hurt, if her fire had ever been strong enough to burn him.

“Lord Erebus,” a servant said as he stopped and bowed before him. “Moon has returned.”

Which meant Asil was back, and Erebus could stop hiding in the shadows from all her not-so-loyal subjects.

As much as he would never turn against his own sister, Solar had a point. The Sylvan people were losing faith in her. The chimeras had lost. After their strike against Toria, the Last War would be over. There would be no more enemies to kill. Even if his sister felt she only existed for battle.

He headed for outside as the usual awe followed Moon’s arrival. Keeping track of Asil’s actions would have been easier if Erebus could get a grip on her oversized pet. Moon was a complex creature trapped in the simplicity of life. In death, nightmares had to be extinguished quickly before they could spread. The future was less significant than remembering all of the past. Souls had to be watched, followed and protected and it was easier when they were dead. In life, Moon still clung to the rules of the realm of death rather than those of life. The struggle to survive was pointless to him. He had no emotions to feel the worth of living.

Moon was taught most of what he knew by Asil herself. When he rose onto a battlefield, nothing remained behind. The black-furred serpent was a master of delivering death like he was once at preserving it, and would obey Asil to the last. Even if her own court was on the verge of voting her from the throne she never sat on.

When Erebus reached the courtyard, he saw Moon, but as he looked through the crowd he couldn’t sense his sister. “Moon, where is Asil?”

Moon opened his claws, as his long black fur moved to reveal her festra. Then he set it on the ground before Erebus. It was in that moment that Moon understood the full emotional pain of losing the life of someone he loved.

It was in that moment that Erebus would not live on without her.

Kas woke from the nightmare with a start when Urio came into his room. He had forgotten what sleep felt like, and the nightmares that haunted it.

“Master Kas?”

“Where am I?” He recovered from his sudden waking and sat up. His vision cleared to see that Hain had dragged him to Urio’s tavern during his time unconscious.

“Are you healing alright?” Urio asked, as the large phelan somnus came the rest of the way into the small room.

Kas looked himself over briefly, before looking to his Mei on his left arm. He could feel that Sybl was close. He got to his feet with the relief that she was still alive. When he looked out the window, he realized that she was also lost in the mob of the Festival attenders, and the Fall’s griffins were everywhere. “Can I borrow some of your Pack?”

“Yea, yea, of course,” Urio replied, then closed his eyes to reach by psi the few who worked for him.

Kas picked up his cloak from the chair next to the bed, and draped it around him before heading downstairs. He pulled his hood over his head as he left the tavern, and turned in the street for where he sensed his soultwin.

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.