Dear GOD, do you guys have any ideas how many times I rewrote this chapter because I wasn't happy with it? Too many, I'll tell you that. Anyway, I did NOT give this story up, but I've been stuck on this specific chapter for months!


Chapter 28: History and Her Story

Verse 1

As the night fell, so, too, did the temperature drop almost twice as fast. And while the soldiers of the Union began their patrol, the two dragons encircled the tent in which Lina, Lynn and Eris were talking.

"Someone… who can destroy the Gods?" Eris asked, obviously not believing it one bit.

"Whether it's true or not, I really don't know," Lynn said simply, taking a sip of her drink, "but that's their intent, it seems."

Lina said nothing to that. She merely sipped her drink in silence, though the look on her face was a mix of concentration and something close to anticipation. The latter didn't surprise either Lynn or Eris, but neither said anything about it.

Eris blew on her drink before taking a sip. "Maybe you should start from the beginning, Lynn."

"Of course…"


Verse 2

"From what I gathered, it started long before the first Goddess Seal was first created. There lived a young princess who, as people claimed, was a witch practicing the dark arts. Many just assumed it was a rumor brought into the world by the young princess to keep suitors at bay. For she already had someone whom she was deeply in love with, a soldier amongst her father's ranks.

Unfortunately, her father, the King, would not accept this, and thus married her out to a Prince of a neighboring country. Despite the distance put between her and her beloved, she had managed to arrange for him to change places with the soldier whom was supposed to come with her from her own kingdom to protect her from any possible assassinations, or other accidents."

"How did she manage that?"

"I'm not sure… but if she really did practice the black arts like the rumors had said, it wouldn't have been too hard. In any case… as the years progressed, she sired a total of 6 children, but only 2 of them had the royal blood in them. Only their mother knew of this fact, and she definitely let it show, despite never letting know that the reason for her behavior was only because they had the royal blood instead of that of her beloved.

She would never praise them, always saying they had to do better, and scolding them whenever they did even the smallest thing wrong. Sometimes she would even have them locked in the supply closet as punishment, and would not let them out until after dinner had already passed. But as the years passed, she wouldn't even look in their direction unless they did something she believed to be wrong.

The oldest of the two was already used to their mother's behavior and had accepted that he would never be able to do anything right in her eyes. He had long since stopped trying to impress her with his skills and merely focused on what he himself enjoyed to do.

The youngest of the two, however, whom was also the youngest of all six, did not accept it. But rather than try and be a good boy, he did everything in his power to be a 'not-so-good boy'. After all, it was the only way for their mother to acknowledge them.

There were even times when he would run away from the maids and hide within the castle gardens, where he would remain hidden for hours sometimes. However, it was during this time that he was abducted and taken away from his home. Yet no one had realized this until nearly a week had passed since the boy's disappearance."

"So he was kidnapped for ransom…?"

"That's what people believed at first, but no. No ransom letter was delivered to the castle gates or anyone else of the family. While young princes and princesses worried over the fate of their youngest brother, his mother did not seem to care, and even his father eventually declared him to be dead…

So imagine their surprise when he suddenly appeared at the castle gates, years later, alive and well.

He had grown taller than any of his brothers, and carried with him a blade drenched in blood. He spoke not a word to anyone since his return to the castle, not even to the other prince of royal blood with whom he had always shared the closest bond, thus they had no way of knowing what was going on through his head…

Up until when he killed his mother's lover."

"What? Wh-why?"

"As it turns out, someone found out about his mother's affair with a common soldier, and sought to punish her by having one of her sons kill her."

"But he killed her lover… why…?"

"Rather than blame his mother, he blamed the person that stole her love from him and his older brother. True, he also hated her as well, but that was the second reason why he killed her beloved; to mentally torture her and drive her to insanity.

Which worked, though that wasn't the smartest thing he could have done…

By this time, she had already been crowned Queen, and you could imagine that the King was not happy with how she ended up; as a blabbering, helpless child.

But any attempts at capturing the youngest prince were futile; he had grown powerful enough to counter the King's army without even breaking a sweat. No matter how many the King sent out, they all fell faster than they were sent out."

"So… he was invincible?"

"That's what most thought… until his brother stepped out onto the battlefield…"


Verse 3

The two men locked blades, the first glaring, the other second with an almost regretful look on his face. The first roared and lashed out sideways, forcing the second man to back off. Once he had his footing back, the man cried out: "Why! Why are you doing this! All this will not give you what you want!"

"Don't you DARE assume you know what I want!" the first shouted as he lunged forward, forcing the second to backpedal so he could block and parry. "You don't know anything, do you! You don't know what I've seen! You haven't seen the TRUTH!"

One quick slice and the second man's sword was knocked from his hands. Panic struck the second man, before he was forced to leap aside from a downward stroke. As he dived to the ground, he snagged up his sword and rolled back to his feet, only just blocking the next swing aimed to take his head off. "T-truth? What are… what are you talking about?"

"I have no reason to tell you!" the first snarled, moving his sword back and making to stab it through the second's head, but he rolled aside and leapt back to his feet, blocking the next swipes as well. "Not to you who does not understand anything! You who knows NOTHING!"

The second man blocked another swipe, trying to parry the first's swings to the best of his ability.

But he was not trained for this. He had little to no experience with the sword and then there came the fact that the person opposite him was his blood brother. He had known all along that only he and his brother held the royal blood, and while that meant their mother would not give them love, it would be they alone who had the right to take the throne. And yet that wasn't enough for his brother.

"Then explain to me!" he cried out as he blocked. "Explain what I don't understand! Tell me that which I don't know!"

"Maybe I will tell you… when I see you in HELL!"

The next swing was too fast to detect, and he screamed in pain. He stumbled, and stared in horror at the bloody limp that now lay on the ground. His arm had been sliced off with one single swipe, and the blood that was already dripping from his bloody stump of an arm (or what remained of it) was making him dizzy.

"Br… brother… why… Why are you doing this, Caim?"

His brother chose not to respond, even when his name was called, and instead rushed at the other with what seemed to be even more killing intent than before. It took him everything he had to keep the other man away from him, something that had been made considerably harder with only one arm at his disposal.

Backup would not come to his aid, he knew; there was no one left to back him up, after all.

He managed to dodge the next swipe by chance alone, and just as his brother turned, he thrust his blade forward with all his might.


"C…C-Caim…?" he choked out, unable to tear his eyes away from what he had done.

His brother said nothing for a long while, before he coughed, sending blood onto the other man's hand. When the younger man fell down, he followed almost immediately, using his only remaining arm to keep the man off the ground, though this also ensured that the blade was not moved from where it had pierced right through the younger man's chest.

"Wh-why…? Why did you…? Why? Caim, why!"

The younger man was silent for a moment longer, but then he started to speak, so softly that it was almost inaudible, but he managed to catch every word, and what he was told made him pale in horror.

"…stop her… don't let her… break it…"

Those words were his younger brother's last words… before he spoke no more ever again…


Verse 4

"What did he say to his brother?"

"No one's sure; he never said anything about his brother's final words. He eventually married a Duchess, watched over a piece of land of his father's, and occasionally returned home. However, when he finally had children of his own, it seems he hired an assassin to kill the Queen."

"What? But why?"

"My personal guess is that it has something to do with what his brother told him as he was dying… and anyway, it failed. But it did set things into motion; the Queen had never actually been traumatized by her lover's death, and had only been manipulating everyone into doing what she wanted.

As it turned out; the rumor that she practiced the black arts had not been a rumor at all. She really did practice them, and the years had given her such power that it scared those around her. And the reason why she had not been traumatized by her lover's death was because he should have been dead ages ago."

"What?"

"Yeah… she had called him back from the beyond the grave; she had opened a doorway to the world of the dead and pulled him back. She would've done it again, too, had she had the opportunity. But as it turns out, the item she had needed was missing. And guess who took it…"

"The youngest prince…"

"That's everyone's guess… it wasn't on his corpse, but there's no denying that he could have hidden it somewhere. And if it had been on him, I'm suspecting his older brother took it and hid it… at least before he was killed."

"Ki-killed?"

"What? You thought the Queen was just going to let him go like that? After that assassination attempt, there was no way they'd let him go. She made sure he was dead, before she started searching for whatever it was she needed. But in her desperation to find it, she called upon some 'friends' from the underworld.

Nowadays… we call them monsters."

"Wait… she summoned them to this world?"

"If you believe what's written down, then yeah. The constant presence of those creatures dyed the sky a blood red… and as you can guess, this caused mass panic."

"How was it stopped?"

"Funny you should ask… 20 years after the sky was recorded to turn blood red, someone finally succeeded in killing the Queen… Someone who had made a pact; the first pact in written human history."

"Are you serious?"

"Yeah. And apparently, that person also had some knowledge of seals… Care to hazard a guess what this person made?"

"The Goddess Seal…"

"Yep. A woman he was close to offered up her soul to protect the people of the world by creating a barrier, locking out the red sky and the demons that roamed their world. A barrier that would last for the duration of her life."

Eris nodded slowly. "But, who would have the power to destroy the Gods?"

"What? It's not obvious enough?" Lynn asked with a sigh.

Lina frowned briefly, before turning her head to the side. Before Eris could ask, the silver dragon's voice called out: "The children of the Queen and her lover, obviously."

Lynn nodded. "Yes. By now, the blood of the Queen and her lover has spread out throughout the land. They seek to destroy the seal to find whatever it is the Queen lost."

"But why? To bring back the Queen's lover?"

"No… 'The Mother'…"


Verse 5

The darkness of the night was haunting, and yet Lina was still awake. Eris and Lynn had retired after some more heavy discussion that Lina had "politely" excused herself from. Now she was lying against her partner's side, thinking and contemplating.

…Dragon…

Mm… what?

…What is 'the Mother'?

…You don't want to know.

Yes I do.

No you don't.

Tell me!

No.

…Jerk.

Arguing at this point had no point, and she really wasn't in the mood. Turning on her side, she closed her eyes briefly, before they slid open almost automatically.

Go to sleep.

…Can't.

Sleep.

I can't, dragon… If I could, I would.

The silver dragon sighed in annoyance, briefly shaking his head. You're going to be difficult about this, aren't you?

What gave you that idea?

He merely snorted. They remained silent for a long moment, before the dragon's voice once more echoed through her mind. She blinked a few times, before her eyes slowly fell shut and she fell asleep without another word.

"…Stubborn little hatchling…" the dragon chuckled out, before following her into the realm of dreams.


-Pact communication-

Lina

Silver Dragon

[[Lynn]]

[[Morcion]]

{{Isaac}}

{{Irei}}

/Seul/