Chapter 16 – The Rise and Fall
Soren stretched his back as he left the trees, and looked over the dragon while his sister examined it. "Claudia? Everything alright?"
"It's still alive. I can hear it breathing. It's faint but… still there." She smirked a little. "Dad wanted the other dragon back… but you think he'd be alright with this dragon instead? If we keep it alive and let it shift… we could take it back."
The guard nodded, even if the idea made him feel sick. "We could try."
"Hey, dragon! Wake up!" She knelt down and began to poke around the eye and the chained muzzle. "Come on, wake up."
There was a faint growl of irritation, but nothing changed.
Claudia grumbled in frustration, then reached up to the dragon's neck to pull on one of the spines, snapping it like an old, dry twig. The pain made the dragon flinch, but she didn't wake or move. Looking at her new prize, Claudia sighed as she stood back up. "We'll have to wait for it to wake up," she muttered, then walked away.
As she left, Soren quickly checked to make sure no one else was near, then knelt down. "Psst, Pyrrah? I have a message from Cadonumis," he whispered.
The dragon's eye cracked open a little. "Cadonumis?" she whispered back, "How do you know that name?"
"He's a friend. Listen, he wanted me to tell you, he's going to cause a distraction for you to escape. When you can, fly to the cave, and meet him there."
Pyrrah closed her eye again. "How do I know you're not trying to trick me?"
"He said… to tell you… dragonic regiis… fi-fi-fid…." He cursed. "I can't remember the last word."
"Fiducia," the red dragon sighed, then opened her eye again, "Very well. I will do as you say."
Looking into her bright blue eye, Soren nodded. "I'm going to loosen your chains. Should allow you to escape. Wait for the prince's distraction, then go."
"What kind of distraction?"
"You'll know when it happens."
"Soren? What are you doing?" He turned around to see Claudia holding her book to her chest.
"Just checking the chains," he lied, messing with the chain near the snout. "Hate for it to get loose and shift."
"Good idea. Let me help."
"No, I got it," he said, standing up and blocking her. "Have you…decided what part you want first?"
The mage turned back to her book. "I think I'll go for the blood. From this, it looks like any dragon blood will work to subdue a dragon of the same Primal Source, even if the blood didn't come from that particular dragon."
"In other words…" her brother said with a frown.
"In other words, I could use the blood of this dragon to subdue… another one." She smirked and closed her book, "I need a bowl and a knife, see if I can make it work."
As she hurried away to get the items, Soren turned back to Pyrrah. "Hope you're strong enough now," he whispered as he slowly walked around and fiddled with each peg. He loosened them to the point where they barely held down the creature's breathing. "Slow your breathing," he hissed as he knelt by her side, "You're going to pull the chains loose."
The growl showed she didn't approve, but then her chest began to slow and stopped pulling on the chains.
With the rest of the chains 'checked', Soren made his way to the side, and picked up a water skin as planned. In the trees, Callum stood watching for the signal. Once he saw, he quickly checked to see if he was alone, then walked out into the clearing. "Hey, what's going on here?" he called to the guards in his human form.
The guards turned, ready for a fight, but upon seeing him, relaxed slightly. "Nothing to see," one said, holding a hand up to stop him, "Be on your way."
Callum stopped and smirked slightly. "I don't think so. See… you're holding my friend down," he said, then allowed himself to shift, spreading his wings wide to scare them. He held out his hand. "Fulminis!"
Power shot from his hand and jumped from one metal suit to the next, taking down three before they had a chance to stop him. The downed guards groaned in pain, but they were still alive.
The others quickly charged on the second dragon, spears at the ready, but Callum grabbed a sword from one of the fallen guards and ran at them, dodging their attacks as he got closer. A guard turned to attack again, bringing a dagger around and managing a slash at the hybrid.
Callum grunted at the pain, but continued to run away from Pyrrah, getting the guards to follow him. Unfortunately, they soon had him surrounded, a collection of spears pointed at him. Trapped in a circle of blades, Callum growled, calling on his lightning once more.
Soren ran over to the guards and held out his hand. "Back off! Don't let the lightning touch you!" he ordered to the others. He needed a way to get his friend out without blowing his cover or letting someone get hurt.
It was at that moment that Pyrrah decided to make her move, standing up sharply and throwing the chains that had restrained her. She roared to scare the guards off, then shifted down to hybrid form, running at the guards and tackling Soren. She pinned him to the ground, snarling. "Let him go or I'll rip his throat out!"
"Not going to happen," came a female voice, and Pyrrah looked up just in time to see the dark mage squeeze something with her eyes turning black. She cast a spell, aiming it at the dragoness holding her brother down.
"Pyrrah! Look out!"
The red dragon looked up as the dragonling ran at her and stood between her and the mage.
Claudia gasped as she realised who the other dragon was. "Callum?" She frowned at him. "You had your chance to come peacefully. Now you're coming whether you like it or not!"
Callum held his ground against her. "Don't test me witch!"
The mage frowned as she held up her own hand and continued the spell, dark lightning coming out towards the dragons. The sky dragon held up his hand as the dark magic came towards him. "Fulminis!" he shouted yet again, the two electrical sources meeting in the middle, sparking off each other, and creating a web of electricity that had every single guard running for cover.
Holding his own, Callum grabbed his hand, feeling the dark magic pushing against his powers. Like on the ship, the power was flowing into him uncontrollably. But this felt wrong. There was no joy in this flow of power, only pain.
He grunted, falling to one knee as he tried to push his own power against the mage, but she appeared to be the stronger of the two. The dark lightning came at him and wrapped around his body, making him scream and collapse.
Pyrrah gasped as she watched, then growled, transforming into her full form and charging at him. She didn't care about the magic as it struck her. The dragoness just grabbed the prince in her claws and took to the air as fast as she could, making sure to get out of the witch's range. She flew quickly with her limited strength to the cave, landing close, and shifting as she did. "Elf! Human! I need help!"
Having seen her approach, Ezran and Rayla ran out of the cave to help. "Callum!" they shouted, Rayla quickly looking over his bleeding side and pained expression. "What happened?!"
"He tried to save me. He got hurt and… there was a mage, she did Dark Magic on him. Look, help me get him inside. I can't carry him myself," the dragon said, wincing at her own wounds.
Rayla took the prince and helped him to the cave. She gently put him down on the rocks with the supply bag as a pillow. She placed a hand on his brow, then flinched back as dark lightning zapped her.
Ezran was helping Pyrrah sit down against the wall when she looked at the others. "That's the spell the mage used."
"How far behind us are they?" Rayla asked.
"It will take them several hours even on horseback to get here."
"That's not long. We need to move. Can you fly?"
The dark-haired woman shook her head. "Not right now. I need to rest. I have my own wounds you know?"
"Ez, help her."
While the human did move to help, Pyrrah pulled away from him with a hiss. "I won't let some human touch me."
"Fine, then sit there and bleed to death," Rayla huffed, "Makes little difference to me."
Guessing her choices were limited, Pyrrah nodded and allowed Ez to bandage her side where the bolt had been. As he wrapped it over her clothes, Ezran looked at her. "You know, you could be a little nicer."
"Why?"
"Because Callum did save your life."
"And risked his own."
"That's the kind of person he is!" Rayla snapped as she stared at the dragon lying before her. "Putting his life before others. We could have left you back there, and by now, you'd either be cut up into tiny bits or forced to shift so they could spend the rest of your life harvesting from you."
"What?"
"That's what they did to Callum," Ezran explained as he finished bandaging her arm, "For the last ten years… he's been… chained up, and had his blood taken for Dark Magic."
Her eyes widened. "I...didn't know."
"Yeah, well, you didn't give him a chance to explain last night. You just insulted his family then flew away," Rayla huffed, "You western dragons are the worst."
She hissed at the elf. "Watch your tongue!"
"No, you watch yours!" Rayla shouted back, standing up and drawing a blade, "I don't want to hear another insult out of you Pyrrah, or you'll wish the mage still had you. You just sit there, and get stronger so you can fly us out of here."
"What?"
"Callum can't shift into a full dragon, and he's too weak to do anything right now. So, you are going to get stronger, shift into your draconic form, then carry us to the border."
She quirked a brow. "Only the border? Why not make me take you all the way to the Storm Spire?"
"I don't think I could stand your presence any longer than that. Besides, there is something I need you to do here in the west."
The red dragon glared at her, then looked away with a huff. "Fine. I'll try not to insult you."
"Good. Now, do you have any idea how we can help Callum? He's not looking too good." She glanced at the prince as he lay still, black sparks crossing his body.
Pyrrah thought about it. "I'm a sun dragon, I don't know much about sky… but… if he's anything like me, the Dark Magic has probably thrown his body out of harmony with his Arcanum."
"How do we fix it?"
"Carefully. One wrong move and it'll throw the harmony off completely, and he'll never use magic again."
"So, how do we fix it?"
She thought in silence once more, then shook her head. "I don't think we can."
"What?!"
"Once, when my Arcanum got thrown out of harmony, the other sun dragons surrounded me, and I was able to put it back by synchronising with theirs. Callum would need another sky dragon to do that. So… he'll have to do it himself."
"But… there are no other sky dragons!"
"That's why I said he has to do it himself you stupid elf!" she growled, then winced, holding her side.
Ezran helped support her as she almost collapsed, then stared at Rayla. "She needs to rest."
With a sigh, Rayla nodded and turned back to Callum. "Alright Callum, you can do this. Concentrate, and get your Arcanum back into harmony."
Now with both dragons out of action, the elf, human, and glow toad could do nothing but sit and wait. However, as they did, Rayla heard something behind them and quickly stood up, blades drawn. "Who's there? Show yourself, or I'll greet you with my pointy friends!"
Someone did come around the bend, the tall dark-haired man from the nexus. Ezran frowned as he held Pyrrah down. "Corvus? W-what are you doing here?"
With his weapon safely at his side, Corvus held up his hands. "I'm not here to fight."
"Then why are you here?"
"I know you are travelling with the Xadian Dragon Prince, the one believed to have been killed ten years ago. And while I commend you for taking him home Ezran, I need you to come back to Katolis with me."
"What? Why?"
"Your aunt sent me to get you…" He paused, then placed his hand on his chest, getting down on one knee. "For I am here to serve you, King Ezran."
Rayla held back a gasp, and Pyrrah in the corner raised an eyebrow at the new development.
The young boy just shook his head. "But I'm not the king. I'm just a prince. My dad is…" It struck him suddenly, even moreso when he saw Rayla holding back tears. "Wait, that's not what you're saying. He isn't…"
Corvus looked away as well, not knowing how to break the news.
"No! No, no, no!" the boy shouted, covering his mouth.
Rayla slowly stepped closer. "Ezran, it's going to be okay."
"You knew?!" he gasped. "I'm an idiot! I should have figured it out. When we met you, you had two of those assassiny, ribbony things, but one of them came off that night!"
She looked away in shame. "That's right. That must have been when he fell."
"Fell?!" he snapped, anger rising.
"Yes."
"Fell? He didn't fall, Rayla! He didn't trip and land on the ground. He got killed!" He took a moment, then looked at the dragon behind him. "Callum… he knew… he knew you were hiding something from us! Does he know?"
"Yeah… he knows."
"And he didn't tell me!"
"He wanted to… to save you the pain."
"Like I was never going to find out?! We couldn't keep going forever! I would've gone home eventually!" he sighed, then walked out of the cave. "I'm going for a walk."
Corvus quickly stood in his way. "I can't let you go alone."
Eyes set, Ezran glared at him. "If I am the king, then you have to let me go."
The guard frowned, but then side-stepped to let him pass.
Rayla soon followed him. "You're not my king," she called, "But you're my friend, and I'm coming with you."
With a deep sigh, Ezran shook his head. "Rayla, please. Just let me go be alone. Stay and… and look after Callum. Please."
As he walked off, Pyrrah forced herself to her feet. "I'll follow him," she said as she limped past, but then collapsed, Corvus grabbing her as she did.
"Easy there miss."
"It's Pyrrah to you, human," she snapped, but accepted his help as he sat her back down.
Rayla snorted at the male. "Yeah, she's a dragon. And a bit snappy too."
"Dragon or not, she's hurt," the man explained, reaching to his side and pulling a flask out. "Here, drink this, it will help with the pain."
"What is it? Poison?"
"If it is, at least we'll get some peace and quiet," Rayla remarked as she tried stroking Callum's face again. While Corvus tried to convince the sun dragon that his flask wasn't poison, the elf stared at the dragon beside her. "Come on Callum, you can do this."
~#~
Callum gasped suddenly as he looked around him, trying to figure out what was going on. He was on some kind of island. It was made from rings of carved rocks, spreading outwards while they floated in the middle of a sky. It was illuminated, but there was no sun in view.
"I don't understand!" he shouted out to the sky, "Why am I here?! What's going on?!"
As he cried out, the island cracked and became smaller as it had been for the last few minutes. When he first arrived, the circle had been almost double the size it was now.
He grasped at his hair, panicking. "I don't understand!"
He turned and looked at the only other thing around him, a collection of twelve gemstones that floated in the centre of the island at eye level. Each was a different colour, and each had a rune of some kind carved into it, but he had no idea what they meant. He'd tried grabbing them, but they never moved. He called upon his magic, but that was gone also. He only knew that when he touched them, each one made a different sound. One of them lit up, but as soon as he touched another, the light vanished.
He felt tears flow down his cheeks as the circle cracked once more. "Please… someone help me."
SL: Sorry, I know, Callum is hurt again, but in the show, Callum gets sick by using dark magic. Ray… pretty much ordered me not to make our Callum do dark magic. So I had to think of a way around it. And next week, you will find how we got around that. And in my opinion, it's genius. Have a guess if you want, you have all the clues you need in that last part. If you can work it out 100% correctly… I think we could come up with a prize or something? Maybe a sneak peek?
RK: He wouldn't do Dark Magic! I stand by that! After all the pain and trauma it has caused him in this AU, he wouldn't turn to it so easily! At most, he'd use it to save Rayla or Ez's life, but that's pretty much it. That's one of the things I'm stubborn about with this AU.
