The Crown of the King
*Rayla
"Everything's okay ?" screamed Callum loud enough to be heard despite the wind.
Rayla tighten her arms around her boyfriend's neck as they pierce into a cloud. The humidity was rash and cold, as Callum flew way more faster than usual.
"Phfwa ! I think I swallowed one of your feathers !"
"What !? Wait, I'm feeling…"
He plunged, letting her gasp as the sudden change of speed, then abruptly open his wings to slow down. They float above the trees, with only the birds watching them with confusion. Suddenly, Callum wings disappeared !
They fell at high speeds, but when they touch the branches, Rayla used one of her butterfly swords to stop and grab Callum's arm. She almost felt her shoulder break, but fortunately she was okay. Then the two of us were balancing to a tree branch, like two Mudkeys.
"Don't drop !" he yelped.
"I'm trying..." groaned Rayla. Damn, what have he eaten ? I thought Sky Mages were light as feathers ! Plus, her recent wounds and the fact that she didn't rest was a good factor to… well, drop.
"Try harder !" and so Callum fussed, completely panicking.
"You don't help me… Eeee !" she slipped when the branch snapped.
Their fall was brutal, but nothing reallly painful. After a moment of groans and swears, the young girl stood up and aid her boyfriend do the same. He grumbled :
"Ouch, my back !"
"Cut it out, grandpa" she laughed "You were quite fast up there. Congrats. Was it fear or skill ?"
"Both" he blushed, then gesture to push away the remark "We need to know where we are"
She turned around ; they were in a forest… It's a good start. A towering rock was just aside them, but it was covered with mud and moss. Strangely, the rock had a fine line forming an arc all over it, but it was just a regular crack…
She came to examine the trees ; their barks were black, and as she saw their red and yellow leaves, she knew that they were Charrtumn trees, permanently on the edge to loose their ornaments, but one time in a year, their leaves would become green again and flowers will burst, then grow into fruits which will fall, all of it in one night. So we must be near…
"Rayla ? Can you come over here a sec' ?"
"Wait another one, you babyface ! I'm trying to think…"
"Rayla !" Callum screamed.
Then, the earthquake. Intense enough to blast them on the floor. The leaves were falling, Callum screamed (again !), Rayla took his hand. Suddenly, the rock pulsate and before her eyes, like a nightmare coming straight of the foolish minds, an eye. The crack had opened to let an eye starring at them, pure amber in a shower of blood and gold.
"The moutain !"
He pointed at a moutain far away, and she saw it rose up by some unknown force. When it reached the clouds, it revealed a titanic body, sharpened by basalt and slates. Its very muscles were a mix of gabbro and diorite, bulking the absolute mass. His horns, scales and spikes were marble and gneiss, raking at every movement. Then, the floor below exploded, and they ascend to the ceiling of clouds on the biggest head they could never imagine. Its teeths and claws were diamonds, squealing as he open a mouth hotter than the heart of the earth.
An Arch-Dragon. Rex Igneous squinted at them. He then let out a roar deeper, louder and more powerful than the roar of a volcano, and his voice, an avalanche of rocks, spoke.
"Pipsqueaks" he chuckled, new earthquake "Not enough… to make… a proper appetiser"
"O, Rex Igneous ! Dweller beyond diggers, Might of the Tunnel, Jeweleater, we didn't wish to awaken thou from thy glorious slumber. We humbly plead thy forgive…" and Rayla bowed with grace, and intimate Callum to do the same. Hopefully, he did the right thing, saying the exact sentence with the same tone and proper bowing.
The Arch-Dragon looked at them with silence, and Rayla feared he hadn't hear them… After all, they were ants compared to him ! But he bowed in return, letting them go down. His two horns planted in the ground, large as a small lake, he asked :
"What are you… little one?"
Rayla was so shocked that she couldn't respond, however Callum did :
"I'm Callum, mage of Katolis. This is Rayla, elf warrior of Silvergrove"
"Humans…" he sniffed, but it was much like a rumbling "I remember your kind… They were banished… Why are you here ?"
Afraid that the might beast could kill Callum, Rayla tried to stop him, but he answered too quickly :
"I am here because I was searching Rayla, and I saved her from a evil creature"
"You… were… saving the elf ?" growled the dragon, then beamed in laughters that shaken the very earth. "I never saw… a human saving an elf… since my retiring"
"Retiring ?" asked Callum, always curious ; Rayla facepalmed.
"Yes…" and the big eye flickered "However, it is no matter… to you"
"Hum… Okay !"
She didn't wish to stay more , so Rayla insisted : "Callum, please, let's go. Rex Igneous may need to rest ag…"
"I have rested enough for now, little elf…" and the dragon roars "I sense something ancient here ! Human !"
"Yes ?" squealed the boy she loved as they sense the danger incoming.
"The scent is on you. The scent of that fallen elf" the dragon sniffed again. Rayla hadn't recovered from her injuries, and she didn't think Callum spells were powerful enough to flee a arch-dragon. So, the only thing left was shit-talking, because she knew that earthblood-worms – the name of earth dragons – were fascinated by stories.
The dragon began to growl louder and louder.
"Rayla ?" panicked her boyfriend.
"Rex Igneous !" she tried the all-out "Do you wish to hear a story ?"
The big amber eye flickered, and the growl ceased. The dragon let out : "You're far from fill my stomach. But stories, wherever they come from, always satisfied my appetite…" the mighty legend paused to flicker the indirect threat "However… tellers are not always satisfying"
She sensed in the end of this sentence a bit a regret. She didn't know much about the legends including Rex Igneous, besides the fact that he was mighty enough to eat mountains, but maybe the dragon had a bitter history with tellers in the past of Xadia. Because that big bong guy… is older than anything on this earth and below.
"Alright, time to test out my skills…" she sited down, and suddenly – like always – got a brilliant idea. "Callum ! Do you think you can use your spells and dirt-dust to…?" He looked at her with confusion and fear "Huh…?" and then "Oh… Oh ? Ooooh !" his eyes opened wide, he smiled and raised his thumb. Truly, he's the best, she thought. He understood her completely.
Callum wasn't kidding when he assured his skills ; he drew a Rune out of the air, and Rayla assumed first that it was Aspiro, but in fact, the rune was pretty complex. He then said something so quickly that she couldn't understand. Yet, Rex Igneous eye broaden and a whisper, like the wind in a cavern, come out of his mouth. She could hear : "…beautiful…" and it was beautiful indeed.
Like a maestro, Callum moved his hands with grace and precision. The wind whistle around him, like a melody. It raised sand to form shapes, contrasts. That was the call, so Rayla started :
"It's all begin with an elf assassin, sent by her clan to kill a human king. Except she found a new purpose, and…" she turned at Callum, offering him her gentler smile "New horizons. And the icing of the cake was a dragon egg. Then began the journey of an elf and two humans to sent it back to its mother…"…
*Yannis
"…and that's why we're here now" finished the King of Katolis with a nostalgic smile.
He was moved. The story Yannis heard remind him of his memories, old memories of a past he wanted to forget. Pain. An harsh feeling with disbelief, since he was just a copy. These memories of a mother telling him stories when he was in his bed, just before his eyes closed up with the baritone of her voice. So much feelings… yet not really true, still painful.
Inside the camp that katolian soldiers made alongside Sunfire elves, he was in the tent of the King himself. There were two other persons : a Skywing elf and the human named Corvus.
"I see that your heart is not made of stone" chuckled the King.
"Uh ?" Yannis was so distraught… he actually cried ! "I… guess it was your tone of voice. It reminds me my mother"
"You had a mother ?" asked the King ; he wasn't trying to just make conversation, he was sincerely curious.
"Yes… I don't remember her name, nor her face, though her voice is something is carved into my head" he said and whispered at the end.
"Well, I hope that was a good memory"
"It was, indeed. She wasn't my real mother, but I think that, if I see her again in my life, I will love her with all of my heart"
"I understand" the King smiled a bit "You remind me a bit of Callum. My… father wasn't his real father, but he loved Callum and Callum loved him"
"Blood is pumped by hearth, after all. Love can be shared for both"
The hunter Corvus make a step towards him "My King, I'm sorry to interrupt, but there are things more urgent" and the King nodded, so the hunter could ask Yannis "How did you make Claudia so powerful that she could just go out in the sky ?"
"What ? You are so expert in dark magic that you are able to know what she's capable of ?" the Mage jeered at him due to the fact that, despite he consider King Ezran as a wise, virtuous and respectable person, he didn't think as much for Corvus. "And you're going to hit me ?"
He was indeed to, clenching his fist and his face. Nevertheless, the wise of his King biased him to not to, letting him out a sigh and said "You can do that, too. Why are you not trying to escape"
"I..." Yannis was about to blast him off, trying to get some amusement from that interrogatory "I…" he searched his words, trying to find the best way to clash that man, who was thinking himself as above the Mage "I…" then the Mage didn't any words. He was clueless. Why do I stay ? I have no business to… stay, no purpose… So why don't I go somewhere else ? I have a mission, I… I made Claudia my… "…soldier" he finished his thoughts "I made Claudia my soldier in order to achieve chaos"
"What ?" let out Corvus
"Why did you wish Chaos ?" suddenly asked the Skywing elf "My King, if Callum said about this magician is true, then I think he could be some kind of demon"
"Don't get me wrong, but I think a demon would have killed us" the King notifies with a ironic tone. "Tell us, Yannis. Why did you said that you made Claudia your soldier ?"
"I…"
He cried. Maybe it was stress over his body, trying to keep up with the space-time offset. Maybe it was of the hazy memories of his past. Maybe an onion. Or maybe he was just trying to find excuses, like his original. Because it's what all clones will do in the end. And now, he was facing the truth : he released in Claudia a power enough to kill everyone in her path… and herself in the same way. "I tried to… not fulfil my duty. But the calling was absolute. And the only way I found to fulfil it was… to gave her the power she asked… but didn't needed. I made a mistake… I'm… not enough."
"Ugh, quit the riddles and answer correctly !" retorted Corvus.
"I think I get it" and the elf was looking upset "It's like he's saying that he was able to unleashed the potential of magic stored inside Claudia, like Callum did himself"
Thanks was the Mathemagics, the Skywing wasn't half-dumb.
"You think it's the same case" implied the King, and the elf nodded. "So that mean because you do dark magic, you can unlock Primal ?"
"Let's not jump into conclusions, these theory is still wobbling" the Skywing mage sighed "I wished I knew more, but this is crossing the fields of my expertise"
"Don't bother, you helped us a lot" and the King asked Yannis "So Claudia will die because of that power ?" he paused a second, then his face brightened "Callum was very ill after using dark magic, maybe it's the same !"
"Yes ! I remembered that" Corvus was a slight distressed "The young prince was in a bad state, I can tell : sweat, pale face like a fever"
They completely forgetting you. That's your chance to flee ! raged a voice in the head of Yannis. He didn't listen, too shaken to move an inch, even he wasn't attached.
"Interesting…" muttered the elf mage by caressing his chin "I will talk to Callum about that. But if we push the theory further, maybe the symptoms are proportional to the presence of dark magic inside the body…"
The King winced, and turned to Yannis. "I'm sorry, this took a bit… But I have to ask you one more question"
"…go ahead..."
"Do you love Claudia ?"
It was simple, truly. And by all times, the simplest things were always the ones to reach the end. The Mage was gone. The clone was faltering. The story about the journey, the dragon prince. His repentance was here, in this tent. Dragons weren't manipulators and weapons of mass destruction. And daughters weren't here to pay the crimes of their fathers. Only him, Yannis… no, more than that, will. He was the only responsible of this mess, so he answered.
"She is the only person I care about" he let out a smile, his first sincere one "I know how to reverse the spell. All I need is trust"
The eyes of Ezran, the Ears of animals, glittered with joy. He was truly a wise King.
"Good thing I don't miss of it !" he laughed under the two astonished others.
*Aaravos
Well… This was definitively interesting. He knew that Claudia would be able to manipulate Yannis in order to get the power she needed to kill Zubeia, but he didn't really forecast the visitor to steal the mirror. Now, no one would be able to discover the secret behind his prison. The Key was in possession of Morgen, and Viren followed his suggestions with no sign of resistance. Soon, thinked the Startouch Elf.
The best of being trapped inside a mirror, itself trapped inside a pendant was the fact that he could spy every move of the most dangerous creature out there. And what a delight to see it falter like every sensible human or elf ! Yannis was just like the others : a "someone" craving for feelings and people to love. That was a weakness Aaravos was able to handle very easely.
"How many things I must kill before reaching that damn river ?" shouted Viren through his connection with the moth. The dark mage was facing dozens of groundskins, turtles with beaks and claws. Viren shooted fire from his staff, but the creatures were nearly unfazed. Aaravos smiled.
"As many as there are. This river is a border too, so don't tempt the devil and follow the rules… There, I will help you" and the moth spit out dark goo ; dark caterpillars emerges from it and start to bite the groundskins. Where the bite was made, the hide started necrosis. Viren finished them off with the staff, shouting like a madman. Aaravos chuckled ; truly, the man was determined to survive.
Despite all of his joy, one thorn on his back titillated him : the theory about discovering your own Primal. If that Skywing mage continued his research with "Callum", he could discover the secret Aaravos had once buried. More easy to say than to do, but risks at this point were dangerous. This is why he wanted the boy ; he wanted to study him then make him his pupil… or kill him if he refuses.
But in the end, no one was worthy enough. After all, this was the Mystery of Aaravos.