Chapter Twenty-Four: The General

Everyone is reunited as they rest. The Heiwa palace is gone, along with the Sazan Family… The war is officially over.

The group hide out of sight in an alleyway near the markets. Many of the citizens cry out for their dead leader. Standing on the streets screaming and roaring in fear. Many bow low with respect to him. Such respect Lei will never give…

Iolene explained to the group, what caused the collapse of the palace and the battle with the dragon general named Ironclad. She keeps out the information that Ironclad is Beau's brother.

Lei explains to everyone what happened with Okimi. Iolene and Lexi began to cry. Okimi by this time had become quite a good friend to them. The disbelief of her murdering her whole family and suicide… Aaron swallows and closes his eyes. Okimi… He thinks as he respected her as a warrior.

The group remained silent after the news. Mali walks over to Iolene as she heals Aaron's chest.

"You going to yell at me Mali?" Iolene says sniffling and using her powers to heal Aaron more. Aaron winces as a rib bone cracks back and heals into place.

"No… Stein will do that when you get back. I am not that kind of man. Only that you remind me of your father…" Mali says as he stands next Iolene. He is worried for Aaron… He only wanted protection as mercenaries are fleeting and unreliable. Buying Aaron, Mali thinks is one of the best things he has ever done. Mali realises that he cares about Aaron more than he realises. Mali hated seeing Aaron like this… Mali wished he had such powers like Iolene. But out of all draconium skills, he learned he could never master healing powers.

Another rib heals as Aaron groans. The Suravi slave stands close to Iolene, subtly pushing Mali out of the way as she watches Iolene using her draconium magic.

"Incredible!" The slave whispers to her.

"You know you never told us your name," Iolene says as she focuses on Aaron. He is sweating profusely she asks Mali to get a cloth.

"My name is Nekhii" She said.

"Thank you for your help Nekhii…" Iolene has a quick glance at the small lady and smiles.

Nekhii smiles back as she looks down at Mali. She is taller than him by half a foot. Mali looks up at her and sighs. A fellow Suravi is taller than him… If he was younger he would have been unhappy and embarrassed.

"You look well dressed for a Suravi man…" Nekhii remarks with Sinicism. People from Suravi are forbidden to wear such finery. Mali wearing a beautiful purple cloak, with waistcoat and breeches. It is not lightweight or good for summer. Nekhii notices that it is tailored to Mali's body. A privilege to have such clothing made for you.

"My family come from Suravi. But I was born and raised in Loan… Dragon-City as it is called nowadays." Mali replies to her. He read into her Sinicism. But to no one's knowledge, he is not wealthy. His friend Constant is… Mali recounts that he will repay Constant one day.

"There we go!" Iolene says as the final rib in Aaron's chest heals.

Aaron groans in pain. Iolene weakly collapses onto his chest.

"Hey!" Aaron says trying not to panic as he gently shakes her. A moan from her can be lightly heard. She used all her energy up.

Mali strokes Iolenes cheek as she slept. She snuggles on Aaron's chest. Aaron remains still as he didn't want to disturb her. "She has a long way to go…" Mali said. "At least Stein will not be busy anymore. Stein and I will train her…"

Lexi stretches and paces around the group. Fred and Duryss haven't said a word since the palace collapsed.

Lei closes his eyes as he hits the back of his head on the wall. Mother… Sazan Jona is dead… They are all dead… These people are screaming for your head. Is the war really over? I feel like it is not…

Beau and Iymp stand furthest from the group. As they stand at the end of the alleyway. Watching the chaos unfold on the streets.

"So… Your brother huh?" Iymp says in dragon tongue. "Too bad, I didn't meet him…" Beau mentioned it to him earlier as they moved to this position.

Beau shakes his head. His forehead felt strange as power tingled where his bonemark now resides. He manages to hide the bonemark underneath his blue disguise.

"That's not all…" Beau says to Iymp seriously in dragon voice.

"What?" Iymp says lightly.

"I got one… I finally got one…" Beau says with a straight face.

"Got what?" Iymp asks getting a little annoyed.

Beau turns to face Iymps as he raises his head to try and show him. The fived pointed curved star glowed for a moment then disappeared. Iymp stopped breathing for a long moment. His eyes are fully open with shock. Beau then turns and looks at the street. Dragons and people screaming with distress on the street. Amongst all the noise, Beaus' mind remained silent.

"Who?"Iymp softly asks.

"Aaron…" Beau whispers back.

Iymp then smiles. "Wow… You have a human partner congratulations."

"A human partner?" Beau mumbles. He never thought in his whilst dreams he would get a bonemark. Let alone getting it from a particular human. His brother has one and his father has one. Beau could not help but wonder if they had humans too? But now the question Beau wondered what does he do with it?

Loud noises can be heard as the general screams in pain. Beau and Iymp look on as Mali is trying to treat him. But the general struggles as he did not want to be touched. Mali in quick motion forces the general to lie down, scaring everyone in the group. For a tiny man, he can really fight back. Using his draconium powers. He coats himself with gold draconium giving him extra physical strength.

"YOU WILL LIE DOWN! WE ARE TRYING TO HELP YOU!" Mali gritted his teeth trying to tend to the general's injury. Iolene still resting in Aaron's arms stirs as she can hear the noise. However, her mind is once again in the ether seeing through another's eyes.

"I was doing fine until you poked it!" The general replies with anger.

"I was checking for suicidal pills. We need to ask you questions..." Mali says seriously yet had a tinge of kindness. He was trying hard to hide his real feelings towards the Inclementian general. Mali wants to kill him... After everything he has been through, he never wanted to crush someone's head until this moment. But knew better... He needs the man alive.

The general laughs weakly almost crying. "I thought you lot were all killed..." He then begins to laugh even louder. The group watches him as begins to laugh hysterically.

"I knew those pretentious dragons fucked up. But not this badly!" The general continues laughing. "Just pray that they do not know of your existence."

"Pretentious dragons? I presume you are talking about the League of Eight?" Mali asks.

"Yes..." The general stops laughing. He looked almost charming with that smile, but the look soon turned to fear. The general is an older man, looking around the same age as Mali. His eyes tell many stories of his home. He is exhausted and lonely.

"Ask away... My life is over anyway..." The general said with defeat as he tried to make himself comfortable leaning on the wall.

"What do you mean by that?" Lexi asks.

The general chuckles weakly. "Go all the way back to Inclementia? After everything that has happened here? My wonderful failure? I am a very dead man..." After chuckling he sounded sad...

"I can easily kill you here slave driver!" Nekhii says with anger. Mali taps her gently to not say anything more. He is co-operating, that's all Mali needs.

Mali swallows as he gathers the group around to listen. Iolene eventually wakes up but is still weak from using her powers. Aaron holds her damsel style as they gather around him. The dragons look down at the general over the humans' shoulders. Mali makes it clear that he will be the one asking the questions.

"Why are you here?" Mali starts with basics.

"I am general Yuri Mehta. As you all know I am a general for the Inclementian Empire. I have been tasked to oversee the operations of plan Lightning. I have lived here in Unmei for a month to help build the teleportation gate that connects to Inclementia. The one you destroyed..." Yuri looks at Iolene. She did... Iolene shuddered. She only wanted to send Ironclad back... It was a price she unintentionally paid. She didn't mean for the palace to be destroyed.

"Plan Lightning?" Mali asked.

"Yes... Plan Lightning. A plan that Jona didn't know was happening..." Yuri coughs as Mali gently taps his back. Mali wished it was a knife stabbing instead.

"Jona was just a tool for a bigger machine. He always was..." Yuri smiled and rolled his eyes.

"What!?" Lei shouts.

"Jona has always been a "friend" of ours. He was easy to manipulate, he wanted power and he wasn't getting it from Zhen. He wanted this country as his own and became allies with us. Jona little realising my Emperor is only using him."

"Empress Zhen to you." Lei corrects him.

"You see... We are after all still getting used to us occupying half of the Green Empire. So, it took us longer to arrive at Unmei. Jona was to be a figurehead... He had no idea what Shadow Emperor had installed for him. He never would have gotten what he wished for..." Yuri said alarmingly.

Fred and Duryss shudder. Their home... The Green Empire... Fred's brother Grand Prince Arman Kaiser is still there, and his siblings are spread out everywhere. Fred didn't know where... For a moment he felt worried. He missed his home terribly... He hated being poor. Even though his family always came to mind. Much to his dismay.

"The Shadow Emperor would have killed Jona anyway..." Mali said sadly. "Such a fool... But I have another question."

"Yes?" Yuri replied.

"When I travelled here. I found northern armies wiped, their bodies looked as if they were struck by lightning."

Yuri chuckles again. But it is a chuckle of trying to control his emotions, he wasn't actually laughing. He looked as if he was afraid. "Ironclad wasn't the first dragon to go through that portal."

Everyone in the group looks at each other. Mali suspected as much...

"The first army came through a few weeks before, led by the Samurox..." Yuri then closed his eyes as he remembers the dragon.

Mali stands up in shock. He knows that name... A dragon general in the separatist army. One of the most powerful... Many people and dragons died fighting against him. When everything fell apart years ago when Loan fell. The separatist leaders disappeared. Tyrannous, Furox and Samurox to name a few... The Samurox tried to get the Blue Empire involved with the dragon uprisings. But with Shun Shun as dragon leader they never did.

"Mali are you okay?" Aaron asks.

Mali nods his head. This explained everything... Samurox uses lighting attacks and controls the clouds. This is bad news... Mali has never fought him personally. But his reputation is horrifying enough. Rumour spread that Samurox murdered his human partner in a blind rage. Uses his long claws, to shred the man into pieces. Mali looks down at the general again.

"How many were in his army?" The tiny man asks.

"Two hundred," Yuri replied. But he quickly informed Mali that they are nowhere near as powerful as Samurox. They are normal soldier dragons. No humans in his battalion as was promised by the Shadow Emperor. The Shadow Emperor is the only human he serves.

Mali looks back at the group wondering what to do next.