With a twitch of Gazelle's tail, the two great doors in front of Griffin and Stonemover slowly started to open, without even a touch. The two had to step back to avoid being hit by them as they opened outwards. Stonemover whimpered as he glanced inwards at the room inside, Griffin looking on in awe.
Erosion's chamber held the shape of an gargantuan cylinder, the ends above and below slightly tapered, so the walls curved in slightly. The room was almost completely empty, barring a disk in the center, at the same height in which the three had entered, halfway up the cylindrical room. A fragile bridge of stone stretched from the doorway to the disk, far too thin to hold the disk's weight aloft naturally. While normally a dragon could have easily just flown across the gap, the bridge certainly seemed much more intimidating to Griffin and Stonemover with their wings bound. One wrong move, and they would fall to the pit beneath.
The top of the stoney chamber was what had first caught Griffin's eye. The ceiling of the cylinder was covered in glittering gemstones of all colors, like little stars. Each of them glowed with an unnatural light, providing the dim ambience of the room. As Griffin moved carefully to cross the stone bridge, he glanced down. There was no clear end to the pit beneath the cylinder, so Griffin had no clue how long a fall would be. The dim light transitioned unexpectedly to pitch darkness as one went further down, with tiny specks of light dotting the area, seemingly floating.
As Griffin took a step forward, the view didn't change, and the specks of light seemed to follow along with his eyes. He turned his head back and forth, trying to make sense of it, but the pattern of light didn't change with his perspective. Maybe they were further than they seemed? He extended a talon, reaching it off the stone bridge. Even though the closest speckles of light looked liked they were many tail-lengths away from on the bridge, Griffin's talon started to reach out towards the speck of light, and his entire view seemed to warp around him, bringing him closer. His talon reached towards a blue light as he singled it out, or possibly it was the other way around. His feathers bristled as a cold feeling wrapped around his forearm, tightening around it, and pulling him closer to the light.
Suddenly, Griffin felt a jolt in his neck, thick claws wrapping around it. For a moment, he had forgotten he'd even had a neck. His vision narrowed, and the field of light moved past him, specks returning to their rightful places. Had he fallen off the bridge? He glanced up again to the ceiling of crystals, then turned to see Stonemover, lifting Griffin up by the neck. "Let go!" Griffin coughed, placing his talons on Stonemover's paw.
Stonemover set Griffin down on the stone bridge. Griffin felt like he had just woken up. What was happening? Where were they again? He glanced back to the specks of light. "They're stars," he murmured. Griffin glanced up, confused. Stonemover's eyes were full of fear, and his paws were trembling.
"You shouldn't get too close," Stonemover whispered. "Don't bring it closer."
"On the contrary," a thick voice reverberated, power and authority dripping from it. "You fear what you are, animus. You fear what you came from. What you could be."
Ahead of the three, on the other side of the stone bridge, a huge SandWing walked towards them. A golden crown rested on her horns, and a jeweled bracelet wrapped around each of her legs. She spread her wings, a shadow casting down from nowhere behind her.
Griffin looked up to her defiantly. This was Erosion. She was the one who had brought them here. "What are you talking about?" he hissed at her demandingly.
She laughed, dragging her tail along, her barb scratching against the rock bridge. "They are friends of mine. They allow me to make this world more perfect. As they do with your NightWing companion."
Stonemover shook his head. "You should stay away. You don't know what will happen."
Erosion snorted. "I know plenty. I have traveled to places and seen sights that would break your puny minds. And I have returned, to share my gifts with this disgusting world."
"You sound pretty full of yourself," Griffin quipped. "I take it you're this Erosion I've heard so much about?"
Erosion ignored the comment. "I am. I welcome you to my home." She turned around, her tail dipping through the field of lights beneath the bridge, the strange mismatch of distances causing Griffin to feel queasy. "Follow."
Gazelle behind them, Griffin and Stonemover walked to the edge of the stone bridge, stepping on the floating disk in the center of the room. A great golden throne stood upon it, with gemstones scattered across it almost haphazardly. Erosion crawled upon it, and spread her wings as she sat. Griffin glanced to the side of it, spotting something familiar. The leather satchel he had come with was at the side of the throne, Orca's map rolled up and sticking from it along with the tail of the wax statue of Schist that Fracture had given Griffin. It didn't seem like the map would serve very useful to Erosion, fortunately or not. She'd already found most of the animuses on Pyrrhia, almost like she'd been doing Torrent's job for him.
"Animus, join me, swear your allegiance before your new Empress of Pyrrhia, and bow," Erosion demanded, raising her head high. Gazelle lowered her neck to the ground, tucking her wings inwards.
Stonemover shifted uncomfortably, unsure what to do. Griffin hissed. 'Empress?' Did she have plans for world domination or something? Was she trying to get other animuses out of the way? "And if we don't?" Griffin questioned. "Do we end up your prisoners, like the others in the caverns?"
Erosion laughed. "Prisoners? What do you think I am, a kindly RainWing? Those dragons are those who have joined me. Those who refused me are at the bottom of the lake of lava."
"I accept," Stonemover grumbled quietly, knowing he had no other option but death.
Griffin glared at him, then at the SandWing. "Fine," he hissed at Erosion. "We accept." He lowered his feathered had, Stonemover alongside him. It wasn't like he had much of a choice.
Erosion snorted. "I was asking the animus, not you. There's no use in trying to hide it from me. I know you're not an animus; I've heard that you've been attempting to hunt us instead."
"So?" Griffin asked. "Are you going to kill me, then?" He trembled a little bit. He was completely defenseless right now. She could do it easily, magic or no magic, if she wanted to. Just a stab of her tail barb.
"I will not," Erosion stated. "You will be useful leverage against the SeaWing who travels with you, so he does not interfere."
Griffin frowned. She was planning to use him as a hostage against Torrent. That complicated things. Nothing like that had happened before. Would Torrent let him die in order to get to Erosion? Griffin wanted to say no to that question, but he wasn't quite certain of the answer himself. Four years ago, Torrent wouldn't have cared.
"I also wanted to thank you," Erosion continued, "you and the SeaWing were the ones who killed Magma, if I recall." Gazelle opened her eyes, surprised. "She had become a nuisance."
Griffin went cold for a moment, and his feathers bristled up in anger. So that was Erosion's fault. Without Magma attacking them, Schist wouldn't have been scarred. Maybe things could have turned out different.
"What do you want me for?" Stonemover quietly asked.
Erosion stood up from the throne, slithering off it. Her eyes narrowed "As I'm sure you know already, five thousand and five years ago, dragons defeated the scavenger menace by banding together. Previously, dragonkind had remained almost completely isolated from one another, constantly at war, allowing us to be picked off one by one. But no longer, when dragons chose the queens. The strongest dragons of each tribe, the queens led us to victory, covering the continent with the ashes of our enemies.
"Yet, after the Scorching, the queens grew weak. Instead of being the strongest dragon of each tribe, the original goal of the system, queenship was passed down only within family lines. Pyrrhia has been weak and divided since then. My goal is to make sure that only the strongest dragon of Pyrrhia rules it, like it is supposed to be."
"And that would be you, of course," Griffin snorted. "Is it just me, or does animus power tend to go to the heads of its users?"
Erosion gave him a glare. "Animuses are the rightful rulers of Pyrrhia, not these poseurs pretending to be queens. We are by far, the most powerful dragons, and the most capable. Yet, we have been persecuted for millennia, by queens, cowards, and murderers like you and your SeaWing friend. Only the IceWings got it right; Queen Frost's decision to introduce magic into the royal bloodline gave her kingdom three thousand years of peace and prosperity, but because a few unfortunate outliers like Darkstalker, Fen, and Peregrine, the most powerful dragons have been prevented from leading. And you see the consequences: we have had twelve years of war, dragons dying left and right. Can you tell me that's not wrong?"
"Sure, but having animuses in charge? That's ten times worse." Griffin replied. "The only reason the IceWing regime was able to last so long was that their animuses refused to use their magic to prevent their souls from being lost, and calling it 'peace and prosperity' is a complete exaggeration." Griffin thought back to Adobe. Controlling his city with no regard for his subjects' interests, and murdering dissenters. And here, Erosion already seemed much worse than Adobe had been.
Erosion shook her head. "I wouldn't call it soul loss. There is no sense of loss, only the opening of one's soul to truth. The IceWings never understood this, and because they were couldn't, they never realized that the . . . incidents they had were caused not by some magical loss of morals, but by a distancing of oneself from the world beneath them, listening to too much of the truths behind our existence." She swished her barbed tail back and forth, staring past Griffin. "But that is little concern for me. I know well the dangers of using too much magic, and as such, I don't use it except for in the most critical of emergencies."
"Really?" Griffin pointed a talon at the golden throne. "You're just telling me that, or this entire room wasn't made with magic? Or was it just an emergency."
Erosion grinned, her pointed teeth almost shining. "Oh no, it was used with magic, just not mine. That is why I require so many animuses here." Stonemover shuddered, realizing what Erosion meant.
"Almost every one of the enchantments in this place was made with the magic of someone else," Erosion explained, her talons curling around the edge of the throne. "A few from Magma, whose powers I gave to her to help me capture others, and most from those animuses in the caverns. By enslaving them, all their powers and magic are mine, and I can use limitless magic with no concern for my own soul, or whatever you choose to call it. Occasionally, I've had an animus tend to lose themself from using too much, but because I can control them, there's little risk to anyone else. The lava lake solved that problem permanently, at least before I had a few too many decide to use it when I wasn't looking."
Griffin shook uncomfortably. Erosion could use magic without losing her soul. If she wasn't aiming for world domination, it could almost be something that Torrent would have been proud of. It was almost funny. Well, there's your answer, Orca. You wanted a way to prevent yourself from losing your soul, here you have it. He turned towards Stonemover and made eye contact with the nervously shaking NightWing. Griffin understood. Stonemover wasn't able to use his powers anymore, and if Erosion found out he was useless to her, he would end up dead. At least Griffin was safe as a hostage.
Erosion yawned, and turned to Gazelle, who had been waiting patiently with her head turned down. "I believe we have conversed enough. Bring these two to their quarters," she ordered the elderly SandWing. "I must prepare myself for the assault on Crosswinds."