Call of the Ancestors
Chapter 16: The Infinium
Suddenly the citizenry of Warfang all got a nasty, nasty surprise. From the heart of Warfang, the temple dedicated to the Ancestor's worship and where the Guardians recided, a bright beam was suddenly emitted into the sky. It ended about 20 meters above Warfang's tallest building, a bright pink-ish sheen, as a big shield enveloped the entire city. The loud whirring and magical humming eventually stopped, the "bubble" having now taken on a translucent pinkish color, barely visible to the naked eye.
The citizens of Warfang looked out from windows or straight up into the sky and some who were airborne or atop the floating islands even tried studying this odd phenomenon up close. The moles, Cheetah and others didn't feel much, it was just a… Odd sight.
The dragons however were a different story entirely. They felt… Different. Like a part of their very being got removed, pulled out of them or disconnected.
This feeling was not just for the average everyday drakes who wandered the streets and lived and worked in the town, the soldiers of the DOW that were of draconic descent felt it too. Even the Guardians and heroes such as Spyro and Cynder themselves suddenly lacked that… Connection.
Something Sethelis'd discover mid practice alongside a few of the 18ths members. She was in one of the DOW training rooms located in their tower, attacking a training dummy. Only for her magic to just… Disappear. No matter how hard she tried, not even a whisk of the black enveloping smoke came out of her maw.
This was… Wrong. It felt wrong. Sethelis looked over towards her soldiers. The usually calm and composed faces confused, and in the Dragons' cases some were even scared.
"Everyone, calm down. I can explain…" She started.
Across the City, Miarko looked at his paws in shock.
His powers were gone. His element, the fire that was inborn to his identity...they were no longer coursing through his body. He could no longer feel them. He attempted to ignite the gas in his throat to put out a small candlelight...but nothing happened. It was as if he was no longer himself. His combat skills were so firmly rooted in the skills he had with his element. And now, to have those taken from him…
"I don't believe it," Terron said, flanking the Captain to his side, "They actually did it. Those old sons of...they actually did it."
Miarko looked over at the Lieutenant, surprised by his sudden display of emotion. Normally he was a rational soul, Miarko assumed that he would see this display for what it was, the final attempt to protect the City's inhabitants from the threat that was already among them.
"Lieutenant...they're doing the best that they can, given the circumstances," he responded, shaking his head at the sudden conduct from his Lieutenant. It was uncharacteristic of him.
"They should have told us first!" Terron replied, clearly unhappy with the current events, sitting down upon his haunches and looking onto the floor in defeat. "They are supposed to protect and guide us, spiritually or not. And here they go, hiding away some… Magic?"
"Hiding away Magic? How do you mean?" Miarko responded, "Our magic, or the magic in the Temple?"
Terron shrugged, glancing out the window and nodding towards the large beam which was still emitting into the air, seemingly powering the shield surrounding the city. "I meant that. You know something about it? Because it is news to me." The Earth dragon spoke.
"I barely knew more than you did," he said, shaking his head, "Just knew that, well, that it was an option. Nothing more than that."
"An option they took very quickly. People are really angry, and I suppose we will get to hear their reasoning sooner or later. But for now I recommend you go hear with one of the Guardians?"
Terron's words were sound, especially now when Miarko had established a… Closer connection to one of the Guardians. It allowed him to find Ifrit in between business hours, something which made talking to her and her colleagues much more convenient.
"I will, you should keep the DOW updated. News will spread fast, and you better inform as many as you can that this is for our own safety." The Captain of the 17th spoke, before turning to go towards the exit, headed for Ifrit's estate. And after he had made his way past his co-workers and through the longue of DOW tower, having been neatly repaired since Elmira's escape, the red dragon ran and leapt off the edge of their floating island, gliding across the sky and above the many rooftops and past the many tall towers of the city, heading towards the main city square. Ifrit lived nearby and it wouldn't take lo-...
Miarko suddenly saw the rather large crowd beneath him. That is a lot of upset dragons.
"What in the Mover…?" he asked himself, shaking his head at the sudden approach of the large number of individuals.
The crowd was loud, colorful. It almost reminded him of the ceremony which was held just a day ago. Except, like as if it all was some cruel joke, someone had replaced the smiles and cheering with frowns and angry voices. The stair leading up to the Temple doors being lined with the City watch and the temple's own guards. Miarko had to nudge and almost even force his way through the crowd to gain access to the stairs, stepping up to a Guard and explaining who he was and who he needed to speak to.
Shortly after he was let inside, seeing how the room with the Pool of Visions was empty. Now he'd just need to find one out of four Guardians. Thinking over the possible locations, the obvious hit the Fire Captain, the Guardianess would probably be with the "shield" emitter, which was stored in the one of the central chambers of the Temple. He began to walk briskly in that direction. After a short while, he arrived to find it flanked by two more of the Temple's guards. Noting his presence right away, both warriors nodded and allowed him entry into the central chamber. Miarko opened the door.
Greeting his eyes was a large… Gemstone? The largest piece of magical rock he had ever seen. The odd contraption was consisting of a large blue gem whose sharp edges and outcroppings reached for the roof, slowly rotating on four golden legs, which all had a magical glow about them. The floor had odd arcane symbols scribbled in chalk as well as etched into the fine marble patterning. This contraption was made to stay a long time.
It slightly baffled him how they even got this thing in here to begin with. Not that this made him any less furious, as Fire dragons were keen to flare up with their temperament just like their element, it wasn't too unusual, but Miarko felt angry.
As expected, the Fire Guardianess stood near the center of the chamber. She seemed to be inspecting the gemstone and was oblivious to the Fire Captain's entry…
"What have you done?" he screamed, causing the bipedal guards to reach for their weapons, but kept them sheathed after seeing it was just the Captain.
However, Ifrit turned around rapidly, at first fangs gritted; "I told you yesterday Volteer that we we-..." She opened her eyes whom had been clenched shut in irritation at first, seeing Miarko, which cut the female dragon short for words at first, "Ah. Miarko."
Ifrit could see clearly the anger that was burning inside the Captain as he continued to stride towards her. He simply repeated, "What. Have. You. Done?"
Ifrit looked like she wished to take a few steps back at first, however the Guardianess stood her ground, her voice calm. "I, along with the other four Guardians took to our latest way of defending ourselves against our very powerful foe, Miarko. Something the DOW and the military haven't managed." She retorted, motioning to the large blue gem with a wing.
"We're fighting a god," Miarko said, enunciating the last word, "We are still trying to fully test the capabilities of this enemy. What should I do? Blast off into the Aether and fight the Spirits themselves?"
Whilst his preposterous question seemed to amuse Ifrit, causing a small twitch of her lips at first, the Guardian composed herself; "And we know that she can take the control of an entire city with next to no effort, Miarko!" She called back, her voice echoing off the walls just like his. Albeit a bit louder now. "We are fighting a concept given personality and near endless power, how do we defend ourselves against something like that, if not cut ourselves away from it?"
He could see that she was thinking, working her brain to the maximum to come up with ways to explain her actions.
Miarko sighed as he realized this, shaking his head, "I know...I know. But you implied the DOW and the rest of our forces are not doing our jobs. What do you expect of us, Guardian?"
She shook her head, chuckling. "Well, maybe your means of doing things is a tad too slow. We are dealing with someone who literally does not need any form of rank and file. She is the onesole being above everyone else in her army." The Guardianess started. Before turning back to look upon the big blue gem.
"Tell me, Miarko. Do you know what kind of gem this is?" She asked.
Miarko simply nodded. Every dragon knew what these contained. "Power," he replied simply.
To which the Guardianess nodded. "Indeed so, yes. However, we've simply… Tinkered with it, and now it does the right opposite of what Spirit Gems normally does, they usually makes us stronger, but this? It cuts our connection to the Aether entirely." She explained, before looking over to the red dragon once more. "Which brings me onto the tricky part. I need you, and Sethelis, to venture forth and find someone of great importance."
"Very well, who is it?" Miarko asked, wasting no time. Only to look… Baffled to say the least.
"I need you to find my predecessor. I need you to find Ignitus."
A/N: Oh my! A dead dragon? Well, for all we know Ignitus cannot be of much help. Has Ifrit lost it? Come back to find out in the next chapter!
Speaking of the "next chapter", both of us are rather busy people, me with exams and Mike with work, so our pace is not as high as it could be, but stay with us like you have until now and we will keep providing with more chapters about Miarko, Sethelis and the rest!
This one was a bit short, but we can give you a promise that there'll be more in the next one!
As always, we appreciate any and all feedback! Reviews are always read and responded to when we can get to them.
See you next time!
-Mike & Hawk