All eyes turned and froze at the sight of a beautiful woman wearing a silvery-grey white halter dress as she continued to clap.
"Spoken well, your father would be very pleased Naofumi."
Naofumi froze then turned to look at the docks before snorting.
"Of course, that's why you're here."
The woman appeared to glide forward across the ground but no one paid that any mind. Their attention became drawn to the beauty of the woman herself, even the Queen held her fan closer to hide her flushed face. She stopped in front of Naofumi and softly cupped his face in her hands.
"Let me look at you."
She gently had him turn his head from side to side and the woman's smile grew wider still.
"Oh my, how you have grown."
She leaned up and lightly pecked Naofumi's cheek. Raphtalia felt her tail bristle as Draak bent forward over her head. Naofumi turned and catching her eye, winked. She swallowed her flustered sound but couldn't help the blush she felt. The woman chuckled and floated over to the Dragon and Demi-human. She gently tipped up Raphtalia's face as Draak hid behind his sister's back.
"A beautiful face to match your will. Truly a blessing."
Naofumi cleared his throat and the woman returned to his side, linking her arm with his. Turning to the Queen he bowed and stood to the side as he held out his hand to the strange woman.
"Queen Mirellia Q. Melromarc, Future Queen Melty Q. Melromarc, Raphtalia, Draak. Allow me to introduce to you Lady Protectorate Rie Iwatani, mate to Takeshi Iwatani, the reigning Dragon Emperor. My mother."
Raphtalia's eyes bugged slightly as Draak leaned forward from his hiding place behind her. Looking between the two, Raphtalia saw the similarities between them. His green eyes and face were from her but everything else he seemed to have inherited from his father. Though she could have sworn she had seen someone like her not too long ago.
The woman laughed gently, shaking Raphtalia from her confusion, and lightly smacked Naofumi's upper arm.
"Just like your father my little fire-spitter, always the honorifics before you introduce me properly."
The other Heroes had finally recovered from the shock of what their fellow Hero was and now began eyeing him warily. The Spear and Bow turned to the Sword Hero.
"Ren? Any idea on how we can fight him?"
Itsuki turned sharply to look at Motoyasu.
"What on earth are you talking about?"
The Spear Hero's grip tightened around his weapon's shaft as he hissed at the Bow.
"Did you not see what he did? What he can turn into? That thing isn't even human! Who knows what could happen if we let him run amok on this world. Now Ren, how do we beat him?!"
The Spear Hero glared at the Sword Hero who had kept staring straight ahead as though in some form of shock. Motoyasu made to shake his shoulder but before he could, Naofumi's voice cut the air.
"How about we all walk into the light together!"
Ren choked and writhed helplessly as his back collided with the wall behind him. Motoyasu and Itsuki froze, they hadn't heard him, hadn't even sensed his presence as he closed a gap of some twenty feet in seconds.
"I apologized."
Ren managed to gasp out before Naofumi's grip tightened harder.
"FOR THE DEATHS OF THE VILLAGE BUT NOT FOR MY KENFOLK! I KNOW WHAT YOU DID! YOU SLAUGHTERED A DRAGON THAT HAD DONE NO WRONG AND LEFT HIS DAUGHTER TO BE TAKEN BY SLAVERS!"
Everyone froze at that piece of information and if it were true, the Sword Hero had done a truly atrocious act. The Spear and Bow Heroes wisely backed away, now knowing there was more to the Shield Hero then they previously thought.
"Please. Naofumi, I didn't know. I'm sorry."
The grip loosened and Ren collapsed to the floor gasping for air as Naofumi glowered down at him.
"Take my hand, Ren."
He held out a clawed hand to the other Hero. Ren looked at it, then him, wincing slightly at the barely kept fury in his eyes.
"Take my hand, Ren."
The tone brokered no room for argument. Hesitantly Ren took the clawed hand, and nearly had his arm pulled clean of its socket by the unexpected grip yanking him forward. He had just gotten his feet underneath him when a sharp stab plunged through his chest and burst out his back.
He could hardly scream at the agonizing pain racing through his body as he fell forward again. Gasping and gagging, Ren looked down at his chest and gawked at the lack of a wound. There wasn't even a tear in the fabric of his armor. But he knew what his body had felt and experienced. He knew he'd just had a sword run through him. He looked up at Naofumi's hard glare.
"Now you know the pain he is suffering."
Lady Iwatani shook her head softly as the other Heroes helped the Sword to his feet while glaring hatefully at the Dragon. He growled deep in the back of his throat and bared his sharp fangs at them.
"Why, my son, did you have to inherit that from me?"
Draak poked his head out from behind Raphtalia as she gently patted the woman's shoulder after coming to her side.
"What do you mean Lady Iwatani?"
The older woman smiled and turned to face Raphtalia fully as Draak reclaimed his perch on his big sister's shoulders.
"Naofumi isn't a pure-blooded Dragon, he has a bit of me in him. I am not a Dragon like my mate, I am a Banshee. I guide those that have passed from one world to the other. That is how I am here now. When Naofumi threatened death upon those two accused, I came to guide them. Imagine my surprise when I find my son, alive and well."
She sighed as her eyes closed and memories danced behind her lids.
"It sounds strange for myself and Takeshi to have a family, but we found a way around such annoyances. Takeshi and I met in the twilight hours of the Dynasty Wars, he saw me beside his enemy and instead of killing them and allowing me to guide them to their finality, he spared them. He came back to the field of battle that night and approached me as I guided others with the help of my siblings. He struck up a fire and bid me sit with him for a while. We talked, we laughed, we fell in love. I was still a Banshee and could not exist in the waking realm, so Takeshi took his scales and with a piece of his Heart made me this."
She pulled the neck of her dress down slightly to show a simple golden choker with swirling lines circling the entire circumference.
"He then gave me his Heart and vowed to win my love."
She giggled slightly as her face took on a dreamy look.
"He underestimated my standards and I underestimated his will. Shortly after, we married and then Naofumi was born to us, followed by his sister Kazuko."
Her smile faded and her hands tightened into hard fists.
"It was when he was six years old that my mate and I realized what our son truly was capable of. No doubt you have already seen a tiny fragment of what he can do young Raphtalia?"
The young woman nodded as best she could while Naofumi's mother petted Draak's head. She had seen Naofumi do great feats of power firsthand and it terrified her to no end. Until now she had attributed the occurrences to the shield on his arm, now though she had to wonder how much of it exactly was the shield?
"After we learned that, we tried to prepare him for his future and eventual destiny. There are moments however where the souls of the trapped and lost come to him and follow him, crying for his aid. I feared for him, though now it seems he has found someone else to help him continue the path."
Raphtalia lightly poked Draak's side and set him down as he went to look at Lady Iwatani's dress.
"Why me though?"
She smiled and there was no doubt left in Raphtalia's mind then that this woman truly was Master Naofumi's mother, when her eyes lit up brightly they were a perfect reflection of her Master's. Lady Iwatani softly cupped her face in her hands and gently rubbed her cheeks.
"Did my son give you a necklace when you first met?"
Confused Raphtalia picked at the chain that her Master had given her. Pulling it up she expected to see the same dull but beautifully cut stone on the end. She froze as she saw the most gorgeous blood-red ruby on the other end of the chain.
"What is -"
Lady Iwatani simply took Raphtalia's other hand with both of hers and cupped them around the ruby. Raphtalia gasped and her eyes widened at the feeling of warmth and a steady beating.
"His Heart Raphtalia. In our culture, Dragons will only ever have one person that turns their Heart from stone to its most pure state, we call these beings Keepers. A Heart will only ever beat and show itself to its Keeper alone, no one else. They are then bound together till the fated end. I answer your question with this question."
Lady Iwatani brought Raphtalia's other hand to cup the ruby close.
"Why not you my sweet?"
Reaching for a similar chain, Lady Iwatani soon displayed a slightly larger ruby that pulsed with a powerful warmth and beat.
"It would seem we have much to discuss Raphtalia, do we not my son?"
She turned and raised a brow as her son finally ended his glaring contest with the other Heroes. If you could call beings that threatened another openly 'Heroes.'
"Aye we do my mother. But there's one thing we need to finish first."
All eyes returned to the two docks and the pair behind them.
