Chapter 75-Tested Relationships
Several weeks passed following the isolation of Narssia within a cell, during which Nuri recovered from the attack by his mother and grew more closed off as he and his sister increased in size and learned to speak. A month after the dark events saw the young black dragon extremely thin and refusing to eat. His stubbornness was assumed to have been a result of the attack on him but as Arxa watched him the reason gradually became clear to her ancient mind, a lasting scar from her darker time spent as a part of Corruption. Nurus's growth had changed his body and his once black underbelly was now a muted red while the inside of his wings shimmered like blood. It was not unusual for a dragon's color to change during the first few years following its hatching so no one thought anything of it with more pressing manners distracting the Compound as a whole.
As he lay against one of the walls of the chamber Geer slept in, Nuri quietly shook as he watched Ilena eat. She was becoming more graceful and starting to put on muscle as her powers had developed to allow her to fade completely through solid rock, allowing quick access between rooms. Putting the thought from his mind as he glanced over at Arxa, he took in her quickly growing frame and reasoned she was close to being full size with her height now standing at roughly six feet. He was unsure the reason behind her rapid development but wondered why she had hatched later than both him and his sister.
Head pounding in the muted ache he had come to accept after days without any food, he sighed and curled up tightly to watch as Geer entered tiredly and walked over to Ilena without saying anything to Arxa who was laying against the back of the room. Curious about the interaction, he noticed the blue dragon seemed to limp slightly and realized he had suffered a wound sometime after rescuing Nuri from the creature had assumed the shape of his mother. He had been told nothing of the events that had happened to cause Narssia to be chained up but he refused to ask as it seemed to make the older scale-flier uncomfortable whenever his sister brought the topic up.
'Not eating again?' Arxa asked him quietly inside his mind as he watched Geer sit down next to Ilena and nuzzle her warmly.
"It doesn't give me what I need," he replied softly before closing his eyes and leaning his head against the wall behind him, trying to get his head to stop pounding.
Although Arxa had also learned to speak as a normal dragon should, she tended to use her odd way of communicating just to make a point. Nuri, however, had grown used to her unusual form of speaking and preferred to spend time around her than with his own sister. Despite the fact that Ilena was his own blood, the gray dragoness was rather talkative and it got on his nerves quite quickly.
'What you need? Nurus, explain further, please,' Arxa commanded, her tone gentle and having little of the malice he noticed was present whenever she would engage in conversation with Geer.
Sighing, Nuri twitched as a tremor ran down his spine, an odd thirst swelling within him at her questioning. "I have tried to eat meat, you have seen me numerous times, yet for some reason I receive nothing from it. Ilena and Geer both thrive from their consumption of food while I waste away . . ."
Arxa seemed to stiffen at his remark and he thought he heard the faintest hiss rise from her throat. Thinking he had imagined the reaction, he growled softly and again felt as if his neck was being burned alive from the inside out. Wincing to hide his discomfort, Nuri felt warm air brush past his neck and turned his head to see that the dark dragoness had crossed the room and sat down beside him without him even sensing that she had moved.
"How did you-" He began but was hushed by her as she lifted her left foreleg and brought it up to her jaws, cutting through her scales to open up a faint stream of blood.
'Hush now, child,' she growled as Nuri swallowed and felt his pulse quicken as he smelled the oozing crimson substance. 'Just do me one small thing and I will leave you alone. I sense you recognize what I have done and all I ask is that you take a taste.' Her eyes turned to him with expectancy and he shrunk back, hesitating at being offered the chance to consume from her directly.
"You want me to drink from you?" Nuri questioned for clarity, voice shaking as he sniffed the wound and inched his maw closer to the flowing life blood that she had presented him. "Why would I do that? Our race was never purely liquid-driven creatures. We are not vile beasts of the night, aged one."
Arxa softly hissed at the remark and Nuri realized he was trying her patience. Unsure what she wanted to accomplish by allowing him to have access to still living flesh, he licked away some of the pooling blood that bubbled up from the wound and immediately jerked his head back, coughing as specks of his own blood flew from his maw. Finding himself unable to stop coughing, Nuri grew fearful as he noticed from the corner of his eye that Geer got to his feet and began to advance towards them, electricity flickering in the blue dragon's nostrils as a warning. Worried for the dark spirit beside him, he tried to alert her to what was going on but watched as she flared her left wing, splaying it out in full glory to halt the formerly blind scale-flier.
'Come no closer, runt,' Arxa remarked neutrally as her eyes remained on Nurus, his coughing dying down and his breath returning in shallow gasps. 'The child before us is one born of the very vastness of night. Even during times of prosperity for our race, his species was small in number. I had my doubts at first that he was one of them but his comment about meat not fulfilling him confirmed my suspicions.'
Finally breathing normally, Nuri glanced between her and Geer in confusion, feeling the aching burn in his throat now gone and his mind clear. As uncertain as he was, the blue dragon that served as his father figure was just as irritated at the dark arts Arxa had used on one of Narssia's final descendants. Grasping Arxa's outstretched wing roughly with his maw, he pulled her aside and snapped at Ilena to stay where she was as the young dragoness had started to rise out of interest.
"What cursed toxin did you give him?" Geer raged at Arxa as he glanced Nuri over then turned his attention to the former mind partner of Narssia. "Listen here, all dragons eat meat! He is not some special, elusive beast, parasite! I don't know what dark arts you have preformed to convince him of this but you will reverse it at once or I will have you banned from seeing Narssia while you live down here."
Her wing burning with pain, Arxa used her discomfort to cause a faint stirring of shadows along her claws as she rose and faced the blue dragon that opposed her, letting her injured appendage rest along the ground. 'You dare to claim that I have done something to him? He was not eating and I merely determined the reason why-'
"He was attacked by his own mother! That alone would scare a dragon to not eat for days. Both him and Ilena were young at the time and they were very impressionable to outside influences," Geer snapped back, cutting her off as he stared her down and let smoke drift freely from his nostrils.
"Father, let it go. Arxa was merely trying to help," Nuri rasped, feeling his throat start to burn with discomfort again. "You know she is good for Mother so please, don't have that be the punishment. She was able to convince the darkness to shy away while she was there and I suspect Mother appreciated that moment of peace."
'Nuri . . .' Arxa hummed softly, sensing his growing discomfort and realized after a sharp snarl from Geer that she was channeling it with her own pain from her wing and causing a massive surge of black magic to engulf the room.
"You dark beast!" Ger roared, leaping over to her and clawing her face and snout in anger. "That cursed blackness is all you know! Even after everything Nar did to wipe your wretched stain from her existence . . ."
Claws shaking, Geer stepped back after inflicting severe wounds and sat down to stare at his bloodied talons. Nuri and Ilena, both in shock over the violent act they had just witnessed, seemed too paralyzed to even say anything as streams of the crimson liquid dripped onto the stone floor below Arxa's maw. The dark spirit herself was silent, her eyes closed and a shadowy aura swirling around her frame. Four large and wide talon marks lined the majority of her forehead, starting on both sides at just above the eye and leading down to nearly the beginning of the snout.
'Son of the white dragon of light, ye shall regret doing that. I am the one that began the vast expanse of unfeeling darkness and it exists through myself alone. Thy weak ancestry hath shielded thee for only so many moonshifts and now thy legacy shall come crashing down as thy ancient sire's empire should have back when the frail tendrils of the mortal two-legs race bowed down before thine true ruler of the world.' The words, although similar in tone to Arxa, were much deeper than the raspy dark spirit could produce and it startled Nuri to realize they were in the very midst of Corruption itself as it secured a hold over the one that had once been a part of it until recently.
"You think you can just take her over without a fight?" Nuri asked softly as he lifted his head and stared over at the shadow-cloaked dragoness."Do you have any idea who she even is? This dragon has one of the strongest wills I have ever seen. She's not going to be beaten down by this."
'Perceptive little . . . I could end her life where she stands if I so chose. She has divided away from me for eons now and her choice has been made, whether she knows it or not,' the presence of Corruption snarled as Nuri flinched and shrunk back, sliding as close to the wall behind him as he could to avoid the dark one's wrath.
A massive burst of black and purple energy swirled around Arxa as Corruption's power surged through her and Ilena hissed softly as the amount of darkness chilled the air in their chamber. Geer reluctantly raised his head and wearily glanced at the controlled spirit, a look of sadness in his eyes as Nuri watched him bend forward and expose his neck to the dragoness as a sign of submission.
'Ye would risk thy life just to save the one thy loathes more than life itself? Thy race is an odd thing nowadays,' Corruption remarked as it bid him to rise with a wave of Arxa's foreleg and turned its head to Nuri in interest, still not having opened its eyes since the attack from Geer. 'Doth mine eyes deceive me? Is it possible that a creature of the night hath remained to walk these lands once more? Thy name, dragon, what be it? For such a noble creature must have a name of power, should it not?'
"Nuri, dark one. My name is Nuri or Nurus if you prefer. Why take such an interest in me? Arxa had the same curiosity . . ."
'Thy special creature, do thou not know thy own ancestry? The great wars that raged around thine own kind.' The admiration in Corruption's coarse voice concerned Nuri and he looked away, unsure of how to respond. 'Why do thou turn away from me? Youngling, thy is unique in that thy represents a forgotten race. The power which surges through thine own body is one that has flowed through some of the greatest warriors of centuries long past. Nurus, thy are a Blood Dragon.'
Nuri was briefly overcome with shock, his mind unable to figure out what the darkness meant until he remembered his reaction to drinking from Arxa. What she had done had soothed his throat and calmed the shakiness that had plagued him since the attack from Narssia. He knew his mother hadn't been in her right mind when she blasted him with fear upon his entrance into her cell but he was concerned over how quickly Corruption had seized upon the dark spirit and taken her over.
"What type of dragon did you say? The blood species? They've been dead for thousands of years, ever since the collapse of paradise," Geer rasped as Nuri noticed his father try to understand what had been said, much like he was trying to do as well.
'It amuses me that thy refuses to acknowledge thy ancestry except for times of unrest. Thou being blind must have some impact on thy mental capability . . .' Corruption taunted as Nuri noticed electricity spark from Geer's tail in protest.
Realizing something had to be said before Geer tried to harm Arxa further, Ilena, who had been watching this in silence, finally spoke up. "Why is it that you seem to know so much about my brother? You know his element, a rare one at that, so what else you do know about him? We are his family, yet you come in here and claim something we have had no knowledge of and expect us to agree with your words." Her eyes narrowed as she advanced the tip of her tail dipping down into the floor. "While I admired Arxa as a youngling, I see now why she would be so weak as to let you control her. Mother should have done the right thing when given the chance and just killed her without-"
A dark snarl rose from deep in Arxa's throat, the sound too malicious to have come from her alone as Corruption raised the captive she-dragon's head and stared down at Ilena in slight irritated amusement. Shadows swirled around the dragon as it flicked its tail towards her and she screeched as thorny black spikes pulsed up from the ground around her and encircled her. Now unable to move, the dragoness glanced towards her brother and softly sighed before Geer spread his wings wide and let loose a stream of crackling electricity at the vile creature.
The attack hit straight on and smoke filled the air for a few moments, long enough for the dragons to lose sight of Arxa. Nuri was the first to see her as the air cleared and he stood in worry as he noticed her form shake and the fresh wounds she had received from Geer pulse angrily in a mix of purple and black. Getting the attention of the others, he motioned to her unstable condition and rushed to her side as she started to fall. Letting her head rest on his neck as he struggled to bare the rest of her weight, he briefly saw that the shadowy vines surrounding Ilena had vanished as his father approached and remarked that carrying her to Narssia was the best course of action. Unsure about the reasoning behind such an odd comment, the young dragon hesitated but slowly followed after his sister as the formerly blind scale-flier took them to the cell where his mother remained chained within.
"Take her inside and then leave her there to rot. She deserves no less mercy for the crimes she has committed," Geer commanded as Nuri and Ilena exchanged a glance before proceeding with the older dragon's wishes.
"Will she recover?" Ilena quietly asked as Geer motioned for them to follow after him and return to the chamber they had hatched in, leaving Nuri standing in the entryway to the room.
"My child, I can only hope for Narssia's sake. Arxa's once strong spirit is starting to crumble and there are those that will surely take advantage of it. Corruption is merely claiming back what it always held . . ."
From his position at the entrance to the cell, Nuri turned his head to face Geer and Ilena as his sister walked over to stand beside the blue dragon. "You would refuse her help simply because of the things she has done in the past," he remarked coldly as chains rattled from inside the room. "Loathing Arxa has brought you nothing but misery and only drives a wedge further between you and Mother."
"How dare you try and explain the relationship I have with your mother!" Geer roared as Nuri walked inside the cell, locking the door behind him to drown out the rest of the dragon's angry ranting.
Unsure whether his mother was asleep or not, Nuri approached her gently as he dragged Arxa over to her and sat down before the chained dragoness, allowing the dark spirit to drop to the floor in front of him. He wanted to ask why she had attacked him before but continued to struggle with the knowledge Corruption had imparted to him. The Blood element was never spoken of during their modern era, yet he reasoned it was a species of their kind that had been killed out during the years of fighting against the darkness following paradise's destruction.
"What happened with Arxa, my son? I can't sense her thoughts . . . almost as if something is blocking them from me," Narssia softly whispered, her voice slightly rougher than normal but understandable given her current situation with being chained up in a cell.
Lifting his head to see her eyes were open and dimly focused on him, Nuri hummed warmly and stood up to nuzzle her. "She helped me but Geer took it the wrong way and attacked her. He left the scars on her forehead and snout before she lost control of the darkness and let Corruption consume her. It told me that I am a Blood element before Geer shocked it and Arxa passed out . . . leading to how I ended up in here with you."
Narssia's half-closed eyes shimmered darkly for a moment before she sighed and turned her attention to Arxa's unconscious form. "Geer has trouble accepting the fact that I chose to spare Arxa when I had the chance to kill her. He doesn't understand just how close I have gotten to her over the years . . ."
"You seem in good spirits," Nuri remarked as he noticed she was strangely quiet even with Arxa being in the same room with her.
"It's her presence," Narssia admitted after a moment. "Arxa seems to be able to hold off Corruption from taking me over while she's near me. I don't know why that would be the case unless it has something to do with the fact that she was once a part of it not very long ago herself . . ."
"Perhaps Arxa is aware of it?" Nuri suggested, catching a brief stir of movement from the corner of his eye. "She was brought up by darkness but shown light because of you. It is possible that this is her way of thanking you for what you have done for her."
'What happened and why am I stuck in a cell?'
Arxa's voice, baring its normal coarseness, was a welcome sound to both of them as Nuri noticed his mother seemed to brighten up at the groggy, rasp vocalization from the dark spirit. It warmed his heart to see the deep connection the two had with each other and he wondered if Arxa truly deep down felt the same way about Narssia as she did for the one Geer had called parasite.
"Arxa . . ." Narssia whispered, her voice taking on a more tender tone. "You could have gotten yourself killed. I know you just wanted to be useful but Geer continues to refuse to accept my decision on your survival. Please don't make this harder on us than it has to be."
'Forgive me, Naris. I only wanted to prove that my instincts were correct in identifying Nurus's element. You know I meant no other harm by my actions,' Arxa softly growled, raising her head to wearily gaze at Narssia's chained frame.
Confusion clouded Nuri's mind as the name Arxa had used for Narssia sounded foreign to him. He briefly imagined it was something Corruption might call her but dismissed the thought as it reminded him all too well of the whirlwind of new information he had gained only recently concerning himself. Shaking his head to try and clear his mind, he was calmly tapped on the shoulder by a tail and he glanced over at Arxa to see she had moved around while he had been lost in thought. A glimmer of silver met his inquiring glance and a low hum rippled up from his throat warmly towards her before he could stop himself.
'Ah, young love. It's been quite some time since I last felt its warm embrace . . .' The voice gave off an aura of power and authority, yet Narssia seemed to be further relaxed and sighed in contentment.
Glancing around for the origin of the odd vocalization, Nuri could see nothing and hissed quietly in anger. From his position to his mother, he had sight of the gem lodged in the base of her neck and watched as it glowed dimly before she shrieked in protest and jerked the chains around her in reflex to the stinging pain. Arxa snarled in muted anger and he noticed the gem's dark aura fade to nothing, realizing that the former spirit had a deeper connection to his mother than he had expected.
"Mirage, it has been some time since I heard from you," Narssia growled warmly and Nuri blinked, further confused by her actions.
'It has been quite a while, has it not? I've missed you, Narssia,' Mirage remarked as Arxa hissed faintly and winced as a brief flicker of purple mist swirled over her scales before dissolving into thin air.
"Ilena and Nuri are the last children I was able to bare. Geer and I fought while I was under Corruption's control and he attacked me in such a way that rendered me unable to conceive again," she muttered softly, almost mournfully. "I am dealing with it though. My life would be simpler if the crystal in my neck could be removed without killing me in the process."
'How did Corruption do this? I have never seen a gem of this sort before in my long years of life . . .'
'Because I broke free from it,' Arxa answered as she reluctantly rose to her feet, her legs trembling slightly in exhaustion. 'Corruption no longer had myself as its link to Narssia and so it formed the crystal to have a bond to the black dragoness. Its influence is less when I am around her though . . .'
'I see . . .' Mirage muttered thoughtfully. 'I'm truly sorry but something has just come up that requires my attention. I wish I could stay longer to talk but my son and daughter request my presence.'
"I understand, Mirage. Go to them. I'll be fine," Narssia growled in encouragement, although Nuri suspected he heard a bit of longing to her tone.
'Yes, go!' Arxa rasped, turning to Nuri as she addressed him directly. 'Geer will pay for his stubbornness once I get out of here. You're going to help me teach him a lesson he won't soon forget, Nurus.'
Mirage suspected something was wrong as he drifted back into the peaceful plain of the afterlife, driven by the urgency with which Tamli had contacted him. While he dearly loved his son, the hybrid was impulsive at times - although he guessed the important matter was dealing with Finca. He cherished his daughter as an equal to the blessed son he had created with a human, but knew eventually she would fall prey to the same instability which had afflicted her mother during their greatest time of need,
The space that met him as he felt his soul ease from pain - a sign he had rejoined the dead - was merely the imagery of a memory he would rather have forgotten than relive. He was standing in the main hall of a near-replica of the Guardian chamber from paradise, complete with the four large and wide step rise to the ordinate pearled throne he had spent many years resting upon as leader of the dragons before their mighty downfall and dark descent. Behind the regal seating, a mural of the initial pact with their human counterparts gleamed in stained glass as several dim rays of light flittered in, helping to illuminate the scenery around him. The walls were of polished gold and the six-per-side marble columns that helped to keep the structure upright looked brand new - a far cry from the damage they would later take as society crumbled around the proud race. Facets of diamonds and other precious gems lay embedded in the gleaming silver-toned floor and he lifted a taloned foreleg in awe of the blissful remembrance around him. Yet with all the good around him, it saddened Mirage to see the finite detail that had been put into the building and knew either one of his children had created this to distract him from seeing the larger picture at hand.
Taking a step forward, he raised his head proudly and thundered, "Come out my beloved children! Cease this foolish hiding for I suspect we have much to discuss."
From behind the throne, Mirage caught a glimmer of movement and stepped closer to investigate. He was about to ascend the four steps to the throne when Tamli entered from out of the shadow of a column not far from him and cleared his throat, alerting the older dragon to his presence. It had never fully become normal for him to turn and catch the dragonic eyes of his son staring back at him, even more so now as the hybrid joined him with only a few footsteps and nuzzled him in friendly greeting.
"I know you went to check on Narssia, Father. So, how is she faring with all that has happened recently?" Tamli asked as the two near-identical dragons walked side-by-side up the large steps slowly.
"It is a struggle for her, my son," Mirage admitted as he noticed another flicker of movement in the shadows behind the throne, stepping up on the second step as his tail swished along the glistening floor. "An incident occurred recently that took from her the ability to bare anymore children and she is rightfully upset about it. To make things worse, Corruption has manifest a portion of itself into a physical gem and implanted it in the base of her neck where it cannot be removed without causing her extreme pain and the possibility of death."
"I suspect Nethial could sympathize with her," Tamli remarked as Mirage hid his disappointment with a low growl at his son's mention of the woman he had bedded and gotten pregnant to raise their child on her own. "She loathed me for leaving her like I did but I had no choice in the manner at the time. We both know that Amia was more than willing to kill Finca to-"
The mention of the she-dragon's name seemed to radiate throughout the elaborate room, causing what little light that had been coming in to sudden cut off and plunge the whole area into pitch blackness. A sharp growl from Tamli bothered Mirage as he allowed his scales to softly glow with his elemental power, revealing the erect form of Finca standing directly in front of the throne with a wicked light to her shimmering topaz irises. There was something about the way his daughter held herself that made him uneasy but he stood his ground and placed one foretalon on the third step.
"Welcome, Father. Welcome, dear brother. I see you both made it." Finca's tone had none of the joy and respect it usually held and Mirage felt Tamli stiffen as a feeling of something being out of place hit him.
"Why have you created a replica of our old home, sister?" Tamli asked, a note of seriousness to his voice that Mirage felt brought out the leader-like qualities his son possessed.
"Our home? It was my home! You never embraced your half-blood nature until nearly ten thousand years later, Tamli!" Finca snarled, turning slightly to position her upper body where her left back leg and right foreleg where in the same area, masking the rear taloned foot as she slid her tail alongside her right hind leg. "Don't think I've forgotten about you, dear father. You tore an innocent dragon from her own body and shoved her into my head when I was but barely hatched! Did you even stop to think what you would do if things went wrong? Makionus, or Makiar as I knew her, made it quite clear to me her dislike of you and your selfish rule over both a proud dragonic species and a mortal human race that could handle themselves without your guidance."
Concerned, Tamli moved to join Mirage, placing both his forelegs on the third step as he cautiously lifted his folded wings from his back. "Why bring this up, Finca? You had plenty of time to inform us of your displeasure. Father and I would have listened-"
A dark growl of amusement that rippled from her jaws at his statement further making Mirage uneasy as Finca lifted her tail and slapped it sharply against the floor. "You never did listen," she snarled in response, narrowing her eyes as faint wisps of black smoke drifted out from behind the throne. "I tried to tell you back when you believed you were purely human, but you ignored me and silenced any attempt that I made to share with you my worries. You bid me silence on the issue and I was left to dwell with my own thoughts for years! What kind of love and respect is that, my mate?"
"Finca, I-" Tamli stammered, only to be cut off by Mirage as he lightly placed a claw on his son's left forelimb to inform him that he had spoken enough for the time being.
"Why do you act like this, my child?" Mirage questioned as Tamli realized his intentions and retreated back to the second step in silence, glancing away from both of them. "I always made time to talk to you, even when I ruled over our kind. Makionus had to be stopped before she tore our society in half with her delusions and I saw no other way to end the violence. It was your mother that suggested the idea to me for she had experienced a vision in which the egg she was gravid with would one day become a great leader. Once you hatched for Tamli, I knew we were making the right choice, even as my heart was breaking for you with each pained scream you gave as Silver tied you down and told you that this was for the best . . . That decision has haunted me for years and I never truly made peace with how badly you were affected by it."
A faint gleam of moisture in Finca's eyes caught his interest but his attention was abruptly returned to her words as she snarled bitterly and scratched her claws against the gemmed floor. "Don't act like you care now after all these years, Father. You weren't concerned with my safety or sanity. All you wanted was to be rid of the threat to your selfish rule and shoving Makiar in my head solved your problems in one fell swoop. Nothing I did ever pleased you, especially after I turned down the advances of Attor and told him off right in front of both of you. Mother was the only one that ever showed me compassion and I suspect you told her to be nice to me, fearing I was a fragile little bulb that could break if put into the wrong hands. Well look at me now, Father! I have more than you ever received and have the dwellings to show for it. Now bow before me, old man."
Mirage could sense Tamli start to grow restless and unfolded a wing to block his son from advancing. Lifting his head proudly, he bared his teeth and let a menacing snarl rise from the back of his throat. "I will do no such thing. You would be wise to not challenge me here for this is still my domain, Daughter. Now stand down before you make a fool of yourself!"
"Sister, please, listen to reason. There is no need for conflict here. Our afterlife is supposed to be peaceful, love," Tamli growled softly, a hint of sorrowful longing in his voice that Mirage sensed might help them in trying to make Finca realize her actions.
Her tail smacked the floor again as a swirl of darkness twisted around her frame, briefly making her eyes glow red. "I refuse to stand down," she admitted as a puff of smoke drifted from her nostrils. "Why can't you see that you're siding with a manipulative back-stabbing traitor, Tamli? Father has done everything in the past to get what he wants, no matter the circumstances or who it might hurt. He never considered how I would feel when my childhood was stolen from me by a vengeful dragoness sprit dwelling in my head. To make matter worse, he knew the humans bonded to dragons would go examine the Dragonisicm plant at one time or another and purposely made it so you were in the group that went when I was otherwise distracted."
Turning her attention directly to Tamli, she continued, "He wanted you dead so he could kill me later on and be rid of his problems. There was never any doubt that you were his son. I even walked in on a conversation between him and Mother where he deliberately refused to acknowledge your existence to her out of fear she would reject him and go find another male who would treat her as an equal rather than a tool he could use and reuse to get what he wanted."
"That is a lie. I had no idea when the exposure to Dragonisicm would occur and the resulting impact it would leave on you, my son. Furthermore, I never told Silver the truth of your parentage because she didn't need to know. I carried that burden of your birth for years, Tamli," Mirage corrected.
"Then why did Finca just-" The hybrid started to ask as Mirage folded his outstretched wing back against his side.
Mirage sighed, hesitant to speak as Tamli lowered his half-risen wings and looked to him for an answer. "Because I feared this from the start. Your sister is experiencing something Silver went through after her own death. I had hoped the devastating condition would skip a generation but I see now that is not the case. That black fog which rolls from behind the throne is a warning - not to us but to Finca. Her anger and rage are turning her into something no creature should ever have to go through. I watched her mother be consumed by the same thing once I found her in the afterlife and now it happens to my daughter as well . . ."
"Father, what are you saying? I don't understand," Tamli confessed with a puzzled growl as he slid his tail across the uneven surface behind him.
Before Mirage could explain further, a rush of the black fog which had been steadily increasing from behind the throne rose up and enveloped Finca. She screamed only once in terror but the sound nearly broke the old dragon's heart as he retreated a couple of steps to stand on the solid ground of the room's floor. There was nothing he could do to save her from this after trying to when it happened with Silver but he knew he wouldn't hurt her as he had his beloved mate to make her snap out of it. With the swirling mass of smoke hiding the once-peaceful dragoness from them, he watched as Tamli advanced a step and placed a foreleg on the fourth step.
"Sister? Dearest love? Talk to me, please." The terror in Tamli's voice was easy to pick out, even though the hybrid had tried to mask it.
From within the dark mist, a pair of blood red eyes opened and a low growl rose into the air. Mirage saw Tamli tremble and reasoned his son was soon going to be horrified by the creature he would see once the fog cleared. The thick smoke lingered for a few more minutes before gradually receding to reveal a black scaled creature with a body shape identical to that of a dragon, the muscular beast baring large spikes along its neck and down three sides of its tail. Finca's white claws had turned pitch-dark as well and her body pulsed with a feeling of malice and hate. The only spot of color on her were the piercing ruby irises that gleamed viciously, a stark reminder of the loathing she had been consumed by and an even more chilling recollection to the hybrid of the twisted soul of his maddened clone.
"No. It can't be . . . I watched him kill himself. Why is this nature's way of tormenting me?" Tamli's voice quivered as he rasped out the words in shock, a dim realization hitting Mirage as he pondered the unusual reaction. He had forgotten that the clone Tanui's dragonic forme had bore the exact same coloration to what Finca now appeared like.
"Tamli . . ." Mirage whispered in concern, normally refusing to show his unease and worry so openly but the emotional state his son was in bothered him more than he cared to admit.
Finca started them both down with a lack of interest as Tamli's stammering became more pronounced, forcing Mirage to ascend the steps and unfold a wing to comfort the hybrid. "I can't . . . I . . ."
"Emotional trauma . . . that's what Amia and the clone put him through," Mirage muttered in reflection as he briefly met the fierce gaze of his rage-filled daughter with tired sadness. "Even if Tamli is unable to harm you, I have no issue with stopping you before you do something you regret."
"You cannot harm me, Father," Finca snarled, furiously stamping one foreleg in emphasis. "I will have vengeance on those that have wronged me and you can do nothing to stop me!"
Refusing to back down, Mirage shook his head in mock amusement at her stubbornness. "You will do no such thing, my child. I will always be there to right the wrongs you commit and will protect those that are vulnerable from your malice and rage."
Leaving Tamli where he was, noticing the hybrid had begun to quiver, Mirage advanced towards Finca. He leapt up the fourth step and had to stand off to the side to have a direct look at her given the base of the throne took up much of the area that was the final step. She stared him down with disgust but he ignored it and snapped at her neck, wincing as the strike missed and she slapped him with her spiked tail.
"Look at you," she taunted, moving around as she clawed up onto the polished throne and stood perched on its wide seat. "The great dragon can't even beat his daughter in a little fight. I'm disappointed . . . at least Tamli would have given me a good show before I proved to him who is the superior one."
As though a switch had been flipped in Tamli, the hybrid seemed to spring to life at Finca's statement and roared viciously, throwing himself at her as he lashed out with a frenzy of claw swipes. Catching her unprepared with the sudden ferocity of his powerful blows, he lowered his head and scraped along her side with his horns. Seizing upon the opportunity it presented him as she shrieked in protest to the pain, he raised his head back up and twisted around her to clamp his jaws around her neck, pulling her head back as he breathed heavily from the effort it had taken him. Mirage was stunned to silence as he realized the vicious fighter his son was and thought he heard a bone crack as Tamli pulled back harder on her exposed throat with enough force to have broken it if she had been alive.
"Leave Nethial alone," Tamli snarled darkly, jerking her back again to make sure she got the message. "She did not seize upon your death to claim me. I was there to comfort her and we have a child together, Finca. Net was my first love before you and I never fully got over losing her."
"She was a disgrace to you, Brother. Nethial turned to the darkness to cope once it descended upon paradise and never looked back, nearly killing the child she had with you after an argument went too far. It was clear she was unbalanced then and you trust her now after all she's gone through . . . And you say I'm the delusional one," Finca remarked as Tamli gradually eased his grip on her neck and eventually let go of her.
Seizing upon his moment of weakness, Finca spread her wings and threw herself into the air, rushing past the two dragons as her dark body shimmered with energy and she faded into nothing. Mirage suspected she was making a visit to the world of the living and he realized he knew exactly who her first target would be. If her words had been any indication, then Nethial was going to be in grave danger and he had to make sure she was safe so she could raise Ilma to be a mighty leader like Tamli had once been.