Chapter 78-Lost Soul

The small cell was certainly crowded, that much was she aware of as Nethial opened her eyes to find that Dhran had held true to his promise and had placed her somewhere Finca would be unable to find her. While she had suggested the idea of Narssia's cell, she had never expected Airu to agree with her and put her in there with the one creature in all the world she loathed. Arxa had not moved from her position by the chained dragoness but the smaller black scale-flier near the dark spirit interested the fallen rider as she had never seen him before. She reasoned it must have been one of Narssia's offspring but she was uncertain as it appeared to be different from the other dragons in the room.

While she had been locked up to prevent Finca from capturing her, Nethial had allowed for Ilma and Nathaniel to be watched over by Ladetis as she knew he would never have wanted to attend the ceremony for Dhran. That plan had worked well, she mused as she slid back against a wall and watched as all three dragons turned their attention to her. Just seeing Arxa put vile thought in her head that she struggled to contain and repress but she promised herself that she would not act against the malicious entity while Narssia was awake.

"Nethial, I presume?" The young dragon asked as its voice confirmed to Nethial that he was male. "We're glad to see that you're awake."

"I'm sure you are," Nethial muttered under her breath as her gaze fell on Arxa and the silver-ringed irises stared back at her with equal hatred.

"Nethial, you were brought here to be under our protection," Narssia growled as the chains around her body clicked as a tremor ran down her spine. "Dhran trusted us enough to have you stay here and throw whoever is after you off the trail . . ."

Sighing, Nethial brought her knees up and crossed her arms over them before resting her chin on them. "Narssia, we both know who it is that wants me. I do not fear her name, nor should you."

'In the event young Asburo has forgotten this, let me remind you that wraiths will do whatever it takes to get the object of their obsession,' Arxa snarled, briefly glancing at Narssia before resuming her stare-down with the former rider.

"You will be safe with-"

'Nurus, trust my words. I have been around wraiths and their single-mindedness always leads to their downfall,' Arxa interjected as Nuri sighed and curled up against her side, prompting the dark spirit to slide away a few inches to give herself space.

"Arxa, I know there is bad blood between you and Nethial but cease this for right now. She is under our protection," Narssia growled as Nethial thought she saw something flicker across the wall behind the chained dragoness.

"I appreciate your concern, Narssia, but I am fine. The ceremony is under way and-"

Feeling like she had been punched in the stomach, Nethial cried out as a sudden burst of darkness swirled to life inside the room. As the shadows faded, Finca took a step forward and wrapped her tail around one of Nethial's legs, pulling her across the floor as she clutched at her chest in pain. Arxa was the first to stand but a glance by the wraith had her backing away to protect Narssia.

"That pain you feel is exactly what happened to Dhran," Finca informed Nethial as she struggled to make sense of what was going on around her. "He refused to inform me of your location and I dealt with him. If any of you even so much as attempts to aid Nethial, I will kill you without hesitation."

'No one will be harmed!'

Through the pain, Nethial recognized the voice instantly as that of Tamli. Although it held more malice than he normally showed, she realized he was trying to protect her as he always had done. His very nature was to protect those that he loved and she knew it would hurt him to have to fight Finca.

Finca had apparently heard his vocalization for she pulled Nethial closer and pressed a claw against the woman's neck, almost daring the hybrid to come after her. With the initial pain beginning to wear off, Nethial tried her best to conceal a smirk as dim gray particles of light gathered not far from her location and then burst apart to allow Tamli entrance into the world of the living. Her enjoyment at his appearance quickly turned to horror as she gazed upon him and saw he now bore the same coloration that Tanui had possessed.

'Let her go, dear sister,' Tamli ordered as Finca turned her head to see him and hissed at seeing the dark coloration stare back at her, clenching the muscles in her tail as Nethial winced in pain.

"Why? So you can continue to shelter her? She caused our problems to begin with!" The malice in the voice of the wraith made perfect sense to her as Nethial listened to Finca rage against Tamli.

'The human had nothing to do with-' Arxa began, surprising Nethial to hear the dark spirit speak up in her defense, but was quickly silenced by Finca with a low snarl.

"You are only causing more of a rift between yourself and Tamli, Finca!" Narssia growled, shaking her chains as she could do little to help the situation in her current state.

"Am I really the one to blame here?" Finca scoffed as she pressed down on Nethial's neck with her sharp talon."The darkness chose you for a reason, Narssia. While you may pass it off on Arxa's betrayal of the power that made her, the truth is that you never fully broke free from Corruption even when you claimed you had . . ."

"Are you suggesting that my mother is a liar?" Nuri questioned as he took a step towards her in defiance.

'She is unbalanced, young blood dragon. Her new form has changed much about the dragoness I once loved . . .'

"Spare us the history lesson, Tamli," Finca snarled. "You know why I am here so let what must happen come to pass. Nethial can never be trusted after what she has done."

'If that is how you feel, then I have no choice but to fight you. I am not the weakling you left standing upon your transformation and I will show you the strength that has made me a hybrid!' Tamli's low hiss as he spread his wings gave Nethial an uneasy feeling and she tried to mask her worry.

Finca snorted in amusement, removing her claw from on top of Nethial's neck. "Really? You barely put up a fight back in our afterlife, my mate. Do you honestly think you stand a chance against me?"

'Back then I had not submitted myself to the dark power that flows through my veins. Now I have no issue with doing what I must.'

Unwrapping her tail from around Nethial's leg, Finca lifted her wings and spread them out, shoving the former rider against a wall as she lunged at Tamli. The two met head-on as the hybrid locked his horns against her own, shoving her back and throwing her against the same wall she had tossed Nethial against.

Dazed from the throw, Nethial was nearly crushed as Finca slammed down on top of her and one of her legs snapped painfully. Crying out in pain, her breath came in gasps as the wraith shoved herself back onto her feet and blasted Tamli with a shriek that reminded both Arxa and Narssia of the element of fear. As the hybrid charged at his former mate and clawed her face, Narssia tensed as the crystal in the back of her neck gleamed and, as her son and mind-partner watched the conflict brewing, she collapsed against the chains that kept her tightly bound as her eyes closed and her breathing relaxed.

"Mother!" Nuri's cry of shock only tore Arxa away from the fight and she hissed at him before noticing what his attention was focused on as a rush of panic flooded her.

'Nurus, what happened?' Arxa inquired as she advanced towards the dragoness who she had inhabited for years, forgetting the fighting going on behind them as Nethial promptly blacked out.

"I don't know," he remarked over the clamor as Finca and Tamli battled each other, each roaring out in pain on occasion. "I just noticed she looked like she had passed out. Do you think it could be . . . ?"

'I would sense it if Corruption made a move. It is not the dark magic,' Arxa assured him as she draped a wing over him in comfort.

Tamli had to admit that Finca as a wraith was far stronger than she had ever been as a dragon. Her skills seemed to be instinctual and her attacks often came without warning as she displayed a wide range of elemental skills that she had never possessed when she was a living scale-flier. It bothered him to see that whenever he scored a hit on her the wound would shimmer white and then close as if he had never struck her in the first place. Releasing his resentment with a low snarl as he closed his eyes, he coated his tail with ice and swung it, expecting to hear the sound of a bone snapping but instead heard metal screeching in protest before shattering. Confused, he blinked and saw that he had sliced through one of the chains holding Narssia up, quickly jumping backwards as Finca burst up from under the floor with a strong gale of wind threatening to toss him around like a hatchling.

Firing off a quick burst of light at her as she snapped at his foreleg but missed by inches, Tamli looked back to see Nethial passed out against the wall Finca had thrown her against. Apparently breaking that bone had been too much for her to endure and it saddened him to see his former love so much weaker than how she had been back during their youth. Of course ten thousand years of nothing but stewing in anger and rage with only Corruption to keep her company had not been good for her mental and physical health. As he watched, Finca seized upon his lack of concentration as a chance to strike and she vanished again into the rock underneath her to reappear right above Nethial.

Anger at his inability to act fueled his fury as Tamli shot an ice shard at her head that Finca shattered with a blink of her eye, the strong telekinesis motion even throwing him back into an opposite wall and allowing her time to grab the unconscious human and disappear again. Before he really knew what he was doing or could stop himself, he had gotten back on his feet and blasted a good few inches out of the space whether Nethial had once been before a single claw on his shoulder brought him back to his surroundings and he heavily sighed before glancing to his side to see Nuri staring up at him with hungry eyes. Looking past him to Arxa who seemed to be breaking down her own cold exterior as she nuzzled Narssia's unconscious body warmly, he let a soft smile drift over his muzzle before shattering the rest of the thick chains that kept the black dragoness suspended in the air.

'Consider that my way of being generous,' he remarked emotionlessly as he started to head for the door to the room, only to get stopped by Arxa as the dark spirit raised her voice.

'You never truly made yourself love Finca the way you did for Nethial, did you?' Even with her words being so plain, Tamli could sense eons of wisdom pour from her and it made him less worried that what had happened would get out into the general population of the Compound.

'I couldn't love anyone the way I loved Net,' Tamli replied, mostly to convince himself of the truth as he felt his anger slowly fade away and realized Arxa had chosen to speak up for the sole purpose of calming him and quelling the rage that had settled in him back when he had caused such great destruction to the replica of the former Guardian Chamber where Mirage had presided as ruler of their race during the time they lived in paradise.

'Why care for her so much? She's just a lowly human while you are of a superior species . . .' Arxa pointed out as Tamli snarled softly at being referred to as a better species.

'Nethial was the first to grab hold of my heart and I guess I just never forced myself to let anyone else get that personal with me. My leaving her was not by choice but I still regret the heartache it caused her . . . and the worry for Raoul about who his father was.' Tamli sighed as he felt exhaustion seep over him and knew it would be difficult to remain in the living world for much longer without putting himself at risk for injury.

"You look pale. Is something wrong?" Nuri asked, nudging him lightly as Tamli clutched at the stone under him unsteadily, his vision flickering as the smell of ash and wet bark hit him.

Worried he was about to experience a panic attack right in front of two dragons he was not entirely familiar with, he shook his head in defiance and took a step back, ready to mislead them if their questions got too hard for him to truthfully answer. The scent only increased in strength and intensity and he could feel the anxiety start to rise within him as he curled his claws against the rough floor beneath him. Gritting his teeth together as he closed his eyes, Tamli tensed as he waited for the trigger that would start his crippling moments of confusion and panic, only to freeze as the icy smooth voice of a dragoness entered his mind and seemed to chase away the anxiety and fear.

"Leave him be, Nuri. Tamli will be fine, provided I have a few moments alone with him." Narssia had never seemed to be the type to be considered a hero but Tamli realized she possessed the qualities that had defined both him and Dhran during their short rule over the Compound.

After a bit of grumbling, especially from Arxa, the two dragons departed to leave Tamli alone with Narssia in the cell. She looked weary and exhausted as he opened his eyes to watch her telekinetically unwrap herself from the chains that had held her, leaving only a few links on her forelegs and hind legs as she got to her feet. Fearing he would be consumed by his own panic once more, he was cautious as she approached and nuzzled him before wincing and softly hissing under her breath, leaving him to sense a dim spark of darkness radiate from the base of her neck briefly.

"You feel guilty for what happened to Rados and Finca, don't you? Tamli, it wasn't your fault that they died. You did all that you could to help . . ."

'I still had no memory when Rados was killed. I only realized who it was during the fight with Tanui afterwards. Finca, however, I could have helped. The main portion of our forces did not need me when the attack started and I could have gone to her the moment I sensed her distress . . .' Tamli muttered, hearing his own shallow breathing as he sat down and stared down at his claws to see they had returned to the ivory white he was used to normally seeing.

"Whether you choose to admit it or not, this guilt has been eating at you ever since Tanui's death," Narssia remarked as she sat down beside him and spread out her wings to relax them from the constriction situation she had found herself in until recently. "You crumbled under that guilt and reverted to a state where you could be free to express your fear as anger against Finca. I've known you for years and I have rarely ever seen that gleam to your eyes that I saw when you fought to protect Nethial . . ."

'It wasn't protection. I failed Net . . . I let my anger get the better of me and I lashed out, hurting her in the process,' Tamli whispered as his voice shook with emotions he couldn't repress any longer.

Narssia licked the side of his snout, raising her right wing to stretch it over him. "None of this was your fault," she assured him calmly as he closed his eyes and drew in a series of shallow breaths. "Tamli, look at me. Breathe . . . It's okay. I'm right here to help you."

Tearing himself from out under her wing, he stumbled to his feet and took a few steps forward, heart pounding wildly. 'No, no, no. I caused this! My death gave Amia the genetic material he needed to clone me. Those copies were doomed from the start but how Tanui held onto his sanity for as long as he did I have no idea. The amount of power he had coursing through his veins must have drowned everything else out . . . Maybe I'm just like him - doomed to go crazy.'

"That's the panic talking," Narssia corrected as she winced, folding her wing back against her side as he saw several jagged tears in it from his violent escape from her comforting embrace, and got to her feet. "Those clones came from you. You were the original and you managed to survive this long-"

Whirling around to face her as she approached him slowly, Tamli bared his teeth as he narrowed his eyes, picking up a mix of blood and the ever-present scent of rain and burnt grass that plagued him as he started to shake. 'For what? For Finca to rip my heart out with her betrayal? I see her now and all I can think of is Tanui. He took her from me and I never got the chance to kill him as he had brutally slaughtered my soul mate. It just . . . I . . .'

His breath came in gasps as he heard Tanui's dark laugh resound in his head, seeing the limp form of Finca lay before him as her blood stained the grass. Everything that had happened was because of him, because he had been too weak to endure that which had killed so many dragons. A cry rose from the depths of his chest and he made no attempt to silence it as he broke down, slamming his forelegs into the stone under him as a pained shriek of misery tore from his throat.

Narssia was soon by his side, pressing her head against the curve of his neck as he sobbed. "Tamli, you will get past this. I was once in a similar position when I first discovered I was an empath. I thought the guilt and sorrow would swallow me completely but it didn't and I survived. You are the strongest creature I know and your sympathy for others only shows how much heart you have. You truly are the best of both races."

'Don't pity me just because I'm a hybrid,' Tamli snarled, shaking his head as he grimaced and a tremor ran down his spine.

"I'm not, Tamli. I just thought that if you knew I had gone through something similar then maybe you would be more willing to let me help you," Narssia admitted.

'It's not something you can fix!'

"Maybe not, but your emotional state at the moment has me fearful about what you might do when you see Finca again."

A snarl rose from his throat, the sound darkened by his anger as Tamli moved his head away from her. 'I will rip her apart.'

'That's not the nature of the hybrid I've heard so much about.'

The sudden interruption caused Tamli to see Arxa had entered and he snarled, advancing towards her as Narssia cried out her name in warning. Ignoring the words he had just exchanged with the dragoness, he shoved the dark spirit against the door that she had just gone through, hearing the satisfying crack of a bone as he pressed against the side of her snout with a foretaloned limb.

"Tamli, let her go!" Narssia's growled request did nothing to quell the anger that surged up within him and Tamli flared his wings to silence her as he met Arxa's determined gaze.

"Panic attacks? I suspected them from a lower species but not from the famous hybrid," Arxa scoffed, raising the pitch of her voice as she made it so only Tamli could hear her."What's wrong? The clones unnerve you a little too much? Or was it maybe the new form that Finca has taken?"

'Don't push it, spirit,' Tamli snarled back, loosening his grip only to reposition himself and slam her against the same spot harder as his claws scratched the scales on her face. 'I don't have time to deal with you right now!'

"Of course you don't want me as a distraction. You're too focused on your own moments of panic and that sinking feeling in your chest that Nethial is going to pay for your failed attempt to kill Finca."

"Arxa, don't make him any more irritated than he already is. I've spent the last few minutes trying to get him to calm down," Narssia growled as she took a step towards them.

"You know you won't find Nethial so you're taking your anger out on anyone near you in hopes of soothing your emotional pain," Arxa continued as Tamli glanced back at Narssia before returning his attention to the spirit, easing up as he felt his rage fade and become replaced by the drowning guilt he had been wallowing in since Tanui's sudden death.

With a soft sigh of defeat, he released her and stepped back, letting Narssia go to Arxa's side as he stared down at the floor. The former entity of Corruption was right about his problems - especially his fear that Nethial would have to pay for his less-than-perfect attempt at killing Finca. A gleam of something jewel-like from the back of Narssia's neck briefly shimmered in the corner of his eye and he raised his gaze to get a better look at the object. It was a small red gem, buried between two scales and shimmering on occasion as the two she-dragons talked between themselves. He suspected it was likely tied to Corruption but was not absolutely certain as the shape looked familiar to something he had seen quite a long time ago.

'Narssia, who is to watch over Ilma now? With Nethial captured I cannot think of-'

"Aurelia will see to both children," Narssia assured him as she approached, Arxa by her side with her teeth bared.

'With Dhran now dead, there will need to be a new leader elected. All those so far have met sudden deaths," Arxa remarked as Tamli avoided her fierce glare and returned to focusing on the floor by his foreclaws.

'No, Ilma must be protected. While I trust the healer, I feel it is best for the young hybrid to be under my guard,' Tamli admitted absentmindedly as he scratched at a stone under him.

"Tamli, you're dead. How are you going to take care of her when she can't even touch you? I know she is your blood but-"

A low growl rose from his throat as he lifted his gaze to her. 'Ilma is Tanui's blood, not mine! He was a clone of myself but his blood was altered by the wraith. There was more dragon blood in him than I ever had.'

'Now that is merely your way of trying to avoid the question,' Arxa scoffed, snorting in amusement as Tamli hissed at her words.

'Say what you will, spirit, but I must take my leave. Ilma will be raised as a true hybrid - learning to embrace both aspects of her nature.' Nodding to Narssia in thanks, Tamli released the power keeping him in the living world before setting off to get the daughter of his first love.