Chapter 82-Dark Revelations
Narssia ignored the cold stinging her snout as she flew, feeling tiny pieces of ice collide with her leathery wings as she trailed over a dense snowy landscape. Her father's ancient directions had lead them to the vast wasteland of an isolated island above the northern border of the mainland in search of the original body of her sister. She was thankful for once that she had gained the element of wind to speed up the flight, although the black mist swirling beside her had little trouble keeping up with her quick speed. Having never expected the former form of Arxa to be out in a place essentially inhabitable to dragons, she had not had time to steel herself for the cold conditions but made the best of it that she could as she soared just under dense gray clouds.
Seemingly endless forests of tall trees spread out below her as ice crystals gathered on her jaws and she felt tempted to go up into the clouds to give herself some relief from the chilling winds and sleet that pelted her body. Zagnoth showed no signs of slowing down as he stayed close by her, although seemingly lost in thought as the back of her neck didn't hurt as it normally would if he wished to communicate with her. Once Arxa was safe and out of danger, she promised herself she would see to him removing the gem and letting her live her own life. Finally the silence had dragged on for long enough and she reached out with her mind to ask him a single question.
"Do you remember where you left it?"
It took Zagnoth several minutes to respond to her, his words drawn out as if he was still distracted by something else. 'I remember, Nuodasis.'
"How is Nuri holding up? Heard anything from him?" She growled softly as she flapped her wings, hating having to press him to talk but it was unlike Zagnoth to stay so reserved and quiet.
'He's fine.' Yet another short answer worried her even more but Narssia decided to let the matter drop, focusing on observing the landscape under her as trees gave way to old abandoned houses that had partially collapsed from the amount of snow pressing down on them over the years.
"Was this desolate place ever settled in?"
'A group of nomads have used it over the years. Magic-users that I shared secrets with back when my hatred at my brother drove me to try anything I could to get back at him,' Zagnoth informed her absentmindedly as she felt something holding him back from embracing their discussion fully as he normally would have with a lengthy flight.
Dropping into a shallow dive to switch into another air current, Narssia could see the walls were made of reinforced concrete that had withstood hundreds of years of wear in less than favorable conditions. It increased her curiosity but she kept her silence and let him dwell on whatever was making him so distant from her. With no one to talk to, she found her thoughts turning to Arxa and she realized she was worried about her sister's survival. Zagnoth had assured he that she would be fine after he reunited her essence with her original body but she was still skeptical and fearful the aged deity wouldn't hold true to his promise.
A sharp growl from her father forced her out of her thoughts and she glanced around for him to see him descending to the ground just outside of one of the homes she had passed over not a minute before. Whirling around to catch up to him, she pressed her wings tight against her back and dropped into a fast dive, pulling up just so she could land on her feet and stabilize herself before following after him as he entered the ruined building. Her talons crunched on packed snow as her tail dug through the white powder and she slowly passed through a crumbling overhang that had originally been the front door. There was barely enough space for her to crawl through as she lowered herself and dragged her underbelly against the cold ground, repressing a shudder as she folded her wings against her side and went into what was once the living room.
It had been medium sized at first but with one wall now knocked down and snow blowing in without restraint, Narssia could barely envision the space as it had formerly been during the time it had been used. Barely catching a glance of Zagnoth as he trailed down a narrow corridor towards the back of the room, she ignored her observation of the destroyed area and followed after him. The small walkway gradually sloped downward and eventually she stopped feeling a chill beating against her scales as the air warmed slightly. No longer having to deal with snow making visibility difficult, she relaxed a little bit and picked up her pace as it lead her out into a large circular room with various cells fashioned into the walls with silver beams that shimmered occasionally with a sickly green glow.
"What is this place?" She asked softly, seeing Zagnoth had stopped at the center of the room and she took a step towards him in curiosity.
'Do not approach the cells. We are not here for them but are here to recover Axsanu's body.' The harsh tone and abrupt avoidance of what she wanted to know worried her slightly as Narssia cast another glance around the room to see most of the cells that she could clearly make out were empty.
One particular imprisonment was shaded in shadows as her gaze had originally traveled over it but now as she took another glance at Zagnoth's still form, she heard the sound of chains weakly rattling. Curiosity perked by the noise, she lifted her head and took a step towards the location only to get snarled at by her father for ignoring the orders he had given her. She had tried to talk with him earlier and yet now he wished her to obey him completely without question when he had failed to tell her much of anything previously. Anger briefly rose within her at the thought but she subdued it and sighed heavily, focusing on him as he swirled around a single spot on the cold stone floor that was stained with occasional dirt smudges.
Choosing to leave him to focus on getting Arxa's body, Narssia walked over to the cell she had heard movement from and froze upon seeing what exactly was inside it. A woman hung chained to the back wall of her prison, long black hair obscuring her face as both her wrists and ankles were fitted with thick black cuffs and her arms hung above her body. Dried blood residue covered her wrists as the she-dragon looked over the rest of her body and saw bruises and healing cuts covering slightly muscular arms and legs as she wore a loose fitting white tank top and black shorts. Jolting sharply awake, gray eyes snapped open as the female prisoner strained against the bondage and stared at Narssia in utter fear.
Retreating a step as she realized who it was that she was seeing, Narssia quickly glanced at Zagnoth to see he was busy doing some kind of ritual to bring Arxa's body to the surface from whatever depth he had plunged it into when he had buried it the first time. She was staring at Nethial, the former human love of Tamli and the one whose daughter he had taken and begun to train. With Finca dead now, she was surprised to find the human had survived but noticed something odd as shimmering veins stretched along the captive's arms briefly before vanishing and leaving small little white scales in their place. The horror of her discovery didn't affect her at first until she thought back to what little information she knew about the woman and then reminded herself that the hybrid had loved her and had a child with her before he had known of his unique nature.
"What is Nethial doing here? Father, what is this place? Answer me!" She snarled, demanding an answer as she turned to face him and saw the black mist that formed him peeling away like smoke.
The skin that was left behind toughened up quickly to reveal thick black scales slick with a glossy appearance as murky yellow spines trailed from his neck to his tail. Six impressive horns crowned the base of his skull as turquoise irises gleamed with new light and he raised his twin-forked tail high enough for Narssia to catch a glimpse of dark blue scales lining his underside. His snout was long and lean, showcasing a small horn right behind his nostrils in a shallow dip that bore the same coloration as the spines that adorned his back. A large ruby gem lay snug where the dragon's heart would be and it pulsed as those it acted in place of the necessary body organ. Two sets of large crystalline wings sparkled with the distant glow of stars as he flapped them in contentment and Narssia trembled in awe at seeing the majesty of her father in his original form as the regal co-ruler of the cosmos prior to their planet being formed by his brother.
"What happened?" The timidness she knew he heard from her had slipped in by accident as her awe of his new form caused her voice to waver slightly.
'Aker came to me and told me I had finally shown the humility he always knew I possessed. He said he was proud to be called my brother now and blessed me by reversing the curse he had placed upon me. Any dragon that is willing to lay down their life for that of their own child is surely showing the greatest lowering of pride there can be - he made that clear to me before leaving and letting me draw upon the magic I had when I placed her in this state to bring her out of it.'
Sparkling blue irises seemed to linger on her as Narssia looked away from the impressive stature of her father and turned her attention back to Nethial to see the woman had closed her eyes and was shuddering slightly. Having wanted to ask why the former rider was now in chains, the question seemed trivial compared to when she would get to see her sister restored to perfect health. Sending up a cloud of dust with her tail, she moved around to face him and watched as the ground in front of him crumbled away. From out of the dark gaping hole now in the floor, a small bundle wrapped in swirling rainbow-colored magic rose until it hovered over the open pit and the ground that had dissolved away returned as though nothing had disrupted it in the first place.
Lifting himself so that the red gem in his chest was at the same height as the magic-wrapped object, Zagnoth muttered a few words in a language Narssia had never heard and the crystal glowed brightly, as did the smaller one in the back of her neck. Pain seared its way through her mind, bringing with it an echoing reminder of the words her father had just spoken in the alien tongue and she closed her eyes, shaking her head to try and ease the burning agony. When she opened her eyes again, the rainbow light was gone and a small black form floated in mid-air as a gentle amber aura surrounded it from the stone in the deity's chest.
"Is that . . . ?" Her words came out in a whisper as she looked closer and saw the entire small body was a charcoal black under the light that kept it levitating.
'Indeed, Nuodasis, that is Axsanu as I last knew her. Now comes the moment that I ask thou to close the mind link and resist her urge to reestablish it. This will bring her greater agony than she hath ever felt before and I do not wish for thou to go through it as she does,' Zagnoth commanded as he flapped his large wings and exchanged a soft look with her before opening his maw and screeching, the volume of the sound forcing Narssia to retreat a few steps as she closed herself off from Arxa's damaged mind and waited for him to begin.
She dimly felt Arxa in pain as the frail body before them glowed softly and seemed to draw color into itself as the air warmed considerably. The areas that had been black when she first looked were now a dark gray as she heard the sound of a heartbeat coming from the tiny dragon. Long wings dropped from the force of gravity and Narssia noticed they had the same starlit appearance as what she had seen from Zagnoth. A small head also had the elongation that her father had shown and four pitch-black horns curved out back behind to rest above her neck. Both front and back legs had four claws each while her tail ended in a sharp tip.
"She's not going to be happy she lost that scythe-like tailblade," Narssia muttered to herself as the dragon's eyes snapped open and she found herself being stared at by amethyst irises clouded in confusion.
Zagnoth gradually set Arxa down and hovered silently as the awakened dragoness glanced around rapidly in panic before closing her eyes and shaking her head. Narssia hesitantly took a step towards her only to get snarled at as the she-dragon reopened her eyes and bared her teeth in warning.
"Arxa, relax. You're safe. Father helped you and now you're better."
'Agh, agh, ne dusi . . .' The words came quick and broken, sounding to Narssia like Arxa was in panic and fear as the unknown language made no sense to her.
While Narssia had no knowledge of the language, Zagnoth certainly did as he growled softly in interest at Arxa's words. 'Ne dusi lu anqi? Vo Wvyi?'
'Wvyi,' she replied, calming down some as Narssia realized Zagnoth knew how to communicate with her where she could understand them.
"What happened to her? What did you say to her that calmed her down?" Narssia asked as she glanced between her sister and her father as Arxa sat stiff-straight and continued to look around in panic as her eyes flickered rapidly from one side of the room to another.
'Something went wrong with the magic. She has some memories back but they are from when I pulled her from her body and threw her into your mind to reduce the strain on myself. All she knows is a language Aker and I used eons ago and she sees you as an enemy,' he informed her as Arxa snarled at Narssia briefly and then shuddered, the air temperature dropping back to the slight chill it had.
"Don't tell me that she's cold," Narssia growled as she watched her sister flinch and snap at open air, her amethyst irises wide open in fear.
Zagnoth hummed softly, flapping his wings again as the gem in his chest gleamed softly. 'No, I don't think so. I think it's her way of trying to cope with everything around her. I can ask if you are curious though.'
"Thanks for the offer but I'll pass," she snapped back as Arxa hesitantly brushed against her mind for a brief second before retreating and staring wide-eyed at the cell Narssia knew was the one that housed Nethial.
'Agh! Ne ri . . . Ne ri!' Arxa's shuttered words gave Narssia a good idea she was terrified and she sighed, walking over to the scared dragoness and pointing her towards the direction they had come down from to get into the underground room.
'She's scared, Nuodasis. Why would you think she would simply go along with you?'
"Because," Narssia remarked as she went behind Arxa and tried to push her forward, "she surely isn't going to be doing us any good sitting here in this dismal place freezing to death. We need to get back to Nuri and tell him what happened with-"
Narssia was mid-sentence when she felt the sharp tip of a tail smack the scales on her chest and she flinched at seeing a single amethyst eye glaring at her in uttermost hatred. Her own sister loathed her, at least that's what Zagnoth said, and the thought sent a chill down her spine at the realization she had lived in disgust of Arxa for nearly seven years while the opposite had held true for eons. It was petty for her to still hold resentment for the deaths her sibling had caused but she reasoned that the trauma of being stuck in a place where you couldn't move or even voice your opinion for thousands of years had to have dealt irreversible damage to the fragile she-dragon's psyche.
'Qa, dusa. Ki jua ne frul ve su'o ga mu'xe. Ne hua gre zu ge xam tae su. Wo gy ji xa buc xa qin puq wo fla aghu ezy khu wo juk xa . . .'
Having no understanding of the words spoken, Narssia looked to Zagnoth for a translation of the broken tongue Arxa now spoke in. 'Yes, dragoness. You see the damaged state my mind is in. The remaining fragments of memory that haunt me. I can try to learn to forgive but I am not sure if I want to . . .' He paused for a moment before adding, 'The bond you two share is adjusting to her new body. Give it time and you won't need me to translate for you. The Stagraven tongue was all I knew for hundreds of years before developing my Dragonic enough to the point that I could communicate with others fairly well.'
"Stagraven, so that is what it's called. Could we teach Dragonic to Arxa again? Just like teaching a hatchling how to hunt?"
'I have an idea of who we could get to teach it to her. I'm sure the blood hatchling would be thrilled with getting to spend time with her,' Zagnoth remarked with a frustrated snort.
"What do you mean? Wouldn't Arxa react better to you teaching her?" Narssia inquired, confused as to why her father would suggest having Nuri instruct Arxa when he was still a hatchling.
'You don't see it, do you? Nurus has feelings for Axsanu. It's one of the reasons why I had him watch her when we left. I-'
Baring her teeth, Narssia let a low snarl ripple past her jaws as she clenched them. "You would let my son, your grandson, go through the pain of losing the one they loved! Why? He has done you no wrong, Father!"
'I am not going to defend my meaning for doing such, Nuodasis. It would be wise to return to Nurus,' Zagnoth remarked softly before adding after a moment, 'While I sense you are concerned over why the former traitor and lover of Saconith-ti is held down here but I can honestly say I do not know what punishment she has earned to be relocated in this barren place. It is not our duty to question such, my child.'
'Ne ri . . .' Arxa whispered, staring at the dark corridor they would have to travel into to return to the surface.
"The dark. You're afraid of the dark? Arxa, we will be right beside you the whole way back home," Narssia commented as she realized the phrase her sister had been muttering over and over sounded to her very much like the name of her gifted offspring Nuri.
Finally convincing Arxa to follow after Zagnoth as he left the underground chamber and returned to the snowy surface, Narssia stayed behind her sibling as the restored dragoness moved uneasily on ground that was slick with ice. She wanted to help her as the gray dragoness trembled and nearly slid into a wall, her claws seemingly unable to find a good grip on the weather-coated floor. Hesitant talons reached for the broken she-dragon before her but she stopped herself as a soft growl of defiance rose from her sister and starlit wings spread out to steady herself.
Reaching the open space that had been the main room once, Narssia watched as Zagnoth lifted his four wings and quickly climbed into the bitter air as snowy limited visibility and Arxa's gray scales threatened to blend in with the bleak environment. Lifting her snout, black fire blazed from her jaws for a moment before she noticed her sister shrink back in fear and she quelled the flames before joining her father in the sky. Circling around, she dove towards the grounded dragoness and motioned her to use her wings but was snarled at as amethyst irises stared widely at her in terror.
"Father, would you be willing to use that levitation you used on her earlier to get her to join us in the sky? She refuses to fly and I cannot say why she reacts in terror anytime I approach her with the purest intentions." Narssia knew why Arxa refused to do anything with her and it nearly broke her heart to see her sister acting as if she had gone through great emotional trauma. She imagined the damage done to the she-dragon's psyche had left her scarred and it saddened her to know she had played a part in it.
There was no argument from Zagnoth as the gem in his chest glowed and Arxa was surrounded by the same amber light that had returned her to the body she now had again. A squeal of fright first left the dragoness before she closed her eyes and submitted herself to the transportation as the two dragons set off for the mainland to rejoin Nuri. It would be a warm welcome from her children, or so Narssia innocently believed as she was tried of having sleet and snow rain down on her wings.
AN: Yes the Stagraven language does not exist in real life but I needed a way to get Arxa communicating differently than how we normally see. If anyone wants a direct translation of the lines, feel free to PM me or leave a review and I'll gladly send the translations. Things are heading to the endgame now and there is one particular part you should remember for a later chapter.