by Oxford, Rain
Sydney sat beside me on the porch swing. The low sun made her deep brown hair glow. Arazel had black hair. I pushed the thought away and put my arm around my mate. Dylan, Divina, and the boys would be coming after dark. Ueme and Regar loved their cousins, and I loved that Dylan volunteered to take them for the night. Regar was at the age were sleep was a bad thing, so Sydney and I could do with a night of peace and quiet.
“Mordon, pay attention,” Sydney said. I frowned at her. She never even glanced at the children and instead stared straight at me. The wind died and the sound of the children playing vanished.
“What’s wrong?”
“These aren’t my children.”
“Yes they are.”
“No. They’re Arazel’s. And they’re not yours either; they are Rojan’s. This is just a dream. I died, Mordon.”
“Stop it.” I knew she was right, but I wanted this. I wanted this life. Rojan and I were the same in that. When Sydney tried to say something else, I interrupted her with a growl. She let it go because I wanted her to and this was my dream.
“Mordon, pay attention.” It was Dylan this time.
Suddenly, Dylan and I were on a natural rock platform, high in the mountains. We were above the clouds! Dylan sat across from me with a dark gray shirt, black pants, and a thick, dark blue cloak. His iron pentagram hung outside of his clothes and pulsed with a strange green aura.
I shivered from the cold air, which felt ridiculously real. Even knowing this was a dream, I felt Rojan shudder. It was the first time I sensed Rojan since Dylan’s death. Before I could complain about suffering in my dreams, the wind and the chill faded.
“Is that better?” he asked.
“What is this?”
“Pay attention,” he said slowly, deliberately. He always said that to me when I was missing some vital clue. I wasn’t a moron, but nobody except for Ron could spot clues like Dylan did. When he explained things, it often came across as far-fetched, but he understood things that we didn’t.
“What is it?” I asked when he didn’t continue.
He sat back slightly with a sad frown on his face. “Wrong question.”
* * *
I was back in the war at Lore, but I saw things strangely. It was not washed out like when I was seeing through by dragon eyes. Actually, every person looked very vivid and unique.
A woman in front of me stopped and faced me, just for a moment. I saw her as the red-haired, blue-eyed person that everyone else did, but I also saw her as a tiny child. I saw every moment of shame and pride, every lie and every awkward truth, every heartbreak she had ever experienced and ever would in her future. I saw her die here in this battle, and I saw her live.
Then she was gone and I saw Dylan speaking with the Ancient right before the battle began. He was the one who said he was friends with Janus. This time, however, I couldn’t hear the words he spoke.
“Mordon, pay attention,” Dylan’s voice called again.
“To what?” No response. “Okay… to whom then?”
I started looking around us, scanning each nearby face and seeing more than I could bear. Only the immortals were exempt from this strange power. It wasn’t my power. Although dragon eyes could see much about a person’s soul, we could not see the future.
“Where am I?” In reality, I was next to Dylan when the Ancient wanted to talk to him, but I didn’t see myself there.
“You are dying.” Dylan appeared next to me and everything else froze. Then Ron and Hail disappeared. “They need you, Mordon. I depended on your strength to get them through this. Wake up.”
“No. They needed you. How dare you ask this of me? How could you let yourself be killed?”
“I saw a thousand paths, and none of them were easier to face.”
The scene changed until I saw the last moment of Dylan’s life. Dylan stood there, frozen in time, surrounded by his family. I stood across from him while Divina stood to his right and Ron stood to his left. Hail was behind him. In an odd sort of stop-motion, Sen appeared with his staff raised.
Dylan moved to the side and Hail was struck by the power instead of my brother. Before the boy could hit the ground, the scene was reset. It played again, except Dylan used a shield of energy to deflect the burst. This time, it rebound and struck me. Again the scene reset, and in the span of an instant, this happened over and over, each time resulting in someone dead, no matter what Dylan did.
“What would have happened if you gave the staff to Vretial?”
Once again, I was sitting on hard, cold rock on a mountain with Dylan across from me. “Four of the Ancients were expecting that; they were waiting to overpower him. Vretial is powerful, but not enough to defeat so many Ancients at once. He thought he could have kept it safe, but he was wrong. The only thing worse than Sen getting the staff was for the Ancients to have it.”
“How did Sen get the staff from the magic room?”
“The witch hunter gave us the book, knowing I would use it to cut their army down some. He never cared about the war. Instead, he used the chest as a trap, which allowed a gateway into the room for Atos.”
“While we were distracted by the war, Atos used the passageway into the magic room, got the staff, and gave it to Sen. Atos didn’t have the power to use it himself, but he knew from the listening to demons that Sen was poisoned against me by his mother.”
“I should kill him.”
“You will not. This wasn’t his fault. Unfortunately, it was preventable. Had Sydney lived, you would have been with her and Emiko would have moved on, along with her son. Divina only saw this after stopping me from saving Sydney, but she didn’t know who was going to kill me.”
“How are you telling me all of this if you’re dead?”
“Pay attention. What did the demon call me?”
* * *
With a jolt of adrenaline and feeling like I had been shocked, I woke. I was in my bedroom. It was dark and warm with the fireplace crackling cheerfully. Since I had slept for at least five or six days straight, I knew it had not been lit by me.
As I suspected, I saw Sen curled up in front of the fireplace when I sat up. I rose slowly from the bed, wary of aching muscled due to lack of movement. I felt surprisingly fine. Hell, even my fire felt stronger. Why am I getting better instead of worse?
Vretial appeared in front of me, causing me to shout. Sen jerked up, ready to fight an attacker, only to shrink back when he saw Vretial. “What are you doing here?” I asked the god, although I really wanted to ask the child that question instead.
“You seem to be doing better. Perhaps your soul is stronger than I thought. It makes sense when you think about it; you had to become strong as Dylan did. Samhail had a vision. Since it was an impossible vision, I wanted to come and see about this for myself.”
“Maybe I am still dreaming.”
“When it comes to Dylan, is it ever that simple?” he asked. “Sorry, but hold on, I can’t take you seriously like that.”
I felt his magic flow through me before I could ask what he was talking about. When it was gone, I felt no different, except my loose shorts were replaced with black pants and a dark blue sweater.
“You look weird with facial hair.”
I touched my chin and gave the god my best deadpanned stare. “That is the weirdest use of magic.”
“At least Ron won’t scream when he sees you,” he said.
That, I could see happening.
“I am going to send you to Kiro. The Guardian of Duran has been trying to uphold his duties, but he is distracted.”
With a flash of light, I found myself on Bulde, Mijii, one of the most haunted islands of Duran. It was primarily forest here and some trees were more than five thousand years old. It was a place where people went to and were never seen again. Because of its right rich history, Bulde was protected even as it was the source of many dark fairytales and legends.
Mist swarmed my ankles and the howling wind caused the trees to sway ominously. The harsh
wind was caused by the location of this island between the currents of the sea. According to stories, this was the meeting place of the minor gods, which accounted for the odd sounds that could be heard all the way to the mainland of eastern Mijii.
A sharp snap was the only sound before a huge tree fell right in front of me. Edward, who had been in the falling tree, jumped and landed gracefully on his feet with his gun aimed into the darkness. “Mordon, what are you doing here?” he asked, not affording me a glance.
“Helping you, I guess.” Then dark, glowing red eyes focused on us from the trees, far enough apart that I knew this was the largest creature I had ever faced. “Or… maybe dying.”
The creature stomped into view and I wanted to breathe easy, for this was not actually as big as the monster on Dayo, but it was too large to put me at ease. The creature stood bipedal and had the general shape of an extremely muscular man, except it was covered head to toe in thick black fur. Its hands were stubby with short fingers that ended in claws. Its face was not like a man’s either, but somewhere between a person and a draxuni, as it had a short snout full of sharp teeth.
“What is that?” I asked.
“The manifestation of a terrified little boy’s nightmares,” he answered. I stared at him. “I am absolutely serious.” He shot the gun, but the bullet glanced off the monster’s skin without leaving a scratch. Edward proceeded to empty the gun of its bullets into the creature’s face with the same effectiveness.
I shifted into a dragon, accidentally hitting Edward with my wing, and flew up into the sky. I blew fire at the monster that was tall enough to stick out over the trees. When it just swatted its hand at me, I dodged the hand and risked a hit in order to dig my claws into its flesh. I did bathe my talons in blood, but the creature couldn’t have cared less. So I shot lightning at the monster.
This hurt it. Finally, the monster was knocked off its feet, if only for a minute. When the giant creature reached for a nearby tree to pull itself up with, I knew Rojan and I were in trouble. The ancient tree snapped in half.
I opened my mouth to strike with lightning again when the creature made such a loud, horrifying sound that the trees shook and animals in the forest cried out. I instinctively wrapped my wings around me to block out the sound as I fell from the sky. The vibrations of the monster’s approached spurred me to move. I unfurled my wings, took Edward as gently as I could in my talons, and rolled out of the way, wrapping my wings around us both to propel my roll and make us a smaller target. The monster swiped at us, but we were already moving, so its aim was off.
My shift couldn’t have taken me any more by surprise. At the mercy of my enemy, I was shifting uncontrollably back into my sago form. To my even greater shock, we were not immediately attacked. I looked up in time to see Dylan appear in a burst of light, facing the monster.
Every instinct in me demanded I rise and protect him, but I never had the chance. Dylan raised his hands at the creature. When a three-dimensional shadow was torn out of the monster’s body, the creature screamed, but I was frozen and couldn’t cover my ears. Then the creature and the shadow vaporized.
My fire squirmed inside me defiantly and Edward rose before I could stop him. He moved towards my brother, but Dylan held up his hands to tell the Guardian to stay back. “Don’t touch me,” he said, backing away. His voice was bold, almost angry, as power greater than any god’s emanated from him.
“Dylan?” Edward prompted softly, as if speaking to a wounded animal.
Unable to contain it any longer, I held up my hand as my fire formed a sphere in my palm. When it instantly formed into a ball of ice so cold it could only be called burning, I knew this was bad. “Zero.” But then the ice turned back into fire, then back into ice. It turned back and forth with increasing speed until I thought my body was going to be ripped in two.
“Mordon, pay attention.”
It stopped. The sphere in my hand was now a globe of ice that was burning with fire. I looked at the being who was both my brother and not. “Who are you?” I asked.
Edward moved again to touch him, gently, but Dylan retreated a few more steps. “I will kill you if you touch me.”
“I’m not going to hurt you. You remember me, right?”
Dylan was the only person that the Guardian loved as much as his twin brother. Dylan was the perfect son for the man who feared failing his children. If Dylan turned Edward away, it would break the older man’s heart. It would be too much for the Guardian who had already lost everything.
“Of course I remember you, Dad, but I will still kill you if you touch me. I wouldn’t be able to help it. I have created a body out of the resources of the world, like the demons, but my power is too great. I am burning it too quickly.”
As he said this with his hands still outstretched, blisters and burns were creeping over his hands and up his throat. The robe he wore was only barely corporeal, probably no more than magic itself.
Then he burst into ash with a painful grunt, only to reform and instant later without the burns. “I have maybe a few minutes before the body is destroyed again.”
“Can you possess me, like Zeb did?”
He shook his head, wincing as if he had a headache. “I am too powerful; I would burn even your dragon’s form.” Yet he shivered. The heat from his body was spreading on the wind like fire warming a camp, but it was strong enough that Edward took several steps back.
“How do we help?” Edward asked.
Dylan ignored the Guardian and focused on me. “I need you to kill me,” he said.
I gaped for a minute before I could even form the words. “Never.”
He burst into ash and reformed, a little slower than the first time, and he was panting when he stood before me. “My power is infinite, but I cannot keep this up forever. If you want me to be able to remain in this realm, I need my body back. To do that, I need it freed.”
“What?” Edward asked.
“You never pay attention,” Dylan said. “My pentagram. You gave me my pentagram, but it was not my energy in it. Dleso Atos has inhabited my body. I want him out,” he growled.
“Why are you not dead? Why are you so powerful?” I asked.
“What did the demon call me?”
“I didn’t hear---”
“Not the Ancient…” He grunted as burns started to appear on his cheeks. I reached out to try to heal him, but he stepped back from me. “In the warehouse. Right after you discovered that the demons were invisible.”
It took me a second to remember the event, but I couldn’t remember the demons saying anything.
“Enochian words try to erase themselves from the minds of non-gods,” Dylan told me. As he said it, my vision darkened until I was back in the warehouse.
* * *
I wasted my advantage. The two demons started shifting in a gory fashion, as if their skin melted until they looked like people. “Go away, dragon. We have no business with you.”
“I am here with Yatunus-so Dylan to free those kidnapped by you.”
“You come seeking to destroy us then. No friend of him will leave this place alive. Dragons are no match for demons.”
“Demon powers allow you to understand their words, but not Enochian. Only Iadnah energy can translate Enochian.” Dylan’s voice interrupted the vision for a moment.
The other demon suddenly slapped his companion’s arm. “That is Mordon, the dragon brother of the Qadah.”
* * *
My eyes snapped open. “That’s impossible,” I said, breathless.
“What? What did the demon say?” Edward asked.
“Qadah.”
“Which means?” he asked, frustrated.
“The best human word for it would be… creator.” Dylan burst into ash again and reformed again. It was really creepy, but knowing what Dylan really was, was more so.
“You’re a god?!” Edward asked.
I picked up the remains of my clothes and put them on as best as I could. Dylan made a slight
gesture with his hand and my clothes mostly sewed back together… but they were still bloody, as were my hands. My claws refused to retreat on account of the adrenalin still pumping through my veins.
“Not quite, but sort of. The demons call me Qadah, while the gods call me Iaidonor. While the Iadnah are the gods of the universe, including the Land of the Iadnah, I am the god of the void. At least my soul is.”
“I don’t understand.”
Without a flash of light or a hint of warning, Edward, Dylan, and I were sitting on the rock at the mountain. Dylan sighed. “This is better.”
I reached out cautiously and touched his shoulder. He felt solid and warm, but not like he was about to burst into ash again. His pentagram still pulsed with a green aura.
“This is keeping tabs on my body in the mortal realm,” Dylan said, tracking my gaze. “As long as it is green, Atos hasn’t done anything horrible and my body is still functioning. Now, as I was saying… There were originally three Iaidonor, two males, and one female. My soul was more powerful and so, for that reason, I destroyed the other male.”
“Just because he existed?” I asked.
He nodded, looking completely unconcerned. “Maybe I wanted more power. It was a long time ago. Actually, it was before any universe even existed. The female and I were the only beings of intelligence; the other insignificant beings in the void were more like floating debris than anything else. So, we made the Ancients.
“Something we did created a pocket in the void that became the Land of the Iadnah. The Iadnah themselves appeared as some stretch of chance and remnants of the fallen Iaidonor. For some reason, probably my odd version of curiosity and boredom, I captured one of the Iadnah and created Janus. He was half Ancient, half Iadnah. I liked that.
“I must have been very conceited at that time, because I believed the Land of the Iadnah had no effect on my realm. When Oiad ended the war of the Iadnah by destroying all but thirteen, as well as the original realm itself, my soul was… damaged. Perhaps I was too close. A small part of me was lost in the universe and tried over and over to follow the natural order; to be born. It never once took, however, because it was too much of me.
