Dragon Aster Trilogy

by S. J. Wist

  “Get some sleep,” Kas said, nodding towards the door.

  Sybl got to her feet and left his room, shutting the door behind her.

  Kas took in a deep breath, as her questions had come too close to the truth. He didn’t know why the rest of her memories had not returned yet, but he was grateful that they stayed away for now. Some things were better left forgotten, and with him would die the last sadness that could hurt her in this life.

  7: OWNERSHIP

  Sybl didn’t know how many of Urio’s cookies she had packed down, only that she was pushing it with the plate almost empty. Her promise to cut back on the sugar was failing because of her stress.

  “There are better ways to fake sickness,” Urio said, taking the plate of cookies from her and setting it on the counter next to him in the kitchen. “And Kas said you were going to cut back.”

  “Hey, I’m entitled to stress management just like everyone else. Now give back those cookies before I find a sword and a victim to rage on.”

  Urio put up a hand in defeat as he let out a hearty chuckle, then gave her back the plate.

  Sybl looked back when someone entered the kitchen and saw Kenshe.

  “There you are,” Urio said as he dried his hands with a towel. “Well, I trapped her, now she’s all yours.”

  Sybl swallowed the last bit of cookie in her mouth as Urio left, and Kenshe sat in front of her. They stared at each other for a long while before she found the courage to speak. “I’m sorry I couldn’t save your father.”

  “I know. It would take a coward like Damek to try and kill you after you got nearly destroyed by that Phoenix, to force my father to react as he did.

  “You haven’t spoken to your mother yet, have you?” Sybl asked.

  “I tried. The High Guard won’t let me anywhere close, and when I talked to Cirrus about it, she up and vanished. You are going back with him to Toria, right?”

  “He hasn’t said anything to me about it yet,” Sybl replied, then picked up another cookie. Kenshe snatched it away from her and ate it with one bite. “Hey! Aren’t you supposed to be at the ceremony instead of eating my food?”

  Kenshe finished chewing and shrugged. “I’m still a Custos until you say otherwise.”

  “Me? I’m not your mother,” Sybl replied, before looking at the paper Kenshe pushed her across the table. “What’s this?”

  “My father left my Fate to you.”

  Sybl read it over and gave it back to him. “I had my Fate written on a piece of paper like this once, and I won’t let that one rob you of your life. You can do whatever you want, Kenshe.”

  “I would feel better if I just followed you around for a while longer.”

  Sybl looked to the window as the drums for the ceremony started. “Kas needs you now.”

  “Kas.” Kenshe paused with a short laugh. “Kas now has an army three times the size of the former Custos. I think he will be alright.”

  Sybl got the feeling that Kenshe was hiding something more behind his wish to stay with her. “What are you not telling me?”

  Kenshe set his hands before him. “I’ve just been worried about Kas since he took that Curse from you.”

  “Is he acting differently or something?”

  “Well, no, but Gwa and I have been brainstorming as to what its purpose is.”

  Sybl listened more intently.

  “That Curse is an emotional link that Damek now has on Kas. You would think that it would be worthless now as you’re the one he wants. But there’s still one angle he can play.”

  “Which is?”

  “Your memories, back on Earth—the ones when you almost—”

  “Don’t go there,” Sybl interrupted.

  Kenshe swallowed and took a moment to rearranged the words in his head. “Damek was powerful enough to drive you to rock bottom sadness. Now I think he’s doing the opposite with Kas, as he can withstand most estus emotions. I think Damek is twisting the Curse to use him against you.”

  Sybl lifted an unbelieving eyebrow.

  “He was your brother. The accident with Kira changed all that. By Law, blood and the past between you two—I mean, why have a female and male Fay if not to—?”

  “Yeah, I’ve heard enough,” Sybl said as she got up to leave the kitchen.

  Kenshe went after her and caught her arm to stop her.

  “Let go of me, Kenshe.”

  He slowly let go of her arm and stepped back.

  “Is this about Kas or you not wanting me to go anywhere?” Sybl asked in a more serious tone.

  “Maybe a bit of both.” Kenshe turned his gaze to the floor. “Maybe I’m just mad at the dragons and don’t want to lose anyone else I care about to them.”

  “I’m not going to stay in Toria forever. Just long enough to get it back in order so I can figure out how to deal with Damek without everyone trying to kill each other.” Kenshe nodded, and Sybl hugged him. “I’m right here.”

  “Yes, my Lady Caelestis,” he said, knowing it would spark her temper to be referred to so formally by him. But when it didn’t, he hugged her back with the fear going through his psi of just how much of the Sybl he knew was already lost to her past self.

  8: FUNERAL

  The drums replaced the sound of Sybl's own heartbeat as she left the Atrum. Countless people had gathered in the courtyard for Dyaus’ funeral and the celebration that the Awls had brought into the city with their return. The pluma Awls danced from one drum to the next in their winged, cougar-like bodies. They reminded her of Indians with how much paint and feathers decorated and moved with them. Sybl would have guessed that they were celebrating the death of a dragon, but she knew now that it was a celebration of peace. A dance to weave away all the fear and hate between the Awls and dragons. A dance that wouldn’t be happening had their common enemy not brought them all together. She felt as if she had fallen right back to square one with the Sanctus’ occupation of the Atrum; parties and then saving the world, all in its backwards order.

  Sybl looked to the side where they had lit a huge bonfire for Dyaus’ burial under the wooden platform that he lay on. It looked as if everyone had come out to see the impossible sight of a dragoon being cremated on this side of the world. When only ashes remained of the Torian General, the drums stopped. Sybl quickly put her thoughts elsewhere as she could feel dozens upon dozens of eyes looking at her in the new stillness. She sent her eyes to where Kas stood and began his speech. He was the center of attention and she was relieved when he took command over it again.

  Kenshe took to the front of the line as he knelt on one knee before Kas and was sworn in as a soldier of the new Order, and Gwa followed suit behind him. Then the other Custos were initiated in a similar fashion.

  She glanced up at the Aur as the purple and black light rose through the Atrum’s peak. It covered the Suzerain Continent in its thick darkness. But it wasn’t enough to black out the firelight of the torches and bonfires lit for the occasion. It didn’t matter where she went, as a trail of apologies and regrets followed her everywhere.

  She tried to look focused from where she stood, even as a million thoughts rushed through her head and lost her emotions all over the place. Then her thoughts scattered everywhere and nowhere as Cirrus took up her side.

  “I never thought I would miss the old dragoon. I guess I was wrong. He deserved a better death.”

  Sybl stayed quiet, as she could feel that Cirrus still didn’t know the truth about his mother or father. She couldn’t tell him. Not now or ever.

  “So you’re coming back to Toria with me, right?”

  Sybl nearly jumped in fright at the question. “Of course. I mean, I’m not letting you go alone. We have to get my festra first, though.”

  “I’m sure a few dragons and phelan can hunt down Sial fast enough. Kas is going to head over to the Efereal Mountains to escort the Sanctus’ refugees here. If Damek wants to try something, he’ll have all of us to deal with again. Assuming we don’t all turn on each other by t
hen.”

  She looked at Cirrus as it felt like there was another meaning behind his words. “You've been acting strange since you spoke with Damek. What did he say to you?”

  “It’s nothing.”

  “Then why are you acting like you’re scared of me all of a sudden?”

  “Supposedly every human who gets near the Atrum’s Aur tends to get very grouchy,” Cirrus said.

  Sybl was about to reply, before stopping on sensing this was headed towards an argument. “I see your point.”

  “He was just upset about the Curse being switched between you and Kas.”

  She could feel him lying, but knew that here and now wasn’t the place to figure out the truth. What was it actually doing to him? Kas remembered everything of their past, where she only remembered a fraction of it all. She feared what she couldn’t remember and could not see coming for her.

  9: REPRESSED MEMORIES

  Sybl peered over the stack of books that had piled up before her in the Atrum’s library when someone walked in.

  “Did you leave any books on the shelves?” Cecil asked.

  “A theorist, just the person I need right now.”

  Cecil sat down at the table as Sybl picked up a book and opened it, then put it in front of him. He touched the pluma Thread and understood the images that it gave his mind. “The first Aster and twins?”

  “If that book is right, then the first brothers and sister were also a couple. Their children followed suit and so on and so on, right?”

  “You tell me, cause my Ancient isn’t as old as you are.”

  “And it would have worked genetically because their genes were all perfect.”

  “What are you getting at?” Cecil asked.

  “I think Kas is not telling me something.”

  Cecil blinked his blind eyes a few times her way. “You think you both…?”

  “Well that’s the thing. If we did, it would be here somewhere.” Sybl closed the book and opened another.

  “You are worried about not being able to have children, aren’t you?” Cecil asked.

  Sybl looked up from the book and at him. “Have you tried with Rose?”

  “Huh?” Cecil asked, his face turning a red that contrasted brightly against his blue hair. “I guess we had it in the back of our minds.”

  “But Solar can have children. The whole Line of Solar that was started three hundred years ago was by her.”

  Cecil leaned back in his chair. “I never did get the chance to thank you for saving her."

  “I never saved her. Gei did by separating her from the Phoenix at the expense of the Sanctus. I would have forced Cirrus to kill the Phoenix whether Rose was somned with it or not.”

  Cecil nodded, pretending to look like he understood. But Sybl knew that his love for Rose would make that impossible.

  “I would expect nothing less from you and everyone else if I became a monster capable of so much destruction and sided with Damek. I think the only real difference between me and Rose is that I got tired of death first.”

  “That’s good to know.”

  Sybl closed the book she was reading before looking around for his somn. The blue dragon of his Ancient was nowhere in the room. “Why are they all hiding from me lately?”

  Cecil picked up on her thoughts and looked around for his somn. “I don’t think it likes how your energy brings its spirit more into the physical, particularly as it was enough to take out the Phoenix.”

  “It could just as easily be mad at me for messing up and not being able to stop the collapse of the Sylvan City.” Sybl sighed.

  “No one is mad at you. You just haven’t forgiven yourself yet. You have to let go of the regrets.”

  “You make it sound so easy. Whoever took my memories left behind the regret for me to find them again.”

  “Is that what you think?” Cecil asked.

  “These memory gaps aren’t going to come back on their own.”

  “You’ve been awake too long and should head to bed. I’ll look over these for you and see if I can find anything that might help you out.”

  “Thanks, Cecil.” Sybl got to her feet and left the library at that.

  10: SNOW SERPENTS

  With Tenu’s grip on the Atrum, Kas had more or less been thrown out of his conquest of it by those loyal to the Order of Vanir’s reign. To Tenu, he was just a missing piece with the Sanctus’ Custos and his father’s blood. He had sworn that he would never ally with Vanir, but he had never expected that Tenu would put him right where his father had left off.

  Kas was too used to being in charge, for he had never had to obey anyone or so much as be asked to—until now. But it gave him the chance to worry about his sister, which included taking the Curse as far away from her as possible. In all likelihood, Damek would find a way to make use of the Curse on his back in a different fashion than he had originally intended for Sybl. But he didn’t know how long he could hold out for, as the more Aragmoth died, the weaker he felt himself become. Aster’s Fate would be his own, only sooner.

  “Lord Kas? Are you alright?”

  Kas frowned at his mentor, Jru. He was not getting used to his new title very well.

  “So many goddesses, so little time,” one of Helios’ sons laughed from where they continued their trudge through the snow towards the Efereal Mountains. “You have by far the best problems in the world, Master Kas.”

  Kas wasn’t sharing the auburn phelan’s amusement by it all. It was one thing to pray to the caels for some help; it was another thing entirely to deal with them directly. He pondered if it might have been easier if they were all males, who didn’t make the simpler things so excruciatingly complicated.

  “Lord Kas!” another of Helios’ Pack cried to him. Kas looked his way as a serpent shot up from the snow behind where the phelan ran back to them. Rener was quickly overtaken and pierced with the front canines from the giant snow snake and then dragged into the hole in the ice.

  Kas’ Pack ran to rescue him, and he looked around for any more enemies. Serpents were smart enough to not take on a whole Pack of phelan alone. When Helios’ Pack dragged the creature onto the snow and tore it apart, its brutal death was proof to why. But everything was going to go from bad to worse, as the phelan who touched the blood of the serpent began to act odd. Even stranger was how Rener was now attacking them with snaps of teeth like they were the enemy. The blood of the serpent was poisoned with the Aeger, and now it was coursing through the veins of most of the Pack.

  Jru quickly took up Kas’ side, as he called the untainted ones from the attack to him. Then he led the run away from the poisoned ones while they were still disorientated. The phelan exchanged attacks for a while between each other, before turning their rage towards where Kas and his uninfected party fled. “Master Kas, what’s going on?” Jru asked in worry.

  “The Aeger in the chimera’s blood has poisoned them. We have to outlast it while it burns out of their system.” Kas ran faster, as a large shadow passed by from under the ice. But it wasn’t from one creature, as several snow serpents burst from the ice and directly into their path.

  Kas dodged to the side as one emerged from under him. He let out an angry snarl as the serpents surrounded them, seemingly coordinating their next move to happen at once. In the least, it had the effect of keeping the vicious temper of the poisoned ones in his Pack occupied.

  “I’ve never seen snow serpents do this before,” Jru panted, as his black phelan form took up Kas’ side.

  Before they could count what might be their last moments, a howl went out from the direction of the Efereal Mountains. They looked to where several Custos ran to help them.

  Kas sent his teeth for the serpent closest to him, as the Pack collided with the snow serpents. His prey whipped about violently, before Kas had torn enough flesh from the white snake to bleed it to a stop. Another came at him and its tail tripped his legs out from under him, dropping him to the snow. He pulled his black paws under him and scrambled o
ut of the way as its tail came down like a club where he had been a breath before.

  The rest of the Pack picked their targets, as their extra numbers helped to drive the maddened creatures off, leaving only the crazed ones of their own to be dealt with.

  Kas looked to the Pack that had been poisoned as they began to recover from the tainted blood. He spat out the blood that he had taken from his target to the ground, realizing then that it didn’t seem to affect him at all.