The Dragon's Eyes

by Oxford, Rain

  “What are you?” Mordon asked.

  “I am just a person, but with a powerful ability. I can cross between the universe and the void, I can open doors to it, and I can draw power from it. Like with Iadnah energy, the void is completely different from anything else in the universe. Since I was little, I got what I wanted, but I was disconnected with the world around me. I have very little grasp of time, but I can see into the future, I can be in the future.”

  “That sounds like it can get very confusing,” I said.

  “It is. At any given time, I have no idea how old I am. Sometimes I feel the pull to go somewhere, to help someone, and I have to act on instinct. I know things I have not yet learned. I forget who I am sometimes and I get lost.”

  “Well, you just saved us. We’ve already healed this world, which I think set the record. Where should we go now?” I asked.

  “I suggest we go back to Duran so you can recover,” Mordon said.

  I was shaking my head before he could finish talking. “I’m good to go.” I got off the floor and sat on the bed. “There are only three more worlds to heal. We can go to each one, heal it really quickly, and take a nap in between.”

  “You need more recovery time than that.”

  “What I need is to get everything done with so I can be with Divina.”

  Mordon paused to listen to Rojan. He really needed to learn how to do that without being obvious about it. “Besides, we can’t go to Enep with its god trying to kill us,” he said.

  “Regivus will relent when his world is the only one still suffering,” the girl said.

  “Where are we?” I asked.

  “We’re on Mulo, a cold world, like Enep.”

  “You mean the whole world is like this? Why is it cold?” Mordon asked, appalled. I had to agree with him.

  “That is the way this world was created. Each god has a preference.”

  “What’s up with the Guardian of Enep?” I asked. She frowned at me. “He looks about Sammy’s age,” I explained.

  “The people of Enep were created too aggressive and with too much power, so they killed off the world. It became a cold world. Regivus made them live with their mistakes for a hundred generations as punishment. For a hundred generation, no one can die. They grow old and regenerate into children. They can also never have offspring during this punishment. They are forced to live with their memories for a hundred generations.”

  “Wow. That sounds miserable.”

  “The war that destroyed everything lasted two hundred days, so the punishment was originally two hundred generations, but Samorde volunteered to take some of the punishment on his own shoulders. He was forced to make it in his life looking like a child, growing so slowing that he would only be mature when the punishment ended.”

  “What about the world? They’ve been punished, but did the god fix the damage to his world?”

  “No. It will be repaired when the punishment is over. Since the people were designed to live as the world was created, their life expectancy is only about forty years. As part of the punishment, Regivus prevents any genetic adaptation to their strenuous environment.”

  “Well, as least their sentence isn’t as long,” Mordon said.

  “How long do they have left?”

  “About two generations,” she said.

  So all of these people are suffering a punishment that is based around time, and there is damage being done to time.

  “I have to go now. I will return to my own world, now that it has been healed by your uncle.”

  “What is your world?” Mordon asked.

  “Kahún.” She disappeared.

  * * *

  “We should go heal Earth now,” I said. Sammy stuck his tongue out. “What? Earth is your home,” I said.

  He got a serious look of concentration on his face, as if he was searching for the appropriate words. I was expecting a single word out of him that I was supposed to decipher. “Earth is boring. I want to explore,” he said. We both stared at him in shock until he covered his face with his hands.

  I picked him up and hugged him. “You’re afraid of being weird, too, aren’t you, honey. We’re all weird in one way or another. Your dad is the Guardian of Dios, so you and your mom will probably live there with him. The king of the entire world is a void and you two will probably get along great. Don’t be ashamed of your abilities.”

  “You are,” he argued.

  “You can talk much better than you act like you can. Are you able to pronounce ‘Mordon’ or ‘Dylan’?” I asked him.

  He shook his head, then leaned over until he could see Mordon upside down. “Mama!” he yelled.

  I shrugged. “Only those who speak English even know what that word means.”

  Mordon gave me a sour glare and I thought it was best to drop the subject. Funny how Sammy could do no wrong but I was fair game to get chewed out.

  “Did you want to explore this world before we leave for Earth?”

  “Don’t even start. I’m not going out in that cold for anything. You healed the world, now I don’t want to ever see it again.”

  “That is not a nice thing to say,” said a stranger.

  The man who appeared could have been Divina’s twin brother, but he wasn’t a god. He had the same vivid blue eyes, his short hair was the same raven black, his skin was just as perfect, and like her, he was light on the muscles and had more of an elegant form.

  “Guardian of Mulo?” Mordon asked.

  While he wasn’t a god, he was still very powerful.

  “Correct. My name is Azyle.”

  “I’m Dylan, this is Samhail, and Mordon. Nice to meet you. Unless you or your god wants to kill us, and then it’s not nice.”

  He laughed. “Roshne will not destroy you after you risked your life to heal his world. He is if nothing else, a fair and kind god. He also adores his sister and wants her to be happy. And according to her, you make her happy.”

  “I try.”

  “I actually have a message for you. More of the gods are on your side than not, but they are still worried about your magic. Azenoth brought up a good point; even if you are unwilling to attack them, you are becoming more and more powerful and could lose control. Roshne wants to help you learn to control your abilities.”

  “Why would Tiamat not do that? I am her Guardian.” Besides that, Divina was territorial and would probably take someone other than Edward or herself training me as a threat.

  “Tiamat is the youngest and has a tendency to be…”

  “Absolutely perfect. She is perfect. She’s devious and manipulative, but she’s perfect in every way. I will gladly accept any help I can get from anyone, including Tiamat. Does Roshne want to meet with me now or can I go to Earth?”

  “I believe he is arguing with Avoli now, trying to get a head start on the others. You should probably get an appointment book, in case Tiamat ever decides to share you.”

  I patted Mordon’s arm. “I’ll leave my dragon/advisor/secretary in charge of that.”

  “Is it not an agent that tells you when and where to go?” he asked.

  I laughed. “Yeah, but secretary sounds better.”

  * * *

  I could feel us landing on Earth. It wasn’t that I felt the ground under my feet; I could feel the unique magic that Earth had. When the flash cleared, we were standing in front of my old campus apartment, where I first met Edward. Luckily, it was late at night, so there was no one around to see us.

  Sammy pouted.

  “We need to find a place where we wouldn’t be interrupted, because I don’t want to get arrested for being weird in public,” I said.

  “You can be arrested for being weird on Earth?”

  “Absolutely, and meditating in the middle of the street is very weird. I know where we can go, if it’s still there.” I took us to the old skate park not far from the apartments, because they used to lock it up at night. Luckily, they still did.

  Mordon didn’t let a little lock s
top him. He yanked it off as easily as if it were made of wet paper. The park had construction work still half completed. I had been gone for years and it was still under construction. The only difference was that the streetlights had burned out.

  The sliver of a moon provided nearly no light, which Mordon had to complain about, of course. He said that a single moon was odd and asked how our oceans functioned. I explained to him that we had less ocean surface than Duran, then proceeded to inform him of hurricanes and tsunamis.

  “A storm in the open waters?! You have to tell Tiamat to add another moon!”

  I rolled my eyes. “You can’t just add another moon to Earth. That would cause panic and then someone, probably Russia, will send missiles at it. Or bombs or something.”

  “Bombs? At the moon?”

  “I don’t know about astronomy any more than astrology. I know psychology, ancient scripts, and paleontology. I’ll stick to the ground and leave the space stuff to the Doctor, thank you. Last I checked, the Earth was flat and the land was made up of a supercontinent called Pangaea.” I may have been a bit more stubborn than usual on purpose. When Mordon stopped to gape at me, I felt better. I loved stumping my friend with my foreign culture; it kept him on his toes and off of mine. Astronomy really was not my favorite science, but I respected it as a form of Earth science.

  Honestly, I didn’t want to know that the sun was growing and would eventually burn the Earth. Duran was my home, but Earth was my world. My life began on Earth. It was a fascinating and beautiful world, like its goddess.

  “No, Dada!” Sammy demanded out of nowhere.

  It was a little too dark to see his expression; however, his eyes, were glowing. “What’s wrong? We’re not arguing.”

  “Dark. He comes in the dark.” I couldn’t see his face, but I could hear his sniffles. “No hiding in the dark.”

  “The demon could attack any minute,” Mordon agreed. “Get on with your magic thing and let’s get out of here.”

  I was about to get to work when Mordon and Sammy went stiff. The air suddenly became dry and cold and started to crackle with energy. “He’s back,” Sammy said, wiggling around in my arms. The air around us was building pressure.

  I felt the moment the pressure snapped, but I couldn’t tell where it was coming from. Mordon’s eyes were shifted and he was looking around. I was about to put up an energy shield when Mordon pushed me away.

  As his hand touched me, his fire burned into me and everything became dull and shapeless except for Mordon and the air around him. Mordon himself pulsed with white, orange, and dark blue light. I had no idea what it was, but I could sense that it was a part of his soul. It must have meant a good thing, because Mordon was a good person.

  The space around him was torn with a gaping tear, inside of which was burning white light that felt like the most evil thing I could imagine. When tendrils of light extended towards us, I rolled over to cover Sammy.

  From inside the crack, a clawed hand reached out, wrapped around Mordon’s stomach, and pulled him into the light. The crack closed and my eyes returned to normal. Mordon was gone and Sammy started crying.

  “Dada, the monster got Mama,” he cried weakly.

  “We’ll get him back.”

  Instead of healing Earth the gentle way, by connecting with the other worlds and guiding my magic through the lands to heal the tears, I pushed out my healing energy. I could feel the world’s confusion, and even Divina’s, but I didn’t have time to do anything about it. There were more important matters.

  I flashed us to Duran, or more particularly, to Edward. He and Divina sat at the table in Divina’s cabin. “The demon took Mordon,” I said without a hello or anything.

  Edward looked startled. “Took who?”

  “Mordon. The demon reached out of the light and pulled him in,” I said.

  Divina groaned and put her face in her hands. Sammy continued to cry.

  “Who’s Mordon?” Edward asked, still looking confused.

  “Dylan, the void is outside time and space. If he was sucked into it without the protective measures, then he is now outside of time; he was never in the universe. He was never born,” she tried to say it gently, but something inside me refused to hear it anyway.

  “But I remember him.”

  “You have Iadnah energy. We can see the universe the way it is, the way it was, and the way it was supposed to be. Mordon was supposed to exist. Everything he ever did and everyone he ever helped is being undone. Rojan as well.”

  “What do I do?” I asked. When I faced Vretial three years ago, it was always with the knowledge that both Divina and Edward had my back and when my plan would fail, they would have a backup.

  From the moment we landed on Earth in the rain, I knew Mordon was there for me. We could do anything, survive any attack. Now I had to be there for him and I turned to Edward and Divina for help. Edward didn’t even remember Mordon and when I looked into Divina’s eyes, I knew I was all Mordon had.

  She shook her head. “There is nothing you can do, now. You would need a void guardian to open the void, and even then, you would never find him. This isn’t the first time something like this has happened. Even the gods hate the void.”

  “If a demon can open the void, so can I. I’ll go after him myself.”

  “You can’t!” she yelled. She looked more afraid than I had ever seen her. “It’s horrible that everything he ever did was undone, but if you were lost in the void, Vretial will return, all the damage from the ripples will come back worse than ever, and everyone you ever helped, every life you ever impacted---”

  “Mordon is gone because of me. He was the best person I ever knew, who would never do anything to hurt anyone. If I can’t save one damn person in the whole universe, what good am I? The day I allow anyone to die is the day I never should have been a Guardian.”

  “It was never about our people. We created Guardians to guard our worlds from intruders; to protect the books, not to protect the people.”

  I hesitated. “I don’t believe you. The other gods, maybe, but you love humans.”

  “I created them. I haven’t loved everything I created, but humans were right. They were one of my best successes. That doesn’t mean I would risk your life for one of them. Mordon isn’t human, either.”

  “He is a person. He matters. Maybe you and the others didn’t make the Guardians to protect every single person, but you didn’t exactly make me a Guardian. I will save him.”

  “So you’ll risk the lives of everyone else in the universe?” she asked as I handed Sammy to her. She took him carefully. He buried his face in her neck and continued to cry.

  “If he had died, yes, I would. But what happened to him was worse than death, so no. No one will die today. I will succeed. I will not be risking anyone’s life, because there is no option of failure.”

  “Wait. Wait a few months and then I can help you.”

  She was pleading with me now. A god, the woman who would always get her way and do it with a wink, was pleading with me as if she did not have the power to stop me… but she didn’t. Today, no one could stop me, not even a god.

  Flashing is extremely difficult to describe, like walking. There are so many components to walking, such as balance, that come naturally. Unlike when I first learned to use nominal energy, there was no drawing energy and clearing my mind. I thought of where I wanted to be or who I wanted to find, and I wanted it. My magic felt my desire to be somewhere, found that place, and pulled me there. While I didn’t know the specifics of it, I had to assume it had something to do with the void.

  I pictured the cabin that had been my home for the best two years of my life. I knew the scent of the woods, the sound of the birds, the way the wind blew from the hot springs, and the feel of the smooth wood of the porch railing. It wasn’t that I wanted to be at the cabin, more that I wanted to be home, sort of like a self-induced home-sick.

  When the flash faded, I was standing on the porch alone. I focused on Mord
on this time. I thought of the sound of his voice, the last time he made me laugh, the way he treated Sammy, and the mismatch of his eyes. He existed. I didn’t care how many people forgot him. Mordon was not gone.

  I needed to find Mordon. I had to save him. My magic only gave me a desolate feeling; he couldn’t be found. But I would find him; I had to. I tried to open the void, but I had no idea what it felt like. That was my mistake; still trying to flash to Mordon while trying to open the void, I felt when the lines were crossed.

  The flash lasted barely an instant and left the last person in the whole universe that I expected to see…

  * * *

  Nila, boy king and High King of Dios, took one look at me before becoming deathly pale. He made it to the end of the porch in time to save the wood from his dinner. I ran inside and got him a glass of water. When he was done emptying his stomach, he rinsed out his mouth and sat back against the rails.

  “What did you do, Dylan?” he asked, breathing heavily and clutching his stomach. I realized with a start that while he spoke in a language I didn’t know, I understood. He must have felt as bad as he looked to speak the Dios language, as he normally spoke English to me.

  I tried to remember how I felt arriving on Duran, with the heavier gravity and more oxygen-rich air, but I had been terribly injured that night. No one should have reacted the way Nila was.

  “I don’t know. I flashed you here on accident, I guess. My magic must have focused on your void magic instead of the actual void and pulled you in.”

  “Same thing,” he groaned.

  “What is?”

  “My void blood and the void universe is the same thing. My presence destroys energy like the void does. If a wizard or Guardian touches me, their energy is absorbed and destroyed until they let go. No magic can affect me because the energy is consumed instantly. It is impossible that you could bring me here.”

  “Obviously not impossible. I’m sorry I brought you here, it was an accident, but maybe you can help. I need to open the void.” He opened his eyes to stare at me with shock. “I’m not trying to tear the universe apart. Trust me, please.”