II - Sigh of Smoke

Chapter 38 - Dawn of Wights

-Aleksandra Bane-

"The truth," she said slowly. She had not been looking for any truth when she decided to follow Piper in the hopes of getting her Wielder Mark reversed. She had things to do, a quest to return to, and a world to wake up to. What more truths did she need?

This Master Lanthravyn spoke of the truth about the Dragons, who were as hazy as strangers to her as he was. Did she want to know?

"Yes, the truth." He said again, as if to refresh her memory.

"About?" Aleksandra wanted it clear to her.

"Your situation. This quest that the Beasts have put you up to, which in all fairness, has so far been the best display in their ability to manipulate humanity for their gains."

She blinked. Stepping back, she felt a rumble in the ground around her. There was an itch in the back of her mind, a whispering voice telling her to stop listening. However, her curiousity was far too strong. Brows furrowing, she asked skeptically, "are you saying I'm being manipulated?"

Master Lanthravyn stared down at her with his foggy eyes for a moment, then gestured for her to sit on the grass. Aleksandra didn't move, and watched as the man swished his robes around himself and sat among the tall grass, hand never leaving her skin. He breathed slowly, eyes fluttering shut for a moment.

In silence, she felt awkward standing while this man did not. She joined him, feeling the tickling of the blades of grass through her pant legs and on her cheeks and neck where the tallest stood and swayed in the soft breeze. The quiet continued for who knows how long, and Aleksandra was getting impatient.

Frowning deeply, she turned to him again. "Am I being manipulated?"

His eyes opened. "I will tell you a story first."

Air filled her lungs as she huffed. "Must I repeat my question?"

"It seems the sense of authority you gained playing a princess still has not forsaken you."

Her face reddened, furious. He gave her an apologetic smile as he continued.

"My story will answer your question more or less. At best, I hope it makes things clear to you about why I say the Dragon should no longer own you. My story begins before either of us, before our souls were forged in the hearth of the world, to be sent out into open air to exist in the fixed rules that reality endorses. Before what we call our humanity there was only the law of nature that all creatures abided by. Many from my time have called it the Epoch of Behemoth. It was when Dragons, as well as the Sand Snakes of the Deserts, and the Mammoths of Ice-including many other beasts both large and small-held reign over the land. They existed equally, biding by the natural laws of the world."

Aleksandra's face scrunched up. "You sound like you're building up one fantastical tale."

He smiled. "I guess one could call it that." Master Lanthravyn looked to the sky for a moment, eyeing the vast expanse of night before continuing. "This is a history lost to you. What is the oldest thing you have ever learned about by your teachings?"

She raised a brow, as if it was supposed to be obvious. "The First King and his rule. What you speak of sounds like you're making it up and shitting it out."

"Vulgar," Master Lanthravyn laughed. "To think you have a part of me in you."

"Pardon?"

"That is another question with an answer we will get to later."

Aleksandra scowled. "Fine. Continue with your story."

He nodded, as if in thanks. "In the Epoch of Behemoth, the rulers of the land were the Dragons. They were the refined, admirable, and revered species of the world they walked on. They knew all, saw all, and understood the ways of this world that the rest of the Beasts could not. What they never anticipated, was the birth of human life. The Dawn of Wights, the unfortunate lot on two legs resembling apes that scrambled over the land, interrupting the natural flow of the world they Winged Kings ruled.