Chapter 4: Illi Cum Potestate
"Do you want to hear the one about the dragon heart?"
Mama runs her hands over the short, choppy ends of my hair. I wince. I want my long hair back. But I know its loss is my own fault.
"Dragons aren't real," I say to her.
"Know everything, do you?" she asks, sharply.
"No," I say. Mama has a quick temper, and it isn't good to get her mad.
"Do you want to hear the story or not?"
"Okay," I say, breathing a bit easier as she settles back into the pillows and stares at the small metal ornaments that hang from my ceiling.
"You're right," she says, settling into her storyteller's voice, which is rhythmic and warm. "There are no such things as dragons, although people still like to talk about them as if they were, at one point, real."
"Why do they do that?"
"I suppose because there are mentions of dragons everywhere. Many of the old ilisine stories mention them. St. George defeated a dragon, so they say. And every mythology in the world has a dragon in it somewhere. There are dragons mentioned in a few ilicon texts, too. In fact, there are even some foolish ilicons who believe in dragons. What do you think, Terrible One? Were there actually enormous serpents that hoarded jewels and breathed fire, or are Dragons like Centaurs, creatures that the ilisine made up..."
"What are ilisine?"
"Those without ability. Don't..."
"And what are ilicon..."
"We are. Now don't interrupt."
"I'm sorry."
"Now where was I? Oh, yes: My theory is that some hapless human came across a Salamander, a real one, and thought it was a dragon. But who knows, really, if dragons existed once? If the witches know, they'd never tell the sorcerers. If the sorcerers know, they keep their secrets close, and if the magicians once knew, they don't anymore. And yet all three sects would give their right arm to possess a dragon heart."
"But if there are no dragons, then how can there be any dragon hearts?"
"A clever question, Terrible One. There are no such things as dragons, and so of course, a dragon heart is not a heart at all."
"It's not?"
"No. It's a stone. A fire stone. One from the very center of the earth itself. To find fire, real fire, you have to go deep and deep and deep into the earth. There, everything is fire. And if you somehow manage to make it that deep, if you somehow managed to survive the fire, capture it, and bring it back to the surface, it wouldn't remain fire. It would turn to stone – like lava from a volcano." She balled up her fist. "You see, Terrible One, the ilicon take their power from life and from death. A dragon heart, a stone made from the very fire that gives our earth its life, would be very mighty indeed. It's rumored that dragon hearts contain unbelievable power. And once upon a time, a sorcerer decided he wanted to go deep and deep and deep into the earth and find one..."
It's interesting, the things we learn about ourselves after facing a near-death experience. What I learned: it didn't faze me as much as it probably should have. In fact, I didn't even dream of the demon, of nearly dying. I dreamt of my mother and her stories about power and magic.
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Bad Moon:Book One in the "I Am Chaos" series.
ParanormalA Young Woman: Twenty-two year-old Eva Mallory has never felt truly herself. But that's normal, right? Especially given that her only remaining family member, her grandmother, is gone, and Eva has to navigate post-college life alone. And while most...
