A Light in the Shadows.

A Night in the Past

Another nightmare.

I found myself back sixty years.

Back to that night. I couldn't sleep and I got up for a mug of this weird magical darkness drink that was made for shadow dragons.

Anyway, I got it and went up to my parents' room.

For as long as I can remember, if I couldn't sleep, I would go to my mom.

She had the most beautiful singing voice in the whole world.

When I came to her she would always stop what she was doing, she would sit down and I would sit on the floor, leaning against her knee, and she would sing to me.

She taught me all the songs I knew at the time, and I would fall asleep and wake up in my bed.

Wherever she was in the palace, I could always sense her, except for that night. That night she had simply vanished.

That was the first sign something was wrong.

When she was terrified I couldn't sense her. Or if she was... dead that's what I assumed, anyway.

The first place I decided to look was her and dad's room. I opened the door, and walked into the scene that haunted me forever.

There was mom and dad.

They were cowering against a wall and a strange person was advancing towards them.

I started to cry, because I saw the knife in his hands.

Then mom uttered our code word: Shadowstorm.

A Shadowstorm is a myth.

Before I explain, I should tell you about the prime sources.

The prime sources that both dragons and elves get their power from.

It's the most dangerous, powerful, raw magic you can get, but only the most powerful beings from each race can access it, and that's only a fraction of the true amount of power lying just out of reach.

Anyway, the myth goes that there's this huge storm called a shadowstorm where it creates the most powerful natural disaster that has ever existed.

It's said to summon the demons of chaos and evil that appear in the form of dragons. But it only happens every billion years or so, and it literally wipes out the entire world.

As the legend goes, someone- two someones, an elf and a dragon can stop this, but my mom never knew how.

So anyway, when she told me the story for the first time she told me "Seraphina, love. There might be a time when I... can't keep you safe anymore. Or when you can't keep me safe. If this ever happens our codeword will be Shadowstorm."

"but..." baby me said

"but you'll always protect me" "of course I will, love, but you have to promise me to always remember something."

"What" innocent little baby me asked. Then she sang me a song. I still remember the lyrics.

"The moon will rise when heroes fail into the darkness worlds must fall.

The path of truth hidden by lies and one day forever buried by time.

When worlds succumb to chaos's force find lock and key in sky and earth

If heroes stop the chaos's rise, what is the sacrifice that's forced?"

"Okay" I said "they hold the key to your future" she whispered.   

She called out shadowstorm and that's when I realized she was going to die.

The lyrics of her song came rushing back to me from all those years ago.

"I'll remember" I whispered and her face filled with relief then the random person stepped forward. He slit their throats and I screamed so loudly the entire castle could hear.

I don't know why the guy didn't slit my throat too but all he did was turn and jump out of the window and turn into a dragon.

I have never seen before, a dragon that looked like they had entire galaxies on his scales. Then the nearest maids came pouring in.

I crumpled to the floor and sobbed harder than I thought was possible. I wailed and screamed and was more loud than I had ever been in my life.

They tried to ask what happened, but eventually they had to sedate me.

I spent months in a cloud of misery and sorrow, until, one day, Astra came in and she was crying, asking why mom and dad weren't here and why I wouldn't pay attention to her.

Then a maid told me that the kingdom's fate now rested on my shoulders.

This broke me. But it also made me realize that this wasn't about me anymore, this was about Astra and the entire kingdom.

I never let myself think about the past, but I was never able to avoid the nightmares, and without my mom's voice to sooth me I couldn't go five hours without waking up either paralyzed or screaming.

I haven't cried or let myself be selfish enough to properly mourn them because I owe Astra and the kingdom way more than that. But there's always that part of me that says... you could have saved them.

And it's true. If I had attacked him then he wouldn't have killed my parents, if I carried a knife with me I could have thrown it at him.

I could have done anything, but I just stood there.

Ever since, I promised if I ever loved anyone ever again, I would do anything to protect them, including sacrificing myself, because I will be better, stronger, faster, smarter, anything.

And now there's Jelequi.