The Night Rider

Chapter 30 - History

"Slaughtered?"

The word hung in the air like a bad odour, noxious and suffocating but Nivara had no reaction to such a foul term. She knew what she was and had no intention of shying away from the facts of her upbringing. She had made peace with her decision long before she had reached the age Charmer was now. After all, in this world taking a life was no different to ending a contract.

"Indeed. Slaughter. Murder. Assassinate. Either way, all lead to the same result." Nivara said nonchalantly as if casually commenting on the weather.

Flitter looked visibly sick, her pale silvery scales shuddering at the thought of such a thing. Nivara didn't blame her. Thousands of dragons had been lost to the binding fate of an Oathed contract and with the Mist Maiden's vile beliefs warping the minds of innocent civilians, they had no choice but to comply with their teachings. Whether you liked it or not, everyone in Caldor was an Oathed.

"But why? Those people...they were innocent-"

Nivara's temper spiked at the reminder, her reply slicing through the calm facade as her Trait flared angrily around them, covering them in a haze of royal blue tinged with lightning. She knew deep down that her anger was not towards the young dragonling but the thought of those people being kind or considerate spoiled any sense of calm she had felt.

"Innocent? My family was innocent! My friends who lived and died by their selfish hands were innocent! Those self proclaimed prophets didn't know the damn meaning of the word! Those who would dare call themselves Mist Maidens would never preach anything else. Innocence doesn't wash the blood off their hands. It never will."

Charmer stood in front of her Agar, defending her from the tirade only to provide a far different one of her own. There was no arrogance in her voice, only a poignant statement.

"Doesn't that include you as well, Nivara?"

Flitter quivered at Charmer's feet, wary of the looming mist constricting their movement. But Nivara's mind was preoccupied and the mist parted back into sections once again before it created a corporeal pair of blocky seats to sit on just as the Mist Maiden sat on it with ease, just to think a little while.

Her gaze peered over to the makeshift seat she had conjured for Charmer, her wariness over such an object. Her mouth tweaked upwards in amusement, reminiscing on how she had reacted when her mist had followed her instructions to create a similar block to rest on in the middle of the desert. She was once just as cautious and unsure as the pair in front of her. But that was before the Mist Maidens took her and bound her to their false ideals.

Ever since they were banished from Shuriken, the Mist Maidens had grown callous and cruel towards Traited and their own water kindred kind. They saw themselves as higher beings and any attempt to protest had meant execution or slavery against the law of the Laia. The Seven Scripts were replaced with just one: The First Law and Caldor became a cesspool of crime and deception in under a month.

They renounced their humble beginnings under the guidance of their ancestors and chose a new path in alchemy and alliances with those all over the realm. Neridia, Tarragon and Opalis all became prosperous countries because they each once had a Mist Maiden lurking in the shadows and ready to poison their minds. They became Regents: spies, confidantes to the highest of secrets, the most heinous of crimes and by the time Nivara had seeked them all out to destroy them they were already long gone from this world.

She hunted the stragglers and apprentices to extinction long ago, even going as far to slay natives living away from the fighting. But her revenge was short lived when she stole the cloak of her predecessor and found a new path to Opalis. Her grimoire. Her cloak. Her Storm Trait. All of it had once belonged to the original founder of the Mist Maidens: Stormkeeper Telari.