The Dragon's Consortium 2

62 - The Dragon's PoV

Soterios - POV;

"Why do you retrict Qostros and its people?" I interrogated the large Eastern Dragon.

"Straight into business I see," he remarked, "First let me introduce myself. I go by the name of Mianth. I am a well respected being in this region as you may have already gathered. There are many reasons as to why this is so. One reason is that I am among the eldest of the elders in this village of ours. Another is my descent. One of my great ancestors was one of the great beast whom wrote the Great Prophecies of old which foretell much of what is to come. Because of this I have inherited some of these prophesying capabilities and am one of the few Draconic Psychics to still exist."

"Wait, when you say the prophecies, do you mean-" I began.

"Precisely," Mianth cut me short, "I speak of The Prophecy of Draedeel, The Prophecy of Nveryll and The Third Prophecy. As I had suspected, you are The Redeemer are you not?"

"I am," I confirmed, "but if you're a psychic, you should know."

"It isn't like that. My power is very limited compared to my great ancestor, Nveryll, as it had been passed through a number of generations. I cannot see nearly as much as he did and what is shown to me is either little but random or pentiful but vague. I also have to use a crystal ball to help channel my power to peer into the past, present, future and even other worlds," Mianth explained.

"Now, enough of all that. Tell me what is going on here is Qostros!" I demanded.

"There are a number of reasons why we have placed Qostros on lockdown," Mianth started, "For one, as the rumors accurately state, we do feed on the soul power of all who live in Qostros. The Qostrians live much longer lives than other humans due to their far healthier lifestyle and our introduction of pure magic into their crops. We shave off those extra years for ourselves so that their lifespan is in line with the other lands. We have restricted outside influence since the inteoduction of foreigners would bring foreign concepts which may shorten the lifespan of the people resulting in less extra soul power which can be shaved off. We also stop them from leaving the land as the Qostrians live relatively simple lives. If they saw the comforts of the other lands and the technology developed there, they may choose to leave and lessen the population thus compromising our food sources."

"And so you hired a hitman to kill any who threatened that system? Also how does the King of Qostros play into this?" I pressed.

"Yes. We hired a young dragonborn whom we had reared among us to carry out these killings only recently. Before, the Dragons would do the killing themselves but it was hard to keep it stealthy when we are so large so we opted for one whom could blend more easily into human society and end the compromising ones. As for the King, we promised him that he would have his greatest wish granted by the True God. The gullible fool believed us and promised to cover any tracks left by the Dragonborn's kills," Mianth continued.

"And what of the attack on the fairies?" I questioned.

"That is indeed unfortunate. The former Fairy King had found out that we were restricting Qostros and feeding off of the humans. He threathened to use the magical secrets buried within him to end our entire race if we did not cease operations. This claim riled us the commeners and we, the elders and leaders, could not stop them from assaulting the Fairies in their land. It's  a shame that the same humans the fairies tried to save turned their backs to them," Mianth stated.

"I see. Well that is all I really wanted to know," I told him.

"Well then, it was a pleasure to converse with you. Shall we head back?" Mianth asked.

"Wait. You. Mianth was it?" Durnehviir had spoken.

"What? The Golden Dragon? So it seems you can speak although your soul is embedded into this boy. I know of you Durnehviir. You have shown up a number of times in my premonitions," Mianth responded.

"What do you know about the Third Prophecy?"

"I do know a little but may I ask why it interests you?" Mianth returned.

"I have my own reasons" Durnehviir responded.

"So be it. The Third Prophecy is the last of the three books to be written and it is the only that has yet to be found. At the time of the creation of the prohecies, many were present but they primarily consisted of the most powerful and noble representativea of each species. As the story goes, a dwarf present at the time had stolen The Third Prophecy and hidden it after the Dragons grew animosity towards the other races upon learning that a human child would cause their end. He is supposedly the only person besides the writer to know the entire contents of that book. Stories were passed through the family by orative but many details have been lost to time."

"Who was the writer?" Durnehviir pursued.

"It was none other than the True God himself," Mianth said.

"Who exactly is this True God you keep mentioning?" I asked.

Mianth looked at me firmly before continuing, "The True God is a superior being whom encompasses the traits attributed to God by many major religions; Omnipresence, Omnipotence, Omniscient. He allegedly told the prophecies to Draedeel and Nveryll before they had written it down and was apparently present at the time the prophecies were revealed to the world thousands of years ago. "

"That's interesting," Durnehviir commented.

"One final thing I forgot to mention," Mianth said, "You mother is Avery Angus am I right?"

I froze on the spot as I heard that dreaded name. I nodded in confirmation to the Dragon's question.

"Your mother passed through here about a year ago. She is alive and well Soterios," Mianth broke the news.

I sat dumbfounded by what he revealed. I had half expected that my mother had died in some way after she left us but now I knew she was alive. I shook my head and regained my senses.

As I prepared to leave the temple I looked at Mianth once more. "I can't exactly tell you all to stop reaping the soul power of the humans as you do need it to ensure that your kind survives. As long as you are only taking what extra life you are giving the people through infusing their food with magic, then I cannot fault you. However, you can't continue to restrict the land of Qostros and its people. They deserve to be able to live any life they please. You especially have to cease these assassinations. I wish to unite Dragon and Man and Qostros has made progress towards that but if these conditions can't be met then I will have no choice but to make all of you my enemy," I announced.

"To be honest, I believe I have enough evidence to convince the Dragon Gods on the tallest peak to lift the barrier. The third and probably largest reason that we locked off Qostros was out of fear that The Redeemer from the prophecies would destroy our people. When we heard that Drakhurith went to war with Uradora and was pushed back, our concerns became stronger. Now that I know that The Redeemer is on our side, I am sure that we can be alot less lenient," Mianth explained.

"Then I look forward to working with you all," I nodded in approval.

"NO! Mianth! You dare to betray us?! How can you work with the humans and even worse The Redeemer from the prophecies as well?!" a voice shouted from the entrance of the temple. I looked to see a figure standing in the shadows of one of the arches. Because of the distance and the darkness, I couldn't make out any of the features of the humanoid.

"Eurus, you misunderstand! We do not have to live a constant fight and control evryone else. This is a chance for us to right our wrongs!" Mianth spoke to the figure.

"No!! Those damn humans don't deserve to live. They are just barbarians! All of them! I will fix this!" As the man said this he ran in the other direction.

"Soterios! You have to stop him! That was the Dragonborn!" Mianth exclaimed.

"Why stop him?" I asked.

"I just had a premonition. He is going to assault Qaezia!"