Dark Fall (3rd Book)

Chapter 4: The Darkest Purity

"Are you ready, Althalos?" She asked, prodding him with her snout, trying to break him out of his concentration, or at least garner a single reaction from him. "You've been quiet for hours now."

"Quite ready, dragon." His words were as cold as they were before, unyielding to anyone, and to him, certainly not to Seraith. "You? Are you ready to shed the blood of mortals?"

Before she had a chance to offer a rebuttal, he added as an afterthought, and as a taunt. "Hurry back to Shardizar if you don't want to, I'm not about to convince you otherwise."

"And what makes you think I'll acquiesce?" She challenged now, raising one scaly brow as a growl broke through her teeth, filled with the enrichment of clear insult. Teeth shone even under the blood moon, painted with the moon's own redness, the blood of the others, of the innocent.

"I'll slaughter the humans, and if Fendrel and Ayleth intrude in my way," He stopped, and looked at her, taking off the hood, revealing his face, the ugliness of his own soul brought to the surface, the corruption taking hold of his own expressions. Seraith did not expect him to continue, but he did, saying,"then I'll kill them. If you intrude, then I'll kill you."

"Are you sure about that, Althalos?" She attempted to make peace with him, but for what, even she did not know. Perhaps his knowing of my thoughts about his... demonic soul. "I doubt Merec will be too keen on the idea that you killed his only dragon."

"I've been tasked to eliminate anything or anyone that gets in my way, even you." His words were blunt and were not a hesitant retort in the least. He gave her a wicken grin. "He won't like it, but I doubt he'd like it better if I showed you mercy after interrupting our plans."

"Besides," He continued on, hurting the dragon's pride even further,"he has many more slaves under his command. Slaves willing to kill you with one word."

He just would not stop. She thought as his lips parted again. "And you're as much a slave as I am. You die, another takes your place, better and more efficient."

His words were filled with nothing, absolutely nothing, dead to the core, but to Seraith, they were filled with the hurtful truth that she was merely a pawn, willing or unwilling was irrelevant to the bigger picture Merec had concocted and planned about. Her life, just like Althalos, lay on his palms, and her own spirit can be crushed easily.

She wondered how easy it was to crush Althalos's own soul, and his own life.

But then regretted it a moment later.

He unsheathed the Lich Blade, bursts of blinding blue igniting on his arms, dancing with their symphonic flows, beautifully deadly in every aspect. "I ask you again, dragon. Will you join me, or will you return to Shardizar?"

I can't take this. He knows it too well. She thought, defeated and deflated as she lowered her head, and grudginly said,"Very well, then."

He already knows I'll meddle in his affairs.

She took the skies, flapping her wings. "I shall return to Shardizar, and you go on with your business."

I dearly wish for you to see the error in your actions.

But his words haunted him as she flew back to the capital of their chaotic struggles, Shardizar.

"I do not regret my actions..."

Her wonders became insane questions, and questions led to even more insane demands, leading to innumerable amounts of rage and pain and sadness and sympathy, and it all happened with a single spark.