Last part. To the side Zeri after three centuries :). Enjoy!
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Three centuries after I last saw Tiana, one of the Order’s spies discovered where they were hiding and this time Ereder was not the target. They took the captain prisoner and dragged him to one of the ruined cities, knowing that she would come to rescue him and they weren’t wrong. As soon as she arrived, they attacked her with everything they had – well, almost. Foot soldiers and knights, sorcerers and low level demons, flying and terrestrial shifters, all sorts of creatures were ordered to show no mercy. They were to bring her down and immobilize her. You see, the idiots believed that eating her heart would grant them all her powers, little did they know that it was no quite so. When she saw herself surrounded Tiana tried to fight back as she was, but their numbers became too much for her. So, in spite of her mother’s warning to not show them her true form, she released the dragon hidden behind her human shell.
I found out all of this from a soldier that later, after he told me what he had seen and done, took his own life. As he described what she looked like back then, I couldn’t help but notice the awe in his eyes. Like she was a volcano ready to erupt her black and red scales created the illusion of smoldering embers. Her ice blue eyes that held a spec of red around their pupil, a sign of her anger at their action, made a dazzling contrast with her skin. She stood nearly 50 feet above the ground looming over the armies beneath her. But he said she tried to get to Ereder instead of fighting and only when that didn’t work did she engage in a battle that for the small creatures at her feet felt more like a massacre. However, it seemed that The Fallen had one more card up their sleeve.
I don’t know how they managed to pull it off – the soldier didn’t know either – but they summoned a guardian of the demon realm. They exist for one single purpose: to keep demons without a contract in their own realm. To contract a guardian you have to possess immense power and from the little Tiana ever told me about this, the ritual requires quite a large number of lives to be sacrificed - again, I’d rather not think about the innocent lives lost in the process. Using Ereder as bait they distracted her long enough for the demon to break one of her wings and rip it away from her body. After that she wasn’t that hard to hold down. Even with all her powers she was growing weaker from the blood loss and the pain. I remember the soldier crying when he descried to me how the demon had broken her other wing and how his claws ripped at her flesh while she was desperately trying to get to Ereder.
When she couldn’t move anymore The Fallen made the guardian rip her heart out and hand it over to them. No one even bothered looking back at the lifeless body of the dragon, so no one noticed what was left behind. They were far too busy eating pieces of her heart.
Remember that I called them idiots? When I was about nine years old and Tiana was telling me a story about her ancestors, I asked if anyone could steal the powers of a dragon. Her simple answer was, no. The powers of a dragon are fused with their soul and you can’t steal anyone’s soul and make it your own. Some creatures can devour it, others can destroy it, but actually taking over someone’s souls is impossible. So the idea that you can take the powers of a dragon is absurd. That would make Tiana’s death pointless, don’t you think?
When Sashin was born, a really wicked and brilliant young witch that had died there placed a charm upon the dragon. This charm was unusual because it served as a punishment to all those that harmed their creation – the dragon. The lesson they had to learn was that destroying a creature of pure light – which the dragon was, in spite of the circumstances of its birth - had its consequences. In the case of this particular charm those that took the life of the dragon were to carry the burden of misery and bad luck, and watch everything precious to them crumble, for the rest of their lives.
Now you might think that by these rules the one to pay would be the demon that took her heart out. However, you need to remember that he was under the influence of a contract, so free will was out of the question in his case. Thus the ‘charm’ did its job perfectly. The Fallen ended up losing everything they had; armies, power, wealth, health and so on but in doing so they also brought misfortune upon the entire realm.
When they eventually realized what their actions had done, The Fallen decided that if the secret got out the remaining population of Nazira would exterminate them in the cruelest ways possible. In an effort to prevent their horrible demise, what little was left of their armies had to be sacrificed, so that no witnesses could attest to the events that led to the dragon’s death. After the witnesses were disposed of, The Order released a rumor that they had executed Tiana for killing the dragon. That’s where the Dragon Slayer myth started. Ironic isn’t it?
***
- So what happened after that? A young man in the back asked.
- The world you see today happened. They killed the dragon less than half a century ago and look at where we are, Zeri answered sighing.
- And what about Ereder? Is he really out there killing again? Another man asked.
- I’m afraid so. But don’t judge him too harshly, he can’t help it.
Zeri gave the hooded man next to him a sideways look and smiled. He reached inside his pocket and pulled out a small leather box and handed it to him, then got up and headed for the door. He stopped before he reached it and looked at the stranger over his shoulder:
- Dragons don’t die unless they have fulfilled their purpose in the world. I believe Tiana’s purpose was to keep Ereder from losing his soul to that demon.
After those words Zeri turned back around and walked out the door without another glace or word. The stranger ran his hands over the smooth leather and felt the symbol of a dragon carved on the lid. He stood up going straight to his room and once the door was closed behind him and locked he dared to open it. He swallowed a few times trying to keep his tears in check, but they spilled over when he ran his hands over the small crystal vial encased in a dragon shaped pendant. Inside it was a small pale blue bright light that made the vial feel warm to the touch. There in the palm of his hand Ereder was holding the most precious gift of them all; the soul of a dragon that was calling to him, begging him to bring it back into the world.
~The End~
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A Dragon's Curse
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