In that strange but amazing form, I had access to my powers. I sensed them then. A potent dragon’s blood coursing in my veins, depths of a unicorn’s mind that, if desired, could cease the arrow of time from moving, not indefinitely, but long enough to upset Entropy. And finally, there was the flesh of Titans, a power so elemental that it was indestructible in its nature and eternal.
I reached toward the fireplace where one of my kin suffered a long agony. If I had a physical face, a smile would creep on it. With the unicorn’s mind, I didn’t need the Dual Mind spell. Instincts so basic, encoded in my genome, that they guided my ephemeral hands as the heat melted the runes and material they had enhanced.
The shield didn’t break but weakened and as it was, it could no longer hold the Titan inside. It exploded out of the fireplace turning Saaron’s chamber into an inferno. I thought that Lotian’s power was hot. With a chilling realization, I cast a shield of the unicorn’s and dragon’s magic around Lotian. The Titan cared nothing for him and his fire would turn my demi-dragon to ashes.
Free at last, the Titan’s amusement vibrated in the flames. Princess, why do you shield the enemy? Let me consume him. I must restore my powers. I’ve lost so much. More than half of what I used to be.
I wanted to snap at him, but his statement filled me with terror. The being in the room with me was stronger than demi-dragons. I’d risk and say only Atrax and Mirenne could overpower him. And it was only half of his power? How insanely strong were Titans?
I will not do it. He is my lover. My heart belongs to him as my life, I knew right away that the Titan was unconvinced and so I bluffed, cold from the fear of retribution. Leave him alone … or I will burn you bad.
A violent maelstrom of fire pulsed and the fire flicked out of existence. By the fireplace stood a tall fair-skinned and sturdy man who seemed to be taken out of the ancient paintings of heroes. His brown hair plastered to his shoulders. He grinned as he inspected every nook and cranny of his naked body. He didn’t mind having his cock for me to see. I turned away.
“Don’t be shy, daughter of fire. My name is Perses. I’d been looking for you.” His voice was hoarse, unfamiliar with physical manifestation. Perhaps, he wasn’t accustomed to use his human form.
“I’d love to talk to you but we have an urgent matter to deal with.” I turned to Lotian who was still ablaze.
Lotian! I yelled in my mind, then retraced my mental message and used my unicorn’s power to enter his mind. Something that Selene and Mirenne have used to do to me. I will say sorry later.
As my consciousness entered his mind, a part of me remained awake coating my body with a shield.
*
“Flare?”
“Lotian. I need you to come with me.”
We stood in the broken room with shattered windows, leaking roof and rats darting from one dark corner to another. Lightning crossed the black sky outside. The terrible sound rattled that makeshift house. Lotian had his hands wrapped around his legs. He sat buried in the corner. Some of the rats sniffed at him as if to decide if he could pass for dinner.
“Lotian, what is this place?”
“It’s a sanctuary. It’s my place. I’m safe here. They are after me again. Did you know that? They will make me watch as the others suffer. They always do it.”
“Who?” I asked as the bolt of lightning hit the ground somewhere nearby and the sound drowned my question. I meant to repeat it when Lotian pointed behind me. His adult-children form remained calm, it was me who shivered.
I slowly turned around…
Boundless wings. Cold grin. Depthless eyes. All this belonged to a being that had no place in the mortal world. It stood a step outside of the doorless frame, its cold dead eyes on me. Lightning split the sky behind the creature. Then another one, and another. Then hundreds of them, filling the air with ozone and screams of the earth.
As the last rumble and the last bolt faded, so did the terrifying being.
Was this … was this an angel?
Lotian’s sobs spun me around. I caught his hand, aware that in the physical world, time was running out. Saaron’s secretary must have alarmed Dragon Soldiers, Saaron and gods know who else.
“Lotian, you have to snap out of this. It isn’t real. This place. It is the construct in your … the Green Eye. Oh fuck, oh fuck.” I wasn’t the only victim of the Green Eye’s mental intrusion. Who did it to him? And more importantly, how could I help? I wasn’t Selene.
“I will stay here, Flare. I am safe here. Forever.”
A force pulled me out of Lotian’s mind. Perses looked at me with widened eyes, he was pointing the door. The secretary had indeed alarmed the Dragon Soldiers, here was also Issa Verax and Watermane. Of course. She was the elemental of water. Smart thinking. Fuck her for that.
“Move away from him!” Watermane shouted. Spheres of water appeared in the air around her.
“She uses the Titans’ power,” Perses murmured. “But the frequency of her magical particles is wrong. It isn’t the true Titan’s power.”
The Dragon Soldier filed into the room trying to flank us. Watermane made a step forward.
“Why are you here?” Verax’s sharp question cut the air.
“He needs help! He needs Selene’s power.”
Watermane snorted. “The unicorn’s bitch has enough problems of her own. Leave the pony alone.”
I sensed fury and fear behind me. Perses’s memory of imprisonment burned bright in his mind. If they pushed him too far. I didn’t see how the score of Dragon Soldiers, Verax and Watermane could stop a Titan, even at half of his power. I had to save the moment.
“It’s the fucking Green Eye! The same shit Elleria put in my head. He needs help!”
“Why are you here, Flare?” Deaf to my plea, Verax repeated her question. She stood two steps behind Watermane.
“It isn’t right. We must go, princess. We can’t stay here. I know the way out…”
“No!
“I returned with valid permission from Saaron! Check the fucking record, Verax. And I found Lotian unconscious on the floor, and Saaron in the…” Oh fuck. I was naked. Of course, I was, and so was Perses. If I wasn’t ready to cry in hopelessness, I’d laugh. They found two naked people, in the burned office of the Dragon House’s Head and a shielded body of a demi-dragon that radiated so much heat that… well, I had to smile. I dropped his shield. The heat that blazed out of Lotian shoved everyone back. Watermane instantly slammed the torrent of water toward him. Whips of fire intercepted it. Perses had to act. While I no longer feared Lotian’s heat, I let it go unfettered.
As Watermane and Dragon Soldiers attacked the Titan, I yelled to Verax, “get him help! Call Selene. The heat will turn him to nothing.” I didn’t want to add that it’d kill me, too.
The chaos drunk my words, spilling only an incoherent mumbling. Still, some of them reached the vice-Head and she didn’t waste a second. With Verax gone, the show belonged to the water bitch.
Dragon Soldiers’ possessed spells of their own, they shoved lances of bright light at Titan and one-time spells containing elemental forces.
Perses brought inferno on their heads. The Titan turned his body into pure fire. A part of me longed to join him. If we did this, no one in this room would stand a chance, this included Lotian and perhaps that thought stopped my flesh from transformation.
Watermane showed her true power. She no longer cared about the soldiers, me or unconscious Lotian. She attempted to turn Saaron’s office into an ocean.
“Find me a source of water!” She shouted to no one in particular, then added to herself. “Where are you? Why aren’t you here yet?” Who was she speaking too? I had bad thoughts about this. Those of the soldiers who found themselves trapped between tremendous powers of water and fire were thrown against the floor, walls and ceiling.
These people with their fancy armo
rs, weapons and strength were only a fodder in the face of true powers of level nine and beyond.
I stood by Lotian, deflecting whatever came his way. It was easy with fire, but water posed a threat. Watermane’s water spells were sharper than a scalped and those of them that bluntly hit, hit harder than a hammer.
Perses held, or rather, Watermane held. Though her monstrous power was decreasing under an onslaught of Perses’s furious attacks, I realized that the Titan behaved like a cornered beast. He knew all too well, what meant to lose here. An agony until his long life would cease.
I wished to help, he’d called me a princess and has desired to save me, but the years of living in the Wastelands conditioned my mind to hate Titans. Learning that Sol was one of them, struck a heavy blow, and in reality, I haven’t come to terms with that revelation.
A crude tug pulled me toward Lotian. I felt it. His life was shrinking, his uncontrolled outburst of power, draining him. He only had minutes before all this went to shit.
Lotian, listen to me! You have to stand up to this. This isn’t real… my words sounded unconvincingly bland. Whoever has built the mental construct in his mind, had known how to do it and I knew how real it felt. There was no snapping out of this. The vision has become a part of him. When facing the ugliness of the world, one could close its eyes, but it wouldn’t stop the cruelty from happening.
At least we’ll die together… I murmured.
Selene is not coming, a mysterious voice said adding misery to the situation. Selene is gone as the past days. A memory… a memory.
Was this some kind of message? Once again, I ventured back into Lotian’s head, this time, leaving his body unshielded. I let him burn the world!
Chapter 15
I found him in the same makeshift room. The same night was cracked by the bolts that knew nothing of mercy.
Lotian sobbed.
A memory? It said that Selene was a memory.
“Are you ready to die, daughter of sin?” A cold voice grated like two stones. It came from nowhere and everywhere at the same time. I spun, trying to pinpoint it. This couldn’t be real. This was only a mental construct… a bolt hit the roof of, what I realized it was, one-room house, makeshift and ruined. Whoever made the mental construct for Lotian, did it with atrocity.
“Hey, fucktard, come show your ugly face.”
“You are an abomination. The Universe cannot and will not accept you.”
“It isn’t for your coward race to tell!” I yelled as the walls around me fell apart. Lotian cried out as a beam dropped on him. I spun, gripped and threw it away burning it as it flew.
The world around was soaked in the darkness that veiled fields and forests, which had no longer existed on the Earth. My hands cupped cold, ashed face of Lotian. If he lived, his pulse didn’t want to give it away.
I howled to the heavens. But he couldn’t be dead. I lived. If I lived so did he.
“Lotian!”
My body suddenly started going stiff. The fight in the Saaron’s office still raged. Another elemental of water joined the battle. Somehow, we lay in the eye of the maelstrom of fire and water.
“Lotian!” I cried again, screaming for all the world to hear me. “You ain’t going anywhere!”
“It’s too late for the scion of Atrax. Dragons fulfilled their role. They are the loose end in this struggle.” That ruthless voice said again. Where was it?
The answer to my question descended on me. A black smudge, winged and armored with a trident. It thurst the weapon against my chest, I dodged, wondering if I could die here. It shouldn’t be possible. I was in Lotian’s head after all. Then, again, I didn’t understand much of magic.
It wasn’t the same angel as the one I’d seen the first time, this was only a shadow made of blackness. It was strong, fast and full hatred, but failed at killing me, none the less. I dragged him away from a low hill where ruins of the house lay scattered by the lightning, and where Lotian’s body was.
Fighting a shadow in near darkness seemed impossible, and yet, many of my muscles reacted instinctively deflecting, parring and dodging his attacks. I had no idea how much time has passed, as the time in the place like this, was blurred into meaninglessness, but the angel grew impatient. His sharp teasing turned into a senseless slur. It didn’t expect my defiance. Without fear in my heart, his advantage ceased. Do angels feed on fear and terror? Such a strange notion to ponder at the time as this.
I relaxed as much as I could. It wasn’t easy with Lotian out there, and that creature trying to impale me on the trident. I understood that this wasn’t real and even the angels might look different than in this vision.
But it felt utterly1 real. I tired of getting away from the weapon’s trajectory and hurt by cutting my bare feet on the sharp gravel. With each breath, my heart slammed a bit softer in my chest.
The true calmness never reached me. The trident tore my thigh, flushing my blood with adrenaline and anger. Only then, I brought my fire forth. The shadow deflected the first three fireballs. But they were of an ordinary fire. He failed when the dragon’s fire struck him in the midsection. A piercing scream cut razor-sharp. My ears and eyes bled. I did it then. I went all out, pumping all the fire I had. All unicorn’s tears I could muster. Everything.
I didn’t aim at the shadow because the more ancient and intelligent part of me understood that the shadow was a mere construct and I needed to destroy the place, or Lotian’s would end here, and with him, I would.
The power that poured out of me, stunned the creature, then it counterattacked. But did it a second too late. Whatever Lotian had in his head, wasn’t ready for the might of Trinity. Cracks of light spread throughout the ground. Long and crooked fingers of lightning froze on the sky.
The mental construct bled. A green light shone beneath Lotian. I sensed it more than saw. In truth, I no longer was there, only an avatar of me remained, shoving my awareness out of Lotian’s head.
Exhausted and hurt, I was back into the chaos. No more than a minute passed here.
Oceania and Watermane struggled against Perses who was losing his mind to the primordial instincts. Memories older than this planet, filled me with certainty that once a Titan reverted to that crude brutal state, it would take centuries to bring him back. The inner workings of magic, whatever they are called, hold no exceptions in the Universe. Even I, despite the words of the shadow angel, was a part of the Universe.
Lotian’s body stopped radiating heat, which showered me in the cold sweat as I feared he died, then reminded myself that it couldn’t be the case. The dragon’s bond was in place.
What about Nix? Nix are you there?
The room shook. Torrents of dark water pierced the walls without mercy. The Titan didn’t bother with turning the water into the steam as it still was the water. Perses burned water. Fuck. His fire was something unreal.
No more Dragon Soldiers entered the room, but many were gone, certainly wounded. The floors, walls, ceiling, everything was in ruin. Luckily, the warring sides did everything to avoid us. It was my cue to leave.
I have to go, Perses. Flee. Live! Don’t fight them. Just go.
I cannot leave you, princess. The daughter of fire, you must go with me. You must fulfill the prophecy.
Next time. Now I command you to leave and save your life. I will find you when I am ready.
The next Perses’s blow didn’t come, throwing the two elementals out of balance, they recovered startingly fast. Spheres and whips of water ready to smash against the wall of fire that has pulsed.
And then as if the sucked by a vacuum, Perses left the office. In hundreds of places, I saw a web of runes holding the office in one piece. The fight strained it to absolute limits. Before I knew, Verax and a river of soldiers poured into the office. I didn’t care about my nakedness.
All that mattered was that Lotian lived.
�
�Either, Issa Verax didn’t master the spell that created clothes or she didn’t care about being subtle. She wrapped us in the gray soft materials, sparing us embarrassment. I wanted to cry, in my naivety, believing for a short moment that the nightmare was over.
Seeing the ugly face of Lieutenant Rox, twisted something inside me, then I corrected myself. He wore the captain’s uniform now. This rabid dog was in charge of the Dragon Corps. Gods have mercy.
His furious eyes found me, instantly, he became oblivious of the words of others directed at him. Hatred awoke in him.
“That’s the culprit.” He pointed at me. It wasn’t a question.
I expected anything, but not silence. No one stood up in my defense. I should have expected the backstabbers. My look slowly brushed the few faces that regarded me. Watermane stood there, amid destruction she had helped to bring on this place, but her mind wasn’t here. She was telepathically talking to someone. I saw runes shining brightly on her forearm. On the other hand, Oceania’s pure hate couldn’t be more blatant. She’d made it clear that her feelings to Lotian were a thing.
Verax intercepted Rox three strides away from me.
“We have no proof that Flare did it,” Verax finally said, sensing impending collision.
Without turning, Rox said, “I don’t see anyone else. My soldiers reported two naked dragons in this room and a lot of fire. That sounds awfully similar to a certain rumor about this one and—”
Verax slap brought the captain to one knee. A rustle of armors told me that every soldier in the room stood ready to intervene. If they attack the only person that stands between me and this madman… this will turn ugly.
Rox raised slowly, deliberately or not, its effect grabbed Verax by her throat and she muttered an apology. The woman loved Saaron, and even so, she showed a resemblance of sympathy toward me. I’d sooner expect Watermane to ask to be my best friend than Issa Verax to become my ally
Rox spat on the charred floor.
“I don’t care about this academic slur. She’s guilty if you like it or not,” Rox hissed. “My job is to remove threats. This one was left for too long unchecked, and so it festered the healthy body of our light-blessed city.”
The Flesh of Titans Page 11