by SlyOkami
Thea said no more, turning away she also retreated back inside with the rest. Nerick, Shizuka and several xilfir having stepped inside already.
Makaela though stayed by Erik’s side, she had seen his eyes at the mention of Etheria, she was dying to ask but knew it wasn’t the time. Not yet, anyway. Instead she waited and watched, also interested in what the two ancients had to say to one another.
Erik stared at Alan for a long time, he felt the emotions twisting and turning within him, so much more forceful than they should have been. (“Human body, Human mind, Human heart.”) Erik mused, humans having a much more varying amount of emotional stress than dragons or drakes.
Hate, anger, confusion, curiosity and guilt. That is what Erik felt as he gazed at Alan, separating and studying each feeling within himself, grasping how humans felt through what he currently did. How differently they felt, how much more they felt, and how impossible it seemed to change how he felt.
Finally, he approached the immortal. “I need to know.” He said plainly, “Why did grim bring you back?” crouching before the man to look him in the face.
Alan sighed, “I’m not avoiding this conversation, am I?”
“I’d say you’ve been avoiding it for over a thousand years.” Erik pointed out.
“Right,” Alan chuckled weakly, he looked up to meet Erik’s eyes. His own narrowing, guilt making up his entire expression. Unable to keep the eye contact in fear of breaking down, Alan glanced away. “Grim…God of death, reaper of souls, keeper of time. I sold both our souls to it, being the only ancient spell I had learned.”
“From who? Findri?” Erik asked.
“No…No Findri would never teach me such magic…” Alan shook his head, ”I learned it from the Bishop at the time. Your power back then, I couldn’t match it otherwise…they said.”
“Get to the point.” said Erik coldly.
Alan smiled grimly at his impatience. (“Some things never change…”) Alan thought in defeat, “Grim probably wants out of you what he wanted out of me. Control, it wants control over this world’s timeline as it used to have in ancient times. The direction of time existence is taking, Grim dislikes it and as such, with the two toys my foolish self put into its hands…It decided to do something about it.”
“When were you returned to life and how did Faeterra change?” Erik then asked.
Alan remembered the time, taking a long breath to prepare himself for the memories to resurface, memories he had closed up deep inside. “I was resurrected after the Dragon Wars were over, during a time when humanity, dwarven kind and elven kind were bonding beyond the norm. Having survived catastrophe after catastrophe that were clans of Dragons fighting one another…Druvia became a single empire. Humans, Elves and Dwarves becoming one people.
But…the landscape was beyond recognition. The dragons left behind completely different a world. Whole mountains gone, new ones raised. Kingdoms turned to ruins, fields turned to forest, forests turned to hills, and more.
It took over a hundred years to rebuild everything, any magical knowledge of ancient times lost with the rubble and deaths of many scholars…it made it all the more difficult. I remember runic platforms to teleport from one continent to another, I remember dwarven machines of war capable of standing against giants, I remember elven kingdoms beyond dreams…
I remember a time when being a human Knight, actually meant something.”
“Indeed, this world has changed beyond even my own recognition. Other than my kin’s Lairs, I can’t tell mountain from forest.” Erik mused, “Tell me then, after my fall…What happened with the xilfir? What did Etheria do?”
Alan shook his head, “I don’t know. I wasn’t alive at the time. But whatever she did, it divided the xilfir race. It brought the dark elves to enslavement.”
“Hmm,” Erik hummed in thought, anxiety clear on his expression as he could only ponder.
“What…What is Etheria to you?” Alan then asked.
“I’m asking the questions here.” Erik then responded harshly.
“She’s special, somehow, I know. I met her, twice. She’s no common xilfir.” Alan added, a weak smile forming on his face.
“She is, but that is beside the point.” (“If you knew…Oh hero, if you knew what I had in store for this world…”) Erik sighed, clenching his fists at the thought of what greater a mistake he was going to commit if Alan and his comrades hadn’t stopped him.
“I’m guessing I don’t want to know huh?” Alan said with a light chuckle, seeing the regret wash over Erik’s expression. The drake having trouble hiding his emotions in this human vessel.
Silence fell between them, naught but the sound of crashing waves, machinery turning beneath, blowing winds and xilfir whispering far off from them. Like this they remained for several long moments, a world’s hero, a world’s villain, standing before each other after the turn of an age.
“Relics.” Erik then said, “That is what we are, this world alien to the both of us. We’re relics of the past.”
Alan chuckled weakly, “That we are.” he agreed, followed by more silence.
“Why do you drown yourself, human?” Erik then asked, changing to the most prominent question in his mind, but received no response. “You stopped me. Yes at the cost of your own life but, your comrades were alive, they must have lived their lives afterwards. So why?”
Erik felt his rage resurface as he stared at Alan’s sorry state, yet the source of this anger was different from before. He stared at the immortal for several moments, waiting for an answer he did not get.
“You’re pitiful. You, immortal, slayer of myself. I thought you humans cowards before, I thought you flamboyant fools who would do anything to survive before. That is why you even won that battle…” Erik explained, reminiscing on their clash. “I did not expect you to sacrifice yourself.” Clenching his fists in anger as he watched Alan’s shoulders only drop.
“But now? As I look at you? I see nothing of the wilful warrior that defeated me. Where has he gone?” Erik rose to stand above Alan, “Where is my slayer? Because all I see before me now, brings me suspicion of history.”
Erik suddenly grabbed Alan by the hair, raising the tied up and chained hero to face him. Erik’s eyes glowed fiercely, a bright glimmering gold as he spoke in draconic. Anger clear in his tone, “There is no reason for you to be this miserable…Unless…What did you do?”
Alan’s eyes were closed as he stood before the drake, not responding, not a word coming out of his mouth.
Which only angered Erik further.
“What did y-” He was about to ask once more.
“I…” Alan began, his eyes opening wide to face Erik’s fury. Tears, tears ran down the hero’s eyes. “I lied.” He whispered.
“Lied?…” Erik asked, his anger merging with the confusion that now filled him.
“There’s no point keeping this to myself anymore is there?…” Alan chuckled, a hollow chuckle empty of any emotion. “I’ll tell you…”
Erik let go of his hair, allowing him to fall to his knees. “Lied? You died when I did, so whatever you did, it occurred before.”
Slowly, Alan nodded.
And slowly, he began to explain. “When you appeared, Erikathyr the destroyer…” sadness making up his expression as he told his story. “The world had been at peace for an entire age, thousands of years of peace…You…Your appearance shook Faeterra to its very core. The fifth age had begun…Fear, sorrow and despair filled my life as I grew up. Your shadow, your name, your existence looming over every step I took. The fear that you’d appear, the sorrow that you’d kill everyone I’ve ever know…The despair when it happened. ”
Brief hatred flashed through Alan’s eyes, but the sorrow quickly replaced it. “You destroyed my life. You ended what I was. My name, Alan, meant nothing if nobody knew it.”
“You were in my path?” Erik then asked, his anger clearing.
“A small village, nothing but a stepping stone in your path
. I was eleven at the time, stepped out of the village to aid my father with hunting…The earth shook, the sky rumbled and we rushed back to find nothing but ash.” Alan explained, his saddened eyes turning to horror as he continued. “My father tried to raise me for the next year, camping out in the forest while we tread opposite of where you walked. We passed only through ruins, the sight of charred corpses left behind, homes destroyed under your footprints. The sight of it all…The memory of what he saw back home, that I did not, haunted him…It drove my father mad.”
Alan shook his head as he gritted his teeth, “My father, killed himself from the madness. I was left alone, far from civilization. I had to survive on my own. For three years I did, gather food and secure water, I took care of myself for so long but…My life was bleak, survival was all I could think of while nature was all that surrounded me. My body grew strong, fighting for survival, hunted by everything around me I learned to fend it off…”
His expression then eased, “Then…she appeared before me. Findri, the ice dragon. Large like a mountain, encased in blue ice so beautiful it shamed the ocean. The sun would gleam through her scales, shining light on me as if it came from the gods themselves. Findri took me in. Findri fed me, trained me, took care of me. Findri gave me a name. Alandru, she called me. Her champion she made me. Her chosen.”
Alan kneeled lower, pressing his head into the deck’s floor. “She showed me how to wield a sword, she taught me between right and wrong…She then returned me to my people with one task. Findri told me to stop you, because no dragon could. She said a dragon could not lay a fang or claw upon another, else the world would end. So only another being could, and I was the one she chose.”
Alan’s tears streamed out now, his forehead reddening as he pressed his head down more forcefully. “I joined the Knight’s Order. I made comrades and prepared humanity to fend off your attacks. They treated me like a saviour, better than their kings and princes, better than their very gods.”
He chuckled horridly, “Their worship blinded me, their words made me a fool. And when the time came for me to face you…I broke my promise to Findri.”
“You defeated me, but that is not what Findri wanted…was it?” Erik’s eyes widened in understanding, as Alan’s wet and reddening gaze rose to meet his.
“I wasn’t told to kill you.” Alan shook his head, guilt filling his eyes.” I was told to stop you. Findri trained me to defend against you, but I grew lazy and weak among my people. Finri taught me how to speak to you, how to understand you. But I was foolish, I wanted the glory I had to retain. I wanted my people to continue to worship me like a god!”
Alan took a deep breath through his nostrils, his expression a mess as he spoke. “I betrayed her, I chose my own greed over Findri. I did this…I ruined this world! I started the Dragon Wars! I gave the Devils their opportunity!”
“And what have you gained from it!?” Erik suddenly bellowed, the entire ship shuddering under the force of his voice. His gaze shining brighter than the moon above as he stared into Alan’s tearful eyes. Rage filled him like it had before at the docks, this man, this puny human was the reason for all of this.
Yet…
Yet Erik couldn’t stop from blaming himself anyway.
He sighed, slowly restraining his anger. “Fools. The both of us.” He mumbled, closing his eyes whilst grinding his teeth. “I guess, at least, neither of us are solely at fault. We mustn’t stare at the past, else we’ll never see the future. What happened has happened, I recognise my mistakes as do you. Others might not forgive you as my elders do not forgive me for my own mistakes. But, If you prove yourself worth your life, Alandru…”
Alan’s eyes narrowed at his words, “Prove myself?” his gaze faltering.
“We both are bound to, even I must prove myself, if anything to myself. Else, what is the point in existence if not to believe in one self?” Erik asked, opening his eyes as their golden glow dimmed. “Rest, as will I. We have a long journey ahead, and I still have many questions I require answered. You, remain my best source…Who knows. One day, we might even forgive each other.”
Erik turned away, leaving Alan a tearful mess. Alan tried to make himself comfortable albeit the ropes and chains, but couldn’t for the life of him. “Uhm…could I be unchained at least?” he asked as Erik walked away.
“I said one day, that day is not today.” Erik responded simply, “Today? Enjoy your chains, Hero.” He said whilst continuing to walk off. Leaving Alan behind to his own devices, Erik moved to the ship’s front.
He watched the waves wash around them below, the ship sailing faster than any wooden galleon he remembered from his time. Even the wind was against them, yet the construct cared not for things such as the wind. “Dwarven arrogance never changes…” Erik sighed, “Not a care for their surroundings, they build and create, thinking themselves gods of their own world. They weaponize anything in their path, and if it cannot be weaponized by them, they destroy it.”
He was speaking to Makaela who stood behind him, she stared at his back as he leaned over the ship’s railing. Silent.
“Did you know? Half the wars on FaeTerra were caused by dwarves. Yet the first was unlike the others. Hell and Heaven wrecking havoc upon this world as they squabbled. We dragons were little less than insects in their way. True devils, nothing like the foolish Azruxan. And angels…the gods’ children. I only know stories of the first age. I wasn’t there, I was born on the third age.” Erik explained.
“The horrors of those stories do not compare to the horrors I myself witnessed during the third age. Elves and dwarves clashing, magic and machine bringing destruction to anything and everything. Humans in their early days, fearing and cowering within their caves. We dragons only watched, we did nothing, but watch.” He grimaced, remembering his time as a youngling, “At the same time the Orcs and Giants fought in the north and south. Winter turned hell. Then over and beneath the seas…The ancient people of the Merfolk, fighting our cousins, the sea serpents.”
He sighed, “For ten thousand years that age lasted. Ten thousand years of conflict. Ten thousand years of war. I was born in the midst of its climax. The third age’s last four hundred years, the Fae years they were called. Since we did nothing but watch the bloodshed. The Fae rose to stop it in our stead. They only made it bloodier.” He chuckled coldly, “If we knew that wars were started from the actions of the few…We would’ve intervened, I’d like to think we would have.”
Makaela listened in silence, she observed him, trying to understand what he felt. She reached out towards him, he felt so close, yet his mind was so far. She couldn’t understand him, she knew she had no hope to.
“I did not realise at the time, whether it was through others’ actions as well…But my own actions brought more chaos to this world. I won’t let that happen again. Faeterra has seen enough bloodshed, races coming and going during the First Age, The unknown of the Dark Age that followed…The world war of the Third Age. I yearn for the tranquillity of the Fourth Age, my foolishness brought that to an end and began the Fifth Age. The Fifth Age…The Destroyer’s Age the elves called it. My Age.”
Erik leaned away from the railing, “Makaela, I need you to swear something to me.”
Her eyes widened at his request, “Anything…”
Erik glanced back at her, “In the future I might have doubts, of my path, of my people.” His blue eyes gleaming gold met hers, “When and where I will meet Etheria, watch me, and if I ever falter. Put me back on track.”
“Falter?” Makaela repeated in confusion.
Erik turned around fully and walked past her, stopping a few steps behind her he whispered, “Makaela, swear to me. Swear beyond doubt. Do what I cannot. Please, kill Etheria for me.”
“What is she to you?” Makaela found herself asking, but Erik did not do what she thought he would. Instead of scoffing at her like he had at Alan over that same question, instead of avoiding it.
“She’s…” Erik answered.
Ch 26 - Nerick
Erik entered through the metal door leading into a short corridor, like a barracks the ship’s interior had a sleeping quarter, a kitchen, a bathing area and a meeting room. He opened the last door taking into the sleeping quarter, finding rows of bunk beds along either wall and two more rows running down the middle.
He glanced down each row, seeing Nerick snoring asleep with Ivara laying over his face, also asleep. Thea lay the bunk across, soundlessly asleep with Shizuka sleeping in the bunk above. The bestia though seemed disturbed, rolling about her bed seemingly in the middle of a dream.
Erik glanced about, many xilfir lay resting also but most of them were aware of his presence. Trained to remain attentive even during sleep.
It had been eleven hours since he sent them off to rest, and they had taken every hour to. Exhausted from the weeks of camping out in the forest, even more so by the wyvern ride to Daldorth.
He approached his party, stopping in between their bunks. (“What do assassins dream about?”) He pondered, curiosity getting the best of him. “Hover.” He quietly chanted, a fluorescent green breeze forming around his feet and raising him to Shizuka as she lay squirming in her sheets.
He briefly watched her face as she turned back to him, grimacing, pain and fear filling her pale expression. He raised his right palm over her face, his eyes narrowing as he focused. “Dark Arts; Psychic School; Sight Meld.” He chanted, summoning several wisps of milky white energy. They flowed out of his fingertips, dispersing across Shizuka’s face as they touched her forehead.
Shizuka inhaled the smoke, and Erik’s vision twisted.
He closed his eyes, allowing the spell to take over his senses.
And by his magic, her nightmare started all over.
* * *
A child, past scrawny, bony from the head down. Too young, too malnourished to tell whether it was a boy or a girl. The child had short, choppily cut ginger hair, and green eyes hollow of emotion. This was Shizuka, a decade or so younger Erik figured.