Rosinanti_Rise of the Dragon Lord

by Kevin J. Kessler

  Valentean fell to his knees beside her, momentarily aghast at his inability to protect her even from a short drop such as this. Seraphina came alive the instant her body hit the shallow water, and she jerked into a seated position. Her eyes wildly scanned the Dreamscape as it faded back into the same murky grey it had been upon Valentean’s arrival. She looked confused and disheveled, her eyes not yet focusing on Valentean so incredibly close to her for the first time in months.

  “Where am…? Aqua, I…” Her words caught in her throat as her pupils focused in on the rugged, handsome features of her animus warrior. Valentean saw confusion give way to unbridled joy as her face erupted in an ecstatic expression of happiness. “Val!” She threw her arms out in an attempt to embrace him. Valentean leaned in, knowing full well it was for naught. They passed through one another as though composed of mist.

  “Sera…” he said slowly, as though he could not believe it was her. “My Sera.” Her eyes sparkled with tears as she took a shuddering intake of breath. Valentean’s heart clenched upon looking once more into the radiant chestnut eyes that had captured his heart so many years ago.

  “The Dreamscape,” she said, realizing where they were and how this was possible.

  “Yes, I managed to bring you here.”

  She raised a hand up to her head and shook it back and forth. “I feel so muddled, like I was just dragged through the street by a horse.”

  Valentean rubbed the back of his neck. “Sorry, Sera,” he said with a shrug. “I was just so desperate to see you, and I have never done this before.”

  “You summoned me yourself?” He nodded, and she looked impressed. “The last thing I remember, Aleksandra had attacked me. I have no idea how long I’ve been out, but at least I’m still alive.”

  “Thank goodness for that.”

  “She was about to kill me, Val. But then…Kayden. He stepped in and convinced her to spare my life.”

  “What?” The question poured from Valentean’s lips in an avalanche of confusion.

  “I think I may have gotten through to him. Your father and I have been—”

  He held up a hand to silence her tale. “Sera, we’re together again, and you want to sit here and talk about Kayden? He’s a lost cause, a murdering, psychopathic monster!” The flames in his heart leapt at the statement. The very thought of Seraphina having to spend any amount of time with his demonic twin was enough to make his teeth grind together.

  “What?” She looked at him now as though she had not properly seen him upon arriving. “Val…if we can get through to him…if we can save him—”

  “Whatever for, Sera? He destroyed Lazman. He decimated our home. He helped your sister wreak havoc on the entire world. I don’t care what he’s done since then. He dies.”

  Seraphina’s eyes grew wide with shock. “Val, what is wrong with you?”

  “Nothing is wrong with me, Sera. I’m just being a realist.”

  “He’s your brother.”

  “And what are we going to do with him if he has some big change of heart?” Valentean openly scoffed at the thought. “Should we throw him a parade before the people of Kackritta whose lives he ruined? Should we tell Maura to give him a hug and a kiss on the cheek and let bygones be bygones?”

  “Val, this isn’t you. I’ve been sensing something strange in your energy for months now, and I’ve been worried. Now you’re talking like someone I’ve never met before. Val, what is happening?”

  “Nothing is wrong with me! What is wrong with you? I’ve been battling through the entire world to get back to you! Now, here I am, and all you want to do it talk to me about Kayden, of all people!”

  “Val…I can feel something strange within you…”

  “The things I’ve had to do, Sera! The people I’ve brutalized! Just to get here and have you spout off this nonsense about sparing one of the people who sent us into this spiral!” The chaos roared in his veins, and Valentean began to quake with rage and the strain of trying to keep himself composed. Why was she acting like this? Why did she care so much about Kayden’s well-being all of a sudden? The flames of chaos crackled in his ear, whispering a haunting yet all-consuming thought.

  What exactly happened between them while you were away?

  Could that be it? Could he have been fighting and burning his way through a world at war, thinking only of her, while behind his back, she had developed feelings for his brother? The Dreamscape began to darken, the red hue of chaos spread throughout the entire realm, and Seraphina’s eyes doubled in size.

  “Val…what have you done?”

  “What I had to do!” he roared at her, rising dramatically to his feet and taking several steps away. He tried to bite back on the rising anger in his heart, but the mental image of Seraphina lying beside Kayden drove his mind into a state of enraged hysteria. He whirled on her.

  “I’ve brutalized and tortured Zouka! I murdered the Emperor of Karminia. I’ve decimated swaths of Skirlack and Faithful alike because nothing is going to keep me from you, Sera. Nothing.”

  “Val…” She stood, but there was an aghast quiver in her tone. “I can feel the chaos. I can sense it warping you. This isn’t you. You don’t need it!”

  “Nonsense! I was weak. I allowed myself to be defeated time and time again! But with this power, I have become unbeatable. Not even Aleksandra can stand against me now! I will melt her flesh, I will scorch Kayden to ash, and I will burn every single centimeter that separates us if it means I can return to your side one second earlier! Don’t you see? There’s nothing that can stand in our way now!”

  Seraphina stared at him in what Valentean could only describe as silent horror. Her gaze traveled beyond him and settled on what he knew to be the prone, scaled body of The Rosintai, still face down and unmoving. Her eyes snapped back to his.

  “The only thing I can see, Val, is that you’re ill. The chaos has infected you like a sickness. We need to stop this. We need to get you help!”

  “The only one who needs help right now is you, Sera. You’re coddling our enemies and turning from the one person who is actually trying to save you! You’re unconscious, and she has you who knows where! The only thing that’s going to save you is me and what I can now do!”

  “I will not have you lose yourself in this madness! I will not have you killing in the name of our love! Valentean, wake up!”

  “You need to wake up and see the world as it truly is! Terra has become a war zone, and you either fight at the level of your enemies or you end up dead! I’ve evolved to become a force of nature! And nothing is going to keep me from what is mine!” His eyes erupted in crimson fury as the Dreamscape came alive with orange flame.

  Seraphina gaped open-mouthed at him. “What is yours…” she trailed off, shaking her head. “I’m going to blame that statement on the chaos and not take anything you’re doing or saying here to heart. Because if I for a second believed this was actually you…I wouldn’t have a heart left.”

  “I’m saving you, Sera! Whether you want to accept it or not! This is me! I’m still me! I could never be anyone else!”

  “Really?” Seraphina replied sadly. She turned from him and began to walk away, pausing to look over her shoulder. “Because right now, you sound an awful lot like Kayden.”

  The sound of his brother’s name crossing her lips brought a snarl to Valentean’s own. The flames of chaos that surrounded the area leapt, and his heart nearly exploded with the unconditional strain of extreme rage. The thought of them spending time together, talking together…laughing together… Visions exploded into Valentean’s thoughts of the brutal and violent ways he would disembowel his hated twin for daring to come between him and Seraphina. Her dismissive comment practically confirmed her complacency in a collusive plot alongside Kayden to undermine their love. And now she was walking away from him? From him?

  “Don’t you walk away from me!” Valentean screamed, storming after the princess. He reached out one hand faster than a bolt of lightning and, in hi
s rage, felt corporeal fingers close around Seraphina’s wrist. As they made contact, Seraphina spun to him in shock as a jolting burn scorched to life where their flesh met. Seraphina cried out in pain as a flash of light threw them apart, and the Dreamscape crumbled.

  Valentean awoke back in his body, back in Grassan, back in the corporeal world. He gasped and bit back on a scream of alarm. Then, the world settled around him, the sights and smells and sensations of reality hitting him like a ton of stone. He looked down at his hand, the hand that had grabbed her, the hand that had burned her. The echo of her scream as they were violently tossed apart reverberated in the vastness of his empty mind. One thought joined in amongst the harsh replay of his love’s pained cry.

  What have I become?

  XXII: Imperial Hostage

  Seraphina jolted back to consciousness in a world she no longer understood. As her murky mind began to recalibrate to her surroundings, all Seraphina could feel was the scorching burn upon her wrist. A corporeal reminder of the unthinkable scenario that had just played out within the Dreamscape. Every word her animus warrior and love had spoken in that cold, empty plane had been like a sharpened knife into her heart. The way he had stared at her…as though she were naught more than a possession. The way he had so callously talked about ending the life of his once beloved brother…

  The creature she had encountered within the swirling fog-filled nothingness of the Dreamscape was not Val…could never be her Val. He had grabbed her so roughly with the strength of a god. Whereas before the touch of his flesh upon hers would send quivering excitement racing up and down her spine, now contact between them had burned her and scorched her skin.

  Keeping her eyes closed, Seraphina moved her damaged arm but found its motion halted. It was then that her re-emerging mind realized the entire arm was being held up over her head. In fact, both of her arms were aloft, stretched out on a diagonal. Her eyes snapped open as she called upon the power of order to strengthen and defend her, but the restricted movement of her jaw coupled with the familiar whirling of gears told her all she needed to know before her eyes had even the time to adjust.

  Seraphina knelt upon a cold platform, shackles around her knees, rooting her into place. Her arms were cuffed on either wrist and held above her head, connecting to a pair of jagged, red and black pillars that rose up on either side. Upon her face sat one of the barbaric Grassani magic nullifying muzzles that had once blocked her access to the power of order the last time she had been a forced guest of her sister.

  The room she was rooted within was massive and circular. Seraphina had to blink several times because she could not believe what she was seeing. She was indoors, but the chamber appeared to be a gorgeous, green field and lake on a sunny day. The ceiling above her head was blue skies, wispy clouds, and a shining sun mixed with the stray strands of magic that always dotted the heavens of Terra. The grass ended several meters in front of her, giving way to hexagonal, red and black tiles in which crimson magical energy flowed. Even with access to her power blocked, Seraphina could sense the power within the floor for what it was. Pure malevolent chaos.

  “I see you awaken,” Aleksandra spoke from off to Seraphina’s right side.

  She turned her head and could just barely make out the sight of her demented sister seated atop a throne composed of what could only be the bones of Rosinanti dragons. It was beyond vile and spoke volumes to how truly far Aleksandra had fallen. She wondered for a moment if left unchecked, the chaos surging through Val’s essence could turn him into such a monster.

  The empress advanced upon her captive sister with slow, measured steps that resounded through the open chamber. Seraphina noted as Aleksandra approached how the magic held within the tiles at her feet came alive with light around the edges of her boots. The woman Seraphina had once called sister stopped just a meter or so in front of her, looking down the bridge of her nose as she glowered at the princess in crimson-colored fury.

  Seraphina tried to move her mouth and say something to her mighty sibling, but the muzzle held tightly against her mouth and jaw, preventing any and all movement, far tighter than it had been fastened the last time she had been forced to wear it.

  Aleksandra raised an eyebrow and opened her mouth as though she were about to speak. Then, at the last instant, her hands came forward, fingers curled like claws as she unleashed a storm of chaos lightning that struck Seraphina in the center of the chest and coursed throughout her body.

  The muzzle held her agonized scream within the confines of her mouth, and what escaped her lips was only a torturous moan. Her entire body jumped and convulsed as the burning bolts of Aleksandra’s hate continued to devour her on the inside, splitting the skin along her arms and face and chest. Aleksandra dropped her hands, and Seraphina slumped forward in relief, held aloft only by the constricting steel cuffs that dug into the flesh upon her wrists.

  “Painful, isn’t it?” The empress paced in front of her, massaging one hand with the other. “Do you believe yourself a victim, Seraphina? Do you believe that you are the hero of this farcical fantasy you have concocted in your warped little imagination? Do you truly believe yourself undeserving of such torment? Well, tell me, Harbinger, do you believe Sophie felt a similar pain at the end?”

  Without waiting for an answer, the empress flung her hands forward once more, releasing another storm of chaos upon her sister with more agonizing, world-ending power than she had previously. Seraphina recoiled and thrashed in her vain attempt to escape the all-consuming fury of the crimson lightning. Her blood felt as though it were boiling. Her every thought came alight with screaming agony. She begged silently for the torment to end, somehow, some way.

  Aleksandra cut off the attack once more, and Seraphina could feel the multitude of oozing sores split open by the chaotic magic along her scorched and blackened skin. Her face felt as though it were on fire, and she had to keep one of her eyes closed in order to feel some kind of relief from the awful pain. Without the cooling embrace of order, these burns were leaving a lasting impression. She could barely breathe, and a harsh cough brought a birth of blood into her mouth, which oozed out through her pressed teeth, pooling along her chin within the muzzle’s smothering embrace.

  “The pain you feel is merely a precursor. Know that until the rapidly approaching moment of your death, I will subject you to a torturous reality born of the harshness of chaos itself. You will draw in your Dragon-Lord, and then you will die before his eyes. That shall be my ultimate vengeance, Seraphina. The moment where you and the one you love the most will feel the harsh biting edge of reality’s greatest cruelty.” The air just behind Aleksandra’s manic stare began to shiver, and a crimson haze deposited Aurax in their midst. Aleksandra turned, and the demon bowed respectfully before her, ignoring Seraphina’s presence for the moment.

  “What news, Aurax?”

  “Were that I could bring you joyous tidings, oh most High and Holy Mistress.”

  Seraphina saw Aleksandra’s fingers clench into a pair of tight fists. “What are you saying?”

  “The magic that dispatched our forces has left a…stain upon Grassan, Mistress. The aftermath of its power has created a storm of magic that I cannot pierce without phasing out of this dimension. I have no idea what our enemies are plotting.”

  “So, we are essentially blinded then.”

  “It would appear as such, Mistress.”

  Aleksandra took one step toward her throne and then stopped in place. Seraphina saw her shaking with the strain of unconditional rage. All ambient noise within the throne chamber seemed to die out as though the air itself feared the tumultuous temper of the mighty empress. Then, with alarming suddenness, Aleksandra whirled around, fingers pointed once more at Seraphina as she screeched in rage.

  Seraphina had only an instant to gasp in shock and fear as the sizzling bolts of chaotic fury electrified the air and struck her full on. Her sister continued to rage and scream, and Seraphina could just make out the twin burning points of
her eyes through the arcing storm. The red luminescence spread along a series of otherwise invisible lines that creased the flesh around the empress’s eyes until her face looked like a volcano spilling its melting fury out upon the land.

  This time, the pain was far off, as though her nerves were so scorched that it lessened the sensation. But the mental toll this assault enacted upon the Ice Queen ran deep. She went from being a queen, the leader of a rebellion, to being a toy for Aleksandra to abuse in her raging fury. The bolts ceased once more, and Seraphina felt as though her skin were melting. It was as though the blood that flowed from her injuries was acid as it sizzled against her charred flesh. Still though, despite the horrid flashes of agony, despite the multitude of burns that bruised, blackened, and bloodied her, the greatest pain of all still rang out from a small, discolored spot of red upon her wrist.

  Val… Oh, my Val… Come back to me…

  Vahn was in an upright position when he awoke. His head rang with dizzying pain as he shook it from side to side in an attempt to clear the cobwebs constricting his conscious thought. His instincts alerted him to the danger he faced, and he forced his addled brain and tired eyes to focus in on the dim light. He was strapped by his wrists and ankles with heavy leather bands to a large wooden “X” that dug uncomfortably into his back.

  The room he found himself in was dim and dank, and the sound of dripping water pattering onto the stone floor could be heard from somewhere behind him. The chamber was round and had only one entrance he could see. He was immobilized in the center of the room, surrounded on all sides by a number of grizzly-looking instruments of torture. To his far left, there sat an open furnace in which the orange, burning glow of flames could be seen. A number of long metallic rods shot out from the fire, hiding their other, likely more nefarious sides within the pulsating embers.