Dragon Frost

by S. J. Wist

  "One of your former Custos has seen the potential in allying with me and brings her back as we speak," Vanir replied.

  "I pity the fools you sent for her then, because they will not live long."

  "If the caels are returning to Aster, then the true fools are those who sit and do nothing while waiting for redemption." Vanir leaned forward and rested his hands and arms on his legs. "They will bring us only death."

  "The dead can still hear prayers. I know death will not touch myself or those who seek shelter in the Sanctus. So enjoy your reign of fear while it lasts for it will not be for much longer. I am High Priest of the Sanctus, son of Kira and leader of the Custos. Your words are of the same nothing to me that they were to my mother," Kas finished bitterly.

  Ubi opened her eyes to the present after her father turned to leave. For a brief moment, she wondered if her circumstances would be different if her father were alive. She heard a shuffle, and looked up through the tears that had snuck into her eyes. Kenshe was standing at the door, impatiently waiting for her.

  "Are you comfortable?" he asked.

  "That phelan shifter said that Fay bring only death. He must have been talking about me," Ubi replied, as she remembered Vanir's words.

  Kenshe took a moment to tune into her psi to see who she was talking about. "Maybe Vanir was. Do you still want to kill everyone and everything?"

  "I've narrowed it down to just you," Ubi replied in a ice-cold tone.

  "Well, jeeze. Here I was being nice by coming all the way back up here to let you know that you uncle is unfortunately still alive. And he's here."

  "Is Xirel with him?" Ubi asked and jumped up from the chair.

  "Didn't see him, don't care. I have my own problems in the War Room downstairs. Keep it down for the next few hours lest you scare away my army."

  Ubi pushed past him and ran for the stairs.

  There was a long hesitation in the War Room of the Atrum as no one wanted to speak first. Nafury's unexpected intrusion had changed the topic from Sentry to him. Many of the phelan Pack leaders were old enough to remember the sheer power that the White Death had. And the devastation and death that Daath had inflicted on their lives.

  Nafury turned around and watched as Kenshe came into the room. He could sense Ubi just outside the doors. She was likely intimidated from entering by how tense the air was in here.

  "Is there something we can help you with, Fallen Prince?" Kenshe asked as he took his seat at the head of the table.

  "I need you to come with me to the Falls," Nafury replied, getting straight to the point.

  "Why?"

  Nafury glanced around the room, before looking back at Kenshe. "Because I spoke with her."

  Kenshe shook his head, pretending at first to not know who he was talking about. "You spoke with the Caelestis?"

  "Yes."

  The room became loud with whispers.

  "And she told you to go to the Falls?"

  "No. My sister," Nafury said with emphasis, "is struggling to keep the latest threat to Aster at bay. The Sentry are not going to stop coming, and they're after her."

  "Let's say I believe you for a minute, what use are the Falls? They're nothing but ruins and griffin bones now," Kenshe replied.

  "Because we share the same enemy, and I need alternatives in defeating him. Particularly as he has a means to restore Sybl to life."

  The room began to talk amongst themselves again. Everyone was curious to know who they were up against.

  "Sybl is the only one keeping Aragmoth alive after the extent of damage you caused to Aster," Kenshe stated flatly. "She can't return to the living, or this world will die."

  "Then we are right back to square one with each other," Nafury replied. "Because if there is a way to bring her back to life, I have every intention of doing just that."

  "You would see Aster perish to restore your sister to life?" Kenshe asked. "What does she have to say about that?"

  Nafury looked to the side and didn't answer.

  Loki came into the room and briefly looked the Council members over. He set his eyes on Kenshe. "The Falls has been watching Earth for a while. We're looking for a way to save both Aster and Sybl."

  "Why am I talking to you, traitor?" Kenshe asked. "Where's Xirel?"

  "He's dead," Nafury answered for Loki. "I killed him."

  The room turned into an uproar now of panic.

  "While you were a berserker no doubt?" a phelan shouted at him.

  "He was being controlled by our enemy. Nafury had no choice. The mind control power our enemy has over the Awls is real," Loki said in Nafury's defence.

  "Then how are you here?" another phelan asked.

  "That is the starry-eyed one who communes with the Caelestis," an ayame's voice spoke. "Crystal and Estar's son."

  "Sybl can't counter our enemy's power anymore. We have to act now," Loki insisted. "I could very easily be next--or any other Awl for that matter."

  "This is bullshit," Kenshe suddenly burst out, turning all eyes on him. "There is no way in hell that Sybl would have allowed that to happen to Xirel. You've brought your lies into the wrong room, Nafury!"

  "Have I? Didn't you try to kill him yourself just recently?" Nafury rebuked.

  Kenshe pushed the chair out from under him and his fists hit the table. "The chimera Awls became our enemy when they left the Order! I did what was necessary!"

  There was an eerie silence that filled the room now. Much of the Council had heard the rumours of the direct assault on the Awls and chimera. Those rumours were now facts. Only the sobs from Ubi just outside the door could be heard through the silence.

  "You never attacked Xirel to protect the Atrum--you need to work on your lying," Loki said. He let go of Kenshe's infuriated, exposed Threads at that. "You did it to provoke her to respond to you. Only Sybl's always listening. You can bet all your souls that she never stopped listening to the ones who obey her will."

  Kenshe finally calmed down enough to hear the crying from Ubi and sat back down. "You still have yet to tell us who the leader of our enemy is?"

  "We're fighting Cirrus," Nafury replied, and the voices in the room returned to chaos.

  "Quiet!" Kenshe shouted, as he was at his breaking point. "Cirrus is dead. He died after you killed Sybl!" His cold red eyes caught Nafury's with his words.

  "Cirrus is the son of an Awl, and as such an Awl himself. He does not perish like we do," Loki replied. "If he is just a little as powerful as Alexia, then it is very likely that he has been pulling the strings. He also knows all of our weaknesses."

  "So will you come with me to the Falls, or not?" Nafury asked, losing his patience with the Atrum Lord.

  Kenshe was rubbing his forehead now as yet another impossible problem was dropped on him. He could tear the throat from any enemy, but he didn't know if he had it in him to go against Cirrus. "We'll leave in the hour. Go and get your niece away from my door before her tears stain what's left of the sanity in this room."

  Nafury left to do just that, and closed the War Room's doors behind him. He found Ubi hugging her knees and rocking against the wall. "Ubi."

  "You said... You said we would always be honest with each other," she said between stifled tears. "I should have told you everything--now Xirel is dead!"

  He fell to his knees in front of her. He tried to touch her leg, but she slapped him away. Then she looked at him with her Fay blue eyes that were swollen and red.

  "You won't stop killing everyone important to me, will you? WHY CAN'T YOU JUST STOP!?"

  Nafury looked to the floor. "If you would have told me that your blood is what he's been using, I could have handled all of this differently."

  "I know," Ubi sobbed. "But I didn't want to be your enemy. I didn't want either of you to go to Earth and get hurt. After what they did to Simera--I just couldn't risk losing either of you the same way!"

  Nafury looked away from her and down the hall. "Xirel wanted to spend the rest of his life with you and I took him aw
ay. That's why you must accept what I have to do next." He got to his feet and started to leave.

  "My mother said to leave her world alive!" Ubi screamed at him. She was boiling with rage now. "What will she have left when you resurrect her? Have you thought about that? This is her world! You would return her to a life of nothingness!"

  "We are different, Ubi," Nafury replied, pausing in his steps for a moment. "We will not become spirit slaves or be lost to oblivion. Our human bodies are not bound to the Laws of Aragmoth. And both of us owe this world nothing." He continued down the hall.

  "That's where you're wrong," Ubi shouted at his back. "We owe this world more than anyone!"

  TWENTY-THREE

  It was a long flight to the remote volcano island that once was home to most of the griffin shifters on Aster. His mission was made longer when Nafury had to wait on the outside of the volcanic crater. Kenshe had taken to the Keol to travel over, as he would not be seen dead being carried by a dragon.

  Nafury pondered just flying up and over to gain entry. But he remembered that Loki had mentioned that Gwa had an unstable mind now. Entering the ruins as the White Death could prove too much for the griffin shifter to handle. He didn't want to break the mind of their one chance to fix the Gate at the Efereal Mountains.

  Nafury almost took to the air to try dropping in on the Falls, but Kenshe emerged from the Eternal Waters. He had always been curious to how the phelan managed to pull it off. There were miles of water to swim through for air. All this while under intense the pressure. Then there was how their bodies went from the extreme heat to below freezing temperatures in an instant.

  "You sound jealous," Kenshe said. The grizzled-brown phelan dragged himself high up onto the rocks to where Nafury was.

  "Hardly."

  "When you were Damek, you fashioned the phelan after the first Nightmare Eaters. We are of Aragmoth's being and Thread. Heat and cold don't bother him anymore than it does us. Well, minus when you froze then entire planet over. That was cold enough to feel. Kenshe shook out his fur. Most of the water landed on Nafury.

  Nafury let out a long breath, forcing himself to not get mad. Kenshe's sole reason to exist seemed to torment him. He needed to accept that and keep his mind on the task at hand, and that was saving Sybl. It was too early in the day to let the phelan get to him. "I must have been drunk back then, as you're still the ugliest thing in existence," Nafury replied.

  Kenshe dropped his mind into the past, and tilted his head back as he tried to recall something. "Did we have alcohol back then?"

  Nafury sniffled as some of the water tickled his nose, before thinking on it himself. "Yes, we did."

  "Huh," Kenshe said and brought his thoughts back. "That sucks. You know, I've been thinking..."

  "Oh hell no," Nafury cut him off immediately.

  "I was thinking about the differences between phelan and dragons. In many ways, dragons are more real than phelan for the simple fact that dragons were once part Sentry. Sentry are real, while phelan were weaved into being when you were Damek."

  "It wasn't that simple," Nafury replied.

  "Sure it was. Granted, we were fashioned after the Nightmare Eaters. But ultimately we never came from Earth. We were never real to begin with."

  "What are you getting at?"

  "I'm thinking of if worst comes to worst and Aster perishes, what happens to us illusions?" Kenshe asked.

  "I think you're crazy and drank too much sea water," Nafury replied. "If Aster collapses, you will return to being what you started as. A Nightmare Eater."

  "Under Hino's control? I don't think so. We would never answer to Hino," Kenshe stated. "We can't change Gods like the Awls can by simply changing our minds, not when we are pieces of the Great Dragon. If Aster perished, Hino would end up inviting a war onto his world."

  Nafury was losing patience talking creation theories with the phelan. "You came with Daath to the first Aster. You were outcasts and demons on Earth, but also part of my--I mean, Daath's army. You were the opposite of Sentry."

  "Demons, eh?" Kenshe replied, and looked towards the entrance. "Demons that your sister forgave enough to give souls to. Souls that have survived once before when the worst of the worst hit." He looked at Nafury. "So it would stand to reason that humans and Fay would not be the only ones left if Aster perished. I, for one, would still be there to make every moment of your existence a living Hell."

  "How comforting," Nafury replied in a sarcastic tone. He turned his head to the side and brought his sapphire eyes to the sight of the waves crashing up against the rocks.

  "At some point or another, and sometime soon, you're going to have to seriously choose a side. I have no intention of destroying Aster against Sybl's wishes. And Gwa in there," Kenshe said as he looked up at the volcano's side that towered over them, "is likely as twisted as you right now in your thinking. I frankly don't care what Gwa wants. But if we are going to get to Earth, we need to side with him long enough to make him fix the Gate. So don't screw this up."

  "Whatever, let's just find the loon," Nafury replied.

  Kenshe led the way around the volcano to a small cave that looked like it led to the Falls. Nafury followed the phelan shifter until they were forced to unshift in order to continue on. They walked in complete darkness for some minutes until a light at the end of the tunnel came into view.

  The once great griffin city they entered was now a shattered remnant of its former glory. The base of the city and volcano that it had been built into was all stone-hard lava. What remained of the Tech and steel walkways overhead now dangled over the city like metal vines. The Falls looked like it had taken a direct hit from the Apocalypse itself. Nafury feared that one of the walkways overhead could come crashing down on them without warning.

  "So much science and technology, yet none of it could save them from themselves," Kenshe said, not bothering to look back at Nafury.

  "From what I heard, griffins were never ones to share." Nafury stopped walking as what he thought to be a ghost of a griffin appeared at the end of the walkway they were on. The dirty, white and rose-colored feathers of the half cat, half bird indicated that it was Gwa. The griffin took a defensive stance, keeping its eagle-like eyes fixated on Nafury.

  "All right, that's enough! Put her down this instant!"

  Ubi opened her eyes to what sounded like Prisca yelling. It took her a moment to realize that she was being carried over one shoulder by a dark-skinned phelan. He was easily the tallest shifter she ever saw. The ayame that chased them were barely half his height as they frantically tried to make him stop.

  "I will do no such thing. Now step out of the way," he said with a low, but strong voice.

  Ubi didn't have the slightest idea what was going on. She became even more surprised when she saw Loki walking next to them. "Loki?"

  "Uh, morning, Ubi." Loki swatted his hand to the right to divert another Thread attack aimed at the phelan shifter. "I found--eh, I mean, he found us."

  "Where am I being carried to? And who is he?"

  "My name is Jru," the shifter said in introduction as he continued walking through the ayame. "I was your father's mentor all his life."

  Ubi's grew wide. She couldn't see his face, but she remembered the shifter who stood next to Kas in her Vision of the past with Vanir. She wondered if she had accidentally summoned her own kidnapper by what she did.

  "I apologize for the carryout, but it was proving next to impossible to get an audience with you. That and my Bond has refused to speak to me until I present you to her," Jru said.

  "His Bond is a woman from Earth," Loki elaborated.

  Ubi hung limp as her mind tried to process it all.

  "Jru is also a Master of the Arts," Loki added.

  "Arts? Like martial arts?"

  Loki swatted another Thread away as he read Ubi's psi. "Yes, something like that. But including aeri and estus energy."

  Ubi didn't put up a fight and looked down as Prisca took up Jru's back and was lookin
g furious. "Prisca, it's okay."

  "Lord Kenshe left you in my charge! Not this brute's! Ubi, demand that he sets you down at once!"

  A devious smile hit Loki's face. "Would you like to be carried as well, Mistress Prisca?"

  Prisca lost it on Loki and grabbed all his Threads at once. In one motion, she had Loki crumbling to the floor with a squeak. "I will have you both hung if you so much as raise your voice to her! Do you hear me, Jru?"

  "You don't have to worry, Mistress Prisca. We are not so much as leaving the Atrum." Jru came to a stop a few moments later to a room in the lower levels and knocked once before opening it.

  "Jru, I made it clear I don't want to so much as--" the dark-skinned woman stopped in her shouting on seeing who he carried.

  Jru took it as permission to enter, and set Ubi down on a nearby wooden chair as if she were a new doll to present as a gift.

  "By all the gods...she's real."

  Ubi kept her cool as the woman rushed towards her, looking her over as if she were some paranormal anomaly.

  "She looks like Kas," the woman said with glee. "But those eyes--are they red or blue? Is she truly human?"

  "Hello again," Loki said. "This is her lady Ubi, dark Fay and daughter of Asil and Erebus."

  Celia hurried from the room and back into it with a panel in her hands. She began to wave it around Ubi, scanning her energy readings. "Unbelievable. She's the exact opposite of Sybl--her estus energy is off the charts." Celia then put the panel down on the table and held out her hand to her. "I'm sorry--I just got crazy excited. My name is Celia. I was also born on Earth. And I see you've done well for yourself, Master Loki." She looked momentarily at the green-haired Awl. "Leader of the Eastern Tribes for that matter."

  "I've been doing my best," Loki replied with his most polite tone.

  Ubi smiled and took Celia's hand and shook it. "It's nice to meet you. Did you both know my mother as well?"