"Mum?"
"Franera? Where are you? I can't see," I said into the abyss of darkness. "Follow my voice," she said. Gods her voice. It was exactly how I imagined what it would sound like- sweet and gentle, yet it had power behind it. After all these years... We finally found eachother. Dark hellish room or not, she's close. So damn close and that's all I could focus on. 279Please respect copyright.PENANAKnS0XwMpN0
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"Franera, keep talking."
"Of course, mother. You're not hurt are you? Uncle Xulred is brutal."
"I'll be fine. I'm just glad that you're here." I took a few steps forward. "Can you create a small fire?"
Just like that, green dancing flame came to life in front of me. "If I couldn't," she said coming into the light, "it would be disgraceful to be called the daughter of Amanice The Fire Bringer." I was silent. Caught off guard by how she looked. It was a joy and yet so painful to see her like this.279Please respect copyright.PENANA6biYHxwtl3
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Her eyes were just like her fathers, bright emerald green, however there was nothing but pain, hatred, and sadness in them. Her dark olive skin was riddled with scars and dirt. What exactly has she been through?
"No. No!" Her cry echoed, as the room was suddenly filled with glorious light and chains that kept us pinned, pulling us away from one another. Xulred walked from seemingly nowhere, and stood behind Franera. He held a glittering dagger to her throat. The grin that spread across his face was purely sickening.279Please respect copyright.PENANAITvXSxtbWv
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"Asikoitae. Make a decision. Tell me where the rebels are and I'll release your daughter and send her home. If you don't tell me," He said whilst pressing the dagger into her skin, "I kill her."
The information he wanted was hidden behind clenched teeth. There's something off. I can't tell him. I won't. He wanted my child for a reason, it wasn't to strictly get under my skin. He wants to use her beyond than just as a hostage. "You're lying."
"Am I?" Then the blade was quickly drawn across her throat.
***
"Listen closely Thynorth. This spell will directly send you to Amanice. If she is bound in any way, get her free. Once that's done, recite the spell I've taught you, you both will instantly be sent through a portal back to me. Do not try to get anyone else otherwise you'll be stuck there. Is that clear?"
I grumbled, "There's no way at all to save a few others?" She shook her head, "The only other spell that could teleport all of your kind to me is to deadly and risky for even the most skilled elf- or the most famed dragon. I-"
"I know the spell you speak of. Many of my kind have tried to master it since it is of Dragon origin. Anzure and- oh what was that damned name- Asikoitae have been said to do it perfectly. After all, Anzure was a Master and Elder. He was the one to create such a spell." Emarenthae nodded a few times, going through her shelf of herbs. "But he's dead. And no one knows where Asikoitae is. Even if we did, she's a Chaos Dragon. She would likely never cooperate."
"If I found her, I'd make her cooperate." The Queen stopped for a second seeming lost in the thought, then grabbed a clay pot with a serpent lily growing strong. "You could never find her."
"Why not?"
"You simply can't. I don't know why. I don't know how, but not one living being has been able to get even a hint of where Asikoitae went since her disappearance. Maybe once we could rely on a book that had the entire history of her, and her magickal abilities... But now that is gone too. So we'll have to stick to the spell I know. I'm sorry."
I pressed the bridge of my nose, suppressing my irritation. "Fine. Let's begin the spell then."
***
"Oh dear. You thought the dream was real... My sincerest apologies sister." 279Please respect copyright.PENANA9AXZoDq2rT
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I shook violently, gulping down the warm air of whatever bright room I was now in. My sobs wouldn't stop. The fear and anger from what I saw wouldn't vanish. My hatred kept growing, and with it the restraints on the monster within slacked.
"Calm down, lady! It was fake!" For some damn reason those words stunned me and caused me to stop. I swear it came from the voice of my daughter. And yet I was unsure. The voice wasn't sweet or gentle like in the dream. It was hateful. Poisonous like the bite of a viper.
Slowly I looked up, and saw Franera standing strong and proud next to the throne that I assumed belonged to the Wyvern Rider King. She stared at me with pure rage and disgust. As to why that was so, I may never understand.279Please respect copyright.PENANAAsDd0B6hKv
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I rose to my feet, nearly falling from lack of strength, and took just a step forward. The sound of my rusty chains rang off the walls of the simple throne room.279Please respect copyright.PENANAHC5FuzxYSj
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"Don't dare take another step forward monster. Or I'll take your life away ever so slowly," she said, creating a pain in my heart and soul. Xulred merely stood to the side and watched.
"Explain," I asked... Or was it more of a command? "Explain what?"
"Why you look at me that way."
"Don't act like you don't know, mother dearest. You abandoned me. Threw my egg into the forest and left without a second thought. All because of the power within me and what I would grow to become. You mated with a dragon of another element, and instead of facing the consequences- you became a coward!"
"I'm a coward in more ways than one, but when it comes to being a mother... A coward I am not. You've been lied to, my daughter. I never threw you out. I-" There was a sudden sharp pain in both my legs. I fell to my knees, staring at the thorned vines that went through the front and back of my thighs. I didn't see anything. I didn't even sense magick in the air. Was these cursed chains putting just that much of a damper on my magickal prowess? Or was my daughter's abilities greater than my own?
"Why'd you leave me?"
"I never left you!"
"Bullshit! Then why is it that I've been cared for and raised by your brother instead?"
"He stole you from us!" I began to weep and shake again. I can't bare the pain of being hated by my own child. "We tried so hard to get you back. We fought but then he vanished with you. So we searched and searched high and low till we couldn't move. Then we'd rest just for a bit and kept searching. I and your father-"
"Let me guess, you looked everywhere, for years, every day, but didn't get even a whisper of where I was? I find that hard to believe."
"How?"
"I-" The ground underneath us began to shake. Then out of nowhere a tree burst from the floor between us. A man dropped from the branches and the tree shriveled away. Instantly I knew who it was. "No! Get out of here! Leave! They'll kill you!"
The thorned vines began to rot away to black dust, my wounds slowly healing. "Don't worry, I'll leave, just not without you or her," Thynorth stated. "Remember this, Xulred, I've held the title as Janrir's Viper since the beginning of the Rosa War. You stare into the eyes of death itself."279Please respect copyright.PENANALXDhHmfXrm