Chapter 154: We Also Need Her
The warning carrying implications that made all three kings go still.
The ancient dragon’s gaze shifted.
Fixed specifically on Kaelen.
And his next words made the youngest king’s blood run cold.
"I can sense your dragon deteriorating already, You have to claim her while you are still sane enough to recognize her."
AURYN turned his head.
His ancient eyes moving to Thorne.
A look passing between them....meaningful, laden with unspoken understanding.
The dragon seeming to communicate something to the Shadow King that the others could not perceive.
A message delivered in silence.
And then, his message delivered, AURYN turned away.
His massive form moving back toward the inner chamber of the Sanctum.
AERIS watched her male companion retreat.
Her intelligent eyes remained on the kings for a moment longer.
She seemed to hesitate, as if considering whether to say more.
Her torn wing rustled slightly against her side.
The kings watched, waiting, understanding on some deep level that this moment was significant to her.
That what Aeris said next would matter.
The moment stretched between them, and Thorne, with his analytical mind, with his understanding of strategy and hidden meaning, understood something was not right.
That this disturbance, this chaos, this sudden communication.....it was orchestrated.
The ancient ones did not lose control by accident.
Something triggered them.
Someone triggered them.
His dark eyes looked up to her and he said. "Did you cause all of this?...Did you orchestrate the chaos just so we would come here?"
He moved forward slightly, his dark eyes never leaving AERIS’s golden gaze.
"Just so you could have this conversation with us?"
AERIS regarded him with something that might have been approval.
Her voice carried honesty mixed with something darker. Something older.
"You aren’t the only one who needs the Mother of Dragons, young king."
She shook her head. "Others desire her, Many want her for their own purposes."
AERIS paused.
As if deciding what to share next.
Her voice dropping, becoming more serious.
More weighted with truth.
"We also need her."
And then, her message delivered, the ancient dragon turned to follow her male companion.
Her massive form moving back toward the inner Sanctum.
The ancient dragon moved with deliberate grace through the inner chamber of the Sanctum.
Her torn wing rustled as she walked, the damaged appendage catching against the stone in places. The sound echoed through the cavern....a small, residual reminder of wounds that had been inflicted centuries ago and never fully healed.
AERIS did not look back at the kings as she departed.
She simply walked, her massive form disappearing gradually into the deeper recesses of the Dragon Sanctum, where the light of the cavern’s main chamber could no longer reach. Where shadow reigned absolute. Where the ancient ones retreated when the burden of the world became too great to bear.
Her silver scales caught the last glimmers of firelight, reflecting them into patterns that might have been beautiful had they not been so utterly devastating in their implications.
The three ancient dragons had spoken.
They had delivered their message.
And now they withdrew, leaving the kings alone with the weight of everything they had learned.
The kings watched her disappear into the darkness.
Watched the last gleam of silver fade.
Watched the moment when the ancient dragons became, once again, invisible presences in the depths of the palace.
Thorne’s dark eyes remained fixed on the point where AERIS had vanished.
Draeven’s golden gaze followed the path of her departure, taking in the direction, the slope, the geography of the Sanctum itself.
And Kaelen....
Kaelen turned before the dragon had fully disappeared.
His pale eyes were blazing.
Absolutely blazing with an intensity that suggested GLACIUS was still very close to the surface, still very much present beneath his human form. The transformation had not fully reversed, only been held in abeyance, held at that threshold where human consciousness could still maintain dominance but only through sheer force of will.
He turned to face his brothers. "You aren’t actually thinking of giving her to them. Right?"
His hands were clenched into fists at his sides.
The scales that had appeared on his wrists and jaw were still visible, still showing, refusing to recede back into human flesh.
Draeven turned to look at his youngest brother.
The First King’s expression was controlled, but his golden eyes....still showing INFERNUS beneath, carried the weight of centuries of command and the understanding of complexity that Kaelen lacks.
"At least," Draeven said, his voice steady and measured, "let’s locate her first before we make decisions about what we will or will not do with her."
His gaze moved from Kaelen to Thorne.
The middle brother stood slightly apart from both of them, his dark eyes distant, his expression thoughtful in a way that suggested his mind was working through calculations.
Draeven’s voice continued, directed now toward both his brothers.
"Or perhaps," he amended, "let’s confirm if our suspicion is right."
Kaelen looked at his brother and his pale eyes flashed as he understood the implication.
"Morgana?" he asked.
The name emerged from his mouth like a question and a curse combined.
Like something he had known but had not wanted to admit.
Like a piece of a puzzle that, now spoken aloud, suddenly made all the other pieces fit into a pattern he had been resisting.
Draeven nodded.
His golden eyes meeting Kaelen’s pale gaze directly.
The confirmation needed no words.
It was written in his expression.
In the certainty of his movement.
In the absolute acceptance of what the ancient dragons had been telling them.
Morgana was the Mother of Dragons.
The girl who had arrived at the palace weeks ago, who had been framed in a conspiracy, who had been saved through the Law of Crown Protection, who now lived in the royal wing....
She was the one.
She had to be.
Draeven turned to look at Thorne directly.
"You were about to tell us something about Morgana before Rhen arrived."