[Dragon peaks]
While the beastn kingdom's were beginning to light themselves afla from the aftermath of the skirmish with the beasts, Enilla was making her way along a long path of stairs that wound around the Locis's peak.
Originally she had hoped to just fly up the mountain like she had done with the path up till here, but Batoim had told her that that was only allowed to mbers of the Void lineage. Even he had to walk these stairs with only Irsyr being allowed to na exceptions.
Soon she reached another plateau that looked similarly artificial as the one Batoim used as ground for his house. But instead of stretching around the entire mountain, it was just a single large hollowed out dent in the stone wall that narrowed the further into the mountain one goes and ending in a deep cave.
Letting her gaze wander around for a while, she ignored the steep path leading further up and directly marched into the cave.
As soon as she stepped foot into the seemingly endless darkness, about a dozen small shining balls of light sprang to life all around her with seemingly no cause. Uninterrupted by this, she continued walking with the small stars following after her.
With every step taking her deeper into the cave the air grew heavier, slowly dimming the floating stars. Just as the first was about to loose its light, it quickly flew towards the nearest one and was seemingly absorbed by it.
Every few steps this would repeat itself with another one of the originally seventeen stars, each ti causing the one of the two that remained to grow brighter before slowly being suppressed back down.
After so ti Enilla suddenly stopped, the last star moving behind her, and waited. Seeing no reaction, she expelled a short burst of mana to announce her presence.
Suddenly over a dozen pairs of eyes snapped open, each glowing slightly in the dark. Dispersing through the entire wight and height of the cave, one pair fixed themselves on Enilla while the rest scanned the surroundings.
“Who dare to disturb m-” The being started in a deep voice that echoed through the cave but suddenly cut itself off.
“Enilla? How are you here?” The voice asked perplexed, no longer creating an artificial echo via sound magic.
“Long ti no see, Vorthos.”
“What are you doing here, you have to go before Batoim notices you or Irsyr decides to intervene.” Vorthos said in a slightly panicked tone.
“You just vanish without a trace and the first thing you do after we et again is to try and send away?” Enilly questioned in an angry tone.
“No, or well yes, but just to protect you. While I don't know how you reached this place, but only true dragons and those who were invited by Irsyr are allowed here.”
“That's nothing you should concern yourself with now, instead I want you to tell why you left! Did our daughter not fulfill you hopes of being a dragon-hydra with the space or ti elent, because that's what it looks like to .”
Over the course of her words Vorthos mimic shifted considerable. When she shouted the first part he could only look down in sha, with her following words bringing him initially confusion that quickly gave way to a mix of realization and outrage.
“Never! Every word I said to you was true and if not for the circumstances, I would have never left.” He shouted back.
“Then why did you?”
“Well,-” He started, failing to find the right words.
“Tell !”
With this shout Enilla let the full force of her dragon's authority as well as her mana, both dragon and normal, burst forth. In an instant her human form was replaced by he true form, the transformation being accompanied by a bright flash of light.
With her now having access to her full strength once more, the small star that had hovered behind her also burst out anew, the dim light being replaced by a bright whitish blue that illuminated the entire cave.
Within a fraction of a mont the dense mana also vanished, allowing the star to unfurl even more of its power and allowing it to once again split into its components.
Now standing there with rage in her eyes, seventeen bright stars hovering around her, she stared at Vorthos who was completely in shock from the sudden turn in events.
When the wave of dragon's authority hit him he already jerked back, but sensing her strength made him extrely wary. This wasn't even due to him being weaker, as soone trained by the Locis clan themselves he was strong even for his kind so he would be confident in a direct confrontation.
Instead he was shocked by her transformation, sothing that was exaggerated by him having to use nearly his entire strength to resist her dragon's authority. The current him could barely use the strength he had in the fourth rank, allowing her to easily suppress him even further.
The combination of two different kinds of suppression and one of the greatest shocks he ever experienced caused him to fall into a daze for a few seconds.
Only when he started noticing the small stars circling her did he snap out of it, his survival instincts reacting to the trademark ability of Star dragon's.
Instinctively he tried to protect at least so of his heads from the seemingly harmless balls of light, though he knew better than to trust their appearances. After all, they were the main factor behind a Star dragon's power and the main difference to the more powerful ones among Solar dragon's.
Compared to the latter who could call upon power akin to an entire sun, they could quite literally call upon a limitless number of them. Having the innate abilities to condense more of those stars and elevate the power of each one in unison, they could serve as both a perfect army killer and weapons in duels.
So of the stories he heard from older mbers of the Locis told of Star dragon's that could rain down thousands of beams on their enemies or fuse them together to obliterate everything in their path.
And while he was sure that Enilla couldn't call upon such power, he wouldn't dismiss their strength either. As pride of the Star dragon's and a status symbol amongst each other they may even pose a small danger to him if he could use his mana.
After keeping this up for a few second, Vorthos lowered his heads in resignation and decided to explain himself.
“Because I didn't know how to explain myself. I couldn't have brought you with so I simply took the easy way out.”
This explanation didn't placate Enilla in any way and instead drove her fury even further.
“So you didn't even try to stay with us, choosing to just abandon us? Because if yes then I hope that you are prepared for what is to co for you.” She said in a threateningly calm tone.
“I know that it was wrong, but what would you have done? Ask the second most powerful dragon in all of existence for sothing he said he wouldn't allow? And before you say yes, you don't understand what kind of being he is because even if you gathered every last rumor about him, it wouldn't do him justice.”
The shiver of fear that his sentence carried with it made Enilla hesitate for a mont before answering.
“Maybe, but it doesn't excuse your actions. Even if futile, you could still have tried or at least talked to about it.”
“I should have, but I didn't know how to without giving their presence away. And oh, how often did I think about asking him to allow you two to co here. But no matter how much I steeled my nerves, as soon as I was in his presence it all fell apart. And the worst part is that he didn't even do anything, just standing before him left unable to act.” Vorthos said regretfully.
His words left Enilla sowhat speechless, no knowing how to react to these words that she knew were truthful. Conflicted between her still lingering feelings for Vorthos and his past actions, she just stood there for a while.
After a few minutes she spoke with a sight, “I need ti to think. But you should work on the delivery of your excuse, I doubt that Jennia will give you as much ti to explain yourself.”
With those words she turned to walk away but stopped when Vorthos spoke up.
“How is she?” He asked.
“Should be well, hopefully she reaches here soon.”
“Wait, she is coming here? How does she plan to, it's near impossible for her to reach the mythical rank this fast.” He asked in shock.
“She didn't, but that's not the only way. Even Irsyr isn't the peak dragonkind has to offer and her husband wouldn't let anything happen to her.”
Leaving him behind, puzzled and shocked by her words, Enilla walked back out of the cave. Only after multiple minutes did Vorthos fully digest her words.
“Star dragon?!” He shouted out loud, only now noticing what this ant, “Soone above even Irsyr, ... our daughters husband...”
Continuing his murmurs for a bit, the prospect too unbelievable to make sense to him, he soon couldn't deny the obvious anymore.
“At least she is happy.” He sighed, knowing that Enilla would have never been this calm if it wasn't the case.
Simultaneously he resigned himself to whatever Jennia will have in store for him while cursing his past self for his actions. But what happened is in the past and he could only hope that she would at least give him a chance to be a proper father.
While Vorthos was going through his emotional turmoil, Enilla made her way back down the mountain. After walking a bit she suddenly stopped and turned around with an annoyed expression.
Standing there was a man that looked completely human on the first glance, but upon closer inspection one would notice his strange eyes that were partially covered by his shoulder long black hair. Instead of having a pupil and iris, they were a pure mass of slightly glowing sliver that seed to peer through everything.
“What do you want?” She asked in a slightly annoyed tone.
“So you give at least partial fault, huh?” The man said in a neutral tone.
“If just half of the rumors about you are true then nothing on this planet escapes your sights. So don't pretend that you didn't know about his situation.”
“Yes, I did know.”
“And did nothing.” Enilla replied slightly accusingly.
This didn't faze the man and he replied, “Why should I? It may sound heartless, but I neither knew you nor would it have offered any benefits.”
His reply didn't surprise Enilla, having already expected such an answer. And even though it made perfect sense, she still held it against him.
“Enough of this. What do you want Irsyr?” She said after a few monts.
“Oh, its actually connected to it. I wanted to apologetic, after all, the situation between you two is partially my fault.”
This ti Enilla reacted to his words, looking at Irsyr with total surprise. Before she could react to his words, he continued.
“Don't believe everything you hear. I may appear heartless, but only towards outsiders, sothing you no longer are.” He explained.
“Was just surprised by the apology.” Enilla corrected him.
Standing there for a while, she added, “I was wondering, how co you aren't helping Darganth?”
Hearing her question Irsyr chuckled.
“Because he doesn't want my help nor does he need it.”
“How do you know?” Enilla asked intrigued.
“Because he is blocking my sight. And while yes, I could overpower it easily, it seems that he wants to enjoy this ti. He was never soone who would spend a prolonged ti without doing sothing, so just waiting for his powers to return was probably never really an option for him.”
“And should sothing happen he can just stop blocking your sight, am I right?”
“If he needs , he would let see it.” Irsyr said affirmative.
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