After that, Lith and Jormun hadn’t t for a long while until the events in the Eclipsed Lands. Lith projected their fight with the mind link, skipping all the blood and never blaming either side.
Valeron was too young to be exposed to the horrors of Thrud’s experints, and he had already lost too much in a single day. Lith had no intention of tainting the image of Valeron’s mother.
Then, ca the War of the Griffons, and Lith told it like one of his bedti stories. There were two armies, two royal couples, and they fought for the Griffon Kingdom. Once again, Lith blad no side.
There were no corpses or wounds, just the war cries of n and the clangor of battle to emphasize the conflict. When it ca to Lith’s final encounter with Jormun, he shared with the baby every word, look, and emotion the two n had shared.
Even the thoughts they had exchanged by hugging while in their Dragon form before starting the fight.
Valeron watched the ensuing battle while feeling more and more confused. How could his father not hate the man who had co to invade his castle? How could Lith and Jormun hurt each other even though they didn’t want to?
How could they respect and empathize with soone so much yet not hesitate to strike him down? As Valeron watched the fight unfold, he found himself unable to cheer for either side, even though he already knew the outco.
After his begrudging victory, Lith promised to take care of Valeron in case anything happened to Thrud. After that, the War of the Griffons skipped right to its ending. Thrud hated Lith for killing Jormun and wanted to hurt him.
Lith glossed over Phloria’s kidnapping and death, just making clear Thrud’s intentions and Lith’s reasons to keep fighting.
The story ended like that since Lith didn’t want to be the one to show Valeron how his mother had died.
"Adya!" Valeron snarled as warm tears streaked down his cheeks.
There was no affection in the word. It sounded like an order, and the baby used it only because Leegaain’s na was too hard for him to speak.
"Yes, Em’har?" The Guardian appeared, and the Dragontongue word for loved ones only earned him a scornful gaze.
"You knew?" Valeron asked, extending his arm again.
"Yes." Leegaain replied. "I know even more than Lith does."
The Guardian of Wisdom showed the baby boy how Thrud had unwittingly controlled Jormun. The Erald Dragon had run away as soon as he had been set free and sought his father’s help.
Yet he had returned to Thrud’s side the mont the baby was born and never left her again. Leegaain replayed for Valeron all the tis Jormun had tried to convince Thrud to give up on the Griffon Kingdom and live a peaceful life with her new family.
Thrud always refused, her ambition to restore her legacy stronger than her love for Jormun. Leegaain had care to make evident how much she loved her husband and son, but that wasn’t enough for Valeron.
He resented Thrud because her stubbornness had taken her and his father away from him forever. Leegaain confird everything Lith had said, skipping all the atrocities of the war.
"Nana!" Valeron called for Tyris next, and this ti she answered the call.
"Yes, dear?" She wrung her hands, her gaze low.
"You knew?" He asked again.
"Yes. I knew." She nodded, eting the baby’s gaze only long enough to show her sincerity.
"Why?" It was just one word, but it ant many things, and the Guardians understood them all.
Valeron was asking them why they had not told him about his parents’ death. Why they had entrusted him to Lith despite knowing what he had done. Why the Guardians had not helped Lith and Valeron when they had been attacked a few minutes ago.
Why they had ignored Valeron’s desperate calls for help. Most of all, the baby boy asked them how they could claim to love him and then abandon him when he needed them the most.
"There was no point in telling you the truth about your parents." Leegaain replied. "You had lost so much and were already in so much pain. I lied to you to protect you and your childhood.
"I chose to let you believe you had busy parents who loved you and visited rarely rather than telling you that you would never see them again. I didn’t want you to carry that burden every ti you saw another baby with their parents.
"I knew I couldn’t give you a perfect childhood, but I hoped you could have a happy one."
The Father of All Dragons used difficult words. Most of them were beyond Valeron’s understanding, but Leegaain’s voice was a mix of mind link, Dragon Scales, and words, allowing Valeron to understand his grandfather with ease.
"We entrusted you to Lith because that was your father’s wish." Tyris answered the second question, and Valeron understood her as well. "Lith was the best choice. He could raise you along with Elysia and give you a normal childhood.
"A family. Guardians aren’t bad parents, but we are often busy. On top of that, way too often our children mistake us for aloof and uncaring because of our long lives and knowledge. We wanted you to have a father you could understand.
"A father you could relate to and who has undergone the sa struggles you will. There aren’t many perfect hybrids like you, Val, and Lith can teach you things even we can’t. We did what we did only because we love you."
"As for your other questions, they all have the sa answer." Leegaain sighed. "We Guardians are bound by our oaths and power, but even more by our knowledge. We can see how our actions will alter the future.
"One good deed can trigger endless suffering. We didn’t intervene, not because we didn’t hear your cries or didn’t care about you. We simply couldn’t. You chose to move in with Lith, and Lith chose to take you in.
"Choices have consequences, and we respected them. Had you decided to stay with , Salaark, or Tyris, we would have respected that as well and protected you as one of our own.
"We are allowed to follow only our imdiate descendants, and only because their very birth is the consequence of our choices. As much as it pains to say this, you are not."
"Thrud, your mother, made herself special to ." Tyris chid in. "She... beca no different from one of the daughters I had from my beloved, Valeron the First."
The Guardian conjured a hologram of the Mad Queen to emphasize their resemblance. The two won were so strikingly similar that it was impossible to think of them as mother and daughter.
They looked like sisters or cousins.
"Yet she was not. She was the daughter of Arthan. You are her son with Jormun. You are like a real grandchild to , yet you are not. I wish I had a better answer to offer you, child."
Those concepts were clear, yet Valeron rejected them all. All that mattered to him was that the Guardians had abandoned him and now were making excuses that made no sense to him.
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