Grand Inquisition

He had eaten his fill. NO pressure just save his husband while everyone sees him at his worst. He could do it.

Drinan thought deeply. For a god to intervene.

“Little- My Husband is a hero?” Apis smiled sadly. “I like to think so, He’s helped my people without ever asking for a thing. I like to think, Saving you will in some part being to remedy that debt between us.”

Apis got up and strode to the bed. She motioned him to use the relive himself. He put the nearest tree between himself and the goddess and did his business. He cleaned him and made sure he was presentable.

“Do you really think I can make such a difference?” Apis patted the bed. Drinan Weaver took his time as he sat down on the bed and the goddess tucked him in. “I know you will. No matter, what you choose. Understand that I wish I could say so much. I can’t even tell you that the god that deceived you. They are so close, to name them would bring swift reprisal.”

Apis looked contrite and more than a little sad. That a being so immensely powerful could look so in pain. Apis stated simply

“He is a tragedy. Your husband should be exalted instead of this permanent peripheral exile. I know Veol’s lessons. Please-“ She said nothing for a long moment before she admitted softly.

“He deserves someone who will love him. He deserves to be happy!” Drinan couldn’t fight the inexorable pull of sleep.” He closed his eyes, and he felt the depths of his tired body.

 Drinan had no dreams and he found himself grateful for it. He sat up and quietly dressed himself, Apis was feeding Nox.

The bees darted around her.

“ The final battle of this brief age is about to begin.” Apis mourned softly. Drinan spied the table laden with food and armor.

“I refuse to fail.” Drinan stated to her as he felt the sleep flee from him and he was wide awake.

Apis smiled. Drinan dressed made sure he was ready.

“Nox!” His favorite drake yawned and stretched. There was an ear splitting, a heart stopping moment of realization.

There above the city…. Drinan gaped in horror. He had broke the kneecaps of a sage that dared to put dragons ontop of the foodchain.

Just witnessing that nightmarish visage, he understood now. Humanity may be superior hunters but dragons.

Dragons were a magnitude above.

Nox reared up and screeched defiantly back. Drinan wasn’t going to question how his saddle was back upon Nox’s back.  She glared at him impatiently.

Drinan felt armor upon his frame. He made sure his betrothed sword was at his side. It took moments to sit upon his saddle.

Nox took flight and Drinan hope with all his might. That he would make the right decision.  Then he was aloft in an alien sky.

There was something agonizing in being denied death. 

The knowledge that you’d never again see your family, that your old life was over, yet you remained.

To feel, your body pull itself back to wholeness without your consent. Condemned to eternity, Rage like poison curdled in his veins. As his senses returned from dust. Alas, even the sun could only buy him twelve hours of peace.

Blood sang sweet and heavy on the air. The aromas of fire. The Iron eyes of a dragon open and like a whisper his suit born of phantom spider silk raced from the shadows and wrapped him in its embrace.

The Eldest Who Is Youngest had returned. The tortured earth cried and cracked as sound warbled, distorted and died.

Draconic eyes watched as the nearest tree groaned as it crumbled to dust. Air fluctuation

Eldest adjusted and plucked its cause from his personal space.  Eldest blinked, What was a primitive piece of work doing within his aura’s reach?

His iron eyes slitted and followed the direction from once it cam even as he calculated its flight path. It would have missed even if he had stayed still. Suboptimal flight path. Improper training at best.

He was under attack. He was being attacked not well, but it was clearly an attack.

Distance meant little as his gaze caught the surprised archer’s own. Such a weak will and Eldest crushed it with a thought.

It was a simple directive, a simple command.

Go home. It was a simple matter to close the distance between them until he stood right before him. The archer jumped and dropped his bow even as he turned and bolted.

Threat neutralized. The foliage surrounding him shuddered as it died. Elder watched as the siege machines slowly came into view.

Where there was Siege machines there were armies. Pity he could not hear sound that died in  distortion.

The Eldest Who Is Youngest stared up at the reddened night sky. He felt it even now, His siblings in death began to stir. A burgeoning wakefulness as the dream state ended right before consciousness resumed.

Somewhere in that vast bloodstained tapestry above there was something that made him.

Uneasy.

A like a snake in a Vivarium… or a cradle. Which void born thing between the lightless depths of the creation was coming?

“An enemy, approaches. Caution dear siblings or they’ll take our world from us.” His whispered and through the blood that bound them all inexorably together. They heard him. One-word reply made him smile and his bloodletting teeth jutted out. Bone cracked and undead flesh slowly ran like molten wax.

Never

He hated transformation. The Eldest Who Is Youngest focused through the raw agony. He alone had drank a dragon dry.

A bloody pinprick in the blood bathed tapestry grew steadily larger as draconic wings unfurled.

One more chapter to go <3