'He is a descendant of hers. I am not dealing with her spawn. Find another idiot to deal with his mess. I have no time to deal with a mere knight, oracle or not. Especially not with one linked to HER...' those were the first and last words Merlin spoke as he saw Ethan's dragon-form for the first time. Then he turned around and left them without a single word. Morgan and Rhiannon looked at each other dumbfounded.
Miriam sighed. 'After all this time... still unable to forgive or forget. Dryke do you even know what you have done?' Then she smiled comfortingly at Ethan who looked like a little frightened boy, even though his blood-red scales and huge dragon-form stood in harsh contrast to this vibe.
'Don't worry. Only because that old codger runs of like that it doesn't mean all hope is lost. Even if he really refuses to teach you, we won't let you down. Though I have to admit he is right about one thing, he does not care about Knights. He didn't stand teaching Mero either. I guess you are going to join him in his lessons. Might even better if we involve Mero in this, he felt quite lonely off late, seeing you too going to your lessons or university...' Miriam said clearly satisfied with her idea.
'Well about university... how am I to go back there looking like this?' Ethan asked shyly. Rhiannon sighed inwardly. It hasn't been even a year when she herself had been at this point. The point of no return. To add to the absurdness of the current situation her inner jukebox decided on playing the Kansas song with the title 'Point of know return'. How long, how long to the point of know return...
She had clearly passed her own at that time, but an ominous feeling told her that there were many yet to come. The young dragon sighed audible this time.
'You won't be able to go there for a while. I couldn't go there either, that's why we only just met. You will have to learn to harness your power. You know 'Great power, great responsibility' 'she quoted the mantra that distinguished the superhero from the supervillain and the dragon from the monster. Miriam smiled proudly at the notion. In her eyes Rhiannon, who she regarded as a daughter, had come quite a way. Grown inside and outside. Unconsciously her gaze wandered between her son and Rhiannon to and fro. She, the dragon-queen would really like to host a marriage between the two of them.
The dragon-queen clapped her hands and said 'Okay. I'll take you, Ethan to Mero and Esmeralda, the knight-class' teacher. The two of you should follow Merlin to avoid getting him even more agitated. He will be grumpy, but I guess you know him well-enough.' Morgan and Rhiannon nodded and changed into their dragon-forms. The huge black and night-blue dragons dwarfed the blood-red dragon, Ethan, by a large margin. The newly transformed dragon looked at them with awe. He automatically bowed his head. A gesture that made the dragon-queen smile. She touched Ethan's shoulder and of they went.
'It seems his dragon-instincts are rather strong. He might be a higher tier knight.' Morgan stated smilingly when they were out of earshot. 'How do you know?' Rhiannon asked curiously looking at Morgan slightly confused. 'Well, it's simple enough. We dragons are highly hierarchical creatures. Our less powerful clansmen are compelled to obey the more powerful ones. Him being influenced by this instinct is fairly normal, but he only showed it when we changed forms. That means though his dragon-instincts are fairly strong, which equals growth-potential, he is not influenced by it in our human-form, even though there is not one but three royals here right now. That means his mental fortitude is strong enough to back his growth-potential, so he has the chance to become a high tier knight.' he explained, motioning Rhiannon to walk with him towards the gallery.
'If there are high tier knights, are there also mid and low tier ones?' Rhiannon asked as she walked with him.
'Yes, there are. If you will, all knights start of as low tier, but there are ones who are able to evolve within their class. Their growth-potential is not enough to become royals, but still fairly impressive.’ Morgan said and jumped into the crater, flapping his wings to ascend towards Merlin's layer in the upper-most part of the mountain. A fact she had hated before but really liked now, that she was able to fly good enough to go up without using the endless staircase, that consisted of 4536 steps. She had counted and cursed them one-by-one.
'You always talk about knights and royals and so on. Those are different power-levels ain't they? But how do you tell the difference?' Rhia asked while ascending.
' It is quite simple. For example, ascending in this crater like we do now, only royals can do so, if there is a storm. Even high tier knights would simply be pushed down by some wicked gusts that are circulating in this crater, deflected by the walls.' Morgan said.
'If you say so...'Rhiannon wondered if she would be able to push through only because she was a royal. She thought that experience did play a major role, too. Right now, she had no time to ponder by had to concentrate on landing.
Merlin's gallery was nothing but a small stone crest you had to cling to like a bat, only using your claws to get a hold. Deep claw-marks showed the most common landing spaces. Hanging there you had to change into half-transformation because the entrance was too small for a dragon to fit through. Then by climbing on the crest you could enter a magically guarded area before finally entering the silver dragon’s lair. Rhiannon thought she would get a heart-attack the first time she had to do it. But right now, after doing it for months on daily basis it came quite natural to her.
After entering the lair both Morgan and Rhiannon changed into their human-forms. Merlin awaited them sitting in an armchair smoking his pipe. Rhiannon had actually asked about dragons and smoking. It was really true they were not effected at all. Merlin had indeed smiled at her question and said 'Being a fire-breathing creature does have its perks.' They could not get a smoke intoxication, be burned or anything like this. Morgan as a half-European, half-Asian dragon had the same perks with water, too. But he was less resistant than a pure blooded of each race.
Rhiannon did develop into a fire-dragon, with some water resistance since the first blood that initiated the change came from Morgan. She had asked whether they were blood-related or not, but they were not. The young dragon had been afraid to have a crush on a brother of sorts. The dragon-blood simply operates as a mutagen, influencing her own DNA, without leaving foreign DNA traces.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
'Okay... what is the curse of the seven and why is Ethan talking like an oracle? And why did you run away, just now? Who is that Dryke? And what are those Sidhe you keep talking about...?' asked Rhiannon breaking the ominous silence that had spread in the room with both Morgan and Merlin looking away, avoiding each other’s and Rhia's gaze.
'Those are quite a lot questions, you have, and unpleasant ones, at that. I don't want you to get involved in such unpleasant things.' Merlin sighed suddenly looking his real age, though his body remained youthful as it was.
'I am fed up with half-truths. Look at me! Am I already involved? You even said I was born to be involved in it. I know knowledge is dangerous, but not knowing and running blindly in a knife's edge isn't any better, is it? Things are evolving... I don't think we can do anything about them by ignoring them...' Rhiannon snorted. Here she was leading a life she never asked for and had to deal with a council and its laws, only to be told they didn't want her to get involved. Such flimsy excuses sucked...
'I guess you are right.' the silver dragon said and stood up motioning them to follow him into his personal library. It was a huge space cavern. Big enough to accommodate ten dragons or more. But even though it still felt small dwarfed by the sheer number of books and scrolls it held. Rhiannon was still as fascinated as she had been when she saw it for the first time. Merlin had told her it even held the clans' part of the lost Alexandrian library. She still wasn't sure whether to believe him or not. The three of them settled down in the reading area and Merlin waved his hand. An ancient scroll appeared in it.
'This is the scroll of sealing the realms. Five hundred years ago this world, the mortal world was still a part of the Unity of realms. It was the connecting piece in between the Infernal, Celestial and Grey Plane, as well as several differing mortal planes. This scroll was written by the Sidhe the people of the Grey Plane. They sealed themselves as well as the other two Immortal Planes from the Mortal Planes to prevent their War from spreading and eradicating everything here. Or so they said. They still like to mingle in our affairs. Especially my mother, Dryke. She is a nuisance and not much of a mother. Actually, left me outside a human village to either die or be adopted by them. Not that my father was any better, a vain arch-druid, not thinking beyond his desires, but still, I am not going to fall in one of her traps. Not again. I am sure she was the one to orchestrate poor Ethan to fall into the clutches of the order. Like she orchestrated the Fall of the fifth clan just to make me accept her lineage as a dragon...' Merlin trailed of hiding his face in his hands.
'You say your mother orchestrated the Fall of a whole major clan to underline her point of view. Don't you think it is a bad idea to defy her?' Morgan asked seemingly as astonished as Rhiannon.
'Well... yes... she did. She sees us as pawns on her chess board. That’s why she hates the fact I participated in the second sealing.' Merlin said.
'The second? Was there another?' Rhiannon asked.
'The first one took place ten thousand years ago. It stopped the planes from merging from time to time... this one was called the seal of chaos; it created the Unity of realms. It keeps the chaos away protecting both the Mortal and Immortal Planes from its influence. The second sealing, the seal of Ley-Lines, protects the Mortal planes from over-boarding influence of the immortal-plane, you know never invite a god into your world. It seals the outer Ley-Lines, those connecting the realms. Those Lines, that flow through the world, that our scientists refer to as worm-holes and space-time-shifts are not influenced by it. Those are the Inner Ley-Lines.' the wizard explained looking at his two students before continuing. 'The second sealing came to be after several major incidents such as the eradication of the fifth clan, out of a whim, one thousand years ago and the Inter-Planar-War five hundred years ago... to only name two. The order of the seven, the originator of the curse of the seven, is against the second sealing, since it not only banns direct interference from the Immortal-planes on the Mortal Planes, but also limits the power we can archive whilst staying in this plane. If we break this power-cap we ascend to one of the Immortal-planes. A journey without returning. They are trying to break the rest of the seven seal. The first part was already broken by our coming out. It was called the seal of unawareness. There are six other seals. The second is called the Doom of Elementals. To break it you have to kill five elementals with their own element, water, fire, air, spirit and earth, such as drowning a serene. Or burning a fire-dragon. Or a phoenix, now we saved Ethan... To do so you have to kill them whilst changing. Otherwise, their resistance is too strong.' the silver dragon furthered.
'But why are they using those rings?' Morgan asked.
'The rings are controlling the change to last over several days. Ethan was extremely fast in his reaction due to his dormant dragon-blood. The longer the duration of the change, the longer they have to find the ideal location and method.' Merlin explained. 'I guess my mother’s minions are not as tough as my brother was in the infancy of the order. He was his originator. My mother’s favourite plaything. And regretfully my best student He is the inventor of the rings. But right now, he is thankfully stuck in the immortal-planes. Our fight nearly sends me there, too, but though I won, I was gravely wounded and able to remain here. But if I was ever to fight at this level again, I would surely ascend. Unable to return with the seals still intact.' the ancient dragon grumbled.
'You say we are in this on our own??' Morgan asked.
'Yes. Because the very moment I intervene, I will disappear.' Merlin confirmed.
'Are there more than those two seals?' Rhiannon asked thinking further into the matter at hand.
'There are as I said seven of them. The seal of unawareness, the doom of elementals, the connection of sea and earth, the lighting of darkness, the opening of the nexus, the bending of space-time and finally the opening to the outer lines.' the silver dragon explained.
'Do they have to do it in a set order?' Morgan wanted to know, delaying his other questions to a later date.
'Not entirely. The first three are belonging to the outer seal. They have to be broken before attempting the inner seal the second compound of three seals. And those are to be broken before attempting the final step.' Merlin explained.
'Doesn't it mean we do not know whether there are one or two seal already broken?' Rhiannon asked shocked.
'Basically yes. One might even argue, the connection of earth and sea was broken a long time ago. Globalization, air-planes, you name it.' the old wizard sighed.
'Doesn't it mean once the Doom of elementals is broken, the lighting of the darkness is broken, too, I mean light-pollution and so on?' Rhiannon asked Merlin who looked pained by her question.
'Well, technically yes. We didn't know about technical revolution and stuff. We lived in the middle-ages and relied on magic for about everything. Couldn't even dream of a time like this.' he answered apologetically. Shrugging helplessly.
'So, you say the humans innovative thinking once unleashed from its shackles is calling doom upon us?' Morgan asked exhausted.
'Not doom, but the end of the world you know, that's for sure.' Merlin answered again shrugging, whilst Rhiannon’s inner jukebox played 'It's the end of the world as we know it' by REM.
'Why are we to stop it if it isn't doom?' she asked out of a whim.
'Because just because it isn't doom to the world or to us, the clans, it doesn't mean it isn't doom to the normal people.' the wizard stated. Rhiannon had the feeling he still hid a lot of things concerning this topic, but she knew he wouldn't tell anything else, so she decided to let it be, for the moment...