Dreiki had failed. He’d failed himself, Savekio, his mother, Ezo, and Luna. Anyone who had trusted him to survive and escape had misplaced their trust.
He was at war with himself.
It wasn’t over.
But it was.
He could still escape.
Not anymore. They’d break him. They needed him alive, but they didn’t need him intact.
His soul was already damaged. He’d break it if he tried to cast anything else. If it broke he’d be an emotionless husk with a thousand mile stare.
He was already broken. There was no way help would come now. They didn’t know where he was. Ezo didn’t have his scent, and any attempt he’d made to call for help had been snuffed.
It was unfair. The world itself was against him. Fate was against him.
And Luna. Poor Luna. They’d punish her too for being his accomplice. All he’d done was given them another excuse to hurt her.
His enemies were too strong. Too numerous. It didn’t matter how clever he was, or how lucky he got. This world was cruel, and his attempts to save others inevitably came back to bite him in the end.
He could feel the poison tormenting him even as he slept. Prodding at him like spears, encasing him in endless torture. This was only the beginning. He’d been so close, and yet that thing had interfered again.
A cold and strangely enticing thought creeped into his mind.
He should end his own life before his mother could see him. When he woke up he’d bite his tongue off and bleed out. Dreiki didn’t want to see the look on his mother’s eyes when they showed him off as a broken husk.
He had to take his own life. Otherwise they’d get his mark. They’d challenge his mother with it and do what they did to Luna and her family.
A fate worse than death. Therefore death was preferable.
The void gave way to a familiar place. A home long forgotten. A memory he didn’t know he had.
He was back home with his mother and his father.
In Lithiria.
Dreiki was in his crib. An infant taking in the new world around him. He was crying in pain.
The poison still hurt.
But something broke through the pain.
He could hear his mother humming the song his father had taught her.
Hear me, Hear me
Remember thy name
The child of man whom god couldn’t tame
We cried and fell
And sang our song
To stoke the coals of hell
Our history forever gone
And
My child, sweet child
Remember the pain
When trees were fire and souls profane
We fell and fell
And sang our song
To live in hell
All winter long
And
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Through Autumn's gale
Does God hear us hum and swing our blade
Here we swing our blade
Pushed by fallen’s gale
Hear a warrior made
Our tale forgotten yet carried on
My hope my love , I don
My child, strong child
Go wild, go wild
Be free as our song
Remember the chains
When God ruled his malevolent reign
My child, kind child
Our song is for you
Inherit the rot and burn it away
Before it takes you too
Stoke your strength child
The Immortals we slay
There was more to the song. But why did Dreiki know that? His mother had never sang it in front of him. He had only heard it when he was a baby.
Something woke up inside Dreiki.
He thought he was going to take his own life? The life his father died to protect?
No.
His mother hadn’t raised a son who’d take such an easy answer to his problems.
It wasn’t over. Savekio was still out there. Ezo was still out there. His mother was still out there. And how could he feel so sorry for himself when Luna had endured so much more than him?
He was pathetic. He truly was.
The pain of the poison melted away as he remembered why the xiozians could never conquer humans.
Humans were far too defiant and crafty to be conquered. They always did what they were told was impossible. Just like xiozians, they surpassed their nature to become something more than they were meant to be.
Dreiki was also human. He was tenacity, and perseverance. He was the stubborn trick candle that wouldn’t stop burning even after being blown out.
That was what Dreiki carried in his soul. A soul which now burned with defiant humanity!
He opened his eyes.
Dreiki was only half awake. He could feel his soul burning away with the rest of his body.
But it burned the color of bronze.
He felt no pain. No fear. Only his instincts.
Attack.
Kill.
Survive.
The blurry blobs who stood in opposition to him moved so slowly. He knew who they were, and it only made him burn brighter.
Dreiki lashed out. He felt bone shatter on his knuckles. He didn’t know whose it was. It might’ve been his. He didn’t care. He kept going.
He sank his weapons into his enemies.
Flesh tore away, bubbled and blistered. He might’ve been small compared to them, but even lions feared badgers.
He was hungry, insatiable as he dug into them. He would eat them alive.
That was his xiozian side talking now.
His body crunched under a blow, but he felt no pain. He was wrath, he was resilience, and he was terror.
All he could see were those monstrous grins. That horror was still laughing at him.
It always had too many teeth.
He’d fix that.
Dreiki snatched them by the horns and drove his knee through their grinning maw. Their horns snapped off as he made them swallow their teeth.
Revenge.
Another crunch, and he was tumbling on the ground. He didn’t know where he was, but he kept fighting.
He knew where they were.
Dreiki roared as loud as he could, but he couldn’t even hear himself.
Their horns were his weapons. He sank them into their flesh, and then his teeth. He wanted to taste their blood. He wanted them to feel the pain they’d inflicted on everyone they’d wronged.
CRUNCH!
The air collapsed around his body. His ears rang and his flames sputtered. Cold enveloped his body.
He roared back to life, they couldn’t kill him. They didn’t want the mark he’d give them when he died. Whatever terror he inflicted on them like the cornered cub he was, his mother would inflict tenfold.
They held back. He did not.
His teeth crunched through bone, tore through muscle and sinew until it was hanging by a strip of skin. He wasn’t going to stop until one of them died. He wasn’t going to rest until they’d paid. Until that monster who haunted him left him alone.
He felt an impact. He skipped like a stone against the ground. His body was breaking to pieces. He couldn’t stop. Even if his body was broken, his spirit wasn’t. They’d have to kill him.
SPLASH!
He was underwater.
Luna?
He stopped. His flames snuffed out, his vision blurred by glowing water. Had he hurt Luna?
No, she was fine. She had to be.
He was warm. He’d done enough. Luna had escaped her collar. She could get away again.
And yet she was trying to heal him? She should run. At least one of them should get away. Dreiki had shattered his soul to pieces for her freedom.
It was his apology for being so reckless.
For being so weak.
But if he’d shattered his soul, then why did he still worry for her? Why did he still feel relief and happiness thinking she might be alive?
His soul wasn’t broken. It was only damaged. How was it still intact?
Dreiki’s thoughts blurred into incomprehensible trains of emotion. He tossed and turned fading in and out of consciousness.
Maybe he had dreamt everything from the beginning. Dreiki opened his eyes, the light of the sun blinding him. The tune of his father’s song hummed in his ears. He squinted, given shade by a dark haired xia with eyes of gold and red.
“Mom?”