Sifta pendragon

“We all meet again. What a nice surprise.” Duke Remingar spoke with a light tone coming to greet my mother who was currently giving her greetings to the insufferable king who also kept his eye on Imra, who was trying to worm his way into a girl’s private life. The three idiots paid no attention even after Imra got close. Wanting to step in I began to move but my mother wanting to keep up appearances grabbed my hand trying to stop me, as I stood before her I turned to look at her pulling my hand away. A grunt flowed through the air as Castil gripped Imra pulling him away from the girl.

“I see your son hasn’t learned your majesty.” Castil smiled pulling Imra to the king’s side. At first, I didn’t notice it but Castil had begun to change when Imkli started to hide himself away. “It’s good Imkli left when he had the chance… Lyron, I know you put Imra and Harmon up to what they did… to destroy imkli’s pride.” Every noble in the vicinity looked at Lyron who began to shudder with bulging eyes. Of course, they were out of the loop on what happened to Imkli.

“Watch your to-.”

“That’ll be all from both of you… we are here to travel to Numena for the summit not to have petty squabbles like children.” Duke Leonhart being the voice of reason in this moment spoke up keeping himself away from his mother-in-law who was beside Harmon. Duke Leonhart after Talia’s disappearance caved himself away, growing support from Medea. He also began to supply the riel rebels with whatever they needed to accomplish our goals. Of course, King Lyron didn’t know this but I had a feeling that the duke’s mother-in-law did. After some time from the grumbling former god of the Talos pantheon and the king of a falling kingdom, the warp gate began to open.

The place the warp gate was placed in was actually inside Duke Leonhart’s private area of his manor which he was only able to have access to. The warp gate was very archaic and eldritch in design with the unknown runes of said languages and the carving structure of the gothic Numena. Unlike many other warp gates, this one was carved entirely out of black stone or raven ore not to be confused with raven steel. Glancing over at the warp gate’s frame I happened to spot two familiar runes that were even older than Marin. The sigil of divinity and the sigil of blood sight.

At the expense of my own forgetfulness, Castil reminded me that the sigil of blood sight was an old archaic rune meaning ‘All who lie will be judged in death’s grip’. To these dukes and duchess, that wording would mean absolutely nothing but to me and Castil it was a warning from the eldritch god of war Sif. Its real meaning is ‘those who hide between the ravens will be treated like the wolves and vultures who gnaw on the bones of the rotting.’ In simple terms, you'll be given a harsher punishment than death.

“Well fuck. Sif… is back.” Castil mumbled under his breath whilst he bit down on his right index. Before I could probe him for an answer the Warp gate’s light began to intensify from light cyan to a harsh evergreen. After the harsh evergreen light appeared, the runes on the frame lit up sound as if the mana inside was being scratched into, like a prisoner crawling at the walls of his cell. It was a sound I had heard many a time in the slums even so now I felt as if I was recalling a memory that I didn’t want to. After a few seconds, the warp gate became stable with Duke Leonhart standing before us all, I could see each noble was eager to enter almost pushing each other away. I stayed still not moving an inch which my mother and Leonhart felt odd.

The warp gate’s mana began to fizzle from being stable. Two silhouettes appeared in the haze, and grey-fogged outlines became more distinct. One seemed taller just ever so slightly than the other, Duke Leonhart trying his best to calm everyone awaited the arrival of the two individuals. That being said they soon both entered our side of the warp gate. Like I had thought through the portal’s projection one was taller than the other, just a head height taller. The first of the two who was the smaller one wore a stag skull over her face hiding her appearance, her attire was very archaic, and I mean very formal. She wore a slip-thigh dark grey one-shoulder dress with shaman motifs that matched the appearance of the stag skull.

Her pale skin threw me off as she was no doubt an elf but her skin was more known for being from the firewatchers or as humans called them heart eaters. Keeping to her appearance I noticed she wore ankle-high heeled boots. Through the slit in her dress, I saw dark green elvish tattoos lining her thigh. Looking back up to meet her eyes, I involuntarily took a step back into my mother who caught me quickly. Staring into the masked person's eyes felt as if I had been killed ten times over, in a room covered in shadow with no recollection of how I got there.

Moving over to the second of the two people was a female who didn’t cover her face surprisingly. From the rumours I had heard out of Numena, I knew that this person was an old friend of Rias. Artoria the queen of the abyss. Her deeds had reached even my ears in the slums, I knew she cared deeply for the Numenian people. To them, she was sort of like a wartime hero. Contrary to how the nobles of onrath portrayed her appearance she was quite beautiful, golden blonde hair flowed down to her waist as if it was a calm ocean. Unlike her hair, her eyes were hollow without colour yet I found beauty in that like the soul.

Her dress matched her appearance appearing as a blue-toned violet sheath. Beads of various purple hues were sewn into the hemline of the dress and waistband. Silhouette didn’t have any outstanding features aside from the embroidered lilies throughout, a corset of dark violet was placed over top just to be seen to compliment the sapphire of the silhouette.

“Lady Artoria it’s good to finally converse in person. Lady Nox it’s a pleasure to meet you.” Duke Leonhart ignored all the stares from the dukes and duchess even a couple from the royal family greeting Artoria and Lady Nox with a kiss on the dorsal of the hand as a sign of respect. Before we knew it, slowly we made our way through the wrap gate, I had imagined there being no pain aside from a slight ich like many other warp gates. However, this wrap gate had no pain at all nothing more than a light tap just above the waist band.

On the other side of the warp gate was a fantastically presented courtyard of marble stone. The marble stones were mixtures of white, ashen black and gilded gold to match the banners that were hung from poles and pillars throughout the courtyard. Hanging baskets of various flowers such as lilies, tulips and lunars were placed on each pillar with three metres between them, my jaw dropped at the sheer effort the people had put into this even going so far as to decorate the nine by ten-foot water fountain with petals of black and red roses even placing rose reefs on the statue in the centre.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

When I eventually took my eyes off it, I laid them upon the enormous monolithic citadel, the centrepiece of Eventide. The black keep. To see such a structure was like a dream, its twin gothic spires along with the buttresses that lined every buttress towards the back of the citadel. A form of art only carvers could dream of, love was truly placed into every chip of stone and even a slight form of detail from those who constructed it.

“It’s beautiful. I've never seen something so dark yet beautiful in my life… lady artoria the people of Eventide have outdone themselves in the little time they’ve had.” Duchess Remingar spoke with her mouth slightly agape in shock maybe even in awe, looking towards the citadel that captured every ray of sun at its head. The Duchess was a woman who appreciated every form of art better than I ever could, though she had her fair share of criticism when it came down to it, she did enjoy things of this scale. “Love was really put into this…”

Before the duchess could finish her thought, we were all covered in darkness followed by the rumbling of the earth. The wind had a sudden updraft followed by the loud bang of something imitating thunder, tilting my head in my vision I saw a large beast seem to fly through the air with immense speed.

“The queen did it!”

“She did it! She tamed Blackfyre!”

“All hail the queen!”

The guards exclaimed with laughter and praise to their queen who rode on the back of the dragon, even from here I could sense that the figure was happy. While the Nobles around me were in shock from seeing a mythical being only seen in legend, the queen who was clad in full armour from head to toe in their revelry encouraged the knights and guards by flowing over laughing as she did. The dragon also seemed to enjoy this by flying low and then suddenly pulling out her wings. From its slimmer frame and quick rotation speed it was clear this dragon was of the female sex.

“That’s our queen… she can be quite reckless when she wants to be. Sorry to draw your eyes away but that’s her dragon bond Hadriel Blackfyre.” Lady Nox informed watching the guards and knights who paid us no mind. Lady Nox also explained that to these people who lived in Numena, this was nothing new when they fought alongside their queen whilst also knowing she did things that people would think impossible like bonding with a dragon. Lady Nox did inform us as well that soon we would be able to meet the queen when she landed hopefully, as I continued to stare at the rider for a split second of time, I felt them look back at me before they gestured for their dragon bond to fly down.

Turning towards us with its wings fully out, I took in the entire appearance of the black dragon, the black scales seemed to follow the appearance of golden marble or kintsugi. This gold texturing continued onto the body even to the taloned split tail, which itself was covered in small spikes or thorns. Four horns protruded out from either side of the dragon’s head in the shape of blades of raven steel, with golden fin-shaped rose thorns covering the spine down from the forehead. I found myself staring into the dragon’s sun-gold eyes, unlike the golden eyes of my family the dragon's eyes were violent even more than those of Rias’s when she stood in the throne room before Lyron two years ago.

What I hadn’t noticed before was that this dragon had four wings, not two scaled large wings. To dragons, even the primordial dragons having four wings was rare, which also meant you had more of Vritra's features than the rest. The dragon before me was a lot smaller than Vritra yet even with her smaller appearance, the mere presence of her wanted my knees to buckle to force me into a bow. Keeping my will strong, I caught the gaze of the dragon’s rider the queen of Numena. Like the dragon, her presence was strong but instead of wanting to kneel I wanted to run and hide. Every second our eyes locked I could feel my death repeat over and over.

Shaking my head I returned to reality to see the queen of Numena jump off the dragon holding a large weapon in her hand which I recognized as a sacred weapon nothing more. After the queen of Numena began to move towards us the dragon became agitated beginning to grumble even ready to set things ablaze.

“It’s okay. That’s a good girl. Yes, I know Hadriel, but I won't leave this time. Change to a human form if you’d like… no? Fine then you’ll just have to go sleep in the coliseum, won't you… hahaha.” I stood in amazement as this deep-toned female calmed the beast that made even myself and castil flinch at her mere presence. Patting the dragon’s nose seemed to quell the beast for long enough to stop her grumbling like a child. Of course, I couldn’t understand the queen of Numena as she spoke a tongue neither I, guards or knights knew. The tongue wasn’t Numen from what I could tell it was a language from long ago that Crowna would only speak. Ascensionism.

Eventually, the Queen of Numena stepped back as the dragon known as Hadriel changed forms into that of a young female Dragonoid who didn’t show off a tail like many could. She actually seemed to take on a similar appearance to Rias, there were noticeable differences such as the vibrant golden eyes, the two horns that protruded out her head, especially its kintsugi texturing. She also seemed to have fair porcelain white skin that didn’t match her draconic form whatsoever, she also seemed to wear a lot of black makeup which Rias was fond of doing.

Her clothing was very similar to how Reclaimer wore her clothing, in fact, it was almost identical. ‘Is that a black dragon thing or something else?’ I wondered looking from the dragon than to Lyra whose face lit up when she recognized the hair of the person underneath the helmet. Just missing to grab her hand I watched as she ran off towards the queen of Numena still wearing her armour. ‘Ah fuck it let her have her moment. Wait is that?’ turning towards the queen of Numena I saw her embrace Lyra like they were old friends.

“I missed you! I missed you so fucking much! Why did you leave me with them?!” Lyra exclaimed for all to hear. The queen of Numena was a few head heights taller than the Lyra maybe two or three it could have been because of the armour or she was just that tall. Even when wearing that helm warmth could be felt from the presence of a smile gracing her lips, one I was familiar with. A smile I have missed for the last two years.

“It’s okay hadriel. I missed you too Lyra… I'm sorry it took so long.” She kept smiling from underneath her helm, momentarily pausing to remove her helm from upon her head. I laid my eyes upon the true face of the queen this continent has pledged their allegiance to. I was stunned motionless seeing the gleaming metallic fingers of a biomechanical hand and the four lines that flowed down from the eyes. Seeing the short wolf cut of faded black to gold hair and those beautiful hollow feeling golden eyes of my sister. “Welcome to Numena… my old friend Lyra reef-maw, my Nimue.”

“Rias.” I spoke my sister’s name aloud for all to realize who the queen of Numena was.

“It's been awhile, hasn’t it? Hello, sifta.” That feeling of nausea and impending death was no longer in the pits of my stomach as I took off running towards my sister only for my mother to grab my hand holding me back, a fierce look of anger in her eyes. I would’ve thought she would be happy to see her daughter, but it was the opposite no doubt Rias could feel it too. Pulling my hand free from my mother’s strong grip I ran towards my sister who accepted me with open arms. Tears formed in my eyes as I continued to hold my sister in my arms disregarding the fact she was still wearing armour and the fact she had changed so much since I last met her.

Right now, though that didn’t matter to me I was just happy to see Rias again after two years which felt like a lifetime ago. Rias trying her hardest pulled me off. She laughed wiping the tears from my eyes, for once she probably felt like the older sister. Lyra interrupted the moment and pointed toward Lyron who didn’t have the greatest expression on his face. If I was alone, I would laugh just seeing him grumble like he was a child. Being respectful my sister walked up to Lyron and greeted him not like she used to by kissing his hand. Now she looked at him and greeted him by giving a slight bow.

“You’ve become arrogant.”

“Really? So, I'm becoming like you. Get used to it while you’re here Your Majesty…” she paused looking away from the king towards Duke and Duchess Leonhart she respectfully bowed.

“There is someone I’d like you to meet.” The doors of the citadel opened with two people coming out from inside of the grand structure. One figure was an eight or nine-foot-tall, winged angel who wore white gothic armour with a long golden cloak. The knights either bowed or placed their hands on their chests. From the description of her appearance, I figured she was the first grand commander Ciaran. The second figure was someone of similar height to Rias. Long midnight blue to dark violet hair that flowed down her back. Hazy purple eyes glistened in the sunlight just like the beads on the hemline of her dress. None of the knights moved or even looked at the girl as she walked through the courtyard, the nobles seemed unsure as to who this was and the child, she was holding even though by now they should have figured it out.

“Hello mother. Hello father, welcome to Numena. This is your granddaughter Rain.”