Given all she had seen in this heart, Meera expected an answer like this. But still calling a dragon a sister, turning her stone, and living inside her was a first. What sort of animosity could have prompted such a drastic response?
She thought of her own friends back home. She had several close friends, but out of them all, there was only one whom she considered a sister, and she could never kill her—no matter the circumstances.
“I can see you judging me,” Veridiana stated with a slight anger in those purple eyes.
“N-No, I wasn’t,” Meera lied, stumbling over her words. Her words sounded false, even to her ears.
Veridiana gave a sad smile. “I wouldn’t blame you if you did. I deserve all the hate of her children for what I did to their mother. Then, I was shameful enough to use her body even if it was her wish. What a friend I turned out to be, eh Agni…” She said, looking up at the ceiling.
Meera wanted to know more. She wanted to ask more questions, but it felt like she would be poking around on an extremely personal topic. So, she followed her father’s advice and remained quiet. He used to say that people—emotional people especially would fill in the silence themselves and reveal more than they should.
Another tear dripped from Veridiana’s chin, and she deflated with a sigh. She stayed in that position for a long while. Meera wanted to console her but didn’t feel right consoling someone for the murder of their best friend. So, she waited still.
“I might as well tell you,” Veridiana finally said. “It will help in making the decisions that will govern the fate of all.”
“Tell me what?” Meera asked.
“The sad tale of a sorceress and an archdragon. The story of how I killed my dearest friend and gained the powers to rival gods, but with it came a lifetime of misery.” Veridiana looked up with glossy eyes. “And I am so unfortunate that I cannot even kill myself because my death would mean the death of my daughter’s dream. I can only disappoint so many people in this life…”
Meera gulped. She had so many questions. In the past two days, she hadn’t even seen this woman break a sweat, and this was a literal downpour of emotions from the woman.
“It all started six hundred years ago when I was not much younger than I look. I was born in what became the mighty city of Drurith. At the time, it was a small fishing village called Durnith. At that time, it was half the size of its smallest district. In any case, I was always an inquisitive little girl. Once, a passing conjurer dazzled us with what I thought was magic, and since then, all I wanted to do was learn how to do that. I saw the Mana stat but had no skills that utilized it. So, I made it my life’s mission to learn it, but we had no one in the village to teach me. Even Rown, the old healer, mostly used herbs and teas to heal. But there was a place where I could learn. There was a place filled with magic and magical beings that towered above the rest.”
“The Wiryar Forest,” Meera uttered without meaning to.
“That’s right, Meera,” Veridiana said. “A place fraught with danger and magic. I knew if anyone could teach me magic, it would be the dragons. Everyone said I was mad and would get myself eaten, but I was determined to fulfill my dream. So, one night, I packed a sack and headed into the forest. I planned to observe. If I could observe the dragons long enough, I figured I would be able to learn something.” She shook her head with a light smile. “What a fool I was, and my foolishness led me to fall into the nest of the dragon Agniaz Dawnbringer. Luckily, she was in the middle of her egg-laying cycle, so I wasn’t eaten up right away.”
“Dragons go through egg-laying cycles? Like our periods?” Meera asked.
The sorceress nodded. “That’s right. Though, theirs are with much less blood. Considerably so, but they last for months, and a dragon is all but bedridden in those months. They can hardly move, save to get in position to lay eggs. If they haven’t prepared a stockpile of food and water beforehand, they could even starve or die of thirst. Fortunately for me, when I fell into Agniaz’s nest, she was fully into her cycle, and she hadn’t eaten for a whole two months.”
“Wouldn’t that be unlucky for you?”
Veridiana snorted. “I thought so too when Agniaz readied her fiery breath to roast me alive. But I’ve always prided myself on having a good head on my shoulders. I prostrated myself before the great dragon and offered her my services. Crying that I would be her slave if she let me live. Agniaz stopped and pondered, for she, too, had a good head on her shoulders. Seeing my chance, I quickly stood and said that if she ate me, she would get one meal, but if she kept me around and taught me some magical skills, I would hunt for her and bring her all the food she required.”
“Agniaz finally agreed and named me her minion.” She laughed lightly. “For the next several months, that’s what she called me whenever she needed something. Sometimes shouting at the top of her lungs, making all the trees reverberate with her roars. Asking me to hunt the most ridiculous things to satiate her mood. Of course, she nearly changed her mind about keeping me around when she discovered I had no skills to help me hunt. She was the one who taught me my stone class, which I’ve kept to this day, as it was my first magical class. After her cycle was complete, she kept me around because she couldn’t find such an easy slave or so she used to joke about, but I think we had built up quite a friendship by then that neither of us wanted to part ways. Though, she never taught me her fire class as that was reserved for a true dragon.”
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“So, all dragons have a fire class?” Meera asked.
Veridiana nodded. “Yes, or a version of it. I was the only human accepted by most dragons because of Agniaz, especially when she evolved into an archdragon.”
That piqued Meera’s interest. “So, all dragons can evolve into an archdragon?”
“Oh yes. However, Agniaz never let me see her evolution. She made up an excuse of going to meet someone special for a mating ritual. You know, I helped care for a lot of her children when they hatched, even her eldest sons—Ignis and Tigris. I was like an aunt to them, which is why what I did to their mother was the greatest betrayal in their eyes.” Her eyes were misty as she said those last words.
“I barely escaped Tigris,” Meera said. “He nearly ripped me in two with his laser eyes.”
Veridiana wasn’t the least bit surprised and smiled. “You know, I taught him that skill.”
“You did?” It was safe to say Meera was more than surprised.
The sorceress nodded. “I taught him and Ignis their second classes while their mother taught them the dragon fire class. You see, when Agniaz went for her mating ritual, she gave me a little gold from her hoard so I could get an education.” She made her voice heavier. “I cannot have an illiterate minion. You’ll make me look bad in front of the other dragons.’” Then she chuckled with a shake of her head. “So, for the next few years, I went to the University of Saranya in the Varsha Empire. Trust me, they don’t take anyone unless you make a sizeable donation. Those Varshans are as greedy as they come.”
Meera shifted in her seat. Looks like I have more in common with them than just looks.
“When I returned, I had mastered many classes, and that is where I learned of the essences and their relationship with Mana and skill growth. A little later, Agniaz and I created the potion that reverses aging. The same potion that the sisterhood uses to this day. Later still, when my daughter was born, it was Agniaz who named her Aksha, after her own name. Though, I didn’t know at that time.”
“Why do you call her Agniaz and not Akhessai?” Meera asked.
“Because that is the name I knew her by,” Veridiana answered. “I only found out her true name was Akhessai moments before her death.”
“If you were such close friends, then why did you have to kill her?” The words were out of Meera’s mouth before she realized. She clamped her mouth and hoped the sorceress wasn’t offended. Thankfully, she wasn’t. She looked like Meera had stabbed a knife through her heart.
“I’m sure you know of the Cult of Aetheron,” Veridiana stated.
“Oh, I know of them, all right. One of its members served me up to Tigris. The same one that you have tied up in your dungeons,” Meera replied.
Veridiana gave a slow nod. She didn’t care for Meera’s answer. She was worlds away. Locked in a terrible past by the pained expression on her face. “It was the same cult’s leader, the Frostcaller Hierarch as they call him—Elrasil Krasar, who poisoned my friend. I don’t have any proof, but my heart tells me it had to be him. I saw him running from Agni’s nest that day. I should have stopped and questioned him, but I let him go, as I thought he was just another human who had ventured too close to an archdragon’s nest. Only later did I learn his name. It was after that that changes began in my friend. She wasn’t herself after that day. She would lie in pain for days, lashing out at anyone who came close. Only I or her eldest sons dared to go close. But the poison, curse, or whatever that vile cur inflicted on her showed its true colors soon. She started to lose control of herself. Groves upon groves of Wiryar were burnt to ashes. Tigris and Ignis tried to step in and stop his mother, but the power of an archdragon was not so easily contained. She almost burnt Tigris to a crisp. It’s the reason why his scales are so black.”
Ah…Meera thought as things fell into place. “If Akhessai was so strong, what sort of poison could work on her? Moreover, why would Elrasil target her in the first place?”
“I have pondered that for many long years and can only discern one reason. Akhessai was a fire dragon, and the cult worships Aetheron, who is an ice dragon. So, naturally, they would view a fire dragon as the enemy. Other than that, no reason makes sense to me. Agniaz had no dealings with the Cult, nor did they have any major activity on this world at that time.”
“So, then you stepped in for her sons,” Meera concluded with a voice dripping with awe. The fact that this woman could take on an archdragon while two dragons themselves couldn’t. And one of those dragons had ripped holes in Meera like it was nothing.
Veridiana nodded. “We battled for two whole days. Our fight reshaped the land. The lake that you must have surely crossed was one such result. At the end of the second day, I was at my end. I didn’t have much left in me. But then Agniaz broke through the spell.” Tears welled up in her eyes. “Her last conscious act was to tell me her true name. With it, I was able to hold her long enough to do…well, this. S-She…” Veridiana almost broke down but kept herself together by taking a deep breath. “She told me to turn her to stone and use her body to get stronger as a day would come when my strength would be needed. She couldn’t bear to hurt her children any longer. Even if she was under the spell, she remembered hurting Tigris, and it pained her worse than death. She knew I would be hunted and hated for eternity by her children. She knew they would never harm her body, and so as long as I stayed here, my sorceresses and I would be safe.”
“So, that’s why you call them the Sorceresses of Akhessai,” Meera stated. “As a tribute to your friend.”
Veridiana wiped her tears with her shawl. “Yes, though it was Aksha’s idea. For many years, it was just us in this place. We carved out every corner of it ourselves. It was when she unlocked the skill to replicate herself that I realized how lonely she was. I realized I needed to expand our little circle of two. Train more people to pass on my knowledge, and thus, the sorceresses were born. It’s why Aksha guards this place so jealously. It’s the only home she’s ever known that is her own. She decided to name us the Sorceresses of Akhessai as a tribute to her aunt. I allowed it, knowing I would be reviled for using her true name, but it felt right. It felt right that my friend was remembered by her true name.”
It wasn’t Meera’s place to judge her decision, so she stayed quiet for a long while. Then, finally, she asked. “Why did you tell me all this?”
She looked off into the distance. “The Arbiter will make the ultimate sacrifice in the great prophecy so the champion can fulfill his part.”
Meera’s heartbeat quickened, for she knew what was coming next.
Veridiana looked into Meera’s eyes. “I fear, no, I know in my heart that you are the Arbiter.”