Hravesvalgyr

Awareness returned to Akamori, leaving him alone in darkness. The last thing he recalled was a blinding bolt of lightning crashing down into his head. He could feel his body being broken down atom by atom. Reduced to nothing but ash.

“So… this is what death finally feels like.”

Noo. An elegant feminine voice crooned in draconic. You are not dead yet. You are merely in a location which my enemies cannot reach.

“Which is?”

My mind.

He fumbled in the darkness, but the sensation was like being adrift in the void of space. Nothing to grab onto. No gravity.

You are here to fulfill a purpose that was given to you long before you were born, at the behest of my grandfather hundreds of thousands of years before this sector was traveling the stars. When gods warred with each other. I was the greatest. Swift as air, and just as cutting. Until she came along.

Below and away from him, light flashed around a large, curved object. It took his mind several minutes to put together until he was seeing the light of a star from the umbral side of a planet. An umbral gate opened, and several dragons spilled free of it. A large white scale and feathered dragon, with several smaller dragons flying around it like insects, and a smaller golden dragon that Akamori didn’t recognize.

“Val.” The smaller one pleaded. “We must hide Theferis. If she gets ahold of it, we’ll never be able to stop her.”

Val? Akamori thought to the goddess’s mind.

Hnnn. Yes. Hravesvalgyr. We changed our names to shield us from her gaze. A miracle that cost us greatly, but purchased time. We are but a mere shadow of our former glory.

But the larger white dragon moved languidly, stunned at the loss of her mother by her only sister. The larger glanced up after a few moments of silence. She’d only just noticed her sister’s silence. “The All Mother is gone. Slain by her own brood. Hidros is already dead. Murdered by a puppet of Sauridius. Their darkness will consume the galaxy. She is a rabid kinslayer and will drown us all in darkness.”

“So will your sorrow.” A small woman with a golden glow said next to one of her sisters.

Rage boiled through Hravesvalgyr’s veins. The impudence of the vassal. She loomed close to the small lesser goddess, teeth bared. Electricity crackled and snapped in her eyes. The lesser goddess remained unphased by her show of power, staring her down pound for pound. “That’s better.” She said with a faint nod.

Hravesvalgyr leaned back, scaled brows furrowed. Was this up jumped mortal playing games with her? No. She was making her angry. Anger was good for focus if you possessed the strength to control it. Too much and rage made you sloppy. Too little and you remained complacent. She snorted dismissively. A small electrical storm puffing from her nostrils.

“So, what do we do now?” The lesser goddess asked. “Standing around and moping about it won’t change the situation. But rushing off to challenge the darkness won’t get us anywhere either.”

“Aeryn speaks the truth.” This time it was her sister Fahnes who spoke, who’d been silent for so long. “We have limited time to take action. A contingency plan needs to be made.”

Hravesvalgyr paused. This was something her mother would have excelled at. As for herself? She believed in action for action’s sake for far too long. Living by the blade. Given recent developments, she was likely to die by it as well. Her voice rumbled like crashing boulders as she purred thoughtfully. She closed her eyes and allowed her divine sight to reach out. Plucking gently at the web of divinity’s threads. She followed them as they wound like trees of possibility. Each branch a choice and reaction. Some ended, most continued on.

A solution presented itself. But she found it repulsive. Loathsome even. She would have to abdicate ground and time to her enemy to foster a chance of resurgence.

“Why not pit them against each other? Surely they know eventually they’ll have to square off. Why not convince them that time is now rather than later?” Hravesvalgyr thought aloud.

“How?” Aeryn asked. More interest than skepticism in her voice. Good. She was a capable tool. Unruly though she was.

“We convince them we’ve died. Ceased to exist. We scour ourselves from history and memory. Let them think they are the only two players left on the board.”

“While we move to the corners and consolidate our positions.” Aeryn said. “That could work, but do we have the power to pull it off?”

“The cost will be great. And it will diminish us greatly, but whether the expense is paid in battle now, or later, it matters little.”

“This is very uncharacteristic of you, Val. I expected something more headstrong.”

“Yes, well, losing to you so many times at that blasted game you love so much has taught me that sometimes patience can be a virtue.”

“Long game it is, then. We concede the loss, repugnant though it may be, and pray the future presents us with the right opportunities to set things straight.”

“Val, this miracle will safeguard us, but what of the Great Fleet?”

Hravesvalgry’s hand ached for the Tsunami. The Great ship of air, forged in the shape of a massive katana. She’d been without it a short time, yet missed it profoundly. When she wielded it, she was among the most dangerous in the Dragonsong war. She felt naked without it.

“I’ll take the great fleet and run. I can draw them away from you two. If we time it right, we can give them the slip and be under their noses before they’re any wiser.”

“We may never see each other again, or if we do, so much time will have passed, things will be different. So. It’s been a real honor.” Aeryn said, giving them both a salute. A moment of silence passed as Hravesvalgyr’s massive hand balled into a fist that drummed the scales protecting her breast. The tiny light goddess nodded, then disappeared instantly, transmitting herself to the bridge of the Theferis.

When they sensed the great fleet departing, she and her sister began weaving together a complex divine ritual that consumed enormously large amounts of power. It was mentally unfathomable for Akamori to understand how much was being pooled out. The memory faded.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

You must return and prevent the spread of darkness. But first…

He felt the cold bracer slide free of his forearm as a series of wards wrapped around the black metal gauntlet and then burn themselves into its skin. He felt the muted conscious of the spell armor fade behind the magical walls placed on it. He tilted his head, confused. “I don’t understand? Why?”

It is corrupted. I will not allow you to field something stained with her blood.

“This whole leaving me defenseless thing isn’t exactly preparing me for what’s next.”

To face what comes next, you must embody that which makes air. Agile, adaptive, powerful. To conquer your enemy, you must become air.

Then he felt power surge into him. Torrents of it, like crackling lightning. He felt it suffuse and merge with his essence, his soul. He didn’t possess a body, and yet he could feel the power coursing through a phantom body.

“What are you doing to me?” He struggled out.

Empowering you. Reforging a weapon.

Deep within Akamori a cold pride eased out, numbing the sensations lightly. He knew it was the soul shard of Bahumet, looking upon his daughter with a mixture of sadness and pride. But there was nothing for the long dead wyrm to do beyond observe from within Akamori and pray for his success. All of creation depended upon it, and the young air warrior was nearing another nexus point on the web of fate.

There was a brilliant flash of light, and then absolute darkness. The first thing he noticed was an absence of any light. The second was the smell. Where he was now, it reeked of decay. Like he’d held his face right to a corpse exposed to the sun all day. The next thing he noticed was the floor was coated in a cold slime like substance.

Extreme apprehension rolled off of Thanaton in waves. Akamori fought off the sudden onset of dizziness that threatened to knock him over. He was certain falling into the muck wasn’t a prospect he wanted to be a part of. He drew the spell blade and channeled some aether through it, igniting the blade. The normally bright blade flickered in an oppressive pall of inky black.

Danger. His spell blade warned.

The blade’s hilt all but writhed in his grip. If it could lurch free and fly away he thought it might. The glow from the blade was so bright in contrast to his surroundings it hurt his eyes, forcing him to squint. An icy shiver rattled up his spine and Akamori forced himself to not chatter his teeth. The other thing he noticed was how eerily quiet it was. All save for the soft mumbling and whimpers he could hear from up the hall.

Cautiously stepping through the muck, he slipped and fell on his ass. Gliding through the slick muck like stinky grease, Akamori cursed several times. Finally, he gave up walking and channeled his air magic, floating up above the gunk. “I’m pretty sure this will never wash out,” Akamori complained.

This darkness is deeper than a mere stain on fabric. It would be unwise to linger. Thanaton warned.

Drifting closer to the sound, Akamori’s stomach rolled at the sight that slowly faded into view. A woman coated in the black goo, sobbing and crying. It streaked the black gunk on her cheeks with tears. He floated there in front of her, the spell blade alight for several moments before she even registered his presence. Slowly, her eyes focused and then turned to face him. It was like watching the scene play out in slow motion.

“It’s all darkness. Her mind is like teeth and nails on my mind. Corruption sinking in. All light… all hope… dead.”

Akamori settled down into the goop and spread his feet out a bit for better footing. He held Thanaton behind his back to lesson the glare in the young woman’s face. Her eyes were wild and distant. He placed a calming hand on her shoulder.

“It’s ok. My name is Akamori, I’m here to help.”

Her eyes focused on him suddenly with hawklike clarity and he bit back the reflex to jerk away. He was committed. Recognition bloomed in her eyes for a moment.

“It’s you… I… I finished my assignment. I kept the faith.”

Joy and relief flooded her expression, and he was afraid he’d lose her to another fit of mania. “What assignment, what faith?”

She pushed herself up off the floor. He glanced down and noticed that the black goo was trying to climb him as well. Another cold shiver danced up his spine. She gestured for him to follow her.

“Come. We must hurry. I have to get you to your destination.”

He followed her, jerking his boot free of the stinky gunk on the ground. It made a squelching sucking sound as his boot tore free of it. He couldn’t shake the feeling he was being watched. Like there were eyes following him from all around. What the hell was this stuff?

As they slogged along, the woman wrapped her arms around herself, streaking the black slime on her sleeves. “I kept the faith. I knew you’d come. I kept the faith. I’m the last one.”

Akamori frowned. This was edging close to cookey religious babble. “Uh, thanks.”

“The designated place. I have to get you there at the appointed time.” She turned on him suddenly. Her eyes focused on him in a rare moment of clarity.

He glanced at the walls, wondering if the black sludge was hallucinogenic or something. It is more insidious than that , Thanaton growled in his mind. A loud, thunderous roar shook the structure they were in. Everything trembled and the black goo warbled, threatening to fall free of every surface but the floor. Oddly, it held tight, with only a few globs dripping free here and there. The thought of all of it splattering down made his stomach spin in place.

“What was that?” Akamori asked in a cautious whisper.

“That’s Helios. He was my brother.”

“Was?”

She paused before responding. “What’s left of him is no longer the man I grew up with. He’s been….corrupted by the darkness.”

“Corrupted? What darkness?”

She dragged a finger along the wall and held it out to Akamori. The black goop slowly leaked down her index finger. “This. It corrupts and bends minds. The blood consumes everything.”

“This stuff is blood?”

The woman nodded slowly, gesturing for him to follow. They stopped at the end of a corridor. The black blood looked like it was slowly draining from the door. A slow motion water fall of ink.

“What’s your name?”

“Thalara. I’m the last rider of the Air Flight. Your last disciple.”

“Wait, what?”

‎