Jake’s POV

My head felt like it was going to explode, and then I heard Suma´s voice, and the pain stopped. I expected to appear beside Suma, but instead something bad happened; my body disappeared, but I stayed behind in that black void.

“Jake.” A voice from the darkness said. “Can you hear me?”

“Who’s there?” I asked, which was weird because I didn’t have a mouth at the moment. Without a sound, the image of a flaming man slowly appeared in front of me, like an ember that kept getting bigger. It was the flaming figure again, but he was different this time; he was missing his reptilian half.

“My name is Zachariah, don’t worry, I’m a friend.” He moved closer to me, and wrapped his hands around where my head was.

“What’s going on, what’s happening?” I asked, confused. “Why did you attack me again, where is my body?” For some reason, I couldn’t get angry, or even scared, despite this being a pretty good excuse to be both.

“I did not attack you… well, I sort of did. Your body is in Atmeria, your master’s world.”

“You mean Atmosia?”

“Is that what they’re calling it now? It doesn’t matter… what does matter is that Deyja is in your body, and is trying to keep it that way.”

“Who’s Deyja?”

“Focus, your master is in trouble.” He said urgently, but for some reason, I still couldn’t get upset.

“Okay, I’ll focus.”

“If what I think is going to happen, happens, then we will only have an instant to get you back into your body.”

“What’s going to happen?”

“He’s going to try to kill Suma.” He said, the flames that make up his mouth lowered into a frown. Like one of those theater masks with really exaggerated features. Actually, speaking of features, he didn’t have many. He had a standard human shape, although it was made of flames, two eyes, a nose, and a mouth, but it all moved around, like I was trying to look through fire.

“I would prefer if he didn’t.”

“Focus Jake, when he tries to kill Suma, the familiar’s curse will activate. It will give us just a moment to pull your body back here, and put you back inside it.”

“How do we do that?”

“You’re going to invert your summoning.”

“How do I do that?”

“You haven’t learned? But I gave you all those memories! Everything you needed to learn should have been in there!” He yelled, and his face started to look angry.

“I haven’t seen most of them. They made me sick, too. Why did you do that?”

He groaned, “Alright, fine. I will invert your magic for you, but you still need to perform the summoning.”

“But, I can’t summon Suma.” I pointed out.

“I don’t want you to summon her, you need to summon yourself to her.”

“How do I do that?” When I asked that, his head lowered slightly, and his face looked sad.

“I’m going to be stuck in here forever… you have weapons, right?”

“Yes.”

“Have you seen the red thread?”

“Yes.”

“Good! When I tell you, picture the red thread that connects you and your master, and imagine the half of it that connects to you drawing closer to her.”

“And that will summon me to Suma?”

“It would, but I’m going to invert it. That will draw your body back here.”

“Then what?”

“Then you need to go back into your body, and I’ll send you home.”

“And he won’t be able to do this again?”

“No, he will try again the next time you come through this place.” He shook his head.

“Then how do I prevent this from happening again?” I wondered, confused.

“By never crossing the boundary between worlds again. If you do, you will unleash Deyja again, and he will not make the same mistake twice.”

“So, I can never see Suma again?” I asked, still unable to feel sad, but I knew this was going to make me feel very sad later.

“I could send you to live with your master, or I could send- Jake, It’s time! Do it now!” He shouted. The image of the thread came into my mind, I saw it stretched between myself, and Suma. Connecting at the center of our heads. I pictured that thread going taunt, and my half drawing closer to Suma. Then I felt a power flowing around me, and the thread turned blue. My body appeared next to me, and it was screaming.

“NOO! NOOO! How?!” Zachariah reached into my body, and pulled from my chest the flaming figure of a flaming western-style dragon. He wrestled it for a moment, before the two rejoined together, and formed the familiar image of the figure in flame that I knew before. Its body twisted in onto itself as I moved closer to my body, and like a blink, I was back inside it somehow.

“Go… JAKE!” The figure said, and reached out with a human hand, pointing at me. “And never… RETURN!”

Darkness surrounded me again, and Zachariah’s voice faded away. When I opened my eyes, I wasn’t at home, but I wasn’t with Suma either. I was lying in the desert, surrounded by dead Neame.

Looking around at all of them, I started to feel nauseous. I quickly picked myself up off the ground and ran away from the carnage. After making it about twenty feet however, I was suddenly wracked with exhaustion and soreness. My face was back in the sand before I knew what happened. “Suma… Suma, are you there?” I said, weakly.

“Jake! Is that you? The real you?” She said over our private connection.

“What’s going on? I’m in a desert, and everyone’s dead...”

“You are still in the wasteland, but I saw you disappear? Do you remember what happened?”

“The dragon, he took my body. Oh my- did he… did I?” Looking back at the bodies, my stomach tightened, and I suddenly threw up.

“Jake, are you okay?” Suma shouted.

“No… can you summon me. I really don’t want to be here.” I said, looking away from the dead Neame, but still too weak to move. I was lying on my back, looking up at the bright pink sky with dull orange clouds hanging above me.

“I do not think that is a good idea at the moment. Do you really not know what happened?” She asked, sounding very worried.

I couldn’t bring myself to look at the bodies again, but they still appeared in my mind nonetheless. “Did I… he… kill those people?”

“Most of them, yes. Jake, tell me what you know.”

I spent the next few minutes collecting myself, and telling Suma what happened from my point of view. After that, she told me what the dragon did with my body. She did not go into much detail, but she didn’t have to; I’d gotten a pretty good look at the aftermath. That dragon, Deyja, was brutal…

“Can you get me out of here now? There is something wrong with my body. It’s as if I just went through ten rounds of your healing followed by ten rounds with a heavyweight boxer.”

“I still do not think that is a good idea. Jake, the city guards want you arrested. Do you feel as if you need medical treatment? If so, I will summon you immediately.”

At that moment, I felt lightheaded, and despite remaining motionless, everything started to spin. I heard distorted voices, like they were underwater, but were slowly surfacing and growing clearer. “I don’t…. I don’t feel…”

“Jake? Jake!” Suma shouted. With that, everything went dark. I expected to pass out, but instead, for a moment, it felt like I was waking up. My eyes opened, and I looked around. The only thing was, I wasn’t the one who opened them, and I wasn’t the one looking around. After what just happened, I started to panic, thinking maybe that the dragon had taken control of my body again, but it didn’t feel anything like that. Instead, it felt more like I was dreaming.

(I’m hallucinating again? Now?) I thought. Emotions and thoughts started flowing like a river, as if I was the one actually thinking them, expect I knew it wasn’t me. It was a memory of some kind. (I’m going to get such a sunburn.) I thought. I would have shaken my head, but I didn’t have one at the moment.

The memory started with darkness, like a summoning spell. When my eyesight came back, there was a bird standing on the ground looking up at me. “Did he say how long he would be?” The person, who was probably Zachariah, asked the Neame.

“He will arrive shortly. I do ask that you be on your best behavior. This is not like our meetings with the Royal Court, or even the King. Ahshem is a close friend of mine, and a very important figure to the dragons. Please be courteous.” The Neame, who was probably Ambos, said.

“I’ll be nice.” Probably Zachariah said.

“Thank you. Did your experiments with magic on your world go well?” Probably Ambos asked.

“No, it doesn’t work there. At least not like it does here.”

“Perhaps if you improve your skill with it here, it will become easier there?”

“I don’t know; maybe.” Probably Zachariah’s head turned to the side, and he looked around for a moment after hearing an odd noise. “Do you hear that?”

“Hear what?”

“It sounds like someone shaking a cloak out.” Probably Ambos looked around for a moment, then nodded his head while looking off into the horizon.

“Ah yes, here he comes now. He should not be much longer.”

“I guess that is your people’s amazing sight?”

“As strong as your magic is Zachariah, I still do not understand how a species could possibly get by with such poor eyesight.”

(Zachariah… I knew it.) I thought.

“Axes and bows.” Zachariah answered mockingly. Less than a minute later, the source of the strange noise became visible. It was two dragons… and the noise was one of their wingbeats. They were both massive, but one was colossal, a dozen times larger than the horse sized drake I fought. It was an eastern style dragon with a serpent-like body, long whiskers that made up a kind of beard shape, four legs with claws at the end, kinda like a cat, and a row of short fins down its back. I don’t know how it was flying, probably magic, because it actually didn’t have any wings.

The smaller one was about two thirds the size of the bigger one and was a stereotypical western style dragon. It had four legs, huge wings, a long neck, a horned head, and a long tail. It looked more bestial in nature, whereas the larger one looked more refined.

“By Valhalla!” Zachariah said once he realized how huge they were.

(Dang, that’s big!) I thought, just as amazed as he was. When the two dragons landed, the winged one kicked up a dust storm and landed with a thud, while the wingless one slowly spiraled down until it landed fairly gently.

"Greetings, Ahshem, and greetings to you as well, Deyja." The Neame said.

“Hello Ambos. It is good to see you again. And you must be Zachariah. I have heard so much about you from Ambos.” The larger eastern style dragon said, and lowered his massive head down closer to us.

“Good greetings, Ahshem. It is a pleasure to meet the both of you.” Zachariah said.

“I did not realize Deyja would be joining us today, but another dragon is always welcome.” Ambos said.

The smaller western dragon did not lower his head down to Ambos’s or Zachariah’s level, but he did speak. "I was told your familiar had an impressive amount of negative Aether. I was intrigued, and asked Ahshem for permission to join him today.” Deyja was watching me, or Zachariah, very closely. His voice was raspy, and shrill. It was definitely not what I expected to come out of such a powerful looking body.

“Aye, I do. But I’m afraid I’ve got no talent for it.” Zachariah said.

Deyja cocked his head, and lowered it down closer towards Zachariah. “Talent is overrated. I have always preferred skill gained through… practical application. You are the only other being I have met with the ability to use Negative Aether. My name is Deyja. It is a pleasure to meet you…”

Without warning, the area around me in the dream shifted like a heat-haze over pavement, and I became aware of the passage of time. I somehow knew nearly a year had passed, maybe longer. Now we were in a colosseum of sorts, and Deyja’s darkly-scaled head hung over and behind me; watching as Zachariah performed a spell. A small purple fire formed on the ground in front of Zachariah as the two looked on.

“You are improving. Your speed increases with each lesson, but let us see if it was successful.” Deyja said, and formed a ball of water with his own magic. He floated it into the fire, left it for a moment, then slowly brought it out. I expected it to be smaller, but instead it had grown in size, and was completely frozen solid. “Excellent work, I’d say you’ve mastered this technique. Your understanding of Negative Aether is impressive for only studying it for a single year, and it only took you a matter of months to learn the inversion method unique to negative mages.”

“A student is only as good as his teacher; thank you, Deyja.” Zachariah said. Deyja dropped the ball of ice to the ground, shattering it to pieces. The purple flames that Zachariah had been controlling slowly died down turning a normal orange and yellow, until finally snuffing itself out.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

“Zachariah, may I ask you a question?” Deyja asked, laying on the ground in front of Zachariah. In a way, he looked like a lion on the savannah in some old documentary or Disney movie. Despite laying down, his head still towered over me, or Zachariah technically.

“What weighs on your mind?” Zachariah asked, looking up at the dragon’s head.

“What is your opinion of Ahshem?”

“He reminds me of my Jarl, Sten. He was the leader of my people, Clan Hrafn Björn.”

“In what way?”

“He is a dragon of heavy words, and mighty ideals, but not one of swift action.”

Deyja nodded his head. “I find myself agreeing with that.”

“But you didn’t ask me because you wanted to hear my opinion.” Zachariah said, putting his hands on his axe hilts, which hung on his hips.

“Did I not?” Deyja said, cocking his head.

“No, you asked me because you wanted to tell me our opinion of him.”

Deyja chuckled, “perhaps I did.”

“So, what is your opinion of Ahshem?”

Deyja inhaled deeply, “he is too sentimental. It has held us back.”

“In what way?”

“Our people should have left this world centuries ago, but Ahshem’s sentimentality for these Neame has kept us here.”

“Is it wrong to love this place, these people? This land is full of life, why leave?”

“It is not wrong to love life, but…” Deyja swung his massive head to the side, and looked at the mountains in the distance. “I would hardly call this place alive.”

“I’m afraid I don’t understand. What do you mean?”

“This world, it has grass, and trees, and beings to eat them, but they are mere facsimiles of life.”

Zachariah looked around, “it all looks real enough to me.”

“Tell me Zachariah, do your people have the ability to sense Aether?” Deyja asked, looking down on Zachariah.

“No, although I am aware it is possible for the Neame.”

“We dragons are also able to sense the Aether, far more so than them, and this world feels like the driest of deserts to me.” Deyja moved his head closer to Zachariah, “you… you are alive with Aether. It pours off of you, like it should pour off of all truly living beings. The Neame however, they are like whisps, or bones left to dry out in arid sands. The world you came from Zachariah, it must have been so full of Aether… so full of beauty.”

“Aye, it was beautiful, but I had never seen magic like this world has while I was there.” Zachariah said. “And to me, this world looks just as majestic.”

Deyja snorted in response. “You should have seen this world when we first found it. It was a baren wasteland. We made it what it is today.”

“If you made this world, then why do you hate it?”

“I do not hate it; I feel no more for it than you would feel for one those axes you craft. This world was an interesting experiment, but it is one that should have ended by now.”

“If you feel so strongly, then why not speak with Ahshem? Surly he would hear you.” Zachariah said.

“He would let me go, I am no one’s captive here. However, he and all those loyal to him would stay, which would be most of the dragons.”

“Are there no more dragons out there?”

“There are, but just as you have your ‘clan’, I have mine.”

“So, you do not wish to leave your people, but you can’t stay here any longer. Why not take the others who feel as you do and go home? Wait for the rest of your people to join you there.”

“If we go home without Ahshem, we may never find our way there. Only the Ahshem knows the way.”

“I see…” Zachariah said.

As I watched this conversation, the haze reformed around me, and the memory shifted away again. (Dang it.) I thought. (That was getting interesting.) When the haze finally disappeared, I was in a new memory, and I think I was several years in the future from the last one. It was dark, and I could smell the sea. I was in a wooden room, slowly moving up and down. (Am I in a boat?) Zachariah was lying on a mat on the floor, but eventually he stood up and walked outside. There was no door, instead there was simply a circular opening large enough for the Neame to fly through, but for Zachariah it was a bit of a squeeze.

Leaving the sleeping Neame, Zachariah went to the top deck of the ship. I hadn’t heard it before, but as we got closer to the deck, I heard the sounds of rain. I readied myself to get wet, but it was pointless. The rain wasn’t hitting the ship. Small glowing runes on the floor were projecting a bubble that deflected the rain. Inside that bubble, Neame flew around hurriedly; each doing some task.

“Zachariah, what are you still doing up? Couldn’t sleep?” A voice from above him called out. He turned and saw it was Ambos; who softly landed on a pile of wooden boards left on the deck.

“I’m afraid not, my mind is racing with what’s ahead.” Zachariah said, leaning over the side of the ship. He stuck his hand outside the barrier and let the cold rain pour over his arm. “Ahshem, dead… it almost seemed impossible.”

“I do not wish to believe it myself, but the messenger was clear.”

“Why would Deyja do this? I know he and Ahshem held their differences, but to kill one’s Jarl, his friend… I do not understand.”

“Of all the dragons, Deyja is the most… incomprehensible.”

“I feel as if this were somehow my fault. That if I had given him better advice, or… I do not know.”

“Deyja’s actions, while villainous, were his own. You supported him as best as you could; you must not take responsibility for his deeds.”

“My mind knows this, but my heart does not believe it.” Zachariah shook his head, and pulled his hand back from the rain.

The haze returned, filling my field of view again. When it cleared, I was standing in the middle of a city; like an actual city. It was different from my world, but it was also unlike anything I had ever seen in this one. In every Neame city I had seen so far, the buildings were sculpted, like art. They were equally made from living materials, and molded stone, but these were concrete. Sure, it had some artistic element, some had runes engraved, others had flowers growing in small patches, but they were far more akin to what I was used to.

“They’ve made good use of my people’s runes.” Zachariah said, admiring a fountain that used runes to flow the water around in the air. “I’m surprised that your people took to them so quickly.”

(His runes?) I thought. (What?)

“I admit, when you showed me this magic, I never believed it would ever become this widespread.” Ambos said, fluttering alongside Zachariah, who was still watching the flow of the water. “It is impressive how versatile these runes are.”

“I only did it to see what would happen, I never expected it to work.” Zachariah laughed as he and Ambos left the fountain.

(Wait, what?) I thought, shocked. (Zachariah invented runes?)

“So, Ahshem’s successor, what’s he like?” Zachariah asked.

“I do not know; I have never met him before. Although I am told he is quite young.” Ambos answered. “And I am not sure why, but apparently his ascension to Ahshem is somehow controversial.”

“If you’ve never met him, and I’ve never met him, why did he ask to see us?”

“I assume is it because our relationship with the previous Ahshem, or with,” Ambos stopped for a moment, then sighed, “with the Chaos Dragon.”

“It’s a strange thing, to take a man’s, or rather a dragon’s, name from him as punishment.”

“Names have power, taking them away is a punishment.” Ambos flew over and landed on Zachariah’s shoulder, then looked up to the sky. “They’re here.” Zachariah looked up, and saw in the distant sky three figures. They were silhouetted in the sky; two large serpentine shadows on either side of a much smaller, winged, shadow. I expected them to land like last time, where the winged one landed hard, and the serpent one landed gracefully, but instead they all slowly spiraled downward to a soft landing. The winged western style dragon was small, very small for a dragon actually. It was the same height as Zachariah, though clearly larger in other aspects. Its body was broad, and its wings made it look even more so. The smaller dragon was a pale green color, and the two larger ones were both shades of grey, with darker and lighter accents on their bodies and heads.

“Greetings, I take it you are Ambos and Zachariah?” The little dragon asked, in a young sounding voice.

“We are, I am Ambos, and this is Zachariah. May we assume that you are Ahshem?”

“I am.” The dragon, Ahshem, bowed its head, spreading its wings. Ambos did the same. Even Zachariah kneeled; which surprised me, because I didn’t know that was something Vikings did.

“Ahshem, please remember your position,” One of the larger dragons protested as he bowed.

“Showing respect to the trusted allies of my predecessor supersedes normal formalities.” Ahshem said. The larger eastern style dragon sighed.

“Your kindness is appreciated, but your attendant may be right.” Ambos said.

“I disagree, it is a wise leader who can humble himself when he sees fit.” Zachariah said.

“You speak truth, Zachariah. A truth my predecessor took to heart as well.”

“Lord Ahshem, may I ask why you summoned us here today? Is there some sort of problem, or do you need assistance?” Ambos interrupted.

“Straight to the point; you are as was described to me many times, Ambos.”

“My apologies for any rudeness Lord Ahshem.”

“No need, I value directness.”

(Dang, this kid’s more mature than half my coworkers were back on Earth.) I thought to myself.

“If you will be direct, then so shall I. My ascension has been difficult, and there are many who wish it had not happened. I would like your support in the future, regarding my decisions with the Chaos Dragon.”

“What decisions?” Zachariah asked, bluntly.

“To leave.” Ahshem answered, just as the haze filled my view again.

(Frick this…) I groaned, annoyed that I haven’t been able to properly finish a single memory. (OW!) I was suddenly overcome with pain, emanating from my arm. The haze faded again, and I was surrounded by fire, looking up at the chaos dragon.

“LEFT BEHIND?!” He roared.

“Did you expect anything less?” Zachariah asked, glancing down to his arm, which was covered in blood and burns. However, it was healing quickly; faster than even Suma’s healing magic. Beside Zachariah was an unconscious and bloodstained Ambos.

Deyja looked around at the burning forest that surrounded us. “They left me behind… to be forgotten.” He raised a claw towards the trees, and extinguished the fires with magic. “But if my brethren refuse to remember me, I will ensure this land will.” Without lowering his claw, he started casting a spell. A purple cloud poured out of him, and engulfed the trees. It left a purplish-silver coating on them, which was absorbed rapidly by them.

“What was that? What did you do?” Zachariah asked.

“Made a memorial.” The dragon answered, spread his wings, and flew away. Picking up Ambos, Zachariah turned around, and ran towards a nearby city at the edge of the previously burning forest. By the time he arrived, Ambos was just starting to wake up.

“Zachariah?”

“Ambos! Are you okay?”

“I… have felt better. What happened. Did the dragons…?”

“Yes, they left Atmeria. After their… portal… closed, Deyja appeared and laid waste to everything. He did something to the sacred forest, then flew away.”

“Which way?”

“North-west.”

“The settlement.” Ambos said, upset.

“Probably.”

“But there is nothing left there. What could he be after?”

“I don’t think he is after anything but revenge now.”

“His own son led the dragons away, left him behind, and even ordered an attempted assassination on him. Who knows what he will do now.”

“He and I are a lot alike… I think I know what he will do.”

“What?”

“He’ll go raiding.”

“To what end?”

“To the end of everything.” Zachariah said. While listening, Ambos looked at his injured chest and wings, then cast a healing spell on himself. Zachariah continued, “We need to go to the settlement.”

“You want to fight him?”

“He’s not going to give us much of a choice. He attacked the sacred forest, just killed dozens of your people, and who knows what he plans to do next.” Zachariah said, setting Ambos down, then standing back to his feet.

“Two mages cannot beat a dragon, especially not a master of Negative Aether. We would need an army.”

“Then let’s go ask the king for one.”

“Jake!” Suma’s voice screamed loudly, breaking the memory, and waking me up. The next thing I knew, I was in a stone room, tied down by vines, with several Neame and their familiars around me.

As I looked around, realizing I was actually able to control my body and that I was awake, it became very clear that I was not in a good situation. “Familiar Sentinel, you stand accused of violating royal decree, and illegally using the forbidden Death Magic to kill several members of the Queen’s Royal Mages.” One, large and bright blue, female Neame said, loudly. She was perched next to another Neame, who was surrounded by several large familiars; the Queen herself.

“Jake, are you injured?” Suma asked, over our private connection. She sounded very worried.

“Um… yeah. I’m sore, but I think I’m okay.”

“Does the defense have any opening statements before the memory delve begins?” The large female Neame asked.

A voice I think I recognized spoke up from behind me. “I would like to remind the court, that we have already proven by a voluntary memory delve performed on lady Suma and myself that the mages that were killed illegally attacked my team first, killing several members of my squadron. What took place was justified self-defense; not murder.”

“Is that the Captain who was with us?” I asked Suma.

“Yes, he survived the attack, and offered to operate as our legal defense.”

“I’m on trial?” I asked, my brain finally starting to catch up with the sudden shift.

“Unfortunately.”

“What happens if we lose?”

Suma stayed quiet for a moment, “we may both be executed, or worse.” When she said that, my first instinct was to try and break out of the vines that were holding me in place. I jerked against them, trying to get free, but they barely budged.

The female Neame next to the Queen must have noticed, because she spoke up. “Those bindings have been reinforced with magic, and were created specifically to hold physically powerful familiars. Even one as strong as you will not be able to escape them. And should you attempt to use your magic to break the bindings, the four Royal Mages around you will not hesitate to kill you.”

“Jake, please do not fight them.” The Captain said. “Just cooperate and this will all be over soon.” I thought about it for a moment, sighed, and relaxed.

“Good. With all parties now present, we will begin the memory delve.” The Neame said, and several others flew over and landed beside my head. They started to perform the ritual, but this time, I noticed something different. There was a large crystal ball looking thing near the Queen, and when the ritual started, it began to glow.

“What’s that?” I asked Suma, out loud this time, nodding towards the ball.

“It is a magical device that will allow everyone to see the memories in question.” She answered. “A viewing crystal.”

“Familiar Sentinel, you will answer every question asked you to the best of your ability, and without lies. Do you understand?” The Queen said.

“I do.”

“Good, then we will begin.”

“Sentinel, did you utilize Death Magic?” The female Neame asked.

“No.”

“Lies!” A voice to my right shouted, but was silenced by the Queen. She looked at one of the Neame performing the ritual next to me.

“I see no memories of the event in question, your majesty.” The Neame said.

“And I cannot find any evidence of tampering within his mind.” Said the other.

“We saw the battle during the memory delves of Lady Suma and the other survivors.” The angry voice said, but not as loudly this time.

“Sentinel, can you explain this? Did you alter your memory in some way?” The Queen asked, confused.

“I didn’t attack anyone, Queen Ompera. My body was being controlled.” I said, looking up at the Queen from the floor. She turned to the crystal ball, and watched it as memories from my conversation with Zachariah in that void played. Actually, everyone was watching that crystal intensely.

“What is this? Who…” When Zachariah said Deyja’s name, the Queen lost all of her glittering glow, and all her feathers pressed down to her body. She and everyone else continued to watch the crystal until the end of the memory played, and Zachariah and Deyja reformed back into a single being.

“A dragon?!” Someone behind me yelled. The room filled with confused and panicked voices, until the Queen silenced everyone.

“Enough!” She shouted, and a large pylon that I hadn’t seen hidden behind her “throne” magically lifted into the air, before slamming itself back down with a crash. The room fell dead quiet in an instant. “This memory delve is over. Everyone, get out.” She declared.

“Your majesty?” The angry voice from earlier asked.

“Out!” With that, a dozen Neame I hadn’t seen behind me all flew out of the room, leaving only Suma, me, and the Queen, as well as her guards; even the female Neame next to the Queen and the Captain left. “Sentinel… that dragon, do you know who he was?”

“Yes Queen Ompera, and I guess you do too?” She didn’t answer me, but instead, her eyes began to glow, as well as the eyes of all the guards in the room that I could actually see.

“Jake, what do you mean? I do not understand. You met a dragon, is this not a reason to celebrate?” Suma asked, confused and slightly worried, over our private connection.

“That was the Chaos dragon.” I answered. Her glow vanished, just as the Queen’s had, and I felt her emotions as she became very worried. I looked around, and one by one, each of the guards were starting to look worried as well.

The Queen’s eyes stopped glowing, “Sentinel. Tell us about these memories that this flaming figure ‘Zachariah’ mentioned.”

I explained the memories I had seen, about how Zachariah and Deyja met, and everything else. They listened closely, occasionally asking questions.

“Why not continue the memory delve? You could see everything for yourselves.” Suma pointed out after a few minutes of me talking.

“This matter is… sensitive. A memory delver is not to be trusted with it. Not yet anyway.” The Queen said. “Please, Sentinel, continue.” I resumed explaining, and after about fifteen minutes, I had told them everything I had seen up until I was summoned here. A heavy silence fell over the room again as the Queen’s eyes resumed their glow.

“Jake-” Suma said through our connection “-does this mean you cannot return to your home?”

“I… yeah.” I said, the reality of it finally dawning on me. “Oh man, my mum is going to freak out. Oh frick.” I said, and felt my heart starting to race. “I can’t breathe.” I said out loud, starting to panic. The vines suddenly felt like they were choking me, I was getting claustrophobic. “I can’t breathe! I can’t breathe!” That drew the attention of everyone in the room.

“Jake?” Suma asked, not sure what was happening.

“Loosen his restraints.” The Queen ordered. The vines that were holding me in place loosened, and in my panicked state, I started pulling at them again. In hindsight, I was probably having a panic attack. I struggled against the vines, and unlike before, they didn’t feel as strong. My right arm broke free, and immediately I started pulling the vines off of my head and neck as well.

“He broke his restraints?!” One of the guards shouted, sounding confused.

“HOLD! Do not attack him!” The Queen shouted as some of the guards in the room began casting spells. At this point, my breathing was ragged, and heavy. I don’t remember when, but at some point, I’d started sobbing.

I heard someone once say that crying helps your brain release and process emotions, and that’s why you don’t feel them as strongly after you cry. What a load of crock… I didn’t feel any better by the time I was finished, just numb, empty, and tired. After I broke down, Suma and I were moved to another room. The Queen came in, followed by three others. She talked to Suma, and I listened, sort of. By the end of it, their voices were more like background noise to me as I thought about my mum.

(What’s mum going to think? She’ll think I’m dead.) I thought to myself. (She’s going to come in my room, see it empty, and worry. She’ll probably… oh man, she’ll freak out. What if she goes faint, or falls, and I’m not there? What if she dies while I’m trapped here? What if-)

“Jake?” My spiraling thoughts were interrupted by Suma, and I snapped back to reality.

“What?” I asked, my voice cracked and broke like dropped glass.

“Are you okay?” She asked, concerned. I hadn’t noticed it, but I was gripping the vines I was sitting on so hard they had splintered. My hands, well really my whole body, were lightly shaking, and my breathing had gotten heavier again.

“Uh… I don’t- um.” I took a deep breath, and dropped the splinters from my uneasy hands. “I’m fine.”