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Chapter 17
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Marg lay on the rich earth, among the ferns, panting. Being buried alive had left her oxygen-deprived. She couldn't seem to focus. That pipsqueak red dragon had done something. She had stabbed her with a steak knife. Twice. In both eyes! It would have never happened if Lothinar hadn't immobilized her. The magic he had used to hold her had been incredibly powerful for an elf. She knew Lothinar's magic was strong, but she may have underestimated him. Then, when she had begun to break free, he had augmented his spell with the power of an ancient sword. Ironically, the use of that sword probably saved her life. It had frozen her biological functions, minimizing the damage from the knives, and then when her foolish daughter Esmarilla had buried her in the ground, she hadn't immediately suffocated.
Now, though, instead of heading back for immediate revenge, trying to survive was of greater importance. For some reason, Marg's usually vast supply of magic was gone entirely. She had managed one short teleport, but it had taken every scrap of magic she had! It had gotten her out of the ground and about a hundred yards. She was lying in an older grove of trees. It would have been a picturesque spot, but she had intersected one of the forest’s few saplings when she reappeared. Mistakes like that had been known to happen when teleporting blind. The small tree had pierced one of her wings. It was not her full, dragon-sized wing but one of the smaller ones that typically sprouted from her back in her hybrid form. Marg rarely used that in-between shape. It was functionally rather useless, but it was damn intimidating. She had assumed it trying to scare Lothinar into compliance. Now injured, it hurt way too much to tear herself free. She would have remained in her much smaller elf form if she had not wanted to scare him. Her smaller size would have much more easily avoided obstacles to teleportation. She tried to teleport again, to free herself from the tree, but now, even more than before, something in her ability to teleport was broken. Things just kept getting worse.
She couldn't understand why Lothinar had been so stubborn. Hadn't she been helpful? Now, she had no choice but to dispense her vengeance on all of them. That included Esmarilla. Assuming she was dead and then burying her had been the final insult.
Lying there fuming, Marg suddenly heard the sound of voices. They were arguing or at least having a loud discussion.
"This is where Cantrell and the other rangers buried Aleena." said a voice.
"I see signs of new digging." said another. "Oh No! Did you see that? It caved in when I put my weight on it. The depression is just about the size of Marg's body!"
"I guess I'm going to have to get dirty. Let's see what's down there." said the first.
Marg heard the sound of dragon grunts and digging. A few minutes went by. The voices resumed.
"Ok, that confirms it. There is nothing here. Marg's gone. We need to find her and finish this!"
“How are we going to do that? She could be anywhere by now!”
Marg held her breath, trying to remain silent. She didn't need a couple of strong dragons to find her now, especially when she was most vulnerable to attack. As weak as she was at the moment, they might be able to actually finish her off. For most of her long life, she had been the apex predator. It was extraordinary to suddenly feel like prey.
"Look, I would stay and help you look, but something just came up. Mavis is calling me. It's urgent. Emerald and her friends will probably have to fight one of the green dragons. He just stole something, and they need to get it back.”
"You think that is more important than leaving me alone to find Marg?"
"Sorry, kid. I do need to go. It’s Mavis. You know that I can't let anything happen to her. I suggest you wait until your mother and Lothinar return before hunting for Marg. It's probably safer."
"Go then, Father. I understand. Lothinar thinks he should be back soon anyway."
The voices faded into the distance.
Marg's anger simmered. She knew that voice. It was that red dragon Firestorm. She was the one who had stabbed her. If Marg could unimpale herself and regenerate some magic, she would teach her to fear the power of a golden dragon. Until then, she would have to wait a little longer.
Suddenly, the ground began to shake. Whatever it was, it seemed some distance away, but Marg could feel it lying down. Earthquake? Moon instabilities could cause that.
"Oh no!" she thought. "Did I forget to put fuel in the Chelseben reactor again?" Usually, she would just be able to drop by and take care of things. Instead, here she was, impaled on this scrawny sapling and entirely out of magic.
Marg began to wonder if she had made a mistake that would destroy the entire planet.
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Enderline had noticed that Arjoie had become much more active since land had come into sight. Before that, the sea serpent almost seemed to have entered a meditative state. Arjorie had not spoken, but the King wondered if she was sharing some mental communication with the nearby sword. Pricilla had spoken with Arjorie and told him that the sword had promised that Lothinar would do things to the serpent. Enacting extreme changes that Enderline was highly suspicious that even Lothinar could not deliver. Now that they were near land again, Enderline thought it might be best to revise the sea snake's expectations.
"I don't think Lothinar will be meeting us at the docks, you know," Enderline said nonchalantly. "He probably isn't even aware we are coming back this way."
This information increased Arjorie's agitation. She moved closer to the sword, which remained stuck in the wooden planks of the foredeck.
"Can you ssend messsage?" she asked.
"Perhaps, in time. We are not sure where Lothinar is now, " Enderline replied.
"SSword SSays the Lothinar wills come" Arjorie said. She sounded confident. Also, somehow, Enderline found it easier to understand her despite the speech impediment.
"We will dock in about two hours. Once we do, I will seek news of Lothinar's whereabouts." Enderline said encouragingly. "Don't worry, I've heard the stories of him fighting with that sword. He's going to want it back."
"Want reward." insisted Arjoie. "Ssword Promisssed!"
"I'm sure Lothinar will do his best," said Enderline. "I've seen him do some amazing things. Enderline paused, unsure how to broach the subject, "Why do you want to be a dragon and bond with Lothinar? I can't imagine your people would have even heard of him."
"Musst. Ssword Whissperss many thingss whiles under the ssea." said the serpent. "Lothinar has propheciesss. Will resstore old wayss! I need represents my kindss."
"Well, I wish you good luck. I will do what I can to help you find him. Thank you for behaving yourself while on my ship. I won a lot of money from the crew.
Arjoie looked at him in puzzlement, and Enderline laughed.
"Yes, I gambled on you. My troops bet me you would tear the ship up and send us to the bottom if I allowed you to stay. You proved them wrong. I don't think I've ever been so glad to win a bet," Enderline said, smiling.
"Made deal!" Arjorie said, somewhat annoyed. "Keep promisess!"
"Yes, Arjorie. You kept your promise. You can travel on my ship anytime," said the King, thinking of the dragon Night-Sky, who had made a bond with him and then changed his mind. "You seem to have higher integrity and better manners than some of the winged dragons I have met.
Enderline reached under his coat and pulled out a small bird. He looked in his pocket and selected one of several long strips of brightly colored paper that he held. The strip had writing on it. He securely tied it to the bird's leg and tossed it into the air. The bird fluttered away toward the mainland.
"That might even save us a little time." The King said. He hoped someone at the temple in Delora Natine was paying attention. He, of course, did not know about the attack on Delora Natine and, specifically, the attack on the temple that had burned it to the ground, with several loyal staff member’s bodies still inside.
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Taking a tip from Siophra's playbook about practical shoes, Ardwynn's thick-soled heavy boots crunched on the remains of the burned ceiling timbers that had once supported the beautiful temple roof. If she had calculated right, she was standing approximately where she and Lothinar had been married. Of course, she had been inside the building then, not standing on the collapsed ruin. She had not been in Delora Natine the night of the attacks and fire but had certainly heard about them. Lothinar, Candasar, and, strangely enough, Marg had restored most of the lives that her cousin's greed and evil deeds had taken, but certainly not all.
Lothinar had also meted final justice to the perpetrators of these heinous acts. They had used Lothinar’s growing power to augment Marg's impressive teleportation range and sent the murderers who had attacked the town and temple in the direction of the rising sun -- through space. Perhaps they had even gotten them all the way there—an instant firey execution versus choking on the vacuum of space. Either death seemed too quick and merciful a punishment for the terror and suffering they had dispensed before being brought to heel.
Although the old Ardwynn might have easily participated in the despicable acts her cousins and their minions had committed, their awful behavior saddened the new Ardwynn. The emotional disconnect between her previous standards and her current feelings created a profoundly troubling and strange irony in her mind. She held baby Harvey a little closer. The baby was a good reminder that life went on.
“It’s so much worse than I thought,” said Mandel loudly. “But so typical of the evil often committed by those with Argent’s bloodline.” He was grandstanding a bit and strutting about. Not having Ardwynn's burned-out temple beam walking footwear at his disposal, he was standing over to the side. Just before his outburst, he had been talking in hushed tones with his sister, Mavis. He suddenly stared at Ardwynn with a strange gleam in his eye.
"Nice boots, by the way," he said.
Ardwynn grimaced but didn't shy away from the truth. "They were my mothers. I think she used them to gather dragon eggs."
"It's pretty brave for you to wear those here," he said. "This is, after all, the dragon temple."
"Just because something was once used for evil doesn't mean it can't be repurposed for good," Mo-Rung interrupted Mandel. The red dragon gave Ardwynn a meaningful look. He obviously wasn't looking to further his previous grudge against her. Ardwynn speculated that Lothinar's punishment and Mavis's graceful bond had significantly changed his previous attitude.
“You should have seen this place on fire!” said Night-Sky, innocently ignoring the deeper meaning of the exchange. “We were pretty lucky it didn't spread to the rest of the town. Of course, the temple wasn't burning yet when Albarad and I fought our way here."
"We will rebuild it, of course," said Mandel, boasting. "It will be grander than ever before."
"It won't do anything to replace the lives lost," Ardwynn said bitterly, kicking at a burned timber with the toe of her boot. But I suppose it's one way to go."
Mandel's face grew clouded. He didn't seem to appreciate Ardwynn's negativity regarding his promises to rebuild the temple.
Murmurs came from the crowd of humans who had quickly gathered when word went out that the elven emperor himself was here to inspect the burned-out temple. One of them spoke up, yelling at the assembled elves.
"Have all of Argent's family been executed? Or should we be expecting more trouble in these parts?" The yelling human appeared to be wearing the livery of the town guard.
Mandel suddenly grinned as Ardwynn blanched at the question. Mandel wasn't sure why he did it, but he suddenly pounced. His vitriol took Ardwynn by surprise.
"What do you say to that Ardwynn?" shouted Mandel. "Are there any more of Argent's relatives that should be dealt with? This crowd wants to know!"
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Mavis shot her brother a disappointed look. "You're being unnecessarily vindictive," she said with a hushed voice. "You know what Ardwynn has been through. She’s been completely changed. Even I, of all people, have fully accepted that. And don’t forget, until recently, we, too, were considered part of Argent’s family. This might be a bad time to remind these humans of that.”
“We’ve never carried the taint, sister. Even among these ignorant villagers, that should be well known.” Mandel let his voice rise above a whisper. That elicited a few glares from some of the closer humans.
From over near Mo-Rung, Emerald, who had been only silently observing, suddenly began pacing nervously. She looked distressed. Mandel felt her reach him through the bond.
“The humans here are kind. They care for dragons. Some even provide the nets I use to catch fish. They are not so uninformed as you might think, Mandel.” Emerald swiftly sent.
“I think I know best how to speak with a group of mere humans, Emerald. It would be best to stay out of this!” commanded Mandel silently.
“It’s just that I think we should try to be kind whenever possible.” The green dragon tried to protest. “And don't forget that Ardwynn IS Lothinar’s wife. All the lake dragons owe him a great debt. You won't be making friends by doing this."
“Lothinar, Lothinar, Lothinar! “ Everyone is always so ridiculously impressed with Lothinar. Mandel said out loud. This raised a few eyebrows amongst the townspeople. “He certainly could have made better decisions regarding who to marry!”
From the middle of the burned-down roof, Ardwynn suddenly wondered if Mandel's recent assassination and resurrection had created a new level of bitterness in Mandel toward her bloodline and her in particular. A hidden memory resurfaced. One that Vanquish had probably tried hard to lock away. Ardwynn suddenly didn't just see Mandel. She recognized him as "Clark," the gate guard, the handsome elf who had allowed her to pass through the gate of her estate in the capital just before betraying her. The betrayal had freed Tundor but had not worked out especially well for her. Losing Tundor's bond had dropped her back under the control of Lothinar's pheromones. Then, she was imprisoned by her uncle and tortured for her mistake. That had been a terrible day!
She felt an old anger flare. It was petty and unreasonable. She crushed it down relentlessly. That was not the Ardwynn she was anymore! There was a lot more at stake here! The people watching her were growing angry and restless. She needed to deal with this immediately!
Mandel’s public questioning about her family and the implication that she might still be carrying Argent’s taint hung in the air. People were staring at her.
Ardwynn briefly considered avoiding answering or even running away, but standing here on the blackened beams of the temple, she went deep inside herself. It was a long way down. She fell through the memories and emotions, tumbling and spinning through them until she hit hard upon a solid blue core. It was cool but shining with a pent-up fire. She felt her magic expand. It seemed to grow and crystallize. She suddenly understood. The knowledge gave her the words she had been looking for. She cleared her throat and spoke. Her voice rose and carried out over the temple grounds.
"Some of you may have seen me around Delora," she spoke loudly and clearly.
"My name is Ardwynn. I was married to Lothinar in this exact spot. You may have heard of him and, perhaps less favorably, of me."
The murmurs grew louder. Almost everyone had heard of Lothinar's wife's traitorous betrayal and her link to Argent's family.
"Yes, Argent was my uncle by blood. I bear that scar, if not in my current body, at least in my mind and memories. The dragon Vanquish burned the taint of Argent's corruption from me in an agonizing ritual that destroyed part of my body and then put it back together with her blue magic. She changed me profoundly. Ardwynn looked down at her baby. "Vanquish did the same for my son, Harvey."
More murmurs ensued.
"Vanquish paid for this huge transformation with her life to give me a second chance. Also, Like Lothinar, she somehow made me part dragon. She gave me substantial and unknown dragon powers. She rolled the magical dice, hoping for the best, and somehow got lucky. It was more than I deserved. I realize, of course, that she did not do this for me. She did it for Lothinar. She found him and his happiness important and possibly necessary for some reason. She knew he was loyal and had stupidly fallen in love with me—an honor and distinction I did not deserve at the time. I was just fortunate enough to be there at the beginning of all of this and was able to snare his loyalty. You probably know by now that Lothinar's loyalty is not easily revoked."
"Lothinar and Candasar brought my young daughter and son back to life!" shouted one of the guards.
"He gave me my wife back!" yelled another.
"My daughter died in this temple," came another anguished cry. "Her burned body lies beneath your fancy boots!"
Ardwynn winced but steeled herself to continue. But before she could, another voice interrupted her.
"Ardwynn has paid for her sins!" the voice said. It was Heirwynn. She pushed through the crowd and stood near them on a mound of rubble. "She speaks the truth. I have had my dragon Snow test her scent. There are no traces of the corruption that her family is well known to bear. Snow is a white dragon. It was Argent's desire for a white dragon that started this mess. Snow has vouched for her. Ardwynn is clean!" Heirwynn shouted.
"Where is Lothinar? We will hear him on this matter." someone yelled.
"She fooled him once!" someone yelled in return. "How can we know for sure?"
"Ardwynn's father killed my brother Harvey!" Heirwynn shot back. "If I weren't certain her taint was gone, she wouldn't still be alive," Heirwynn said confidently. "She even named her son after my brother. "
"Thank you, Heirwynn, I appreciate your saying those things, but I want these people to know who I am, not just from my words, but from my deeds," Ardwynn said loudly. Vanquish changed me. She made me a fitting and equal mate for Lothinar."
Ardwynn locked her stare on Mandel.
"I don't think anyone here fully understood what that meant until now!” She beckoned to Heirwynn, who quickly and nimbly ran over to take Harvey from Ardwyann's outstretched arms and then ran back to the side.
"You all may want to step back quite a bit more," Ardwynn said. Then she began to glow.
"All dragons have a specific unique power," Ardwynn shouted. "Some heal, others teleport. You are all obviously familiar with blue dragon resurrections!" Ardwynn hadn't taken her eyes off Mandel. "Only one type of dragon has the power that Vanquish surprisingly was able to evoke in me. It is exceedingly rare. Lucky for you, I have just discovered it.
Mavis looked at Mandel and frowned.
"You do realize it took Lothinar some time for his powers to fully develop into what he can do now, don't you? I hope you haven't gone and made Ardwynn angry at you!" she said.
"Crap!" said Mandel as a cloud of sparkling dust began to swirl and rise from beneath Ardwynn's boots. The cloud grew suddenly larger, and soon, no one could see inside it. There were flashes and sounds of groaning timbers and smashing stones. The earth beneath their feet began shaking violently. There was a fair amount of crying and outright screaming from the humans. Then suddenly, there was silence.
Mavis looked up from the place on the ground where she had fallen. Ardwynn was still standing on the roof of the temple. The temple roof, however, was completely restored! Ardwynn was now standing on it, at least 40 feet up in the air. Ardwaynn sagged a little, swayed, and sat down on the uppermost beam. It was unburned. All at once, several humans ran out of the temple structure through the front doors. They looked dazed and confused. Cries of joy erupted from the gathered humans, who were also climbing to their feet after being knocked to the ground.
"It's my daughter! She's alive!"
"She didn't fix the temple!" someone shouted. "That's the original one! I remember that discolored block of stone!"
Mavis, along with everyone else, rushed inside to look. She poked her brother in the ribs with her finger.
"You need to play dumb again!" she whispered angrily. "Brain damage is going to be your only excuse! I think you not only pissed off Lothinar's wife but the planet's only Diamond Dragon!"
"What the hell is a Diamond Dragon?" asked Mandel.
"They are the ones that can turn back time in a specific geographical location!" hissed Mavis. "Don't you read anything in the royal archives? What do you do with your time besides chasing that serving wench? What? You think I didn't know about that?"
"Ardwynn isn't a dragon!" Mandel asked, his face falling. "Is she?"
Behind them, Ardwynn strolled into the temple building. She looked a little pale, but her face was smiling.
"I may need your help, everyone," she said, looking around. "To bring back the temple and the workers, I returned this building and its contents back to a time shortly before the attack. There will undoubtedly be a bunch of frozen troops loyal to my uncle in one of the storage closets. They are extremely dangerous. We must definitively deal with them before they are accidentally awakened again.
Mavis stared uneasily at the "frozen" platinum dragon statue still standing on the center dias. That was just outright creepy. She had heard that the dragon's body had been carved up and eaten by Argent's last two living daughters, Jundahryn and Preen. Although much older, they had been considered her "sisters" growing up. Not that they were ever close. Mavis found herself wondering how they could have ever sunk that far.
"You chose a fine time to pick a fight with someone who just might have the powers of a god!" she muttered to her brother.
Mandel just gritted his teeth and said nothing.
Ardwynn walked toward the two siblings.
"You know," she said. "I think one of the reasons Argent's bloodline is so corrupted and crazy is that we have always had a much greater affinity for magic than an average elf. That's why my father and Uncle could so easily throw lightning. It was pretty easy, for example, for me to subdue and control Tundor through the bond.
"That's not something I would be bragging about." snarled Mandel.
"I'm not bragging. Just stating facts and trying to explain something," said Ardwynn.
That much magic, filling and changing them, damaged their frail minds. It overwhelmed me as well. Argent was insane, but nobody ever said he wasn't powerful. Lothinar's pheromones brought me a brief clarity of purpose. To be able to use magic like I just did, well, It takes a dragon. Fortunately, what Vanquish did to us solved that problem, at least for me and Lothinar. We probably have more magic than any other elves alive. I'm not saying all that magic hasn't made us quirky, but at least we can be pretty reasonable. And we don't need dragon eggs to be powerful.
"Of course, she made both of you part actual dragon," said Mavis, understanding. "The dragon parts reinforce your magical capacity."
"Yes," said Ardwynn. Without causing the mental illness and the accompanying smell of rotting magic."
"What will you do with all that power?" asked Mavis hesitantly.
"Don't worry, Lothinar, and I don't want your thrones," said Ardwynn. "We will have more important things to do. I'm sure we both would like to look in occasionally and ensure things are going as they should."
"What if I object to that?" asked Mandel. He still didn't seem to understand that things had just radically changed.
"Are you sure that's what you want to do?" asked Ardwynn. Her eyebrows raised warningly. "I don't think it will work out well for you.
"I think you are forgetting that I am the emperor," said Mandel.
"Then I will talk it over with Lothinar and remove you," Ardwynn said. "You probably won't even know it happened. You'll wake up one day in your mother's crib, and she'll be singing you lullabies again."
Mandel blinked. "You could do that?" he asked.
"Just try me," said Ardwynn. "My advice is to listen to your dragon. I think she will make you into a better Emperor."
Mandel nodded. Here in Delora Natine, without his guards or soldiers, He didn't seem to have anything else to say.
"So, are we good?" Ardwynn asked Mavis, but her eyes were looking at Mandel.
"I do believe so," said Mavis. "Perhaps later I could have you look at Ronniflass's cabin? Mo-Rung made a mess of things up there."
"I've seen it," said Ardwynn. "As you know. I was in the room." She paused. This might be the project your brother is looking for to help make things right. Now that I've stolen his thunder by restoring the temple, I mean. Perhaps in his case, it might be best to start small."
Mandel said nothing, but Mavis could hear his teeth grinding.
Ardwynn seemed to be finished with them. She looked very happy as the people who had died in the temple collapse and fire were suddenly and miraculously reunited with their families.
"Don't forget about the boogymen in the closet." she reminded them. "Oh, and bring me the priest. His name is Starett." Ardwynn said. "He's got a lot of splainin to do."
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The white dragon flew high over the small mountain lake that had come to symbolically mark the halfway point between the Elven capital and Delora Natine. There would be no stopping to hunt or even for a short rest this time.
"Lothinar's back at the house," Candasar said, leaning forward to speak the information into Siophra's pointy ear. Siophra held up a thumb in acknowledgment, as she had found shouting back in the wind generated by Tundor's wings a problematic way to communicate. Candasar knew Siophra would immediately share the information with Tundor, on whose back they all were riding. This meant that effectively, Albarad, who was with them, would be the last to know his son was back down once again from the Chelseben station.
Candasar was concerned that her daughter had an overwrought attraction for their shared bond, but Lothinar had clearly established his guidelines and expectations. Now that Candasar and Zinariya both shared Lothinar's bond, Candasar hoped she could better influence her daughter's thoughts and behavior. Zinariya had the makings of becoming a rebellious and wild child. A mother and daughter sharing a mental bond with one elf, even if it was Lothinar, was bound to create a strange and challenging dynamic.
Suddenly, Albarad tensed up. Candasar knew this because he was riding behind her in the third spot. She had asked him to do that as sitting too close to Tundor's harsh and vigorous flapping set her teeth on edge.
"Something's going on with Ardwynn," Albarad said. "She is at the burned temple. Night-Sky says she's using a new power."
"Uh-oh," said Candasar under her breath. She wondered when Vanquish's work on the newly created elf-dragon hybrid Ardwynn would begin to manifest itself.
"Does Night-Sky know what skills she is using?" Candasar asked. She put her cheek near Albarad's mouth to be heard.
"It's some sort of very localized time displacement," Albarad said in shock. “Night-Sky says that she just brought back the burned-down temple. It looks as if it was never damaged!"
"Definitely Diamond then," said Candasar. "That should simplify things, at least with regard to Daisy.
"Daisy?" Albarad sputtered. "Aren't you at all worried about Marg?"
"She threatened my child," Candasar said menacingly. "She won't survive that. I think I can count on Ardwynn for at least that much!"
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Mavis watched as the town guard carried yet another dangerous-looking Elven soldier out of the temple where Ardwella was waiting with her blue sword. She wasn't there to awaken them. She was there to make sure they did not.
Argent's fighters were not given time to renounce their behavior. They were not given a second chance. The town guard had decided to follow through with what they knew had been the group of elite warrior's eventual fate, which had been death. There were even a few town guards who searched the faces of the frozen warriors and took a strange pleasure in personally separating their heads from their frozen bodies. Mavis speculated that some of these soldiers had made a personal enemy of these particular town guards. They must have done things genuinely diabolical. Her brother had climbed on Emerald and disappeared somewhere. Mavis sincerely hoped he could come to terms with the new power dynamic. He had always been a difficult child. After Ardwynn's threat, she definitely didn't want to put her mother through that again. Although perhaps being raised in a loving home without an asshole emperor for a father, things might turn out differently.
Ardwynn turned her attention to Starett's frozen body. He had been stopped mid-stride and had an arrogant, angry look on his face. The town guard placed him gently on the center-raised platform near the now once again un-eaten Platinum dragon's body. He was lying face down. When Ardwella finally walked up to join her, her mother-in-law only had one question.
"Are you ready? It's not every day you get to dispense justice on the priest who married you to your husband."
"That was probably the least of his crimes." laughed Ardwynn. Then, her face fell. "Do you know how Starett went so wrong?" asked Ardwynn. “He started out so well!”
Ardwella sighed. "Starett was probably afraid that Argent might do the same thing to this temple that his daughters eventually did, so he tried to cut a deal. And the priest was probably right.” Ardwella said. "If Argent had made it all the way here, I doubt he would have left this temple standing. Starett just didn't have faith that Lothinar could win the battle. Not everyone is cut out to be a martyr."
"Don't unfreeze him yet. I'm going to wait for Lothinar," Ardwynn said. “He might have some questions he wants to ask the priest. I know I do."
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