CHAPTER 20 – CLEARING WAYS

"...Paragons of virtue, reachers of stars,

Bringers of peace, enlighters of knowledge...

...Passing the zenith of wisdom,

The Stalwart crumbled into tyranny.

...Knights rose against Masters,

Battled both Orders, fought for naught,

Victory left an empty Cosmos.

...Devoid of hope, bereft of horizons,

Scions kindled hunger in their hearts,

Sought the quest for power,

Spilt the blood of kindred spirits,

Coveted the prize of grand suzerainty.

...Thus began the endless war for Supremacy."

– "True Legends of Reality", Datalinks

Early morning, Ilsorin's gardens, Terra Para

The remaining dragons of the Radiant Order, excluding Alomar and his gang, had gathered by the lake alongside with their soulkin. The dining hall had become too crowded with refugees for the dragons to maneuver safely around, so they had begun to eat their meals outside. Veralla lay contently on the glowing grasses, taking in for the aeonth time the majestic sight of the gardens. The Radiant Knights chatted pleasantly among themselves as they had breakfast, the humans sitting on folding chairs at outdoor tables, while the dragons lounged around like Veralla did.

"Hey Claw, what's Shpagus' conquest count already?" Tehalix called with a sly grin. She stabbed a piece of deep-fried cheese and chewed it. "I bet he's the talk among the refugees by now."

"Ah, sex and food," Bernard said in a relaxed manner, reclining in his chair. "I see you're a master at mixing flavors, Teha."

"Honestly, I'm a little concerned with some of these people Bern takes into our room," Zeromon replied. "A few have asked me if I'm willing to mate with them."

"Oh, what a shocking development!" Tehalix said with exaggerated surprise, while several of the other dragons hrrr–ed with a mix of indifference and distaste.

"I don't see anything extraordinary," Bernard said easily. "I like girls who have an adventurous spirit like myself."

"Only girls, Shpagus?"

Bernard waggled a finger. "Don't mistake omnisexuality with lack of preferences, dear Teha. I can have an intercourse with everything that moves, but I still pick my partners. Like I've said, good cuisine and good sex – they have a lot in common. Both can be satisfied in myriad of ways, yet quality is what sets apart mere indulgence from wholesome gratification."

"Yah, in that case, you're the burger joint of the galaxy, by your own comparison," Tehalix said, winking. Some of the Radiant Knights laughed at the joke, while the rest continued to converse on other topics.

"Is it wrong for a human and a dragon to have sex?" Veralla asked.

"No, it isn't wrong," Samantha replied, brushing a strand of her long red hair away from her face. "We Knights don't hold taboos, and if everything is agreeable to all parties involved, then there's no problem. Including relationships between disparate partners."

"Yeah, we even had sex once," Glosserax said casually, munching on a pyramid-sized dessert.

"Rax!" Samantha slapped her soulkin's flank, blushing furiously. The blue-and-cream dragon growled in amusement and leaned down, licking her with a forked tongue. "Ew, stop it! You're smearing chocolate on me everywhere!"

"According to statistics, only about a third of human-dragon pairs within the Order ever enter into... bodily union," Richard said, his conservative bearing evident even when he sat on something as informal as a folding chair in a garden. "To be frank, I consider such activities needlessly wasteful. Me and Teyalinar are perfectly happy to be as we are – elite fighters of exemplary quality and one of the finest scholars in the galaxy."

"Uh-huh," the dark-green dragon agreed absentmindedly when he heard his name, mainly interested in his meal.

"Every time I'm around, it all has to be about sex," Bernard sighed. "Can't you people just enjoy the weather or something? By the way, whose's that giant pile of... food?"

"Not mine," Zephyr said, who was lounging beside it. The 'pile' was a huge mound of nanofabbed meats and fruits, mingled with more exotic stuff like quartz and fiberglass, all covered under a thick layer of petrol and cream.

"Not mine either," Lung said, who was on the other side of the pile, and nudged herself away.

"Oh, oh, it's mine!" Glosserax said, licking his jaws. "Turns out the bots can really carry stuff around!"

"You intend to eat all that!?" Samantha exclaimed. In response, her soulkin rumbled happily. "Just no dragon kisses this time, big boy; I can live without fiberglass gouging my eyes out."

"Speaking of food," Lung chimed in, "I heard you and Alomar arguing the other day. What was that about, Glosserax?"

"Hmm? Oh, I caught him sneaking into the internal habitat on Level 4. He was eating whemokos."

Lung mantled her wings. "That cruel scoundrel! I'll teach him a lesson myself! How did he get into the habitat? I thought Glawlrhain revoked all access rights from him?!"

"Perhaps we should just throw Alomar and his flock of miscreants out of this Order for good," Tehalix said darkly.

"Wait, wait, you do not understand!" Veralla said. The others looked at her curiously. "Alomar has not eaten any whemokos! He..." she paused for a second, sad at the memory. "He was getting whemokos to bring them to Nightsong to eat."

"How do you know that?" Richard asked.

"I saw him," Veralla said. "He did it because he wanted to help. He said he felt sorry that Nightsong suffered so much. He did not know what else to do, so he volunteered to bring... fresh meat, killing... a whemoko at the last possible moment, so Nightsong could eat food with the highest resonance possible."

The Knights were pensive for a moment. "Huh, I guess this could mean the abrasive rascal is finally starting to turn around," Tehalix said. "Small victory, but victory nonetheless."

"I still think he's a rude mooncalf," Lung snorted. "It'd take a lot more than this to convince me he and his gang of egg-suckers aren't anything else than a loud and troublesome group of overgrown whelplings."

"Language, Smartjaw!"

"Hey, Veralla, tell us how Glawlrhain chomped Alomar's tail," one of the other dragons said. "Is it true the training master totally wiped the floor with him?"

"That'd be one astroload of wiping, I'll tell you," Zeromon said casually. "Given the size difference between them. Trust me, I'm an engineer, I know the math!" His comment brought forth a round of laughs.

"By the way, how's Nightsong doing?" Teyalinar asked, displaying interest for something other than food since the breakfast's beginning.

"Still in trouble, but stable at least," Tehalix said with a sigh. "Boyd and Merryl are currently with her and Kiana. Their bickering couple routine proves helpful for a change, since that Sol Force girl desperately needs some distraction."

"Speaking of trouble, what's the matter, Sha?" Glosserax asked. "You've been awfully quiet these last few days."

The others turned their attention to Xiou Sha, who had coiled upon himself, picking at his food halfheartedly. The sinuous dragon lifted his head at the mention of his name, his snout tendrils waving from the motion. "I am thinking about Mina," he said in a ghostly whisper. "Me and her... we liked each other. I was going to propose to her to become my mate on the same day... the same day she died." Sha hrrr–ed, the sound low and miserable. "Now she is gone, and I'm trying to accept that, but sometimes... sometimes I like to imagine what would've been if she survived, and we got together." He lowered his head, and his soulkin embraced his snout, patting him soothingly.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

The Radiant Knights fell quiet, their conversations dying down. Everyone was reminded of the terrible conflict they were part of and the horrible loss they had experienced so recently – a loss the people of Terra Para continued to suffer from daily.

Veralla gazed down unhappily. She poked with a talon at the large bowl laid before her. It was full of pyrolith crystals, mixed with fresh real-grown fruits. Though her spirit was dampened, her juvenile appetite remained relentless even in the face of the greatest adversity, so she continued to eat.

She liked pyrolith crystals immensely, and they had become her favorite food. They came in myriad of rainbow-spectrum colorations, each combination carrying different flavor, yet all were so fantastically sweet and full in taste, in a way which went beyond description, and was something only a dragon was able to experience. Veralla found she liked orange-red flavors most, and sunset-colored pyrolith crystals were often present in her dishes.

She chomped hungrily at her crystals and fruits mix, and emptied the bowl in short order. She stood then like that for a few seconds, snout hovering just above the bowl's rim, wondering is she wanted another helping or not.

Suddenly, a strange sensation tingled somewhere inside her.

She lifted her head sharply, and took stock of herself. The tingling sensation intensified, the origin of the feeling coming from somewhere... where? She did not know. It was at once everywhere and nowhere, growing stronger with each second. Her headcrests flared anxiously, her neck shot straight, and her wings quivered.

"Veralla, are you all right?"

She did not reply. The tingling was unbearable now, a great, invisible tide which roiled across her whole body. She started shaking and sprang to her feet, a whimper forming in her throat. Her whole world seemed to shift. The whimper turned into a growl, the tonality furiously rising further. Powerful, extreme surge coursed through her, and overwhelmed her senses, a single, engulfing wave of force and primal potency.

Veralla angled her head back and shrieked, which turned into a deafening roar – and then a great, blinding blast of silvery firebreath rushed forth from her gaping jaws.

***

Airo was in the command room alongside Lylana, Glawlrhain, and Magus. The four of them were compiling the intelligence data available to the Radiant Knights, which was then to be sent to the H'raal to coordinate a battle plan against the draconic Revenant who guarded Terra Para's orbit. Yeoman Cloud was also busy downloading covertly whatever reconnaissance it could from the military networks of the Consortium and the Union, and Captain Riley and Major Trahaearn also did whatever contribution they could. The idea was to build as complete as possible picture of all Revenant forces, so once the H'raal established orbital control, they'd be able to do fast and decisive strikes against the largest concentrations of enemy forces, thus breaking the Revenant's advance across the planet for good. Afterwards, the goal was a mass evacuation of the surviving populace. Securing Consortium and Union support was a parallel goal, one which was to be executed right after clearing the orbit.

Airo gazed at the host of AR screens hovering over the command table, checking simulations and monitoring comm channels. Suddenly, something flashed through his mind. Startled, he felt a great amount of distress, yet somehow it wasn't his own. Something terrible just happened. His face probably gave away his trepidation, because Lylana asked what was wrong.

"Veralla," he breathed, and dashed away.

He burst out of the command room and sprinted along the vast brightly-lit hallways. Base's surveillance reported Veralla was currently located in the gardens, so he headed that way.

"Cloud! Full speed boost! Now!"

"But, Commander–"

"THAT IS AN ORDER!"

"Acknowledged."

Airo felt the power armor tightening around him, the nano-circuitry and strength-enhancing microfibers lending their aid, boosting his nerves and muscles into overperformance. He rushed forward, pushing himself to his limit, frightened refugees and service bots barely getting out of his way as he raced across the stronghold. He mapped his route entirely on foot, bounding up stairways and traversing through the large interior souks, ignoring grav-shafts and elevators as they were too slow for his frayed condition.

During his frantic hurry his mind was in near panic, his thoughts focused only on Veralla. Was she okay? How it was possible something to happen to her, here, in the heart of the Radiant Order's domain? Did that insolent overgrown lizard, Alomar, hurt her somehow? Why were there no alarms ringing?

He finally reached the top-side transition to Ilsorin's gardens, situated closer to the command room than the central mid-level entrance. He flew through the fortified double doors and crossed the observation terrace, his armored feet almost throwing sparks against the rock floor. He grabbed the stone parapet, stopping shy of going over the edge, and leaned over the ecological splendor spread below him.

"VERALLA!" he shouted.

Irrational panic made him forget everything about modern technology. He retracted his helmet in his desire to see better, to remove the constant data that cluttered his vision. Below, the great masses of refugees in the gardens were roaring and waving in cheers, excited for some incomprehensible reason.

"Veralla!" he shouted again, looking around wildly. He remembered the dreadful feeling in his mind and gripped the parapet to fight the abrupt vertigo, disoriented by intense anxiety, a sensation he had not experienced in seven centuries. "Veralla!"

Suddenly, a black shadow rushed before him and swiftly rose in the sky above.

It was her.

"Airo! I can fly! Airo, I can fly!" Veralla screamed with glee, flapping her wings furiously as she continued to gain altitude.

He stood on the terrace, watching her in dumb amazement. She restrained her ascent and looped around several times, rawr–ing with pure joy. Inept though she was, her movements were full of vitality and grace, infused with the primal, majestic aura of a dragon in flight, and it was the most beautiful thing Airo witnessed in his second life. Veralla angled her wings, flying downward, and landed awkwardly right into him; he remained on his feet only thanks to the power armor.

They stood so for a moment, he holding her with utter shock, she clinging to him with a radiant expression – and then she nuzzled him, hrrr–ing happily. Below, the crowd clamored anew, refugees roaring as if they were witnessing some grand event. Airo realized he wasn't hearing only human voices among the rejoicing tumult. He gently leaned away from Veralla and smiled warmly.

"Airo, I finally became a true dragon!" she said, overjoyed, her purple eyes bright with relief and happiness. "I really am a true dragon, Airo!"

"Yes. Yes, you are," he said, feeling his soul singing. "And I am proud of you."

***

"And so I can fly, I can breathe fire, I can control my internal gravitic field, and– oh, oh, oh, I can do this!" Veralla said, lifting her foreclaws. Her eyes narrowed and her forked tongue flicked out in concentration. A second later, a glowing sphere of cyan-purple light appeared between her claws.

Everyone gasped in awe at the display. Airo and Veralla had come down to the lake, where the other dragons and their soulkin still stood, astonished by the event which had transpired. Magus, Glawlrhain, Stamat, and Lylana had also joined the group in short order.

"Great Cosmos, you have Awakened!?" Tehalix exclaimed loudly.

"That's super awesome!" Zuckeroff whooped, having appeared from the crowd of refugees, wearing another set of ridiculous clothing.

"You can do magic! I'm so happy for you, Veralla!" Lung hrrr–ed, sounding suspiciously close like a squee. The other dragon Knights rumbled with equal amount of enthusiasm, while the human Knights murmured with approval and bewilderment.

"How did this happen?" Glawlrhain asked, his snout tendrils twitching with barely-restrained emotion.

"Oh, I do not know," Veralla said, her expression becoming a bit guilty. "I was just eating my meal, when suddenly there was this strange, yet powerful feeling in me, and I..."

"She roared like an elder dragon and blew this giant wave of firebreath!" Glosserax said, arching his body and unfurling his wings, eyes wide in wonder.

"Yeah, she displayed an ability at least ten times her strength!" Zeromon added, waving his huge claws in excitement.

"Maybe it's because she's a Primordial dragon!" Zephyr chimed in, his fin-tipped jaws slightly agape. "She really is an Avatar of the Goddess!"

"Settle down now!" Glawlrhain commanded, as the other dragons began to hrrr and babble in rising exhilaration. "Let's not draw hasty conclusions. We've had fledglings Awakening before," the sinuous dragon said, casting a glance at Magus. He turned then to Veralla. "Tell me, young one, do you truly feel the Æther resonating within yourself?"

"Oh, yes, I do," she replied, flapping her wings eagerly. "It is like I am inside an ocean of vast, flowing energy that is so... connected! I feel as if I can touch even the most distant of places, even those beyond my perception, and I can see and hear the souls of everyone around me much more clearly!"

"Hmm, so it would seem," Glawlrhain said, his expression thoughtful. "I definitely sense much more power radiating from you. Can you shape the Æther in any other way?"

"Well, I can try," Veralla said, sounding uncertain. "There is one test Kiana showed me, and told me it is often performed by new aethereals." She turned to the lake and extended a foreclaw. Her snout furrowed in concentration again, and everyone held their breath.

Something stirred beneath the reflective, cerulean waters. Seconds later, a smooth grey pebble rippled on the surface. The pebble slowly rose in the air, tiny droplets trickling down as it rotated on its axis.

This caused another uproar.

"Deus, she did it on her first try!"

"Look, there's hardly any trace of residual energies!"

"Veralla, you wield telekinesis like a natural!"

"Well done, young one," Glawlrhain hrrr–ed with approval, after Veralla released her will and the pebble dropped back into the lake. "I see you have truly Awakened to the wisdom of the Fire Eternal. You will receive special tutoring at once, and the rest of your training shall be altered as well, now that you have full access to the gifts of your heritage." Glawlrhain's amber eyes sparkled. "I'm curious, though: how complete is your control over your gravitic field?"

"Oh, oh, I can control it fully!" Veralla said. "Let me demonstrate!" She closed her eyes and bowed down her head, and then her body lifted, hovering a couple of feet above the ground.

"No way!" Lung rawr–ed. "I needed two years to achieve this level of self-control!"

"Yeah!" Zeromon added. "I still put on a grav-harness just in case something goes wrong. This is spectacular!"

"I know what would be more awesome!" Glosserax exclaimed. "Seeing Veralla breathe fire again!" The other dragons rumbled loudly in agreement.

"Rrr, do I have to breathe fire now?" Veralla said anxiously. "I do not feel ready yet to do it again."

"Nonsense!" Zuckeroff burst out with a cheerful shout. "You're the coolest dragon I've ever met, Veralla! And the fact you can breathe fire now makes you even cooler! Uh, or maybe hotter? Anyway! Don't let nothing stop you! You're the best!"

"Well, okay..." Veralla took a deep breath, her chest swelling slightly from the effort. The gathered Radiant Knights stilled in anticipation. Veralla then opened her jaws wide and exhaled sharply. A stream of white-hot plasma rushed forth, twisting and surging almost as if it was alive.

"Ouch, you burned my tail!" Lung exclaimed.

"Oh, oh, sorry, sorry!" Veralla said anxiously, instantly ceasing her firebreathing.

"Ah, just kidding, that was amazing!"

All of the Radiant Knights started talking at the same time. The dragons clustered around Veralla, congratulating her, giving her advice, or asking her a slew of questions in a loud and jubilant manner.

Airo stood by Lylana and Magus Dei, watching the festivities from the side. Again, he felt a warm, peaceful sensation flow through his being. It was happiness. He had forgotten the feeling, having spent so much of his life in darkness, yet now his soul once more became aware of its uplifting music. He took his eyes off Veralla and gazed toward the bright, clear skies of Terra Para.

Great Cosmos... thank you.

"This is an auspicious event," Magus remarked, his weathered features calm as always, but his voice was full of mirth.

"I agree, sir," Lylana said, her stern expression replaced by a wide smile. "It reminds us that even in the bleakest of moments, the light of the Way shines as strongly as ever."

Airo's commlink chimed. It was Yeoman Cloud.

"Commander, the H'raal are ready to move. They await your signal."

"Excellent. Let us go and turn this war around at last."