Next morning

“Now then, listen to your father, and behave. Can you promise me you’ll be a good boy?” I stroked Korthonas’ hair as I spoke to him, trying to not be heard by the Drakkar Guards that were around the Upheaval Dome as they called it. It seemed to hang in the skies compared to our ornate Flight Chambers, the lack of art on the walls disappointing.

“Yes, Mommy,” he answered, and squirmed when I grasped around him. I gazed into his eyes again, the mesmerising swirls making me look away lest I abandon every hope of leaving today.

I looked behind him, as Cerolus and the other Demon he brought with him stood silently. Cerolus looked at me sternly, granting me one last goodbye to my child. I did not know when I would get a chance to see him again, and if such a chance arose, he would certainly be different by then. I engraved his smiling eyes in my memory.

I nodded towards Cerolus, and he silently walked up to me, then took Korthonas by his shoulders, and slowly pulled him away from me. Some instinct made me reach for him with a semblance of strength, but I tried to resist, watching my son slowly moving towards the edge of the Dome with his father instead. From here, they appeared so similar in a way.

I felt guilty, and ashamed, for not letting Cerolus know sooner. Perhaps things would have taken a different path then. Perhaps fate would have a different turn for me.

In all this, I didn’t feel fear. It had all disappeared by now. Seeing Cerolus again made me regain some hope that got lost along the way, and I just knew that whatever happened now, he would take care of my son. ‘Our son.’

I slithered towards the centre of the dome, the crystal around me slowly gaining the familiar cerulean hue. The markings on the floor filled with energy, and the spell would be powered again today.

Looking over my shoulder, I watched my son try and grab for me as Cerolus held him back with one hand, kneeling down and embracing him tightly in a tight hold. He whispered something, which I could not hear, while Korthonas cried out for me.

Standing alone in the middle of the Dome, I could do nothing but watch and endure as I felt a piece of me slowly break apart and shatter to pieces, and my resolve flinched before rising anew. Tears welled my face as I turned away from the scene, steeling myself to not look into their eyes.

The scene around me pulsed, and I breathed in the fresh salty air of home. I slowly dragged myself away from the dimming Gems, looking up to see who had decided to welcome me back into what was once my domain.

“Mother,” the current Queen of Nazjari welcomed me with open arms. I slowly drifted towards her lithe figure and embraced her.

She leant on me and whispered slowly into my ear. “I’m really sorry, Mother. I truly am.”

“I know,” we patted each other slowly on the shoulder as the trail of tears dried out, leaving a smear across my cheek.

I escaped my daughter’s grasp and slowly made my way to my room. She stopped me before I could leave the Flight Chamber.

“There is someone who wants to see you, Mother,” she spoke calmly and sternly, with none of the finesse and emotion she let out moments ago. As was suitable for a Queen.

“You know that you’re the Queen now. I can’t take your guests anymore.” I smiled slowly towards her.

“She asked specifically for you, Mother, and showed me the Lilin Council seal.”

The wheels inside my head turned slowly to grasp the implications. I have heard of only a single person that could be in Nazjara from the Lilin Council. I have met with her only twice before, and our meetings have been quite brief at that.

I turned away, abandoning all hope that Cerolus’ life was not going to be eternally connected to mine. I just prayed this meeting wouldn’t be connected to him. I won’t be able to bear it if it were.

“Helen Kreshorok, so we meet again.”

Hopefully, she would not complicate my life any further than her father did.

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The evening before

I finally sat down, looking at my son play with some of the toys. I glanced over Medusa’s chambers, noticing a large pile of luggage than expected for her short trip. I went over to check on some of the things, noticing that most were books and clothes. Children clothes to be more exact.

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I looked her way. “You already prepared for this, haven’t you?”

She slowly slithered up to me and started poking around the tidbits around us. “This was my last option, Cerolus. My only option.”

We both looked behind towards our son and sighed. I turned towards her again.

“Do you want me to leave so you can be alone with him?”

She slowly moved towards me, and I took her hand between my own. She shied away from me, before completely turning away.

“No. I don’t think I’m ready to be alone with him now. I’ve already explained all this to him so many times, I’m not certain I could handle another night like that,” she slowly moved towards the window.

“So, please stay. If not for me, then for him.”

I tried not to laugh, thinking she would take that as mockery rather than reassurance. “I will.”

We both looked at our son, and I could hear her sigh over my own.

She tried to change the subject briefly, if at all. “So, what did the young man… Sarron, do?”

Something flared up inside me as I recollected Sophia almost sobbing as she explained what he had tried to do. I pressed my hand in a fist and squeezed out the anger, wisps of flame pressing out of my fist.

My son noticed it, and came running. He gaped at the sight of my fist in flames, seemingly oblivious that it is a common sight.

“Look, Mommy, it’s magic! Fire magic!” He circled over me as I stopped fueling the flames further and let it slowly burn out as I opened my palm. When it stopped, he was enchantingly disappointed. “Again! Again!”

I looked at his shining eyes, and a tinkle inside reminded me of something that happened a long time ago. For a moment, I looked at the eyes of Axelor, and something pushed inside of me to stop the past from flooding through.

I dismissed the flames and the thoughts completely and hugged him. It lasted for what seemed like hours and I spent all that time just savouring his smell.

I finally let go and clasped his shoulders. “How about I teach you some magic then when you grow up a bit?”

He hugged me, then ran off to Medusa to hug her. “Mommy! Daddy’s gonna teach me magic! I can’t wait!”

She looked at him solemnly at first, then her expression slowly changed to a smile. “Neither can I, sweetie. Neither can I.”

He ran off again, bothering the Guard about everything he could possibly come up with, as the poor man tried to explain to him the intricacies of his own hard, flinty tail compared to Korthonas’ leathery one.

I looked towards Medusa, then went by her side.

“You’re going to be alright?”

She looked at me, then somewhere in the distance, her eyes glazing over slowly, and her nest of snakes slowly hissed.

“You’ll need to teach him water magic, too,” she smiled, “that’s going to be a tall order for a Demon.”

I could only smirk, then find confidence inside of me. “I think I’ll manage.”

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I watched Medusa disappear inside the circle of the Dome, and held my son as he cried for her, the severity of the situation only coming to him at the moment. I whispered slowly in his ears, trying to calm he down as he pleaded for me to let him go.

When she was gone, I let go of him, and he pulled away to look at my face. His cheeks were wet with tears. “Why did you let Mommy go? I want to go back to Mommy!”

I took his face in my palms, and slowly calmed him down. “Korthonas. Mommy doesn’t hate you. She loves you very much. I love you too. And you’re going to be staying with me now. Think of all the fun we’ll have!”

He slowly regained composure, then talked to me inquisitively. “And magic? Are you gonna teach me magic?”

“Of course I am! I’m going to teach you so well, you will be better than Mommy at it! How does that sound?”

He shrieked, his joyous demeanour passing through the worries he had before.

Sarron looked at me. “So you’re taking him with us?”

“Of course I am. Would you like me to send you with Medusa then, do some cultural exchange? I’m sure she wouldn’t mind a guest.” I grimaced him in what I could assume to be deep-seated anger seeping through.

He stood back, not saying anything. ‘Still so much work to be done.’

“Now then, let’s go home.”

The three of us stepped in the middle of the circle, Guards depositing the things Medusa had left me with. The Gems pulsed, changing hues, as the magical energy coursed around us.

Korthonas tried to hold on my leg, and Sarron tried to remain on his feet as the world spun around us, and we were shoved back into the room of the Palace we came from just a few days ago.

Sarron leapt back to his feet, then scrambled towards the door, trying to stay silent all the while. Korthonas, on the other hand, stood beside me, clinging to my right leg, gazing around the room we were in.

I tried to move, but he pinned me in place with strength unsuitable for a child his size.

I caressed his hair briefly then was handed over the stacks of paper I came with as the servants scrambled around us, and he slowly looked at me in awe.

My hands now full, I presented him with my tail, which he eyed curiously. After a moment of seeming recognition, he exclaimed towards me. “You have a tail, too, Dad!”

“Of course I do. Now, come, let’s go home.”

He took my tail in his hand and followed behind me, as we walked, father and son, and scenes from over a century ago flooded over again.