The priest continued cackling all through the night, echoing through the halls as he laid out his plan.

First though, the newly proclaimed ‘Expander of Gods territory’ called a woman, a woman they told me, while bowing, was an apostle of God, and almost as holy as me.

The woman was named Candice, and her robes differed greatly from the others, even the priest.

Her robes where longer, the arms where wider and stretched far past her arms, the entirety of her body was covered as much as it could be. Only her face and hair was showing.

Her eyes seemed to be closed, but she walked fine. She beckoned me to come, and I tried to talk to her, but around her mind was a shield, not something incomparable or hard to get past, but how?

How did she block me out? Of course I really did have to talk to her so I used my life force to coat my mind as a knife and force my way in.

In a moment the expressionless and almost smug woman was shocked for a moment.

‘Talk to Aegle. Follow me.’

The woman followed wordlessly, her eyes still closed.

I told the woman ‘Candice’ where Aegle was, she told me it was an altar, something Julia had taught me about.

It was a place you gave worship and prayers to a sleeping God, for him not to hear, but to be comforted by.

Candice sat next to Aegle, after having gloriously gone through the halls with no mistakes. She, with her eyes still closed tapped the unmoving Aegles forehead. Aegle didn’t even notice at first, she just sighed and starred forward.

The Candice, the woman, tapped her forehead harder, and got Aegle’s attention.

Aegle looked at her, slightly annoyed but putting on her demeanor before, something I doubted she would regain anytime soon.

Candice spoke, for the first time, and when she did, she opened her eyes.

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“Child, what’s #+^% you?”

I couldn’t understand it all.

“What do you think? My stump…”

She shuddered and stopped, midway through.

The woman turned further towards Aegle, her emotionless, flat voice gaining some humanity.

“An arm isn’t something replaceable, but at least in my perspective,”

Her white eyes seemed to tint a light green for a moment.

“We should appreciate everything we can do with the other one.”

She finished, placing her hand on Aegle’s thigh.

I snarled.

Candice, the woman’s hand fell off of Aegles thigh, and Aegles face turned a little paler.

The room was silent for a moment, only the thought of my snarl remained, and then, Candice said,

“Aegle, Dragon, you should %#*@&$3, times are about to get tough. War is going to be upon us in a $&@^%# of weeks, maybe.”

Aegle jumped, losing every semblance of her trauma, personality, or fear, and was just left with shock and surprise.

She didn’t say a word, but neither did Candice.

I looked at Aegle, just staring.

Aegle told me mentally,

‘It’s getting dark, I think we should go back.’

I started walking, but Candice stood up suddenly, making Aegle flinch heavily.

She said, “I’ll escort you.”

She started walking, her eyes closed again, and Aegles cold sweat returning, slowly.

The woman, Candice walked briskly, her steps hard and quick.

She bring us to our room, Aegle, who had spent much time in a room due to her injuries and studying was panting, more tired than she should have been.

Candice, without a word, only a closed-eyed glance at Aegle, she left.

I body slammed into the bed, flying a foot above it and then stopping, dropping on the cushion.

Aegle stood in the doorway, just leaning there.

I closed my eyes, curling up and we sat in silence under the moon for a while.

Until, hours later, Aegle, having moved inward slowly, and now sitting at the foot of the bed, said, out loud,

“Are we really going to war?”

I responded.

‘Yes, I’m apparently a sign to start murdering your own kind.”

Aegle nodded, returning to herself, monetarily.

‘Humans are rather strange, murdering each other over the slightest thing.’

She shivered after saying that, almost having been murdered by a human herself.

She began quieting with every word, until her she was just a dull, droning whisper.

She talked about everything she had done with Julia, in detail, despite me already knowing.

She talked about the day before we got attacked by the monster, fueling my guilt further.

How she felt when her arm was cut off, how she felt after, and how she felt suddenly at ease at some point.

My guilt bubbled.

She then stood up, pushing herself with her left arm, her arm, due to her only having one, was muscled and chiseled, well built.

Her legs were too. She jumped on the bed, narrowly missing me and pushing her left arm under my front legs and through.

She held me tightly and then fell asleep. I cast a big dose of healing towards her, and then fell asleep too.

***********************************************

I woke up blind, and constricted.

It was dark, and I was very obviously being taken somewhere.

Someone was carrying me, in a closed box, and everyone of their steps where jarring, bouncing me from one side to another.

It lasted a while, eventually even making me slightly dizzy.

Until finally, I was placed down, my horns piercing the box.

Presumably, the same person who took me here brought the box off my head, and I found myself in the same type of white illustrious shine.

A man sat on a marble throne, overlooking his marble kingdom, none other than,

Expander of Gods Territory.