Chapter Twenty-Five: Sylvestrus Caledon

A young boy with eyes of moonlight and hair of lucent fire stood staring up at a sky of stars. He was searching for his mother, the moon. He found her, half her face hidden, weeping light.

“Why are you sad, mother?” He asked the moon.

“Oh, my darling boy, it is nothing. I miss your father, the sun, that’s all.”

His mothers voice carried to him on faint traces of starlight and the gentle breeze of the wind.

It had always troubled the young boy that his father never shared the same sky with his mother.

“Why are you never together, mother?”

“Oh, we once were, dear. But the Light declared that there shall be day and night, with your father ruling over day, and me, over the night. It is hard sometimes, carrying out one’s duty. You will learn, my son.”

But Sylvestrus Caledon wanted his parents to be happy. No longer did he want to see his mother hide her face and weep.

“I will find a way to bring father to you, mother!” Sylvestrus stated boldly.

Moonlight brightened,

“Oh, my son. How wonderful you are! But no such a way exists. Better that you live your life chasing other dreams.”

Sylvestrus was as stubborn as the tide, and as enduring as his father. He would not be dissuaded.

“I promise, mother. I will find a way!”

Sylvestrus departed that night, traveling Dominion in search of a way to unite his father and mother in the same sky once more. He searched far, and wide, and in all the secret places of the world. He delved into dungeons, and once, he even tried to call a demon from the Nevervare.

He found no answers.

In desperation, Sylvestrus went to the Lyrlalae, those great singers who created with the power of their voices. The greatest of the Lyrlalae, Shar, greeted him, her voice enchanting music all its own.

“Hail, son of the Moon and Sun. What brings you before me?”

Sylvestrus bowed his head,

“I seek a way to unite my father and mother in the same sky once more. As great singers, I wondered if the Lyrlalae might have an answer to my quest?”

“I am sorry, son of Moon and Sun, but your quest has no answer. What the Light has willed in his creation, only the shadow could break. If you still seek answers, mayhap the dragons might possess some knowledge, as improbable that may be.”

Sylvestrus departed from the Lyrlalae, having proceeded no farther in accomplishing his goal than when he had started.

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He went to the great wild dragon, Virolax, his stygian scales devouring all light.

“Hail, great and mighty dragon! I come seeking knowledge. I wish to unite my mother and father, the moon and sun, in the same sky!”

Virolax, his eyes burning, turned his great head to regard the young boy. His voice was deeper than the greatest caverns, and even more ancient.

“No way exists, little one. But there might be a compromise.”

“Please, great dragon, tell me of this compromise!”

Virolax blinked his great eyes, his answer slow in coming. Sylvestrus nearly cried out in impatience.

“Your mother and father cannot share the same sky, this cannot be done. However, perhaps, yes, they could share their essence.”

“How!”

“You would need a way to transfer your fathers light, his essence, to your mothers sky, a way to bridge the two. The how of it..I am not sure. It would require much study.”

Sylvestrus spent days thinking about how he could bring about the dragon's suggestion.

“Study..” the young boy muttered to himself.

There was no place for him to study.

For years, Sylvestrus pondered and searched, looking for books, looking for anything that would tell him how to accomplish this goal. Virolax had said it was possible, and so Sylvestrus would hunt down the answer.

As the years passed, he grew, no longer a boy, but a young man.

The problem, he theorized, was that no one had studied this particular problem before. In fact, no one was studying magic at all.

As Sylvestrus travelled Dominion in search of his answers, he found that no one was studying anything of import. No one knew how dungeons worked, for example, or what the strange magic inside them was.

The son of the Moon and Sun decided that he would change that. He went back to the great dragon.

“There is no place to study this problem, or any other problems of the world. I wish to create a place to do that. Will you help me?”

Virolax nodded his great head,

“Very well. I have just the place in mind to build it, yes, I think I do. Come, young man, let us go there.”

Young man and dragon went to a valley nestled between a huge mountain. A giant skeletal dragon lay in the valley, taking up nearly all the space.

“This was once a dragon known as Sirolax. She was mighty, indeed, but passed away due to age, here in this very valley, oh yes, she did. We shall make use of her bones, and from her, create a place of study.”

Virolax breathed upon Sirolax’s bones, and they rose into the air, morphing, twisting, oscillating and reverberating. Air warped, heating pouring like a geyser from the bones.

Sirolax’s great head loomed over the castle that formed beneath her, with four towers, and walls. Mist, and power radiated from it.

“Behold, your place of study. What shall you call it?”

Sylvestrus considered, and he pondered.

“Wyrmhaven,” he said finally.

“It shall be called Wyrmhaven Academy.”

___________

Amalia allowed her voice to fade away like the dying of night.

“Well?” Ash asked eagerly. He was leaning forward, hand grasping his knees. Lilith was awake as well, staring at the storyteller.

“Well what, Master Lorcan? That is the end.”

Ash gasped, slapping his knees.

“No way! You didn’t finish it! Does he unite his mom and dad? Come on!”

Ash bristled at the idea of not knowing. A story shouldn’t end with no warning like that!

“Yet it has. I cannot tell the rest of the story where there is none, Master Lorcan.”

Ash just couldn’t believe it.

“There has to be more to it!”

“Mm. There isn’t. Personally, I prefer it this way.”

He balked at her,

“How could you say that? It has no end?!”

‘Oh, but it does, Master Lorcan. Some stories end just like that. Cut off before any answers are given, their secrets buried, and often, forgotten to time.”

Lilith blinked her green eyes, putting her head down over her paws, wings rustling as she burrowed deeper into Ash’s lap.

“That’s not much of a story. But fine. How do you think it ended?”

“I believe that a person can spend their entire lives dedicated to one goal, only to never achieve it. Sylvestrus Caledon likely never found what he was looking for. Who’s to say? Now go to sleep, Master Lorcan. We have many days of travel ahead.”

Much to Lilith’s chagrin, Ash put her down to fetch his bedroll. He rolled it out, took off his boots, and crawled in it. Lilith followed, digging herself deep, and poking her head out once she had gotten comfortable.

With her small, but warm presence beside him, Ash was fast asleep in moments.

This time, he did not dream.