Greetings all!
I hope the start of your week has been significantly less active than mine has been. I woke up to two more requests to do books, after having all my current slots fully booked. One client had the audacity to tell me when they wanted their book finished before I agreed to help her. Sadly for her, the end of her deadline was before my next available slot. Oh well. Her loss, but I can't help her.
In other news, the final character for Fell Dragon has been brought into the current chapter I'm writing, and it panned out exactly the way I wanted it to. Absolute chaos! This week has two huge chapters, so I hope you enjoy them!
Edzeeker didn’t have much time. He had managed to warn the Saith and the Dekai about the snakes that were present without breaking any oaths he had taken in the past. He was content to be imprisoned after all this time. He was tired. He was glad to finally have been stopped. Perhaps now he could rest, after all these years he could finally rest. However, there was still the matter of Saita and Aidan. He knew that there was no way he could ever get Saita to see that what he had had to do was necessary, but he was not going to leave his son behind without saying goodbye. He had looked after Aidan for three years, and during that time he had fallen in love with the boy. At first, he had been just a backup for his mother, but as he had gotten older the old Dekai had softened.
He had asked his captures to give him some paper and a writing utensil so that he could write a few messages. He first penned a letter to Aidan expressing his feelings and regrets. Then one to Jethron and Sedeath, there were things they still needed to know about Saita before she healed. Lastly, he started on a letter to Saita, but no matter what he did he could not put anything to paper. He sighed and left the letter unwritten. There had to be another way to talk to her. He could sense that she was alive, although weakened and in pain. If he could just reach out for a minute, he could do what he needed to do.
He lay down on the bed provided for him and looked at a full moon making its way past his window. It was night and late. He wondered if the girl needed to sleep now that she no longer had her marks. He closed his eyes and reached out to her. They had spoken like this at length while she had been with him and the Doctor, but once she was free, she had blocked communication with him. Sometimes he would be able to reach out to her while she slept but communication was heavily marred by her memories. Memories he had tried to bury in her mind, but trauma always had a way to float to the top.
He didn’t regret what he had done, not for a minute. He did, however, regret how he had done it, but if it could have been done differently, he would have done it. Perhaps he could have done better if he had had more time. Perhaps Aidan would have been the key, perhaps his son or his son. He let his mind wander for a few minutes before once more reaching for Saita. He carefully constructed the mental room to prevent either one of them from getting hurt, and then he waited. He had the strength to drag her mind here but then she would likely not want to speak to him if he managed it. He was momentarily distracted by the swirls of black, blues and silvers he almost didn’t notice the second presence.
He turned and saw Saita standing in a half daze, shaking her head slightly as if confused by where she was at first. Eventually, she managed to focus and at first didn’t seem afraid, but then she saw who was before she and her entire body language changed. Her muscles bunched, and then fire descended from her chest in the pattern of the energy lattices. They were still there, wrapped around her muscles, her organs, and her bones. They were just not visible to the eye as they had not been condensed enough to be seen under the skin yet. It looks like she had glowing tattoos. She was the first to have this level of control.
“You!” she spat.
Edzeeker could feel the warmth of the fire, but he remained calm. If it came down to it, he would win a mental battle with her, but he would not be unscathed. The only way to prevent injury was to initiate conversation.
“Yes. Me.” He said softly.
Her hands closed into fists, and she stood staring at him. She was shaking in silent fury, and he was somewhat surprised that she had not attacked him yet. It was after a few seconds that he realised why. She wasn’t fuelled by hormones and energy surges as she had when they were last face to face. Here she only had her mind, and it was currently fighting a different battle. She was confused, and clearly, the pain had followed her here because it too was clouding her judgement.
And so, they waited. Waited for one of them to make a move. Waited for one to say something. Waited for one to give up and crumble. He looked at her. Really took the time to look at her. Her face was once more marred by fresh scars, and she was skinny. She had lost a lot of weight since he had last seen her. She was wiry but her strength wasn’t in the muscles of her body but rather what was growing inside of her. The flames that had sprung to her skin now smouldered giving her the appearance of a burning coal.
“You lived.” He was surprised by the surprise in his voice.
“I had to.” She spat once more.
He glanced down and saw frost developing at her feet. “You had to?”
“So that my son has a chance to be normal.”
“What is this fascination with humans and wanting to be normal?” he grinned. “Aidan is extraordinary, just like you.”
“He will never be like me!”
“Oh, my dear, he is already so much more than you could ever be.” He chuckled. “The only thing he lacks is what is growing inside of you.”
“I will never let him become like me. He will have the life that was taken from me.”
“What life will it be if the Fell Dragon wins?” he demanded.
“One with no pain and suffering.” She threw back at him.
“Ah, the cellular degeneration.” He sighed. “The Doctor was hoping to stave it off for…”
“I am not an experiment you can just talk over. I am a living breathing person you tore apart for your good. Not mine.” She hissed at him. “Don’t try to justify yourself to me.”
He was taken aback by this and frowned. “The Doctor made a mistake letting you form bonds outside the lab.”
Saita had nothing to say to that. Instead, she stretched her fingers out and let out a shuddering breath, trying to calm herself. Edzeeker watched an internal struggle before she said. “You took my life from me, but you ensured Aidan’s. Irrespective of plans you may have had for him in your twisted future I have to thank you for raising a good boy.”
Her eyes softened but only for a moment. “I have something to fight for as I have no other future. You made sure of that, but at least my bloodline will continue as I am sure you killed my biological parents to get to me.”
Edzeeker ground his teeth together as the barbed statement stabbed at his chest. He remembered how brave her father had been in trying to shield her from him. How her mother had bravely faced him. He could not make them understand how important she was, and when they got in his way, they had dispatched them swiftly. He didn’t want to leave a trail for his work to be discovered. Saita had grown to look far more like her father than her mother.
“Do you remember them?” he asked after some time.
“I don’t remember much before the tombstone of Myla and Karesh’s son.”
“Yet you dream.”
“Why am I here?’ she demanded, all emotion gone from her voice, she was exhausted and was in no mood for any of this.
“Will you listen?” he asked as he sat cross-legged before her. “Really listen and pay attention to what I have to say to you.”
Saita looked up to the heavens and turned pale before clenching her teeth and holding onto her left leg with a grimace. He noticed that her right arm was clutched to her chest. She was in too much pain to concentrate here.
“They are weaning you from the pain medication early. Sedeath must have warned Jethron that I would try to do this.” He muttered. “I need to talk to you, and you need to listen.”
“What more is there to say Dekai?” she hissed at him. “You took me from my birth parents. Gave me to a madman that tortured me for over a decade. After which he released me to form a human connection only for me to lose it again three years later. What followed next left me so fucked up I have no chance of living a normal life. I lost out on my family, someone I was starting to love, and you forced a child upon me and him. Then you took away any possibility of me being able to be a woman, a mother, to have any more children. Even if by some minuscule possibility I defeat the Fell Dragon, I can never have what I want.”
“Children?”
“A family of my own making, my choice, my blood! You took that away from me. You may as well have drawn a blade across my throat the day you took me. I barely have enough memories to string together, and what I do remember is filled with torture.” Her hands clenched again. “And for what Edzeeker? What was your grand scheme?”
“Your memories can be returned to you.”
“You think I want to remember being tied down and having my legs broken as a five-year-old so that they can be lengthened? Do you think I want to remember how growth hormones were administered to force growth in my organs? All the while I was shut away in a room praying for my parents to come and save me. Screaming in pain every single night with no comfort until the Doctor could take no more and shoved me into a tank that accelerated healing just to shut me up.”
“You are starting to remember.”
“Why do you think I don’t sleep? I don’t want to see that.” She screamed.
“It won’t stop now. Clearly, the administration of Dekai blood into the system has caused my seals to break. You will eventually start to remember more and more.”
Saita said something he didn’t understand, but he was sure it was some kind of vulgarity. She collapsed to her knees before sitting back. She covered her eyes, trying to stem the tears that came now. Whether they were from anger or terror the Dekai had no idea.
“I was a fool to think I could ever have anything.” She growled. “My memories are intentionally hidden from me. Even my life is forfeit to this lost cause.”
“Are you quite done feeling sorry for yourself?” asked Edzeeker now annoyed. “Because I am done with this little pity party.”
Saita fixed him with a dirty look through her tears, and the Dekai simply continued.
“So, what if I stole a child? So, what if her bones were broken or her organs mutated? So, what if you don’t have a future? No one cares.”
“I care!”
“And if the Fell Dragon descends upon us, there will be no future. Do you have any idea of how many worlds, timelines and people have been destroyed? I don’t care for one little girl.”
“Yet you created Aidan.” Sneered Saita. “You taught him to speak when I wasn’t. You looked after him when I was nothing more than an experiment. He had a name, but I had a number. You clearly cared for him. Was it because you had never thought of inherited traits, or did you finally grow a conscious?”
Edzeeker paused and considered his words for a moment. He had never expected this to come from the girl. Hell, he hadn’t even wanted her to have children in the first place. Yet, the ever-growing fear that had settled in him when he realised that time was running out…
“You never believed I could defeat the Fell Dragon.”
“No, I believed you could.” He admitted softly. “I always believed you could if you had the time and the training. We were meant to have more time together. You left.”
“No! I escaped.”
Edzeeker sat down before her and sighed as his bone creaked in protest. His mind was well aware he was old and tired. Not even here could he escape the ravages of time.
“I was running out of time, and I made a rash decision about you having a descendant. It is that simple. If I was unable to get you before your 18th birthday, then I needed to do one of two things. Either jump time once more or create one of your blood.”
“Why didn’t you jump and leave me be?”
“Because I was running out of time.”
“You keep saying that! We know we are running out of time.” She glared at him with tear-soaked cheeks.
“You misunderstand me. I am running out of time. I am older than time. I am falling apart. There was no more time for me to do this again. You and Aidan are all I have left after millennia of work.”
Saita looked away into the swirling mists and refused to look him in the eye.
“Why must you be like this?” he whispered. “Upon the birth of your son, I brought him to you and told you everything. We had an understanding of what was to happen once you were healed.”
“Lies.” She hissed.
“It is true what Kiai said then. You remember nothing of what I was teaching you. Nothing? How do you think you are able to grow the crystal lattice beneath your skin? I taught you. I explained your mimicking skills to you. You told me the name of your son. You already knew who he was. You told me of the dark future you travelled to.”
Saita’s attention snapped back to the old Dekai. The tears were gone now but her face was deathly pale.
“What?”
“You told me of the twins who were forced upon a future version of yourself. It was through this union that your little flame was born.”
“I would have never told you that.” She spat as she stormed to her feet.
Edzeeker remained in his seated position and weary looked up at the girl who was once more glowing like coals. No, not a girl, she was a woman now. He sighed softly then said. “When you are ready to hear the truth, come to me, and we will talk. I will reveal everything to you.”
“I…” started Saita angrily.
Edzeeker cut her off and grinned. “You look exactly like your father did the day I came for you when you were a toddler. His strength runs deep in you.”
With the promise of knowing what truly happened to her, can Saita truly pass up the opportunity to know more? I guess we'll see if Saita truly wants to or not.
For those of you who have never heard of Fell Dragon you can find Book 1 here, Book 2 here and the start of Book 3 here. If you have any questions, feel free to ask me. I love discussing my books!
As the series continues, it will combine with another book series I wrote. To avoid confusion about what is happening, introductory chapters will be introduced separately so that you don't have to be lost. However, these chapters will contain spoilers. You can find these chapters here:
Races Explained
Banishment
Royal Guard
Saasha’s Direct Family
Saith Characters Recap
Human Characters Recap
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Haven't read the other parts yet? Follow these handy links:
Part 16>>You are Here>>Part 18
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