“You asked me to come to you when everything turned upside down”, Sasha said, looking at the snake who mere moments ago had suggested she should kill her predecessor. Who was the dragon queen?

“I have known for a long time now that the queen has soiled her mission. The people of this land are not in favor of the ruler. I knew something was off, but I couldn’t put the pieces together.” The dragon queen was tilting her head. “Now I know.”

“You seem to know all. How come you didn’t know this?”

“I am no human, child. I feel the connection to you, I feel the dragon part in you and the queen, but I don’t understand all your emotions, all your complex politics.” The dragon squeezed her faze together the tongue sizzling. “I think she must have poisoned him before our connection. Their love has always had this twisted element.”

They fell silent, droplets of water and the sizzling of the tongue all that was heard. Sasha felt the dragon's feeling in her, and she felt the chaos of hers. It was like a wave back and forth, as the queen slowly, slowly made a clear path in the foggy thoughts in her mind. They shared their thought or their feelings with them, and somehow Sasha knew her mother even better, seeing her as she had once been. Then there was darkness engulfing the proud dragon. Sasha stroked her scales, trying to comfort her.

“I have nurtured the enemy in my lair”, the queen hissed.

Sasha wasn’t so sure. The queen had chosen to wink at the king's behavior, did that make her the villain? The king's actions must speak for themselves.

“What if I am wrong? What if the king isn’t innocent?”

“I see glimpses of the future Sasha, and this fits, it feels right.” The dragon queen looked at her, comforting her with a gentle hug of her tail. “I knew you would be the headsman Sasha. And you are the right one to lift the ax, you are pure. Lets see what we have, and what we can do. Talk it through with me.”

“I don’t know”, Sasha massaged her temples trying to get order in the murky thoughts. “I want to give the life back to the king. Maybe he will still make the same choice, but then it will be his choice of free will. For that I can kill him.”

“I can see you already have a plan. You are conflicted?”

“Yes, my queen”, Sasha said, sighing heavily. Could she really use her gifts, to save her father? It tore at her. “The knights of Aaliyah have given me gifts. If I put him to sleep, and give him back his heart, they could let him forget. Erasing all of his life, it would give him a fresh start. One were he didn’t have to live through what he have done.”

”What if he doesn’t want to forget? The knights of Aaliyah choose her? The forgave Aaliyah.”

Sasha considered it.

“No”, she said, sure of herself. “There’s the difference. The knights of Aaliyah all choose her from start. The king never did. He never choose the queen.”

“How could you know? Neither I nor you were there then?”

“No, but, I have thought about it. The king has never stopped fighting the queen. In some twisted way, destroying the witches and torturing them the way he does. Its his free choice. His way of punishing the queen. And her, not daring to end the vicious circle, although she know...”

“Or he is just a sick bastard that should have been killed years ago”, the dragon queen countered.

“Maybe, and maybe I am wrong, maybe he is guilty of his action and could have chosen otherwise, having heart and conscious or not. I don’t know, but if he messes up the second chance, there will be no more.”

“No”, the dragon queen answered, swaying and gently putting her tail around Sasha, swinging her. “If he messes up, I will personally eat him from breakfast. Even the strongest healer will not survive my stomach acid.”

“A dragon stomach is the solution to all problems”, Sasha muttered. She remembered. She had owned her life to this timid snake. “I must thank you for solving Alan.”

“My pleasure”, the queen sizzled. “My pleasure.”

“That only leaves the queen. She has no excuse. She had the power to stop the king, all these years, but she choose not to”, the dragon nodded. “You should use the orb on her.”

“Yes, I should. I really should? Shouldn’t I?” Sasha said, although she didn’t want to. She didn’t want to use the orb at all. “The queens love is poisonous. It has destroyed not only his heart, but hers as well.”

“So why do I feel conflict in you?”

“This orb”, Sasha said. She played with it in her hands, not knowing how to continue.

Sasha took a big gulf of air. She was no coward, before she could regret it she took out the orb, looking at the black lightning in the purple glow.

“I did something I shouldn’t have”, she said, feeling ashamed in front of the snake, and somewhat afraid. Had she started the same road as her mother? Was she so much different?

“I have seen it”, the queen said, nuzzling her and looking at the orb. “I know the power within.”

“Then you know it is about Elias and that I have done something very stupid.”

Sasha hold it in front of her, offering it to the queen.

“Could you clean it? I would like to give it back to its owner, but I don’t want to tell him what I have done.”

“The orb is as strong as my stomach acid”, the snake answered, “but I can’t do what you need. However, I know who can.”

“So it is restorable?”

“The death queen can clear any magic. She, and only her, can help you with this.”

“That’s not what I wanted to hear”, Sasha whispered.

“No. Its not”, the dragon agreed, “and what worse. You will have to tell Elias.”