“Wait! Wait! Calm down! I’m not your enemy!” His attitude and movements were blaringly different, so I didn’t attack. It was almost like he finally gained a personality. “I want to, apologise for attacking you, but uh, you might not want to cause a scene in the wards.”

“Who are you?” I asked, now that he was finally able to talk.

“Levi Ashworth, a student at the academy, miss Crescent.” His name, sure did sound familiar.

“Levi, Levi,” I muttered under my breath trying to scan my mind for where I heard the name, then it dawned on me, “Weren’t you missing?!”

“Ah, yes. From what I understand, our rogue ex-principal brainwashed me with some kind of forbidden magic. Because of that, I wasn’t able to control myself. I also had white hair and blank eyes, so no one really identified me if they did see me.”

I nodded at his explanations, looking down at him. The question circling about my mind finally came out, “Why are you in a wheelchair?”

“Ah, did you forget?” he laughed again, quite a light-hearted fellow for one in his position. I helped him along, pushing the chair where he wanted to go. “Those ice dragons were attacking the capital. That’s when I saw you, or, well, the other me at least. We were going to start fighting but it seems the head Sentry saw me and knocked me unconscious. My spine was damaged as a result.” Even through all that explanation, he still smiled.

That’s right, the ice dragons. And Winter! He, beat me, didn’t he? “What happened to Winter? How long was I unconscious?”

“Principal Winter? Uh, nothing? I don’t know,” he shrugged. “But it’s been a couple weeks since you were out. Ah, turn here.” He directed me outside so he could get some fresh air. The place was already being reconstructed. Half of the capital seemed badly destroyed. I couldn’t believe it was this bad.

Some voices began getting explosively loud, a heated argument by the sound of it. I paid it no mind, and decided to heal the boy instead, taking just about ten minutes to have him walking again, although it was wobbly. “You’re amazing!” he exclaimed. “It doesn’t hurt at all! I just need to rebuild my strength and I’ll be good as new!”

I contemplated giving him a red pill for said reason, but, I figured the burst of strength it gives would be too much for his body to process, so I let him walk around slowly. The voices began getting even louder and it caught Levi’s attention, “Ah, that’s right. Miss Sikorski told me that she was a really good friend with you. Since I’m healed now, do you mind showing yourself to my parents? If the chemist tells them I’m fine, I’m sure everything will be cleared up.”

“Uh, sure.”

Over the distance, it even sounded like a clay vase broke in the argument. “Wow,” he laughed, “they’re really chewing her out.”

“What do you mean?” I asked, a little lost.

“Remember I said the Miss Sikorski had stopped me? Well, my parents didn’t like how it happened. They want the school to punish her in some way for disabling me. And they will get their way, the rich always does.” He looked a little gloomy talking about his parents.

We finally reached the office near the wards, where the current principal was being urged to make a decision by Levi’s fussing parents.

“Father, mother, calm down a little.” He said, walking towards them. Their faces went white, thinking he was forcing himself, but he only trembled a little because his legs had gotten weak since they weren’t in use. Their reactions were comical, bringing a titter to my lips.

“Emily!” Mandy walked over to me, “Did you–”

“Yeah,” I interrupted her, asking her to calm down as well.

“Look at what you’ve done!” Levi’s father snapped at Mandy whilst he helped his son back into the wheelchair.

“You must account for your actions. You injured a student that you were supposed to find!” His mother went red with anger, and likewise, I could see Levi riling himself up, listening to their banter.

“Shut up!” he screamed out, earning the gasps of his father and scaring his mother a little. “This is what happens in battle! All is fair! Stop blaming her!”

“But, Levi, she hu–”

“I’m not dead, mother! You ought to be thankful she didn’t kill me where I stood. You know I was brainwashed, why are you pursuing this further? Just drop it.”

They argued with him even more, headstrong about how wrong Mandy was, that’s when I interrupted. “Excuse me,” I turned their eyes to me, “Levi is no longer paralysed.”

Their speech couldn’t form, the words tripped over each other in a sporadic desperation to get out. I found their surprised faces, surprising. I figured, after seeing him walk, that they’d think he was somehow healed. That thought didn’t cross their minds apparently. “Just make sure he takes a slow, short walk daily, also, ensure he takes a pill before bed,” I handed over about a dozen green pills, “he’ll be back to normal in a few days.”

They were dumbfounded, even the principal couldn’t get words out. Thankfully, Levi’s parents put the matter behind them and moved on.

I decided to rid myself of the drumming headache with a green potion, then I went to Emberscale after convincing the school that I was fine. I wasn’t really, but I didn’t need their worries right now. Hundreds of people were killed in that small skirmish and it bothered me more than I ever thought it would. Dozens of homes and businesses were thrashed, debris scattered everywhere. It was like an angered hurricane wrought a vengeful wrath upon the capital. I’d imagine my green pills had served their purpose now more than ever.

My mind was set on Audax. I was unconscious for so many days, I just couldn’t imagine how he fared so long without a wing, without the joy of flight. I had a small brown pouch filled with potions and pills of every colour.

“Hello, father,” I greeted the proud Razz’ol, giving him a hug on one of his legs. He didn’t even move, instead, he opted for an audible exhale and set his gaze on me. His horned face was long, forlorn, eyes a lacklustre orange. It was clear as day something was up.

“Emily,” he dragged my name, as if too exhausted to muster the strength. I asked what’s wrong, and he brought one of his wings down. I tilted my head in confusion, but he wouldn’t attempt to answer my curiosity. So, I climbed up onto him and we took off to another part of Emberscale, a place much more lush than the ashy craters in the centre. He took me to yet another crater, but this one looked fresh, like it was just dug up.

We landed on the outskirt and I looked down. My knees grew frail, shaky, I couldn’t hold myself up, nor could my tears. I stayed there, slumped on the grass, staring downwards in stupor.

“The earth dragons were kind enough to create these burial grounds. The ceremony, was yesterday. Your friend, the reckless one. Audax was his name, I believe. He fought ‘til the end.”

Dragons, lifeless, packed atop each other. There were hundreds of them. My mind was breaking, it didn’t know if to curl into itself in anguish and morose, in saddening heartache, or if to explode into an enraged frenzy and brutally murder the one responsible.

“Who?” I asked, my voice trembling in pain. Father hesitated to answer, knowing well I’d try something stupid, brash. “Who?!” I asked again, my magic flaring violently. Ironically, he didn’t wish to tell me for the very purpose of losing control, but the more he idled by silently, the angrier I became. He noticed that, supposedly, finally succumbing to my rage.

“The enslaver, Samael Winter.”

The name, I was expecting, but to think he’d go this far infuriated me to no end. Within the mix of corpses, I found Audax, a sizeable hole going right through his body–an ice lance probably–made me cringe. I dragged the body out of those that caged it with my arcane chains and created a portal back to the demon’s mountain.

I read the grimoire, knowing I’d need more power to defeat Winter. In the back of my mind, I was hoping, wishing, I’d find some sort of miraculous spell that could reverse this massacre. My eyes caught a couple spells that spoke to me, but didn’t necessarily make me stronger. I wondered what to do, battering my mind, and then the pool of blood caught my attention.

Was I so desperate? For the thoughts flowing through me would instantly be viewed as folly to anyone alive to remember the events of twenty years past. I crept into the pool and slipped into a comfortable slumber. Just like I expected, Eblis–hopefully not my crazed thoughts speaking–appeared in my dreams. A dark, phlegmatic and mysterious energy flowed around me, as if I was in the eye of a storm.

“You have sought me out, for strength,” it said in its whispering voice, being spot-on with its observation. It knew me more than I thought.

“You know why I’m here, then. Give me what I want.”

“I, must also gain something in exchange. Freedom! The power you have, is dead. The blood in this place, has withered in strength. I, will give blood, directly from the source. Consume my blood, relinquish your heart to me.”

The dream faded into black and I awoke in the pool. I swam up, and levitating in the centre of the pool was a black chalice filled with near black blood. Its purple reflection would only show when I lit a small flame from my finger to see properly.

I drank the blood, something I never imagined I’d do when I first arrived in this land. If only I was strong enough to stop Winter when the ice dragons attacked, Audax would still be alive. Down it went, in big gulps, the tasteless liquid scoured down my throat, a trickle of it escaping down the side of my lips. I quickly lost consciousness afterward.

When I awoke, Audax’s corpse had disappeared, and I held something wet and squishy in my hand.

A human heart.

What, did I do?

In the palm of my hand laid a human heart, drenched in blood and swirling with shadow energies around it. The energy soon engulfed it and the heart disintegrated right before my eyes.

I looked around the damp room, my ears conflicted by the explosive palpitations in my head. My chest felt like it was bursting with magic power. “What the, hell happened?” My knees shook as I stood up, one hand against the dark dirt wall to brace myself from falling.

I wondered, did I really just strike a deal with a demon? Was I insane? How depraved was I? How much had my rationale decayed? In all possible facets of one’s imagination, doing such a thing was synonymous with a death sentence. However, despite my weakened state, it didn’t feel like I made the wrong choice.

My magic composition felt rearranged but stable. Draconic magic was a little more dominant and my arcane magic stayed the same, or was even reduced. My shadow magic however, was bounds and leaps greater than it was before. The magic pool I had before seemed like a puddle compared to this one.

I was exhausted, so I teleported back home, craving sleep. But there was no rest for the weary. The minute I appeared, a sentry called out to me as if he was just waiting around there for my return.

“Please go to the royal palace!” he asked, telling me my presence was requested.

I’d never whined so much in my life, internally at least. Just as my loving bed was tempting me to wrap my arms around it, more responsibility stopped me from getting much desired sleep. Over to the royal court I went, seeing Vaughn, the king, Mandy and the principal gathered in the half-destroyed court.

“What is it?” I asked, and they could tell the slur in my speech and my inability to maintain eye-contact pushed me away from the waking world, but they didn’t let my sleepiness deter them from addressing their issue.

Vaughn glanced the frustrated king, making eye contact for a second. “Emily, we’ll keep this short.” He walked forward, his hands clasped behind his back in a scholarly stride, “This,” he brought a black pair of magic cuffs to everyone’s attention. “These are the– were, the bindings used to imprison Samael Winter. Do you have any idea what has happened?”

“No, I don’t. I don’t know any more than you all do. He used the battle as a distraction to escape, but no one knows how.”

The king smashed his fist into his slightly distressed throne’s arm, his anger was boiling but he soon simmered down, letting it out in a sigh. “This is no coincidence. One cannot escape those bindings so easily, so, timely. Emily, I wish to impart a task onto you, should you succeed, many lives will be saved.”

I perked my ears to listen. What did he want me to do?

“It’s fairly simple. We believe, after this battle, that Samael Winter has some alliance with the ice dragons of the north. Well, that much is obvious now, really.” He learned forward, then chose to raise from his seat, as if emphasising the importance of his words to come. “You’ve befriended the water dragons of the south seas. You’ve befriended the proud salamanders of Emberscale. Emily, convince the dragons to betray Samael Winter. How you go about doing this is entirely up to you, if, you wish to do it at all.”

My body shuddered. This didn’t seem like a peace offering from Venreval. Its nature was more of a last resort. Exhausting the last, best option. I nodded my head, somehow unable to form words that I’d accept his mission.

“Should you encounter Winter again–which you seem good at doing–alert us immediately. If you manage to capture him,” Vaughn walked me out, “you will be justly rewarded.” Suddenly, he stopped, after passing the guards in the dimly lit hallway, “Know this, Emily,” and placed a hand on my shoulder, “should you fail, it would spell the end of the dragons in Glacier Crest. We spent twenty years preparing for another Eblis after all, we can wipe out a dragon clan if we want to.”

Exactly what I thought. The humans had improved and the dragons didn’t know. Said humans were caught sleeping, and as a result, were massacred when the Summoner brought Eblis into this world. And the lives of the ice dragons were now dependant on my success in persuading them. It was funny that Winter was less of a threat to them now, but no less worrying.

I had a couple ways of going about it, but how? Should I find and return Aurora’s eggs to her? That would mean she wouldn’t hesitate to gather dragons and destroy Winter herself. I could’ve risked facing off against Winter again, but I wasn’t sure how much I had improved after drinking Eblis’ blood, his real blood. I decided to put those things behind me for now, I needed rest, desperately.

Into my dreams, I burrowed, and not surprisingly, Eblis appeared before me. His shadowy gargoyle-like silhouette as enigmatic as ever. In the dream, we were on the sands of the south seas, watching as fleets of water dragons flew north. He didn’t utter a word, only outstretched his arm towards my face. I woke up instantly, fraught with worry. What was that about? I shrugged it off, knowing my dreams are erratic and nonsensical, but I just couldn’t shake the feeling like something was wrong. Minutes later, I teleported to Emberscale, and behold, fleets of water dragons flew in the skies. The sun was hardly even up.

A few hundred salamanders were remaining after most were killed by Winter, and now, the water dragons wanted to finish the job. Old rivalries never die.

Huge volumes of water came crashing down, forcing the salamanders to take flight. I was at the hearth, the centre of Emberscale alongside my father. “We, will not flee,” he said, his orange eyes looking down at me. Somehow, he knew exactly what I was thinking. Before I could answer, he flew upwards, and the others followed, avoiding the waves of water.

I casted teleport and placed myself above them all. At that very moment, where the endless fleets of water dragons were illuminated only by the sunrise and fiery breaths of dragon flame, I relinquished my hesitance to kill. I didn’t have the leisure of capturing and seeking peace. If I wanted to defend the salamanders, these water dragons had to die. Forgive me, Vaughn.

Shadow energy charged within the palms of my hands and formed the spheres as I fell. I threw them, incessantly, until the fleets took notice of me. I prepared my teleport spell once more whilst maintaining a barrier, but was interrupted when something crashed into me. I held onto the horns for dear life until my eyes finally adjusted to the speed.

I couldn’t believe it, of all the dragons that caught me, “Audax! You’re alive?! Y-you’re Audax, right?”

He didn’t answer, even as I waited expectantly for his reply. Instead, when he opened his jaw, it was to breath fire, or so I thought. Dark violet shadow magic burst forth, a bolt that had an explosive effect when it hit others.

Their skin, muscle, everything organic about them began decaying in record time, as any shadow magic would cause.

My mind kept blanking out, as if stunned, but it would be shoved back to reality every time Audax made a sharp turn. So many emotions crept through me, but, now wasn’t the time. I didn’t know what happened to Audax, but he was helping me, so I took full advantage of it and metamorphosed into the shadowy entity to truly rid Emberscale of its unwanted visitors, and attempt to test my limits.

I had my own wings born of shadow energy, it surrounded me and surged my power to an unrecognisable peak. My two arms stretched forth and released a barrage of shadow blasts, it looked similar to what Audax was using, but only more destructive as it covered a larger area. The barrage was so rapid that it looked like a smooth, uninterrupted beam of shadow magic flowing out of my arms.

The salamanders made themselves scarce when they saw this, thankfully. The water dragons diverted all their attention to Audax and I, which made the fight easier. The barrier spell while I was transformed did not require channelling, so I was able to cast it on both Audax and myself whilst still having free use of my hands. Their blasts of water were ineffective, and realising this, they began retreating.

There must’ve been over a thousand skeletal remains of water dragons around Emberscale. Simply imagining that I wanted to clean them out materialised a humungous shadow hand, similar to my arcane bind spell. The hand had pointed fingers just like Eblis, it raked it all the skeletons and flung them into a portal that led to the shores of the south seas. I gathered the water using whatever draconic water magic I knew, and sent it through the portal as well.

I realised my metamorphosis wasn’t fading either. Whatever Eblis did to me, worked like a charm. The salamanders migrated to the Crag for the time being, until Emberscale’s hearth was rekindled.

I stopped on a stony lookout and Audax landed next to me. My transformation stopped only when I wished it and I reverted back to normal. “Can you speak?” I asked him, keeping my fingers crossed.

“Of course, I can,” the prideful dragon said. My eyes watered and I ran right to him, hugging one of his legs.

“You’re back!” I said, whimpering like a child. “What happened? How come–”

“I’m alive?” he completed my question. “And why am I dark like Razz’ol now? Because you struck that deal with the demon. You’re mad, I must say.”

Hearing him speak like normal was such a relief to me. He explained that Eblis took my heart in return for giving me power, which I knew. But, what Eblis failed to say was that Audax’s heart was modified, and was placed within me and that Audax’s soul was forced back into his body. “I no longer feel pain. Both shadow and fire are at my command. I’m stronger, faster, and can be summoned or dismissed at any time. This is ‘shadow resurrection’ according to the demon.”

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing, but my eyes kept telling me it was real. For us to drive off an army of dragons by ourselves really did fall into the realms of impossibility, not a soul would believe such a tall tale if I told it. The strength we had was, invigorating, to say the least. This level of power made me ponder just how powerful Eblis really was.

The imminent threat of the opportunistic water dragons was shut down. My next objective now would at least be to protect the ice dragons from Venreval. If, somehow, I could convince their elders, then everything would be o-

“Will you obey your king?” Audax asked, as if reading my mind. His eyes’ reptilian slits peered right through me, like whatever I could possibly say was already known to him. I answered yes. He scoffed, then laughed.

“Emily, you do realise you just killed hundreds of dragons, don’t you?” His question was like a heavy hammer mashing down onto me, grinding my mind onto a concrete slab of culpability. I broke eye contact with him, I didn’t want to be reminded of it, I didn’t want to think of it. A leg was already past the point of no return, the other leg only stayed in the realms of the innocent so as to lie to me that I was still a normal girl, one people needn’t fear. I knew that, at some point, I’d have to admit it, to accept the fact I crossed the line.

I was a killer.

Not even the ‘sin’ of enslaving dragons that I so condemned Winter for was worse than this. Killing dragons to save dragons? What self-righteous fool would think that was a good answer? To top it off, the dragons I defended were my own kin, which made my actions even more selfish. Would I have done the same if the situation was reversed? Would I have slain my salamanders to protect Vaughn’s water dragons? Probably not.

So, what? I thought, giving up the need to bash myself. “What’s wrong with that?” I clenched my fists to show power, but the needless tears broke free of their prisons anyway, shamelessly sliding down my face and hanging onto my chin. “Why can’t I defend my family?! What’s so wrong in that?!” I yelled, as if Audax was my enemy. I felt downright awful.

“Nothing at all.” He exhaled, “Come now, salamanders don’t shed tears. We have some elders to sway.”

“Yeah,” I said weakly, rubbing the moisture from my face. He must’ve been testing me.

We took a portal to Glacier Crest, but something was amiss. The place was whisper quiet. Only the howling winds of the arctic fjord whistled in our ears.

Glacier Crest, home of the ice dragons, had no ice dragons.

“What’s going on?” I muttered to myself, thinking out loud. No dragons at the landing, at the summit, around the entire continent, no matter how many hours we flew looking for them. The last place I could think to look was the ice cavern where Aurora held her eggs. Her last remaining eggs were gone, and she was nowhere to be found.

My mind was terribly discombobulated. I teleported back outside to my companion. He promptly refused swimming, as if it’d bother him in his new shadowy form. “Audax,” I put my hand on my chin, “how does an entire clan disappear?”

“Like us, they must have migrated.”

“But why?” I pondered.

“The best person to answer that question, would be Winter.”

Of course, Winter. He certainly became the cause of every problem. What now? I thought of king Sven Aran and his words. He wanted to annihilate the ice dragons, but something happened before I could even act as the bridge, as the last offer of peace that he put forth. “What do I tell them now?” I laughed at the situation weakly and breathed a weary sigh.

“Emily, are you there?” Chiron’s wheezing voice called to me from the ring, coughing a little before he could finish his question. The minute I answered, he tasked me with finding something. “Embark to Stoneclaw Mountains and find the ruins that lie beneath. Once you are there, I need you to locate something, a staff. Not just any staff, the Staff of Eliora. With it, we can rebuild the capital in a matter of days. But you must make haste, Emily,” he hurried me, “I fear Winter wants the artefact for his own reasons. Now, I must go.”

“Wait, uncle! Where is Stoneclaw Mountains?” I asked, but got no answer. What was that about? An artefact? How important was it that Chiron wanted it out of Winter’s hands? Why didn’t he just get it himself?

“The Crag,” Audax raising his head up, “Stoneclaw Mountains is the home of the earth dragons’ leader. The ruins he spoke of are heavily protected.”

It was due time I hightailed from this wintry desert, so I opened a portal back to the school. Despite Audax’s huge colour shift, the students still recognised him and thus wasn’t too startled when they saw him lying outside. I paid the principal a visit to see if the school was in any need of my help.

“You, don’t even seem like part of this school anymore. Higher responsibilities from the king, I’d imagine.”

Despite his lively voice, he was aged and seasoned. He saw right through me, but I solidified his guess with a nod anyway. “The academy will always welcome you, Emily,” the bald principal assured, but his words had another meaning attached to them. I was now relieved of my duties to the school, at least temporary, with the dragon attack and all.

“Thank you, sir. Please excuse me.” I teleported outside to Audax then left for the Crag. Being the largest continent in this world, the Crag’s Stoneclaw Mountains had us commit to a few days of flying over many plains and mountains before reaching the leader’s rest.

Even when the burly, horned and spine-chilling earth dragons saw us fly by, they didn’t attack, or even investigate. It was so peaceful and serene here, the green grasslands and brown mountain tops really set your mind at ease, as if comforting you that there was absolutely nothing to stress over.

Finally, we approached Stoneclaw Mountains after Audax identified it. Large spires lining each other, exactly like a claw. The name was justly given. There was an opening to the underground ruin easily seen from above, but Audax bypassed it and landed on top one of the mountains. It didn’t look like the dragons guarding it would let us through anyway.

“What are you doing?”

“Going to meet their leader.”

The rock-brown dragon slowly stood up, easily towering over Audax and I. It was probably bigger than my father. “Greetings Earthmother, it’s been some years.”

“Hmm?” The dragon spoke, the two great horns at the sides of her mouth seemed to emphasize her nobility. She sniffed him. “Which tribe are you from? You do not smell like any I know.”

Audax laughed out, startling both of us, “Earthmother, surely you recognise me.”

“There is but one who calls me Earthmother. You, are not him. Those scales, are you a Blackheart?”

He chuckled again, “You say some funny things. No, I’m not. But I carry a Blackheart with me.”

The leader asked even more questions, and Audax decided to tell her enough to satisfy her curiosity. She now knew I was the ‘human-child’ of Razz’ol, and that I was born was the power of a demon. He explained that he died and was resurrected because of a deal I made.

After hearing all of it, she finally recognised him as Audax the Reckless. It was like watching a teenage boy trying to help an old woman he befriended when he was younger remember him.

Audax finally asked her permission to enter the ruins, and it seemed their touching reunion granted him a favourable answer.

We flew down finally into the palm of Stoneclaw Mountains. The entrance only seemed suited to humans, so Audax dismissed himself, a pylon of shadow energy dissipating after he disappeared.

I entered the mine-like ruins.

“You’re overbearing.”

A large lance spiralled towards me. I placed the barrier up to defend myself but the lance was way too strong, pushing me outside with such force that I rolled for a few seconds before stopping. When I finally stood up, there he was. Winter.