The conversation had been long and arduous as the wise ones twisted in discomfort at divulging their secrets. However, at the end of the day, Gersius had his answers and a few more questions that needed to be discussed in council. A meeting was planned with all the heads and important people brought together to discuss what would happen next.

He strode into the meeting tent, followed by his wives, as an assortment of people looked up with worried expressions. Rumors were no doubt circling the camp as to the dire nature of their situation spread. Now, every person went silent as they looked at his countenance and knew the rumors to be true. However, they didn't know that Lengwin had arrived in camp less than an hour ago with even more foul news. He was now standing in the room flanked by two of his personal guard, adding even more tension to the proceedings.

Gersius swept his gaze over the gathered assembly of over thirty prominent members and allies of his army, ensuring he had their undivided attention. He began by addressing the recent events with the wise ones and how he had indeed gained valuable information. He then introduced Lengwin to the assembled group to be sure everyone knew who he was. Gersius explained how he had received a letter from Lengwin discussing recent discoveries that needed to be brought to light. As a result, he sent for Lengwin so all of these things might be brought to light before the group.

Lengwin's had flown in on Sarah hours ago and still hadn't recovered. His eyes looked tired and sunken as if the weight of trying to redeem the order of Astikar weighed on his shoulders. He began by explaining how he had led an effort to uncover all the secrets they could, delving into what were once sealed archives. The private homes of every member of the order's leadership were searched, as were many of their estates, holdings, and other places they might gather. Even the great cathedral of Astikar was searched from the cellars to the rafters, then searched again just for good measure. The result was a series of letters, dispatches, and other fragmented material that suggested a greater threat.

Gersius took over and explained that Lengwin had uncovered evidence that the secret organization working against them was much larger than anticipated. It was strong among the leadership of faiths, guilds, and organizations, and nearly every landowner was connected to it in some way. They had been operating for years to infiltrate any group that might be useful and to keep control of certain information.

Alayse wanted to know what sort of information, so Gersius explained how they were systematically removing any evidence of Balisha's existence while keeping knowledge of Solesta on a need-to-know basis. Lengwin had found reports of artwork, manuscripts, and symbols being found in old ruins and destroyed. Anyone who had knowledge of her existence was either recruited or eliminated, and her name was relegated to fairy tales and stories.

Several asked why so Lilly explained the conflict between the two divines and how it ended in the dragon curse. She then asked Ayawa to explain a little about how her people felt after the earth mother woke from her sleep and cursed the world as a result of the dragon war. Ayawa held nothing back, describing what her people were like before the war and what they were like after. She told of the devastation and how they never recovered, citing the mixing of dragon and men as the ultimate cause.

Lilly then resumed her explanation, saying that they believed this secret order feared that if Balisha ever returned, the dragon war would resume, and the world sundered again. Many blamed Balisha for what happened and spoke her name in revulsion. Sophia spoke up, citing how speaking her name among the Doan was considered a grave social insult. They refused to acknowledge her as anything but a destroyer who sought to cripple the dragons. Ayawa encouraged Shorri to share her opinion of Balisha, and the woman had nothing but venom to share. She had been raised on the belief that Balisha was the cause of much of the suffering in the world. She also shared a Doan belief that if Balisha ever returned, the dragons would die out in less than a thousand years. Her people believed the dragons were instrumental to the nature of the world, and if they died out, the world would soon follow.

“That is our belief as well,” Rose said as she lingered in the back beside Thayle. “We are told that Balisha will end our blood, and without us, the world will wither and die.”

“Who told you that?” Lilly asked with genuine concern.

“The others,” Rose answered. “It flows from the mouth of the Gorro' Mo' Goth and is spread by his chosen of the scale.”

“Do we think that is true?” Thayle asked as she looked around a room that was considering the idea.

“We don't need to know if it's true,” Lilly insisted. “Balisha has no desire to destroy the dragons. She never did, and she doesn't now. All of that was started by Solesta.”

“It would take generations of working against this kind of conditioning to break it,” Thayle commented. “And even then, there would be holdouts, people claiming to be clinging to the truth.”

“How do we deal with the networks of enemies spread out across the empire?” Alayse asked. “If this secret society is so well entrenched, it might explain why getting support from the provinces is so hard.”

“That is exactly what we believe,” Gersius agreed. “I have already made it a public decree that I will strip the titles, land, and wealth of anyone who refuses to aid the war effort. That got us some aid, but I am sure they are sending the bare minimum. They firmly believe we are about to bring the world to an end, and many may die to try and prevent it.”

“We will have to begin rooting them out,” Sarah growled. “This group cannot be allowed to undermine the empire.”

“No,” Jessivel said and stepped forward. “Forgive, my lady, but there is a better solution. Groups like this only thrive when they remain secret. You can rob them of much of their strength by making them and the empire at large aware that you know. Send word far and wide that you know they exist, have names, dates, and information on how they operate, and then let them run and hide. Trust me. Many will readily switch sides when they can no longer operate in secret. If they know you are watching and the wrath of the empire is about to come down on them, they will suddenly have a change of heart. The stubborn ones who choose to press on can then be rooted out and publicly dealt with as a warning to the others.”

“Hmm,” Gersius said as he nodded in approval. “We will have to work on that plan later. There is more we need to discuss.” He then turned the meeting over to Lengwin, who told of how they found a secret study of the old Father Abbot. In it were several letters referring to something at the ceremony and the moment of rebirth. It also contained promises of dragon gifts and blessings from the divines in exchange for service. It was here he found the first proof that the faiths were secretly working with the Doan and potentially the dragons to bring about some condition necessary for the future. He also found logs going back hundreds of years highlighting important events in this secret order's history. They watched their ranks carefully, looking for any man who might be the next dragon knight. Men who showed potential were sent on dangerous missions to test their strength. This usually resulted in their deaths, but a few showed promise. However, none of them ever rose to prominence as Gersius did, and the Father Abbot had several letters from other leaders asking what was being done about him.

“It would appear that Gersius was always tasked with the orders most militant missions because they were testing him,” Lengwin said. “They also hoped he would die and thus prove he wasn't the dragon knight.”

“Why not just murder him in his sleep?” Thayle asked.

“Too many questions,” Lengwin replied. “A man who dies on a distant battlefield from a giant or bandersooks will be given a hero's sendoff. A man who dies in the barracks of a fortress-monastery with a dagger in his chest will cause a scandal and seeker investigation. Too much was riding on them, remaining invisible to the rest of the world. There were leaders in the various faiths who were not members and would ask questions that would be hard to answer.”

“So Gersius had such an active career as a means to control him?” Jessivel asked.

“Yes, and they hoped to break his spirit,” Lengwin replied. “I have found a letter that showed they knew about his romance with a woman and went out of their way to keep Gersius far from her. They only allowed him to return when the woman started an affair with another. They added to this pain by ensuring his sister, Sophia, was handed over to the Doan. It was all meant to harden his heart and potentially make him easier to recruit later.”

“When did they ever try to recruit him?” Thayle asked. “I don’t see any effort to do that in his story.”

“They never did,” Lengwin agreed. “It would appear from what evidence I can collect that Gersius was so loyal to his faith that he never presented an opportunity to approach him. I found several notes in the old father's journal where he was seething with anger that Gersius was still not ready to be approached.”

“One man did try,” Gersius spoke up as he thought of the captain of the raven guard that confronted him in Calathen. He explained how the man tried to reason with him and convince Gersius that he was on a path that would doom the world. He then described how the man’s life ended as Gersius beat him to death with his hands.

“So they believed in that doom of the world stuff, too,” Alayse said dryly.

“It is the basis of their whole society, it would seem,” Lengwin said. “But I am shocked to find proof that they were working with the Doan even before the war started.”

“I’m not,” Rose spoke as she smiled slightly. “We dragons have been going to your orders for years, meeting you in this form so we could guide your efforts.”

“That can't be true,” Thayle argued. “None of the order knew dragons could take a human form. They would have known if you had been going to them for years.”

“We never told them we were dragons,” Rose replied. “We used the glowing eyes to mark us as emissaries of the dragons sent to deliver their messages. Your kind was more than willing to cooperate with us because we shared the common goal of preventing Balisha’s return.”

“If Gersius was that dangerous to them, then why did they not strike harder?” Sarah asked. “Surely they could have killed him before he even reached Lilly.”

“They tried,” Gersius replied and described the slaughter of his men by bandersooks.

“No doubt they used those cages to bring the beasts that far east,” Alayse stated.

“What's most troubling is how careful their plans were,” Lengwin added. “They knew the prophecy and that it would be hard to deter, so, they made plans, inside plans, inside plans. Before Gersius even set out, they planned to try and recruit Lilly. Failing that, she was to be killed to ensure Gersius could not claim her. The bandersook attack was meant to kill him, but if it only badly mauled his men, they assumed he would be unable to complete his mission. If he returned in shame, the Father Abbot would be a sympathetic shoulder, carefully manipulating him to try and recruit him. Even so, if by some miracle he reached the dragon and managed to claim her, the Father Abbot was on hand in Whiteford to try and take her from him. Again he originally planned to make Gersius a hero and assign Delain to be the dragon knight. His plans had to change when he began to suspect Gersius had her bound.”

“All this scheming and manipulating,” Thayle sighed. “It makes my head hurt to hear it laid out.”

“It goes on,” Lengwin said. “Plans, after plans, after plans. What to do if Gersius managed to escape. How to locate the dragon and kill her so he couldn't use her. How to keep him away from Calathen at all costs. It boggles the mind how many layers their plan has and how they knew it might all fail.”

“Because Gersius is protected by the divines,” Thayle said.

“That seems to be their consensus, but I have correspondences from what I believe are the dragons. Much of this planning comes from them,” Lengwin explained. “I hate to be the one to say this, but their plans are not yet done. In fact, they say the further Gersius goes, the more it works to their advantage.”

“I don’t see how that could be possible,” Sarah said. “He is undoing everything they set out to accomplish.”

“The information I have is cobbled together from several sources,” Lengwin said apologetically. “But it seems to indicate that if Gersius survives this far, it only makes it easier to accomplish their great goal. It has something to do with Balisha and her limited power. They need her to be weak in order to accomplish what they need.”

“Is this related to the event we are trying to uncover?” Alayse asked.

“We are certain it is,” Gersius answered.

“So, whatever they are planning requires Balisha to be too weak to stop them?” Jessivel asked.

“We can’t be certain,” Lilly replied. “All we know is that when Gersius and I pray to Balisha about it, we feel a sense of dread.”

“That doesn’t bode well,” Ayawa remarked. “What did the wise ones have to say?”

“They confirmed that the dragons were planning something important to happen during the eclipse,” Gersius said. “It would appear that the eclipse is the only time they can accomplish their task.”

“I repeat what I said in the last meeting,” Alayse spoke up. “I need a destination. We already know they were planning something for the eclipse, but we don’t know where.”

“We did manage to narrow that down a little,” Gersius replied. “After the duel, the wise ones honored their promise to answer my questions.”

“I enjoyed watching them fume as you made them answer,” Sarah said with a hint of admiration in her voice.

“Yes,” Gersius said and cleared his throat. “They don't know the exact location, but they do know it is in the plains beyond the border keeps.”

“So, it’s right over the border?” Alayse asked.

“We can’t be sure,” Sarah replied. “All we know is it is someplace between our lines and the river you call the serpentine.”

“I hate to point this out, but that is hundreds of square miles,” Jessivel said. “Even if I tasked every man I had to scour the plains, it could take a year to find this location.”

“Not to mention the Doan armies will have something to say about our prowling around,” Alayse added.

“We do know a little more,” Lilly said as she took Gersius's hand. “We have prayed to Balisha and have been given the same vision. We see the eclipse happening and the last rays of the moon being shadowed. When the land finally goes dark, a great hole opens up in the plains, revealing a pit so deep it is shrouded in darkness. Then we see a light rising from that darkness as a dragon of golden light.”

“What is that supposed to mean?” Alayse asked.

“It's Solesta's heart,” Rose answered, causing all eyes to turn to her. She looked uncomfortable being the center of attention, but she held her ground and explained herself. “Her heart fell to the world after she was murdered by her sister. It is her heart that keeps her protective blessing over the dragons and shields them from Balisha. So long as it remains in the world, the dragons are protected.”

“You mean cursed,” Lilly corrected.

Rose seemed to flinch at being reminded that her beliefs were based on lies, but she recovered and went on. “The light of Balisha’s moon hides the location of the heart so no one can touch it.”

“So if we can destroy the heart, we can free the dragons?” Thayle asked.

“Can you destroy the heart of a fallen goddess?” Ayawa asked. “And if you could, what would the repercussions be?”

“Wait, is this Gorromogoth planning to destroy the heart himself?” Lilly asked, wondering if he was trying to lift the curse himself.

“No,” Rose replied with a shake of her head. “He plans to consume it as a dragon consumes the metals. He will absorb its power into himself and become our new god.”

Every face went hard as stone as what Rose said hit them like a blast of ice. It was too inconceivable to believe that a dragon could absorb such a thing and become a divine, but that was exactly what she said they were planning to do.”

“I thought you said you believed they planned to resurrect Solesta?” Sarah asked.

“That is what I have always been told,” Rose replied as she looked away. “But now I see through their lies, and I have put other things they have said together. This is the only logical answer.”

“And it would explain what that one dragon said about replacing both Solesta and Balisha,” Thayle said.

“But Balisha is still alive,” Lilly insisted. “She will fight.”

“Will she?” Gersius asked as he began to see the danger. “Lilly, Balisha is very weak, and even more so now that we are spreading her faith and leading a contingent of her followers into battle. She needs years of devoted praying and faith to restore even a portion of her power, but we keep demanding more and more of it as we fight. How many times has her power failed us because we called on it too much? Will she have the strength to resist a new divine suffused with the power of her slain sister?”

The expression on Lilly's face told everyone she didn't believe so, and the pain danced in her aura. The thought of this dragon ascending to divinity and replacing both Solesta and Balisha was terrifying.

“But, if Balisha dies, we dragons will lose our human form,” Lilly said as her lip trembled. “I won't be able to lay in your arms!”

“Please be calm,” Gersius said as Lilly threw herself into his embrace. “I promise this won’t happen.”

“But we don’t know where this pit is, and we have so little time,” Lilly sobbed. “I don’t want to lose my human form. I want to be able to love you as a human woman.”

“Shh,” Gersius urged as Lilly cried in fear. He looked to the others as he had a sudden revelation. If Balisha was slain by this new divine, what was to stop him from consuming her heart as well? He would become the sole dragon god, and his power would be absolute.

“Don’t even think it,” Sarah said as she read his thoughts.

“Forgive me if this sounds ignorant,” Jessivel began. “But why hasn't one of the divines simply consumed the heart already?”

“They can't,” Rose replied. “They are forbidden to directly intervene in the affairs of dragons and men. Nor are they allowed to exercise their power. They can only work through their agents by granting them power and blessings. If they break these laws, they risk awakening the sleeping mother and incurring her wrath a second time. This law stands until the war between Balisha and Solesta has ended.”

“I assume you were taught that by the others,” Gersius stated.

“I was,” Rose replied. “But I could not tell you how much of it was true.”

“Isn’t the war between Balisha and Solesta already over?” Alayse asked. “Solesta is slain after all.”

“So long as her heart remains, the war isn’t over,” Rose replied.

“And they plan to use the heart to create a new dragon god and end the blessing that allows dragons to mix with men,” Sarah said. “That is what Solesta wanted all along.”

“In many ways, this is not such a crime,” Ayawa pointed out. “This dragon believes the human form to be a curse and is simply trying to lift it in a bid to save his species.”

“But he is taking away my choice to love a man!” Lilly cried. “What gives him the right to do such a thing?”

“Daughter, I am not taking his side,” Ayawa countered. “I am simply pointing out that he may firmly believe he is in the right, as Solesta did. I would not wish you to lose this form for any reason. I have grown fond of you.”

Lilly looked down as tears rolled from her eyes, and Gersius turned to Alayse. He explained that the wise ones had indicated one very useful bit of information. They believed that the old Father Abbot might know the exact location of the planned event. The leadership of the faiths were meant to participate in this event. Thus, he might know where it takes place.

“So, I have two months to march an army through the wilds, take his fortress by surprise, capture him alive, recover the seal of Astikar, then launch a surprise campaign on the Doan from behind to scatter their armies and capture this location. Then we have to hold it from an army of dragons until the eclipse, where we will have a single hour to destroy the heart?”

“If it can be destroyed,” Sarah added.

“Do you have any idea how impossible this sounds?” Alayse asked as she glared at Gersius. “And what do we do if the abbot gets away, or dies, or isn't even there?”

“Then we pray for a miracle,” Gersius said.

“A miracle?” Alayse repeated. “Better to have Sarah consume this heart and absorb the power. At least we can trust her with it.”

“I will do no such thing,” Sarah stated firmly. “Nor will any dragon in this camp. I can only assume that absorbing that heart will also absorb Solesta’s rage and anger. I would not welcome that pain into my being even to ascend to the divine.”

“But the curse can’t be lifted so long as the heart remains in the world,” Lilly said as she wiped her eyes.

“We will find a way to destroy it,” Sarah said. “The divines will guide our steps as they always have.”

“But if we fail, not only will the dragons lose the human form, but Balsiha will be slain and a new order begun,” Lengwin stated. “I do not want to cast dark clouds on our hopes, but the odds are he won’t be taken alive, if at all.”

“We won’t fail,” Sarah growled. “We didn’t come this far to see it all crumble now.”

“No, we won't fail,” Gersius replied as he considered another option. He needed to know where this pit was hidden so Alayse could plan a march to capture it. If the Father Abbot failed to provide the information, they would be stuck scrambling in the dark for the answer. However, there was another option, and it was already on the way. Gersius turned to Jessivel as he started to smile, drawing confused looks from those who witnessed it.

“Why are you grinning like that?” Sarah demanded to know.

“Because I think I know how to get our answer,” Gersius replied. “Jessivel, when do we expect the arrival of the leader of Youthan?”