Chapter 15
A glimpse into the past
Queen Lapis paced around the throne room, occasionally looking up at the spiral pathway, trying to spot the familiar figures of Amber and her human friend making their way down. Casmir, she reminded herself. Amber’s human friend is named Casmir. He is Springroll’s Bonded human.
She shook her head lightly. Human names were more difficult to remember than dragon names because they seemed to be randomly given, as opposed to a dragon’s name. She’d only remembered Amber’s name because it wasn’t uncommon for a dragon to be named ‘Amber’ in Drakania — the stone itself was easy to find in the surrounding forests. It was common for a dragonling to be named after a gemstone, or a distinguishing characteristic only unique to them. She had been named after the lapis lazuli stone, because her scale coloration resembled the natural banding of the blue metamorphic stone.
“Queen Lapis!” she heard Amber call. She raised her head, nodding when the girl and her companion came into view. The Dragonborn lowered her head, as did Casmir.
“I hope we’re not late,” Amber said. She sounded like she was out of breath, like she had been running non-stop through the City.
:It doesn’t matter: Lapis said. :The important thing is that you both are here. Shall we get started?:
Casmir was the first to nod, seeming more eager to know the past than Amber. Lapis took note of this, along with the slight hesitation Amber expressed. All of her enthusiasm seemed to have disappeared in an instant.
“Amber?” Casmir looked at her, nudging her shoulder to break her from whatever trance she was in.
“Huh?” Amber blinked and focused on him, then on Lapis. “Sorry, I was… lost in thought…”
:If you don’t feel comfortable, you don’t have to do this: Lapis said gently. :I could just show Casmir and maybe he could recount the events to you?:
“I could do that if you want,” Casmir agreed. “Amber?”
“I…” Amber fiddled with her necklace pendant, her other hand hanging by her side, occasionally causing small green sparks to appear. “I… Casmir, I can’t do this.” She turned to Lapis. “I’m so sorry, my Queen, I know I agreed earlier, but—” She gasped, stumbling even though she was standing still. “—I-I think that if Casmir was shown, then he could tell me. He… he’s much better than me at remaining unbiased and calm.”
“I’m sorry,” she murmured again. She knew all the doubts she thought she’d banished were coming back. “I… I’ll be in my cave, er, room if you need me.”
Casmir watched Amber leave, his concern for her mounting by the second. But he remained where he was. She had given him a look before she left, one that very clearly told him to not follow her — she needed to be alone. With a sigh, he focused his attention on Lapis.
“My apologies, Queen Lapis,” he said. “I talked to her earlier, she said she wanted to know, but…”
:You worry for her: Lapis finished. :Are you scared that she wouldn’t like the truth? I could tell she was certainly afraid to know, despite saying otherwise:
“I only know that her father was like her best friend,” Casmir admitted. “We… she never actually said anything about it after his death.”
:Would you like to know what happened that day?: Lapis asked. :Like we’ve discussed earlier, you can still recount it to Amber when she feels better:
“Yes,” he said. “I’ll do that.” He kept silent about his own questions. Ones that never seemed to get answered, no matter how much he asked his parents. Maybe they’ll get answered now.
:Alright: Lapis sat up straighter on her rock slab. :Place your clawless paw on my crown, on the gemstone:
“Uh…” Casmir hesitated a bit before he walked forward, reaching out and letting his fingers brush against the cool dark stone, then the perfectly clear, faceted quartz. “Okay. What do I do next?”
:Close your eyes: Lapis instructed. :Clear your mind. I’m going to show you the events of that day now. It’ll sort of feel like being mind-controlled by an Erythrean dragon. Apologies in advance:
Casmir closed his eyes, doing his best to remain calm, though Lapis’ words left a slightly unsettled feeling in his chest. Then he felt something grip his mind, seeming to twist and manipulate it, distorting reality and memory. He didn’t dare open his eyes, or even breathe until Lapis told him to.
There was something painful about it, having his mind bent to see a different reality, or in this case, a memory from someone else. For a moment, he wondered if this was how Amber felt when Crimson used her mind control on her, and he felt sorry. The feeling faded rather quickly, as he knew she disliked people projecting pity onto her.
:We’re here: Lapis said. :Keep your paw on the gemstone, and don’t let go. You won’t get hurt here, they won’t see you. It is only a memory, after all:
When he opened his eyes, he wasn’t standing in the throne room of Drakania anymore. He was standing in the shadows of a tall evergreen, by an extensive field of grass, surrounded by a ring of even more trees. He recognized this from the map that Amber made him. She called it the ‘Do not venture here’ clearing. It was where she had first met Crimson.
Then he heard voices, with a particularly familiar one standing out. He turned, spotting his father, and another man he somehow knew to be Amber’s father, leading a group of explorers and soldiers.
Beside him, Lapis spoke up. :Watch carefully: she said. :It is easy to miss some things:
So Casmir watched, keeping his eyes trained on the scene unfolding before him.
The day was beautiful. It was a normal day by Drakania standards, and the group of explorers slowly made their way through the forests.
Casmir could see his father, looking younger and happier than he does today. For a moment, he felt a pang of nostalgia. He hadn’t seen that happy side of his father in so long. Not since the death of Alexander Landon Iclyn was announced to the kingdom.
He watched as the group stopped in the clearing and a man with mid-length auburn hair and a clean-shaven face stepped forward. He looked so young and carefree, if it weren’t for the lines under his eyes and the tired creases on his forehead. Despite all this, Casmir knew this must be Amber’s father.
He could see the resemblance. They had the same dark purple-blue eyes, calculating and analyzing everything around them. They had a similar way of carrying themselves — an air of confidence, with a hint of cautiousness. He’d seen that so many times in Amber, even more so after she found the arkey. Even the way they walked was similar. It was a bit eerie, if he had to be honest.
He noticed that Alexander wasn’t someone to stand out that much in a crowd. He found that if he looked away, or got lost in his thoughts, he’d have to run his eyes over the group before spotting the man again. Clearly, Amber had inherited that trait from her father, and then used it to her advantage after becoming an Unlocked. He always wished he had that ability to melt into the crowds and disappear as another faceless member of society.
“We can stop here,” the explorer was saying. “We’ve pretty much been walking for the whole day, and it’s probably time to take a break anyway.”
“Let’s set up the tent, and I’ll go gather some wood for a campfire,” he finished.
Alexander disappeared into the forests while the other explorers started unpacking their bags to settle down for the night. Casmir saw the sun setting, the view as breathtaking in the memory as it was in reality.
Casmir nodded in Amber’s father’s direction.
“Lapis,” he said. “Did the wind dragon stay at the campsite or did she follow him?”
:She stayed by the camp: Lapis said. :She thought a group of humans were more danger than one individual:
“I see…” Casmir glanced in Alexander’s direction again. He wondered what the famous explorer was doing, aside from gathering firewood.
“So we can only see what she saw?” he clarified.
Lapis nodded, as much as she could without accidentally shaking his hand off.
Alexander eventually came back, his arms full of firewood. He dropped it by a ring of stones — the firepit — and sat down. Then, the action going unnoticed by everyone save for Casmir, he rubbed the back of his neck.
It was a normal gesture. People would rub their necks if it was sore, or if they had to loosen up a bit because they were a bit stiff. But in this case, Alexander’s fingers seemed to be running along something. Something thin and…
Casmir tilted his head a bit. He leaned closer to the scene as much as he could without removing his hand from Lapis’ crown. He spotted a leather cord around the famous explorer’s neck. Looking closer, he spotted a dark red swirl peeking out from under Alexander’s collar.
He knew he had seen those swirls somewhere before, only the color was different.
Amber had them too. Sometimes, she’d remove her coat while training and would roll her sleeves up. Those pale green markings on her arm would glow brightly every time she used her powers.
Obviously, he’d read the journal. He knew Alexander was an Unlocked as well, but seeing those swirls seemed to only have that fact click in his mind. Then he wondered if anyone else he knew were an Unlocked, but based on how at ease everyone else acted, they either didn’t know or they knew and didn’t care.
He knew the powers were some sort of mind… thing. The wielder could move things with their mind. He wanted to see how it worked.
He stepped closer, closer, until he was by the very edge of the treeline.
:Be careful, Casmir: Lapis warned. :You don’t want to remove your paw from my crown. Otherwise the connection will be cut and we’d have to watch the memory from the start:
“Sorry, Lapis,” Casmir murmured. “I just wanted to see… he was an Unlocked. I wonder if Amber knew before she read the journal.”
Nothing exciting happened after Casmir saw the swirls.
The group only sat by the fire and chattered like old friends. At one point, Alexander stood up and started telling a story of one of his previous expeditions. He’d passed a dragon from far away, and hoped that on this expedition, he could see it up close and study it.
“It was beautiful!” he was saying. “With large wings, golden belly scales, and a set of horns placed about its head like a crown. They were curved and seemed to glow.”
With an alarmed glance at Lapis, Casmir found the Queen of Drakania staring with an expression of shock at the explorer.
“The dragon had this beautiful purple tail fin,” Alexander continued to tell his story. “Multiple sets, actually. The scales were dark red, like the ripest apple. Maybe even a pomegranate.”
“That sounds like Crimson,” Casmir muttered.
:Not Crimson: Lapis said. :An Erythrean dragon. It could be any one of them. There were still a lot of them in Drakania at the time:
“There aren’t anymore?” Casmir asked. He knew that a lot of dragons said that Crimson was the last Erythrean dragon, but he was now questioning the legitimacy of the claim.
:After my parents died, Zephyr ordered for them to be—: Lapis paused a bit. :You know: She didn’t need to say it, but Casmir knew. Lapis’ parents had died after Crimson killed them. Zephyr, being the loyal dragon he was, took initiative as the leader of the dragon army. There was no doubt that Zephyr had ordered for the Erythrean dragons to be dealt with.
“I see…”
It was at this moment when one of the people in the group jumped up, pointing to something in the forest.
“Alex, isn’t that the dragon from your story?” she asked. She sounded excited, unaware of what danger they were in.
Everyone’s heads turned at the same time in the direction the woman was pointing. Sure enough, there was a dark red dragon that, for the most part, matched the description of the dragon from Alexander’s story.
Casmir’s blood ran cold, somehow knowing that this was the one that killed Amber’s father. Or at the very least, this dragon caused a chain of events to be set in motion that resulted in Alexander’s death.
The dragon in question was calm. It was somewhere in another part of the clearing, sitting under the sun, fast asleep.
Discussion broke out within the group. Some thought they should go deal with the dragon now, while it was sleeping, and kill it. Others thought that leaving the dragon alone would be more beneficial because there was no gain to angering a large animal like that. There was even someone who suggested they tame the dragon, and any others they could find, so the Diavian Army would have a major advantage in any future scuffles with neighboring kingdoms.
Eventually, Casmir watched his father stand up, a confused and slightly annoyed expression on his face. “It is best if we don’t anger the dragon,” he said.
“Yeah, because who knows,” Casmir muttered under his breath, even though his father couldn’t see nor hear him. “It might become a Crimson and go crazy.”
“Because we don’t know how the dragon will react to a group of humans.”
“I mean, that too.” Casmir continued to watch the scene. The explorers talked amongst themselves and, as time passed, retreated inside tents to rest up for the day.
Only Alexander remained beside the dying fire, writing quietly in a book. After a few minutes, he too, went into a tent.
:The next few hours are relatively peaceful: Lapis said. :The wind dragon said that she fell asleep for a moment, and only awoke to the sound of a struggle:
As if on cue, the scene around them melted away into darkness. Casmir felt a heavy blanket settle over him, and he curled up as best as he could while keeping his hand on Lapis’ crown. The dragon queen also curled up, tucking her head under her wing and wrapping her tail around her body.
:Casmir, wake up: The sound of Lapis’ soothing voice shook the young soldier from his slumber. :Andesine is gone:
“Andesine?” Casmir muttered, blinking sleep out of his eyes.
:Crimson’s mother, the red dragon from earlier:
“Oh gods.” Casmir stretched as best as he could without taking his hand off the crown and looked around for anything happening. The only difference was that the red dragon was nowhere to be seen, and Alexander was the only one outside.
It was nighttime. Stars glittered overhead, their light drowned out by the full moon. It was so beautiful and peaceful, but it seemed too nice of a night.
Casmir hated himself for feeling this way, but he was silently preparing for something to go wrong. To his surprise, nothing happened for the longest time, until he spotted the dark red figure creep past him and Lapis.
Andesine, the former Queen of Drakania, crept silently past the two and into the human campsite. She prowled around the perimeter, dark eyes flashing with a dangerous light and taking in every single detail she saw. Her tail flicked over the side of a tent and she quickly slunk away when Alexander emerged from behind the tent, looking around with confused but alert eyes. He must’ve been the one on watch.
Without saying anything, Amber’s father lifted a hand. Casmir gaped as he watched sharpened sticks and stones rise from the ground, floating around the explorer in a ring.
He’d never seen this power before. He knew it could even be more powerful than Amber’s.
Andesine made herself known, emerging from the darkness with teeth bared and maw glowing with a harsh teal light. Alexander only set his lips in a hard line and faced the dragon. There was no fear in his eyes, only calmness.
“Shh,” he warned, as if Andesine could understand him. “Don’t wake them.”
The dragon obviously didn’t care. She lunged and Alexander fell back, hitting his head on the ground. Sharpened sticks and stones fell to the ground, clattering against each other, but his shout of pain and surprise were what woke the rest of the expedition group.
He didn’t bother hiding his powers, only focusing on keeping his friends and acquaintances safe. At this moment, the secret didn’t matter anymore. For a moment, he rushed back into the tent and Casmir suddenly thought of the final entry in the journal. Was he… writing that right no?
Then he ran back out again, a hunting knife in his hand. The other people in the group ran to him and he glared at them.
“Don’t focus on me,” he warned, eyes darkening. Casmir recognized that as a sign of him channeling his powers. “Focus on the dragon. It’s going to—hey!” A blade flew in his direction. He was barely fazed, only blinking once and making it veer off course.
If anything, the display of power made the expedition group focus on fighting him instead. They saw the swirls, then the necklace pendant, and then the few chunks of rock hovering around him and knew. Not to mention, he blatantly caused a knife to fly off course when there was no wind. Suddenly he was the enemy, the one to be killed. Andesine was forgotten temporarily.
With a loud yell, Alexander sent out a shock wave so strong that Casmir felt it even though he wasn’t physically there. The other explorers were knocked back, and they ran without looking behind them.
“Where’s my father?” Casmir asked Lapis. The blue dragon gave him a look of confusion and he elaborated. “The one with a similar carving, as you put it.”
:He’s going to appear very soon: Lapis sounded a bit sad as she said this.
Andesine had been thrown back by the blast as well but she had used her wings to steady herself. Now she lunged again and this time managed to get a few swipes in before Alexander used his powers to push her back.
Casmir could see Amber’s father was tiring. There were gashes on his chest and arms with blood trickling from the wounds and onto the grass. There were only a few pieces of stone floating around him, the others were all scattered around him.
To his credit, he kept fighting, never stopping until Andesine lunged forward one more time, her claws glinting under the moonlight. She slashed him across the chest and he really screamed this time. He fell back onto the grass, chest heaving as he took in gulps of air. The chunks of stone that remained floating around him thudded to the ground and stuck there.
Then he saw his father emerge from a tent and for a moment, he felt scared. He hadn’t seen his father with such a stony expression before.
“What’s going on?” he asked.
“D-dragon,” Alexander said weakly, pointing with a hand. At the same time, a piece of shrapnel flew up and pierced through the red dragon’s eye. He propped himself up and threw his hands forward. More chunks of stone, even a few discarded weapons, all rose into the air and shot toward Andesine.
The female dragon roared with pain and glared with her remaining eye trained on the two men. She hissed and breathed a stream of teal-colored fire that quickly surrounded the campsite before turning tail and fleeing.
“You’re an Unlocked,” Casmir heard his father say with utmost calmness over the crackling of the fire. “A powerful one.”
“Look, don’t worry about that right now, go see if the others are alright!” Alexander exclaimed, seeming to not care about his own injuries.
Casmir watched his father’s face go through several expressions before settling on confusion.
“But what about you?” he asked. “The fire—”
“Don’t worry about the fire,” Alexander insisted. He stood up, wincing as he did so. “I’ll deal with it.”
Without waiting for Casmir’s father to respond, Alexander turned to the roaring flames. He lifted his arms, muscles very clearly trembling with exertion, and closed his eyes. Casmir watched as the fire was gradually condensed, as if the air around it was forcing it to shrink, until they hissed and extinguished.
Plumes of smoke rose, encasing the campsite in a foggy blanket.
Casmir shielded his eyes, turning to Lapis, at a loss for words. Amber’s father had a powerful gift and he clearly knew how to use it well. For a moment, he wondered what would’ve happened if the man was still alive, and was training Amber with her powers.
“Did the wind dragon see anything else?” he asked, squinting to look through the smoke as best as he could.
:No: Lapis said. :The smoke isn’t good for those that don’t breathe fire. She did create a windstorm to blow it away though:
As if the words were a cue, the smoke was blown away and what was left rendered Casmir speechless.
Alexander had collapsed again, whether from blood loss or exhaustion, he didn’t know. But standing over him was his father, holding a bloodied hunting knife in his hand. The famous explorer’s eyes were open, but they were glassy and no longer burning with the power and energy that flowed in his body.
He was dead.
Casmir would’ve immediately turned from the scene, horrified, if he hadn’t heard his father say, “I’m so sorry” in an utterly broken and apologetic voice. It still didn’t make him feel any better because now he had to explain all this to Amber.
“He… he killed—”
:It was a mercy kill: Lapis said, sounding too calm about the situation. Maybe she had seen this memory a lot. :If you listened over the sound of the wind, you’d hear them discuss it briefly. Andesine’s claws cut in deeper than normal and he lost too much blood:
“But… why would he…?”
:Watch the scene: Lapis said.
Casmir did as he was told and watched. His father had picked up the hunting knife — the hunting knife that Amber used now — and walked away, very clearly shaken and distraught. He disappeared into the partially collapsed tent and emerged with a bag with the letter A engraved on the strap. Then Lapis stood, motioning for Casmir to follow her.
:The wind dragon examined the body: she said.
Sure enough, Casmir saw exactly what the wind dragon saw. It reminded him of… he didn’t actually have a comparison for this scene because it was so horrifically sad. He closed his eyes momentarily to compose himself before opening them again.
As Lapis had said, there were deep gashes on Alexander’s chest, arms and neck. Blood still trickled from the wounds, but it had slowed as a result of the heart stopping.
The swirls were starting to fade, the necklace pendant glowing a soft coral color as the power left the body.
Casmir saw claws, dark green and black claws characteristic of the few wind dragons he’d seen in Drakania, lift the necklace and then the body.
:The wind dragon is about to fly back to Drakania: Lapis said. :Come, we will follow her:
“Aren’t we looking through her eyes?” Casmir asked, but still climbed onto Lapis’ back.
:Humans have an interesting sense of humor:
The next location Casmir saw was probably even more heartbreaking. The wind dragon had stopped in front of a cave, one that seemed to radiate sorrow. Even the breezes that drifted past sounded so similar to weeping. The entrance was framed by a large obsidian archway.
“Where are we?” Casmir whispered. “Where is this place? Amber never mentioned it.”
:This is the Caves of the Fallen: Lapis explained. :It’s where our dead are buried and put to rest:
He watched as a hole was dug and the explorer’s body was placed gently in the dirt. He realized this cave was the only one in the City where the ground was composed of dirt.
The body was buried rather quickly and neatly, as if the wind dragon had experience doing this. The red pendant was placed on the top of the mound as a marker. It glinted softly in the soft light that radiated from the few crystals, dotting the ceilings and walls. On the wall right behind the mound, there was a bright green crystal he recognized to be prasiolite, shining with the same light as Amber’s abilities. He thought that the crystal color was some sort of twisted irony or coincidence.
Casmir was about to comment on this, but Lapis cut him off.
:Casmir take your hand off my crown: she commanded with such authority that he obeyed without a second thought.
The scene around them melted away and Casmir heard Lapis say, :Amber is here:
Casmir stood on the raised platform at the base of the winding pathway. His cheeks were damp and his mind felt heavy. Amber was in front of him, looking concerned and just a bit curious.
Lapis rose, nodding to the girl and spreading her wings. She flew from the raised slab, disappearing into a tunnel that branched off somewhere near the beginning of the path.
“Are you alright?” Amber asked. “What did you see?” She noticed his tears and reached up, wiping them away. “Why are you crying?”
“I, um…” Casmir looked around, hoping to see Springroll because the light dragon knew the Drakanian City better than he did. “I saw something.”
Amber nodded and motioned for him to continue. “But is it something bad?” she asked. “What happened to my dad?”
“I know what happened to him.”
“Tell me, then!” she snapped suddenly.
Taken back by her outburst, Casmir flinched and his eyes stung when he remembered what he saw. How was he supposed to tell her what really happened? He sniffled and blinked away tears.
“Sorry,” Amber murmured. She quickly stepped up to him and awkwardly patted his arm. “I didn’t mean to—”
“It’s alright,” Casmir sighed, running a hand through his hair. “It’s… I guess we’re both a bit tense, right?”
“I-I guess.” Amber tried to offer a reassuring smile, but it came out looking more like a grimace.
“Erm, do you by chance know where the Caves of the Fallen are?” he mumbled, turning his back so he didn’t have to see Amber’s expressions. But he heard her gasp and figured she must know. She did spend over four years living in the Drakanian City, after all.
“No,” she said, the answer surprising him. “Crimson brought me there once but I don’t remember where it is.”
:Caves of the Fallen?: an energetic voice sang, sounding as chipper as ever. :I know!! I know where it is!:
The enthusiastic light dragon bounded over, appearing out of nowhere and ran around the pair. Springroll came to a stop beside Casmir and gave him a look, bright green eyes silently questioning his choices.
:But why are you going there?: Springroll asked. :Only dragons are buried there:
“Um, I saw one of the dragons buried there in the memory,” Casmir said. It technically wasn’t a lie, he just didn’t know if Andesine was buried there at all. Amber gave him a questioning look and he mouthed “tell you later” to her.
:Ohhhh I know!: Springroll said, making Casmir wonder if the light dragon read his thoughts. :So you’re paying respects?:
“I—” Casmir was about to explain the real reason, but decided to wait until they were away from the vicinity of other dragons. “Sure. Paying respect to those who’ve passed is really important to some people.”
:Oh wow, you’re such a nice human:
Casmir had no idea how to respond to that and settled with nodding along to his dragon’s words. He motioned for Amber to follow him as Springroll took off through the tunnels.
“Why are you going to pay respects?” she asked. Casmir caught the tone of voice she used.
She knows, he thought. On the outside, he kept his cool and turned to her.
“We’re gonna go visit your father,” he said as calmly as he could. “And then I’m gonna tell you everything I saw.”
