Omnixius
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DKP 5-5 Mercy not Forgivness
🕑 Added 2020-03-13 22:11:05 +0000 UTC
Gersius closed his eyes and turned away as the three men were brought out to answer for their crimes. He was ashamed to see these men who so willingly turned their backs on Astikar's teachings. When the raven priest arrived at their temple, they were afraid to challenge his commands, even though they flew in the face of years of faith and training. Unfortunately, one of their numbers stood his ground and would not bend to false preaching. These three were afraid to face the superior numbers of the raven priest. They followed his orders and turned on their friend of over ten years. They branded him a traitor and assisted in beating him for nearly a full day then said nothing as he was hung in the yard of the temple. They then assisted in brutally assaulting the temple of Ulustrah, adding more crimes to their long list.
Lengwin was horrified by their actions and wanted them punished. He had then arrested and separated from the boys who arrived with them. He struggled to maintain a professional tone as he shouted the long list of their deeds.
Nearly the whole camp was present to see justice done, including several of the women these men helped beat to a pulp and then left suffering in their wounds. One of them would never be able to use her left hand properly again; an injury easily corrected had she been healed in time.
“They will probably join the raven guard.”
Gersius wanted to spit at the comment. It came from a priest of Astikar who stood in the rows of men watching. The comment carried the weight of truth. It was indeed men like this who were forgiven and welcomed into the order of the raven guard. However, these men were not going to be forgiven; they were going to be judged.
When Lengwin was done with the list of charges, he stepped back to survey the men. Five holy priests of the highest rank were on hand. By law, they had to agree the men deserved to be cast out and severed. When Lengwin asked if any of the five wished to contest the charges, none of them spoke.
The moment came, and Lengwin stepped forward again. He looked all three in the eye one at a time and offered them one chance to die with a shred a dignity. They would be allowed as the final act of their faith to call on Astikar himself to judge them. Lengwin gave them the choice and then stepped back to stand beside Gersius and Thayle.
“What happens if we don't choose to call for judgment?” one of the men asked.
Lengwin was a holy priest and destined to replace the Father Abbot. He could not pass the sentence that needed passing as it would put blood on his hands. If he soiled himself, he would be unworthy of the title of Father Abbot.
“I will strip you of your place in the order and your protection under our laws,” Lengwin said and then looked to Gersius.
“And then you will stand our judgment,” Gersius said, motioning with a bow of his head to Thayle. “The order of Ulustrah would very much like to see justice done.”
“We had no choice,” one of the men begged. “They outnumbered us five to one. If we had resisted, they would have hung us too!”
“Save your words,” Gersius replied. “You are not worthy of being brothers of Astikar. You willingly participated in multiple actions that flew in the face of his teachings. Out of fear, yes, but to face fear is one of your duties. None of us will forgive you what you have done.”
“It is a shame you can only die once,” Thayle said with a bitter tone in her voice. This led to a few shouts and cries for justice from the masses of women who stood by watching. It was no secret the anger that was brewing in the army of Ulustrah. They needed to see justice done.
Gersius gave them a minute to twist in the wind and then continued.
“Now, you may call on Astikar one final time, and ask him to judge you, or you can face our judgment.”
The three looked to one another nervously as they hesitated for more time.
“Do not hope to stall,” Gersius said. “If I failed to see justice done here, the women of this camp would tear you apart.”
“I choose to ask Astikar to judge me,” one of the men said as Gersius looked on with a stone expression. He was quickly followed by a second who also chose to let Astikar judge him. The last man shook with fear and looked about as if trying to find a way to escape.
“You have nowhere to run,” Gersius said.
“So my reward for my faith is death at the hands of the raven priest or death here at your hands?” the man cried.
“You swore to uphold Astikar's tenants with your life. If it came to it, you should have died for that vow. If the four of you had resisted together, you might have been able to escape. Instead, you betrayed your oaths and friendship to save your hide.”
“What was I supposed to do?”
“You could have stood your ground like the man you betrayed. You could have followed the orders given you by High Priest Lengwin, telling you to abandon this post and join this army a week ago. You could have listened to the call of your heart and gone to the women of Ulustrah to warn them that the raven priest was there, and together slipped away. Did you even think to pray to Astikar for guidance? Does he not tell when a choice is good or bad?”
The man closed his eyes and began to cry, unwilling to make a choice. Gersius had spent many years of his life with the principles of faith, duty, and mercy. His father was a battle priest of Astikar, as was his father before him, and so on for eight generations. His family lived and breathed the principles of the God of Mercy. It broke his heart to see a man gripped by fear so terrible that he would betray the bonds of friendship.
Calls of coward went up from the women behind him, and several called to feed him to the dragons. The man shamed himself further by hiding his face with his hands.
Gersius wasted no more time. For mercy's sake, he would end this display. His strike was swift; the knife cleanly severed the man's throat. His cries ended in a gurgle as he fell to his knees and then face-first to the dirt.
“I have shown you mercy,” Gersius said as he looked down on the dead man. “I have prevented you from shaming yourself any further.” He turned to the other two and scowled. “It is time you sought your own mercy.”
Both men struggled to begin as the eyes of the camp turned on them. One took a knee as he prayed, but the other fell prostrate crying to Astikar for forgiveness in a display of humiliation. Women jeered at them and mocked them for asking for mercy when they showed none.
Gersius took a few steps back to Join Lengwin and Thayle. They waited patiently as the men called for judgment.
When the lengthy pleas for forgiveness were done, the camp stood by silently. Gersius had only seen this happen once before. A long time ago, when a brother killed another over a woman. He framed an innocent brother for the murder but was eventually found out. He was given the same choices, and he chose to call for judgment.
A breeze picked up, carrying with it the dust of the road as tents began to flap like sails. Both men looked skyward as a red haze surrounded them, tears streaked their faces, and one man lowered his head in resignation. A moment later, there was a roar like a bonfire, and both men seemed to blacken and collapse, falling to ash before the onlookers.
The priests of Astikar who witnessed it were silent. A few of the priestesses of Ulustrah reacted with gasps, but the bulk of the noise came from the group of young men taken prisoner. They were forced to stand at the front and bear witness to the display.
“Do you see what Astikar thinks of your choices?” Lengwin asked as the piles of ash began to scatter in the wind. “You false priests would find the same fate if you were put to the test.”
Gersius went to the line of men who looked faint at the display and trembled under his sight.
“You must learn that Astikar calls you to stand above the common man. You are held to a much higher standard; if you cannot hold yourself to that standard, you should abandon this faith now. To pretend to walk, it will always lead to failure when the test of your heart comes.”
“Would it not have been merciful to forgive these men?” one of the boys asked.
Gersius nodded. “Mercy and forgiveness are not the same. You have been shown mercy. You have been given a chance to redeem yourselves and atone for what you did, but your crimes are not forgotten. Forgiveness is when your transgressions are seen no more. There is nothing to redeem or atone for because it has all been forgotten. What these men did could not be forgotten, and there was no path to atonement. Only Astikar could have forgiven them now, and even he did not.”
“But those men made a mistake,” the boy insisted. “Surely, they were still good priests.”
“Were they?” Gersius asked. “You made your mistake because you were forged in a lie and knew no better. They had over ten years of true faith and friendship. When the test finally came, they abandoned both. When a matter of faith is at hand, a weak man makes up his mind on the spot. The strong man made up his mind when he chose to accept faith. He cannot be swayed or persuaded; he chose his path and walks it to the best of his ability. Brother Alric chose his path when he devoted his heart to Astikar. When the test came, he didn't have to think or choose; the choice was made ten years ago. He stood his ground, and you butchered him for it. If anything good comes from this tragedy, let it be that you learned true faith by his example.”
The boy remained silent in the face of that answer, and Lengwin ordered them taken away. Gersius turned back to piles of ash and said a silent prayer they would be forgiven. To the man who lay dead, unwilling to call judgment on himself for what he had done, Gersius had nothing to say.
The camp was broken down in haste to put this scene behind them quickly. As the wagons began to roll, Gersius walked in silence near the head of the column with Lilly and Thayle at his sides.
Lilly felt conflicted over the bind. Her emotions were mixtures of worry and fear. He noticed she kept glancing at Thayle as if wishing to say something but held her tongue. He knew why Lilly was worried because he could feel Thayle over the bind as well. She was in deep turmoil, lost in angry thoughts and sorrow that radiated over the connection they shared. He glanced at her aura to see the deep rays of red and even a halo of black around her normal white light. The red was a sign of anger, but the halo of black was something new to him.
He was worried about Thayle, who was taking the suffering of her order to heart. The road ahead would reveal deeper wounds that she would have to bear. If she could not stand firm, she might forever be wounded and changed. He decided to distract her and reached for Lilly's hand. He stepped closer to Thayle and placed Lilly's hand into hers. Instantly the light of Thayle's aura changed, tinting with colors of blue and green. There was still plenty of red, but the emotions of love and affection blazed through.
“I am sorry,” Lilly whispered as she squeezed Thayle’s hand.
Thayle took a deep breath and looked at Lilly with a broken expression. “I am the one who should be sorry. I have such a wonderful wife and husband, and yet I am so miserable.”
“Duty has set your path,” Gersius said. “Your first obligation is to Ulustrah, and she has sent you to Calathen. There is precious little time for love and family, and more than enough for the suffering of war.”
Thayle nodded and looked ahead as if searching the distant road.
“Will there be time soon? Even after we take the city, the war won't be over. The Doan will have to be dealt with, and the empire rebuilt.” She looked to Gersius with wide eyes. “You will be emperor, and the burden of it all will fall on you.”
He nodded as thoughts of the future haunted his dreams. All he wanted for himself was a modest farm, a wife, and some children. However, his path would make him one of the most powerful men in the known world. He would rule over an empire, and its problems would all be his. Would there ever be a day where he could rest? He looked to Thayle and smiled slightly as a thought dawned on him.
“At least I will not rule alone. I will have two empresses at my side.”
Lilly looked confused, but Thayle's eyes registered the sudden recognition.
“Who will they be?” Lilly asked.
Thayle laughed slightly and squeezed Lilly's hand. Gersius was glad to see some joy reaching her heart.
“He’s talking about us, silly dragon.”
“Oh,” Lilly said. “I knew that. I even talked about it before. I told Shadros I was going to be an empress one day.”
“We all have,” Thayle said. “But none of us believed it back then. Once we started shedding blood to bring it about, it became all too real.”
“Shedding blood tends to cast away the dreams and brings the reality of a situation to the foreground,” Gersius said.
Lilly chewed on her lower lip a moment as she struggled with a thought. “What will Sutherisa and Numidel be?”
“What do you mean?” Gersius asked.
“They are both important, shouldn’t they be something important?”
“They are both dragons, and likely will be hero's of the war,” Gersius said. “Not to mention Sutherisa is Astikar's champion.” He tried not to react to saying those words, but he knew his aura was betraying him. Hands came to his arm, and he looked over to see both Lilly and Thayle smiling at him.
“You may not have been called to be his champion, but you are certainly mine,” Thayle said.
“You are mine as well,” Lilly said. “I would be dead without you.”
He nodded and looked ahead. “But what is my role? I started on this path in faith and tried so hard to honor Astikar in it. I understand that the divines had a plan to give me to Balisha to accelerate the spread of her faith, but I am not her champion or her high priest, Lilly has been given both those titles.”
“I don’t know why she picked me,” Lilly said. “Your ten times better at this than me.”
“There must be a reason,” Thayle insisted. “Look at how carefully the divines orchestrated this plan. They would not use you like this just to push you aside. There is a plan for you and your future that hasn’t yet been revealed.”
“Maybe there is a great reward?” Lilly asked.
“I have all the reward I need already,” he said. “I have you two.”
A distant echoing roar filled the air, and heads turned to watch the sky as two remote forms appeared from behind them.
“Look whose back,” Thayle said as a blue and red dragon flew low, coming up from behind.
“I hope they realize the horses will panic if they fly so low over the road,” Gersius said.
“They have experience with humans from before,” Lilly said. “I am sure they know.”
The two dragons climbed higher as they approached and moved off to the side. Even so, the horses jumped and nickered in alarm as they passed, warily watching the two great shapes. Both of them dropped to the ground about a mile ahead of the column and vanished.
“I hope they found what they were looking for,” Lilly said.
They moved to the very head of the column and led the way until they found the two dragons. Both were in their human forms with Numidel wearing an elegant blue coat with silver buttons and a narrow hat. Sutherisa had on a long red gown with golden line sand trim. Her hair was pulled back through her ring of gold, causing it to fall in a long tail down her back. Both wore fresh leather boots and had bags and packs piled beside the road.
“Welcome back, Lord Numidel and Lady Sutherisa,” Gersius said.
Sutherisa nodded and folded her arms. “It is good to be back,” she said.
“Did you find what you were looking for?” Lilly asked.
The two exchanged an aggravated look, and Numidel shook his head.
“We most certainly did not!” Sutherisa growled. “Time is not kind to most things.”
Lilly looked confused, so Numidel explained.
“Most of what we went to find had long since rotted away. We hoped to find two good saddles, but without anybody to care for them and oil them, they faded.”
“Even the swords were ruined,” Sutherisa gripped angrily. “And all the cer’vallar are gone.”
Gersius and Thayle turned to Lilly to explain what a cer'villar was, but Lilly shrugged.
“It’s armor,” Numidel said when he noticed the looks. “Crafted for female dragons.”
“Dragons wore armor?” Lilly asked enthralled.
“For our human forms,” Sutherisa corrected. “There was very little armor crafted for our dragon forms. Some did wear bracing over the wings.”
“Why would they do that?” Thayle asked.
“To make them harder to break in aerial battles,” Numidel answered. “The easiest way for one dragon to end a fight with another in the sky was to break one of their wings.”
Lilly frowned at the thought of falling from the sky with a broken wing.
“I hope that never happens to me,” she said.
“It rarely happened even in the war,” Sutherisa said. “More from collisions than from direct effort, but still, many wore the wing braces.”
“If you didn't find what you needed, then where did this outfit come from?” Thayle asked as she noted the beautiful attire.
Sutherisa began to tap an angry foot as Numidel chuckled.
“We were forced to enter a human city and purchase them,” he said.
“They actually demanded we pay them for it!” Sutherisa complained. “I had to part with gold to get this inferior thing.”
“You flew into a human city?” Gersius asked.
Numidel put up a hand and shook his head.
“We landed well outside and changed into the outfits you gave us. Then went in on foot and sought out the things we needed.”
“I asked for fine Lathanic silk, but nobody in that city knew what Lathanic silk was,” Sutherisa added. “I had to settle for this material.”
“It’s wool,” Numidel interjected.
“I know what it is,” she replied. “And it wasn’t worth the gold.”
“What’s wrong with it?” Lilly asked.
“It itches,” Sutherisa replied. “This human form can be so irritating at times. Lathanic silk is smooth like the waters on the skin, but those people claimed to have never heard of it.”
“I have never heard of it,” Thayle said. “And I like good silken gowns.”
Sutherisa sighed and shook her head. “The nation of Lathan made some of the finest textiles in the lands. They were a great nation to the northeast along the oceans.”
“That’s where the cellic people are now,” Gersius said. “I wonder if they are descendants of this Lathan.”
Sutherisa looked to Numidel, and he shook his head in return.
“So much of the world we knew is gone,” he said.
Gersius felt a certain measure of sympathy for them and the world they left behind. He turned his head to the bags collected at the side of the road and nodded to them.
“What is all this?”
“Outfits and supplies,” Numidel said. “We had to purchase all of it in the city.”
“A waste of gold,” Sutherisa grumbled.
“We need more than one outfit,” Numidel replied. “And you wanted the pillows.”
“I wanted them to give them to me, not make me pay for them,” Sutherisa replied.
“Dragons and gold,” Thayle laughed.
“Do you have any idea how important the metals are to us?” Sutherisa asked.
“Lilly has explained it all,” Gersius said. “She told us on a number of occasions that she would rather keep the gold than spend it.”
“It’s good to see someone has an understanding,” Sutherisa replied as she glared at Numidel.
“It is expected that you will pay for things,” he replied. “The age where people honored dragons by giving them gifts is long past.”
“It needs to come back,” Sutherisa snapped and folded her arms. “I had hoped to find a saddle that would fit me so I could carry you Lady Thayle,”
“It’s alright,” Thayle said. “I am honored that you even offered.”
“Gracious as always,” Numidel said with a smile. “Fortunately, I thought of an alternative plan.”
“You call this a plan?” Sutherisa quipped.
“I paid for it with my gold, why are you so bothered by it?”
“You could have given it to me instead,” she replied.
“It is fascinating to see just how greedy for gold dragons really are,” Thayle said silently over the bind.
“To see how hungry for it she is, makes me proud of Lilly giving her gold to Balisha,” Gersius replied in their heads.
Lilly flinched, and Thayle squeezed her hand with a smile. She gave Lilly a knowing nod and turned back to the two dragons in the road.
“As I was saying,” Numidel continued. “We brought one of the rotted saddles with, and I paid a team of craftsmen to try and make a reproduction of it.”
“Those fools had better do it right,” Sutherisa replied.
“Nobody has made one of these in thousand of years,” Numidel argued. “We have to let them try and learn as they go.”
Sutherisa turned up her nose and looked away as if the answer was wholly unsatisfactory.
“I am surprised you have so much trouble with human ways,” Thayle said.
Sutherisa straightened her back, coming to a tall, commanding height.
“I am not used to dealing with the common human directly,” she said. “I had aids who saw to it my commands were followed.”
“Aids?” Lilly repeated.
Numidel stepped forward and nodded. “The Lady Sutherisa once held the title of Queen over a modest human land.”
“You were a queen?” Thayle asked.
“Indeed,” Sutherisa replied. “And I ran a far more organized kingdom than I see in this fallen world.”
“Many dragons had small kingdoms, particularly in the northlands,” Numidel said.
“They did?” Thayle pressed.
“The north wasn’t populated by your kind, and needed to be tamed,” Sutherisa said. “We dragons would carve out a region and drive away the dangers. Humans would come for the timber, furs, rare plants.”
“And the gold,” Numidel added.
“Humpf!” Sutherisa replied.
Numidel smiled and continued. “The northlands are rich in gold, silver, and copper. The closer to the ice you went, the richer the mines were.”
“Was it true there were human empires all the way to the ice?” Gersius asked.
Numidel nodded. “Oh yes, and well into it. Though only the blues like Lady Lilly and I ever found the ice lands hospitable and made kingdoms there.”
“They were dragon empires then?” Gersius asked.
“They were founded by dragons, but the majority of those who lived there were human,” Numidel replied.
“I bet the humans didn’t care for it,” Thayle said.
“Once they were protected, they found it more than adequate,” Numidel replied.
“Wait, protected?” Gersius asked.
Numidel nodded. “The lands up to and into the ice were all forged by dragons. We blessed the men who came to us with a portion of our power so they too could tolerate the cold.”
Gersius’s felt his jaw drop and turned to look behind him and saw Lengwin staring at them with wide eyes.
“Is something the matter?” Numidel asked.
Gersius turned back and ran a hand through his wild hair.
“While you were gone, we encountered a group of boys who were hastily made priests. They can tap into the divine power but have no training to do so. We have been discussing how such a thing might be possible, and one of the questions that came up was, could a dragon bless them with power?”
Numidel looked to Sutherisa, and she shook her head.
“A dragon gift is very basic. The human gains a resistance to cold or heat depending on who gives the gift,” she said.
“They need less sleep and less to eat,” Numidel added. “It was the only way to make kingdoms in the ice possible.”
“So, they could not gain direct power?” Gersius asked.
“No, what are you getting at?” Sutherisa asked.
Gersius looked to Lilly and reached out to take her hand. He pulled her and Thayle to the front as Sutherisa and Numidel waited.
“Thayle and I can draw on Lilly’s power. We can use it to power our blessings and reach strengths previously unattainable.”
Sutherisa narrowed her eyes and leaned toward Lilly.
“Is this true?”
Lilly nodded. “I can feel it when they pull on me. It weakens me like using my breath.”
Sutherisa turned her head to Numidel and glared at him.
“Did you know about this?” she demanded.
“I knew they were sharing her gifts over the unique connection they share,” he said. “I had no idea how strong that connection was.”
She turned back to the three and tapped a foot as if impatiently waiting for more.
“You two can pull on her solus?”
“We can,” Gersius replied. “Because we are bound to each other, we share one soul.”
Sutherisa nodded and rubbed at her chin with eyes searching for an answer none of them could see.
“We have stalled your march long enough,” she said at last. “Could we have our bags loaded into a wagon to carry with us.”
“Of course,” Gersius replied and took note of the change of subject. “We will set space aside in the large tent for you to have some privacy.”
“It has been a long time since I was so surrounded by humans,” Sutherisa said as men came forward to help load the bags.
“Walk with us at the front for a while,” Gersius suggested. “We will be stopping to set up a camp in a few hours.”
She agreed with a nod and turned to walk with them when a man at the bags gasped in surprise.
“What is it?” Gersius said.
“It's a falcons blade,” the man said as he stepped back, revealing the rusted pitted weapon that lay on the ground.
Gersius stepped over the bags and saw the ancient sword of the legion, once known as the holy order of Falcons. It was in terrible condition, but the unmistakable winged guard, falcon head at the tapered pommel, and the long straight blade made it undeniable.
“You have a falcon blade,” Gersius said as he knelt beside the sword.
“What is so important about that?” Sutherisa asked.
“These swords were forged by the holy men of Astikar from eons ago,” Gersius said. “There are perhaps ten of them left in the entire order.”
Sutherisa stepped forward and frowned at the tarnished weapon.
“These swords were forged by dragons,” she said. “By the dragons that served Astikar who used their fires to light and stoke the forges. There are another five hundred of them in the temple, though this was the best one I could find.”
“There are five hundred more?” Gersius gasped. “These swords are priceless to our order.”
“There were thousands of these swords,” Sutherisa said. “How has the order lost so many?”
Gersius shook his head and stood back up. “Much was lost in the war. It took nearly three generations for most lands to even restore a government.
Sutehrisa looked down at the deteriorated blade and sighed.
“I am saddened to see just how far the world has fallen, and how little of it has come back.”
“What did you plan to do with it?” Gersius asked.
Sutherisa reached down and took up the weapon in one hand as if it was no heavier than a stick.
“I am going to restore it,” she said. “I need a proper weapon for the road ahead.”
“See, Sutherisa uses a sword,” Thayle teased Lilly.
“Why, though?” Lilly asked. “She can do so much more damage as a dragon.”
Sutherisa turned about and gave the sword a good swing.
“You can't fight every battle as a dragon,” she said. “I was involved in many battles that forced me to enter buildings and tight spaces. As a queen, it was important to have a sword at hand as a symbol of my power.”
“It is a shame the order of the falcon no longer exists,” Lengwin said.
Sutherisa looked to him with a scowl. “What do you mean it doesn't exist?”
“Gersius speaks the truth, the order has but a handful of the blades, and they are only for display. The falcons ceased to exist long ago when all of their members were lost. There are none left to teach their tenants and discipline.”
Sutherisa smiled and held the ruined blade up in salute.
“Savutha ah elloha Astikar,” she said.
“What was that?” Thayle asked.
“Forever I follow Astikar,” Lilly replied. “She is speaking in high dragon.”
“You are of the order of the falcon?” Gersius asked.
“Numidel and I are both of the order,” she said. “It isn’t as dead as you think.”
“By the divines,” Lengwin said. “You could resurrect the order and restore it.”
“We should have brought back more blades,” Numidel said.
“I had no idea the order was lost,” Sutherisa scolded. “But I will see Asitkar returned to his glory and his most holy order rebuilt.”
“I wonder if the raven guard is meant to be a mockery of this falcon order,” Thayle said.
Gersius considered the thought and shook his head. “Even more reason why we should have expected this treachery sooner.”
“Several of the high priests argued the name was too similar,” Lengwin said.
“What is the raven guard?” Sutherisa asked.
Gersius realized she had no idea what was going on and decided it was time she knew it all. He had the bags packed and started the column on the march as they walked at the front, and he explained it all.
“How did you ignore this insult to Astikar for so long?” she demanded.
“We didn't ignore it,” Gersius said. “Many went to the leadership and spoke against it. The Father Abbot stood on the rule of absolution. He forgave them, and thus they could no longer be held accountable for their past transgressions.”
“But to make such an order is an insult to Astikar. They clearly meant to invoke the falcons.”
“Dellain even carries one of the falcon blades,” Lengwin said. “They wouldn’t give Gerisus their greatest warrior and commander one.”
Sutherisa shook with anger and stamped her feet as she absorbed the insult.
“I would fly directly to this city and tear this man from his throne,” she said. “But I have no doubt they are ready for such an attack.”
“And they have dragons of their own,” Thayle added. “We can vouch for at least one red.”
“Then this war will mimic the old one on a smaller scale,” Numidel replied. “May it never reach the devastation that it brought before.”
“All of this should have been solved a thousand years ago,” Sutherisa growled. “That fool dragon wouldn’t listen to reason.”
“She was very powerful,” Numidel said. “She believed in her strength.”
“She had a plan all her own and was furious it was spoiled. I question her loyalty to Balisha or the empire.”
“The dragon knight was devoted to his purpose and she to him,” Numidel said. “They went before the divines and set out on their mission, just as these three have.”
“You should have woken me when they first came,” Sutherisa said. “I would like to have tested the mettle of this man and his dragon.”
“What was her name?” Lilly asked.
Numidel looked over and tried to think back.
“He called her Hellen,” he said at last.
“Hmm, Gersius has more skill at naming dragons,” Thayle said.
“What do you mean, naming dragons?” Sutherisa asked.
“Gersius gave me my name,” Lilly said. “I am still very young, and I hadn't taken one yet.”
Sutherisa nodded and looked down the road. “It fits you,” she said.
“You should take a name,” Thayle said.
“I have a name,” she argued.
“That's a dragon name, and it's hard to say,” Thayle pressed.
“My name isn’t hard to say,” Sutherisa said.
“It is for humans,” Thayle laughed.
“Pfft,” Sarah said. “And what would you name me?”
“How about another flower?” Lilly asked.
“Something more fun like Sadine, or Mariah,” Thayle suggested.
“Sarah,” Gersius said. “She should be named Sarah.”
All eyes turned to Gersius as he made the bold statement.
“It is a good strong name that evokes her dragon name, and many famous women of legend have born the name Sarah.”
“Sarah of Hummandri,” Thayle said. “The woman who challenged the king of Hummandri to a duel and beat him.”
“Sarah Lorindral, the heroin of Vellis who turned the tide of the third red plague,” Gersius added.
“Sarah,” Sutherisa said with a pleased tone. “It is rather simple. I hope it's easy enough for you humans to pronounce.”
“Does that mean you like it?” Lilly asked.
“It is acceptable,” Sutherisa said.
Lilly giggled as she recalled saying the same thing when Gersius named her.
“You see, he is very good at giving dragons a name,” Thayle said.
Gersius smiled and formally addressed her as Lady Sarah, and welcomed her into their friendship. She graciously acknowledged him and then, with a regal snap of her head led the way down the road.
It was a change of pace from the previous days of turmoil and the dark moment of the morning. With hope in his heart, Gersius looked to the future, surely with the aid of two more dragons he could breach the walls of Calathen.
