An angel’s road to hell

56. Of pasts, escapes and a little bit of familiarity

Viyara Nameless

Fear leads to desperation and desperation engenders defiance. If you have nothing left, you’ll either crash and burn or you’ll find the courage to do what you thought impossible and I certainly tried.

I was a trophy, captured and stolen from the remains of my home, my family, my friends. My father had been an ancient Gold Dragon, well over 30 centuries old. Dragons are possessive, compulsively so. Over his long life he had collected everything that had sparked his fancy, from jewels, artefacts and precious metals to beautiful women and a menagerie of exotic semi-sentient beasts. The crown of his hoard was an elven princess he had taken as his first wife when he had been a mere 1000 years old. I imagined their first decades hadn’t been the easiest but over time they fell in love and she stayed with him until the very end. I was their only child.

As one might imagine, unions between dragons and other sentients usually didn’t produce offspring, dragons had to shapeshifter to be with the smaller races and they couldn’t sire or receive children in a changed form, their magic was attuned to their eggs. It had taken my father the better part of 1500 years to find a solution and another 500 to actually make it happen. He had modified his body and magic with countless rituals and spells until my mother became pregnant and I was born, despite his harem I remained his only child, he couldn’t even father more with his dragon brides, the changes to his physiology had been too severe.

His meddling had produced something different, I was neither elf nor dragon, but both. My carbuncle didn’t contain my energies, instead it housed a second me of sorts. I could change into a humanoid or dragon form from the moment I had been born but both of them were real, I had two bodies, two lives, two souls, I was unique and that had to be kept a secret unless we were willing to risk the greed and envy of my draconic relatives. And for over a decade my family managed to pass me off as another dragon, born from my father’s second wife, a brilliant and lively red dragoness.

My first years had been very sheltered, my father, his five wives and a bunch of servants… slaves if I’m honest, they were treated well but my father always regarded them as possessions and far below a dragon, lived on a small island, far to the south. An active volcano rose from the sea and with time we had excavated a small city within the crater. Enchantments allowed for the less fire resistant races to exist and immaculately designed runes provided fresh air and water. Our caves were filled with light from precious gems turned into lanterns and the eternal dance of flames where magma ran through our home in enchanted trenches.

The exterior slopes where lush and verdant, the rich volcanic soil provided nutrients for all forms of plants and with gentle care and foresight my father’s slaves had turned them into a veritable paradise filled with sweet smells, bright colours and the sounds of a myriad of different animals. I loved my home and my family, I was happy there and admittedly spoiled. As an only child with 5 caring mothers, one of them an elven princess, three fierce dragonesses and a dryad whose tree and plant magic kept most of our garden alive there wasn’t much I wouldn’t get once I wished for it. Add a doting father to the mix who overcompensated for having only a single child and there wasn’t much I wasn’t allowed to do. It all changed when my father brought home his 6th bride, a beautiful dark nymph named Alessa. He had been gone for months and when he had returned, the fresh scars on his body slowly healing, he had carried her along on his back, a place of honour reserved for his closest family.

A great feast had been held, celebrating his return and the newest addition to our little community. My father had narrated his adventures and how he had come across an old rival of his, a black dragon by the name of Galathon who had been on his way back to his hoard, a dark nymph clutched in his paw. Her beauty had entranced my father and given their history he had been more then willing to fight Galathon for his prize. Their fight had been swift and brutal but in the end my father had carried away Alessa and his foe had been forced to flee with clipped wings and his tail between his legs. At first he simply wanted to possess her but during their journey they had come to know and love one another and she had pledged to become his wife. Their story had been the epitome of draconic romance and we were thrilled to have her with us. We couldn’t have been more wrong.

The next weeks were pleasant, I got to know Alessa better and she appeared sweet, maybe even a little naive from time to time but I enjoyed her company and loved our little chats while I showed her around our home. We grew close quickly and I soon regarded her as something like a sister, I even shared my secret with her. She didn’t keep up her act much longer.

The next celebration was the wedding day of my father and my biological mother, they had taken up the tradition a couple of centuries ago. It was a beautiful evening and the food was delicious, music from enchanted instruments filled the night and when the stars appeared above Alessa told us a story. She spoke of a maid from a faraway land, captured by a dragon. We expected her to narrate her first meeting with my father but her story took a different, darker turn. In her story, the dragon was cruel and selfish but her life was tolerable as long as she complied with every order the dragon would give. She survived and clung to a slowly fading hope that one day she might be free again. And the chance presented itself in the form of a bet. Her freedom would be bought with the blood, heart and secrets of the dragon’s greatest enemy, a Gold Dragon that he couldn’t hope to match in prowess but that might be brought low through his own desires. Her last words rang out loudly: “I’m sorry, you don’t deserve this. Sanguis preces!”

My blood was on fire and I immediately collapsed, muscles twitching without a trace of control over my body. My eyes were unfocused but through the haze of pain I could still see my father collapsing, bloody foam splattered around his maw. The earth shook when his massive head crashed into the remains of the fire pit. My mothers didn’t hesitate and threw themselves at Alessa, fangs, claws and magic threatened to tear her apart but she didn’t seem fazed, pity was the only emotion on her face. A terrifying roar, similar to my father’s but somehow colder, more cruel shook the night sky and while my mothers were repelled by a black veil of magic that suddenly flickered into existence around Alessa a huge shadow descended, the stars vanishing behind. Cold and dread clawed at my heart while a voice like frozen steel stormed through my mind: “you have served your purpose, I don’t need you anymore.” Alessa’s shield winked out and before she could comprehend what was happening the ivory teeth of my mother turned her into a bloody pulp. Laughter echoed across our volcano and the ground shook when a fully grown, black male, at least 50 meters long landed in our midst. “Now you have a choice: Serve or die!” His telepathic voice felt like daggers were drawn across my mind.

Before he could finish my mothers had already jumped him without regard for their own safety and he slaughtered them before my eyes, like a child that gleefully pulled the limbs from an insect. I couldn’t turn away, couldn’t avert my gaze and the image of his expanding throat when my mother went screaming down his gullet would haunt me for years to come. His laughter when he tore the carbuncle from one of their chests and ground it to dust would stay with me for the rest of my life. His satisfied smirked when he tore into my fathers body would have me wake up in a cold sweat in the foreseeable future. The smell of blood and smoke when he torched our home and devoured everything around scarred me deeply and the feeling of decay and despair when he picked me up like a sack of gold finally pushed me into unconsciousness while fire still raged through my veins.

I came to much faster than I had expected. I was still squashed in one of his claws and the sky had changed into the deep blue of midday but I was pretty sure we hadn’t gone too far, the air smelled similar to home, maybe a little less… rich. The abundant fragrances of exotic plants and the heavy presence of energies dragons produced over the years were missing. I could feel mana surge around us, channeled into a spell of camouflage and my captor was napping on the wing, his regular breathing and the low rumbling of his fire gave him away. I still felt sick, weak, but the agony that had ravaged me before was gone, only a faint pressure in my carbuncle and a lingering… presence in my veins remained, but I was alone. For the first time in my life I was truly and utterly alone and in the hands of a maniac that had slaughtered my whole family.

Tears came to my eyes and my vision swam. Grief welled up but was instantly smothered by a wave of dread as I imagined what my future might be like. A future without my parents and friends. My throat constricted and for an eternity I oscillated between fear for what the future might bring and regret of what the past had wrought until I felt empty and broken, like a damaged doll on the curb. I wanted to give up, to just die but that thought sparked another. What did I have left to lose? If my future had to be hell, I’d at least chose how I’d get there. I would escape or die trying.

I wasn’t anywhere near proficient with any from of magic but I knew a trick or two. First I used the smallest tendril of my life force to deepen the Black’s sleep and relax his strained muscles. I wove a net of mana in front of his eyes and ears, it would shatter before him the moment he’d notice but it might give me a little time. Lastly I formed a spike with every last drop of energy I could spare and drove it into the small mountain of muscles that held me tight while I simultaneously changed into my human form.

Huge drops of seething blood welled up from the fist sized hole I had punched through his scales and the camouflage spell wavered for a moment. He woke up startled but he didn’t roar. Instead he immediately clutched his paw closer to his body but I was already gone. My smaller body had easily slipped through his massive talons, but not without sustaining deep cuts from the razor sharp edges and I was falling towards the unending blues and greens of the sea below, the rushing wind a constant noise in my ears. I waited until the last moment before I changed back and fought to pull myself out of the dive. My strained body protested but through sheer stubbornness I managed to ignore the pain in my back and sides. My claws skimmed through the waves before I could rise again but with a last effort I spiralled back up into the sky. Frantically I searched for the black behemoth but the sky remained clear, not so much as a shadow marred the horizons. Had I lost him? It certainly appeared that way.

I sighed and released the breath I hadn’t realised I had been holding in. My heartbeat slowed down a notch and while I still kept a vigilant eye on my surroundings I focused inwards. Now that the excitement of the moment had passed, I again felt weak and I missed the energy I had spent sorely. From what I could tell my shifting hadn’t changed my condition, I could still feel something alien within but it appeared dormant now and a sort of pressure still weighted onto my carbuncle. And then a mental scream shook me from my contemplation and spiked through my mind like an icy spear: “sanguis preces!” Instantly the pressure I felt became nearly unbearable and pain ignited within my veins again. It was nothing compared to last night, as if a crucial part of whatever it was had been destroyed since then, but it still sent me tumbling through the air before I could righten myself and regain hight. With every passing second the wrongness I felt grew and I knew I didn’t have much time. I needed help, quickly.

Unfortunately I didn’t know where I was or which direction I should head in, all I could do was guess and gamble with everything I had left. I closed my eyes and allowed the winds to carry me by themselves for a moment. My body turned slightly while the airstreams carried me along and when I opened my eyes again I was facing south east. Without further hesitation I glided through the air, helping along with slithering movement of my serpentine body and winglike ruff. I had no clue how long I would last but I promised myself I wouldn’t stop until I dropped from the sky. I conserved as much strength as I could and allowed my mind to drift off and push the pain away.

Screams brought me back to reality. I was spent, I wasn’t exhausted, I was on the verge of losing consciousness. My whole body felt like it was torn apart from within and my muscles protest with the smallest movement but what I saw revitalised my dazed mind with a surge of hope.

Before me a damaged air ship sailed through the sky, most of its sails had been burned away and flames still danced along parts of the rigging but it was flying and it was close. As I approached clumsily I saw a group of small humanoids aboard, pale and agitated they pointed in my direction and screamed at the top of their lungs but right now I couldn’t be bothered. It took everything I had left to head for an unoccupied part of the deck where I crashed down, dazed and panting. The screaming intensified and a shudder ran through the vessel as we dropped a couple of meters. Had I done that? I didn’t know and I felt my mind wandering while I tried to focus on whoever was making such a ruckus. Right, small humanoids. I should ask them if they knew a thing or two about poisons or curses. But before I could open my mouth the damaged door that led below deck burst open and I recoiled reflexively from what came through.

In a blaze of silvery energy another two legged creature stormed on deck torrents of light slithering around and behind her. In her arms she carried another one and when she saw me she froze. I stared down at her and the energy that curled around her, I felt… threatened, like I had met a predator that could pounce on me at any moment. But she didn’t, instead she gingerly pulled the one in her arms closer and directed her … wings? away from me. A soothing glow shone from her eyes. I did the only logical thing.

Before the darkness that had hovered at the edge of my vision for hours claimed me I focused on her and whispered: Help me.

Darkness came but before I collapsed on the deck I saw her face and somehow I felt save.