Chapter 19: The Forgotten One

  After their escape from the horde, the group continued their hurried pace down the mine shafts. Where these led, none of them knew. Their only concern right now was to put as much distance as they could between themselves and the horde. They did not know if the horde had other ways of reaching them and did not want to wait and find out.

  “Have you ever read of anything like that in dragon script?” Nanaua asked Zhi after moving along for quite some time.

  The two of them were at the rear of the group. Nanaua carried Zhi with little effort.

  “I do not know what those things were,” Zhi replied in a weak voice.

  “Undead,” Simeon said. His voice quivered as he spoke. The usual confidence he had was not present.

  The horde had shaken Simeon to his core. It was not the first dangerous foe they had encountered, but Corin had never seen Simeon affected by an encounter like this before.

  “Undead?” Livia asked.

  “I had heard tales before. But I never believed any of them. I never thought anything like it could be possible,” Simeon muttered. It was as if he was having a conversation with himself.

  “What? How is such a thing even possible?” Corin asked.

  “How? What I know is very little, but what I have heard is that the undead are a byproduct, not really the intended effect, from a curse,” Simeon said.

  “A curse?” Livia replied.

  “Aye, there are many types of magic out there, many of them which our good friend here the Onsiel is able to wield. Mastery over the elements, a faint ability to mend wounds. But there are many types of magics, more than any furtive or maybe even a titan would know. The ability to bend time and space, the ability to enchant items, power over the minds of others, or the ability to inflict a curse upon a living entity. These are not well-known, for these abilities are beyond the powers of many titans.” Simeon spoke out loud, but it seemed as if his words were directed at himself.

  He was trying to make sense of what they had seen.

  “A creature in this mine is cursed?” Corin asked.

  Simeon stopped this time, looking straight at Corin. It was the first time he had been able to snap out of his state of disarray. “Yes.”

  They all realized what exactly had frightened Simeon to such an extent. The source of that magic, the bearer of the curse, had to be somewhere close.

  The group continued their path down the various tunnels silently. They broke for camp and took their turns keeping watch. Despite their best efforts, none of them were able to rest.

  ***

  Arriving at a junction, the group had opted for the wider path as their next direction. They had done their best to follow a path that might run parallel to the white circle path, but they had no clue if they were close or not.

  To Corin the path they took seemed the same as every other one they had crossed. Cramped shafts with no discernible features around them. But they continued with the hopes of finding a way out.

  Finally, they exited the small cramped tunnels and found themselves in a large cavernous area unlike any they had so far encountered in the mines.

  From where they were, it was hard to see the full extent of the cavern. From what little they could see, it seemed as if the full extent of the cavern could fit an entire town within it. They could not even see the top of this cavern.

  They were all quiet for a second, but could not hear anything in the cavern that indicated danger.

  “Let’s rest here,” Simeon told the others in a low voice.

  The camp was being set and Zhi started a fire with a simple enchantment.

  “Ah, how interesting. An Onsiel in my domain.” A deep voice boomed through the cavern.

  The group rallied to their feet as they looked around the cavern and took out their weapons. Corin swung his blade as he looked around, trying to find the source of the voice but had no luck. The cavern was far too large and dark for him to be able to make out any specific details.

  “Who’s there?” Simeon yelled out.

  “Where are my manners?” The voice reverberated through the cavern.

  A large fire roared into existence. It burned in the center of the cavern and illuminated the entirety of the space. Now the group was able to see the full extent of the underground space. It was barren and empty, no sign of life, aside from the voice that spoke to them.

  Next to the roaring flame, a creature that was all too familiar to the group sat perched on a rocky outcrop, a dragon. It was copper-colored, its head as big as Nanaua with a wide mouth full of teeth that shone in the light of the flame.

  “No, impossible,” Zhi whispered.

  The dragon stood up from its rocky perch and sauntered over to the group. None of them reacted. They all held their weapons in their hands as the dragon approached. They could not understand how it was that out of all the places they could have gone to, a dragon would have found them under a deep mine in a mountain.

  Corin looked back to the path they took. If they all tried running for it, there was no doubt the dragon could easily destroy all of them before any of them escaped, save perhaps for Zhi.

  Nanaua finally snapped out of it and stood between in front of Zhi, awaiting the dragon, holding her pike at the ready. Livia followed closely, standing next to Nanaua and aiming her rifle at the dragon.

  “One of my kin raising their weapon against me?” the dragon spoke to Nanaua as it stood in front of her. “What a marvelous sight.”

  He raised a large talon as long as Nanaua’s pike and pushed back against it. Nanaua struggled with all her might to hold the pike in place, but it was no use. The dragon easily moved the pike out of his way and stood in front of the group.

  Up close, Corin could see something peculiar about this creature. Both of its wings were missing. In its chest, the dragon had a large scar running down its body. Its face was also scarred, and he only had one eye open. The left side of his face had a gash running down it.

  “It’s you. You are the cursed one,” Zhi said as she walked up to the dragon.

  Livia put down her rifle and kept eyeing the dragon curiously.

  The dragon looked at the group and then back at Zhi. The dragon seemed curious about the unlucky group who had stumbled across it.

  “You can tell,” the dragon replied in a soft voice. “It seems as if I am not the first of my kind you have met.” His voice echoed through the cavern.

  “But how?” Zhi asked him.

  “My dear, do not talk to him!” Nanaua interjected.

  “Oh, I see. This is your lover? How brave of you to stand between a dragon and your lover, very admirable,” the dragon said to Nanaua as he eyed Zhi. “Courageous and wise I would say. To not engage with conversation with a dragon is sage advice. We are an untrustworthy bunch by nature. But fret not, lovers, causing you harm is not something I am currently interested in.”

  The dragon looked over the group. “I am merely a very curious observer. Most of the visitors I get here are curse afflicted, which leaves me with no opportunities for conversation, so I do not wish to spoil this opportunity with violence, but there are other things I can provide that you might be interested in.”

  “Like?” Livia asked.

  “If you humor me for a while, then I might tell you how you can get out of these undead-filled mines,” the dragon replied.

  “And why should we trust you?” Livia asked.

  “Well, you shouldn’t. I am a dragon of course. But what other choice do you have?”

  Corin looked back to the shaft they came through.

  “If you would like to leave, I will not stop you,” the dragon said as he spied Corin. “You can even go to the other side of this cavern and continue down and hope that you choose the right path out of here.”

  “But you’re a titan. Why not destroy us on the spot?” Nanaua replied with a mix of confusion and apprehension.

  “You have it all wrong,” the dragon replied quickly. “I was a titan. Now I am a simple dragon with no name or blessing I can call my own. I no longer have the ability to wield the powerful magic I once could call upon. Now mere embers of my former might are all I have left.”

  “It was Speir who did this to you, wasn’t it?” Zhi spoke up.

  The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

  “Do not speak that name here!” the dragon roared.

  The violent response from the dragon caused Zhi to fall back and Nanaua to once again point her pike at the dragon. Corin stepped in front, Livia raised her rifle at the dragon, and Simeon’s fur stood on its end while he raised his bow. The fires in the room, those started by Zhi and the dragon, roared intensely, growing in size as if they were about to consume the entire cavern.

  The dragon huffed, and steam escaped from his nostrils. He seemed to calm down, and the fires in the room died down along with his sudden rage.

  The group surrounded Zhi, prepared to protect her against the dragon.

  “My apologies for the outburst,” the dragon said as the steam kept subsiding. “It has been a long time since I have heard that name.”

  “Who is that?” Corin asked cluelessly.

  “The name of the God of the Dragons,” Zhi replied.

  “She is correct,” The dragon replied. “But I am surprised to hear that name from the tongue of a furtive. You must know dragon script.”

  “She has been teaching all of us how to read it,” Livia replied.

  “Furtives who are learning about the dragon script? What an interesting group.”

  “Dragons have a god?” Corin asked, shocked by the revelation.

  Corin had only ever heard of the goddess Jokasta, the protector of Trinixo and its furtives. He had never thought there would be other gods or goddesses.

  “I see. You have begun to learn our tongue but do not know who provided us with the capacity to even create it.” The dragon seemed amused at Corin’s question. “Who of course is our god but the one who bestows dragons with their grace and power? Who blesses titans with their amazing magical abilities, their peerless strength?”

  “So your god also blesses giants and leviathans?” Corin followed up quickly, unable to contain his curiosity.

  “Hah! If that were the case, then titans would not be at war constantly!” the dragon said, amused. “No, the god of the dragons has dominion over the skies. Maji rules the seas and Uraqi the lands. They grant power to the leviathans and giants.”

  “I… I had never heard of any of this,” Corin said, feeling more lost with each of the revelations.

  “Long ago, each of the gods split themselves into many parts, and from each of these a titan was born. Titans are not only blessed by the gods. They carry a fragment of their god with them. That fragment is what gives the titans their immense strength and the ability to wield such amazing powers,” Zhi stated.

  “Your friend, the Onsiel, is well informed, small furtive.” The dragon smiled at Corin.

  “But what about Jokasta?” Corin asked.

  “Jokasta?” the dragon replied, curious. “Is that your god?”

  “She is the goddess those of us in Trinixo worship,” Corin replied.

  “Interesting. I did not know the furtives worshiped gods.”

  “Well? Is Jokasta a part of this group of gods?” Corin asked.

  “Small furtive, your friend mentioned that the gods of the titans give them their strength. Gods grant the giants the ability to raise mountains, the dragons to bring forth storms, and leviathans to summon waves that can envelop a whole island, but what are the furtives able to do in comparison? How does Jokasta bless the furtives?” the dragon asked.

  Corin thought, but he had nothing to say. He felt dejected, he could not believe what the dragon was saying.

  “But there must be something more, something you are missing,” Corin replied.

  “Let me ask you a simple question, small one. If the furtives are indeed watched over by a god, why does this god watch as all furtives struggle in vain against the titans? Why does your god not provide furtives with the ability to fight back?” The dragon could barely contain its delight as it spoke.

  Corin could not think of anything.

  “I did not know if your gods were real, but according to legends they have been quarreling against each other since the beginning of our world,” Zhi interjected.

  “The legends you speak of are correct. Harmony has never existed between the sky, the land, and the sea. The gods each control their domain and have fought to control it since long before the time of the titans. And now as their emissaries. the gods expect the titans to uphold this balance. Thus war between the titans is only the natural state of our world. This extends beyond fights between dragons, giants, and leviathans, as titans are encouraged to fight those from their own domains to expand their dominions as far as possible.”

  “Is that why you were banished?” Zhi asked.

  “Such details are of no concern to you,” the dragon replied, anger swelling within him again.

  The fires within the cavern began to roil. Zhi recoiled as she prepared herself for the dragon’s rage, but the dragon regained its composure.

  “My apologies,” the dragon said and the fires began to die down.

  “Your words wound because your suspicions are correct Onsiel. There were things that occurred that displeased our god. Thus, I did fall out of favor and was banished from the skies. My wings were ripped from my body, and my power reduced to a mere fragment of what I once wielded. I was cursed, my heart taken from my body so I could not properly die, and my sentence was to slowly rot away,” the dragon said with anguish.

  “So the curse, it’s you who is spreading it,” Simeon said.

  “Yes, it is my curse. I hid in these caverns waiting for the curse to exact its toll on me. Occasionally, furtives will come into the caverns, and if they die, then they are curse stricken. The curse afflicts them in a most perverse manner, bringing them back to life as mere husks of what they were. The curse will last until enough time has passed and our god’s wrath has been sated and I am allowed to die.”

  “Your undead creatures almost killed us!” Livia shouted at the dragon.

  “And what is that to me?” The dragon did not appreciate the tone Livia took with him. “It is you furtives who continue trespassing into my domain! If you see undead and continue trespassing, then you have none to blame but yourself!”

  “Other furtives who end up here are trying to escape from the titans’ unrestrained destruction! That is why the other furtives have come to the mines, to find a place where the titans won’t destroy them and everything they hold dear on a whim!” Livia shot back.

  “Ah of course.” The dragon quickly changed his tone, seemingly in agreement with Livia. “My former brethren are quite prone to destruction. Yes, trampling furtives is something they might do on occasion.” The dragon said without care.

  “How could you be so callous?” Corin shouted.

  The dragon eyed Corin curiously.

  “How is it that titans are able to destroy so much with such reckless abandon and not care? Furtives always have to live in terror that a titan will come by and kill us, destroy everything that we hold dear, and it’s nothing to you. Entire families, entire villages, murdered and destroyed and you mention it as if it is nothing?” Corin asked, bewildered.

  “That is the will of the gods!” the dragon shouted. “They made us, the titans, in their image for the sole purpose of defending their domains.”

  “Any who would encroach onto their domain, be it air, land, or sea, that is not a titan crafted by a god is nothing more than a nuisance, an invader even. The only reason furtives are allowed to continue existing is because titans care so little for you. Titans fight titans, and their goal is the preservation of their domain. If furtives are not useful to titans, then you have no purpose. You are but mere pests that dared to awaken in a world not made for you!”

  Corin seethed in silence.

  “Yet you are no longer one of the gods’ blessed ones, are you?” Livia asked.

  The dragon eyed Livia with a certain disdain. “And your point is?”

  “You said that only those who are blessed by the gods have a right to exist. Yet you are here, another creature capable of thought not blessed by the gods. What would you say that makes you?” Livia asked.

  The dragon merely looked at her, curious as to what she would say.

  “A furtive perhaps,” Livia added.

  The dragon moved his face close to Livia’s. He was face-to-face with her. His head was much larger than Livia herself was. She stared at him.

  The dragon grinned wide. His teeth where not even an arm’s length away from Livia. If he wanted, he could open and close his mouth in a mere instant and snap Livia in half. She did not budge. He coiled his head back.

  “Interesting,” The dragon sounded genuinely intrigued.

  “You threatened me earlier with some unique weapon. May I see it once again?” the dragon asked her.

  Livia seemed taken by surprise by the dragon’s request, but she acquiesced.

  “This?” Livia asked as she brought her rifle up.

  “Yes, precisely! Could you do me a favor and strike me with it?”

  Livia looked around her, unsure of what she ought to do.

  “Do not worry about killing me. I cannot be slain.”

  Livia still was unsure.

  “Do it. The dragon is correct,” Simeon added.

  Livia did as instructed. She raised her rifle and shot straight at the dragon’s body. The shot tore through the dragon’s scales and lodged itself inside of him.

  The dragon stared in amazement.

  “Is this your own creation?” the dragon asked as the wound still smoked from the shot.

  “It is,” Livia stated calmly.

  The dragon studied her.

  “Interesting. Most interesting.” The dragon stated as he kept observing her. “Any observer would not be remiss if they ignored any of your group aside from the Onsiel and the dragoor. At first glance, I would have said that the others did not merit much or any attention. But you, my dear…” The dragon stared at Livia.

  Livia did not react to the dragon’s comment.

  “What is your name, human?”

  “You may call me Livia.”

  “I see. You have something that titans lack. Do you know what that is?” the dragon asked.

  Livia did not know what the dragon was referring to.

  “You have a certain cleverness, yes,” the dragon began. “It took me many hundreds of years living in this solitary cave, seeing countless furtives crawl through here to appreciate it. The majority of your kind is very simple. They are mostly concerned with their own survival and will do anything to attain that. Very simple, almost like insects. But sometimes I am surprised at the depths of the creativeness that some of you furtives display. A unique quality to furtives. A titan could not comprehend it. When you are born with power, everything is at your grasp. The ability to wage war, to destroy at will is innate. But furtives are not like that. Furtives have to struggle mightily to gain even the slightest hint of power. All furtives know what it is to be powerless, and most of your kind are content with having power exerted over you, but not all. Some of you struggle to gain power, and that can bring into existence the most cunning of creations.

  “This cleverness is truly what sets furtives apart from titans, and also what can make you so dangerous. I have met many clever furtives, but you really are unique. What you have is something no titan will ever attain, something not even one of our gods could bestow upon us.” The dragon finished.

  Livia was taken aback. She did not expect this.

  “What ploy are you trying to pull? Is this flattery some sort of trick you have conceived of?” Livia asked.

  “No trick, no trick,” the dragon replied with a wide grin. “Whatever trickery I might pull would be of no use to one as clever as you. Yet I find your clever ways so interesting that I must ask you a question. Once you have answered my question, I will let you go and tell you how to safely exit the mines. What say you? Do you accept?” The dragon smirked.

  Livia looked around the group. The rest of them nodded in approval.

  “Go on then,” Livia replied.

  “Good, good. Can you explain to me why an Onsiel, a Lord’s Protectorate dragoor, and three unique strangers are traveling through a land that is hostile to them? Why would furtives expose themselves to such dangers? Does this not go against your very own nature for self-preservation?”

  Livia was silent as she thought.

  “Take your time. My death is still over a thousand years away,” the dragon added with a smile.

  “I have an answer for you,” Livia said quickly. “What we are doing is not against self-preservation. In fact, it is the only way that we can persevere. We have learned after many years of hiding that there is nowhere we can hide that is truly safe from the titans. We can find the most isolated island or the deepest mine shaft, but the danger of being destroyed by titans is always present. The only logical choice is to find a way to defeat the titans.

  “We are going to end the tyranny of the titans over the furtives. We are going to help usher in a world where furtives don’t have to live in fear. That is what we are doing.” She finished.

  Silence echoed through the cave. None knew how the dragon would react.

  The dragon began laughing. Corin was not sure what to make of this reaction.

  “A moment ago I was praising your cleverness, but now I have doubts,” the dragon laughed. “How exactly do you plan on ending the titans’ tyranny?”

  “We are assembling pieces of an artifact, one so frightening to titans that its fragments were given to dragons, leviathans, and giants. This artifact will give us a weapon that will allow us to fight against your former brethren,” Livia replied.

  “An artifact that will give you a weapon against the titans?” The dragon asked. “That cannot be right. I have never heard of such a thing.”

  “It’s no mistake,” Zhi interjected. “As I learned the dragon script, I came across texts that described this artifact. The power of this artifact is so great that its existence could only be known by those who safeguard it for fear of it being used against the titans. Tonatiuh of the dragons, Arandu of the leviathans, and Belaran of the giants.”

  The dragon smirked, still not believing what was being said.

  “It’s simple. You must have misunderstood the draconic alphabet. A confusion on your part,” the dragon laughed.

  “We are not on some foolish errand. We already have two of the three pieces,” Livia said.

  “You do?” the dragon replied, his tone changing. “Then show me what you say will bring ruin to the titans.”

  Zhi brought out the pieces of the artifact.

  The dragon grabbed the hollow pyramid first, bringing it to his good eye, studying it intently, gaze unrelenting. Carefully, he put the pyramid in front of Zhi and reached for the sphere, as he had done for the pyramid, he studied the sphere intently.

  It was impossible to tell what about the artifact grabbed the dragon’s attention, but Corin knew that his reaction to it was genuine. The dragon finished studying the sphere and put it at Zhi’s feet. She stowed away both of the artifacts. He stood frozen in place, his eye closed.

  “Do you now believe us?’ Livia asked.

  The dragon reacted. He opened his eye, and the flames around the cavern danced. Their motion guided by the fury of the dragon.

  “You wish to destroy the titans? You wish to put my former brethren to the blade?” the dragon shouted in anger at Livia.

  He arched up, standing on his hind legs. Although the dragon in front of them was no longer a titan, he was still frightfully large, his head almost reaching the top of the cavern.

  The flames inside the cavern were burning so hot that it felt as if they were inside an oven. They would not survive long in here.

  Nanaua and Simeon stood next to Zhi, preparing to defend her. Zhi stood her ground, ready to attack if need be, but she feared she might strike Livia. Corin stood next to his wife, holding on to his blade, though there was not much he could do with it.

  “We will destroy the titans!” Livia shouted back.

  “When titans fight each other, they are prepared to sacrifice anything to present their Gods with victory! What are you willing to sacrifice for your goals?” the dragon roared.

  The flames continued burning with such intensity that several columns of rock melted.

  “We are prepared to give up our lives!” Livia shouted. The heat was getting to her, and her breathing became labored. The flames continued growing. It would not be long before the flames consumed them.

  “What are you willing to sacrifice?” the dragon asked once more.

  “I am willing to sacrifice everything!” Livia screamed as she stood up, unrelenting in the face of the dragon’s onslaught.

  That shook Corin to the core. The determination was something he had never seen in Livia. This burning within her seemed to resonate with the dancing flames in the cave. It felt as if they would soon pour out of her and consume them all.

  The dragon lowered itself. The flames in the cavern died down. Nanaua and Simeon were still on guard, while Zhi kept her gaze fixed on the dragon. Corin and Livia struggled to breathe.

  They had all witnessed to the might of a former titan. A real titan would have power multitudes above anything this dragon could conjure.

  “One day, you will understand what that really means. It behooves you to think what that might entail, because if you are unable to fully commit, then you have already lost.” The dragon moved on to Zhi. “I know not what sort of magic resides in the artifact you carry with you Onsiel. To think there are things out there I do not know about. But I can say one thing. Within it there is one thing I can sense.”

  “What is it?” Zhi asked.

  “Destruction,” the dragon huffed. “I will tell you how to leave, but first I have a favor to ask.”

  “What is it?” Corin asked.

  “In your travels, you may find yourself in the Serno Valley. It is a long distance from here. The Serno Valley is the domain of a giant. At one point he was named Bellum. His heart, much like mine, was removed. But that was not all. His god also turned him into a mindless monster, a titan condemned to destroy for eternity. If you come across him, there is only one way to grant him reprieve. In his domain, you must find the tallest spire. There his heart lies. If you would do me a kindness, please destroy his heart.”

  The fires in the cavern died. The only source of light remaining now was Zhi’s campfire.

  “Follow the path of the shining stars to leave this cave,” the dragon muttered as he slunk back into the darkness.

  The travelers did not want to take any chances. They packed up their belongings as soon as the dragon disappeared and followed its instructions.