4 The Imperials Dark Secret

-Shen Wei-

After the really messy flight, fighting with both lighting and the strong wind, Zhao found a place to discreetly land in a small deck bellow the airship. Because the wing was quite strong, there was no one guarding that part of the ship, but even if there had been a guard watching, they already had the protection of the talisman that allow them to be unnoticed by others, invisible to their eyes. Shen Wei could only imagine the troubles Zhao Yunlan and his crew had gone through to find such a rare talisman, he wasn't even aware that existed.

Zhao put him down, effortlessly and Shen Wei felt like the world was still spinning inside his head, so he keep his arm around his broad shoulder to steady himself. The Captain then, passed a hand over his waist, to keep him stand until he was ready to move on his own. Once the dizziness passed, Zhao simply hold his hand, as they needed to be in physical contact for the talisman to work on him as well.

"Are you okay, my Prince?" Zhao asked, as he looked quite pale.

"It's a bit late to ask that. Where to? I'm guessing you know where this magical network is, right?" The Prince asked back in an equally hush tone and Zhao smiled as he quietly guide him forwards.

"Of course my Prince, just keep those lovely red eyes of yours alert and we will be there in no time at all." Shen Wei blushed a bit, feeling his fever or perhaps his embarrassment heat up his face. Lovely red eyes? He was actually the first one who called his dragon eyes that way, those few who had seen them before were scared of his vertical pupils along with the intense red, as not all the mixing people working in the palace were dragons.

They moved in silence, avoiding guards as much as possible while holding hands. When a guard came close they changed directions or hide in some corner. To Shen's further embarrassment, the Captain of the Black Fury wasted no time to get him too close to his warm body in those occasions and enjoy seen him blush, when he even cover his body with his own.

With all honesty, it had been a miracle to find so few guards around the airship. Maybe it was because they were chasing the Black Fury or because the storm outside was becoming fiercer. They could hear the thunders strike quite close, so maybe most of the Imperials in the airship were too busy trying to keep it in the air.

"Your crew will be fine, right?" Shen Wei whisper as they keep walking steel corridors.

"What's a storm for my Black Fury? And my crew had seen far worse..." Zhao whisper back.

"Seriously, just how reckless had you been, along with your crew?" Shen asked.

"Trust me, you don't want to know." The Captain admitted, then they keep up the pace, until something caught Shen Wei's attention and he make Yunlan change directions. There was a dark energy coming from a room to their left and Shen's instincts were screaming at him that whatever was inside, it was no good at all.

"Ready yourself for a fight, my Prince... this may turn ugly if Imperials are working with dark magic." Zhao whisper and Shen Wei assented, steeping behind the reckless captain, while holding the back of his dark jacket.

Then the Black Fury Captain, open the door, very slowly, without making any sound, not that it would matter with all the noise coming from the strong wind and lightings in the outside. The room they came in, was huge and hollow in the center, with a few inner balconies or working stations connected by wide metallic stairs. There were many Imperial mages working on each level, apparently in different projects and were too busy to notice a pair of mischievous intruders.

There was a long stair at their right and as they look down from the second level, from which they enter, both of them were surprised to see the nearest Imperial mage, infusing a set of small metallic spheres containing some kind of dry root, with a purple magic. In the world of magic, purple meant control, so the root moved according to the direction of the hands of the mage, which was unusual, even for an experiment of some kind, but after a few movements, it went still.

Shen Wei narrow his dragon eyes and focus in looking at one of the spheres, the one that was open, but not been use by the mage. There was something about the root that felt wrong. It was like the thing was pulsing inside the open sphere, trying to break free from whatever magic was keeping it contained inside the small space.

"What's that?" Zhao asked on his ear and the Prince moved his head to look at him for a second, almost kissing him with the innocent move, however, when he was about to tell Zhao Yunlan's he have no idea of what the roots were just by looking at them, because he had never seen it before, the airship moved quite violently to one side, sending most things over the tables to the floor in all levels.

Yunlan had manage to get a hold on his Prince and keep him pinned against the metallic railing and himself, however, the spheres below them, were not as lucky as the blushing Prince and just like everything else, they fell from the long table, along with the mage that fail to have a hold on something to prevent his fall.

It was then, when the root contained in the open sphere broke free from its biding and in mere seconds, it begin to grow out of it, slowly at first, then at top speed. The mage cursed and try to use the controlling magic on it, but the root looked like it had life of his own and soon, the root multiply and went out of control, growing up until it passed their level.

Shen Wei hastily pushed Yunlan away to the wall behind him and use his ice magic to shield them before a set of roots came their way, bouncing away as they meet the thick ice wall he raised. Using his magic to keep both of them safe, revealed his presence to the Imperial mages, but honestly, they already had their hands full with the growing things that now reached the roof and was expanding in all directions, destroying anything it touched.

Shen Wei keep the roots that came their way at bay, either using more ice magic or his sword, while keeping Yunlan safe behind him, trapped in an ice bubble, yelling at him to let him out and help. However Shen Wei was too busy to comply to his demand, for which Zhao used his flaming sword to break free of his freezing protection. Just a few minute after the root escaped from its sphere, the room was a complete disaster and many mages where caught by the roots, which engulf them, braking bones right and left.

"Damn it! Are they mad?!!" Shen Wei yelled, as a set of roots broke a window, then a part of the wall that was keeping the storm away from the mages. Thus, the wind and rain from the outside come in, causing even more chaos.

"Shen Wei! Let's get out!" Zhao yelled and they did try to move away, but the roots were everywhere, destroying doors and going out to the rest of the airship.

"The wall! Let's take off from the broken wall!" Shen Wei yelled, as Yunlan cut some roots while they moved down the broken stairs. They ran avoiding roots to the wall, no minding getting wet again with the heavy rain, but as they approached, more roots intercept them.

"Ah, damn Imperials! What the hell are this things?!!" Zhao yelled angrily, while he use his flaming sword to keep the roots from squeezing both of them to death.

"They are imitations of the beast tree roots! However, they are not the real thing, which mean, this ones can be destroyed. Keep it up, Yunlan, I will try something..."

"Wait, what are you going to do? Hey, Shen Wei! Shen Wei!!!!" But the third Prince gather his energy, like he did when he faced the dragon, back inside the scroll. Then, he ran toward the center of the roots, cutting all that try to catch him and with a fierce roar, he create an ice tunnel ahead of him, which connected with the fake tree and once he was close enough, he put both hand over the main root and released the energy.

A wave of red energy hit the thing, making the whole ship tremor and soon after, the root three begin to break in pieces, falling all over the place. Zhao Yunlan was staring at his powerful Prince with his mouth half open in awe, when a black cat suddenly appeared out of nowhere and look at the disaster around him.

"I should had known, usually all kind of places get destroyed whatever you stay in them for more than ten minutes." The cat said as he looked back to his Captain with deep green eyes.

"Ah, Da Qing you are just in time..."

"Sure thing, to save your ass... again." The cat said, while Shen Wei came back to Yunlan. That airship was done for, so they needed to escape before it went down or burst to flames if hit by lightings.

"Zhao Yunlan... we need to..." Shen begin, but stop as he became aware of the presence of the black cat almost on his feet.

"A shifter?" Shen asked, deeply looking at the oversized ball of fur.

"He is not only powerful and handsome, he is also smart. No wonder you are throwing us in such a mess." The cat said.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm the mess up Captain... that keep you very well feed!" Zhao cursed back.

"Hum... Yunlan? Is he from your crew?" Zhao ignored the cat and smiled at his handsome Prince with a wicked one that make Shen Wei's skin had goosebumps. He knew he was up to something mischievous.

"Ah, Shen Wei... he is indeed both a shifter, from the cat tribe and a member of my crew. However, he is a very rare cat, among his kind because he can teleport short distances. But don't mind him... that was quite impressive, my Prince. Thank you for protecting me so wonderfully..." Zhao approached Wei.

"As if... we are not safe yet, this ship if falling down, let's get out, we are not out of the loop yet, there is a raging storm outside, if you have failed to notice." The cat said before transforming into his human shape, a young man with long hair reaching a bit under his shoulder and also dressed in black and red, like the Prince.

"Shen Wei... hero of mine... let me show you my appreciation." Zhao moved closer still, ignoring the cat and pulling the Prince even closer, to steal a kiss from him, but was interrupted just inches form his target as the laziest member of his crew pull him away, then putting a hand over the intensely blushing Prince shoulder, the three of them disappeared form the falling airship, to be back on the obsidian deck of the Black Fury.

"Let's get out of here... we need to use the crystal, this is more serious than I expected." Zhao said as he moved to the entrance door to get out of the wind and rain.

"Wait, the crystal? You know what will happen to you if you use it." Da Qing protested.

"Yet, we still need to use it. Come, my Prince... I will show you the reason we had come this far." Zhao said, as he took the Prince hand and guide him around the mess up airship, with Da Qing following them closely. Zhao open a thick metal door and let the prince see the unique core of the Black Fury.

The yellow glow was almost blinding, but to Shen Wei, still seen it with his red eyes, was stroke by the biggest surprise in his entire life, as he stared at the flaming crystal the size of a dragon scale.

"A living stone... impossible..." Shen Wei whisper as he stared at the fire that burned inside the amber crystal, that was said to hold the fire of a god that no mortal could hold. Then Shen Wei turned to look at the smiling Captain and wonder if the guardian of the scroll had guessed right, when he told him that the stranger was also a guardian from way before the dragons were, among other things.

"Who are you?" The question got out of his lips before he even realize, yet, Yunlan simply smiled and come closer.

"A descendant of a god... nice to meet you, my Prince..." Then, taking him by surprise, the shameless pervert kiss him, at the same time the crystal shined even more blindly and Shen Wei felt a different kind of pull of gravity, like they had travel hundreds of miles at an incredible speed.

The kiss was barely a touch of his lips, but Shen Wei found himself unable to pull him away, by more than the strange happening, of the living stone. Maybe the dragon had also guessed right and the man taking advantage of him so shamelessly was in fact, the one he would mark as his mate for life.

AN: Thanks for reading. I had fun writing this, so I hope you also enjoy the reading.