A dream in the moonlight

After the fight, Tarim joined his den with the other dragons. His mind was full of the events that happened and how he was surprised to be dominated in such a way. Tarim has always been the most powerful dragon of all, he could not imagine that some little human looking could have toyed with him. His heart was seeking revenge as much as he could feel some hint of respect for the young man who dared to ride the dragon's back. 

On the other side of the castle, Talim had joined her council. She barely entered the room when the old men started to complain, "What was this demonstration of force?"

"What happened to Tarim?!"

"Why was the castle covered in flames?!"

"Why…" Another continued before she yelled, "Stop!"

They all looked at her with round eyes. Talim was always so kind and soft, she would never raise her voice this way, the men around the table suddenly went silent and listened to her as the situation sounded exceptional. 

"Tarim and I will be leaving for some time. We have to discuss the position of the garrisons at the border and how to secure the Kingdom before my departure with my brother," She said, trying to speak with a calm voice.

"Leaving? You can't be serious. We are in the middle of a war, Tarim can't leave, we need his force."

Talim lowered her head, of course, they needed Tarim. At the end of the day, she was just a sick little girl in their eyes. The members of the council were speaking loudly about their opinions and she was hurt to see how little she mattered. It was all about Tarim and how they would manage without him, agreeing that Tarim could not leave. 

Talim was too kind and not powerful enough; she had nothing from her father or brother. She was fragile physically and she was not an excellent politician or tactician. She loved art and poetry, her voice was fantastic and she could enchant anyone listening to her melody, but that was useless in the eyes of the men around the map representing the enemy territory. She coughed a bit and a counselor immediately came to her, "You should go back to bed, my queen, you are too tired for such things. Forget about leaving, just go and lay."

That was enough for her, at this moment, a voice in her heart raised and pushed her to gather her courage.

"No, Tarim and I are leaving. You have two choices! Or, we work together to stabilize our position while I am still here, or, you manage alone and I just leave sooner than I planned."

The men opened their mouths in shock. She would have never talked to them in such a way before. The little queen tried to hide a grin of pride when she saw the power she could have in her, maybe the influence of Dante around was not so bad for her. This was a very satisfying situation and she loved to feel respected for once. 

"Where are you leaving?"

"When are you coming back?"

"When are you leaving?"

The advisors were asking questions after questions without giving her the time to answer any of them. 

Talim took a deep breath before speaking, interrupting the flow of questions from the advisors who started to panic at the idea to continue the war without Tarim.

"Tarim and I are leaving for a place named the Ombrae. We don't know yet when we will be coming back. It all depends on how we feel once we are there," She tried to explain to reassure them. 

This was without counting on one of the men who screamed in surprise."

"The Ombrae?!" Everyone turned their head to him at this moment, "This is the world of dead!"

There were faces of horror and disbelief in the room. Talim was at first surprised, "What is wrong with it?"

One old man walked to the young queen and placed a kind hand on her shoulder.

"Nobody ever came back alive from the Ombrae. It would be best if you did not go there. It is a world of shadows and darkness, there is nothing for you in this world. Why would you want to go? You have everything you want with us."

Talim lowered her head sadly, "I have everything but not what I want, the Ombrae is promising me this."

"What is it?" Asked another man, "We can help, we can find it for you."

"A longer and healthy life," She answered. 

The truth was spoken, the advisors, while caring for her constantly more than she was asking for, were not taking into consideration the fact that she was dying, and the world of the dead, as they called it, was the place to be for her. There was no one better than a servant of the dead to push it further, but still, the visions of the counselors were so perturbing that Talim started to hesitate a bit. She started to think that the Ombrae was maybe not a good idea and that she should be better focusing on resolving the conflict with the Terimatians.

Talim spent the day fighting and arguing. She had some ideas on how to protect the kingdom efficiently, but her counselors were simply not listening to her. She went back to her room in the night, exhausted, even if the men were still arguing with each other and the meeting hadn't ended yet. She decided to go on her balcony, taking in her mind the image of a world she would do anything never to forget. She loved the place where she was born, every single stone was a deep and powerful memory to her. The scent of the volcano, the dragons, the fresh hay of the stables, and every detail of this world made her feel at home. 

"Don't listen to them, you will love it," a masculine voice echoed in the deep of the night. 

Talim searched where the voice came from in vain. It was only when Jäwell stepped out of the darkness that she could see the true form of the young lad. She chuckled a bit when she saw him.

"You are not a young idiotic little man," She said, a bit mocking him.

"You are not a weak useless thing," He answered with a smirk.

Jäwell joined her and leaned over the fence of the balcony, right next to her. His long raven hair was falling on his massive chest as they both were watching in the direction of the moon.

"There is no moon in Ombrae, they are right, however. I need your brother to stay with me when I need him but for the rest of the time you both will be free to roam wherever you want to go." He explained kindly.

"How are you going to cure me when all healers always have failed?"

Jäwell turned in her direction, his black eyes digging into hers with an intense passion, he smiled as he knew he was irresistible, "Just trust me," He said.

Talim swallowed this answer, she didn't want to accept having to just listen to people. She was considering her options to insist and make Jäwell speak the truth about his plan. 

It was almost as if he understood, he sighed, falsy annoyed like a parent with a child and he placed a hand over her shoulder.

"I am going to make you one member of my family. You will bear the silver claws, you will be immortal. A daughter of Zarkhaïm's lineage."

Talim was not fully understanding what all this meant, she wanted to ask so many questions that none of them came to her. Jäwell leaned back over the fence, avoiding her look to let her time to process the information. 

He added, "We leave in a week, for you to have the time to deal with your counselors and prepare yourself. I will be sending a letter to an old friend and someone will come to transform you into one of us. It may be painful, you will die during the process, but you will awake, free of your duties and responsibilities. 

Talim could not believe it, it was like a dream, but something was bothering her.

"If I die, Tarim will die too. Are you going to transform him as well?"

Jäwell chuckled, "I will do what I said. I want Tarim to become a part of me. He will take my powers and I will transfer the link he was with you to me."

"Why do you do this?"

"Because I am bored, little one… I am bored. A fight without the thrill of risking your life is not interesting. I want to turn myself into a mortal to be able to enjoy battles all over the world."

She leaned her head over his shoulder with tenderness, "Then I guess we both want to be free to live as we wish."

Jäwell rubbed her hair softly, "I guess so. We are wild, after all."