The beginning of the end

POV Apollonia

"Sister run!"

Quickly approaching me were three adult dragons that were clearly not friendly, each of them looked at us like we were but mere prey for them, not even considered a real threat.

Corentine looked at me with wavering eyes, clearly trying to decided what to do, but I knew that If she could get back to brother then they could get Uncle to come and help. So I would just have to buy her some time to do that.

"I will hold them off! Go!" I yelled again, this time I made sure to make it sound like an order. As I turned back I heard sisters wing beats fading into the distance and my enemies growing louder.

I felt a tear run down my scales as I contemplated if this would be the last time I say her beautiful white scales and her bright red eyes. I thought about Brother who had always protected us since that day in the cave, and of how it made me so happy to be by his side.

I snapped back to reality and started to muster the strongest flames I could manage, my whole body became covered in white hot flame and once I felt that I was ready I gathered my dragons breath and attacked.

POV Valorian

My words hung in the air for but a moment before Delmar closed his eyes and sighed, "Seeing one so young with such resolve is encouraging, but you will have to forgive me for this, I have a promise to keep."

That was the last thing that I heard before a massive tree root came crashing down on my neck and knocked me out cold.

I woke up some time later, whether that was hours or days, I didn't know but surprisingly my neck didn't hurt at all. I raised my head to look around and realized that I was a cave on the top of a mountain.

Looking outside I could see the stars painting the sky, the fresh mountain air created a low howling sound from the mouth of the cave.

"Finally awake, I was starting to get worried." I head from behind me

"First you knock me out then you ask about my health?" I said

"It was a necessary evil, whether you like it or not you are orders of magnitude more important than your siblings." Delmar responded.

"I do not care if I am in any way special! My sister was taken from us and your response was to run! For all I know she is already dead because I didn't get to her in time, or even worse they are torturing her for information about me!

So no I don't care about your so called importance. I am tired of seeing those I care about taken from me. Seeing father be butchered was already enough for me, but now there is the very real possibility that Apollonia will die before we can do a damn thing about it!"

As Delmar stared into my eyes within he could clearly see the pain I was feeling over my inability to help my loved ones.

"Do not speak of loss child. You have no idea the depth of pain that each and every one of us dragons feel when one of us is lost, you have not even scratched the surface of your heritage memories and yet you speak of loss." Delmar said with a scoff then continued

"Do not waste the gift your sister has given us. She bought us the most important thing of all, time. Time for us to flee unimpeded, whether or not she loses her life because of it do not belittle that for your own selfish needs."

I couldn't wrap my head around his utter disregard for my sisters safety, how he would just write what she did off as some noble sacrifice. Should we dragons who are so few in number really just accept the death of one of us with such an excuse as weakness.

I thought not, but at this moment in time I was powerless to change what had happened. If I tried to run after her then Delmar was likely to just knock me out again or confine me.

Not that I could think of any spell that was capable of binding me but I was sure that he could find a way.

So I decided in that moment that for the foreseeable future I would commit myself wholly to finding how to use my power of domination as it seemed to be the key to most of these issues.

I scoffed then got up and went to sit at the entrance of the cave, looking out across the mountain range we were in I could see birds that I had never seen before flying about. The snow capped mountains glistened in the light of the moons, giving them a serene feeling.

With the calming cool mountain air blowing across my scales I looked up at the two moons shining brightly in the nights sky and made a promise "Sister I will find you, and bring you home."

With that I closed my eyes and began to pry at the power that dwells within me, so far I had just been using it to help control the mana that I guess I had obtained from eating my sibling at birth.

My power of destruction had always been volatile but with my mark of domination I had always been able to make it do as I wished to a certain extent.

Truly now that I had been practicing mana control, it seemed that I had actually been hindering my growth rather than helping it up to a certain point.

It was much like a crutch for me to stand on, I could not rely on it forever, I needed to learn how to wield this power without its assistance. So for the first time I willed my command of domination to cease its function.

Immediately I felt a change it was as if a dam had burst and the mana that had once flowed through my veins lazily now turned into a raging torrent.

A grimace came over my face as I withstood that change in flow, but after a few minutes it seemed to stabilize. Although it didn't return to the calm flow from before its flow reduced considerably. I was also able to notice for the first time that the flow of mana was much higher closer to my core.

With the flow stabilized I now searched within myself so that I could differentiate between the different types of mana within me. I soon realized that I possessed two different types of mana, but that made me wonder, was I not supposed to have three?

After all I now had a mark that held, Destruction, Domination, and what seemed to be fire or something similar.

I decided to pull on the stronger of the two which I assumed to be my destruction mana. Quickly black tendrils appeared on the ground in front of me, I had assumed correctly.

I dispelled the mana then called on the other, and in the same place there was now a small fire.I then dispelled that as well, at least I knew what I was working with now. But the fact remained that it seemed my power of domination did in fact not come from mana at all.

Although I could feel its power and instruct it to control my own mana, it seemed to not possess any of its own.

I looked deeper, and when I focused on my core near my heart I could sense the dull thrum of power. I was initially stumped on how to properly tap into this power, but then I remembered that I had the oh so wise Delmar to ask such questions.

"Delmar I have a question for you."

I heard him stand up before walking to my side before he said "And what would that be?"

"How does one direct a marks power without the use of mana." I replied.

"I would have thought that you would know the answer already. It is quite simple, your mark dictates the pillar of existence that one is the representative of. If you have the mark of water then as long as you are near some then you can call on it to do your bidding to a certain extent. But it is unlike when you use mana for the same thing, instead of an order it is more like a request."

"Thank you, your assistance is appreciated." I replied before hearing him walk back to his resting place and lay down.

'hmmm a request you say, but that entirely contradicts the purpose of this power.'

Just then it hit me, maybe the purpose of the mark of domination was to enable the use of any element outside the body by commanding the environment.

'Well I will never know unless I try.'

I decided to try it with a element of which I had no affinity for, but was always readily available. The air.

I reached into my core and summoned its power then focused on the wind, then I imbued a order into the power.

'create a powerful gale that strips the snow from that nearby mountain.'

Just as I released the thought I felt the wind outside pick up speed before turning into a massive tornado that did just what I asked.

The wind tore across the mountain top erasing any trace of the once beautiful snow atop it, with the wind howling so loudly I hear both Delmar and my sister rush to the entrance beside me.

"What did you do?" Delmar asked me

"I only enacted what you said, only with a little more determination." I replied.

Sister stared wide eyed at the now dissipating currents of wind outside before looking at me and saying "How is that even possible? you don't have any mark for air."

"Well as it turns out I don't seem to need one."

POV Apollonia

After I had rushed headlong at our attackers the end result was rather predictable. With three full adult dragons I stood no chance of victory alone and the end result was both of my wings and one of my forelimbs had been removed from my body.

In my brief moments of conciseness all I saw was the night sky above the glittering ocean. I had no clue were I was being taken but all I could think about was being grateful that I still drew breath.

The two dragons acting as my "escorts" seemed worried about something but I was not able to discern as to what as they were holding telepathic conversations.

Soon I fell into a deep sleep to restore the limbs I had lost, this was not a sleep that I could willingly awake from.

As I slept images of an enormous black dragon fighting a vast army of humans flashed across my mind. I would realize after waking that this must have been the memory that brother had seen which caused his outburst all those months ago.

But instead of rage like brother I was overcame with a feeling of deep sadness seeing what had been done to him.

Next I saw our uncle Delmar through someone else's eyes, we flew through the night sky together and talked about our wish for reconciliation with the mortal races.

Delmar had taken it upon himself to start with the beast men and whom ever I was seeing through had decided to try and make peace with the humans. Delmar was fully against this saying "The humans still hold to much greed and fear for us to reconcile just yet, we should give them a few hundred years before approaching them."

But I replied "I understand that they are the most far gone of the mortals but I must hope for their sake that they will listen to reason. The world as we know it will soon be plunged into a great war, the likes of which that has not been seen for a millennium."

Understanding that I would not budge on this he simply said "Then I wish the best of luck to you brother, we will meet again." Before flying away.

POV Valorian

"Incredible not even I would have thought this was possible, did you draw on domination?" Delmar asked me.

I simply nodded before saying "Uncle if I am able to master this power will you allow me to bring our sister home?"

He did not immediately respond but after a short pause he said "If you are able to master it then I will call our allies and we will all come to her aid."

"Then I guess I have my path forward made for me. Uncle I would like to test something, would you mind helping me for a moment?"

"What do you need from me? I have no clue how to control that power."

"all I need is for you to stand there and listen to my commands, try to not obey them if you will."

He nodded with an uncertain look on his face, if my theory was correct then this power was exactly was its name implied, complete domination.

So drawing on it once again I directed it towards my vocal cords before looking my uncle directly in the eye.

"Kneel."

The voice that left my mouth was entirely unfamiliar to me, it was as if it was coming from someone else but the effect was immediately apparent, although not from my intended target.

Delmar seemed entirely unfazed but I turned my head to see my sister prostrating herself on the ground and was making no effort to try and stand, it was as if she was in a trance.

I quickly spoke again using the same power "Act as normal."

And instantly her eyes refocused and she shakily stood back up asking "Brother what was that?"

Before I could answer her Delmar spoke up "Domination."

"When you speak while issuing a command your marks center begins to glow."

'So when I call on my power the mark begins to glow, interesting.'

"I wonder why it was only effective on my sister?"

"Perhaps it is because she has a similar mana capacity?" Delmar replied

"That would pose a problem." I replied.

"Why is that?"

"If I am meant to use this to its full potential would that not mean that I would need the same or greater mana capacity that the progenitor himself?"

"I suppose so. This poses an interesting problem."

"Why is that?"

"What is the usual method for increasing you mana capacity?"

"You expend it until empty then let it refill, repeat."

"Indeed, and how long do you think the progenitor has been doing this?"

My eyes widened in realization before I felt like I would have the worst headache of my like thinking about how vast his mana must truly be. Just as I was beginning to feel hopeless a sudden realization hit me.

"Maybe that is not the only way."