Chapter 4

I dreamed of nothing that night, and when I woke up, I was well-rested and in a good mood. I had slept for a day. I knew this because I got porridge when I woke up. It was Neil who brought me my breakfast, and this was his last shift for the month. After it ended, he would be on leave for three months, going back home to Lorea.

I knew every soldier's schedules like the back of my hand by then.

Next to the always tight-lipped Neil stood Colter and an officer I'd never seen before. It was an older man with short dark brown hair, which started to turn grey, especially at the temple. The man wore round glasses and a friendly expression as he openly stared at me.

I was surprised that he looked at me that directly. And the smile I got on my lips when I first discovered that there was a new soldier in the room, disappeared. I quickly stood up as the men approached me. All three were dressed in companion Draconi's black uniform.

"Iunius, this is Major Didier Courtin. He's been ordered to interrogate you about everything you know about the Fae."

I was taken aback by what Colter told me, and at first, I didn't know what to say. I stared at Colter and then at the man next to him. He was older than Colter by perhaps twenty-years, and on his face, a few wrinkles appeared next to his eyes as he smiled. It was quite charming.

The Major beamed at me and stretched out his hand. Stupidly, I stared at it for a while, until I realized what I was doing and grabbed it. I could barely understand what was happening. He greeted me as we were equals! His grip was firm, and he excitedly shook my hand.

"It is a real pleasure to meet you, Miss Iunius. My name is Major Didier Courtin, but it would be an honour if you could just call me Didier, Miss."

The man was thrilled, and he almost glowed with happiness.

"When the King sent for me and asked me to take this position, I simply could not refuse. I am truly delighted to have the opportunity to listen to everything you can to tell us."

I, the master of quick comebacks, had lost the ability to speak out of mear shock. I stood there like a fool, staring at the first person, not dead or belonging to the Dale family, who had to talk to me since King Alexander.

"Major Courtin will come and question you this afternoon. And you will answer all his questions. Understood?" Colter commanded and sounded somewhat irritated.

Slowly, I nodded as if I were in a trans.

"I'll see you later then," the major bowed before he and Neil left the cell, leaving Colter and me alone.

However, I quickly pulled my self together when it was just the two of us and accusingly I glared at the captain.

"Why didn't you tell me about the major?"

"I didn't know anything myself. The major wasn't one of the men I chose for the new positions. Major Courtin came yesterday with a part of the King's guards and with a letter from His Majesty himself. It seems like they desperately need all your knowledge about the Fae. Courtin is here to document everything and then pass it on to the King."

"Why?" I asked. "Something must have happened because no one has been interested in asking me about this before."

Colter hesitated. I saw that he was unsure whether to tell me or not, but he took a deep breath and looked at me very seriously in the eyes.

"This is brand new information. I received it from Major Courtin just before we came in here. Ooro is gone."

Yet another shock! This turned out to be a day full of unexpected events.

"How? That city has defences impossible to destroy. Countless armies have been trying to occupy the city for thousands of years. None have succeeded. Not even the Fae. I was there, and I tried with all my strength to breach the wall."

Colter hesitated again, and I understood that whatever had destroyed Ooro was special.

"It was a dragon, Iunius. The Fae has a new dragon."

It was if my heart stopped beating. I stared at the man for a long time before I got out of the shock.

"Are you sure about that?" I asked, hoping with all my heart that he wasn't, but to my disappointment, Colter nodded.

"We are. A single dragon has eradicated the entire city. Nothing's left of Ooro, only ruins."

The words hit me hard, and my chest clenched. It hurt. Ooro had been my childhood home, and there I had my best years until my father killed the three men who raped me. My father and I had to leave Ooro after that, and I hadn't come back until many years later. Then as a general in the Fae's Great Army. With the task of capturing the city that had once been my home. But even if I had been evil at the time, my plan was never to destroy Ooro, only to take it as my own, keeping the beautiful city unharmed and as an asset.

However, as I said to Colter, we had failed like everyone else. Ooro was the oldest city in the known world. From the time when the First left the beaches along the Ocean of Beginning, and wandered through Hycor's desert, across the Red Mountains and up towards the green country of Lonorak. They built the city with the help of the First Magic, the primordial power of the earth. It had been the only town in the old world that was constructed of magic.

Ooro hadn't been an influential city in many hundreds of years, but it had been the safest. It resided inside the dead, half-ravaged volcano from which the town had its name—protected from all directions by the volcano and a high wall. The city had no guards to protect the wall, but a few meters apart stood five meters high pillars. The columns glowed with the same primordial power with which the First had built the city. When attacked, the pillars sent out rays that killed everyone within a kilometre of the wall. At soon as the intruders got hit by the rays, they became a pile of ashes.

I was a half-dragon, the first primal storms created my race, and no other primordial force could annihilate me as it could humans. Still, my power hadn't harmed the fortification at all, and we had to end our attack after months of siege. A storm can destroy with terrible force, but the earth is life, and against it, I could do no harm.

"What colour?" My voice trembled as I asked the most critical question.

"One side was white, and the other was black, and the reports say that it was so big that it covered the sky."

I shook my head. Now I was fully convinced.

"You are clearly mistaken. There are neither white dragons nor black. It's not possible for such a dragon to exist."

"Unfortunately, it's true. And you should know better than anyone that nothing is impossible when it comes to dragons. Right?"

I flinched and looked him deep in the eyes. He was, of course, right. I was proof of that. Therefore I just nodded in return.

"A black and white dragon now fights for the Fae, and that's not all. Your former rulers have begun marching for the first time since they lost you. They are heading towards the Empire."

This wasn't the first time I heard about the war. Colter wasn't allowed to tell me anything about the outside, but he still did. I had asked him why, and he replied that it could hardly do any harm if I knew. It wasn't as if I couldn't get anywhere. It always made me happy that he wanted to talk to me, so I really didn't care why he did it.

"How did the dragon destroy the city? With what force?"

Colter's shrugged his shoulders.

"We don't know. The few survivors had never seen anything like it. That's why we need all your knowledge. As both a half-dragon and as one of the Fae's closest, you are critical to winning the war."

The war that Colter talked about had been going on for two-hundred and fifty years. And during my time with the Fae, they had taken over the entire western continent and Inma, The Hundred Islands. According to Colter, the Fae hadn't crossed the channel between Inma and the Empire like they had planned. They had been inactive ever since they lost me. Not only had I been their most potent weapon and General in their army, but I had also been their adviser and source of knowledge. I knew everything about this world that was so alien to them. Without me, they were lost. Well, until now, it seemed. They had found someone who could take my place, and I actually felt a bit discarded.

"So, the Fae has crossed the ocean again?"

Colter nodded, and my heart became heavy. The Fae had been defeated by the Eastern Army in the Sea of ​​Thirst a few years after I ended up in this cell and had to leave Hycor and the Eastern Continent. Now they were here again.

"I'll do my best to work with the Major," I stated firmly.

Colter smiled. It wasn't a big smile, and it didn't last long, but he smiled, and my heart did an extra beat.

"Good."

He turned to go but stopped and glanced back at me. His eyes were troubled.

"Be careful with Major Courtin. We don't know enough about him to trust him."

I didn't ask what he was referring to, but just nodded and silently watched as Colter walked away and the heavy door locked behind him. Alone I sat, feeling both excited and somewhat confused. There was too much that now happened at once. Fewer of my victims arrived at the full moon, the coming interrogation, Ooro's destruction, and finally, that the Fae had a new dragon. A black and white on top of that!

A thousand thoughts filled my head, and an unpleasant feeling came over me. This was most likely the beginning of something big. I was sure of it. But what?

At lunch, Major Courtin and Private Javed came. Javed was a short, black-haired soldier with a funny little moustache. And at the end of the week, Javed was after thirty years station in the prison, going to be transferred to another company. Well, no big loss, he hadn't contributed with any entertainment at all.

The two men carried a tray with my food, a glass of water, a writing pad, and a chair. After putting down the plate on the floor in front of me, Javed left the cell and closed the door.

I looked curiously at the Major. He had a happy smile on his thin lips when he politely greeted me.

"It's a pleasure to meet you again, Miss."

I grabbed the plate, there was meat stew in a bowl, and I started eating while Courtin sat opposite me. At first, he didn't say anything. He just looked at me calmly while I ate. When I'd almost finished eating, he unbuttoned the black jacket and pulled out a strange thing from one of his inner pockets. I watched him closely, curious. The object was small and long, and after removing something from it, he brought the item against the open notepad he had in his lap. My eyes widened when I saw that something resembling ink came out, and I leaned closer to him to see better. It looked like he was writing, but how was that possible? He had no ink with him.

The major must have noted my interest and stopped writing. He held out the item to me.

"Are you interested in this pen?"

I nodded and tilted my head, my eyes still on the object.

"Where's the ink coming from?"

The Major explained that the ink was inside the pen and that it flowed out slowly when holding the pen down. I was fascinated. I had always written with a steel ink pen where the tip was dipped in ink.

"A lot has changed during the time you have been imprisoned here. How much have you noticed? After all, one hundred and thirty years is an extremely long time."

Of course, I had noticed that things had changed over the years. How the soldiers spoke, their hairstyles and uniforms had changed. But for me, the time had stopped.

I described what I had noticed to the Major, and he listened with interest.

"A lot has happened, and what you have seen is only a tiny part of it. We have machines that allow us to fly in the sky and other machines we use to travel underwater. We go by train and cars, we send telegrams, write with typewriters and listen to music on gramophones. It is really a fantastic time we are living in now, with constantly new technological inventions being presented."

I didn't understand what he was talking about at all. I had never cared about people's interest in machines and their inventions. I understood the benefits of developing weapons. The more effective they were, the better it was for the weak humans. But I never had any interest to use their weapons, except for my sword. I knew that muskets were good weapons for people to kill each other. Bullets couldn't harm me, though, not as a human or a dragon. Also, there wasn't any talent required to use a musket, not like using a sword or wield magic. Human's firearms simply didn't amuse me. It was a weapon for weaklings.

"I understand that a lot has changed out there, Major. However, it means very little to me who is imprisoned in this cell," I heard how bitter I sounded, and the major noted this as well.

"It wasn't my intention to upset you. I apologize," he looked anxious, which made me smile.

The major wasn't like the other soldiers here. He was a true gentleman.

"No worries, Major. I deserve my punishment."

The man looked surprised but said nothing about it. He was silent for a while, and it looked like he was thinking.

"Tell me, which of the three names do you want me to use?" He suddenly asked as he looked at me.

Surprised, I flinched. Nobody had asked me that before, everyone had just chosen the name they thought fit me best, without asking me what I thought.

For the last few years, I had been Cadhla, hated and feared by everyone. Colter was the first person in two hundred and fifty years to call me by another name. Once I had been proud of the name Cadhla, now I loathed that name and all that it meant. I was no longer White either. The dragons hated and rejected me, and I was never happy when I went by that name.

"Iunius," I replied, it was the only logical answer.

Iunius was my birth name, the name my beloved father had given me, and as Iunius, I had been a good person. Perhaps that name could give me some good luck this time.

Major Courtin nodded, obviously pleased with the choice of name.

"If you don't mind me asking you Iunius, but what is your age? I've heard that dragons can live for a very long time. Even for centuries."

I smiled and said teasingly.

"Does the Major mean I look old?"

Courtin quickly shook his head, and he looked troubled.

"If you are offended, then I apologize. I only mean that you look so young."

I laughed. It was so apparent that Courtin was from a respectable family. He was very well-behaved and polite. I liked it.

"I'm four hundred and fifty years old Major. Since I was twenty-five, my body hasn't aged a day, and it never will."

Courtin's eyes widened in shock, and he swiftly wrote something on the paper.

"Do dragons live forever?"

"Maybe, nobody knows. Dragons live a dangerous life, with conflicts between races, between different flocks, and within their own groups. Dragons may be an older breed than humans and far more powerful, but they have instincts like wild animals. Everything you have heard about the calm, peaceful dragons is nothing more than poets' stupid tales. So far, there isn't one dragon that has lived for over a thousand years, but it is probably no impossibility for a dragon to do so."

Major Courtin filled page after page with notes. His handwriting was beautiful.

"But is true, that male dragons stop ageing when they defeat their first opponent and drink their blood? And that females don't age after they have their first child?"

I froze. How did Major Courtin know that? No human had known about that before. I nodded but said nothing.

"Does that mean you have a child?" He asked and looked at me.

I could see that he was curious. But this was something I didn't want to talk to him about. My father had been the only one who knew. Of course, my pack had realized this, but they never asked. They weren't interested in me enough to even bother asking.

"It's not something I want to talk about. Shouldn't we focus on the Fae instead, Major?" My voice was cold, and I glared at the man.

"I apologize, Miss Iunius. You are absolutely right. That was very rude of me, and from now on, we'll talk about the Fae instead," Major Courtin looked at me with an anxious expression on his face, and I could relax.

He wouldn't ask me about it anymore. The rapists in Ooro had given me more than a broken body and a brutal end to the peaceful life I lived with my father. They had given me Marius, but he'd been dead for over four hundred years, and I hadn't thought of him in many years. He belonged to another life, one which I'd didn't want to think about.

The major began to ask me about the Fae, and for hours, we talked about these human-like creatures that the humans called the Fae. Courtin heard a lot of new information, and he wrote down everything I said. At the same time, I was just more than happy to talk to someone and actually getting some attention for once.

Major Courtin didn't know much about the Fae. Like everybody else, he'd only heard rumours about them, and not much of that was true. It was known that they were four siblings, and everybody in the known world could their names. Even the smallest child in the Empire could tell what the Fae's first names were, but very few had seen them and knew what they looked like.

They were called the Fae because they had wings on the back of their shoulder blades, just like the fairy folk in the old tales. The wings reminded of butterfly wings, and they were big beautiful wings that shimmered in green, blue, and red. The Fae belonged to a breed taller than humans, and their ears were slightly pointy at the helix.

The youngest of the four siblings were Bearach, and he was the one who was the most well-known to the soldiers of the Empire. No one could handle swords and muskets as good as my former comrade. Bearach was exceptionally talented, and he had never lost in close combat. Even his good looks had been gossiped about among the women of the Empire. Bearach was a handsome man with elegant features, long white hair, and emerald green, almond-shaped eyes. The other three siblings were not as well known, and no one outside the Fae's immediate circle had even seen the two elders, Aislin and Tuathal.

It was probably a lot the siblings had hidden from me. Yet, what I knew was more than enough for Courtin. Sometimes he asked me things, and I answered as best I could, but when he asked about their origins, there was not much I could tell him. I knew that they had awakened from a two-thousand-year-long slumber only a short time before they met me. And that they had ruled the ancient kingdom of Donegal, where Omorran now resides. More than that, I didn't know about the Fae's past.

"Is Tuathal the oldest of the siblings?" Courtin asked, but I shook my head.

"No. Well, Tuathal sure looks like he could be the oldest. But it's Aislin who is the firstborn."

This information seemed to surprise Courtin.

"But I've heard that Aislin looks like a young woman and that Tuathal looks like an old man."

"That's right, but she is more than ten years older than Tuathal and thirty years older than Bearach."

Many different feelings stirred within me when I started talking about Aislin, which wasn't exactly strange since she was mine for so many years. I hated her, but there were still the memories of her beautiful green almond-shaped eyes, the full red lips, and her soft, plump body that was warm to the touch.

I suddenly realized that the major was sitting opposite me. His eyes told me that he was curious, but the man said nothing. That I had been Aislin's lover was no secret, but I kept the details to myself. I squirmed and forced my thoughts away from those treacherous memories. I wanted to forget that I'd ever lay my eyes upon that beautiful fiend that was Aislin, Queen of the Fae.