Hard Truths, Soft Lies

"So let us see what that means for ourselves, shall we?"

Eiriol didn't wait for my confirmation. She only nodded to me as if I had agreed before her body lifted itself from her seat to begin drifting up and out with the same window Olga just egressed.

Corym and Indra followed. Both of them darted through the window with the fluidity and grace that only elves had. And then I followed. But only after my eyes turned to throw stern daggers at Zeff, though I couldn't blame him. Diving from the canopy was only fun for the powerful and crazy, descending to face the Emperor of Light and a defiant Devil notwithstanding. Luckily, there were more than a few clouds to latch on to as I fell. Reducing my mortal fears, if only by a little.

I landed next to Eiriol and Olga at Titus and Dende's flank while the elf of the hour stood across from them, obscured by a cloud of smoky darkness.

In that awkward silence, we stood. Watching. Waiting uncomfortably for the darkness to fade from around Amun's body to reveal the Bodhi Tree colors we all were familiar with.

And then Dende stepped forward. Prompting his dog to follow close by at his heels.

Wearing the gilded and silvered armor of his proud family, The Brightest Light, Dende Morningstar, strode forth to stand before his antithesis. A 15-year-old student that stood a full two heads shorter, yet still managed to look down on the Emperor as if he were a mere mouse.

"What happened to the Bairn?" Emperor Morningstar calmly asked.

In the face of such a sonorous voice, all Amun did was raise a brow and ask. "Who?"

"The dragon," the Emperor said, his smile still warm as the light he carried.

"Oh." Amun turned away with a snort through his nose. Disinterest was clear in his eyes, body language, tone, and more. "It's gone."

"To where?"

"To a place that's not here." Amun snapped his gaze back to Dende. But there was no anger, only impatience. A rising sense of impatience that seemed to beguile Eiriol even further. "Now then." Amun passed a cold, pervasive, magic-less wave of goosebump-inducing caution over the lot of us as his eye flicked between ours. "Is there a reason why you're all surrounding me? Or am I just being paranoid?"

"The dragon's fate cannot be left to interpretation." Dende began. "If-"

"If the dragon was that important to you, then you shouldn't have tasked a student to kill it."

"Mind your tongue, Boy!"

Amun snapped in Titus' direction. But this time, his brows were furrowed into a scowl and his eyes were brimming with something I had yet to see from him. Malice. Hostility. Anger. Though his voice was eerily calm. "And who the fuck are you supposed to be?"

Titus stepped forward, growling and baring electricity and Amun did the same, his brows now raised and an excited smile spread across his face while black and seafoam-green lightning danced across his body.

"Titus!" Dende waved him down and Titus halted both his advances and his lightning at once. But Amun's lightning- pervasive and deadly it was, intensified.

"Do you know who I am, Amun?" Dende asked through the storm.

Ever so slowly, Amun's magic faded in turn with his shifting gaze. But not entirely. The streaks of lightning and wisps of darkness still crept and billowed from his skin while he sized Emperor Morningstar up from head to toe. "I assume you're Lance's father? The Emperor of Polaris."

"Dende Morningstar."

"Right." Amun nodded, but barely. Instead his eyes, still brimming with hostility, turned back to Titus before a curious smirk peeled across his face. "Your dogs need more home training. Or a lead. Lest they bark up the wrong tree and find it toppling down on them."

"Is that a threat?" Titus growled at once. But darned not step forward.

"Call me boy one more time and I'll curse you, Titus." Amun sneered. "And if you keep bearing your teeth at me, I'll void you. That was two threats." He snorted, then turned his shaking head back to Dende.

Fucking humans.

"You are as unruly as they say. More, you and my son are like two sides of the same coin. The brightest light and the darkest shadow, both with arcana." Dende chortled. Though even I could see the heat building up within him. No one had ever talked to Emperor Dende Morningstar in such a manner. No one but the Necro King and the Iron Magus, perhaps. Which made his rage burn ever-hotter, I was sure.

"That's what I believed at first," Amun said without day. "Then, I learned the truth. Only to later forget it. But now." He raised his finger like a lecturer as he so often did while monologuing. "Now, I remember. And I'll never forget again."

He paused to stare deeper into the Emperor's eyes. "Darkness cannot exist without light? Hah!" He rocked back on his heels. "That couldn't be further from the truth! The reality is, that darkness is favored by the universe. Darkness is natural. It permeates the universe without end. Ruined only by the presence of material and energy that pours radiation and light into the void.

"Empty. Unchanging. Darkness." Amun glanced shifted his gaze to Olga. Then to Eiriol. Then to me, where he held it for a long, panic-inducing second. "Entropy." He turned back to face the Emperor. "That was the state of reality before the days of creation. That will become reality when this universe meets its inevitable end.

"Light is fleeting, Dende Morningstar. Darkness." He gestured to the abyssal tree hidden beneath his clothes. "Is eternal."

"You are as strange as they say as well." Dende chuckled after a second of faux speculation. "You have quite a different opinion than that of your predecessors. Yet, still, you are like them. A dauntless Sorcerer who is uncaring of the titles men bestow upon themselves."

"And you're just like every other human who imagines their throne sits atop an unbreakable pillar." Amun sighed. "You assume everyone you meet will prostrate before your name or revere your presence and label those who don't follow your ways of thinking as vagrants or evil. I can see that much through your dog." He threw his chin towards Titus and snickered.

"That's why you're here." He turned his snickering to the Emperor. "To see if I killed the dragon, like someone just and righteous, or to judge me as evil if I either didn't or turned it undead, right? I mean, that's why you've been scrying." He waved to the courtyard and beyond. "Watching me to see if I'm one to be ignored, recruited, or smitten in the name of the light.

"And when intimidation doesn't get you your way and violence can't be used, you resort to misplaced flattery and paltry lip service in a meek attempt to see what you can glean in person. That makes you sound ignorant and look like a fool." He turned his snickering to the Emperor. "I'm nothing like your son and I'm nothing like my predecessors. But you are correct about one thing. I don't care for the titles of men. All souls look the same from where the Nox sits, Dende. Everyone dies the same."

"And did the dragon die?" Dende calmly asked.

"It's gone," Amun replied in turn, dispersed his mana, then stepped past the Emperor without a word.

"I have one question." Dende turned after him.

But Amun kept walking.

"How are you uninhibited by the light?"

It was like a slap in the face to more than one of us. Olga. Me. Titus. Corym. Even Eiriol. We all knew he was a Drow. We all knew he was a being with death and darkness flowing through his veins. A devil. The simple fact of him walking under the sun without issue should've been the biggest red flag of all. I, personally, assumed he wore an enchantment but… he wore no rings aside from the platinum band of the guild association around his bicep.

Amun was unaffected by sunlight. But he didn't give us a reason as to how. He only snickered and shouted over his shoulder as he kept walking. "The world will see soon enough."

Nothing was said after that. We watched him step off into the courtyard and disappear around the corner without uttering a sound. And the silence was palpable. Taught with tension and flooded with a mix of unexpressed emotions. Seething anger from Titus. Hidden indignation from Emperor Morningstar. Concern and worry from the wood elves. Pure joy from Eiriol. And utter shock from Olga and I.

This was it.

The change was here.

***

"Fucking humans."

I didn't know what Dende or his dog's problem was and neither did I care. Nor did I need to remember Grandpa Lich's word to not let anyone walk all over me. I meant what I said.

War was something I was fully comfortable with doing, and I wouldn't hold back for anyone.

In my eyes, a million casualties of war equated to a million undead. No one would be spared.

Sighing out a heavy cloud of smoke, I settled on the sidewall of our dorm to stare through the window and smoke the bullshit out of my mind. There were around eighteen or so minutes until Peter's match was to start and there were a few things I wished to take care of before then.

Namely.

<<What do you three know about Telin?>>

The three elves, two wood ones like Zaos and a Drow, froze mid-step and turned as one to face me. But it was the Drow who was the first to step- or rather glide forward. She was dressed in monk's robes and held a regal posture like my mother. Her visage was eerily similar as well. With the same stout and pointed nose and pointed chin and violet skin and eyes that gazed upon me with pride. But she felt… different. Fragile almost. Like I could... feel her, in my bones.

She was ancient.

<<I will tell you that the time has not yet come, young Champion.>> She said after halting before me. <<You will learn all once you have evolved.>>

<<If you still can.>> One of the wood elves scoffed in disbelief. He was a male, hardly distinguishable from what could only have been his sister. With a wide forehead, copper-brown skin, and tribalistic tattoos trailing down his face. <<Would you have truly ended Titus?>> He asked.

<<I do not make empty threats.>>

<<And if you were unable to perform the ritual as a result?>> The sister asked. <<What then>>

<<Zorrenor has no choice but to let me complete the ritual.>> I snorted. <<My ancestors made sure of that.>>

<<And how far into the south will your curses reach?>> She then asked.

<<Who knows?>> I shrugged. <<I've never been there.>>

<<Well I live there.>>

<<Good for you.>> I smiled.

<<What she means to say is that she is the Druidic Instructor for the graduates of the Bodhi Tree.>>

'Graduates?'

<<Her name is Indra Lichenwind.>> Her brother continued before my thoughts could wonder, bringing me back in time for me to see him gesturing to himself while saying. <<I am the Ranger Instructor, Corym Lichenwind. It is our hope that your plague has no effect on our lands.>>

<<As you may have surmised, I am the Abbot at the Bodhi Tree's Monastery. Eiriol.>> The Drow bowed.

<<Pleasure.>> I lowered into a half-bow aimed at the three of them. <<Since you're unable to tell me about your tasks, I'll say that I look forward to our reunion in six months.>> I said to Eiriol in particular. <<Before you go, however, I will leave you all with a secret. Just between us elves.

<<In the coming times, Twilight will begin to shroud Polaris. Clearing the skies for the Moon's Light.>>

Eiriol's face curled into a wicked smile before she turned with a nod to drift further into campus. Meanwhile, Corym and Indra exchanged a cautious look before stepping off after her. Leaving me alone once again outside of my dorm.

Well, not entirely alone.

'This energy… this cold… I abhor it.'

'Eh.' I shrugged in response to the growls echoing in my mind. 'You'll get used to it.'

'Yes. And then I will eat you!'

Through my dual sight, I saw a much darker Twilight than what existed before. Rather than toiling thunder clouds in an amber sky, there was an endless sheet of black earth that sat beneath a gradient of gold to midnight blues. It was now late twilight. It was now dusk. It was the same size as before. But it was no longer empty.

Now, there was a single mound of stone and gold that sat atop the black plain. Shrouding the young dragon Cononthoth as she sneered in amusement.

It was the first time we'd spoken but I managed to glean a bit of information via our spiritual link. Namely that Cononthoth was a sixteen-year-old female red dragon. Barely older than me.

Though she wouldn't be red for long. The deal was a success. So successful that I had no need to put her in my Shadow Pocket and put the rest of the Menagerie at risk of being eaten once she could swim through the shadows as freely as they could.

All the umbral energy I was sure she needed to transform was injected into her the moment we struck a bargain and evermore was pouring into her still. From the environment and through the gold, where the darkness seemed to concentrate before it flowed into her from all directions.

Almost like a compressor.

Fascinating.

'Or perhaps not.' She growled out a laugh. "Elves see the Tiny Devil as their paragon. Humans fear the Tiny Devil for what he is, rightfully so. I see the Tiny Devil is humble enough to know he should bow only to the might of a red dragon- to me. This makes you more than the lowly worms who claim to rule these lands.

"I, Cononthoth, declare you, Tiny Devil, the only to be blessed by the glorious shade of my wings! Never shall I bore! Ever shall my riches increase! Ad infinitum shall my name be feared!'

'I'm honored.' I internally smiled. 'If I may be so bold as to bestow upon you a title to commemorate our agreement?'

'I will allow it.' Came the triumphant roar.

'Then I declare you- Cononthoth, The Exalted Gloom!' I ceremoniously declared.

'I will give you praise for such a worthy title by inquiring of yours. Tell me now, Tiny Devil.'

'Some call me the Elven Devil or the Devil of the Fey.' I mentally shrugged.

'Fitting.' Cononthoth admitted with a condescending huff. 'They, however, are not worthy enough for one as dignified as I to acknowledge. But the knowledge is received, Tiny Devil.'

'Tiny Devil it is.' I sighed. Then began pulling some temporal and void mana from my well and sending them into my left eye. 'Now then, I'll begin dilating the time in this chamber to accelerate your growth.'

'Simple enough.' Cononthoth immediately said. 'Now, explain it to me. I seek entertainment.'

Jesus Christ. 'The rate of time will be faster inside the domain relative to the outside. Simultaneously, I'll be slowing your perception of time. I'm aiming for a ratio of two years inside to six months outside. While I tend to my business here.' I waved across campus. 'Your body will grow normally, but you'll experience only a few seconds of time passing.'

'You will postpone until the transformation is complete, Tiny Devil.' Cononthoth growled with hints of displeasure from within her cocoon. 'Six months. Your foundation to my hoard is acceptable to sustain me until then. But you will prepare a grand feast for my rebirth. Lest you be my first morsel.'

'So be it.'