Dragon 7 Chapter 35 (Patreon)

After the… enlightening… meal with my mother, I managed to pull Nyske away to my office for use of this crystal.

Sabrina and Pixie were already in my office waiting.

“My king.” Pixie nodded at the crystal that had been placed on my desk. “I’m told you are going to go unconscious for a time during this. I will be here to take care of you.”

I raised a brow, taking in Sabrina and her standing near each other. They could be a dangerous duo. “I hope you wouldn’t do anything untoward,” I teased her.

Sabrina rolled her eyes. “I’m interested in the magic. Please sit in your chair. I’ll work with Bart to start the sequence.”

Nyske fidgeted nearby. Pixie rubbed her back, clearly also picking up on her anxiety.

“How bad is this going to be?” I asked Nyske.

“Not bad, but if you only got parts of it, it could be very bad,” she replied.

I sat down in the chair, and Sabrina didn’t hesitate. She drew circles around the crystal as she turned it to face me. The memory of my father was on the other side of the crystal, waving at me before everything went black.

I had a feeling that I was going to wake up with another headache, but I pushed forward. When I blinked my eyes open, Bart stood over me in a completely white room.

“Where’s Tia?” I sat up from where I was laying on the ground. The space was disorienting. It was hard to tell where the ground ended and anything else started.

Bart clicked his tongue. “Let’s keep this part a secret from her. Otherwise, Nyske might not survive. How are you, son?” He held a hand out.

I took it, pulling myself up to a standing position. “Good. I think. Things are changing quite rapidly. The fae queens are planning something. The Dreamer feels like she is also trying to push me forward to something.”

My father frowned. “Sort of. And that leads into what the nymph wanted to show you. We’ll get to that in a minute. Tell me more. How’s your magic?”

“Varied. I am getting used to fae magic. Sabrina has been working with me on enchantments. You should know, I’m going to Hell with her soon.” I was curious to see his reaction.

Bart nodded. “She’s outgrown that enchantment to keep her succubus nature at bay. You’re the cause of that, but she’s powerful enough that, if she goes to Hell alone, she’d be snatched up and snacked on by the old demons. She’s way too powerful to be a lower order demon right now.”

His feedback wasn’t making me feel any better.

My father rubbed his chin. “There might be other opportunities for you in Hell. What have the fae done?”

“They have given me a fragment of Faerie made with the three queens working together,” I replied.

Bart nodded, a graver expression coming over his face. “Yes. Yes. You broke a great pattern. Which means you are a focal point of change. You’ll break some rules, no doubt.”

“So, I shouldn’t be able to control this fragment?” I asked.

He shook his head. “Nope. I couldn’t if I tried. But that’s good. Not exactly what The Dreamer wanted, but it’ll do some good.”

I raised a brow for him to continue, but he shook his head. “Let’s let Nyske tell the story. We can talk more after.” He clapped his hands and the white space suddenly filled with enchantments before the scenery changed.

A young nymph was pulling herself out of the mud and taking her first breath.

“Dear. Welcome.” A woman made of swirling and churning plants bent down and pulled an apple out of herself. “Would you like an apple? They are sweet, delicious and will fill you with vitality.”

All around, other nymphs were pulling themselves free of the mud as well. Each of them naked and looking at the world around them with curiosity.

Nyske reached for the apple, but The Dreamer pulled it away. “You owe me a favor.”

The young Nyske paused before nodding. “A favor for a life.” She took the apple and The Dreamer smiled.

“At least you understand. Thankfully, I didn’t make stupid creatures like those other idiots.” The Dreamer smiled and stepped back before approaching another nymph.

Nyske bit into the apple with a crunch, watching her sister nymphs born from the mud.

Plants were all around them, sprouting up from the ground. The soil under her feet felt fresh and new. Rather than hang around, she wanted to explore.

The scene shifted. The plants grew quickly, time speeding along as years passed and Nyske lived her life among Faerie, experimenting with her magic, making music and dancing.

My father spoke, watching from beside me. “The nymphs and all the fae were Mnemosyne’s second creation. First she made the muses for the other titans and gods to enjoy, but they didn’t appreciate her work and caged them for their own enjoyment.”

I knew the story. “She came here after that. She made Faerie and remade the nymphs, but with their freedom.”

My father nodded. “You are growing wise. A lot must have happened.” He sighed and seemed older. “Let us continue to the important part.”

He waved his hand, and the scene moved to Nyske practicing dance like sword play with another nymph.Both of them were in the sheer dress I’d seen on nymphs before; the cloth fluttered about as their wooden swords clacked.

Neither of them won or lost. Any time one pressed the advantage too far, they slowed down while the other caught up and eventually pushed them back. To me, it looked like Nyske was in complete control of the other nymph’s sword.

Eventually, the other nymph stiffened and looked behind Nyske.

A blind nymph waited behind her, and Nyske’s smile fell to a flat line.

“What do you want, mother?” Nyske’s tone was cold. Something had shifted.

“There is a child. One that has been taken from his mother. I wish to raise him.” The blind nymph that The Dreamer controlled smiled at her. “He’s very important, and we can’t let him die.”

That statement had Nyske’s attention. “I’d be happy to collect a wayward child. Where is he?”

“His father has him and is traveling through the Wilds.” The Dreamer looked off into the distance with her blind eyes, like they could see more than they should. “Ten days from here if you go east due east, you should get close enough to follow his trail.”

“No.” Nyske shook her head. “I won’t separate a child from his father. No matter how incompetent he is.”

The Dreamer pursed her lips, and whatever she saw in that expression made Nyske take a step back and glare. “No.”

“Nyske, you will do this as the favor you owe me,” The Dreamer stated with her eyes narrowing in challenge.

Nyske froze, her entire body stiffening before she shouted in anger and threw her wooden sword at The Dreamer. The sword missed her by a hair's breadth. The Dreamer never so much as flinched.

“It was a damn apple. That is not worth this!” Nyske growled in anger.

“I gave you life. Now you will collect this child for me. It is a young dragon, still in his egg, but it will hatch soon. Collect him and your debt is paid forever. You will have no further bindings on you.” The Dreamer was calm.

Nyske knew that there was no way the boy was an ordinary kid. She threw a fist into a nearby tree and snorted before stomping off. Despite how much she wanted to fight it, the favor had been called and she felt compelled to comply.

Without another word, she stormed off through the jungle. None of the plants touched her. She felt vile for what she was being forced to do, and moved fluidly through the jungle, not wanting to taint any other living thing.

She had grown up with this jungle, and it was familiar to a fault, but now it felt wrong. Her trust in all she knew was shattered.

Days passed. Nyske traveled the jungle, collecting fruit when she was hungry and finding a pool of fresh water when she was thirsty. She tried to make it more of a stroll rather than the forced march it felt like.

True to The Dreamer’s words, Nyske found a trail of broken vegetation easily. Whoever had pushed through was being sloppy.Picking up into a jog, Nyske moved faster. She wanted the entire awful experience over and done.

With her freedom, she’d find a way to escape Faerie and travel other planes. She’d get as far away from her mother as possible.

Nyske smelled the man before she saw him.

Slipping around a tree, she leaned out to see a haggard man struggling to carry a large dragon egg. She’d seen dragons before. The Dreamer had a small clutch of them in the Wilds.

But this was the first egg she’d seen that was so pretty. It was like a rainbow brought to life.She stayed low and approached.

“Please. Help me,” the man noticed her.

Nyske stopped. No one noticed her if she didn’t want them to.

He looked at her with dragon eyes that had seen the eons go by. “You are an old nymph.”

Nyske snorted. “You can tell?”

“Yes. Very old. Which is bad news for me. I’m afraid I’m not much of anything right now.” His skin rippled with scales, but they didn’t pop out. “Shit. Who sent you?”

“The Dreamer,” Nyske replied, watching the man. “You can’t shift?” It would make her task easier, but it made the male dragon pitiful.

“This damned seal is coming undone, but I’m not near what I used to be. The Dreamer cannot have this child.” He covered the egg with his body. “It cannot stay here.”

Nyske only shook her head. The man would be easy to deal with, but her curiosity was piqued. Something about his eyes had her attention. They were too old. “She’s called in a favor I owed her. I cannot stop myself.”

Even now, Nyske felt the compulsion to grab the egg and run. She certainly couldn’t walk away; stopping was about all she could do.

He clicked his tongue. “Do you know what this egg is?”

“Your son.” Only a father would defend their child like he was, positioning his body in front of it. It made Nyske’s heart bleed to take it.

“Yes. But who am I?” he asked.

Nyske walked slowly around him, looking at him from several angles. “An old dragon that isn’t so old.” It came to her. “Reincarnation. That makes you Bahamut.”

“I prefer Bart,” he grunted. “But yes. Then the question is, the egg color is imparted by the mother, so who’s his mother?”

Suddenly, it all clicked in Nyske’s head. Now she understood why her mother so desperately wanted the egg.

Nyske gasped. “No. You and Tiamat? But you’ll free the Spider Queen.”

The Wilds had been spared since that war, and Nyske had no desire to see the trees of her home burn once again with the flames of war.

“It is done. But you know what this means?” He pushed her further.

She stared at the egg. “A break in a great pattern. A missed stitch in the great tapestry of fate. We have no idea what the pattern will look like after this.”

She knew far more than most just how real such a thing was. After all, she’d seen the sealing of the Spider Queen and the ripples that it had created.

“If The Dreamer has him, raises him, she’ll control how the pattern changes,” Bart reminded her.

Nyske’s jaw clenched. Her mother gave her life and gave her, along with the rest of the fae, a home. But she did not trust her mother with such a great responsibility. For now, The Dreamer largely slept, and she liked it better that way.

“I am bound to an oath. As much as I wish I could, I cannot stop myself from taking it.”

“You could die,” Bart replied, sadness in his eyes. He knew exactly what he was asking. She stopped in her tracks.

She had had a long life, but death? No, she wasn’t ready to stop living. She had yet to really see the world. “I’m sorry, but I am still attached to life.”

“I’m Bahamut. Though I am weak, I have people who owe me favors. I wish to trade my life for yours, as long as you’ll deliver my son from The Dreamer.” Bart smiled at her, and her heart broke at the sadness in his eyes at leaving his son.

He was a man out of options, and he was willing to do whatever he needed to for his son. She believed in his offer, and the ability to stick it to her mother for forcing her to do something against her will sounded like a nectar too sweet to pass up.

Nyske licked her lips. “How?”

“You were given life by Mnemosyne. I was given life by Typhon. I will open a connection to Tartarus; he owes me a few favors. Then I will take your life and die in your stead; you will take mine and live on.” He made it sound so simple, but Nyske knew there was no way it could be so easy.

“My time is short. Even now, the compulsion tugs at me to take that egg and run. Faerie does not connect to Tartarus. My mother would be furious if you connected her plane to it,” Nyske said with a growing smile. “So do it.”

“You aren’t worried about what will happen?” Bart already began drawing lines in the dirt.

“No. I’m always open to new exploration. Will I keep my body?” she asked.

“Yes, but you’ll lose your magic. You’ll be something new. A dragon’s essence, stuffed inside a nymph’s body.”

“What will their name be?” Nyske looked down at the egg.

“Zach, so he knows I remember.” There was a small smile on Bart’s face. “Of course, given what he will be one day, he should take the surname of Pendragon.” Bart went back to drawing the enchantment in the dirt.

“A strong name.” Nyske nodded. “I’m sure he’ll remember you fondly.”

Bart continued to draw in the dirt before a small trickle of magic came out of him to fill the lines.

Nyske watched with curiosity as the enchantment in the dirt turned into a small black portal, one so dark and deep that it was not natural. It was only about the size of a fist.

“Tar, old friend, I need a favor,” Bart spoke into the space.

A pair of eyes opened in the darkness. “Old friend. Speak. I will do my best to aid you.”

“The pattern is changing again. I hold a part of it here.” Bart patted the egg. “We need to make sure the titans stay put, and that includes Mnemosyne. I have a nymph here that’ll help, but I need to free her of an oath to her mother.”

“I cannot break those,” the voice responded.

“I was hoping you could do an old shell game with me. Kill her, take her life and her oath, then put my essence into her,” Bart explained quickly.

Nyske bolted back several steps, realizing her possible mistake. Tartarus could easily kill her and protect its friend. But she couldn’t move fast enough.

A spike of pure black came from that hole and pierced her heart.

“This will be complicated, my friend. Apologies for the pain.” Tartarus’s voice rattled the leaves around her.

Nyske tried to open her mouth, but nothing came out and sparks flew out of her chest into the spike. She felt herself fading away.

But as she was so concerned with her own life, Bart gasped and his fingers dug furrows in the ground. The same sensation of fading was followed by being filled like a cup with a hole being poured into over top.

“Do not fear, little nymph,” Tartarus said. “You are safe. Unless you wish to abscond with this gift back to my sister. Then you should tremble with such fear, for your death will eventually come, and I will dance upon your corpse and show you how I feel for those who betray.”

“I will not,” Nyske croaked.

“I know, or I would not have complied.” Those eyes flicked back to Bart, who was pale as death on the ground. “Forgive me, old friend. But we have further work to do.”

The portal cut out, and Nyske fell to the ground. She reached down, rubbing at her chest and expecting to find a hole. But her skin was smooth. She sighed in relief before she stood a little too quickly and wobbled as if she was a newborn adjusting to a new life.

The compulsion was gone, and the world seemed brighter for it.

She grabbed the egg and the entire jungle shook as the earth quaked in rage. No doubt her mother felt the connection of her oath slipping away.

“Fuck you, mother.” Nyske lifted the egg, finding it far too light. She could barely take her eyes off of it; it was beautiful.

Meanwhile, she could feel herself changing. New, raw emotions redoubled and folded onto themselves. But she didn’t have time to dwell on self-reflection. She took the egg and ran.

There was a portal four days from where she stood, but the border to the queen’s dueling ring was only a day’s travel. If she could make it there, then she could escape the worst of her mother’s ire.The woods would no doubt be filled with her monsters hounding her down before the sun set.

Nyske made up her mind and moved.

Memories blurred by as she escaped beast after beast that day, only to run into the area dominated by the two queens before the egg began to shake in her arms.

She was almost to the portal when she had to stop. The egg was shaking so violently that she was worried something was wrong. Maybe she’d shaken it too much in their journey.

Nyske had helped all manner of creatures with birth before, so she grabbed a rock and smashed the side of the egg. She was shocked with what she saw inside.

It wasn’t a whelp, but a young human.

The shaking made sense to her. He was having trouble breaking the egg; humans were not equipped to handle such a birth.

Nyske pulled back the egg, cutting her hands in the process as she freed the child from the liquid. He looked so cute, so delicate. But she knew that one day his destiny would be great.

A child should not be burdened with those troubles. It was one thing for a titan or someone like Bahamut to change the weaves of fate, but for a child?

Innocence was a blessing, one that should be maintained.

Bart’s words had not failed her. He wanted the boy freed of Mnemosyne’s control.

Nyske stepped through the portal and out into the prime world. She had never been before, but she’d imagined so many ideas, so many times.

It wasn’t as she’d expected. The air felt so… so… dirty.

She wrinkled her nose and the babe cried as the sun shone down on them. Nyske cursed and, with a thought, tried to glamor herself to look like a human.

But her glamor didn’t work that way.

Instead, her bones cracked, her skin pulled, and rather than a glamor, her body shifted to match what she wanted.

Nyske fell, rolling to protect the child. “My magic.” She breathed in relief once the process was finished.

The babe cried again and she looked down at her tit, but there was no milk there. So instead, she picked him up and hurried out of the woods, tapping her new magic and wrapping him in a fine cloth as she moved to find someone, anything to help her feed this child.

This magic had responded when she had tried to create a glamor, but there was nothing fake about what she was doing.

Nyske’s heart pounded with the implications. There had never been magic like this, yet…

She glanced down at the child in her arms, the one that would change the weave of fate. Just her agreeing to take him from her mother had already made her into something the world had never seen before.

Nyske ran from the forest, holding the child. People were looking at her strangely, and she’d seen that look before. She was breaking expectations and garnering attention.

And the babe was growing hungrier as it cried further.

People came out of a shop, and a little bell rang as they ate food out of a stiff wrap. And food was what Nyske needed. She hurried into the shop; the babe’s crying drew everyone’s attention.

She hurried to the front of the queue of people. “Hello, I desperately need food for this child.”

There was a woman on the other side of a low counter, wearing a bright red shirt with a thing wrapped around the top of her head.

She spoke into it. “Can someone get the manager? We have another problem up front.” She seemed calm.

Nyske let out a breath. She’d get food to feed the child.

But that’s not what happened.

Men came, pointing strange weapons at her, but she knew a weapon when she saw someone hold one. She fought them, but more of them came and she was forced to surrender or show her magic, which she knew she wasn’t supposed to do.

The babe was taken from her, and time flew forward once again. Nyske had been put in a strange place with many other unwell people. It was years before she got out, understood the world better, and went in search of the babe once again.

“Are you sure this is okay?” The paid actor straightened his shirt. “This is the fifth one.”

Nyske glared at him and pulled a wad of cash out of her pocket. She licked her finger and peeled off another few bills. Her magic had made cash king for her. After all, she could just make more of it anytime she wanted.

She knew that it was wrong, but she was also given very few options in the new world. “Here. Two hundred more. We are Arthur and Mary, looking for our biological kid.”

He straightened his shirt and walked up to the door, knocking on it.

An older man, older than Nyske expected, answered the door.

“Hello, we are Arthur and Mary. We’re looking for our son. Can we come in?” The actor played his part. Nyske wanted him to be the focus.

“Sorry, why don’t we have this conversation here?” the older man encouraged.

“We are Zach’s biological parents,” the actor blurted out, playing the role well as his face collapsed in on itself in agony. “We just want to see our son.”

The older man used the door as a shield, stepping back. “Please leave. I don’t know who you are, but Zach’s parents are dead.”

Nyske couldn’t take it. She’d finally tracked him down. She threw herself at the door. “Then Zach is here?”

“Honey, call the cops,” the man shouted.

“No. No, don’t do that. We are leaving.” The actor grabbed her arm and jerked her away, hissing under his breath. “I’m not going to jail for this shit. I’m done.”

Nyske hurried away with him. She hadn’t gotten to see Zach, but she had found him. She walked away from the neighborhood as a pair of cop cars rolled in.

Nyske shuddered, remembering the last time she’d gotten involved with the cops, and quickened her steps, but she paused to read the name of a large building down the street.

She walked up and picked up a flier from the front, reading the name.

The memories swirled for a moment, and I took a step back from them, touching myself. I tried to reorient myself, noticing Bart watching from beside me. We were still in the crystal viewing her memories.

Bart sped up the images again.

Nyske wore several faces in the years to come, and almost all of them familiar. Many were teachers. But the last one before she reverted to her fae form was startling.

It was my freshman girlfriend.

“End it. Please,” I asked Bart, and he did something that returned us to the white room.

“Well, it seems like she did the best she could, given the circumstances,” Bart tried to console me. “And I think I understand what is happening with your fae queens.”

“What?” I was curious. Everybody spoke like I’d change the patterns of fate, but I had no idea what that really meant.

My father rubbed his chin. “They want to stop the wars, enter an era of peace. You have the power to do that. You have a lot of power. You are a pattern breaker.”

I looked down at my hands. “Like Kitsune’s getting their tails early, the world’s first alpha female werewolf, and the world’s only elven vampire?”

He nodded along with me. “Those are fairly small patterns, but yes. Things like that will happen around you. Something larger, like ending the fae wars or stabilizing the planes, would take a much larger, more concerted effort. The prime plane is the only one that’s truly stable. But with you, the fae queens might be stabilizing Faerie. Though, I have no idea how that would work. I doubt they do either.”

I shook my head. He wasn’t exactly making anything clearer. “Thanks for that. I’m going to head out. I’d rather get this conversation with Nyske over.”

Bart nodded. “Come back soon. We should discuss these changes.” He waved his hand, and I felt my consciousness jerk back to my body.

I groaned, holding my head in my leather chair. The crystal on the desk was where they had left it. I was back in my office, with a pounding headache.

Pixie smiled at me. “That wasn’t too long. I’ll leave you two.”

The door closed behind her, and Nyske stood in front of my desk as she fidgeted with her sleeves.

I sighed. “What am I supposed to do with all of this information?”

“I’m sorry.” She hung her head. “I never meant to mislead you. Only to help you.”

Waving my hand, I didn’t care about the shapeshifting and being my teacher. I had dived so deep into those memories that I understood her just about as well as I understood myself.

At no point was she trying to manipulate me or change me.

Nyske was just trying to make sure I stayed healthy and happy. In fact, over the years she began to care for me a great deal, and not in a motherly way. It was in a very nymph way.

“I mean gosh. How can someone enjoy pickle juice,” I sighed and rubbed my face, returning to a topic that was familiar between us.

Nyske smiled brightly. “Because it’s amazing! But it’s okay. If you don’t like it, then I can have it all for myself.”

I looked at her, really looked at her. I saw her for so much more after what I’d just experienced. “No wonder you were always so dodgy with some questions and all the doublespeak. You can’t lie like a fae, right?”

She nodded. “Right.”

“Then, do you love me?” I asked her point blank.

Nyske opened her mouth once and then nodded. “Yes, I do.”

I laughed. “You know, when you were my chemistry teacher in high school, I thought I was losing my mind when I thought the teacher had the hots for me.”

She rolled her eyes. “I had to hold myself back until you were older. It would have been inappropriate. But when you were in college…” She smiled. “Then I could teach you what great sex was.”

“Okay. Well. Then, we’ll just have to pick things back up, Nyske. This time without hiding anything.” I realized what the next step was. “Also, are you a dragon?”

She shrugged. “I can change my shape at will. Sure, I can become a dragon.”

“Shift your arm, but don’t try to pick a color, just let it happen,” I told her.

Nyske smiled and shifted her arm. “When I do that, it’s strange.” Her arm looked like it was a black dragon for a second, but like her hair, there was a swirl of colors and iridescence just under the surface.

I frowned at what I was seeing.

She didn’t fit any dragon type I knew, which I guess I had to start to get used to. I was going to shift and change patterns.Apparently, my existence could also create a new dragon that the world had never seen before.

“Well then, I guess you are a faerie dragon.” I shrugged as if it was nothing new. “Now, we need to get to work. I think the financial audit is set for a week from now, and I need to start planning to attend Summer’s Court sessions. That’s going to make her happy, and I want to make all of my ladies happy.”

Nyske grabbed pen and paper off the desk, taking notes as I continued to talk.

“I need some plans to entertain my mother as she starts to visit more, then I need a book about fatherhood, because I’m about to be a father many times over and the last thing I need is to fuck up the first whole wave of kids.”

I rubbed at my forehead, trying to get rid of the headache. “Okay, get Pixie in here after you leave. I think I could use a massage for my head before I drag Ikta in here for more answers.”

Nyske beamed at me and turned to leave. I noticed a little bounce in her step. The secrecy had clearly been weighing her down.

I sat into my desk chair, processing the fact that I not only was Dragon King, but I was also apparently the focal point of the next big change for all paranormals, setting patterns for the next eon.

But if I’d learned anything from what I’d seen in Nyske’s memories, the future wasn’t set. I was able to charter those patterns based on my decisions, and my mind was made.

I’d help bring peace to the fae and war to Hell, and I’d keep my women safe beside me.