Greetings all
I hope you all had a fantastic weekend and you're all ready for the week. I have decided the update today will be a little longer than usual, so be prepared for a longer-than-normal read. I hope you all enjoy it!
Sash rotated her best team of doctors through the night to keep an eye on Aidan as he sat with his mother. It was round about midnight that he had fallen asleep in the chair, and she had been summoned to deal with him. No one wanted to be the unfamiliar face who would have to handle a terrified human if he woke up.
Sash came in, yawning, exhausted from the day and yet to go home. She was weighing her options of waking Aidan and taking him home versus him sleeping here alone. She was still thinking about it as she picked him up.
“Could he stay a little longer?”
The voice startled her so much she nearly dropped the child. She spun and saw Saita viewing her wearily through her right eye with only a slit. She immediately dimmed the overhead light to allow Saita to see better.
“How are you?”
“Not dead.” The girl made to sit up but then noticed her leg was in traction. “I broke my leg? I don’t remember that happening.”
She tried to move her right arm and groaned before pushing her head back into her pillow. “Ow.”
“You have been sleeping for almost two weeks after the attack.”
“Hmm, feels longer.” She lifted her left arm. “Could he stay the night? Here, in my left side. I don’t think I have broken ribs on that side, and I haven’t…”
The tears flowed then, and Saita didn’t even bother to wipe them away. “I thought I’d never see him again.”
Against her better judgement, Sash lay the boy next to his mother and covered him while Saita tightly wrapped her arm around him. Aidan didn’t move at all.
“My son.” Said Saita with a sigh. “Sash, this is my Aidan, my son, my blood.”
“He is a fine boy.” Was all the doctor could say as she monitored the vitals on the screen next to the bed. “How do you feel?”
“Like I want to vomit yet I can hardly keep my eyes open.” Saita closed her eye before opening both. “I don’t remember much, but Jethron…he is okay, right?”
“Tired. He is also complaining of exhaustion. I can get you something for nausea.”
“Hungry too. Starving and exhausted. The marks are gone, aren’t they?”
“When I changed your chest dressings earlier there were a few strands around your sternum, but that was all I could see.”
Aidan rolled in his sleep and snuggled against his mother and seemed to finally relax for the first time since he had gotten there. Saita had fresh tears in her eyes, and Sash wished that Aidan could see how much his mother had missed him.
“He turned six just before the Games.” Whispered Saita. “I will not miss the next birthday!”
“Do you think you can eat?”
“It can wait till morning. You should get home before it gets too late. Your family must be worried about you.”
“I’ll hang around a little until you settle back to sleep.”
“Keep an eye on Jethron.” Said Saita with a sigh as she closed her eyes. “My brother is more tired than what he is letting on.”
Jethron was the first into the room that morning. He didn’t need Sash to tell him that Saita had woken. He had woken with tears on his cheeks early that morning and had felt what Saita had felt. He had saved her, and it had been successful, but they were now bound. He had felt her name him brother, and a shudder comes over him. She wasn’t wrong, but it was so much more than that, and he felt that he needed to explain to her what it all meant.
He took a second to gather his thoughts as he entered the room. Sash was in the middle of gently placing Saita’s shattered right arm into a sling while Aidan patiently waited in a chair nearby. The skin that the Dekai could see was marked with deep bruises that were starting to fade, but the black marks that Saita had desperately tried to hide were gone.
“There are a few new lines on the sternum. Sash showed me this morning.” Said Saita when she noticed him. “Along with several staples that are itching like mad.”
“I will tie your hands down if you scratch.” Warned Sash as she viewed her handy work. “I’ll give you a shirt by the end of the week. We will then see how you are and decide if you should spend more time healing or if I can release you.”
“I think the problem is that.” Saita pointed to her leg. “That hurts.”
“A snapped femur usually does.”
Jethron knew that she was awake, but he had had no idea that she was coherent. He looked at the boy, who was smiling. The anger that had been coming from him the previous day seemed to have melted away.
“Morning Uncle. I suppose you have words for the Human?”
“A few, but surely, she must be hungry.”
“Starving.” Confirmed Saita.
“Me too!” said Aidan.
“This is not exactly a restaurant.” Sighed Sash. “But I will make sure you all get to eat. And you,”
She turned to poke Aidan in the nose. “Are not sleeping here tonight. You are coming home with me to meet my parents where you cannot kick your mother’s ribs to pieces.”
“Does he have to?” demanded Saita.
“Yes, you need to heal. Here. Let me lift the bed for you. Then Aidan can help me get food that the two of you will actually eat.”
“I literally don’t care what it is Sash, that is how hungry I am.” Said Saita as she grits her teeth through the pain of being moved once more. “And then, later, could I speak to Myla and Pura?”
“I believe they are in meetings for the day, but I will be sure to inform them that you are awake and you want to speak to them. Come along Aidan.” Sash held her hand out to the boy. “Let these two grown-ups have their boring conversation without us.”
Jethron watched Saita’s smile fall from her face with a grimace as soon as the boy left the room. She leaned her head back with a heavy sigh before bringing it back up. She used her left hand to place a pillow at such an angle that she could lean against it and still look at the Dekai before her. He could see she was exhausted and full of pain.
“Let’s talk.” She said and she waved her only free hand at the chair to her left. “There is a lot I think you want to get off your chest.”
The Dekai spread his wings over the back of the chair as he sat down. He wasn’t sure how to even begin the conversation he needed to have with her. It was difficult to explain to a Dekai that already knew the procedure but to explain to one who is not of his own species.
“Twins in a womb.” Said the girl after some time. “There will be echoes of us knowing more about each other than we should.”
Jethron chuckled. “That isn’t so far from the truth.”
“Is it another augmentation?” she asked wearily.
“A little yes, a little no. I fixed what was broken but had to include part of me in it.”
“Am I still human?”
“You are.”
“Then why can I feel what you feel, see what you see when I close my eyes, and why are there whispers at the back of my mind?” she raised a hand to rub at the side of her head.
“The theory of twins I suppose is the best to describe what this is. Like Larden and I, you and I are now soul siblings but closer due to the blood and the ritual. Likely the echoes in your head are from Sedeath. They should pass in time. As for the feeling my feelings and seeing what I do that too should pass, but it will take a considerably longer time.”
“You know about my shortened life, so why did you do this?” she asked. “I should have said no, but my son…”
She stared at the door where her son had been not too long ago. “I wanted a chance to see him one more time, and I couldn’t say no when I should have. I feel that I have bound you to my shortened life.”
Jethron laughed then and slapped his knee, startling the human so much that she flinched from the pain.
“What exactly is so funny?”
“It averages out.” Said the Dekai. “Your concern was me having chosen a shorter life? Do you have any idea how long we live, do you? If anything, the coupling of my life to yours makes you almost as long-lived as a Saith now. If the Fell Dragon and its minions don’t eat you then you could easily see your 120th birthday and still be in good health.”
“Then why all the concern for you?”
“Because when you die, I die.” Said the Dekai after some time.
“What about the cellular death?”
“It should slow down considerably now that there is Dekai blood present in you. It recognises you as what the device was intended for.
Saita leaned her head back with another sigh of pain. “So, you will never reach an old age for your kind?”
“That all depends on where we go from here.” He said softly. “We survived the attack by the Wolven because we were lucky and surrounded by some of the strongest creatures in the universe. We may not be that lucky again.”
“Wolven, so that is what they were. I thought they were Vulpine that were… well, made like me.”
“I don’t know what the Vulpine are, but likely those creatures were heavily augmented, very much like you, yes. My uncles are working hard on trying to figure them out.”
“So, now what?” asked Saita as she looked at the tired Dekai.
“We both take the time needed to overcome this joining. Likely I will have to bring you to see my family and make amends for what I did without asking proper permission from my wife.” Jethron smiled but shuddered all the same. “I will need to prepare my people for what is to come. Have them brush up on the history that had been locked away in the time of Sedeath. There is a lot to do, but the main question to ask is what do you want to do?”
With annoyance, Saita pointed to her leg. “Heal.”
“After that. Your contract with Chaka is now over. The Games had to be cancelled due to many fighters being attacked and injured. As you can imagine my mother is not pleased, but then again, to see her fight again after all this time was an honour indeed.” Jethron’s mind wandered for a bit before he seemed to snap back to reality. “From what I understand is that my mother has asked your king to not lay claim to you for a year. During that time, you will need to learn how to fight properly and with form. This gung-ho attitude to fighting where you do not care for your life is something that needs to be unlearned while learning more valuable skills.”
“Is it worth our time though?”
“Saita, the Fell Dragon is coming, and it is coming for you. It will tear through universes and collapse times to get to something that will sate it for more millennia than I can count. You need to be prepared for what is going to come for you. Guerrilla tactics will not help you, and it will not play fair. The Wolven are but the first of its resources. Soon, a disease will spread, and we will lose numbers. We need to make up for those numbers with people that can be gathered as allies. You will need to make peace with your family one way or another.” Then Jethron sighed heavily. “And you may need to make peace with Edzeeker.”
He could hear the girl’s molars grind more loudly than before she said. “He is still here, isn’t he?”
“In the dungeons, but you will not go to him, and you will not speak to him until you are ready. I will be returning home in a few weeks’ time, and I will be taking him back with me. Once you have completed what you need to do with the humans and Saith you will come to my planet where the two of you need to make peace.”
“Never.”
“Saita he is the only one who knows more about the Fell Dragon than what I do. He understands what he put inside of you. He could guide you.”
“I can’t forgive him.” She growled.
“I didn’t say forgive him. I said to make peace.”
“He is a monster.”
“See him through your son’s eyes.” Said Jethron after some time. “Ask him who cared for him when he was sick. When he needed someone to cry to. I don’t deny or condone what he did to you, but he cared for your son.”
“Only because he wanted a replacement.”
“Be that as it may it doesn’t change the fact that he guided your son, and he may need to guide you.” Jethron took a deep breath and then stood up. “But don’t worry about him now. You need to heal, and then you need to deal with your family.”
“Where does this leave us?” asked Saita softly.
“Let’s talk after you finish service to my mother. I will need to inform the council of elders as to why the Kai was attacked and why the Saith started a war with the humans. Peace is going to be hard to keep, but there should be an understanding.” He lay a hand on her left leg and said. “You also need to learn to forgive yourself.”
“Excuse me?”
“The way you can sense my feelings I can feel yours too. You are riddled with guilt over what you did when you were a child. You blame yourself for the war that followed. You feel that if you had been a little stronger, cleverer, you would have been able to come up with a better plan. You made a choice, and you need to live with the consequences, yes, but you do not have to feel guilty for what happened afterwards.”
Saita felt the blush rise in her neck, but she refused to break eye contact with the Dekai that suddenly looked at her. “I did what I had to.”
“And you say that so well as if it is rehearsed every night before you go to sleep.”
Jethron patted her leg gently and said. “I also want to speak to these creatures you refer to as the Heavenly. They are not a species I have heard of before, and I am curious as to how they have the power to bring the dead back to life and have possible control over time. They are not as benevolent as what they may seem.”
There is a lot of forgiving to be done, but can Saita ever forgive Edzeeker? Guess we'll see.
For those of you who have never heard of Fell Dragon you can find Book 1 here, Book 2 here and the start of Book 3 here. If you have any questions, feel free to ask me. I love discussing my books!
As the series continues, it will combine with another book series I wrote. To avoid confusion about what is happening, introductory chapters will be introduced separately so that you don't have to be lost. However, these chapters will contain spoilers. You can find these chapters here:
Races Explained
Banishment
Royal Guard
Saasha’s Direct Family
Saith Characters Recap
Human Characters Recap
If you want to join the Reader's list, just ask or follow me for updates on this and my other stories.
Haven't read the other parts yet? Follow these handy links:
Part 10>>You are Here>>Part 12
Reader's List
