Author's Preface
Solana: Welcome back to Hidden Narratives. I am Solana.
Merkra: And I’m Merkra.
Solana: This week I wanted to start out with a question. You opened up our first episode saying that Fletcher Lightfoot was the main character of this story. Do you still feel that way?
A few seconds of silence
Merkra: That’s a solid question. Way to call me out there. I think it’s a pretty even split. Where we are in our research, I would say, I still agree with what I said. I don’t think the story moves forward without Fletcher in it.
Solana: Agreed.
Merkra: That’s it? Agreed?
Solana: Yes. I was just curious what you thought, and I agree. Before we get started, I wanted to add a bit of context for what our listeners are about to hear. I haven’t even shared this with you yet. Modern science states dragon’s have been extinct for two thousand four hundred years, which would make measuring the temperature of their fire impossible, obviously. But my friends at Aether Nexus ran a few experiments for me. To match the feats that history credits the creatures with, their flames would need to burn at approximately two thousand five hundred degrees. Keep that in the back of your mind.
Laughing. He was laughing.
A chill shot through Atania, despite the intense heat that had filled the chamber. Benicio rose, his once brown skin now a leathery crimson carapace. Horns broke through his forehead, still fresh with blood, and curled around his ears.
“Find it and run.” His voice, mixed with the echo of a hundred more, came out like a snarl. He wrenched the blade from the rock beneath him and sprinted at the dragon.
Find the orb? Clearly, the process that ripped her beloved brother from this planet and replaced him with this monstrosity had also gone completely mad. And yet, against every instinct in her body, she did as he told her. Her hands ripped through piles of gold and flung open wardrobes, driven by some sickening feeling that if she didn’t find it, she would disappoint him.
Disappoint him.
The blooded asshole caught her in The Coil. No matter how hard she fought it, her mind would not allow her body to do anything until she found the damned orb and ran. It was as if another consciousness overtook her. She saw what it saw, felt what it felt, heard what it heard, but in the end was a prisoner in her own mind.
Occasionally she would get glimpses in her periphery of Benicio scaling the side of the ancient beast only to be flung off like a flea. She desperately fought against his control, but if truth be told, she couldn’t say why. Logically, she would retreat. She couldn’t help him fight a dragon. Even if she could, her Benicio was gone.
Her pride and her love for her brother sang a different tune. Ember called for her. As if the blade begged to avenge Benicio. Begged to taste the blood of the ancient behemoth.
Benicio’s new body soared past her, slamming into the wall in a hail of dirt and rock. Then came the flames. She was ten feet below and twice that away, but the sheer force of the blast that sailed over her head flattened her to the ground. Her ears rang, eyes were now a useless kaleidoscope of orange and white, and the fire burnt away all the oxygen that was in her. Her mouth opened, desperately trying to refill her vacant lungs, and things got so much worse.
Superheated air scorched her insides like she’d swallowed the flame itself. She tried to move, but the leather armor had shrunk from the heat and hardened. A clawed hand ripped her from the ground. While it had mercifully torn a chunk of crumbling leather from her cooking skin, she was certain this was the end. She was about to be a snack for a dragon.
Dark embering coals stared into her eyes as Benicio lifted her to her feet. He dug a taloned finger into the leather frying pan that was her armor and ripped away most of it in a single motion. It was only for a moment, but somewhere within the smoldering fire of his eyes she could see him again. Then he lifted her into the air and hurled her across the chamber with one hand.
“Find it and get out!” He reiterated his command.
Pain lanced through her as she sunk into a pile of coins and forced herself to her feet. With each step, her exposed skin cracked and oozed what little moisture was still in her body. Still unable to see, her hands dug into the closest pile of gold, body refusing to dismiss the command. It was several minutes before her hearing returned, but the shake of the mountain told her the battle still raged on.
Eventually, the orange and white spots that had taken over her vision faded. That’s when she saw it. Dislodged from a cupboard, flung against the wall from the fight. An orange orb, roughly the size of her head, rolled in a tight circle around its onyx base.
Atania climbed over and slid down a pile of gold and scooped the orb into arms of bubbling skin. Run. Her back, butt, and thighs had taken the brunt of the blast. Even now, with the hardened leather stripped from her body, running caused her vision to blur and her head to spin. Yet she did it anyway.
Across the chamber, Benicio flung the enormous blade at the dragon as if it were a throwing axe. It dug into the beast’s chest near the enormous crystal heart. Perhaps he could get away. Did she really want him to, though? He’d crossed the threshold. There was no going back to Benicio now. He was forever this demon. Yet, he was single-handedly holding back the onslaught of the most powerful beast the world had ever seen…just so she could get away.
She tore through the room and into the corridor. Each breath was torturous. She nearly tripped over a series of obstacles about halfway through the corridor. The screams she’d heard during the dragons’ first assault. Nothing but a pile of corpses now. As she neared the entrance, the heat dissipated, but shadows waited for her. Those who hadn’t been brave enough to, or were too smart to, investigate the commotion.
She slowed, the remnants of her brand flickered to life in a muted green. She took a deep breath, the cool outside air temporarily soothing her desecrated lungs, then lifted Ember from its sheath. A fight was the last thing she wanted. In her condition, it was possible even a Null could kill her. She had to flee. If they were in her way, she would cut them down.
They didn’t raise arms, or even move to stop her. They cleared a path, in fact. Those without masks gaped in wide-eyed horror at her exposed, ruined body. One of them muttered a prayer to The Mother Below, but whether it was for her or to expel her, Atania couldn’t tell. She doubted the nudity was the cause of the fright. It was obviously bad. The pain told her as much, but a sinking feeling in her gut signaled she’d underestimated how bad it was.
It took twice as long to get back to the horses, despite the direct route she’d taken when not trying to be stealthy. Benicio had stripped the leather cage from her body, but her boots were still a problem. Each step of her jerky, unnatural gait was a source of utter agony that her body refused to express. She pushed the orb into a saddlebag, wrapped herself in a blanket that was on her horse, and climbed up onto it. The moment her ass touched saddle…The Coil snapped.
For a single fleeting instant, her mind was her own again. The driving command was gone.
Then she screamed.
Every agony the magic had shielded her from hit her all at once—the searing heat from the burns, the ruined flesh on her back and legs, and the feeling of thousands of needles piercing her lungs with each breath. Her nose filled with the acrid scent of her roasted body.
The horse must have started running when she screamed, but all she could hear now was the sound of her own breathing. Wet and ragged. Nothing but gurgling gasps as the blackened organs struggled for air. In her last moments of consciousness, she slid the reins around one of her shoulders and pressed her body to the horse’s neck.
Atania’s vision tunneled. Benicio. A memory filled her mind. They were children. Clasping one another’s bleeding hands. They made a promise that day to never let each other go. Her lips moved, forming a word that might have been his name before darkness swallowed her.