Night Fury's Wrath

Chapter 75: What Lies Within [Part 2]

-Sorry for being so late. Life hasn't been kind lately. The next couple chapters or so likely won't be on time, at least while I work on recent issues. Hopefully, this is the last of the bad stuff for a while. At this point, I'm too exhausted to handle much more. 

Until next time.

-NFD

~~~

Sun damnit...

The tall chamber that should not exist was gloomy, covered in somewhat reflective black rock, and smelled terrible—not unlike the rest of this place—, but there was one key difference; the blue light streaming from a crevice far above. It illuminated a lone figure bound in strangely lackluster chains to a faintly glowing purple stone despite its ever-shifting form, giving me an odd sense of familiarity... and discomfort?

"It seems that 'master' of yours isn't all he's cracked up to be, hmm?" I dragged my eyes to a single cage against the leftmost wall. It was smaller than any of the others and appeared to emit a faint red light. Inside was a small silhouette, roughly the size of a Tail-Biter, and presumably the source of the small voice. "Now, who do ya want to believe? The dragon that showed ya the truth, as promised, or the monster that lied and hid this from you?"

I didn't have an answer. It simply didn't make sense! My master never lied to me; he only wanted what was best for me. But if that was true, why didn't he tell me about this? It wasn't for my safety—he claimed I was the deadliest dragon around. Did he not trust me? Was he hiding something important here, something he didn't want me to know?

The tiny dragon spoke again, sounding somewhat feminine. "I bet you're overflowing with questions, aren't ya?"

I jerked out of my thoughts, startled. "I... Y-Yes."

The dragon chuckled. "Good, then there's still hope. Deep down, you're still the Aurora I once knew—curiosity and all."

"Aurora?" I echoed, perplexed. "I'm not Aurora. You're mistaken."

"You are, you just don't remember it." What was that supposed to mean? Why wouldn't I remember something as obvious as my name? "There's a lot of things missing from your memory—"

"Instead of confusing the poor creature more, how about getting to the part where you explain?" I jumped at the unexpected break in our conversation. The voice was distinctly female, yet it had the same otherworldly tone as my master's voice, much to my unease. The only other being I saw here was the one chained up, leading me to assume they were the speaker.

The Tail-Biter sighed. "Right, well, I'll make it as simple as possible so you can understand."

My eyes narrowed a little. Was that an insult to my intelligence?

"That grouch is Caligo, and I am Anari," she began. "This is a torture chamber for Caligo, who was once the 'favorite' of your master, just like you. She—"

"I'm my master's one and only favorite," I insisted smugly, casting 'Caligo' a disdainful look. "There was never anyone else. He said so."

"He said so?" Caligo sneered. "Didn't he also say this part of the caverns didn't exist?"

I flinched. "W-Well..." A large part of me wanted to defend my master, but I didn't know how without making me sound like a clueless hatchling. Could I trust my master anymore?

"Anyway," 'Anari' interjected exasperatedly. "Caligo here is sentenced to eternal torment via that blue light and my Soulmagic. This cage intermittently drains me to infuse that stone under her and cause immense pain. That light is continuous pain—"