"The Water Houses - Nyght, Pisces, and Scorpius - are known to absorb the energy around them. Water is considered to be the strongest force of nature as it is within everything and everything relies on it. They are mysterious and protective of their secrets. They are the Water Houses."
ADALIND
Ahsa is nearby on the precipice of the palace. She climbs from tower to tower as I walk the hall to meet her once more on the balcony. Once I exit, I smile over the House of Dae as my hands settle on the metal banister. She huffs as she settles on it beside me. She's large, and regal, lowering her snout for me to pet her. Dragons don't purr, but they do make a sound of content that sounds like a deep hum.
Her head suddenly snaps upward and she stands to her full height. She must hear something. I expect her to fly off as she usually does when she gets distracted, but instead, she lowers her head once again and latches her teeth on the back of my dress. We ascend and I roll my eyes in frustration at her. She hadn't picked me up like e a child in centuries.
It's infantilizing and annoying and she does it to get me where she wants right away. "You have not done this since I was a child! You annoying-"
She drops me but it's not a far descent and I land promptly on something hard yet thankfully soft. I realize, with my body slung over his shoulder, and my hair in my eyes, that she dropped me precisely on Goliath.
I quickly remove myself from him, shooting daggers at the dragon that sits above him on the grass. Asha lets out a menacing growl and I roll my eyes. "You can't be a bitch to him after dropping me to him."
She gives me a look like she's bored and I could swear she's rolling her eyes. I wish I could read her mind and know exactly what she is saying. Her wings come out and encircle both of us, her eyes remaining on me. I start to walk away to only be picked up again and placed right on top of him.
"Asha!"
Her wings encircle us tighter, her large, white head peaking down at us. She looks almost...giddy. She has never done this before. Never has she insisted I remain with someone. I get off him and try to walk away. I feel her claw under my dress and she lifts me again to put me right in front of him.
"Maybe if I try to leave?"
A deep, warning growl darts through the hair from her and she bares her teeth.
"What is it that you want?" I ask her, my hands on her hips. She lowers her behind to the ground, sitting. She watches us almost excitedly and cocks her head. She mewls loudly, her paw darting in front of her to paw the ground in frustration. Frustration at what I have no idea.
"She knows you too have mated," a voice starts from above us. We look back at the palace where Lucian stands on the terrace, eyeing the scene.
"So?" my mate responds.
"Dragons mate to have hatchlings. She doesn't understand that we don't. She is wondering if Adalind is pregnant."
Asha lowers her head and gently nuzzles at my stomach, her eyes closing as she inhales my scent. I grow sad for her. She had never mated and never had any hatchlings of her own. While I was away, she struggled greatly, and now all she wanted was hatchlings. It didn't matter if they came from me or her, she just wanted to be a mother.
"Oh, my sweet girl. My heat has passed and we did not consummate. I cannot come with a child for another decade."
She whines and pulls away from me.
"Adalind!"
My head snaps to the voice that comes from my left and Asha takes off, leaving us as Daario comes sprinting towards us. With my eyes still on the path that she went, I ask: "What is it?"
"Xion has disappeared."
"What?" Goliath and I both say at the same time.
"No one has seen him in weeks and his territory remains in anarchy. His tides have begun entering Houses Libra, Sagittarius, and Scorpius. Kallum has employed his water benders to try to contain them, but," he shakes his head.
A horn blares from the highest tower and Daario looks as though he's been expecting it. It's the call of Riders and I nod at him. His eyes snap to Goliath. "You have to start learning how to ride," he says.
"With what dragon," Lucian remarks, the meaning of Sepehr dauntingly in the air.
"Any of ours. Asha might let him-"
"A shadow rider has never ridden a light dragon before," Lucian replies.
"Well, he is the mate of Adalind and he is a rider and just because it has never happened before, does not mean it cant. He needs to be in the skies; he's too strong not to be." Daario's eyes linger on Lucian before settling on Goliath. He turns around and runs off. Lucian does the same. I know why.
Daario has called the riders. The riders always respond.
I never went where they went because I could be so easily killed. I didn't regenerate after injuries like they could. I was a liability and I only went on missions that required my strengths. Daario was right. Goliath was an excellent warrior but he could never travel to locations as quickly as dragons could. Plus, that would be an unnecessary strain on him. They were traveling two Houses away. Goliath would not only have to transition, but not stop for hours on end.
I can feel the villagers come up the mountain to watch the riders take flight. It was a wonderful sight that they often enjoyed watching.
"What is happening?"
My eyes go to the skies. "The Riders are flying out."
Shooting from behind the palace is the glorious Eiran who is ridden by Lucian. In front of Lucian, with his large black wings spread, is Daario, leading the charge. Beside him, with her wings large and proud, is Lux.
Behind my closest allies, were other Riders. Illaria remains behind Daario on her dragon Edlynne. Beside her is Alejandro on Caelistis. Behind them are more which all neatly arrange themselves in the strategic formation decided by Daario. They fly overhead, blocking out the sun. Cheers erupt from the crowds as they ascend higher and higher.
Eiran blows a firey breath to the skies which dies out and flutters to non-bright embers before hitting the ground.
#
LUX
My breath burns my chest as I struggle to take a breath. Water fills my lungs. Fear consumes me and I can taste the edges of confusion on my tongue. The need to breathe becomes so strong that I open my mouth and take in air that isn't there. Holding my breath is killing me. Breathing is also killing me.
Water fills my lungs and burns through my chest. I become disoriented as the air in my blood dwindles. Acceptance - I accept that I am drowning and with this acceptance comes a sweet, fatal bliss.
I can feel all these emotions. And yet, none of them are mine. They belong to those under the large waves that now run rampant within House Pisces. They have run into the cities, crashed the trees to the ground, and come up so high that they almost pass the mountainous ranges.
The wind is harsh even up here as we remain high above the tides. None of us can go lower without being taken by the winds and into the water, and even if we could, there were too many drownings to save them all.
A head peaks up from a wave and their hands reaches out toward us. My stomach plumets and yet my face shows nothing. What would I show? Sorrow for them? Would that save them? It was offensive to do so.
We watch them drown. It unsettles us and fills me with such disgust that I turn my gaze forward. We couldn't save them without risking ourselves. None of us were willing to do so, not when our House needed us. When Adalind needed us.
Before death for all is peace and it lifts my chest.
Some comfort washes over me as I see brightly colored scaled tails shoot up from the water and then back down. Naiades are a species of Piscians that can manipulate their bodies similarly to Goliath. While they couldn't sprout legs and walk on land, they could breathe for long periods of time above water and swim at incredible speeds underneath. They were water-creatures. And they would endure this horror. Faeries wouldn't. Xion didn't.
"Bastard," Alejandro sneers.
"We don't know if Xion has caused this," Lucian says, his steady tone persistent. Always so calm.
"He let his House fall," the faerie continues from atop his dragon. "It is pathetic. He is a failure."
None of us disagree.
We remain within House Pisces for a few hours, rescuing those who found safety in high enough places that we could retrieve them. They ride with us and are given what food and water we have. They tell us that the tides had settled. And then they had risen to great levels. Xion was nowhere to be found.
And as tears fell down their faces, each of them said: "and then he was there, rising and rising out of the water. He was larger than our palace, larger than the mountains. He seemed to have come from the very depths of Arden itself."
My eyes wearily look at the man who recalls, his eyes dazed and lost. He looks as though he's survived years of torture. As if what he saw has stunned him into shock. Sea-green eyes meet mine.
"Who," I ask.
"Kronos."
My eyes look away from him toward the rippling seas. My brows furrow as the waters seem to shrink away, shrink under, fade...
Alarm floods me as something comes from the depths of them. It moves slowly, rising and rising, until eyebrows can be seen. And then a nose. Lips. Face. A face is rising from the oceans. A fucking face. It's so large we can see it from where we fly.
"Formation A," Daario screams. There's a moment of stillness as we watch the man continue to rise. Daario yells out again, the panic unhidden in his voice. It shocks us into movement. We encircle it.
Naked, and with the physicality of a man, stands a giant. He does not move even as his eyes are as high as mine. They are black. No iris. No light. His face is similar to that of a stone, hard and unrelenting. His skin is a dark, furious purple, and looks as though it is stone. He has no hair. The Riders begin circling, slowly, their dragons snarling at the beast.
It says nothing. It remains passively still, a stark contrast to the panic of our squadron. It parts its lips and a singular noise comes out. It's a scream of terror. It's a male's voice calling for help. It's alive, yet so deep within this creature.
It's Xion. My eyes snap to the giant's stomach.
Daario gasps and I feel his hands push me so hard that I fly almost entirely towards the waves. As I turn and regain my equilibrium, a fear like no other tears through me as I watch the giant reach toward the Bloodrider, wrapping his hand tightly around his body. Daario struggles, but he's unable to free himself.
I realize painfully that he had seen the future. He had seen that the beast would have grabbed me. He saved me. He gave himself in my stead.
"No!" I hardly recognize my voice as my friend is brought to the beast's mouth. Dragons zip through the skies, breathing fire at the command of their masters, and yet the giant does not falter in his actions.
Inch by inch Daario, the Commander of House Dae's armies, our Bloodrider, my friend, is brought its mouth. Nothing we do can free him. Even as I cling to the beast's hand and rip into its hardened flesh.
"Leave," Daario sneers. "Leave me!" I don't respond. Lucian is nowhere to be found. Daario screams at me again. "Leave!"
"No!" I respond, my voice cracking as I look into those brilliant eyes. "No," I want to cry out, but it comes out as an order. "Leave no Rider behind."
I say it again. It was our motto. Our codex.
His eyes dim. A warm breath coats my face as we near the mouth.
"I'm not a Rider," he says. "I never have been."
Someone grabs my shoulders and tears me away from the Bloodrider. As I am forced away, I can hear him say: "Thank you for becoming the family I never had. Thank you for feeling everything while feeling nothing of your own. Tell Adalind," he swallows. "Tell Adalind she gave me the biggest honor of my life and she gave it to me when I didn't deserve it. Thank her pure heart."
Daario closes his eyes. He accepts a fate...that never comes.
Fire explodes from behind and above me into the creature's face. It's large and hot and makes the monster loosen his grip for the tiniest second. I watch as Lucian gets off Eiran who blew the flame and flies to the Bloodrider, yanking him out of the fist by his ankles. Daario falls, his wings broken and torn from the grip that had been around him.
I go after him. My arms wrap under his chest and I struggle to fly his weight back to where we were. And then I see it. I see Eiran, the beautiful dragon of light scales and white hair, roar, and fall, tucking its wings behind its back, an action a dragon only does when its rider has died.
AUTHOR'S NOTE
I AM SORRY.
have any of you seen Attack on Titan? Imagine that.