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“Is that why I’m the key? Because I have primal elemental dragon magic in me?”
“That and you are special. The magic would not have sought you out if it didn’t think you could handle it. You were marked by all the elements.” I couldn’t help but wonder if Light enjoyed being mysterious, and that was why it was talking like that.
When I didn’t ask for clarification, Dark jumped in. “Your eyes, for a start. Water and earth.”
I’d always hated my eyes almost as much as I hated my burn scar. They were the first thing people noticed that made them stare and the scar was the second. If they didn’t outright stare, they at least did a double take, and it always made me feel like I had something on my face.
Finally, I said, “Okay, that’s water and earth, but what about fire and air?”
“I think you can already guess that one.” Dark snorted.
I looked down at my hand. Okay, he had me there. “That still leaves air.”
Light sighed and the fog that had been lingering around us stirred. The last thing I expected was for it to form my biological mother and myself as a child.
A gasp escaped me as the figure started moving, and I said, “I don’t want to see this.” I hadn’t prepared myself mentally to watch my mother burn me. I replayed the scene enough in my head as it was; I didn’t need someone else showing it to me.
“Come and look at your wrist,” Light said quietly.
I did as the dragon asked and saw the birthmark that was always blurry in my memory. It looked like one of those old illustrations of the North Wind blowing air, minus the actual face. The marks for the air could have also been interpreted as three sixes if it was looked at the wrong way.
“My mother burned me because this mark that was supposed to represent air looked like three sixes, which to her, was the mark of the devil. Is that right?” I couldn’t keep the incredulity from my voice.
“It is. Believe me, it was never our intention for a child to be harmed or suffer.” Light’s words weren’t exactly the comfort I expected the dragon hoped they would be. Still, I couldn’t fault them for my mother being crazy.
“Did my last name ever mean anything?” I asked tentatively, already suspecting the answer but needing confirmation.
Light’s head tilted to the side. “What is your last name?”
“Morningstar.”
Light and Dark both shook their heads before Dark said, “Why would it?”
“It’s the last name of the devil in my realm.”
“The devil is part of one of your religions, yes?” Light clarified.
I nodded.
Light shook its head. “No, we do not pay attention to such things. Anything like that was a mere coincidence.”
A coincidence that probably led to my mother burning me. Still, apparently, I had needed to be marked by fire somehow.
“So, back to the question at hand, do you want us to proceed with uniting the realms?” Dark asked, a note of hope in its voice. Only I wasn’t sure whether the dragon was hoping I would agree or disagree.
“Unite them, please,” I said, my voice coming out weaker than I’d hoped. It was the right thing to do, but that didn’t make my heart ache any less for everything I was saying goodbye to forever. Still, I’d gained so much that I couldn’t be ungrateful either.
Light and Dark both went quiet for a long time, so long that I almost stepped forward to ask if everything was okay. When Laelak put a paw in front of me, I knew any movement or talking could interrupt whatever was happening.
Smoke began to radiate outward from Dark’s body, and fog did the same thing from Light’s. The two hazy substances wove around one another, intertwining but staying separate.
My four dragons emerged from within me, circling the swirling mists until they let out a stream of fire, targeting the center of the cloud. Of course, the dragon from El Dorado had a red flame, but the dragons from the other realms each had their own flames as well. The one from Agartha had an almost springy green flame, the one from Hyperborea had a purple flame, and the one from Atlantis had a blue flame.
It was like watching a colorful, fiery ballet. The four small dragons spun in a circle over the two black and white dragons, who had started gently swaying at some point.
When the babies started to tire, I got worried. I didn’t want them over-exerting themselves and getting hurt or something. Not stepping in took an incredible amount of effort from me, and if Laelak hadn’t started leaning against me, I was sure I wouldn’t have been able to hold out.
Light stumbled a moment later, and Dark actually collapsed onto the floor. Again, Laelak’s presence held me in check, so I didn’t go to them while the baby dragons flew back to me and settled under my skin again.
