Or maybe something terrible has happened to Raziel…
But he would not let himself believe that.
“Perhaps not, but the agony is real!” Illarion pouted.
“We are all feeling it, Illarion. We are well aware of the pain,” Esme got out, her voice containing some of the asperity that it usually did, but her face was gray and held none of its usual youthful vigor.
“You are not! Mephous is so much stronger than Scylla! So much stronger than all of you--”
“Except Raziel,” Tez gritted out. “And Eldoron was another titanic Dragon, you brute! Just because Eldoron never smashed your nose--like it should have--was because Eldoron is a gentle creature.”
“A gentle creature?” Anwar asked with a wry smile.
“Yes, at Eldoron’s core there is only the desire to fly and be admired and eat and then sleep. Not necessarily in that order,” Tez explained. “Fighting was never on the list. Not because Eldoron couldn’t, but because it was beneath its mighty spirit.”
“Eldoron is only big, because it is fat!” Illarion sniped.
“How dare you?!” Tez was standing very upright but wobbling on legs that couldn’t quite hold him steady.
“What? I like fat people. They are soft and have good personalities!” Illarion mused.
“Which would explain you with your less than 1% body fat being a complete ass,” Anwar muttered.
With slitted eyes, Tez said, “Next time we meet, Illarion, Eldoron will sit on you with its big, fat body and squash you.”
Valerius let out a bark of laughter. When Illarion gave him a nasty look, Valerius turned it into a cough.
“I miss Lana’s mind against my own,” Kaila’s voice did not hold the healthy zip it usually did. She was on the floor, knees drawn up to her chest, arms wrapped around them. “I could hear the ocean in my head all the time like when you put your ear up to a shell.”
“Scylla was always a steadying presence within me. Now, Esme, Scylla would say, what’s the next step? There’s always the next step. Now what’s the one after that? And then we would be so many steps ahead of our enemies,” Esme said, smiling weakly.
“After losing Fadel, Evren kept me sane. Evren has always been there. The soothing presence in the back of my mind. The light in all the darkness.” Anwar put his hands over his face. “And now it is all darkness.”
“Could Fadel be one of the Horde?” Kaila asked. “Maybe his soul is in the Spirit Realm with Caden and the others. Maybe he can come back.”
Anwar blanched though at this. “I pray that Fadel has not been trapped there like those others. I do not think after so long that he could reunite his body. But if he is stuck in the Spirit Realm then--then he will not be able to go onto what is next. He will not be able to reincarnate. He will be stuck. Forever.”
“Eldoron is too beautiful to die,” Tez said mournfully. He sank down next to Kaila, put his arms around her, and they rocked together. “Nothing so perfect as the Golden Dragon can cease to exist without the world losing most of its wonder.”
“Zephyra was the balm to my soul,” Jahara’s voice was cracked. “I would hear Zephyra’s voice and I would understand that I must use the anger and pain of my early existence to make things better for others. Zephyra gave me the strength to do it. Without her… I do not know.”
“But still my agony is greater than yours! I experience this weakness--this unbearable weakness--is affecting me more,” Illarion proclaimed and flopped his arms over the back of his couch, looking completely prostate.
“You will feel my fist in your face if you keep up your nonsense!” Mei hissed.
“You are a little girl now. No muscle. No strength. It will be like a fly has--AH! Damn you! I am bleeding!” Illarion’s voice rose up like a little girl’s himself, which had Valerius turning his head and opening his eyes.
Mei was standing above Illarion, shoulders heaving, long hair hanging over her face like a curtain, and lithe body quivering with rage and pain. The knuckles on her right hand were bloody. Illarion’s nose was bleeding just a little bit. He was glaring up at her in outrage.
“We must stop this!” Mei swung that bloody hand to encompass all of them. “This whinging! This pathetic moaning! Our Dragon Spirits need us to be strong! Not this--this whatever this is. Get up off your knees and get a weapon!”
Everyone stared at her. Her black eyes snapped. Her body shook. Mei seemed to be filled with the same energy and purpose as always, maybe more so.
“Are we victims? Are we going to sit here while our people suffer and die?” She flung her arms wide.
“Our people would be distracted trying to protect us, because we cannot protect ourselves as well anymore. Not right now, at least,” Valerius said, but he did shift forward on the couch. “I know it feels like we are not doing anything--”
“WE AREN’T!” Mei raged.
