Page 21 of The Truth

The woman raised her eyebrows in curiosity but didn’t speak, instead waiting for the First Sword.

Eltoar gave the response Alvira had expected: he stared at her open-mouthed.

“You cannot be serious,” he said after a moment. “Surely not?”

Alvira gave a short nod.

“Was this Matharius? The council?”

“They ask for us to await reinforcements. The Karvosi numbers are too large and their Veyaks fill the sky. The Order’s forces have been mobilised. For now, our priority must be the greater continent.” She turned and made for Vyldrar, her own words paining her. She could see the sense in Matharius’ words, but that didn’t mean the choice to heed the council was any easier. “We must take to wing.”

Eltoar grabbed Alvira’s arm and pulled her towards him. “There are Epherian souls still fighting in those cities, Alvira. Still bleeding in the hopes that we will save them. This cannot be your command.”

The look in Eltoar’s eyes set cracks in Alvira’s heart and bled her soul. In that moment the courtyard was empty save for the pair of them, his stare slicing past the walls that shielded her soul. She could feel his heart, feel the rage that burned within, the guilt, and the darkness that brooded.

“I need you with me on this, Eltoar. I need you by my side.”

“I am always by your side. But this⁠—”

“This is no different. Do you not think I would give my life for those souls in a heartbeat? That I would make this choice for no good reason? I will tell you more as we fly, but I need you to trust me.”

Slowly, Eltoar nodded. “In your wake, I fly. By your eyes, I see.”

“Thank you.” Alvira turned to Lyina. “Carry these words, Sister. Carry them with my voice.”

Hours later, Alvira stood on the hillside, looking out at the flames licking the sky as Arathín burned. Twenty-five Draleid stood at her back, a force that could turn any battle in an instant. But they had no army alongside them, no force to march the streets and push the Karvosi back to the water. And dragonfire could not simply be poured over an Epherian city. What’s more, the sky above Arathín was black with bodies, dark shapes shifting between the moonlit clouds, shrieks and squawks carrying on the wind. There must have been over a thousand Veyaks. Even if Alvira and her Draleid descended upon the city in that moment, Arathín could not be saved.

Her mind and her heart warred as she looked over the scene, her heart disgusted that her mind found understanding with Matharius’ command. But that was the way of things, the duality of life. She could understand that holding back led to a stronger position to achieve victory in the war to come, and she could still despise the act of telling her Draleid to stand by and watch innocent souls be slaughtered.

Alvira looked to Eltoar at her right.

He stared out at the burning city, not turning to look at her. “I am with you, through the fires of the void.”

The coldness of his voice and stillness of his features caused her heart to recoil. She nodded, unsure if he could see the gesture.

To her left, Farda stood with folded arms. “I do not envy your position, Alvira. This is a choice I would weigh for eternity.”

“It’s hardly a choice,” she whispered.

“It’s always a choice.”

Alvira let out a soft sigh and turned to face the others who were gathered at her back. “Tonight, almost four hours ago, Karvosi forces made landfall across the length of the Lightning Coast and along the Veloran Bay. We do not have precise numbers, but it is believed to be the largest attack since the seventh incursion. Fourteen cities have been struck by sea and air. Fourteen cities now burn. In the dark of this night you will hear screams and wails as they travel across the valley. There will be cries for help. Those cries will go unanswered.”

She stopped herself a moment, clasping her hands behind her back and curling her fingers into fists. She looked around at the faces of the Draleid before her, at the sorrow in their eyes. She would take the choice from them, to spare their souls. She was their Archon, the weight of the dead was hers to bear.

“If we take to wing, if we answer those calls, many of us will die, and little will be changed. We have no armies at our backs, no force to drive the Karvosi from Arathín. Those elves will still be slaughtered in the streets, the city will still burn. But we will not be here when the rest of our forces gather. We will not be here to make the Karvosi feel our wrath. And they will push further into Epheria. More cities will be set ablaze, more souls butchered in our absence. For those of you who have neglected your learning, the Karvosi Matarr breed and train winged creatures known as Veyaks. Creatures that spit acid potent enough to melt the scales of dragons. Creatures that in large enough numbers have been recorded to bring down scores of our kind. In the past, we have countered these creatures through the aid of the Battlemages, their wards keeping the Veyak acid from our soulkin’s hides, their lightning striking the creatures from the sky. But they are not here. Their feet can only carry them so swift across the land. And so we wait, because our vows are to all Epheria and not just a single moment.”

She squeezed her fists at her back, feeling Vyldrar rumble in her mind. His fire raged at the thought of leaving those souls to die. It roared and ripped, crashing like waves against a cliffside. She pulled their minds together, allowing his anger to take shelter beneath her. They needed to think of the greater war, of the lives that would be saved.

“This is my command and as such is steel and iron. Any who break it shall face my wrath, and so help them Varyn. We are Draleid, and we must stand together. Am I understood?”

A few murmurs broke through those gathered, dragons shifting behind them, pale moonlight shimmering against scales.

Just as Kollna and Chora Sarn bowed their heads, a deep, earth-shaking roar sounded to Alvira’s left.

Eltoar spun on his heels, Helios’s rage blazing in him as though they stood in the fires of the void. The dragon’s roar consumed him, all sounds drowning, all feelings yielding. Through the haze of his eyes, he saw Alvira and the others moving, heard voices.

But it was not through his eyes that he saw. His mind and his soul, that was the world he inhabited at that moment. And only two heartbeats existed, two heartbeats that were in truth only one.