Chapter 22 #3
The truth of his words settles over the chamber like a physical weight. Whatever doom I fear from the prophecy's fulfillment, the immediate threat gathering at our borders must be eliminated first.
Traven glides from the chamber to begin preparations, the stone door flowing closed behind his massive form.
Alone with Varok, I feel the weight of the Sovereign's fiery gaze.
He remains coiled before the map table, silent and watchful.
My scales prickle with warning as I draw myself up to full height, bracing for the confrontation I sense coming.
Around us, the air currents shift and eddy in response to my unease.
"I sense your reluctance, but you know what I require of you," Varok says, his voice unnervingly calm for a male preparing to lead his people into battle against overwhelming odds. "Not just your blade or your strategic mind, but the element you now wield.”
My jaw tightens, molars grinding against each other. "You ask me to accelerate our destruction."
"I ask you to prevent it," he counters, tail sweeping a slow arc across the stone floor. "Three hundred human soldiers with weapons designed specifically to end us. The Harbinger himself is leading them. Without your element, many more naga will die before the sun sets."
"And with it, we push the prophecy forward another notch," I hiss. "Each element that awakens brings us closer to the Season of Naga and whatever cataclysm awaits."
Varok's scales flush hot with sudden anger. "Your interpretation of the prophecy is wrong," he hisses. "You twist ancient words to justify your fear.”
“The words need no twisting," I retort. "Leira is an omen of corruption.
As the child of flesh, she is a human intruder who will poison our bloodlines.
" I slam my fist against the stone table, my voice rising as I recite, "She weaves the path the war shall pawn.
The human presence within Vessen-Kar will only continue the conflict, not end it! "
Varok's scales ripple with molten light beneath the surface, his massive form tensing as he leans forward. "You are as wrong as you are foolish, Lurok," he growls, each word deliberate and dangerously soft. "And you tread dangerously close to treason."
"Four shall wake when one is crowned," I spit through clenched fangs. "You, Varok, the Sovereign Flame foretold, are the first of us. Fire, air, earth, and water shall wake as a catastrophic elemental upheaval. How can you not see we are the first two who will usher in the apocalypse?"
"You sound more and more like the TrueCoil with every word you spew," Varok snarls as flames erupt from beneath his scaled torso, licking up his sides in angry ribbons. "I am as surprised as Salvor you did not join them when they held you captive."
“One bond to end what fire began is not peace, Varok, but the annihilation of our species.” I slam my tail against the stone floor, the crack echoing through the chamber.
“And the mingling of your blood with Leira’s did not heal the conflict between our species.
It ripped it wider, creating wounds that bleed fresh enemies from within. ”
Varok's pupils contract to burning slits. "One more vile word about my bloodmate and I will roast you where you coil," he growls, baring his fangs as scales along his neck flare outward in threat display.
As my anger grows, so does my power, until I have created a spinning vortex around me.
"Come at me, serpent!" I rear up and spread my arms wide. "Let us see you try."
Fire erupts along Varok’s forearms in spiraling ribbons of crimson and gold, the heat so intense it distorts the air between us.
My own element responds without conscious thought.
The wind currents coalesce around my coils, whipping faster until the vortex screams with rising pressure.
The stone floor beneath us groans as our powers clash.
"Enough!" Traven shouts from the open doorway, his voice cutting through the elemental chaos between us. "I knew I should not have left the two of you alone. Put that energy into fighting the humans. You can destroy each other later."
The wind falters around me as my concentration breaks. I glance toward Traven's voice, my anger momentarily redirected, and that is when I see her.
Serin stands behind him in the throne room, her small form half-hidden by Traven's massive bulk.
Her face is an angry mask, hazel eyes blazing with a fury that rivals the elements we just wielded.
The guards flanking her wear expressions of alarm, hands already on their blades, clearly uncertain whether to remove her from danger or remain in place.
“So, that is how you see my species?” she accuses with a stricken glare. “As a plague to be condemned.”
The cyclone dies around me like a strangled beast, the air collapsing into heavy silence, and it stills so completely that it is as if it never moved at all.
She heard everything. The knowledge hits me like a physical blow. Every vile word I spat about humans poisoning our bloodlines fell directly on the ears of the one human I cannot bear to wound. Yet I have. Again.
Her chin lifts defiantly, but beneath the anger in her eyes lies something worse. A deep, cutting disappointment. As if she expected better from me. As if she believed I was more than this creature of prejudice.
"Serin," I say, her name barely a whisper on my lips. I make a move toward her, but she backs away, one hand rising in a gesture that stops me as effectively as any wall.
"You do not understand," I begin, my voice raw. "The prophecy—"
"I understand perfectly," she interrupts, her voice steady despite the tremor in her hands. "You believe bonding with a human is a betrayal to your own kind.”
Her words carve through me. The chamber shrinks, the air choking.
My mouth opens to deny it, but no answer comes.
The lie refuses to form because somewhere beneath the armor of fear and tradition, something in me recoils from the certainty I once clung to.
Watching the hurt in her gaze tears at my resolve.
Eira’s words float back to me, You believe you protect your people by denying Serin. In truth, you risk becoming the very instrument of destruction you fear.
Could Eira’s warning be the truth I have been too blind to see, that in pushing Serin away to save my people, I become the very catalyst of our doom?
What if the doom I fear begins with me?