A Dying Plea

The battle was vicious but completely one sided. Mag's god like presence was nothing short of terrifying, and Fesha who at first exuded strength with elegance, was now kneeling before her. Fesha had miraculously kept Mag back with only one arm, but in the end Fesha had lost too much blood and tired out. The whole time I watched from a distance, scared of intervening knowing I would have been caught in the crossfire. I looked at Mag whose light was still brilliant but started to fade. She moved her head sideways, asking me to finish the job with no words. I approached Fesha, her breaths heavy as she struggled to get on her feet, even using the horns on the side of the dragons neck for assistance.

I stood over Fesha, my blade pointed at her head. Suddenly, my lips opened on there own, yet the man still left me in control.

"Why hast thee done it?" I heard in my voice.

Fesha took a long dramatic pause until she began to speak of her burden.

"If only father could see thee now. That wretch would be so proud. As for I, I feel nothing but guilt for what I put thee through. Thy kindness should've inspired me, yet now my hatred for thee has turned back on me." Fesha said with sorrow.

I was confused and Fesha seemed to notice, yet she knew what it was about.

"It seemeth I speak to the twin soul now. Then this message is for thee. Please, don't let that dragon die. Her miasma will save us all. Magde---- will never understand, but I feel that thee could." Fesha said softly. "There is no grace in the new world."

Her eyes now fully white, even through the blood, she seemed to lose strength.

"Ah, the dark is beckoning now... and its eyes. Where did it get so many?" Fesha asked rhetorically. "Please I beg of thee, relinquish thy greed of further knowledge, so that we may see the sky once more." Finally, Fesha collapsed, her eyes completely white.

I hung on her words, not knowing why I should listen to her, yet feeling that this was a promise I had to uphold. I do not know if it is mine or whoever I share this body with, but for some reason, deep down, I wanted to keep Fesha's promise. I looked at the dragon, its age and experience in battle very much apparent. I began to admire its beautiful snow white scales as they sparkled in the light. At the corner of its mouth, a small, black crystalline structure formed, contrasting perfectly against the white scales. A thin stream of hazy black fog seeped out of its closed mouth and spread through the grass. Suddenly the dragon opened its eyes, revealing an eye as pale as a distant horizon. Suddenly, a feeling of empathy for this grand creature took me over and allowed a tear to flow from my eye.

I turned to look at Mag who was steadily approaching, the light of her wings nearly invisible now. I decided to say something.

"Hey maybe we shouldn't..."

It happened too quickly for me to do anything. A bright yellow beam with twisting scarlet flames surrounding it burst forth. A cloud of flame and dust covered my sight and sent heat in all directions, blowing the grass and flowers outward from it. The dust settled and I saw the dragon once again, only now she was lifeless. The scales and horns along the top of her head were completely blown off, revealing freshly scorched flesh underneath. Blood flowed down from the scar, washing away the pale blue from the dragon's eyes and replacing it with a thick red. The purity of its white scales were now stained with the darkness of blood.

I looked at Mag who was now approaching me, tears running down her face, and her wings of fire now gone. She stood beside me, staring down at Fesha, unable to contain her thoughts and emotions.

"Why? Why hast thee betrayed what our friendship was built on?" Mag said wiping the tears from her eyes. "Why hast thee done this!" Her calm voice turning to a scream. 

Mag fell to her knees, sobbing uncontrollably for her dearest friend. We sat there for a while as she cried her eyes out and I did all I could to be there for her. Her cries subsided and her tears turned to prayer as she mourned the loss of Fesha. With one final goodbye she said this.

"Despite thy now tainted beliefs, I pray for thee, and hope that one day I will find it in myself to forgive what thee hast becomest."

With that, we ventured off in silence toward the dark archway that Fesha had defended with her life. As we reached the edge of the field, the grass faded back to cold stone. Just up ahead, hundreds of bodies were scattered in front of the arch. They all had the same outfit: a familiar, long black robe. From each corpse, the same flowers that bloomed in the fields grew from their abandoned bodies, even thriving on the grounds beside them. The cuts that these flowers grew from were deep, unlike the cuts Fesha had given us. I looked at Mag who was still too sad to notice. Fesha had no intent to kill us, yet we turned her to a martyr. I said nothing as we continued on, as it was the only way I knew to give Mag time to heal. 

The light, now behind us, began to dim into a soft haze. I had thought it was turning to night, but the light got dark far too fast. Mag and I turned back to see the sky above ripple into obscurity.

"False sky... but why Fesha?" Mag said in her grief.

The light was gone now, not just here, but for the entire city below. All that was left to illuminate the dark space around us were the faint lights of torch glow that was now obvious from the loss of sky light. As for above, the false sky had revealed what it was covering. A hole in the high ceiling that revealed the ornate ceiling of the layer above. Its corners and grooves were decorated in lines of patterned gold. The upper ceiling arched upward in four lines all meeting at a center point. Its base was a shiny marble that held a flickering orange hue from unseen torches. However, something stuck out from the shiny ceiling. A large growth of black spikes, boils and threads that hung upside down from its center. The growth was directly under the dragon, right where I could recall it roaring black smog up into the false sky. Faint cries began to echo from underneath, yet we marched on into the dim light, accepting that we had just drowned the last survivors below in eternal darkness.