‘Lord Aquitain I am pleased to advise you that my daughtersaccept your proposals and I am happy to accede to their wishes. Iwill assemble my people to witness your pledges in the dining hall.I assume you will wish to complete the rituals in a grand manner ata later stage as there are so many pressing issues.’
‘Yes we will hold our binding ceremony at the Royal Palace.This will drive it home to the Lords that we are serious aboutbinding the kingdom together.’
Miranda andGizel smiled happily at his illusory image.
‘Darling, there is one more thing that would please us verymuch. Could you return our spirits to our real bodies? We wouldvery much like to pledge our true bodies and spirits to you.’ saidMiranda.
‘Are you really sure about this as it is really going toconfuse a lot of people.’ he replied but they insisted.
Two minuteslater, Miranda’s and Gizel’s spirits were both in the bodies theywere born in.
Both weresilent for a minute or two and then Miranda said
‘I can feel the difference now. My birth body seems sofamiliar even though it’s so long since I’ve been in it. Oh I can’twait to try it out. Maybe you can borrow one of the guards’ bodiesfor a while Aquitain.’
‘Miranda you’re getting rather crude.’ saidAquitain.
‘I’m sorry my love. It’s just that you are so wonderful. Justthe thought of us becoming one again is almost too much.’ shereplied.
‘Have you thought about the Pledging gifts, my Lord.’ askedRat Catcher.
‘Oh dear. I forgot about them.’ replied Aquitain.
‘Rat catcher, did Llanlorian have a treasury where she kepther treasure?’
‘Yes my Lord she had three treasuries.’
‘Why did she have three?’ asked Aquitain.
‘She was always afraid that Astaria would be captured. So shedistributed its wealth among three treasuries.’ replied Ratcatcher.
‘A very astute woman and where are those treasuries located?’asked Aquitain.
‘There is one on Moonmist , one on Astaria and one on Mudrun,My Lord.’
‘Excellent! Can you take me to the one on Moonmist?’ heasked.
‘Yes my Lord.’ And after he excused himself for a while theyteleported to the Moonmist treasury.
It was a cavesomewhere on Moonmist and had several chests but all wereempty.
‘There’s nothing here! Who took it?’ askedAquitain.
‘The Mentarin, My Lord.’
‘The bastards. I need some treasure to give to my chosen Ratcatcher! Where can I find some.’
I can take youto where the Mentarin took the treasure from this area my Lord.
‘Good take me there!’ and moments later they were standingoutside a room with a very big door.
‘Where are we Rat catcher?’
‘We are in Solaron which was previously known as the Warden’sKeep.’
‘Of course they have robbed me and now stuck my treasureinside my treasure room!’ he said.
‘How do I open it?’ asked Aquitain.
‘I do not know my Lord.’ replied the cat.
‘Glammer come here!’ he called.
Glammerappeared in front of him and touched him on the forehead.
Instantly hewas in the World of Dreams.
Glammer stoodin front of him as a big green stony creature.
‘By all the powers, you look like me!’ he said.
‘Not exactly my Lord. I am a female and you are a male.’ shereplied.
‘Oh.’ he said.
‘Aquitain do you know what kind of creature you are?’ sheasked.
‘Umm. No not exactly.’ he replied.
‘I thought so! You and I are both half elemental dragon andhalf Newman. We are abominations in the eyes of the dragons and allof the religions. Do you know what that means?’ sheasked.
It suddenly hithim that this was the missing piece of the puzzle that nobody wouldtalk about. He was half Dragon but that was supposed to beimpossible. It was supposed to be against the maker’s rules. Kindshall only breed with kind.
‘We both defy the laws of creation. We shouldn’t exist but wedo. Isn’t that strange?’ she said. ‘Most of the dragons will killus without a thought. We are only alive because some of them thinkthat we might be useful for one or more of their schemes. But weare expendable.’
‘Umm yes.’ he replied not knowing where this conversation washeading.
‘In all of creation there is only you and me that are the samekind.’ she said again emphatically.
I thought I wasunique until I first saw you. It was a real shock. I’ll bet youthought that you were unique too.’
‘Maybe there are more of us somewhere.’ hesuggested.
‘No. It’s just you and me.’ she replied.
‘Glammer give me a clue. What do you want?’ heasked.
‘By all the gods you are an idiot at times.’ shesaid.
‘You have pledged to a Newman and a Llanllean woman who havevowed to give you as much pleasure as you could ever want whilethey happily scheme and plot for more power under yourprotection.’
‘You have not considered that they are not the same kind asyou. You are breaking the maker’s rules by taking pleasure withthem.’
‘Have you considered whether it’s some type of trap the god’shave set? Are they stopping you from doing something that youshould be doing? Can they give you children? Is Tigerlilly reallyyours or did one of the gods create her for a purpose like we werecreated?’
‘I know they are playing me but what can I do?’ shruggedAquitain.
Glammercontinued. ‘I was created for the same task that you were. I eventried to do what they wanted. I succeeded in the first task and wasthen captured by Lord Borse. He fabricated my death as he wanted touse me for his purposes.’
‘I am Glammer the first ever radiant. I am the model for allthe others. They are all my daughters. There are about one and ahalf million of me but only my spirit is unique. I am also an agentof chaos like you.’
‘Aquitain you and I are unique in this existence. We have tofollow no rules. We could defy the gods and create a whole newrace; a completely new race of people that are half dragon peoplelike us.’
He used hisaura vision to check her aura and it was indeed similar to herseven considering that she was melded together with 99 radiants. Helooked at her body to see what differences there were to himself.He could see some but wasn’t
