“My Lord Omerith, Sath and I have come to you on a mission from my All-Mother, the goddess Sephine.” Sath reached up and took Gin’s hand, squeezing it slightly.
“Ah, Sephine, she was always one of the higher beings of Orana that I genuinely liked. Others were not as pleasant, as I am sure you know.”
“Aye, my Lord.”
“Please, Ginolwenye of the Trees, you and Rajah Qa Sathlir may refer to me as Omerith, as we are all Guardians here.”
Gin bowed her head in agreement. “Many thanks, Omerith. In turn, we are merely Gin and Sath.” The dragon nodded as Gin opened her haversack and retrieved the orb.
“Is that -” Omerith rose back up to a standing position and took a step or two back from Gin as she held the orb aloft for him to see. “The orb—the weapon—does it still possess the magic of the Father of the Underworld?” He squinted as he moved closer to the orb to inspect it.
“Aye, that is what Mother Sephine has told us. We are to use it to stop the Mother Dragon if she continues on her current path.”
Omerith nodded as he continued to look at the orb from all angles, clearly mesmerized by its swirling inky depths. “Mother would use this to bring Father back from the dead, Nature Walker. I can see by the expression on your face that you would not wish that to occur?”
Gin’s mouth formed a thin line as she paused for a moment or two before responding. “You are very correct, Omerith—you probably know that it was I that killed your Father, and I bear no regret for that action.” She looked up into the great amber eyes of the red dragon. “I hope that you will understand my position and my reasons.” To her and Sath’s great surprise, Omerith nodded sadly.
“We knew of my father’s—predilections, shall we say? All of us are always connected through our innate bond, and I should apologize to you for all that I had to witness him do to you and others of your kind.” He lifted his massive neck and looked away from them, out one of the floor-to-ceiling windows in the great hall. “Mother made so many mistakes before the war broke out—she created so many dragonkind, she imprisoned my father and my brother, and then she destroyed so much of our beautiful homeland during the war. In truth, his madness and desire to find a way out of the palace that led him to the horrible things he did are just as much her fault as if she had done them herself.”
Sath looked up at the red dragon in shock. “Pardon me, Omerith, but how do you hold such beliefs—and lend a voice to them—when you know that she can hear you -”
“My mother’s opinions about my beliefs are of no consequence to me.” Omerith chuckled. “There may have been a time when I sat in her shadow, but that time is past. I have my own brood now.”
“With respect, perhaps that is why she wants to raise your father from the dead?” Gin said carefully. Omerith nodded.
“I am sure that is exactly why. Mother is powerful—she was alive long before the first dragon released through the fire by Orana’s great voice. But she has always been wary of the higher beings of Orana—you call them your gods and goddesses—because they wield the same power that she does, only in different ways.” He turned to look at Sath. “As for you and yours, Rajah, I do not think she fears you exactly, but she knows that your kind was created with the same wave of magic that brought Father and the others out of Orana’s molten core. There is a reason that I chose to add a Qatu to the Guardians all those years ago. You possess more strength and magic than your kind realizes.” Sath nodded solemnly.
“Aye, we do. Our legends tell us that the Mother Dragon sought only to protect us from the other races of Orana that did not understand us, and would seek to keep us as pets or worse.” Gin looked at Sath out of the corner of her eye as he spoke. “I think that she meant to make us HER pets instead.”
“That must be why the dragonkind thought you were my pet, even though they could see that you were Qatu, Sath.”
“Would they think him your pet now, Nature Walker?” Gin’s eyes rocketed up to the dragon’s face. “You don’t keep your mates as pets, do you?” Sath snickered audibly as Gin’s face flushed a deep crimson. The dragon smiled at Sath for a moment until he noticed that they both had their hands over their ears. “Apologies. I forget the differences in our voices and your ears.” He looked back at the orb again that Gin still held. “Could you please—put that away? It troubles me. I cannot explain why, but it does.”
Gin complied with his request. “In truth, Omerith, it makes me uneasy as well—as though someone is watching me through the orb. What should we do with it? The All-Mother felt that you would know how to proceed—what are your thoughts?”
“My thoughts are that I want to do nothing less than burn it until it turns to molten glass, but I fear that because it is enchanted that I might accidentally release Ikara’s magic into the world. We cannot take that chance.” He paced
