Souls Between

Reaver is on her in a heartbeat, pushing her into the floor and casting some kind of magic above them in a flurry. Ana isn’t even sure she knew he could move that fast, or had that much strength in his lean form, but she’s currently pressed face first into her own rug under him and it’s a testament to his abilities that he was able to do that to her when she was in flight mode. 

Above her he’s shouting something, but she can’t hear the words over a deafening roar and crack around them. In the back of her mind she recognizes the roar as Aurora, and crack as magic, but she’s too far gone in panic and fear to really piece it together properly. Ana has half a mind to worry about the other people in the room before she realizes they’re just standing and staring in shock. They’re not even moving to leave despite what sounds like absolute chaos above her. It’s all very strange until Ana’s mind catches up with the rest of the world and things come into perspective. 

The blood pounding in her ears is what’s deafening her so badly, and she takes a few deep breaths to calm down and stem the panic coursing through her veins. Belatedly she realizes it’s not even fully her own panic, it’s coming partly from Aurora who is now standing off against Reaver in the great hall of her castle. 

Her bonded dragon is standing off against Reaver in the great hall of her castle. 

She repeats the phrase once more in her mind before she snaps to attention, pushing off the floor now that she’s no longer pinned. 

Whirling to face the duo she feels her heart sink at the sight now that fear isn’t lacing her thoughts and clouding her vision. 

Aurora is far larger than Reaver, almost laughably so even, his Warden form towering over the comparatively tiny mage as he snarls down at him ferociously. His enormous wings beat the air around them, kicking up dust and sending a few chairs flying precariously close to the gathered group of onlookers. They don’t even budge, the scene before them has them entranced entirely as it unfolds. 

Ana regards Reaver in a way she never has before, as a protector. He stands between her and Aurora who would have likely taken her head if he hadn’t intervened when he did. His stance is wide, his arms out slightly and his fingers spread from his hands. The magic is crackling over his frame and casting a brilliant pink light across the expanse of the room where it arcs through the air. His features are set in a determined grimace as his eyes cast over the dragon before him, and a thought occurs to Ana. 

He’s holding back for her sake.

The Queen doesn’t doubt for a moment that if he wanted to he could have ripped her dragon from this world with little thought. The thickness of the magic in the air is proof enough of that, it’s barely restrained and dangerously powerful between them. His cloak has come off in the scuffle and Ana gets a glimpse for the first time of the elaborate and delicate inky black tattoos wrapping his body, except they seem to be moving and glowing with every breath he takes. She’s reminded of why he’s lived so long, and a shiver crawls down her spine. He’s not even human.

“Get out of him,” Reaver’s voice is almost melodic, it echoes through the room unnaturally and seems to permeate everything it touches. It’s a command spliced with magical intent, and Ana watches as Aurora shudders beneath it’s full force. 

“No,” comes the gravelly reply, weak as it is. Aurora takes a step forward towards Reaver and another arc of brilliant light spikes between them. The white dragon hesitates for a second, apparently considering his options. It’s the same fight or flight Ana felt when his breath had tickled over her skin just minutes before. 

“Reach for him,” Reaver is commanding her now, but it isn’t in that magical tone. He’s turned slightly to look at her out of the corner of his eye, and Ana gasps softly when she see’s his eyes are just pools of black. He frowns as if he is put off by her reaction, but doesn’t say anything more. She nods once, and does as she’s told. 

Reaching through their bond Ana searches for Aurora - the dragon she knows and not the shell of a dragon that stands before her. She puts everything she has into it and every last bit of magic in her body rushes to the surface in her attempts to reach him. The hum beneath her skin almost burns her, but after a few moments she relents and tears spring to her eyes. 

“I cannot find him,” she says in despair turning to Reaver once more, she doesn’t flinch at his soulless black stare this time. 

“Okay,” is all he says as he nods and turns back towards the dragon. 

Ana wants to reach out, stop him somehow, tell him not to hurt her beloved companion and friend, but she’s rooted to the spot as he raises his arms towards the being that has been at her side for ages. She can only think the word please before the room erupts into proper chaos. 

Aurora lunges first, his claws going straight for Reaver as a growl tears it’s way from his throat. Reaver doesn’t even move, and Ana almost screams his name as sharp claws grasp at empty air. She didn’t even see him move but suddenly Reaver is on the other side of the room and black tendrils are skating across the floor and wrapping around Auroras ankles. The great dragons roars as it’s brought to the ground, shocked by the turn of events most likely. 

Anastasia is about to turn and beg Reaver to stop when she halts in her tracks at the look on his face. 

It’s fear. 

Never in her lifetime did the Radiant Queen think she’d see a look like that on Reaver’s face, despite how much she wanted to. Now that she has, she takes back every desire for it. It makes her heart drop into the soles of her feet, and her blood runs cold. Every muscle in her body freezes at the sight, as if her natural survival instinct is directly tied into this very moment. 

But she’s too close to Aurora, and the dragon has noticed. It’s long claws are reaching for her ankle and she’s too afraid to move. Luckily Reaver notices before Aurora has had a chance to snag her, and he rips the dragons body across the floor by the force of the tendrils wrapped around it. Aurora slams into the stone wall near her and it spurns Ana to at least move out of the path of danger. She can do that much at least. 

Another brilliant flash of light consumes the room, but Ana doesn’t turn to look for it’s source. It’s gone in a flash anyways and the fight before her is too important for her to even care. If an Aemon is in the room with them now, so be it. 

Reaver barely has to expend any effort to pin the dragon down, whether that’s do to it’s weakened state ot the fact that he’s fueled by the kind of fear that makes you do impossible things Ana doesn’t know. But he walks up to the dragon all the same, hands clenched into fists at his sides as he all but stalks up to the prone dragon on the floor. Thick black smoke seems to seep from his tattoos now, and he’s never looked more inhuman. 

“I said, get out,” his voice is a harsh growl punctuated with arcs of the pink light flicking across his skin and dancing across Auroras scales. It burns the dragon where it touches him, Ana can tell because the pain lances across her skin too. 

“And I said No,” the strange voice answers back, mocking, “have a problem being told no Reaver?”

Reaver lashes out again, the sizzle of magic burning sulfur into the atmosphere of the room. Ana would be disgusted if she wasn’t suddenly in pain, and she screams out in it. 

The mage turns to look at her in shock, eyes going a brilliant gold again as he considers her crumpled form. A thought seems to occur to him after he finds what he was looking for, and he sneers when he turns back to Aurora. 

“You’re losing your grip,” the tone is taunting, more reminiscent of the Reaver Ana knows and less of the Revenant that stood before her moments ago. 

“You’re losing your touch,” the voice inside her dragon taunts back, but Reaver no longer seems perturbed. 

Reaver says something to the voice again, but Ana isn’t focused on it anymore. In the back of her mind is a familiar humming, and she finds herself latching onto it for comfort. Belatedly realizing it’s the soul of her dragon seeking her out. The bond is stronger, Reaver’s assault wearing down whatever hold was placed on her bonded, the proof in the pain she feels running up and down her flesh as if she herself was attacked with magic. 

She doesn’t hesitate this time. Anastasia reaches out for Aurora’s soul, pushing past the pain and the haze of sulfur in the air to find him. He’s closer now when he’s not hidden away by whatever had him prisoner before. Still weak from corruption but not lost like she thought. He responds in kind when she lets her soothing calm reach him, and the resulting link gives her strength. She stands and faces Reaver and the body the soul attached to hers belongs to. 

“I’ve got him,” is all she has to say and Reaver is nodding, pulling his arms together and pushing his magic into Aurora. The dragon cries out, but Ana is holding onto his soul and isn’t fooled by the imposter. She’s seen this magic before, recognizes it as the same the Aether Guard uses to weaken the Aemons. It kills her to know it has to be used on her own dragon, but it is what is necessary now. 

She can feel the moment the other soul loses its grip on her dragon, because the familiar bond between them sparks to life once more. That feeling of unease and strangeness is replaced by the comforting and familiar one of her bonded partner. As if waking from a dream, Aurora blinks heavily as Reaver releases his magical hold on the dragon. He’s too weak to stand now, and it breaks Ana’s heart all over again. 

“Thank you,” is all she says to Reaver as she runs past him to Aurora, throwing her arms around his big head as she clings to him for dear life. She hears the mage hum behind her, but she doesn’t turn. 

“This is-” Reaver starts, but she interrupts him.

“Only the beginning, I know,” her tone is tired, worn from everything that has transpired. 

“The corruption is stronger now, and we have no way to fight that,” Reaver says, a bit more tenderly than she thought he was capable of, “we have no cure.”

Ana is about to repeat that, yes she is aware of that for the hundredth time, when she hears a few startled gasps in the room and the quiet clearing of a throat behind them that doesn’t sound entirely human. 

“Perhaps I could be of assistance?” an unfamiliar voice that seems to place itself directly into her consciousness asks, an ethereal quality to it that she’s never heard before. She stands immediately and turns, looking to Reaver who is looking in pure shock at what stands - no floats, before him. 

“You humans have always been terribly inefficient with these matters,” the slender creature intones, apparently losing patience with the silence and lack of an answer, “I figured it was time we stepped in.”

Anastasia isn’t sure how it is even possible, not to mention how improbable, but an Emperor of legend is hovering restlessly a few feet above the floor of her great hall. 

- Transcribed from the detailed witness accounts of those present for this encounter, 3rd Era.