Althea looked at the azure blue necklace on Ethaan's palm with mixed emotion. It was her mother's.
In her past life, when the Rion family was eliminated overnight by an unknown force, Althea was only five years old but she remembered the necklace. It was something her mother had always treasured. That night her mother had protected her and she is not very clear about how she survived the night. She only remembered her mother handing out the dragon token to her and telling her that the other half of the token is with someone else and that person is the one she is betrothed to. And then after that, her consciousness became hazy and when she regained her consciousness she was already saved by her master the former sovereign of the Hall of Mage. But Althea was very clear that her mother was still wearing the necklace that night.
Right now the only question inside her mind was, why is the necklace in Ethan's hand? Few decades had passed but how can Althea forgot the necklace her mother had always kept close to her.
"This necklace is the token of love my master had given to your mother", said Ethaan slowly. He knew that Althea had so many questions in her mind right now.
"Your master!", asked Althea.
Ethaan nodded, "My master, who is also your father. I am sure you might have investigated the extermination of the Rion family and might have found it strange. I will tell you honestly, your mother and father were deeply in love and your father wanted to take her back to the Mystic dragon palace and officially marry her as his wife and make her the lady of the Mystic dragon palace. But things didn't go as your father had planned"
Right now Althea didn't know whether she is in a dream or reality. Things that remained clouded in her past life are now getting clearer with the appearance of Ethaan. But the more Ethaan talk, the more Althea finds it difficult to understand. "Mystic Dragon Palace! Why have I never heard of it", Althea asked. As the former sovereign of the Hall of Mage, one of the great powers in the land of Dura, Althea knew all the forces like the back of her palm but she had never heard about the Mystic Dragon Palace.
Ethaan gave a faint smile at the confused Althea and said, "Your father was not from the land of Dura"
Althea was given another thunderous information, "Not from the land of Dura! What do you mean?"
Ethaan was patient with Althea answering and clearing all her doubts. "There is another plane after crossing the void from the land of Dura. The Mystic Dragon Palace is one of the powerhouses there just like the five great powers of the land of Dura and your father was the heir of the mystic dragon palace. After the elites from the Mystic Dragon Palace found out about your father's love affair with your mother, they left no stone unturned trying to find your mother's identity. They only knew that your mother is from the land of Dura. Your father, to protect you and your mother, was forced to not keep in touch with your mother. But the Mystic dragon palace still found your mother. Your father to protect the Rion family begged the Palace master to spare your mother and promised never to return to the land of Dura and marry another lady whom the palace had arranged for him" said Ethaan with grief flickering past his eyes.
"After going back to the palace, master didn't make anymore protest and silently accepted the marriage they arranged for him. The lady he was about to marry was from Silver Palace, one of the powerhouses there. But the Silver Palace had another motive behind the marriage", said Ethaan as he pointed his chin towards Althea. "Can you guess!" asked Ethaan
Althea lightly trembled, "The dragon token!"
"Yes, the dragon token. Only a person with the purest dragon bloodline could unseal the twin flame dragon inside the token and master was the one with the purest dragon bloodline and the only one who could unseal the flame dragon. But one thing others didn't know was that the flame dragon could be unsealed only when the person with the purest dragon bloodline connects his heart with his true love. When unsealing the flame dragon both their heart and soul should be connected and both of them should be true to each other. After unsealing the twin flame dragon both of them didn't immediately form a contract with the flame dragon because your mother was pregnant with you and forming a contract with a flame dragon at that moment was risky for the fetus. So your father broke the flame dragon into two pieces and temporarily sealed back the flame dragons. But after that both your father and mother changed their minds to contract the twin flame dragon with you and other to me"
Reminiscing the past, Ethaan had a smile on his face. "Your parents were already aware that their baby is a girl. At that time I was seven and I followed Master everywhere he went and your mother had always teased me saying that she would let the baby in her womb be my wife", said Ethaan with a mixture of emotions.
Althea lightly blushed, even though she had lived two lifetimes, she was inexperienced when it comes to love. Ethaan continued, "Master and your mother came to a decision and contracted the other flame dragon with me and at the same time they arranged our marriage even before you were born. So on the day of the wedding, when the Silver Palace found out that your father didn't have the dragon token with him, they tear away the pretense, and the wedding day was turned into a bloody battle between the Mystic Dragon Palace and the Silver Palace"
Ethaan closed his eyes that had turned misty and red at an unknown time. "Master was severely injured too"
Althea had always been curious about her father in the past and even asked her mother about him but her mother never said anything about her father. So she always thought that her father had left her mother because she had her mother's surname and she was not even aware of his father's name. Althea didn't know that the truth was so complicated. With teary eyes, Althea asked with a choke, "My father.. is.. he still… alive?"
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