Niris was lying on the floor. His eyes riveted on the wooden ceiling above him, he watched the meandering of living matter, lost in thought. For six days now, he had been locked up in this elven prison from which he was not allowed to leave during the day.
As his master had predicted, the elves were waiting for them when they landed on Lior. Armed, of course. And the only reason they agreed to let Lou remain free while they determined whether or not they were a danger to them and whether or not they should be expelled was because their people had very strong ties with the master of the blades. As far as Niris was concerned, he was a diplomatic representative from outside any political framework, and therefore suspicious.
The angel turned on her side to face the wall. At least his cell was comfortable. He would just have liked to be able to go out once a day to stretch his legs, but this simple right had been denied to him on the pretext that they didn't know enough about his power. He was considered a potential danger by the elves. This did not surprise him, but he still found it hard to get used to this extremely ethnocentric mentality.
Anything that wasn't an elf was a potential enemy. That was how the elves viewed the rest of the world. Even amongst themselves they were suspicious, depending on which elven sub-species they belonged to. Their rejection of the rest of the intergalaxy was extremely striking, but not really surprising when you got to know them.
Elves didn't mix and they had kept their genetic heritage very pure. They were among the very last ancestral users of natural energy. As a result, they had rejected all the technology that had been developed in the last millennium. They were outside the MIE, even though they had agreed to have an identification chip implanted in their wrists. The condition for this was that the chip contained nothing other than their intergalactic identification data. Even that was unbelievable to them, revolting. And on numerous occasions, this acceptance had been the subject of heated political debate. There was no point in them deciding overnight to reject the chip.
But despite their rejection of technology, they retained an extremely well-developed instinct that allowed them to anticipate certain things very well. That's how they sensed them approaching Lior and welcomed them when they landed. They were powerful because of their ancestral link to natural energy, which enabled them to protect their way of life, completely cut off from the rest of the intergalaxy.
Niris placed his hand on the ground and closed his eyes. His cell was in fact a natural hole formed by time and weather in a thousand-year-old tree. The tree was still alive, so Niris could use his gift of life on it. He had begun to breathe his vital energy into the tree in very small quantities from the first day of his confinement. In exchange, the tree gave him the nutrients he needed, which the elves' meals did not provide.
Elves did not eat animal products, only plant nutrients. Their diet was not very varied and suited their constitution, which had adapted to their ancestral way of life, but it was not suitable for an angel. Angels had a completely different constitution, requiring nutritional supplements from the animal kingdom. Niris would have been greatly weakened if he had been deprived of all these nutrients over a long period. Even over a few days, the change would have been visible. That's why, from the outset, he made use of the special nature of the gift of life, which enabled him to communicate with the tree and establish a mutually beneficial exchange.
If he had wanted to, he could even have asked the tree to open its branches and let him out, but he was following his master's instructions not to confront the angels and to let her negotiate her release. So he had no choice but to wait.
Tired of these long days of inactivity, he sat up. With a tired movement, he stretched his arms and cracked his vertebrae before leaning back against the wall. He was fed up. Desperate to break the monotony that consumed him, he took the twin beans out of his pocket. The little seed had sprouted and a little white stalk was showing its nose.
Niris stroked it gently. He wanted to use his gift of life on it to accelerate its growth, but he knew it was useless. The twin beans would only grow with the emotion he and Seiran put into each of them. He gently closed his palm over it and thought about the demon. A wave of warmth swept over him and the emotion made his eyes shine. He absolutely wanted to tell her that they would see each other in ten days' time. He was so looking forward to it. So eager to see Seiran again that he despaired of getting out of this wooden prison in time.
Before despair overwhelmed him, he put the bean away and massaged his temples. He was about to bury his head in his knees when the sound of footsteps made him raise his head. It wasn't his mealtime, though, so who could be coming to see him at this hour?
The elf in charge of his surveillance appeared between the living bars of the cave. Niris stood up, hopeful.
"You have been summoned by the elven council. The elders have decided to grant you a hearing to determine whether or not you can travel freely on Lior," he said, placing his hand on the wooden bars, which lifted gently.
Behind him, Niris could see two armed colossi standing like protective sentries. He was still seen as a threat. He could understand, after all. An angel with fragments of the world's most feared demon spirit implanted in him had just set foot on their planet, and others would have been just as suspicious of him.
He went outside, not unhappy to be able to stretch his legs. Immediately, the two colossuses surrounded him. He had to be careful not to look suspicious. His jailer led the way and they headed for the council chamber.
Niris observed his surroundings carefully. What they were walking through did not look like a city or a forest. There were trees and plants galore, and in the middle of it all, in no particular order, stood houses and elves. The houses were built on the ground or higher up in the branches of the trees. Everything blended together in a delicate, disorderly symbiosis. Sometimes you could no longer see the boundary between the vegetation and the dwellings. They formed a single, undifferentiated whole that reflected the way the elves saw their relationship with nature.
The small group walked for a long time through this strange, inhabited landscape until they reached a more spacious, more inhabited part of the forest. The houses were bigger, taller and closer together. Although they did not form a coherent whole, it was easier to guess the importance of these buildings. The three elves guided Niris towards the largest of them.
They entered a huge hall with flower-covered wooden pillars. A carved stone structure supported the whole, embellished by a flourishing natural landscape that had been skilfully used to complete the ensemble harmoniously.
Finally, they arrived at a huge door that opened slowly as they entered. The elves stepped aside to make way for Niris. With a wave of his hand, his guide told him to enter, which he did. He blinked, stunned. The walls of the room were lined with huge windows that let the sun's rays in unhindered. He hadn't noticed that the edge of the forest was so close, but he realised that the council chamber had been built into the sheer cliff face. Forming a natural boundary to the wooded area, it offered a magnificent panorama of a lush valley that impressed Niris.
Fascinated by this beauty, he approached the centre of the circle formed by the elders, seated on their large armchairs in their ceremonial robes. Behind them, Lou was leaning nonchalantly against the wall that separated her from the void. When he met her gaze, she winked at him, causing him to flinch. His master had ways of communicating that he found as mysterious as they were fantastical. How could she expect him to understand anything with signs like that?
Unconcerned by the angel's questions, the elf sitting on the seat opposite him broke the silence.
-The Elven Council of Lior greets you, Niris of Egea, and welcomes you within these walls for a special audience," he said in a deep, imperious voice.
Niris responded to his greeting by bowing forward, his hand on his chest, in accordance with intergalactic etiquette. He knew this would be acceptable as he was a diplomatic representative of the organisation, even if the elves didn't apply this code themselves. They tolerated it from representatives such as him.
-Thank you for your hospitality, Councillor Syliens," he replied deferentially. I apologise for my unannounced arrival on your planet and for any inconvenience this may have caused.
The elf raised his hand in appeasement.
-Get up, son of Aroslan. The situation is urgent and you are not a criminal, the only suspicions and questions we have concern your future actions. If you'll allow us, we'd like to test you on this matter before deciding to do anything.
The other elves listened in silence, sitting upright in their seats. If he hadn't seen them blinking regularly, Niris would have thought they were statues rather than living beings.
-What is the test you want me to pass to prove my good intentions towards your people?" asked the angel after straightening up.
-You have performed the ceremony of the ascending dragon, if I'm not mistaken," said Sylviens.
Niris nodded, wisely awaiting the end of his sentence.
-We'd like you to perform the ceremony of awakening," said the elf, who was almost a hundred years old.
Niris froze in place. He had to restrain himself from saying anything because he couldn't believe what he had heard.
-You mean... The ceremony of the awakening of the dragon?" he asked in a white voice.
-This one," replied the master of the session.
Around him, he felt the eyes of the angels suddenly pierce him. They all seemed to be waiting for his reaction. You bet they were! The Dragon Awakening Ceremony was an extremely dangerous ceremony, even for an angel. Especially for an angel, in fact. It consisted of awakening the consciousness of a sleeping dragon who had voluntarily withdrawn from the world for whatever reason. Only angels can perform it, because of their close link with these mythical, almost extinct creatures.
Niris had never practised it before, nor did he know of any angels who had. His father himself had never done it. This was simply because sleeping dragons were rare to find, and angels respected the sleep of dragons, unlike the elves who felt that dragons had to be awakened even against their will if they were to participate in the life of the intergalaxy. This was because the elves considered dragons to be superior creatures, almost divine beings whom they venerated. For them, the world would only be perfect and good when it was dominated by dragons.
The ceremony of awakening existed for what it might be needed, but it was regarded as a relic of the past that was passed down from generation to generation as both a remembrance and a last resort in times of extreme need.
-I'm afraid I can't do it without a sleeping dragon, if you'll allow me the abjection of Councillor Sylviens.
-We have one not far from here," replied the councillor, who remained unmoved by the angel's distress.
Niris didn't know what to say. So many questions were running through his mind at the same time that he felt overwhelmed by the situation. He remained unmoved, but was unable to formulate his thoughts coherently, so he remained silent. The elf must have interpreted his silence as reluctance, because he spoke again.
-Niris d'Egea, we are not here to judge how dangerous you are to our people, but to assess the success of your project and that of your master in our world. You are a major stake in power because of the power you possess, and your will will be the ultimate decision-maker in the use of this power, for good or ill. As you know, our people cultivate discretion and withdrawal, but the dangers the Master of the Blades has told us about are undoubtedly likely to threaten the very existence of our species.
He paused for a moment before continuing in a measured voice.
-You may find this selfish, and I know you will, since angels have a love of the universal and of living together that is totally foreign to us and that drives you deeply, but the possibility of a threat appearing that could cause the end of our civilisation pushes us to act. So I understand that the plan you and your master have devised is the best way of avoiding a catastrophe, but the biggest unknown is you yourself.
Niris wanted to say so many things, but he knew this wasn't the time. The situation was far too sensitive. If he had understood correctly, without the Voice of the South, which was held by Lior's elves, they would not be able to put the min back on Fin du Jour, and therefore possibly never stabilise Niyari. The stakes were enormous. Too important for him not to give in to his emotions and give free rein to his dialectic. He clenched his fists and simply nodded without saying anything.
-Once you're in full possession of the immense power of the Niyari demon spirit, there's no guarantee that you won't turn that power against us and continue Zorkiel's work in other ways. There is no great power that does not lead to great risk. I hope you understand our precaution.
Niris swallowed, doing his best to appear as calm as possible before answering.
-I understand that, and your fears about me are justified. However, asking me to perform a Dragon Awakening ceremony doesn't seem to me to be the best way of allaying the concerns that are eating away at you.
-I understand what you mean, and I know how dangerous this ceremony is for the angel who performs it, but it's the best way of proving to us the purity of your intentions, especially once the danger posed by Zorkiel has disappeared. The ceremony of awakening is one that can only be performed by an angel who is pure of heart, it is said, and who has no greed for power and might, otherwise the dragon cannot enter into resonance with him. If you succeed in carrying out this ceremony, we will return Voix du Sud to the Master of the Blades and support your enterprise without question. If not, we'll keep the blade and you'll have to leave Lior immediately and never return. For us, this is the best guarantee of the truth of your intentions and your character.
Niris held back a sarcastic laugh. "The best way to fulfil your wildest fantasies under the guise of putting me to the test, yes! You bunch of hypocrites who dare to give me a self-righteous speech when you yourselves are tainted by deeply selfish ulterior motives! That's why I don't like elves! All you think about is your own survival and your own will, that's all!"
He concentrated on his breathing to control his facial expression and tone of voice. He glanced at Lou to see what she thought of the situation, and she replied with a very slow blink. He took back what he'd been thinking earlier, he was actually quite capable of understanding his master's signs when he needed to. He understood that she was telling him to accept and that everything would be fine. She trusted him.
This idea calmed him down, and he locked his gaze with her. He would give her what he wanted, even if he hated the idea of being manipulated by an old extremist who jumped at any opportunity to turn a situation to his advantage. They had no time to waste arguing with someone who wasn't going to win their case anyway.
-Very well, I agree to submit to your test and perform the ceremony of awakening," he said with determination. But I need some preparation and I need two days for that. I propose that we set the ceremony for three days from today, if that suits you.
-Agreed," the elf hastened to reply.
The elf stood up and held out his hand, facing the ground, to the angel, who understood that he should rest his forehead against it. This was the way to sign an agreement with the elves. In three days' time, he would wake a dragon for the first time in his life.