Zyre landed on the top of a hill. She made to hop down but a low growl from the dragon made her sit back. He sat down on a flat plane of grass. From their position, they could see the Castle of the Academy along with all the lengths of the Great Dale beyond it. She sighed.
"What now?" she asked Zyre who was glaring at the squirrel running about a nearby bush.
"If you could stop hemming and hawing and try to specify your question—"
"Okay, okay. Simmer down, big guy." She cut him off with a laugh, "Are you always this straightforward?"
"Apparently." Gwen waited for a while, contemplating before he sighed, "If you are confused then you can just ask. Torturing me with those miserable 'what if' thoughts is not the solution."
"Hey! Stop reading my thoughts. That's an invasion of privacy!" she frowned defensively.
"I know everything about you, Chosen One. Even more than you know about yourself. So, from now onwards, your privacy is my privacy as well," his reply made Gwen pause.
"So does that mean that I can read your mind as well?" To say that she was excited was an understatement.
"You flatter yourself," he turned his head to look at her properly, "I can block you out whenever I feel like."
"Can I do that too?"
"Yes, but no." Gwen raised her eyebrows at the sudden response. Why not? She wanted to say but stopped herself when he replied to her thought, "Because my appearance isn't ideal for a large number of species out there including your generals."
"But— Wait. What even are you?" she was confused and her brain was going bonkers. She bonded with a dragon, that too a weird dragon with a strange colour who didn't even have a species of his own.
"My heart is wounded," he huffed, and gave her an offended look, making her raise an eyebrow. "You get bonded with the legendary monarch of all the dragons to exist in Vadonar, and you are so ungrateful?"
"I'm not exactly ungrateful," she shook her head, "You still didn't answer my question. Why have I never heard of you or your species before?"
"I am the legendary monarch—"
"So you say for the fifth time," she cut him off, ignoring the glare that followed.
He muttered something like 'ignorant earthlings' under his breath before he warned, "You must not expose the information that I am about to tell you." Gwen nodded, bending to lean on her elbows and motioning him to continue. He rolled his eyes.
"You are aware that the Legends and the Fae used to live together before the Ejection that you call the Great War," Gwen nodded. "The Fae had begun unbearable and too demanding. They had forgotten about the enchanted Pact that bound us Legends to this world and begun feigning their superiority over us. The eight stone masters came to our aid with their moon stones that the Fates gifted to them. Fates were the mythical beings sent to the seven magical worlds by the Entity above to aid His creations. When the Great Eight came to these lands through the Vortex Of Time, they banished the Fae into another world and allied with us Legends—"
"But that doesn't explain why you are silver."
"Patience, human," he hissed out, making Gwen zip her lips. "There were three species of drakes; Fire, Water and Poison. Four species of the Wyverns; Ice, Lightning, Ember Crystal and Blood Crystal. And five species of us Dragons; Forestfangs, Ireflames, Frostfeathers, Violetfuries, and Starshades. Before they were banished, the faeries cursed these lands due to which the magic weakened. Since the Starshades were the ones to begin the alliance with the Great Eight, the faerie curse had affected us the most and no Starshade remained the same."
"They weakened until they turned into Nightstorms..." she whispered before Zyre nodded. Everything was slowly making sense.
"The first one to offer an alliance with the Legends was Deyanira, the chosen Phase of the spirit stone, Alma. My first bonded one." There was this adoration in his tone that Gwen couldn't help but admire. "She was the youngest of them, and the first one to dare to come anywhere near a Legend. My father was the Monarch at the time and I was his Crowned Heir. Times were unpleasant and we were at war, so we managed to get the consent of both sides and mark the beginning of an alliance."
"However," his tone darkened, "One of our allies in the Fae betrayed us and sold Deyanira out to the High King of Fae. He brutally tortured her and seized Alma. However, before he could use it to destroy the humans and the Legends, Deyanira used up the last of her life to destroy the stone into two halves. The High King confiscated the half with chaos magic, and I managed to escape with the void stone."
"After Deyanira passed away, the two halves of the stone could not bear to handle their separation nor the demise of their master. So, they made us pay a price. The chaos stone trapped the High King in the realm of chaos, but not before he cursed the lands of Vadonar, the same land whose magic was in his hands. He cursed the Legends to be stripped off of their legendary strength, and the humans to be forever bound to the moon stones they cherished."
"We Legends weren't from this world, hence the curse had a little effect only on the Starshades, and the Pheonicles. However, that couldn't be said for the humans. The stones had a divine power which couldn't be controlled if even one of them was fully bound to a human. Hence, the stones sacrificed and divided themselves to lessen the curse, and spread out to the lands. Manifesting, only when they deemed the bearer ready."
"I thought that was because the Great Eight had favoured us by sharing their magic." At least, that was what the history books went by.
Zyre scoffed, "That is because the Fae cursed your history. Why do you think that there isn't a single mention of a Starshade in your archives? There are a few hints of a silver Legendary Monarch of Dragons in a few fables of yours, but none of them specify which species of dragon it was. The fire breathers, on the other hand, knew of their history, of where they came from. However, it was against the Code of Fire and Ice to expose the inner secrets of the Circle. Hence, it remained a myth all these years."
"Until today."
He nodded, "Until today."
"But what happened to the other half of Alma?" she was too focused on the story.
"It isn't a story— Never mind," he huffed. "Since I was the one holding the half of void magic, the stone trapped me in the realm of void where I was nothing but a mere ball of light."
A forgotten box opened in Gwen's brain as a memory replayed itself in her head. She gasped as the dots inside her head connected. "It wasn't a dream. You were the light I touched that day!"
She looked at him, eyes opened wide in surprise when he nodded, confirming her suspicions. "You were destined to find me since you were born, Gwendolyn. There is a reason why you were different. Why you didn't manifest a stone earlier, and why you have been so connected to the spirits."
"The reason why Ronodin told me to free a wraith on Mount Percival... that wraith was you!" he nodded again, "But why would Ronodin ask me to free you? Why me?"
"He didn't ask you to free me. He asked you to free the Void half of the spirit stone. Ronodin is a creature made from the spirit stone itself. He is of this world and would do anything to free the source of his creation. And about the second part, Gwendolyn. When I told you that you were the chosen one, I meant that you were chosen by me and the spirit stone. The reason you were born was because Alma chose you as the Phase of its void. You were destined to be the bearer of the void stone. You are the heir of Deyanira. Her legacy."
This was too much to take in. Even though it all made sense now, she never even imagined that she would be a part of something so big. In a single day, the whole course of her life changed. She got to know why she hadn't manifested a stone until she was on that Mountain. The reason why she was different and felt so connected to the entities of the dark was exposed to her. Everything that was ever taught to her turned out to be a lie. And now she was bonded to the Monarch of the Dragons whose specie wasn't known before until today.
She felt like she was going to pass out.
"How can this be possible?" her voice was worn out and she felt tired mentally. It was too much to take in.
"Take it easy, Chosen One. You will get used to it. Although, I am disappointed that you didn't research about your peculiar stone."
She managed a sigh, "I didn't have the time."
At that tone, his face twisted in rage, "I almost forgot about that part. Don't worry. The ones who dared to attack you suffered their end, just like the ones who made these past days miserable for you will perish, and like the ones who are brave enough to threaten you in the future."
She shuddered as she imagined what he would've done to Atkins and his companion.
However, even as her brain struggled to function all the information she learned today, she was relaxed. As if a weight had been lifted from her shoulders.
All because this Silver Legend had returned as her savior and companion in all the loneliness.