(Slyvia's POV)
The madness, madness that would one day bring a big smile to my face every time I would remember it, began the moment my lord, Lord Aeos, stepped into the flames.
He had found two dragon eggs at the Tower of Joy, and later acquired three more from a magister in Pentos at quite an exorbitant price. No one had considered it to be anything more than a hobby, a passion for the antique eggs.
How he knew, that the magister had those eggs is a mystery known only to him, like so many other things that only he knew.
At first, I thought he would simply try to ignite the eggs with fire.
Honestly, despite everything I had already seen around him, the strange, the unexplainable mysteries, I did not hold out much hope that the eggs would actually hatch.
Dragons were no small feat. If he succeeded, it was bound to change everything around us. Those had been creatures of legends, a power base on which an entire empire had been established.
He had five dragon eggs. Maybe that was why I was sceptical. The sheer scale of it was overwhelming. Had it been one or two, maybe I would have believed it to be possible. But five?
Then, to my horror, Lord Aeos himself climbed onto the pyre.
At first, I thought he had lost his mind, that he was about to burn himself alive. That he was about to commit suicide.
But he looked at me calmly and assured me that fire does not burn him.
I did not fully comprehend what he meant. I still do not. But I chose to trust him. What other option I had?
Lord Aeos, offered his blood as an offering to the eggs. The pyre was lit, and the flames surged high into the night.
Something flickered within them. It felt strange and unnatural. It was only later I would realize those flickers were the eggs hatching. The birth of dragons.
Then he stepped out of the blazing inferno with his arms raised in air horizontally.
I do not know why, but I felt an instinct, no, a pull, to mimic him.
As he held his arms outstretched, I found myself doing the same. My hands moved on their own, instinctively, rising horizontally.
At first, nothing happened. But then I felt it, a sensation in my palms. A strange mix of pain, warmth, and an itch like something was forcing its way through my skin. It was a surreal feeling. Like something was awakening inside me. Something primal. Something primal.
The feeling expanded to my entire body. It was as if my blood was turning hot, probably boiling, but strangely it felt comfortable.
It felt like my palms were splitting open. Something was tearing it apart. Something was emerging from it. But before I could even look at my hands, Lord Aeos emerged from the fire.
He was naturally naked, the fire had burned away every bit of his clothes, except for the storage bracelet he had recovered from the Tower of Joy, which was stranded around his wrist. And clinging to him, screaming and screeching like newborns, were dragons. Five of them.
The largest of the group was perched on his head. An obsidian black dragon, nearly the size of a small pup. Its eyes glowed like bright red rubies, and a single glare from it could freeze even the bravest soul.
Yet, I was not afraid. Somehow, I felt connected. As though it knew me.
Two others were on his shoulders. One of each of the two shoulders.
The one on his right shoulder was red with streaks of black, probably the one that hatched from the Pentosi merchant's egg. It was a little bit smaller than the black dragon.
The dragon on the left shoulder was grey in colour, with ripples of silver in its scale. Its size was similar to the red coloured one and the trio of these three dragons looked extremely dangerous. Their eyes were big and they were looking around themselves with a glint. A glint which promised destruction if they were made angry.
And then there were two more. One perched on each of his outstretched arms.
The dragon on his right arm was a green in colour, with shimmering bronze ripples running along its scales. The one on his left was with cream coloured scales, with golden ripples among them.
These two were noticeably smaller than the others, delicate in size, but no less fierce in the way they hissed and twitched their wings.
But there was something even more shocking than the dragons. When Lord Aeos had stepped into the pyre, the hatching of dragons had seemed, however remote, the possibility had been. But this, this was something no one could have anticipated. She doubted that if even Lord Aeos had known about this phenomenon.
On the palms of his outstretched arms, two flames were burning brightly with an ethereal glow.
At first glance, someone might have mistaken them for Lord Aeos' palm on fire from the burning pyre, but I knew better. I knew the truth. It was instinct.
Those flames had emerged from within him. It was a part of him. It was his power.
They were brilliant and bright red in colour, and were streaked with traces of gold on their edges.
No doubt it was real fire, fire that could scorch and consume anything in its path, fire that would burn with a very high temperature. And yet, it felt different. Sacred. Pure.
Lord Aeos's eyes, however, were not on the flames. They were locked on me. They had expression of slight shock and surprise on his face.
Almost instinctively, my gaze dropped to my own palms. Just as I had sensed, there it was. A similar fire flickered in my hands. Not as bright, not as strong, but undoubtedly born from him.
Lord Aeos had barely taken a few steps when something in the sky suddenly glowed. For a brief moment, it felt as if the darkness of night had been torn apart. Both of us instinctively looked upward.
A red streak of brilliant light was moving across the sky, like a falling star descending swiftly toward the earth. It was as if the wheel of great change had been set into motion.
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