Empyreal Dragons

Chapter Fifteen

Go to the Throne Room... 

In there will you find... 

What's really inside... 

For the dragon in you has yet to reveal itself because of lies… 

In the eyes that keeps your identity disguised... 

 Lovech Kingdom

“You there! Servant!”

As Dragnior was on his hands and knees angry, he was stuck washing the floor of the hallways in the palace with only a rag and a bucket of water in his hands, he heard someone with a light but raspy voice call out to him. 

They didn’t call him by his name, but as his current position in this palace. Looking over his shoulder with a heavy glare, he noticed the mother of Reyna standing there with her arms crossed over her chest. 

“Yes ma’am? “Dragnior copied what he’s heard other servant call Reyna before 

Looking at Eva's face, Dragnior could tell that she needed something. Moving his hand to slowly put the rag back into the bucket of water, Eva looked him up and down watching his actions before sighing deeply.

“You are one of the worst servants I’ve ever seen in my damn life! Don’t you know how to wash a f*****g hallway!” Eva yelled at him 

Dragnior sighed as his nose blew out more air than usual. He was using his dragon nose. 

“I am sorry ma’am.” Dragnior replied 

Eva raised her right hand and shook him off with an annoyed wave. 

“Let’s go! You’ve already missed a lesson due to you slacking off yesterday, but you will NOT miss todays lesson. Because you are so useless around the palace, maybe knowing how to detect a killer’s mindset will help keep you here.” Eva said 

Dragnior flinched at her words. 

What does she mean by that?  He thought to himself as Eva turned her body away from him and started walking down the hallway. 

Dragnior already knowing what those motions meant because he does it all the time, rolled his eyes and got up from the hallway floor to chase after Eva. For a woman with average height and short legs, she sure does walk fast. 

Eva led the new servant into the dining hall where she already had the other servants there waiting for her to teach them more for their lessons. Walking through the door, Eva saw nothing but a sad looking servants there trying not to pass out. Everyone looked horrible thanks to poisons she gave them. She made sure to give them 7 drops of poison each so that it will affect them but not kill them immediately. 

They have time to receive the antidote. 

As Dragnior walked into the dining hall behind Eva, he gasped the horrible sight of his servants. Scared to know what Eva was doing with them, Dragnior opened his mouth to speak as the KING OF LOVECH KINGDOM.

“I…” 

“GET IN LINE SERVANT! STOP WASTING MY DAMN TIME!” Eva yelled cutting off Dragnior

Dragnior’s defensiveness for his servants dropped as he realized that while in this disguise, Eva will only see him as a servant and nothing more. Dragnior bit his tongue, as much as he wanted to say something to Eva, he didn’t want to ruin Reyna’s plan… The plan that his woman made. 

Nodding his head, Dragnior starting walking towards the servants as he then spotted a very sickly looking Zahn among the servants. 

“Oh my god,” Dragnior mumbled looking at his son 

Zahn didn’t seem to pay Dragnior any attention as he was ready for his next lesson that Eva was going to teach them. Dragnior looked concerned but decided that it would be best to check up on him after Eva finished her lectures. Dragnior got into the line with the other servants and everyone tensed up. 

They heard that Drangior was going to be a servant from now on by James, but no one thought that it was really true. No one knew how to react to the King becoming a sudden servant as they only looked at Eva. 

“Good morning.”  Eva voiced out smiling 

The servants almost hurled up their organs as they heard the voice of the helpful but oh so evil woman. The servant’s stomachs were twirling inside out at the amount of poisons that they’ve received into their bodies for the past day. 

Most servants started to look horrible as their skins started to become pale and their blue veins were showing through their skin. 

Sweat broke out on their foreheads constantly as they felt their bodies getting weaker and weaker, they could feel death coming for their bodies. Even Zahn looked bad as he couldn’t understand what was going on with him. 

“Good morning.” They said in unison with low voices 

Eva smiled at the weak pathetic sight of the servants. For the past day, Eva filled them up with all types of poisons as they took notes. Making sure that they understood which poison has a smell, which ones don't, which ones could be undetectable in food, which ones show a color. Eva was giving them the education, they only needed to match it with in their brains. 

Placing 6 bottles of liquid down on the royal table in front her, she looked at the servants and nodded her head. 

“For the poisons that I have given yall, these are the antidotes right here,” Eva stated and the servants went wild with happiness “BUT there are only 6 bottles, which means that 6 of you will be healed and 14 of you will still be sick.” 

The servants stopped their cheering of happiness when they realized what was going on. Not all of them will be healed. 

“For the 6 people I give the antidote to, you must drink the antidote and from the ingredients here on this table, make the antidote for the others.” 

The servants gasped as they couldn’t believe what she said. 

She wants all of them to make the antidote for each after only drinking the antidote once? No directions on how to create it or nothing?! How will they know what’s in the bottle?!

“If you cannot create an antidote for each other within 2 days, those 14 people will die and this palace will only have 6 people here working in it.” Eva said trying to scare them 

And boy did it work, the servants began talking amongst each other trying to figure out who’s the smartest and who they felt like would be able to properly conduct the antidote. 

Dragnior looked at Eva in horror. 

She poisoned his servants and his SON?! IN HIS HOUSE! 

Anger started to fuel through him as he felt angry that she was running this palace like she owned it. Using his dragon eyes, Dragnior decided to look and see what the poison has done to the servant's body and he was in a state of horror. 

The intestines of every servant were turning purple and black as they also had holes opening them up and leaking out blood. The holes were small, but the sight was horrible to look at. There were yellow colors covering around the intestines showing that they were infected as they looked like they were shriveling up. 

With the dragon blood, Zahn shouldn’t have been affected by poisons, but because he is still young and his dragon hasn’t developed against them, his insides were slowly damaging themselves. Dragnior sneered, not only was he kicked out of his title of King, but he had to watch an old woman ruin his servants' lives! 

Annoyed by the events, Dragnior decided to speak up. 

“How dare you POISON THE SERVANTS!” He yelled 

Eva glanced over at Dragnior and the servants stopped speaking to see what was going on. 

“I am teaching the servants how to protect the Royals in the house. Everyone here is WEAK! THE KING RAISED WEAK SERVANTS THAT COULD BE KILLED WITHIN MINUTES!” Eva yelled back at him 

Dragnior shut his mouth because Eva was right. Dragnior didn’t train his servants to protect him and Zahn from harm, and because they don’t know how to protect them, so how would they protect themselves? 

The servants were confused on why Dragnior stopped talking because he wasn’t a man to stop a fight, but the servants decided to skip past that and focus on telling Eva who they chose for the 6 people. 

“We chose these 6 people.” One servant said 

The 6 servants including the little boy walked up to the table and looked at Eva. Eva smiled at the postured boy as the servants looked at the table in front of them that had different herbs, animals skin, and … blood?

“The antidote can be made with these few things, go ahead and drink the antidote.” 

As Zahn looked at the servants picking up the bottles, he thought about what could be in the bottle. Looking at the table and then the bottles, his eyes widened as he yelled. 

“STOP!” 

The servants that grabbed the antidote in their hands looked over at Zahn with question. Why is he stopping them? Doesn’t he know that everyone will die? 

“What is this antidote actually curing?” Zahn asked 

Eva was surprised at the question as she didn’t expect it to come from this little boy and so was Dragnior as he looked at his son in shock. 

“Why are you asking?” Eva asked 

“We drank 7 different cups yesterday and as you showed us, they all had different components within each of them, none of them were the same. So which one of those 7 cups is this antidote curing?” 

The servants were shocked by Zahn’s memory, but they also looked at Eva waiting for her answer and they wanted to know. 

“This will only be curing 1 of those 7 cups.” 

The servant’s faces fell at the news. They will still have poisons within their body ripping them to shreds from the inside out. 

“The poison that is affecting you the most, making you weaker and paler and having your veins show, this antidote will cure those for you.” Eva said finishing 

The servants were happier at that news as they handed each other the liquid bottles. Opening the top of the bottles, Zahn yelled out again. 

“STOP!” 

The servants were now annoyed as they only wanted to get rid of the pain. 

“Split the antidote.” Zahn said 

Everyone’s eyes widened. 

“What?” One servant said 

“Split the bottles. If we split it, then we will all have relief from the side effects. Even though drinking the whole bottle could get rid of the pain all together, it's better if everyone knew what it tastes like. Some of us has stronger taste buds than others so we might be able to pick out some differences among the antidote.” 

Surprised! Surprised wasn’t even the word that everyone was feeling as they listened to Zahn’s explanation. He was learning. Learning about poisons, learning about the meaning behind everything, he was looking at the bigger picture. 

Dragnior started to form a smile on his face from Zahn’s words. Dragnior was scared that Zahn would grow up to be so isolated and distant from everyone. Dragnior didn’t want Zahn to experience hardships so he kept him inside the palace so that he could never leave to get hurt. But who would’ve thought that the child Dragnior always thought would need help is now explaining things in perfect sense to others. 

Eva nodded her head as if to agree with Zahn. True, drinking the whole bottle would kick out the poison completely, but sharing the drink amongst each other so that they all can try to find the answer is something Eva didn’t think anyone would think of doing. 

The servants nodded their heads at each other and took a sip of the bottle and passed it to another. 

“Great idea Zahn.” One servants aid coming up to Zahn patting his back 

“That was a smart way of thinking.” Another servant said rubbing his head 

A servant passed Zahn that antidote bottle and he rose it to his lips to taste it. The antidote had a sweet but a nasty iron flavor to it. There were grassy spicy flavors hitting his tongue as he swallowed the antidote. 

“Alright servants! GET TO WORK!” Eva yelled out 

The servants didn’t waste any time picking up the ingredients from the table as they were ready to make the antidote.

Lovech Kingdom; Reyna's and Dragnior Bedroom

Since Reyna has been in the Kingdom, she hasn't had time to fully sit down and think about her revenge plan. But so many things have been happening around her that she hasn’t been able to fully think about what she could do next. Feeling confused on how she even survived her death, confused on why she has a sudden pull to Dragnior and she never knew him a day of her life, and confused on why her body no longer feels like her own body. 

As Reyna sat on her new bed inside of a new room, she couldn't help but believe how rushed but slow everything has been going in her life. Whenever Reyna had a chance to speak to Syrah, Syrah always calls Reyna a Queen. Usually,  Reyna would ignore the word because she always thought of it as a compliment, but now it felt like the word Queen has become a serious demand.

Throughout the time that Reyna would spend with Dragnior, sometimes he would mumble to himself that Reyna was his "other half" and James explained that Reyna was the answer for why Aaron has been suspicious of the Lovech Kingdom. 

“I have to know more.” Reyna thought to herself finally ready to come to terms with everything that’s been going on 

Getting herself out of the bed, Reyna could hear footsteps and my ear twitched. 

“Syrah?” Reyna called out 

Turning her head around to see if her guess was right about those footsteps being Syrah's, Syrah slowly began to appear with her eyes wide glancing at Reyna with worried blue eyes. 

“Are you okay my Queen?” Syrah asked 

“Syrah… I need to know…” 

“Know what, my Queen?” 

“What happened to me the day that the Red Crest King and Queen came to the kingdom? What happened to me and why have I felt weird ever since that day?” 

Syrah worried eyes became one of concern after Reyna asked the questions. Is what I did THAT bad that no one wants to tell me?

“Q-Queen, I don’t think that it is appropriate to speak on it. I think Dragnior should be the one to tell you everything.” 

Reyna frowned. 

Is she really going to tell me to ask the King who barely likes talking to me about issues regarding me  instead of her just telling me herself? 

“Syrah, I am scared Syrah. I have been feeling off. I have now started eating more and more at breakfast and dinner to the point where it’s not even normal. I always have the urge to sleep constantly and my body’s natural temperature changed. Now I’m just naturally hot like I constantly have a fever. Syrah please…” Reyna begged 

Syrah squinted her eyes before looking at the room nervous. As if she came up with her answer, Syrah opened her eyes wide and smiled. 

“Do you know the secrets behind the walls of the Lovech Kingdom?” 

The secrets? 

“What secrets behind the walls of the Lovech Kingdom?”

Syrah smiled. 

“There are stories that have roamed around the kingdom for years, even while I was a child. The stories of the Empyreal Dragons.” 

Empyreal… Dragons? Dragons?

“The Empyreal Dragons were the last of the dragon kind as they were the strongest. Through years of natural selection and adaptation, the world created the Empyreal Dragons to be the strongest out of them all, making them smarter and better than everything anyone has ever seen. They were immortal beings who could also transform into humans as the environment began to change thanks to humans.” 

“Transforming into humans?” 

“Yes Queen. Transforming into humans because humans started to get scared from the power that they held. So the dragons change themselves into the forms of humans to live among the humans. It is said that the dragon shifters built this palace in hopes to live with the people, but the people respected the shifters and wanted them to lead the kingdom because they had power, making the shifters the first King and Queen of the Lovech Kingdom.” 

Reyna eyes widen. This story seems to be too detailed to be something that’s just folktale. 

“So as the King and Queen reigned over the kingdom, they wanted to keep their powers hidden from people outside of the kingdom, causing the kingdom to live in peace and we do not go into wars. The Empyreal Dragons are sensitive beings and they care a lot for emotions. One sniff of the nose and they can tell what emotion you are feeling.” 

One sniff… That seems like what’s been going on with me lately. I thought that I was just imagining it because maybe I was going crazy but… I was actually smelling feelings. 

Syrah looked at Reyna as Reyna was stuck in her own head. Syrah was happy that Reyna was now able to start putting things together. 

“It is said that the first room that they built is still in perfect condition to this day and holds many secrets of the dragons.” 

“What room?!” Reyna asked impatient

“The Throne Room.” 

The Throne Room? The room that had a huge dragon behind the Throne chair and a dragon underneath the floor that both looked so realistic to the touch. It was if one touch could make them come to alive. What secrets do they have? What secrets are in that room… I have to know. 

“Syrah! Let us leave for the Throne Room.”

“Yes Queen. I will go and draw your bath.” Syrah said walking over to the bath that was in the same room as the bedroom 

Dragons? The Lovech Kingdom had stories like that roaming around and I’ve never heard anything about it? Does Aaron know something about it and that’s why he sent my mother?  While being stuck inside of her own head about everything, Reyna could hear a voice calling out to greet her... calling out to meet her 

Go to the Throne Room… 

Staring into space at nothing,

In there you will find… 

Reyna could feel immense pressure behind her eyes,

What's really inside… 

And her skin began to grow hot.

“My Queen?” 

Hearing Syrah call out, it broke Reyna out of her daydream as she nodded her head at Syrah. 

I need to go to the Throne Room. 

Lovech Kingdom; Dining Hall

As Dragnior looked at his servants in prideful happiness, after what seemed like a whole day, the servants finally found an antidote for every poison they consumed. Putting everything together and trying 1,049 times, the servants finally got it. 

Zahn really impressed everyone with his sudden leader skills and knowledge, he was learning from this crazy woman, Eva, and Dragnior couldn’t be any more proud than he already was. 

Zahn was learning something that Dragnior couldn’t show him, survival. Though the dragons are always in danger from dangerous people and issues, Dragnior kept Zahn close and had him heavily guarded so that he wouldn’t have to worry about his life being in danger. But, Dragnior saw now that hiding Zahn away only made him weaker, like Eva said. 

Sighing as he was happy for the servants, a light cough came from Dragnior's side as he glanced over to his left and saw Syrah there bowing her head slightly. 

“What is wrong?” Dragnior asked 

“Queen Reyna has started to ask about herself. She is currently in the bath but I came to tell you that I will be taking her to the Throne Room.” 

Dragnior eyes widen. 

“Are you taking her to see my mother and father?” Dragnior asked 

Syrah only nodded in reply. 

“Well it’s about damn time.” Dragnior said as he let out a breath that he didn’t know he was holding 

Reyna hasn’t questioned a lot about what happened to her throughout her time of being here, so taking an interest in it now is important. Mainly when things are starting to get chaotic among the Kingdoms. 

Dragnior rushed his right hand through his hair as he turned his attention back to his son who was smiling happily. 

“Make sure that she touches my mother. You know how mother likes to evaluate everyone who’s new.” Dragnior said 

Syrah smiled as she remembered how the Queen Mother of the Lovech used to be. Always ready to come out of her stature and attack someone because a new person wouldn’t touch her so that she could get to know them.

“Yes Master.” Syrah said 

“Also, let her touch father too. She is now apart of this family.” 

Lovech Kingdom; Throne Room 

“Here we are, my Queen…” 

As Reyna was being lead the to Throne Room once again,  she couldn't help but feel excitement as she stood face to face with the door of the Throne Room. Seeing the big dragon crest once more struck fear in me as she nodded her head.

Reyna was ready to accept, she was ready to understand, but would today be the day that she would regret wanting to accept and understand? 

Reyna didn't know this because her mind has been forcing her to accept everything, but nothing that she was going through was normal. Nothing about her body functions, thoughts, or life were normal. since the day that she died, Reyna's life has become different from what the normal human life would be. 

So now ... in the eyes of her possibly losing it all... will Reyna be able to truly accept and understand what the world has in store for her next? 

As a smile graced Reyna's face and her lungs demanded for her to take a deep breath before walking into the Throne room for the second or maybe last time ever, Reyna opened her mouth to take a deep breath... and another... and another... 

Three deep breathes that her lungs required before stepping into the den of the dragons... the most ruthless killers of them all. 

As the dragon in her was already prepared to bow down in the presence of their superior, Reyna was preparing herself to find her purpose behind these doors... these doors that would soon lead her to her doom.