"I want to go, NOW!" Arcs of lightning speared across the room and slammed into the far wall, sizzling to black cinders with a furious hiss. Black clouds swirled and built against the high, stone ceiling, roaring with a thunderous voice that echoed the impatience in their creator. Winds whipped about the solid black of the floor, tearing at the tips of the girl�s feet. A jarring, high-pitched laugh followed the command. Soon lost in the torrent of the growing storm.
A woman struggled against the far wall, caught in the forceful thrall of the child�s power. Her arms and legs were frozen to the cold rock, as if the planet itself refused to let her go. Lightning crackled about her flaming, red hair. Smoke curled around her slender, white neck, tickling the inside of her sensitive nose. As much as she struggled, she couldn�t budge. At last, the woman gave up and sagged in the magic�s hold.
"Alright!" Yasha snapped wrathfully, fed up with her daughter�s temper tantrum. Pinned to the wall as she was, she didn�t have much choice in Kan�s desire to join the razing party. This was the fifth time this week.
Kan smiled with her victory, all traces of the brewing storm gone in an instant. The wind died down and with it, she ceased to hover mid-air. Black booted feet touched softly to the ground, supporting her petit frame. She was a beautiful thing, malicious as that beauty was.
Loose, fish net stockings rose up her slender legs from just below her knees to a teasing arch above her thighs. Smooth, tight fitting leather caressed her small torso, curving slightly with her developing form. The stretched bodice would have split open if it weren�t for the flimsy treads of gold that cris-crossed over her front. She wore no ornaments except for a slender, black chain that circled her pale throat. From it dangled a four pointed black star set with a sapphire heart. Her body was narrow and just beginning to develop curves. Her childish, round face was the essence of corrupted innocence. Sky blue eyes gleamed with the luster of gems, set against her milk-white skin. Her hair, pale and silky as it was, rose in short, irregular spikes around her ears and high forehead. Though she had very little to show at her young age, Kan knew how to use what she did have to her advantage. The white skinned, white haired youth giggled impishly and batted her eyes like an innocent child.
"Thank you, mommy." She said in a sugary sweet voice that was far too high for even her young age. It grated on Yasha�s nerves as soon as the child dared open her voice. The flame-haired mother was immensely thankful that Kan spent most of her time trying to suck up to Krent or Enma. Turning with a cute bounce in her step, Kan pranced from the room and down the hall, humming a tune as she went.
Yasha growled under her breath as the last of her daughter�s ghostly form rounded the corner. She rubbed her sore shoulder, anger and hatred spilling from her mind in waves. The crimson hydra waiting in the shadows drank them in, red eyes blazing with matching fury.
"Just kill her and get it over with." The low, silken voice rumbled from the depth�s of the central throat. Twenty-seven heads hissed sibilantly, twisting in a seething mass of long, sinuous necks. Muscles rippled beneath the blood tinted scales curving around the hydra�s body, glimmering in the faint light of black torches. Three, whip-like tails beat a silent rhythm against the grainy sand of the floor. Their spike-less tips leaving deep gouges where they struck and struck again. A black stub marred the otherwise deadly perfection of the beast. A grotesque lump where one of her perfectly smooth necks should be. She had formerly been a twenty-eight headed hydra, now demoted to a status lower then the most idiotic Basic. Only her usefulness kept her in the Queen�s good graces. Diamis fixed a placid, emotionless gaze on her Joined.
"Enma absolutely adores the little brat." Yasha sneered, storming over to Diamis� crimson side with little noise from her metal boots. She, unlike many of the females on this damned planet, wore a simple selection of body armour that covered more then just the necessities. More, but not all. Dark, nearly black metal curved around her torso and dipped down to her shapely hips. Tight, black leggings covered her lean legs, accenting the coiled muscles of her thighs. Knee-high metal boots protected her feet from the poisonous chemicals that invaded every inch of the hydras� home. From her hip hung a sword sheath as black as her armour. It�s steel occupant gleamed in the sickly light, a feeble flash against the all-encompassing night. Yasha snorted in disgust and threw herself down by the Majestic�s scaled arm. Three, blood red tails whispered across her lap in the hydra�s sign of possessive ownership. Yasha crossed her arms over her supple chest, muttering through clenched teeth. "That demon child has the entire herd wrapped around her finger. I should�ve just dumped her on her father when I had the chance."
Diamis chuckled in her deep, velvet soft voice. "Then we both would have lost a head, rider dear. And you don�t have any to spare." The words purred in the hydra�s throat, menacing as well as mockingly sweet. Yasha glared upwards at the many writhing heads of her life long partner.
"Enma�s gonna be pissed if we�re late. Get up, beast." The red haired woman growled. She shoved herself away from the hydra�s side as Diamis obligingly gathered her feet beneath her. Scales grated over the hard stone of the earth, warring with the click of wickedly curved talons as she began to move over and ahead of her Joined.
"Enma is always displeased." The Majestic queen shot over her shoulder. "I�ll lose another head and then we�ll be done with it." Over the years, Diamis had grown used to losing a head or two. The only one that had failed to grow back was the one she lost after Hyakuhei had slipped through their fingers and disappeared into the Nexus. That had been about the time Yasha and Diamis returned with a five year old bratling named Kan.
Kan had been the unfortunate after effect from a flight that Yasha had been more then eager to go to at first. The child�s father was a powerful storm-shaper on his world. Zekara... Zekeria... Zekira... something like that. She had long ago forgotten his name and any conversation that had happened between them. The one thing she did remember, in full clarity with a joyful smirk, was his amazing... uh... skills after his bond had finally found a mate.
Yasha had thought their pairing would have no side effects, especially not one as twisted and disgustingly cute as Kan. At first, she had thought to just leave the little twerp at the Healing Den and forget about her. Unfortunately, Enma had other plans for the child; once she had seen that Kan possessed many of the telekinetic skills of her father. Yasha had spent an extra few years annoying the life out of Baeris so that Kan would be of a useable age when they returned to Tris�Hath. Time in the Healing Den seemed to move differently then anywhere else, allowing Yasha to return to the same year she had left. By that point, Enma had the girl�s entire future planned out.
Kan had her mother�s piercing blue eyes and ghostly pale skin, a trait also inherited from her father. He had seemed as demonic as Yasha herself when they first met. Straight, pale hair framed his narrow face and sharp eyes. Kan had gained his white hair and thin frame, along with amazing powers that Yasha despised every day of her life.
Kan had the ability to shape storms as her father did. She could also levitate herself and, though it wasn�t truly a kinetic power, she could coerce nearly anyone into doing nearly anything she wanted. She had been accepted as one of Enma�s Ladies, an elite band of women who devoted their entire existence to protecting The Lady Enma, at a young age and had clung to the black haired woman as if her true mother was nothing more then a nanny.
"Hurry up, mommy!" Kan�s high voice grated on Yasha�s senses as she rounded the corner to the Portal Room. Unlike dragons, hydras had no means to teleport instantly. Instead, Krent had gathered (captured) a group of black mages and asked (forced them at sword point) them to create portals to each of the known worlds. Several back to Tris�Hath. In this way, the hydras could appear and disappear for devastating strikes that would crumble the Warren�s moral until they were ready to be crushed in a single blow. Yasha sent a scathing glare at Kan�s innocent little face before yanking herself up to Diamis� broad shoulders and looking towards the group�s leader, Lady Enma.
"Aren�t you going to give your daughter a hand up?" The Hydra Lady�s wine red lips quirked upwards in a smirk. Her own son, Bane, had gone ahead with his father. Yasha bit back a growl and stuck out a hand to help Kan to the Majestic�s back.
"No need, mommy." Kan�s giggle rose in pitch annoyingly as she levitated herself up to Diamis� shoulder ridges. She sat her tiny rump down between two of the muscled rises and curled her slim legs against one side, as if she were really a lady instead of the fifteen year old brat of a ruthless hydra rider. She smiled impishly at Yasha when she was fully settled. "See? I�m all ready!"
Enma smirked mockingly before turning her attention to the oval of swirling, black mist that was their doorway back to Tris�Hath. The magical fog churned in sluggish motions near the gold rimmed edges, becoming a maelstorm of activity the closer it grew to its central point. Yasha had never once trusted the gigantic frames the black mages had suspended in mid-air. She trust them less when their empty center became filled with the dark energy needed to charge the teleport. Yet as Vienna, the gigantic chaos queen of the hydras, plunged boldly through the whirling black depths, she had no choice but to follow. That was her place in life these days.
Seconds after Diamis� hulking body had entered the portal, the night sky of Tris�Hath burst into view in a brilliant display of silent, glittering stars. The world�s single moon hung like a silver talon, raking the sky with it�s slitted gaze. But the night was not all dark.
Thick, roiling clouds of soot obscured the frail stars and blotted out the pale glow of the moon. Red flames, as if risen from the Nine Hells, lit the black mass with an eerie glare. Screams filled the air, accompanied by the voracious roar of the fire as it swept through the town, cleansing it of it�s occupants. What had once been the muted gold of nearly ripe fields was now nothing more then a patch of charred earth, still burning with the few embers that dared expose themselves to the night�s cool breeze. The stench of blackened flesh choked what little fresh air was left to circulate the ruined town. People screamed and fought; screamed and ran; screamed and died. As almost half of their village collapsed in a burning heap, they screamed.
Kan laughed gleefully and leapt from Diamis�s broad shoulders. While the hydra and her mother were content to wreak havoc on the few stragglers that escaped their Hellish homes, she wanted to be at the center of it. Kan drank in the chaos that flowed from every being, intoxicated by the waves of fear as each new person she passed screamed in horror. Flashes of lightning darted from her pale fingertips, boring into buildings and flesh alike. She had no need to walk over the cracked and blistering ground. Instead, she hovered a few feet in the air, her thigh-high black boots pointed towards the earth as if holding her on an invisible thread. The shadows of raging fire obscured her face, letting only the wide, feral grin be seen by those she struck down. Wind whipped her short locks into a torrent of motion, stark white against the black background. Only the glitter of that single, blue gem clasped about her narrow throat offered light, a flash of beauty against her deadly form. Kan�s cackle resonated throughout the village as she raised both hands and let her powers destroy.
All too soon though, came the ever familiar challenge of the dragon riders. Wings of all colours filled the air, sweeping down on their hated enemy with the lethal skill they had all learned and mastered. More flames arched through the air, this time eliciting the anguished cries of numerous hydras. Kan sighed her disappointment, landing with a short bounce before stomping back to find her mother. She hated the dragon riders for many reasons, one of the most prominent being that they always ruined her fun.
Yasha and Diamis waited on the edge of the smouldering village, standing sentinel over the open portal through which their leaders escaped. Most of the Basics had died in the first wave of the dragon riders� attack, leaving only the more intelligent hydras to flee while they still had their hides. Krent on Toth and Enma on Vienna had already made a hasty exit. Their deadly intellect and deadlier attacks had left a lasting impression on this town. Perhaps enough to count the few surviving villagers as some of the Warren�s growing enemies. As Kan skipped happily away from the battle site, she couldn�t help but notice how the villagers cringed, even when it was the dragons flying overhead. She hummed a bouncy tune to herself, levitating herself in an instant up to Diamis� tensed back.
The hydra�s muscles rippled and pulsed beneath her, still working her many heads as they rained blow after blow on the defiant dragon riders. She had already lost two heads. Both of which were reforming before Kan�s eyes. She couldn�t help but giggle gleefully, titillated by the gleaming black blood slicking the new heads.
Yasha was beside her in the next instant, still hacking away at a villager�s pitchfork as the crazed man attempted to take her down. She grew tired of the meaningless battle and swiftly removed his head. Jamming her blood soaked sword back into its sheath, she order Diamis to return through the portal before it closed on them. The leaders were gone; whoever was left behind was too stupid to save anyway.
For a creature of her size, Diamis moved surprisingly swiftly when she needed to. With a final roar and snap of her great jaws, the Majestic queen swung around and plunged through the whirling pool of dark energy. Sound and sight snapped into silence while the magic worked. The flames of the destroyed village still burned in Kan�s sight, but the heat and smoke had gone. When the Portal Room of the hydra�s realm came into focus once again, she was amazed by the silence of it all.
The loss of sensations didn�t surprise her for long though. As eager as any young, spoiled brat, Kan�s attention switched the instant she caught sight of a new target. Krent and Enma had hurriedly returned to their room to discuss the next battle plan; leaving Bane to fend for himself until his tutor called him for lessons. If there was anything Kan loved more than to torment her mother, it was to prove she was better then Bane. She had long ago decided that she was the rightful heir to the hydra riches, not Bane. Unfortunately, Krent and Enma didn�t seem to agree with this. As much as Enma planned and plotted for Kan�s future, the ghostly girl was nothing beside her magic wielding son. Mainly because the Lady Enma had to fight her husband for their son�s attention. She rarely won.
"Oh BaaAAAaaaneeee...." Kan sang at the top of her high-pitched lungs. Clasping her hands cutely behind her back, she skipped over to the dark haired, dark eyed boy. He was only 10 years of age, five years younger then herself. Though it didn�t account for much, Kan enjoyed holding it over him. Thrusting out her small rump, she bent down to his level until they were nearly nose to nose. His eyes shone onyx in the black light of the torches, reflecting the sapphire blue of her penetrating gaze. "I got more kills then yooooou diiiiid." She sang sweetly in his face. Bane�s dark features remained completely emotionless.
"I don�t see how that�s relevant." The heir to the hydra throne replied in his adolescent voice. He seemed to lack any type of emotion whatsoever. He never smiled, never laughed. He was the perfect pupil as well as a compliant listener to his father�s plots. He did what he was told and rarely anything of his own, very unlike his parents. Krent was outgoing and often considered verging on insane. Enma was the cool, logical type that knew everything before it happened. With the black and white variations of his parents� emotions, one would expect that Bane would be something; instead of the nothing that he was.
Kan drew herself up to her full height and pouted extravagantly. Being unable to break Bane�s emotionless exterior was the one thing that truly irked her. Anyone else could be annoyed with ease, but he was a blank wall to her. And, Kan thought, if she was to become the next Hydra Lady, she�d have to find some way to get rid of, or get close to Bane. Possibly even marry him... though that was a last resort.
"Well you�re no fun." She retorted with a sulk. �Humphf�ing snottishly, she turned on her heels and marched from the room. What intoxicating joy had been coursing through her system after the fast and furious battle was now gone. She detested Bane with ever pore in her being. Detested his appearance; detested his personality; and especially detested his dominant status among the hydra riders� children. She and Bane were the eldest of the bunch, both vying for his parents� attention. Unfortunately, while she scrabbled for every second she got with them, he merely had to blink to bring them to him. Her blood boiled at the mere thought of his expressionless, innocent-eyed face staring up at her. There must be something she could do to best him. She had to find some skill, some great prize, that would bring Enma and Krent to her as readily as they went to Bane.
As she brewed, the white skinned child stalked the halls of the hydra realm. Green ooze glistened on the imperfect walls and ground. It seeped up from the core of the earth and spread its oily touch on whatever it could reach. The black bottoms of her boots left sticky imprints in a pool of the eerie green slime that had no name as she stepped past. No one seemed particularly interested in naming the oddities that belonged on their new home world. Kan cared least of all for the peculiar black stone and evaporated green fog that wrapped around every inch of Sistarrist Drakan. Her only thought was of Bane. How to win him; how to best him; how to destroy him. She�d always be second best until she could out-do Bane.
Her perfect little lips protruded in a pout as she thought on and on. The splash of her boots through more puddles seemed a distant occurrence, not worthy of importance in her scheming mind. One petit fist curled beneath her pointed chin while the other clenched loosely behind her back. Far from where the others could see, Kan struck a pose of deep thought.
White brows rushed together on her white forehead, overshadowing the lush black of her long lashes. She stopped mid-step, shifting her weight from one foot to the other as she turned in the opposite direction. Kan began a calculated path of pacing steps. Ten in one direction, stop, turn, ten in the other direction. The soles of her boots now trailed the eerie green slime over the smooth black of the ground, leaving saturated smears that quickly absorbed back into the floor. A muted, rhythmic thud was the only evidence of her presence in the deserted hallway.
Bane was perfect in his parents� eyes, that was the problem. Step, step, step, turn, step, step, step... His magical talent had been evident when he was born, and blossomed as he grew. The entirety of the Kingdom knew him as �The Obsidian Knight�. His black on black ensemble gave him an ominous and altogether eerie appeal. Step, step, step, step... The perfect student, a studious mage, and already his parents considered him as a future Hopeful. Not too far in the future at that....
Kan halted mid-step as if she had run herself into a wall. An expression of pure euphoria lit her child-like features, dancing in her sapphire blue eyes. There was one thing she could get immediately, while Bane would have to wait. With a gleeful cackle, Kan pattered quickly down the flame-lit hallways.
Her black soled boot tripped gaily along the crack riddled ground, skipping to and fro to avoid passing people. With her hands clenched cutely behind her back, Kan offered a cheery smile to offset the annoyed glares that followed her back. A perky tune sung from her glass-shatteringly high lungs. The minuscule black and blue pendant dangling from her slender throat bounced erratically above her chest, flashing with sparks of white light where the black flames struck their pointed edges. The spikes of her white hair fluttered with each fluid bounce. All who looked at her knew that the demonic little girl was planning something.
It wasn�t difficult for Kan to remember what path she needed to take to get to her destination. She often spent hours there, annoying years off the occupants� lives. Turning a corner, Kan came to stand before a tall, stone archway. The black torches sitting in brass sconces on either side of the entranceway cast long shadows over the jutting rock. Their grayish fingers reached high up the craggy stone, filling each imperfect hole and crevice with inky darkness. Where the stonecutter had etched designs into the protruding arch, the delicate grooves dripped with fickle shadows. Within the elaborate stone work was set a door of solid ebony, carved and chiselled to resemble the endless spiral of the magically kept portals through which the hydras launched their attacks. Kan placed her small, long fingered hands on the golden door knob and gave it a light shove. The door swung open on soundless hinges, allowing a stab of pure, red light to spill into the corridor. With a fail-proof plan lighting the fires of her sapphire eyes, Kan slipped through the growing crack and tip toed across the room.
The chamber she had entered was small, made smaller by the amount of clutter littering the walls and floor. Tall, brass bracers stood in the craggy corners. Their ropes of metal wound up and around a torch that burned with a natural, red flame. There were only four torches, for above their bright light gathered a smog of ethereal green. Only the black flames were able to keep the toxic fog of Sistarrist away from their flickering depths. Just the same, the red fires let off enough light to illuminate the vast quantity of books and sheets that spread across three rectangular tables. Sheafs of ink-laden work spilled over the tables, onto chairs, then to the floor, like a cascade of white and black water. Their fluttering edges were already worn and creased from use, sometimes burned when their holders drew them too close to the flames. Bookshelves with scattered remnants of organized tomes were shoved to the far walls. Their splintered wood edges cut into crumpled and forgotten papers that should have tumbled to the ground long ago. At another table, containers of bulbous glass sat in a chaotic pattern on the stained, wooden surface. Liquids and slimes of every imaginable colour bubbled within the thin, tubular confines. Swirls of smoke rose through curvy funnels and spun through long tubes to join with another fog emitted from yet another murky concoction. It was at this table that Kan sat. Her pert little bottom landed on a tall stool, while her legs curled around its slender wooden feet. Without a word to the only other occupant in the room, Kan began to examine a set of two vials heating over a blue flame.
"What do you want, Kan?" A guttural drone emitted from the hunched figure sifting through a pile of books in the far corner. His long, black robes hung loosely on his shoulders, seeming to drag him down with their immense weight. Light glinted off the oily locks of silven hair that tumbled down the man�s back, reaching nearly to his waist. Knots and tangles gnarled the fine strands, causing them to clump together in wavy streams. There seemed to be no density within the volumes of black material, making it seem as if the small, balding head and the set of age-marked hands were the only matter composing this fragile excuse for a human. The material bunched around his sharp angles, rustling dully as his long arms reached across the sea of paper.
"What makes you think I want something?" Kan retorted in her sweet, pouting tones. Her lower lip jutted out dramatically while the dark contrast of her black lashes fell over her blue eyes. One leg uncurled from her stool and kicked at the air absently.
"Because the only time you come to see me is when Enma forces you to do your lessons, or something you desire has gone out of your usually long reach." The old, hunch-backed man turned and folded his hands into the darkness of his robes. With slow, shuffling steps, he made his way over to where Kan sat. The drag of his slippered feet echoed into the far corners of the mage�s study. Kan had never grown accustomed to the sedated movements and soft murmurs that were the mages� actions. They were all too slow, too calm for her liking. Like the shadow of Death, the black mage loomed over her, his rancid, moulding scent causing her stomach to churn.
Kan turned away in time to hide the grimace of disgust that crossed her ghostly features. She had promised herself long ago that she would never grow to be that old. It was bad enough that she desperately needed his help. She couldn�t stand the sight of his skeletal face and liver-spotted skin for longer than a minute.
"Why should I help you if you can�t even hold my gaze?" The black mage asked with a rise of curiosity in his cultured tones. He had mistaken Kan�s revulsion for a sign of weakness.
A slender hand slipped from the folds of his black robes and hovered over the mass of glass vials. Kan dared a glance, seeing the paper-thin quality of his bleached skin. It stretched over his bones like a drum skin pulled too tight. Beneath the grooves of his knuckles and wrist, she could see the steady pulse of blue veins. His fingernails had grown long and yellow from ill-care. Their sharpened tips grated on the pristine curve of an empty vial. While they clicked and clattered over the smooth glass, Kan found her voice around a swallow of bile. "I�m not turning away because I can�t �hold your gaze� " she sneered, "it�s because old age makes me sick. Gawd! How can you stand to look like that?"
The hand stopped its careful study of each precious beaker. With silent fluidity, it withdrew into musty scented robes. The black mage looked down on Kan with a disapproving purse of his thin lips. The pointed tip of his chin set firmly, sending the wispy strands of his beard jutting forward like grass that had grown too stiff in a gusty breeze. Beady, gray eyes fixed on Kan with a cold scrutiny. His every breath rasped in the fragile tubes of his throat, drawing out in a subdued wheeze as he began his retort. "One who desperately seeks the aid of another should not be judgmental, lest they know of someone else who might be willing to help them. And I doubt you do."
"Whatever." Kan scoffed, waving off the mage�s reprimand with a flick of her thin wrist. She began to toy with the vials of liquid once again. "Look, I wanna be here about as much as you want me to be here. So I�ll get straight to the point. Kay?" She asked with a rise in pitch of her bird-like voice and a sweet smile upon her pale lips. She waited a moment, watching the disapproving frown bring wrinkles to the man�s craggy face. "I want to go to a dragon agency. I want to bond a dragon." While the mage�s face stretched into a look of shock, Kan merely shrugged and turned back to the vials. She had made a game of seeing how close she could get before the electricity at the tips of her fingers jumped to the glass. "Not just any dragon, of course. I want something that would make Krent and Enma notice me."
"You- you�re an insane little brat!" The black mage exclaimed in sputtering tones. "I will not be party to your attempt to- to bond one of those despicable creatures! I wonder what you think will impress the Lord and Lady about this little plot of yours. The fact that you went behind their backs or that you came back with a dragon! A dragon, of all the creatures in the Nexus! You want-" His voice trailed off as he caught sight of the dangerous glitter in Kan�s eyes. There was no amusement in their sapphire depths, no indication that a childish mind rested in her young body. Her hand hovered over one of his precious experiments, small sparks of blue lightning dancing inches above the glass tube. Should she release her power into the foggy beaker, his entire lab would be destroyed. The mage gulped down his fright and rage. With a venomous look at the fifteen year old witch, he turned on his heels and stalked over to one of the tall bookshelves.
"Thank you!" Kan squeaked. The trickle of ascending notes that jumped from her throat like a shattering glass grated on the black mage�s nerves. He detested her with a passion that most of his brethren reserved for their white-wearing counterparts. She was powerful, cunning, a spoiled brat, and she knew it. She had never taken magic lessons seriously. From the first day, she had known her power came from a different source. And so she had set about catering to her own whims without a thought to the studies that would have taught her control and moderation. The chilling fact was, she already knew how to control her powers. Manipulation was her strong point.
At last, the black mage came to grasp what he had been searching for. His long nails crinkled the worn paper, poking through worn holes where too many creases had come together. Like the pallor of his skin, the paper was a sickly yellow, nearly translucent, and covered with dark blotches. Across the aged sheet scrawled numerous lines of cryptic, crimson-stained letters. Each line held a new set of numbers, a new location, and a new name. Some had changed from the last time the ancient Lore Master had glanced at this oft forgotten paper. The tingling at the edge of his slender fingers reminded him of the magic that was bound up in this simple sheet, stretching across all the Nexus to bring this collection of letters and numbers before his eyes.
This single page held a list of all the current clutches, their egg count, their sires, and their location, from all over the void that was the Nexus. Each time a clutch hatched, the bold letters would fade away and be replaced by another listing. It was a near to exact replica of the one that rested in Mystic�s capable hands back on Tris�Hath. The Hydra Lord himself had commissioned the making of this item, making yet another mockery of the Warren. He was fevered with the desire to have everything his enemies possessed. Especially everything Mystic held dear.
The black mage smiled cruelly at this thought. He enjoyed watching the dragon riders suffer as much as the next person, but a more enjoyable pass time was watching their Lord rant and rave over another failed attempt to possess the Warren itself. The Lady Enma took her husband�s tantrums with a grain of salt. The rest of Sistarrist took bets on which of the Lord�s next schemes would fail. The black robed Ancient had gained a bit of money off that endeavour.
With a disdainful scowl, he tossed the page before Kan�s nose, looking down his nose as the pearly white girl while she studied the sheet. After a moment of silence, Kan looked up at her mentor expectantly, a flash of impatient boredom shining in her sapphire blue eyes. The mage let out a disgusted scoff, thrusting a long, bony finger at the page. His dagger-sharp nail thumped against the wood below, stabbing into the worn paper and pinpointing the clutch that would most interest Yasha�s offspring.
"The Dragon Soul. Elantris attended a frenzy there only recently." He rasped in his guttural voice. Deep sunk eyes peered down from their dark shadows, watching for the girl�s reaction. A light twitch of Kan�s white lips showed her pleasure at the information.
"That�ll be perfect!" Kan squealed in delight. Her small shoulders shrugged upwards with the rise in her voice, accenting the perky smile that lit her face. When the black mage removed his hand, Kan snatched up the sheet, rolled it neatly, then slid it down the front of her bodice. She would have given the man a �thank you� kiss on the cheek, but the mere sight of him made her want to vomit again. Instead, she bounced down from her seat, smiling prettily and holding his gaze for as long as she possibly could. She was about to skip gaily out of the room when the man�s thick voice caused her to pause.
"Have you told the Lord and Lady of your plans?" He asked sharply, beady eyes glaring down at her from his hunched height.
"No." Kan returned simply. She turned on her heels and began a step-over-step skip that took her out the narrow crack in the door. At the last second, she called back to him. "I�ll let you tell them."
A wicked grin tugged at her small mouth, glittering in the depths of her sapphire eyes. Her steps were silent scuffs on the black floor, barely heard before they were choked off by the vast emptiness that was Sistarrist. The paper crinkled between her small breasts, harsh and grating on her silky smooth skin. Kan was ignorant of this though. Her thoughts were on the portals; on the whirling, churning darkness that she must pass through; on the world that was doomed to give her a bond, lest she destroy it; on the smug, self-assured plots that even now formed in her mind. She would rule Sistarrist with her dragon bond at her side. Everything would be hers, everything would fall to her command, and she would crush all those who stood in her way.
If Bane was the Obsidian Knight, she would become the Sapphire Lady.
Kan is a Hopeful at: The Dragon Soul
"Enma's Ladies" done by me.