Omega's Rebirth-Chapter 809: The Marker ()

"Can you break through it?" Jian asked.

His tone was cold, distant.

Neveah couldn’t fault him. She had felt a chill run down her spine witnessing Lodenworth’s attempt to self destruct in his own flames.

The fire wouldn’t kill him. Not yet. But if he burned away all the air within the barrier and expended enough of it for long enough...then the fire wouldn’t be the cause of death. Suffocation and exhaustion would do the trick.

Dragons were highly resistant to fire. Not impervious...not indestructible.

Neveah walked closer to assess the barrier, wincing when a wave of arcane hit her. Harsh and unwelcoming.

She frowned slightly. This barrier, small as it was, felt much stronger than the barrier separating the stronghold from the dark lands.

Arcane was indeed the mother of all magic.

’What do you think?’ Neveah thought to Demevirld.

It stirred within her, right on the surface alongside her wolf. Somehow, they had found grounds to coexist that neither side had to be suppressed.

Neveah wasn’t sure when it had happened. But she had fully fused with Demevirld and now, it also seemed at rest within her.

Demevirld hummed in response to Neveah, her veins pulsing with magic.

"It will take some time." She determined.

Jian nodded once. "Xenon, find that marker."

His gaze was still fixed on the inferno within the barrier.

Xenon slipped around the barrier. The hall was vast and the barrier was focused on the central part of it, surrounding the throne on all sides.

"I won’t have him..." Jian trailed off. "Die like this."

She didn’t question him.

Drawing on her magic, she began an onslaught on the arcane barrier. It didn’t budge.

’You have to tap into the arcane around you. Arcane overwhelms arcane.’ Demevirld guided.

There was no time for hesitation. She expanded her reach and drew on the abundance of arcane charging the forest.

It took considerable effort, and drained her visibly, but the barrier showed cracks. The flames did the rest.

Bursting hungrily out of the crumbling barrier. Jian flicked his wrist and they died out almost instantly.

The royal throne was reduced to ashes. Lodenworth still stood as he was and Keila lay on the floor, curled into a small ball.

Her small shield of magic flickered out and she stared up at Lodenworth. Wide-eyed and horrified.

He remained unmoving. Watching her just as she watched him. Like they both just realized what each was capable of.

"I did not grant you leave to take your own life." Jian broke the tense silence, his tone displeased. "I will keep my promise to you. So do not disappoint me anymore than you already have, Lodenworth."

And then he turned on Keila. He didn’t say much, he just stared, eyes disdainful.

She cowered beneath his gaze, all her efforts to put on a brave front fell apart with Lodenworth’s flames.

"I blessed your union." It was a simple statement. "Now, I dissolve it."

Lodenworth made a strangled sound, something between despair and resignation.

His knees gave out and hit the ground. But he didn’t protest.

"Your self proclaimed title of High Queen... isn’t worth dissolving as it was never acknowledged."

Keila laughed hollowly. "What gives you the right?!"

"It wasn’t enough that Adrienne died for Neveah?! That Xenon killed Misha for you and suffered decades of the wild haze for it?! You would have Lodenworth do the same?! What are you exactly that they would sacrifice everything... everything for you?!"

"What you wish your son to be."

The fact that Jian indulged a response testified to how controlled his rage was at the moment.

Controlled as it was, there were no guarantees it wouldn’t slip.

Neveah could see it in his eyes. In how his muscles were pulled taut.

"Beloved... I know this is a lot to ask of you, but the child..." He said.

The Fae healers from before had not been brave enough to linger. At Jian’s arrival, they fled for shelter.

Neveah walked over to Keila, hesitating for a moment as memories from the volcano returned to her mind.

She suppressed them and crouched. "You keep Xenon’s name out of your tongue or I’ll rip it out of you."

Exhaling sharply, she continued in a calmer tone.

"I can confirm the extent of your dilation and determine how best you can deliver your child."

"If the child is ready, then for his safety... you will have to trust me with this delivery. Here and now."

"I’d rather die..." Keila snarled. She rallied her arcane, but it fizzled out.

She had used up too much arcane to take control of the forest, she would not be able to muster any soon.

Neveah ignored her. Her gaze was fixed on Lodenworth.

"It is your call." He muttered hoarsely. "My son’s life is all I ask."

Neveah nodded. "How do you know...you are to have a son?"

She wasn’t certain why she asked. Dragon births were never clear in gender until the moment of delivery.

"I... she told me so." Lodenworth supplied hesitantly.

Neveah’s gaze moved back to Keila. Her eyes narrowed slightly and she reached for her belly.

Keila recoiled but Neveah didn’t back off. She placed a hand on her belly and then her eyes met Keila’s.

That smug look hidden in her gaze, and what she sensed told Neveah all she needed to know.

"There is...no trace of life." Neveah murmured in disbelief.

Lodenworth’s head shot up. "What do you mean there is no trace of life?!"

"Veah?" Jian asked.

"The child is gone." She said. "Not dead. She already... had the baby..."

Neveah’s hand moved on instinct, ripping aside the mid area of Keila’s dress.

There, the mark of a blade ran along her lower abdomen. A wound already healing.

The Fae healers weren’t here to deliver a child, but to heal the cut left behind. The arcane wasn’t out of control because she was in travail, it was out of control because it’s essence was being divided between Keila and the child.

She wasn’t here because she didn’t anticipate their arrival. She had lured them here and away from the child.

"I also thought it would be a girl. The next High Queen, I believed. I had no idea fate had greater in store, until Beoruh shared with me his vision."

"A child...a dragon of Fae royal blood, with arcane pulsing in his veins. A new royal lineage for the supreme throne. The end of the era of golden scales."

"You had him...cut out of you." Neveah realized in horror.

The silence that followed was damning.

Neveah glanced at Lodenworth and then Jian.

"The marker, it wasn’t an object or a location. It is the child. And Beoruh has him."