Chapter 332: Zavinti, The Azure Serenity

 

  Nokti felt her legs go numb as she stood stock-still in fear. The dark blue dragon hovered over her, its pastel wings stretched out, each wing beat creating a powerful gale that threatened to knock the vampire over. 

  The dragon bared its deadly sharp fangs, each tooth the size of a shortsword. “Why do you carry the scent of dragon blood on your body!?” Zavinti roared.

  Nokti swallowed the lump in her throat and whispered, “Gods help me.” But she knew Caligo and Lin Lu were still in the river bathing a mile away. No one would hear her cries from here.

  The dragon drew back her wings and dropped to the ground with a heavy thud. Nokti stumbled and fell to her knees as the ground shook. She looked up at the dragon goddess with a mixture of stunned awe and fear.

  Zavinti was almost twice the size of the other dragons Nokti had seen. Her dark scales shone like sapphires under the moonlight and her milk-white claws seemed to almost glow with an inner ethereal light.

  Nokti felt as if she was a small mouse in the den of a ravenous lion. She wanted to run, to hide in the tall grass of the hills, but her legs didn’t move. She had never felt so afraid, so helpless.

  “I can smell the blood of my brood on you, leech,” Zavinti snarled. “Explain.”

  Nokti’s jaw opened up and down but no words came out, only a hollow dry sound.

  The dragon lowered her long neck and stared straight at Nokti, her hot breath bearing down over the vampire. “Do you know who I am?”

  Nokti shook her head anxiously.

  “How short the memories of mortals are,” the dragon said in disappointment and raised its head once more. Her enormous draconic frame loomed over the vampire. “I am the scion of Kaleidrog, The Azure Sky. I am Zavinti, The Azure Serenity. And I am the only goddess you should be praying to for help. I am the only one who can save you from my retribution.”

  “R-retribution?” Nokti mumbled fearfully.

  The dragon’s lips pulled back in a smile, though it made her seem even more vicious, “Do you know why I was given the epithet ‘The Azure Serenity’? It was because unlike others of my kind I was not quick to fall to my emotions. I was calm, collected. I understood what needed to be done and why. I still do, I still am.” Zavinti’s tail slowly curled around the small camp, “So imagine, if you can with that limited mind of yours, what it might take to anger someone like me? Do you know how many bodies of my brood I have found these past few days? Five… FIVE!” she roared.

  Nokti flinched in pain. She covered her ears and fell to her knees from the sheer bellowing sound.

  “I will give you one chance, you blood-sucking leech,” Zavinti growled in a rumbling voice. “Tell me, who you are and what happened to my brood?”

  The vampire closed her eyes in resignation, tears slipping down her brown cheeks, “…I am Nokti…” Slowly, she opened her scarlet eyes and looked up at the dragon resolutely, “I am Nokti of the Cairn Tribe. And though you may be god, you are not mine. If I am to die, I will die with my loyalty intact.”

  “Die? You think I am going to kill you?” the dragon cocked her head to the side. “Death would be a mercy for a defiant leech. No, you will serve as my slave for all your days to come. Soon, you will be begging to tell me what happened to my brood mates.”

  Zavinti pointed a large ivory claw at Nokti. Bright purple sigils appeared over her claw and extended outwards in a sprawl of ethereal light.

  Nokti paled in terror, Binding Magic!? She had seen such true magic once before, but nothing of such sheer magnitude.

  “I gave you a chance, leech. Remember I gave you a chance.”

  The ethereal cloud of purple light towered over Nokti and closed in around her.

  Suddenly, a wave of indigo flames fell from above and burned away the ethereal cloud. Nokti looked up in shock. A giant white fox ran down from the sky on clouds of frost beneath each footstep.

  Lin Lu plummeted into the camp in a silent burst of speed like a hawk. Just before she slammed into the ground, one of her tails flicked out and wrapped around Nokti’s waist. Lin Lu kicked off the air, a cloud of frost forming beneath her paws, and shot away back into the sky, the vampire secure between her eight tails.

  A delusory fox? Zavinti watched in stunned silence. It had only been a split second, yet the fox had managed to somehow avoid her synchrony magic’s senses, get close enough to destroy her binding spell, and escape back into the sky.

  Zavinti frowned. Delusory foxes were incredibly rare elemental creatures, native to the Violet Realm. What was one doing here?

  …I see.

  It had been a long time since Zavinti had seen one of their kind, let alone one this strong. The fox god must have been the one responsible for the deaths of her brood mates.

  There will be no escape, not for any of you, Zavinti swore angrily. She opened her wings wide and flexed her muscles taut, ready to jump into the sky.

  “You will find no vengeance up there,” a warm voice said casually.

  Zavinti turned around in surprise. How had someone snuck behind her?

  A young boy, no older than 15 stood alone, leaning back and forth on the balls of his feet. His grey hair was wet as if he had just jumped out of the ocean. He wore only a black feathered cloak that dragged behind him, too large for his small frame.

  Zavinti did not know the boy, but she recognized his iridescent eyes that constantly shifted in colors. She had heard of those eyes before.

  “Caligo?”

  Were her synchronicity magic’s senses truly failing her? Delusory foxes were known for their concealment abilities, but Caligo? Little, young Caligo? No, she thought not.

  “And you must be Zavinti, The Azure Serenity. It’s nice to finally meet you,” Caligo smiled wide. “The stories of your beauty do not do you justice.”

  She frowned, “What is the young whelp of secrets doing here? And what do you know of the delusory fox that just flew away?”

  “What do I know? ~I wonder?~” Caligo mused.

  “I have no time for your foolishness. Tell me what you know.”

  “Hm, I know that you won’t be able to catch up to them. That fox is faster than you and with her concealment abilities? There is no way you will find her. Especially in the dark. However,” Caligo winked, “I might be able to help you track down the fox.”

  “Then stop wasting my time and tell me how,” she growled.

  Caligo rubbed his neck and winced, “You know, it’s pretty hard to look up at you and talk at the same time. Mind coming down here? It’d be easier to explain.”

  She stared at him coldly, but after a few seconds she sighed reluctantly, “You are lucky my father wishes for us to be amicable with your pantheon.”

  Zavinti’s draconic form began to glow a soft green until her whole body was enveloped in light. Slowly the light shrunk until it was only 2 meters tall, then faded away, revealing a humanoid body of a lithe young woman. Her skin was an icy pale blue, almost white, and her short hair was a dark blue like the deep ocean sea. Her beauty seemed soft, but her serpentine eyes held the same sharp sapphire color as before and they carried the same terrifying anger. 

  Caligo’s boyish smile widened, his eyes glittering with hunger, “Even in your smaller form you are gorgeous.”

  “I do not care for your flattery,” she said impatiently.

  “I need not flatter, the truth will speak for itself. And you, Zavinti, my oh my, you are truly a jewel among your kind. You are a greater beauty than even your mother,” he winked playfully.

  “My mother passed away long before you could even crawl, do not speak of her!” she snapped.

  “Does one need to know somebody to have heard of their beauty?” Caligo shrugged. “Surely, as a dragon, you must understand what I mean. How far have some of your kind gone to collect a precious jewel or mound of gold you have only heard of? Dragons have a penchant for collecting beautiful things, don't they? I myself have similar habits, although I confess I have no real interest in hoarding something as meaningless as gold.”

  “Whatever stupid game you are getting at, I have no interest in it. Tell me what you know about the delusory fox and how to find her, now.”

  “Why do you dragons always have so little patience for the little things in life?” Caligo shook his head with a sigh. 

  “Do not push me, whelp,” she sneered, “The only reason I even talk to your sorry excuse for a pantheon is because my father respects Lunae. I assure you neither my father nor I care about the youngest, weakest, and quite clearly the most foolhardy of your pantheon, you.”

  “Hm. That’s hurtful,” Caligo said light-heartedly. As he spoke the sky began to darken with shadows until the moon’s light had disappeared entirely.

  “I have run out of patience,” Zavinti snapped. “Five dragons are dead! Do you understand the gravity of the situation! Tell me what you know of the fox and you may just yet leave this place unharmed!”

  Caligo sighed and raised his hands in surrender, “Fine. The delusory fox’s name is Lin Lu and she did not kill your dragon friends.” He smiled coldly, “I did.”

  Zavinti narrowed her eyes, “What did you say…?”

  “I’m saying I ripped off their wings, broke their limbs, gouged out their eyes, and slit their throats, and I watched as they slowly bled to death, choking on their own filth. I must admit it was quite cathartic,” he sighed in reminiscence.

  Zavinti roared with rage. A grey halo formed above her and flew out at Caligo with blinding speed. His hand abruptly shot out and caught it.

  Zavinti’s eyes widened in disbelief, “That’s… that’s not possible!” 

  Halo magic held the greatest destructive power of all true chromatic magic and yet the boy in front of her was somehow holding it with his bare hand!?

Caligo clicked his tongue and shook his head, “You dragons, always underestimating other gods and their pantheons. Lunae is stronger than you realize, as are Bellum and Stjerne. You shouldn’t underestimate them. But they are not the ones your kind should fear. I am.”

  Caligo clenched his fingers into a fist. The grey halo of light snapped and disappeared into dust.

  Zavinti stared at the display of power in confusion. That wasn’t clarity magic… How did he diffuse the halo? Was it even diffusion or was it something else? Was the information we had about Caligo wrong? 

  Zavinti took a step back and green light enveloped her body once more and changed her back into her draconic form. “You are not like the rest of your pantheon. What are you?”

  “Do you not know?” Caligo bowed with a flourish, “I am the Mystery, the Caretaker of the Realm’s Secrets, the god of the deep earth.”

  Zavinti bared her fangs, “I’ve been holding back because I wanted answers before killing you.” Half a dozen grey halos formed around her wings, “But if you play coy with me again I will end you.”

  “Your father really told you nothing, did he?” He smiled, “Is Kaleidrog so afraid that he dares not even whisper my name to his children?”

  “My father fears nothing, Caligo,” Zavinti snarled.

  “Perhaps. Like your father you are strong and the strong fear very little. In fact, you are one of the few in this realm I’d consider an actual threat.” 

  The ground below him began to shake and the hills around them trembled.

  Caligo raised his index finger, “But unlike your father, you seem to have failed to notice one thing.”

  “And what is that?” Zavinti growled.

  He looked up at her, his iridescent eyes alight with cold anger, “My name is not Caligo.”