older cousin from messing with it,” Cirrus added.
“I don’t think there is any proper way to tell you what we are. Perhaps Cirrus could show you around,” Lintrance suggested.
Cirrus was already getting to his feet before he asked.
“You can trust him.”
Sybl remembered the terrifying wolf-like creatures and the giant winged cat from earlier. Now she was somehow in a room of human-looking dragons. “You were able to fly out?” she asked Cirrus.
“You can’t fly out of a pluma’s field, Princess. They control all the Thread in one and can snap you and your wings out of the sky with little effort,” Lintrance answered for him.
“So what were you trying to do? Blow me out by hiding till that cat-thing and those wolves arrived?” Sybl asked.
“Cirrus, seriously?” Lintrance questioned.
“I didn’t want to scare her. And I wasn’t about to unsomn so the plumas could sense me. The Pack you love so much didn’t look in the mood to share her, either. For your idea of a truce, they still snapped enough bones in my body to make me think otherwise.”
Sybl gulped as Lintrance looked to her to follow Cirrus as he left the room.
“No one is going to hurt you while you’re here. You have my word on that,” Lintrance said.
She figured it was all she had for the time being, as she partially nodded and followed after Cirrus.
They passed through several corridors and through some larger caverns, before stopping when the shelves of glowing water on the walls ceased to end. The white light drew her curiosity closer. She touched the water that fell down the brown stone as a thin, perfectly-even waterfall. Only it fell at a fraction of the speed of what it should have. Even gravity was a mess in this place.
“It’s the aeri in the water that makes it glow. The water around Toria is infused with enough of it to make it rise entirely against its outside walls, instead of fall,” Cirrus explained.
“Aeri being magic?”
“Aeri being the life energy that keeps us alive. Humans die without water, air, and food and we die without aeri, which is a lighter form of all three.”
“So you don’t eat?” Sybl asked.
“We eat, but mostly the dragoons do as we tend to use more energy in a short amount of time.” He continued on, and she followed him upstairs until they came to the wooden door of a room. He fiddled with the lock for a moment before it opened, and he stepped inside first. The room was heavy with dust. Cirrus walked through it to the wooden shelf across from the bed.
“Is this your room?” Sybl found it unusual for a guy’s room, as a lot of linen and clothes lying about were pink, white and red.
“No, it was my mother’s when she was alive.”
“I’m sorry.”
“She died before—I mean shortly after I was born,” Cirrus quickly corrected. He pulled a box carved of translucent stone from the shelf and dusted it off. “But I still feel as if I never missed her like I should.”
Sybl was curious to what he held now, as it looked like several cards. He handed them to her, and she looked them over. The first was a driver’s license dated thirty-two years ago. “‘Felstaff, Alexia.’ Heh, and its from my province, that’s neat. She looks so much like you.”
“Well, so much for believing that everyone else was wrong,” Cirrus added with a smile that already knew she was going to say just that.
“So your mother was a human?”
“Yes. My father along with a rather long story decided to head through the Gate the mer had built in Mer City, and landed right next to her. From what he’s told me, it was more or less a kidnapping for love at first sight.”
“There’s a way back to Earth?” Sybl asked out of curiosity.
“Not on this side of the world. Not anymore. Cecil was working on the Gate that his human Bond, Rose, used to go to Earth and find her parents at the
“I don’t think there is any proper way to tell you what we are. Perhaps Cirrus could show you around,” Lintrance suggested.
Cirrus was already getting to his feet before he asked.
“You can trust him.”
Sybl remembered the terrifying wolf-like creatures and the giant winged cat from earlier. Now she was somehow in a room of human-looking dragons. “You were able to fly out?” she asked Cirrus.
“You can’t fly out of a pluma’s field, Princess. They control all the Thread in one and can snap you and your wings out of the sky with little effort,” Lintrance answered for him.
“So what were you trying to do? Blow me out by hiding till that cat-thing and those wolves arrived?” Sybl asked.
“Cirrus, seriously?” Lintrance questioned.
“I didn’t want to scare her. And I wasn’t about to unsomn so the plumas could sense me. The Pack you love so much didn’t look in the mood to share her, either. For your idea of a truce, they still snapped enough bones in my body to make me think otherwise.”
Sybl gulped as Lintrance looked to her to follow Cirrus as he left the room.
“No one is going to hurt you while you’re here. You have my word on that,” Lintrance said.
She figured it was all she had for the time being, as she partially nodded and followed after Cirrus.
They passed through several corridors and through some larger caverns, before stopping when the shelves of glowing water on the walls ceased to end. The white light drew her curiosity closer. She touched the water that fell down the brown stone as a thin, perfectly-even waterfall. Only it fell at a fraction of the speed of what it should have. Even gravity was a mess in this place.
“It’s the aeri in the water that makes it glow. The water around Toria is infused with enough of it to make it rise entirely against its outside walls, instead of fall,” Cirrus explained.
“Aeri being magic?”
“Aeri being the life energy that keeps us alive. Humans die without water, air, and food and we die without aeri, which is a lighter form of all three.”
“So you don’t eat?” Sybl asked.
“We eat, but mostly the dragoons do as we tend to use more energy in a short amount of time.” He continued on, and she followed him upstairs until they came to the wooden door of a room. He fiddled with the lock for a moment before it opened, and he stepped inside first. The room was heavy with dust. Cirrus walked through it to the wooden shelf across from the bed.
“Is this your room?” Sybl found it unusual for a guy’s room, as a lot of linen and clothes lying about were pink, white and red.
“No, it was my mother’s when she was alive.”
“I’m sorry.”
“She died before—I mean shortly after I was born,” Cirrus quickly corrected. He pulled a box carved of translucent stone from the shelf and dusted it off. “But I still feel as if I never missed her like I should.”
Sybl was curious to what he held now, as it looked like several cards. He handed them to her, and she looked them over. The first was a driver’s license dated thirty-two years ago. “‘Felstaff, Alexia.’ Heh, and its from my province, that’s neat. She looks so much like you.”
“Well, so much for believing that everyone else was wrong,” Cirrus added with a smile that already knew she was going to say just that.
“So your mother was a human?”
“Yes. My father along with a rather long story decided to head through the Gate the mer had built in Mer City, and landed right next to her. From what he’s told me, it was more or less a kidnapping for love at first sight.”
“There’s a way back to Earth?” Sybl asked out of curiosity.
“Not on this side of the world. Not anymore. Cecil was working on the Gate that his human Bond, Rose, used to go to Earth and find her parents at the
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