Sweet Waters Throne

“Don’t you wish we could live here forever?” asked Aurora.

“Here, in the sky?”

“Yes, just you, me and our son. Away from everybody else”

Artemis sighed, then he wanted to say something but suddenly his eyes widened with amazement. He saw Aurora’s hair slowly turning to pale silver, just like how the tale was told. Whoever claims a dragon will grow silver hairs. Aurora wasn’t aware “What is it?” she asked now worried by how shocked Artemis was.

“It’s your hairs… they are turning”

“Are they?”

Artemis replied softly “Yes” and seconds later it was his turn. Both of them landed on an empty forest with their hairs full grown to pale silver, no more black or brown. There was a river passing through the forest and they raced to it just to see their reflection on the waters, “Gods help us, we have really changed” Artemis looked at himself as he turned his head side to side.

.....

“Pale silver hairs, just like my ancestors… or should I say now, our ancestors?”

This pleased Artemis and he smirked “Our ancestors” then he turned to look at Aurora.

“What, do I look like an old woman?” she giggled.

“I think you are the most beautiful woman I have ever laid eyes upon, and the silver just magnified your beauty and your green eyes are popping to the color” He slowly moved to Aurora, then he laid her left cheek on the right palm of his hand. “I love you Aurora, I have loved you then and I love you more today”

Aurora kissed his arm and then pulled him in for a tight hug. For so long they have been through a lot in such a way they felt lost even in each other’s company, an assurance of love and devotion is all they needed to make it through.

Then when Aurora broke the hug, she said to Artemis “You were right about the dragons, they can sense their rider’s feelings and desires. I was so angry with the criminals for what they did to that poor infant, when they raped her and then slit her throat. I wanted them to burn to ashes and Vizoro sensed it, I also sensed her burning rage in my blood”

“Then we know why she did that”

“But when I ordered her to stop, she did. She didn’t disobey me; she was just as angry as I was” Aurora slowly walked to her dragon. Vizoro laid her right wing to Aurora, then she placed her head down as a sign of asking for forgiveness.

“Is she asking for forgiveness?” asked Artemis.

“I think so, she must have sensed the chaos in the arena when she burned the wall” Aurora held Vizoro’s face in her hand “It’s alright Vizoro, you did nothing wrong” she said that in Low Moor, Vizoro smiled and growled softly.

That day Artemis and Aurora slept under the stars while their dragons guarded them. They made fire when it was dark and slept over banana leaves which they used it as mats. It wasn’t raining but it was cold, however they only needed each other to keep themselves warm. The dragons surrounded them as they made love fiercely and passionately. Artemis’s soft white butt was at the top and Aurora spread her legs for him, her nails digging dip on his muscled back as he thrusted himself deep inside Aurora’s wetness.

The silver hairs sparkled in the moonlight, this was the first time they made love with their silver hairs and it was everything they have always wanted. The sex felt good, every touch was heightened and all matter of things felt different.

It may have been all rainbow and pleasure from this side, but things weren’t as glamourous in Whitebridge. Prince Ambrose found himself waiting for his two friends, powerful Lords of Whitebridge who promised the prince men and sell swords to fight his war. Aryan was lingering around eagerly waiting to find the prince when he was alone, and this day she was luck to see him drinking ale and there was no one at sight ─ not even the receptionist lady.

The time was golden, usually men are out doing other tasks during this time, and it didn’t help there were festivities going on and almost everyone wanted to attend them. Of course not the prince who was promised a throne, he chose silence and solitude.

Aryan walked inside the inn dressed in a long red cloak which covered her head, and hence Ambrose didn’t notice her at first. She went straight to the wine sink and poured some red wine on a cup “No one is here; they are all gone” he said to Aryan probably thinking she was a man. “To some festival where men worship dolls” then he chuckled, he was possibly drunk.

Oh what a moment, Aryan thought when she turned to look at a wasted prince. “Can you believe these people? They are worshipping dolls…” this made him chuckle. But then he looked at Aryan “Oh sorry, you must be one of them aren’t you?” he asked holding his cup.

Aryan couldn’t help herself but chuckle “No, I’m not” then she made her move and walked slowly to where Ambrose was sitting. Still Prince Ambrose was too drunk to notice Aryan while they shared a battlefield in the Battle of Stonedance. Aryan remembered Ambrose very well, he murdered thousands of her best men during the battle.

Not only was the Prince smart and abled, he was also a good swordsman and if he wasn’t drunk, then mayhaps they could have had a very interesting brawl right there in Robert’s Inn. But this day the gods were on Aryan’s favor. Aryan pulled up a chair and sat close to the Prince, she started to talk to him “I hear they call you the crowned prince, is it true?”

“I wouldn’t lie. My brother… lost the battle and his head along with it, so did his two sons and his wife. I am the next in line to the throne, a true heir to the Silver throne”

“A silver throne? Where is that?” Aryan asked while sipping her wine.

“It’s in the North. I bet you never stepped foot in Prophis, have you?”

“I don’t have business there, but I hear a Queen now rules it after her brother’s death” she tried to interrupt Ambrose’s mind, making him anxious and possibly angry.

It worked and suddenly Prince Ambrose took out a letter from his pocket “Do you see this?” he flexed Artemis’s letter to Aryan “It’s a letter from the King himself, with a Maldonian sigil. The King sent it to my sister in Loni, and my sister sent it to me. He has a dragon you see, that bitch of a Queen will burn before she even pulls out her sword and the Silver throne will be mine as it should me” and then he threw the letter to Aryan arrogantly and screamed “Read it!”

The prince was making things too easy for Aryan, she just smiled and opened the letter. There was a Maldonian sigil inside the letter as if to legitimize it even more. Artemis was offering his dragons to Taelins and with a promise to overthrow Gandalf and help the former rulers take back their land. Aryan read it bit by bit, then she stacked it inside her shirt.

“Hey, give it back. My letter…” Ambrose demanded. Aryan stood up angry and she felt like she was played by Artemis even after she trusted him. Ambrose harassed her by demanding the letter back, he tried to pushed Aryan but he was too wasted.

Aryan locked him inside the inn and then she mounted her horse and she rode away from the inn. She had already taken the letter and right now she only needed to find this baker who poisoned her brother, and what better time to find someone than when there are festivities going on. If this baker was somehow a Prophisian then this festival wouldn’t excite him, and the mystery letter explained the baker lived in Spice Street.

Hence Aryan hastened her horse and aimed for Spice Street with hopes that she will meet this man and solve all the mystery, and if he agrees that Lord Cregan Lawsend sent him to poison innocent people, then the gods needed to help the Lawsends for the fate would prove fatal for them.