Chained to old wounds

CH115

Morgan

I nodded and watched her send the wave of fire over Anya. An sighed and relaxed further inter the bed. And eventually, slowly but surely, Anya began to heal. The shadows of her pain that had clouded her mind began to lift, replaced by a glimmer of hope. The bandages caught fire, vanishing in the flame as the blood went up in flames. I watched her heal, amazed.

Can I do that?

Pyra chuckled. Haruka wields not even a fragment of my power, but she will teach you a lot.

Why aren’t you teaching me?

She huffed. Because you’re in the way of me and my husband.

I scoffed, trying to ignore the heat in my cheeks.

You’ll live.

The wave of energy surged through the room, a warmth that seemed to fill the air. Anya’s body began to glow, her skin shimmering with a soft, ethereal light.

As the light faded, Anva’s eves surprise and confusion.

fluttered open. She looked around, her eyes filled with a mixture of

She sat up. She looked down at her hands, her eyes wide with disbelief.

“I feel…” She sniffled. “There’s no pain…”

Tears welled up in her eyes as she looked at us. “Thank you,” she said, her voice barely a whisper. “Thank you so much. I don’t know how I can ever repay you.”

“The young Crown Princess is in need of council,” Haruka said. “And you… were once a noble,

weren’t you?”

She blinked. “I would have been, yes…And… if Lady Morgan would have me, I would be

honored….

“Of course, I will.” I replied, my voice barely a whisper. “And it’s my honor.”

Anya smiled at me and swung her feet over the edge. A glint of light caught the scales on her neck

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as she pulled the bandages off her face. As soon as saw her face, Pyra reared back with a gasp of pain. My hands shot out to take Anya’s. She went still, but I had no answer. The overwhelming grief that flooded me stole my breath. My eyes burned.

I tried to distance myself from Pyra’s emotions, but I couldn’t. The emotional weight of it strong.

I was no longer in Anya’s room, no longer in the palace. The air was blistering around me crackling on my skin, sharp and vicious. I was running and filled with unease, but I wasn’t in my own body. It felt my hair whipping around in the wind, longer than I had ever worn it.

This had to be one of Pyra’a memories. I could feel what she felt as if I was there. It wasn’t just a vision like before. It felt heavier, more real. Her pain filled my mind, grounding me in her world.

This wasn’t just a memory, but a personally traumatic memory for Pyra. I felt like I should try to get out of it, but I couldn’t.

The sky above me shimmered in shades of gold and crimson, the light diffused as if everything around me was caught in some eternal sunset. I looked down to see iridescent scales glistening beneath my feet–the ground was covered in dragon scales, radiant with an unearthly glow. The world around me felt vast, ancient, like I had been pulled into the heart of a place I wasn’t meant

to see.

I saw her.

-no, a young woman, standing on a cliff edge, her back to me. Her hair shone in the light, cading down in waves of deep black like Tsuneo’s, and her skin–covered in iridescent scales, caught the sunlight in a way that made them sparkle. She was breathtaking, but it wasn’t her beauty that struck me. It was her familiarity.

She looked exactly like Anya.

I gasped, my breath catching in my throat. It wasn’t just the resemblance. There was something deeper, something I couldn’t yet place. This girl was tied to Pyra.

I felt Pyra’s presence surge, emotions crashing over me like a tidal wave. Grief, love, fury–all wrapped in one. And then I knew.

This was Pyra’s daughter.

Her name flickered in my mind, carried by Pyra’s anguished thoughts–Siora. She was an iridescent dragon, one of the rarest types of celestials, and she had been Pyra’s heart, her world.

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Suddenly, the memory shifted, the scene darkened, tension rippedd through the air. The beat

turned icy. Bright white gusts of snow swept in, covering the ground. I could hear the distant roar of battle–the clash of steel, the cries of dragons and warriors alike. The air was thick with th scent of smoke and blood.

I turned toward the sound, my heart pounding in my chest, knowing something terrible was coming.

A man with long dark hair and covered in black scales was locked in battle.

That had to by Pyra’s husband. Her gaze swung away from her husband.

“Siora!” a voice cried out–a voice filled with desperation. It was Pyra’s voice, echoing through the memory, though I couldn’t see her. “No!”

I whipped my head back toward the cliff, just as Siora spun around, her eyes wide with panic, her wings unfurling as she shifted and prepared to take flight. But before she could, a shadow fell over

her.

The ground trembled beneath me as a massive tiger emerged from the trees, its massive body coiled with raw power. It moved with terrifying speed, claws extended, its eyes locked on Siora

with a murderous intent.

“No!” I screamed, feeling Pyra’s fear become my own, my voice swallowed by the chaos around

1. me.

But it was too late.

The tiger lunged, claws ripping through the air. Siora let out a sharp, guttural cry, her wings beating furiously as she tried to escape, but the tiger was too fast. Its claws slashed across her chest, and she stumbled, her iridescent scales went flying and fluttering in the wind. Her wings

faltered.

I could feel Pyra’s agony, her helplessness, as her daughter was ripped to pieces. A guttural, pained roar fill the air as her blood filled the air and thick, wet bands that dyed the snow red,

I was running, rushing.

“No!” A man roared, but I didn’t stop or slow down, Fire stretched out as I screamed, fury and rage filling me. A sword appeared in my hand. I flew forward, desperate to get to her.

I felt it like a The vision blurred as Pyra’s grief overwhelmed me, her pain too immense to be wound in my own chest, a loss so deep, so profound, it threatened to drown me. And yet, beneath

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the sorrow, I could feel her fury–a burning, unquenchable rage that had never faded, not even after centuries.

The tiger stood over Siora’s body, its chest heaving from exertion, and then, with a final, brutal strike, it sank its claws into her heart as tears welled in my eyes and the deep burning warmth in my chest vanished like Ed blown out match.

1 screamed, swinging. The tiger lifted its head as I reached it and I felt the bite of my sword cutting through its head. I heard my own cry screaming, then the shock wave,

“Pyra!”