Agony finally came to, it had taken longer than she'd anticipated, she punchedt him hard in the stomach for making her wait so long.  Hitting the man, like punching a bag of rotten, hard boiled eggs, her knuckles snapping and cracking his brittle bones.  He exhaled with a moan, what little blood left in him beginning to trickle through for his wounds.

The smell of his blood, a sour puss like stench, that Reyna had to fight herself to keep from gagging.  The Alabastar light illuminating the man, looking like a thin, pale ghost, black spider veins covering him.  The sharp lines looked to be cracking him into pieces, as if he would fall and become nothing more than shards himself.

She stepped close, "You will tell me what you know Agony, I promise you that."  She only called him by his new name, Agony was his life now.  Grimore, a spectred shadow from the past, a decoration for her throne.

Agony scoffed, "You deceive yourself witch, as much as you do your people.  I'll never help you."  He finished with a rasp.

"I didn't come here expecting you to help me dear Agony, give me more credit than that. Tsk,tsk.  No, your not helping me, your helping your dragons!"

It was an order, and she could tell by the way Agony's knee's weakened with fear, that he was listening.

"That's right Agony, I've unlocked the rest of Grimores Books."

"You lie witch!"  He hacked, fear and doubt edged in his voice.

"Oh, Agony,"  she cooed, "listen to my heart, I know you've still some abilities from your past life.  Use it, pull the draca, listen to my heart, my blood, they will tell the truth."

Agony stood silent, concentrating, listening.  His lower lip quivered, a subtle betrayal, but one she picked up on.

"I'll not aid you witch."  His words bit at her.

"This bravado is unbecoming of you Agony.  Then again you've spent many a moon in this man body, I suppose it was only a matter of time before you developed an ego.  But, I fear in your case Agony, your ego has made you delusional.  I didn't come here asking your aid, wanting permissions, or requesting anything of you.  I am your Queen and I am taking what I want.  The only question you have to ask yourself is how much pain you needlessly endure...."

She let her words sink in before continuing,

"...or how many dragons do I desecrate and snatch from the 'Draylocour'."

Agony visibly flinched, as if she just landed her hardest blow...she had.

"That's right, I know of the protective sleeps, your dragon hibernations."

Agony looked stricken, as if that were possible?  His sunken form, slunking even more, his shriveled skin an agony all its own.  He collected himself quickly, with a regalness that suited a long past king.

"You've nothing to threaten me with witch, my kind has been at your mercies since the Reckoning.  So you know of the dragon sleep, it means nothing to you."

"Foolish Agony," she quipped, "I'm almost beginning to think your draca addled mind is going mad.  You know the only power that could perhaps rival the power of the draca, the dragon life force, is its brother, the 'lage draca', the dreams of the dragons."

Agony lunged for her, his Alabastar chains hissing, and burning as he stirred against the Queen. 

"My brothers and sisters have suffered beneath your reign enough." He slobbered at her angrily, "Leave their dreams alone, it's the only life afforded them in the Draylacour."

His tone, almost a plea?

"I intend to," she told him, knowing she'd claim the power later, "but only if you tell me all you know of the Forever Fires.  You know as well as I Agony, wielding of dream magics is a dangerous tangle for power.  I am being completely honest with you when I say I think I'm ill prepared to wield such power."

She paused, trying to read his reaction, but the dark pitted holes where his eyes had once been stared back with the expressionless face of a skull.

"I know the werewolves possess a way to change, and become living spirals of the flames of Hada.  If you have knowledge to aid me, then I will not have to seek the lage-draca."

She lured him with this knowledge, knowing the scholar, the world traveler, the great dragon mind always wanting for knowledge would take the bait.

Agony now stood tall, somehow seeming to fill the room more.  As if he were a dragon once more, in her presence.

"Then I would want a vow from you witch queen," he demanded with the authority of a dragon king, "I will vow to divulge all I know of the Forever Fires.  In return you vow to never pursue the lage-draca as your own.  My brothers and sisters dreams remain off limits to you.  A vow of the blood is the only way I'll do it."

Reyna smiled wryly, worried not about the blind man seeing her grin of satisfaction.

"I am not sure you have enough blood for such an undertaking dear Agony."  She said with a mocking bow.

He gritted his teeth, "They'll be enough witch queen."

Hissing his contempt.

    Reyna smiled, "When I return, we'll mingle and make your vow, and once we've done that, you'll share what you know, and then I'll cut out your tongue."

    "As you wish...my queen."  His chains rattled and pulled in angst as the blind skeleton bowed mockingly as best he could.

    Her visage turned to mist once again as she traversed the layers of dirt that were Nazra.  It had gone better than expected, which she kind of regretted, torturing the man was an outlet, a release, as fulfilling as a tangle with Gililion if she were to be truly honest.  Getting Agony to agree willingly had saved time, and time was a rolling tide of sand and flames.

    She had no problem making the promise to not seek out the lage-draca for herself.  It was a power to rival the draca, but it was also wild and untamable at times, volatile.  No, she wouldn't seek the power for herself, she'd seek it for another.  And with Neena as her huntress, she would find it, the power of the lage-draca.  And then she'd have her weapon to fight against the wolves.

****************

    Too easy, he thought frantically, too easy!

    But this was his chance, this was the time, but could he do it?  He realized he could've asked for more, she'd been to eager to deal.  Things must be going extremely bad for her to come to him for help.

    Eight hundred years had passed in this hole, this darkness.  Denied all thing, all comforts, he'd been placed in this room that fateful day.  Thinking he was dead, escaping this life, this planet.  But he had awoken just in time to see Leinad get his heart ripped out and Lesna claim victory as a hero instead of the murderer she was.  They'd taken the tongue from this body before he'd arrived, so he could tell none of her evil treachery.

    Here he was now faced with what to do and how to do it.  He reached out to Ezra;

    "Brother, it is time, you must come now, remain hidden do not let the Queen of the Castles or her keeper see you.  Hide in the stones, I will tell you when it is clear, today you will get the key to open the books, all the books."

    "Do you hear me Brother?"

       He waited for a reply, when none came he began to get nervous.

    Finally a response.

    "I will be on my way, Avery has something to show m..."

    'Worry not about that right now brother, I offer you the keys of freedom, the key to free you people.'

    Ezra seemed perturbed, or frustrated, perhaps both.  Agony had still not met the Dracgon personally, only through the mind link of the draca.  Ezra the only Dracgon ever to withstand the mental bombardment from the madman imprisoned within the Alabastar keep.  House Cleaves Dracgons proving susceptible to his mind tricks and suggestions.

    Ezra Cleave was different, he'd fought the compulsions and withstood the constant orders to kill the Queen coming from within the keep itself.  Causing Ezra to be viewed as a disappointment a failure, but Agony knew in all reality that Ezra was perhaps the most valuable Dracgon the Queen could have.

    Agony drifted to memories long forgotten, the moment he was stripped of his dragon body and his spirit floating on the unseen planes of the dead.  The Dukes already dead while their wives and unborn children were put before the draca.  Each woman was asked what they wanted their draca endowed children to be.  They could fight the war on two fronts in the physical world, or the spiritual, but not both, they had to choose.

    At the time of the Reckoning it was man's physical world that was being attacked.  So duchess after duchess chose warriors of the physical world to become draca endowed and help the Queen.

    The last duchess to decide was Duchess Cleave, and even though she had the Queen whispering in her ear to choose a physical world Dracgon, the Duchess chose the spiritual.  Once she'd uttered those words they turned to swirling mist of blood, the mothers giving their lives to make the first Dracgon Eggs.

Agony didn't know for sure, but he guessed that was the reason he could link minds with Ezra, he being endowed more of the spirit warrior.

    Agony knew very little of the world above, once in a while getting maddened, and crazy accounts from the madman trapped within the castle walls.  Often times his thoughts more of a rage, mixed in heavy doses of pain.  His thoughts and compulsions a mad man's grasp at life, he caused numerous Dracgons of House Cleave to kill themselves.

    Agony wondered how Ezra would be once he found out about his relatives and the madness wrought on them by the raged one?  It was something he'd worry about later, he finally had a chance to fulfill his promise to Ezra and get him the queens blood to break the lock spells in the Queens dungeon library.

     He knew Ezra was growing impatient, the Dracgon spending lots of time with Avery but never coming to see him.  And that was smart, no since risking getting caught unless he had something to give him.  Today he would have something, the queens blood.

    The blood bonds were the most powerful of bonds made, for if the magic found you to violate the vow in anyway, it would kill off your entire bloodline.  The fact that the Queen was so willing to make this deal meant one of two things.  Things were so bad with the wolves she was desperate, which, to Agony seemed very likely.  The other being she was telling the truth and couldn't control the lage-draca magic, at least not yet.

    Either one could be true, but there was a sense of desperation in both.  This was not lost to the trapped dragon lord, he smiled and felt a small sense of joy tingle against his borrowed skin.  The Queen was scared, and he liked her that way.

    Agony slumped lightly against the torture stone, his fragile hold to the draca just barely enough to keep him alive.  He tried pulling more, but as always, its' full power evading him.  His force, his draca, ignored his call, or his weak human body just unable to harness it.

    He let out a loud wail, his frustration, his anger, boiling over till his throat could only croak, in sobs raking across his raw throat.  The darkness seemed even darker now, lonelier, his mind once again slipping, straining to run away from him.  It seemed to happen more frequently now,  the darkness a place of utter pain. 

A place where he was only trapped, with the memories of himself, growing further and further away.  He knew he couldn't die, the Reckoning prevented that, the draca prevented that.   What the draca couldn't prevent however was the deterioration of a dragon's mind trapped within a human skull.  His body wasn't dying, but the part of his mind that was Grimore was.

The Queen, the Agony, they were winning, he was a fool to think he could defeat the Alabastar Queen.  Fear began to eat at his mind once more, what he had to do, what he had to endure!  His bowels loosened and he shit himself.  The foul offal sliding down his leg and plopping by his foot.

Agony laughed a madman's delight.

Grimore grasping at the conscious mind, finding himself once again.  Fear racking him again, this time his bladder released, spraying the warm liquid all over himself.

Agony laughing loudly, mocking him again.

"You sicken me."  Came the voice from the darkness

"Leave me be!" He cried.

Agony's laugh filled the chamber.

    Grimore clutching and crying.

    "You are no king!"  The voice yelled at him, laced with unbridled contempt.

    Grimore screamed!

    Where was she?  Where was the Queen? He found himself eager for her return,  wanting nothing more than to have her cut, gouge, or clip out his tongue! 

    It would stop the voice in the darkness!

    His voice!

    Agony's voice...

    'I'm on my way Agony.'  Came Era's thoughts.

    Grimore shook his head focusing.

    'Keep your distance brother... the Queen will be coming.  Do not let her see you, only come when I tell you.  But when I do you must hurry to me.  You've the vial?'

    He could sense Ezra's hesitation, his fears.

    Grimore focused, clenching his buttocks, his fears threatening again.  He smelled her the moment she was there.  He pee'd a lil down his leg, cursing himself for giving the bitch the pleasure of seeing his fear. 

    "Let's talk!" She demanded.

    He bowed his head momentarily, "The vow first." 

    "As you wish."

    He screamed as the Alabastar dagger was plunged in his neck, he should have known she'd require more than a fingers prick.  He stubbornly stayed on his feet as he felt her bite on his neck.

    It was his turn to tell his story, to share his knowledge, and then, the next bite would be his. The vow now invoked, the vow now demanding it.  Grimore licked his jagged and broken teeth, anticipating the taste of her royal blood.  If nothing else he'd save his brethren's dreams.

    He felt her bite release, "Now talk dragon."

    He did as commanded, as the bond required, feeling a traitor's shame as he spoke...

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