Ether love's Arc

Chapter 1 of 1

Ether love could name every star carved into the temple walls, but not their own past. They were a dragon, silver-scaled, older than the ice on the temple steps. Since the visible light structures spread across the sky, memory had drained from every dragon who lived here. Ether love wanted one thing: to remember who they had been before the light came. Tonight they climbed the frost-slicked stairs of their home to try again. Inside the great hall, a broken tree stood against the far wall. Its bark was gray ash. Green fronds curled from its top like frozen smoke. At its heart sat a ruby, dull and dark. An old carving named it a relic from before the light. Ether love had heard the tale a hundred times. Touch the stone, and it shows you what was lost. No dragon had made it work. Ether love pressed one claw to the ruby. Nothing. They pressed harder. The stone stayed cold. They breathed on it, fogging the surface, and waited. Still nothing. Anger rose. They had tried the relic before, and always it failed. Ether love turned to leave. Then they saw the leaves near the base. A cluster of fresh green foliage grew from the dead roots, layered and full, wrong in a room this cold. Ether love bent close. The leaves gave off warmth. Under them, half-buried, lay a small charm shaped like two joined hearts, its metal warm to the touch. Ether love lifted the charm. The moment claw met metal, the ruby flared red. Light spilled across the walls. Ether love staggered back, but the vision had already taken hold. They saw themselves, younger, standing beside another dragon under a clear night sky. No light structures. Just stars. The two dragons pressed the charm between their claws together. A promise. Ether love felt it: love, and a vow to protect something hidden. Then the memory tore away. The ruby dimmed. Ether love stood shaking in the empty hall. One memory. One face. They had loved someone. They had promised to guard something. And now they knew the charm was the key, not the tree alone. But the vision had shown more. In the last flash, Ether love had seen their own claws glow. Power had lived in them once, buried with the memory. As they held the charm now, warmth spread up their foreleg. The scales there shimmered, faint but real. The light structures had hidden this too. Ether love clutched the charm to their chest. They had recalled one true thing at last. Yet the memory raised a harder question. Who was the other dragon? What had the two of them sworn to protect, and where was it now? The answers waited somewhere beyond the temple walls. Ether love could no longer stay inside and wait for the past to return. They would have to go find it.