Kaelen's Arc

Chapter 2 of 2

The wagons reached Wraithfyre by the third dusk. But Kaelen did not ride straight to Sayir's court. First he turned home, to the Ash-Sun Legion stronghold, its stone walls scarred and its sunburst banners hanging in the still air. His father waited there. Before any marriage, Kaelen needed one thing gold could not seize: Lord Ignis's blessing to bind his bronze bloodline to a foreign sovereign. He found his father in the high hall, seated on a heavy black bench of obsidian and white-gold. Ignis stood over seven feet, his skin glowing like poured bronze. The air near him rippled with heat. Kaelen's own scales prickled as he crossed the floor. The god watched his son come without a word. "I mean to marry Princess Sayir," Kaelen said. He did not kneel. "Our souls are already bound. I feel her fire though I have never touched her hand." Ignis's eyes burned brighter, twin small suns. "You feel a pull. That is instinct, not proof." He leaned forward, and the bench groaned. "You would tie my bloodline to a woman who commands wraith-fire that eats through dragon armor. Why should I permit it?" Kaelen set a heavy chest before the bench. He threw back the lid. Gold spilled across the stone, the seized treasury of the desert raiders. "I cleared the trade routes," Kaelen said. "I took them alive. I kept the gold instead of burning it to ash. I bring her wealth, my legion, and everything this bloodline owns." Ignis did not look at the gold. "Any warlord brings gold. I asked why she is worthy of my fire." Kaelen held his father's burning gaze. "Because her mind is sharper than my breath. Alone I conquer realms and lose them. With her, they hold. She is the resolve I lack. Join our lines, and you do not weaken your legacy. You make it immortal." The heat in the hall climbed until sweat ran down Kaelen's jaw. Ignis studied him a long moment. Then the god stood. The bench cooled behind him. "You answer like a son worth keeping," Ignis said. "I grant the union. My fire will not stand against it." His gaze narrowed. "But I do not grant her hand. Only the right to seek it. Sayir bows to no father's blessing, mine or her own. She will test you far past what I have. Fail her, and my blessing means nothing." Kaelen bowed his head. He had won the one thing he came for. Yet his father's warning settled cold under his scales. The blessing opened the gate. It did not open the woman. He closed the chest and lifted it to his shoulder. Tomorrow he would carry it into the Obsidian Court and lay it before the Midnight Sovereign herself. His bloodline was free to bind. Now he had to make Sayir want the binding.