Dealings in the Council of Avalhein - Chapter 20

Dealings in the Council of Avalhein

Chapter 20

Coughing, a young boy emerged from a smoldering doorframe. Behind him, the house bathed in an orange glow as dying embers and leaping flames enveloped it.

Dervyn tossed and turned in his sleep. A massive shadow towered over him. He was on a bed with pristine white sheets, albeit wrinkled due to his squirming.

Smoke burned the boy’s nostrils as flecks of orange drifted down from the skies and the smoldering frame of his small home by the water lay behind him. He ran for the wall and sounded the alarm. “Help! Help!”

“Help! Help!” gurgled Dervyn, tossing and turning on the pale linen sheets. Outside the room, the gray of the predawn was breaking and a line of light had appeared on the horizon. The first rays of the sun were radiating across the land.

“Builders! Please! You must help my family!” The boy banged against the massive door of the builders’ quarters. It was so fortunate that they had set up their house not far from it. The builders were known for their compassion, or so the boy thought.

Daylight streaked across the countryside, the blades of grass swaying with the early morning breeze. The larks shook themselves from their slumber and began singing as the trees began to drink the sunlight. The molten rays bathed the room where Dervyn was in a brass glow. It was a tranquil scene, but in Dervyn’s mind, there was nothing compared to the chaos.

The bulky ‘builders’ rushed out of the house and towards the source of the flames as alarms blared around the city. Other seaside cottages were also catching fire. “Boy, which is yours?” asked the largest of the builders.

“That one sir…” and the lad pointed to the most dilapidated looking shanty of them. There were three figures in the doorway and all had lost expressions on their faces which were illuminated by the sinister red glow of the flames.

The sunlight bathed the sleeping blue Ceree in its warm caress. She cracked her eyes open and breathed in the fresh morning air deeply. She set her sights upon the squirming lad. He had appeared out of nowhere in the dead of night, right under the feet of the statue of Malhanrrerrye, or at least her sources told her. Her brow creased with worry as the boy got into more violent twitching. “Wake up… wake up!” she said.

“Did you pay for the builder’s fee?” asked the builder.

The boy’s lip twitched and slowly he said “no… sir…”

“Very well… Boys! Put out the fires except that one” and he pointed straight at the lad’s house. The boy fell to his knees, shaking and raised his hands.

“Please, builder! Our family could not afford to pay the fee!” the boy begged. No matter how hard he tried, the builder was not swayed. He watched as the burning building fell upon his family. That was the day he vowed vengeance on the world. There was one thing he failed to notice. That was that up until the building had collapsed, his family was untouched by the fire.

Mad with grief and tired, the boy fainted. “Wake up… wake up!” came a soft command.

The dream flickered out of reality and Dervyn cracked his eyes open. Before him was a large blue dragon creature with a kinder face and softer eyes than the one he had encountered before. “W-where a-am I?”

“Why, my dear boy, you are in the grandest city in all of the east, you are in Avalhein” responded the Ceree with a smile.