As Lia came to, she stared at a hanging ceiling made of cloth. Her head hurt and she almost couldn’t move at all.

“She is awake”, someone said beside her, before his face became visible. It was Phobos.

A moment later Yukikos face appeared next to his. “You are still alive”, she sighed happily.

“Of course she is still alive”, Phobos answered.

“’Of course’ my ass”, a third voice said. Felix came into view. “Her wounds were grave, even for a half dragon. It took me hours to mend them.” Then he started to smile. “Are you okay? I hope I haven’t made a mistake while trying to fix you.”

Lia felt a cold shiver running down her spine. Everything still hurt, but felt okay. “I am fine”, she answered, “I think.”

“That’s good”, he smiled and motioned for a chair, which followed his gesture obediently. He sat down next to her bed. “There are a few things we need to discuss.” The smile had vanished from his face.

Lia had an idea what that was. She had lost control. She hadn’t been strong enough. The black dragon had swatted her consciousness aside like a fly, had taken control. And then there had been …

“The black one.” Felix looked into her eyes. “Every mage on the field has felt her presence, feared her. Even Dikon was overwhelmed by his fear of her.”

Lia shuddered. This foreign thing that had awakened within her.

“So you do remember”, Felix observed. “I hope you know what consequences await you now.”

“The final seal, death”, she answered.

“Oh, no. I won’t go that far. For now you cannot use any of your dragon powers.”

“I”, Lia sighed. She had managed to get free from one seal. Now she had to be careful using her powers or she might just turn into some sort of demon. Maybe she should talk to the priests to get the final seal underway.

“This is for your and our protection. For now I think you should be fine, if you refrain from using them.” A smile crept on his face. “There is something else we need to talk about.” His hand found its way into one of his pockets. And then he … started to search. He started to pat over his entire robe, becoming more and more uneasy. “Where …” Finally he relaxed and smiled again. “Found it.” He showed his hand again, currently formed into a fist. “We need to talk about the dragon tears”, he said and opened his hand. On his palm there was a small black gem in the form of a tear.

Yukiko gasped. “Another one? How many …”

“There are five of them”, he studied the faces of all present. “For now we have four. Lias ruby tear, Yukikos flame sapphire, Ninas emerald breath and my onyx eye.”

They all stared at the old man.

“You know a lot about these … tears.”

“I started reasearching them as one found its way into my hands. Thirty years ago it fell like a star from the sky. After observing it I took it and then I started to search for information, mentions and such and I found them.” He put the onyx eye back into his robe. “I read a legend on how they came to be, read stories about her powers, I even went to the dragons asking for knowledge.” He leaned back in his chair. “The knowledge I gained is, that we will be freed from them as soon as we gather all five of them and reassemble the astral diamond, which will then be given back to the dragons to keep it safe.”

“We only need to find the fifth tear then?” Yukiko seemed to shine from hope.

“The thing is … the fifth tear should be here already”, Felix sighed.

“What do you mean?” Lia got a bit higher up, keeping the blanket close to her.

“The tears are connected by magic, seeking each other. This is why you two met, this is why we met. Because of them we met with Dikon and the fight between him and Phobos ensued.” He looked at the half dragon with a stern face. “Though that fight wasn’t instilled by them.”

“So the fifth tear will find us?” Yukiko hovered so close to Felix that she almost was in his face.

“It should be better to search for it”, the mage answered and pushed Yukiko back. “It should have found us already.” Felix started smiling. “But don’t worry, I have certain means to do so. Oh, and Lia?” He turned towards her. “We will do something about that problem of yours as well. I think that as soon as we can relocate the dragon from within you into another dragon priest, there shouldn’t be any more problems. We only need someone willing to take on the dragon from you.”

Lia gulped, her heart suddenly beating a lot faster as someone came to mind. He would do that in a heartbeat. She was sure of it. But where was Jan and what was he doing?

◊

Jan put the iron back into the fire, using is magic to heat it up more than coals and bellows alone would be capable, bringing it to glow orange-red. He started tempering it with his hammer, slowly forming it into the requested shape.

He was working at a forge to earn money. He had spent his last coin to arrive in Magneis, following Lia. For now he hoped she would return to the city. He still needed to earn some money to stay at an inn. If Lia didn’t return, he needed money to travel further south. Maybe then his father could help to find her … if he wouldn’t start a campaign to kill her.

The blade started to cool down. For now he had to concentrate on his work or the blacksmith would yell at him again. He had the unique ability to keep it hot for a longer time, allowing him to temper and form it more easily, to create a higher quality blade, but that worked only if he concentrated on the work. Even then he only made blades good enough for a master apprentice. That didn’t stop the blacksmith from selling them as “dragon forged” blades.

It served him to earn money a bit more easily, so he didn’t complain. It is not that anyone could tell the difference.

◊

“Well, if you know someone willing to take your place, then that will save us a lot of time and troubles.” Felix said as they went past the various tents at the edge of the battlefield. “Still, I think we should tackle the problem with the dragon tears first. I have a bad feeling concerning it.” A moment later they arrived at another big tent. Within the tent were to large cages. In one was Dikon, raging at everything and everyone in range, then he saw Lia. His face went immediately pale and he scrambled to the far side of the cage.

“What are you doing with that demon?” His voice was weak and shaking, his eyes fixed to her.

“She isn’t a demon”, Felix answered and opened the other cage. Nina growled at him. “What do you want? What did you do to my father?”

“He is your father?” Yukiko looked at the tall man, then to the girl and finally to the dragon tear within her hand – the emerald breath.

“Give that one back, it doesn’t belong to you”, Nina snarled.

“You know what this gem is?” Yukiko hid the stone somewhere on her body.

“Of course I know what the emerald breath is. It is the key to our revenge!”

Lia shuddered, making a step forwards. “What revenge?”

“The dragons!” Nina got louder for a moment. “They killed my mother!” Tears welled up in her eyes as she got calm once more.

“You … want to eradicate all dragons because your mother was slain by a wild one?”

“It wasn’t a wild one”, Dikon shouted, getting a bit closer to them once again. “It wasn’t a lone dragon.” He still kept his distance from Lia. “One day the whole sky was full of them, seeking her.”

Lia shuddered again. She had seen a similar scene in her past.

“They came from nowhere, attacking us without a warning. One of them broke through the windows into the room where my father, Lily and Nina were.” Dikons voice quivered. “My father tried to protect them from their fire, but it burned him and my wife. I was only able to save my daughter!”

Lia saw the girl crying, her tears dripping down to the floor. Somehow she just went to her and embraced her, pressing her against herself.

Felix made a step closer towards the other cage. “Could it be that Lily was … the one who was in possession of the dragon tear before Nina?”

“What is that supposed to mean?”

“Very much.” Felix sighed and took a step back. “The dragons are the ones that were tasked with guarding the tears. They knew that the tears should come back to them eventually, but they never did. So they searched for them and given the history … they didn’t try diplomacy first.”

“Returned to them? History?”

Felix sighed. “A long story. The thing is that the dragons tried to protect us and themselves from the power of these stones.”

“I don’t care! They killed Lily! Without reason!”

Nina began to cry once again.

“They also attacked Andragat”, Lia said to him, “killing priests and guardians …” She kept Nina close to her as she looked to Dikon. “You already had your revenge on the dragon that was responsible for her death. Further revenge won’t bring Lily back, it won’t fill the hole in your heart. Trying so hard you might even lose another thing that is important to you.”

“She is right”, Felix said. “The dragon tear doesn’t make you or her invincible. You were willing to risk the your life and the life of your daughter, only to seek revenge for her mother? You should keep her safe instead.”

Dikon slumped down, tears now showing within the eyes of the proud man.

“I was fine with that, I wanted it, too”, Nina answered whispering.

“I know that he is strong and the dragon tear could have given you the power to triumph even over an army of dragons. But at what price? Maybe a ruined country, maybe you would have lost your father, maybe someone else would have gotten ahold of the tear …” Lia continued the words that freely flowed from herself, making Nina lean into her.

“We will need to take your daughter with us for a while”, Felix said, while stepping close to the other cage. “We need her help to find the fifth.”

“The fifth?” Dikon looked up again. “Nina always only felt four.”

The girl nodded slightly within Lias arms. “Even now I only feel the four that are close to us. It was only when two of them came together that I could pinpoint their exact location.”

Felix looked at her as if she just had turned into a giant fire elemental. “We … need to hurry.” He ran out of cage and tent.

Dikon came closer to the cage, his hand outstretched, but he stopped short of reaching through, still weary of Lia. She looked once again at him, leading Nina out after Felix. She could understand his feelings for revenge. They were just … human. But she had learned that she couldn’t let those feelings rule over her, otherwise she would open herself to the dragon.

But there had been something else on the battlefield … as if the emotions of the dragon had overwhelmed her and then …

“We need to head back to Magneis.” Felix broke her line of thought. “We should be able to find the fifth tear there with Ninas help.”

“What will you do, when you have all five of them?” Nina looked to Felix.

“Reassemble the astral diamond, getting freed of their influence and give it back to the dragons.”

“No!” Nina freed herself from Lia. “I don’t want them to have control over it, over me!”

“They won’t get control over any of us. The connection between us and the tears will be severed as soon as the diamond is reassembled.”

“What if not?”

“Even then it is safest there. They had custody of it before and it was safe for more than two hundred years.”

Nina looked towards the ground full of tears. “I can’t believe that.”

“We will decide as soon as we reassembled the diamond.”

Nina nodded once more, clinging to Lia. She didn’t really understand why Nina got like this all of a sudden. Was it that one hug? Her father had a completely different reaction, which made all of this very awkward.

“Do you know why Dikon fears me that much?” Lia got closer to Felix to better talk with him.

“There are many more who fear you, those who have a deeper understanding of magic. But Dikon … he had a magical blade made of dragon steel. It could cut through dragon scales, it was thought of being indestructible … it was a holy sword … and you destroyed it. With your voice alone.”

◊

Yukiko bit onto her thumb again and again and again. Bradley had certain men and those had the knowledge to track a tear, so they would also have the ability to hide one. She could only conclude that he was the one who had found that tear.

But why hadn’t he used it already? Or had he? She didn’t know its abilities.

“Felix? Do you know the abilities of the fifth?”

“What do you mean?” The old man turned and looked at her quizzically for a moment.

“So far the tears I have seen have been tied to a certain element”, she started to explain. “Mine was clearly using water, whether it was liquid, ice or steam, Lias was fire and Ninas … air and lightning.” She kept her thumb close to her mouth so she could start biting it again, if Felix’s answer wasn’t satisfying.

“The fifth one … is known as the dragon heart, the bringer of peace.”

“What does that mean?” Lia spoke the question that was on Yukikos tongue.

“The dragon heart can protect and even nullify magic.”

Yukiko started biting her thumb once again.

“Sounds like he can’t do much damage with it”, Lia said smiling.

“I am not so sure. I have read several variations on how this protection has been interpreted. Some tell of just nullifying magic, others from blocking or from reflecting … and then there are those that say it simply killed the ones that tried to use magic.”

She stopped gnawing on her thumb for a moment. That was bad. If he really had that tear than he would have them within a moment’s notice as soon as they met again. Judging from the incident in the castle he probably already had it, but was still learning what it could do.

“What”, Lia gulped, “what will we do, if it kills users of magic directly?”

“Well, then we are the only ones capable of taking it. The tears bonded to us will protect us from death.”

“But they won’t protect us from bullets”, Yukiko mumbled, biting onto her thumb again. She needed a plan. They needed one. A good one and before finding Bradley!