Silver braziers lining the Dragon Guardian Palace’s vast dining hall cast ripples of heat‑shimr across polished dragon‑bone platters, making every dish gleam like treasure newly pried from a hoard.
On the ironwood table rested a spread fit for legends—slices of ember‑kissed wyvern flank lacquered in sweet crimson blaze‑honey, coils of obsidian‑scaled crackling that snapped beneath fork tines, and a bowl of ruby‑mist gizzard stew whose steam carried faint sparks that fizzled out of existence.
Jett carved a strip of the flank, juice beading along the knife’s edge before he slid the at past eager lips. Fire and sugar clashed, then lded into a smoky caral that set his senses humming. Damn, that’s perfect.
He chased the bite with a shard of crackling; the scale’s brittle shell fractured into shards that lted like buttery charcoal, leaving behind a whisper of volcanic salt. The stew followed, velvety and peppered with micro‑ember seeds that popped like distant fireworks down his throat, warming his chest in slow, delightful waves.
Leaning back, Jett savored the lingering ember‑sweet tang coating his tongue while the hall’s air filled with the hush of awed onlookers. Satisfaction unfurled through him like wings in flight, and for a heartbeat he felt almost draconic himself—fierce, sated, and gloriously alive.
After a grand breakfast where Jett sampled more of rich dragon cuisine, he was asked to speak with the Dragon Empress in her temporary chamber.
He entered the chamber alone, his maids and Skytianeus remaining in the dining hall. Inside, the Dragon Empress curtly fixed him with her customary cold stare before shooing away imperial healers.
The draconic doctors and nurses scurried away as though they had seen a ghost. Now, only Jett and Lallia still remained in the room.
Looking at her now, Jett couldn’t spot any wounds or lingering gashes from their battle, yet the sickness clung to her human guise.
Her normally sun‑warm complexion had faded to moonlit porcelain, violet shadows pooled beneath her eyes, and a faint tremor rippled through the fingers resting lightly on the bedsheet—as though even that slight touch taxed her ebbing strength.
He also noted her horns, which were now a deep erald shade.
If Skytianeus was indeed right, the color of her horns now ant she was hesitant.
It’s strange that void dragons have such horns. I’d not like to have sothing that lets people read my mood. Skytianeus said her horns were always black, so she was in a foul mood all the ti, but now she’s hesitating.
He wasn’t the only one facing hard choices today. Everyone with power eventually had to make them too. Rembering that, Jett squared his shoulders, walked to the bedside, dragged a chair close, and sat beside the Dragon Empress like a visitor checking on a frail relative in a wardroom of a mundane hospital today. He let emotion open the talk first.
"You pushed into a tough call. I figured people with clout make those, so don’t freeze up," he said, keeping his tone cool.
Lallia sighed. "We lost. The Dragon Kin still must challenge you. The bla for defeat lies with us."
"Yeah, fine," Jett nodded.
"I fought the Harbinger. She revealed our bloodline’s latent power is sealed; that insight proves she and the other Harbingers already know hidden secrets stretching from the Guardian’s Palace through eons, winding back into the distant primordial past far before recorded history."
"That’s... unsettling," Jett replied.
If the Harbingers ever pooled their knowledge, chaos would erupt so wildly that a lone Warden—especially an unseasoned one like Jett—could never cage it all amid spiraling fronts of dragonfire, shattered realms, and collapsing ley lines no mortal jurisdiction could nd ever fully. Fortunately, their hunger for evolution through blood and gore drives them to clash against each other instead.
"Thanks for laying that out. It tells you’re ready to discuss it with now, yeah?" Jett asked.
After speaking with the Seventeenth and surviving his trial, Jett possessed the key to the Void Dragons’ sealed void power. That weight settled squarely on his shoulders, and he anticipated the Dragon Empress would eventually approach him concerning it, seeking aid or demanding its swift release herself.
"We require this power," Lallia declared. "The Dragon Kin must not perish under our reign or sustain grave losses. We shall safeguard them."
Jett sensed her resolve, shimring plainly in her eyes and reflected by the hue of her horns. Those tips had shifted to a luminous gold, a strikingly gorgeous shade on her austere features. Yet he refused to let the gleam or her words obscure the bargain’s true stakes. Jett kept his speech informal, feeling closer to the Dragon Empress than court protocol allowed. Likewise, she dropped royal diction, yet still guided him with seasoned subtlety he could plainly read behind her guarded calm.
She knows I want to forge a real alliance between humans and dragons. She’s keeping that ace for this deal. I still hold more cards than she does at this negotiating table right now. Jett suppressed a victorious smirk, masking every flicker of emotion on his face.
"The current you is so strong that it took the Dragon Guardian and the Warden to defeat you. If anyone heard about it, they wouldn’t believe it, but here we are. You’re strong, Dragon Empress. Surely you can fend off the evil on your own. If not, work with your army," Jett said.
"You flatter ," Lallia said, appearing formal out of nowhere.
Bitch, why did you shift to formal language out of nowhere? You don’t like pushing back at you? Just because you’re hot, I won’t be simping for you.
Oblivious to Jett’s thought, Lallia continued, "I need this power to prevent more casualties. We have lost a lot against humans, and our relationship is feeble. If we want to build a proper relationship with them, nothing bad can befall us dragons. If it does, the bla will surely shift toward humans. You do not want that, do you, Warden?"
And now you are using humans and my goals against . Why is she not using the main card yet? Just say you will do everything in your power to make my goals co true. How is she able to—wait.
"You’re a good—well, you are eloquent and clever, Dragon Empress," Jett suddenly said, catching her off guard. "I’d love to learn from you how to bargain with others. I feel like you could teach a lot, and frankly, I’d love to listen to your voice more."
Lallia narrowed her eyes, her stare cold.
Jett didn’t let that affect him. "So how about we make a deal? First, you will use your seat as the Dragon Empress to build a proper relationship with humans; I’ll naturally lend you my hand. Second, you will genuinely help improve my conversation skills. Third, you will dance with at the official banquet between dragons and humans."
"What’s there for to gain?" Lallia asked.
"Once I am able to awaken the fourth maid, I’ll choose your twin sister," Jett said.
He hadn’t thought about using her twin as a card all this ti because it just didn’t feel right. But Lallia was so quick to use everything against Jett that he realized he could use her twin against her—and that would actually be win‑win for him. He wouldn’t mind waking the dragon maid since he had obtained two dragon bloodlines. In essence, it wasn’t like he was using Lallia’s twin sister as a bargaining chip, but rather exercising his choice to awaken the fourth maid. It sounded like an exciting and fun choice, and also sothing that would help him bridge his connection with the Dragon Empress and dragonkind overall. For her and for every dragon or human tied to this vital alliance.
Upon hearing his voice, Lallia froze. The man who had taken her sister from her now offered to return the girl... she despised his bargaining chip, yet deep inside she missed her twin so fiercely that she could scarcely object.
"I accept your conditions," Lallia said without further thought, even surprising Jett with how quickly she agreed.
You understand you no longer possess a card you can leverage to wrest the sealed might away from ? No problem. I’ll pass it to Skytianeus and allow him to bestow that power upon her whenever calamity crashes against the dragons’ borders. That was my sche all along—clever, convenient, if I do say so myself.
—
"Welco back, Master Jett," Mia said when he returned from his parley with the Dragon Empress. "We have already contacted the Light Dragons, and they stand ready to receive you at their estate."
"Great," Jett nodded.
His next destination was the Light Dragon Clan, just as Mia had outlined. This dragonslayer feud had begun because they murdered Holdrake’s parents. They needed to confront that blood‑debt, accept responsibility, and embrace the future he intended to forge for both dragons and humans. He would not permit the cycle of vengeance to spin unchecked across these lands ever again.
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