The Dragon's Kiss

When the small group of the descendants of Halrad's brave knights decided to set themselves apart from the world, they realized that they couldn't cut themselves off entirely.

At least, not in the beginning.

There were five original warriors blessed by the dragons, but among the tiny group, only two or three of the remarkable bloodlines remained clear. In order to protect those lines, and avoid the inescapable demise that comes from inbreeding, the descendants decided that, for an undetermined amount of time, they would bring fresh blood to mix with their clan's.

So, rather than allowing the noble warrior's bloodlines to shrink by intermarriage, other people were coerced, kidnapped, etc. to marry among the clan.

Eventually, however, the bloodlines became so broad and muddled by outsiders that the dragons' blessing was no longer easily distinguishable. The population of descendants had grown into a proper community but at the cost of their most precious gift.

Over the many centuries that followed, the posterity of the warriors all but forgot their own noble heritage as they focused their efforts on guarding Halrad's legacy.

If one traced familial lines all the way back to the original group, however, they would find that the culmination of the final traces of the forgotten pure blood ended in the birth of one boy.

A boy named Orfeo.

While the boy didn't seem to be stronger or wiser than any other Subterran, he possessed a few strange traits that had been overlooked most of his life since they didn't appear to be useful.

Calix, Orfeo's son, also inherited the strange traits. And like his father, he would have never noticed his own capabilities until a man named Itzae (a descendant with very little warrior blood in his veins but generations of knowledge in his head) revealed a shocking secret.

"As one who was once blessed by the dragons, Young Lord, your body can openly receive the dragon's power."

"But teacher, I was never blessed by any dragons; that was some man thousands of years ago," Calix protested. "Besides, there doesn't seem to be any dragons handing out their power lately."

"It doesn't matter who the first conduit of the blessing was or where the power comes from," Itzae shook his head. "What matters is that you are your father's son and we know what the dragon's power is."

"So what do you propose we do with this knowledge then?" Calix sighed, leaning back against the wooden chair he was sitting in.

After a brief reunion in the royal library, Itzae and Calix had bid Lila farewell in order to return to their home. The fewer eyes and ears around, the better--especially when they were discussing something unknown even to the Subterrans.

"Well, when I first traced the bloodlines down to Orfeo, I tried to get him to undergo experiments," Itzae recalled.

"From your tone, it sounds like you were unsuccessful," Calix mumbled, casually tossing an apple in the air and catching it repeatedly.

He wasn't purposefully being an obstinate pupil.

While a tiny childish part of him indeed desperately craved Itzae's attention, his actions were mainly due to the logical part of him disagreeing about the usefulness of absorbing something as vague as 'power'.

"Perhaps I should reveal a bit of history to our 'family', then," Itzae speculated. "That may just make them more willing to have Orfeo undergo a few tests."

"Are you really going to go back down there?" Calix demanded. "Neither one of us has been back in years."

"If you plan to utilize the Subterrans in your plans, then this needed to happen sooner or later," Itzae smirked. "Besides, we need to know the extent of your and your father's abilities, along with how we can use them to our benefit."

Calix sighed in defeat. "Alright, Teacher."

Not even a week later, Itzae was preparing to leave Calix alone again, this time headed for Subterra instead of Mevani. Calix had insisted on accompanying his teacher back to his childhood community, but Itzae was decidedly against it.

"Leave the handling of those people to me," the man urged. "I'll arrange a contact to bring you periodic results."

Calix didn't even have to ask to know why a contact would be arranged rather than Itzae doing it himself. Naturally, the man would go back to Mevani after doing his part in Subterra. He'd still refused to go into many details of what he was doing there, but it was clear he'd found something important.

Was that golden-haired girl the heir, after all?

And so, the teacher departed once again, and the student went back to work with his worried friends. Thane and Ira were both full of questions, as expected, but Calix couldn't give them any answers.

If he was being honest, he hardly had the answers himself.

Frustrated by their tight-lipped friend, the boys eventually gave up asking and continued crossing names off lists and filling in charts. The only remaining talk of Calix becoming a god was the boy insisting he'd found a way to handle it and encouraging his friends to drop the issue.

Additionally, as promised, a messenger (namely Lila) delivered occasional updates about how things were going underground.

Though the woman had declared her neutrality in the battle for Serin's throne, she dutifully fulfilled her uncle's wishes and sought out Calix every time she learned something important regarding the progress in Subterra.

Within a month from Itzae's departure, she reported that the Subterrans had begun to study Orfeo's abilities. Apparently, they'd also discovered some others with similar talents.

A few months after that, she delivered the first piece of useful news concerning the testing.

And by the time a year had passed, Calix knew exactly how he was going to earn the fear and loyalty of the people of Serin.

At seventeen-years-old, when other boys were excitedly beginning their careers and searching for proper marriage partners, Calix Anselm Orfeo was putting the final touches on his plan to sweep the empire out from under the emperor's feet.

With the promising results from Subterra, carefully placed spies in the palace, and strong allies standing behind him, all Calix needed was Itzae's contribution.

Unexpectedly, that contribution came in the form of a letter containing only two sentences.

-I found her, Young Lord.. I found your dragon.-