Chapter 130: Chapter 130

#130 The Monstrosities

It felt strange, to fly back to the place where everything had changed for her.

Cassandra could feel her nervousness rise as the black dragon flew towards the Imperial Arena. Was

she scared to go back? Did she hate this place? Surely a bit of both. It didn’t bring back good

memories, except for the minute she had met Kairen. However, before that, there was death. The

many, many people whose death she had witnessed. She could remember it all too well. Dozens of

slaves, running all directions and being violently killed by the six imperial dragons.

Six Dragons, six Princes. Among them, the only one who had sealed her fate, Kairen. She still couldn’t

really understand the forces that had saved her life that day. Was his feelings for her really something

that strong that Krai had felt it before his master even had set his eyes on Cassandra? It sounded like

something out of an ancient tale, and yet… For Cassandra, that was all it had taken to end years and

years of suffering. She had wanted to die in that arena. Not for those people’s pleasure, just because

being killed by a legendary beast was one way to end an insignificant existence.

“Come on, Krai,” she whispered.

She couldn’t ignore all the blood on the black scales. Though he seemed fine flying, the black dragon

wasn’t as strong or as powerful as usual. He was tired from his fight, with Lephys’ dragon and the

soldiers outside. How could those dragons considered as gods by her people simply be seen as

weapons by the Empire…?

Not only was she dreading going to the Arena, Cassandra had also left a part of her heart back inside

the Palace. Kairen was still fighting, by the sounds, they heard coming from inside the Hall. At least,

she hung on to that hope. That the furious dragon growls were proof that neither was dead yet. She

had no idea how long could a War God withstand against a dragon, and she was even scared to think

about it. At least Princess Shareen was with

him…

Krai finally arrived above the Arena. Strangely, maybe because she was seeing it from above, that

arena felt smaller than when she had come here, over a year ago now. Cassandra’s nervousness

increased again as he started going down. She was basically unharmed, except for the adult Dragon

that accompanied her.

They landed softly in the middle of the arena, and Cassandra had to take a deep breath to chase the

memories resurfacing. She kept her hand on Krai’s warm scales, bringing her some comfort. She truly

hated this place, but she was sure the young dragons were there. Why had Vrehan subjected his own

sister to this? What justified such a despicable, immoral thing has to rape his own blood…?

A sudden movement caught her attention on the left, and Krai started growling as well. One of the

heavy doors that led to the cells opened, revealing two dragons.

Cassandra gasped. Those didn’t look like the usual dragons, though. More like creatures come out of a

mix between a nightmare and a horrible mistake. The first one had half of its head missing, as if it had

been melted down, and breathed heavily, it’s maw open and drooling. It was walking awkwardly, his

front paws having a noticeable difference in size. The neck had a strange shape as well, and the scales

were missing in some spots, exposing some horrible, brownish flesh. The second one wasn’t any

better. It was the fattest yet shortest dragon Cassandra had ever seen, and its wings were obviously

too small to support its weight. It had a strange arched back too, like a hunchback. Both dragons didn’t

even come close to the beauty of a proper dragon-like Krai or the Water God. Those looked like they

had come out of a children’s bad drawing of a dragon.

“What are those…” She whispered.

“Aren’t they amazing?” chuckled a voice behind the dragons.

Cassandra stepped back. Vrehan appeared in the shadows, coming out slowly.

His face bore the horrible injury she had inflicted him earlier, the flesh still ripped open in the middle of

his face. It wasn’t bleeding anymore, but the reddish scales were obviously struggling to appear on

such an irregular

surface. The Second Prince looked like a reptile was trying to take over his face, and his left eye was

behaving strangely too as if it couldn’t fix itself on one point. He was almost as scary as the monsters

he had created.

“You’re… crazy,” she whispered.

It seemed like he had heard her because he broke into a burst of mad laughter that echoed throughout

the Arena. Cassandra frowned, completely lost by his crazy behavior. Next to her, Krai curled up

around the young concubine, arching his back and growling in a warning for the two monsters not to

approach them. The scary thing was, no matter how horrible they were to look at, those two things

were still rather big. They had nothing to compare to the little ones Cassandra had kept off before.

Those dragons were about half or a third of Krai’s size, and unlike the black dragon, they looked… up

for a fight.

She glared at Vrehan. The second Prince was slowly walking her way, his mouth distorted with what

should have been a smile.

“You… the witch of some lost, meaningless tribe… You really should have died in this arena. Isn’t this

ironic? We are about to set things straight. You’ll finally be dead as you should have been, and my

brother will go back to being childless.

Cassandra saw red at those words. The mere thought of that man touching one hair of her baby’s head

was enough to turn this gentle woman into the fiercest of warriors. She was never going to step back,

as long as she could stand between him and Kassian.

Meanwhile, the dragons kept growling at each other, and Cassandra couldn’t help but glance at them

again.

“How could you do such a thing… She hissed. “To your own sister…”

“My sisters?” He laughed. Do you know what my sisters are? My sisters are nothing but mistakes. They

are useless things unless they serve me. That’s right, even slaves are more useful than those things

you call my sisters.’

“How can you say such things… about your own family…

“My family? The only woman that ever mattered was my mother, and even she was a crazy, crazy bitch

of a kind. The only thing she did good in her life was keeping me alive. She gave birth to three

daughters, and she loathed each. But for me? I was her son. Her only boy, the one she had to protect

at all costs to ensure her own survival.”

Cassandra suddenly remembered Shareen’s words. Their mother was a former prostitute… Phetra had

gotten furious when Shareen had reminded her of that fact.

The prince kept talking, coming closer and closer to him. He looked like he was strangely calm, or in

some sort of trance. He had never been so scary to Cassandra. She wanted to run away, to not be

trapped here with him. Yet, she knew she couldn’t. There was no one else left to hold him back from

going to the Palace, or to Kassian. Opheus’ dragon was injured, and Cassandra knew he wouldn’t be

able to match up to his older brother. He had to take care of Lephys, first. Kairen and Shareen were still

stuck with the red dragon, and she hoped Anour was protecting Missandra, lady Kareen, Kassian and

even the poor Phemera. It felt like the end. Finally, this feud was coming to an end. All the hatred that

had stayed concealed was coming all out in the open, all the brothers taking sides and fighting each

other.

“What was it all worth, all this?” Said Cassandra, glancing at the monster dragons. “Your sisters, your

children, even your father… Sacrificing everyone simply to become Emperor?”

The second prince laughed.

“To become Emperor? To survive! My crazy mother went through hell for me to survive! Every single

day, I had to see it. She killed servants that tried to harm me. She begged my father for attention,

acting like the whore she was just in the tiny hope he’d give her another chance to gift him a son. My

father was the worst of them all… you think I used my sisters? That man used my mother as a pawn, a

mere toy between him and his favorite woman.”

Cassandra frowned.

She had mentioned it… Lady Kareen had talked about something like this. How the Emperor got closer

to other women, even got engaged to them to try and get her attention. Cassandra had never thought

twice about that.

“She was nothing but a toy he could toss aside whenever he could. My mother was constantly begging,

dying for a second of attention, making herself the most pitiable woman. She cried more than any

woman can cry, she screamed, she begged endlessly. She was such an annoying thing to see. She

was a crazy, crazy bitch… A useless bitch.”

Cassandra was shocked.

She had never thought being a concubine was easy. She knew how hard some of them fought to get

the Emperor’s attention. How some killed and got killed. Cassandra was well aware of how lucky she

had been, in this nest of snakes, and she had also always kept in mind those women were mostly

fighting for their survival. She had never thought about how one woman could actually lose her sanity

over this… Lose herself.

“Can you believe, she was actually stupid enough to love that man you call my father? She believed his

lies, she was ready to do anything for him. …She taught me one thing, one thing only. I had to survive,

I had to become his only son. I had to become the Emperor, and she’d do anything for me. My mother

dirtied her hands more than anyone, and she taught me everything I needed to know. It was quite fun,

sometimes. When she wasn’t completely crazy, she wasn’t so dumb!”

Cassandra wanted to puke at each sentence he said. Deep in her heart, she understood. How a

woman could have lost herself in her attempt to get the Emperor all to herself. How she could have

gotten absolutely insane with jealousy and paranoia… and took her children down with her.

Vrehan wasn’t born a monster, he had been purely created by his mother’s madness. She could hear it

in his voice. He wasn’t crazy. He was just a child born out of resentment and hatred.

“It was so easy, once you understand the rules of the Palace, you know. It was a game, for me. Kill, but

don’t get caught. My mother let me kill the servants that displeased me, or she’d do it herself. She

hated my sisters so much… She killed two of them herself, and the others quickly understood if they

weren’t useful to me, they might as well be dead too.”

Their mother had killed… her own daughters?

“It was such fun… If I ordered it, my sisters killed anyone. I was already the Emperor of my own palace,

and they were my servants. Phetra was the smartest one… She always did whatever I asked, so I kept

her around. She even ordered the others, understanding what I wanted before I wanted it myself. It was

fun, seeing them thrive to keep me satisfied.”

Vrehan looked at the two horrors next to him, suddenly frowning.

“I thought I’d be father’s favorite in no time… Sephir was going to die anyway, and the others were

meaningless idiots. …I had forgotten about Kairen.”

Cassandra suddenly realized. Lady Kareen had kept her children away from the Imperial Palace to

keep them safe. After what had happened to her oldest children and to the young Kairen, it was a wise

decision. However, it meant they had mostly grown away from their siblings… out of Vrehan’s sight.

The Second Prince’s eyes got darker, reliving some memories he obviously didn’t appreciate.

“I knew the one woman my mother hated most was Kareen… The one woman my father loved. My

mother killed her eldest, but she killed my mother back. I was… at a loss. I couldn’t understand that

woman couldn’t be killed like my mother was after she had killed my mother openly. Plus, it wasn’t

enough, that bitch still had managed to have more children, and another son! That was the one woman

I couldn’t get to kill. If our Father discovered I killed one of Kareen’s, I knew I would die. It was the one

game I couldn’t play without risking my own life…”

So the Emperor’s love for Kareen had saved them some time after all. After Vrehan’s mother’s death,

the young

murderer had understood he couldn’t kill his siblings and get away with it. Shareen and Kairen were

protected, more so than their other siblings. Cassandra couldn’t even being to understand what

monstrosities had taken place behind closed doors at that time. The monsters their mothers had

created, all for their survival or greed… for one man.

Suddenly, Vrehan shook his head.

“So I understood. I had to find a way to be better than him. To have the strongest dragon, the most

children. I needed to be the best Prince… The one my father would have no choice but to choose!”