Chapter Seventeen: The Discussion

A month had passed by since the birth of the Angel. Sennymay had loving named her Athena, and the goddess's strength and wisdom sparkled in the odd child's strange eyes. Although she did not open them often, it was evident that one of her eyes was green, while the other blue - much resembling those of her mother. Now they spend their days in the newly made nursery. The golden light still remained - although not as strong as on the birthing day - and seeped through the pink room.

Kifka had long granted the dragon Belgorath and his kind a safe passage on the lands of his Kingdom, yet the dragon remained, fascinated with the child. At last, a meeting had been called. The Gem, the Prince, and the Dragon met in the room decorated with trophies and maps that usually served as a room where all the battle strategies were planned during a war. Belgorath arrived through the gigantic swinging doors, bringing with him a dead wild boar as a present. They met and sat down to discuss what had happened.

"Is it positive?" Darad began, "that the child is an Angel?"

"What other explanation can there be?" Artemis asked.

"It is possible," Belgorath boomed, whose voice now adapted a more human sound, "that she could be the offspring of those creatures that live north of here, by the Volcano."

"The Griffin kind?" asked Artemis. "I have thought it over many times, but such a union is impossible. The Griffins do not mate out of their species."

"Could there be an exception?"

"No," answered the Gem. "And even if there were, the wings should be Griffin - strong and brightly-coloured."

"Albino?"

"She does not have the characteristics of an albino." Artemis simply stated. "Albinos have crimson eyes and pale characteristics. White hair and the likes."

"It is true what you say, then," commented the dragon. "The child most resembles her mother, except her chestnut wisps of hair. Those do remind me of the Lord Kifka."

"There can be no other explanation, then," Darad concluded. "She is a Gem."

The room stood silent for a while. The three stared at the floor, none of them able to come up with a different explanation.

"But, she's so … young…" Darad whispered.

"We will need proof that she is a Gem," said Belgorath. "I will go back to my land and ask the Elders about the Gems." He paused. "It is my duty, for the dragons have long been guardians of the Gems and their power."

Another month had passed. Athena showed a remarkable growth rate, and was soon almost as big as a two-year old child. Her wings flowered and her hair became as soft and shiny as silk. She was beautiful. Her eyes sparkled with a hidden knowledge, and the few words that she did know sounded like music from her little crimson lips. Everyone was in awe at her. Even her own mother and father.

When Athena was away on her training with a certain household sorcerer, Kifka had called Sennymay to a meeting. They sat down in Darad's blooming gardens of roses and tulips on a gray stone bench. Kifka took Senny's hand.

"Senny…" he started, but paused. "I…"

"Yes?" she asked with a soft smile.

Kifka frowned. She was not herself - not who he used to know. She seemed odd, and almost soft-like. It was hard for him to put his finger on it. The Senny he knew was full of vigor and fight; the one he sat on the bench was the absolute opposite. She was passive, for the most part, but also soft and mellow. He could not get her mad. It was like she had all the fight taken out of her - as if she knew no anger or hate - and that bothered him.

"Senny, there's something wrong," he finally said.

"Oh?" she lifted her eyebrows in a picturesque kind of concern one saw on dressed dolls. Her lips parted slightly in anticipation of some kind of good news - always good news.

"Senny, you're odd."

"Odd?" Again the chestnut eyebrows lift in soft concern.

"Yes, odd. You're not yourself."

"My dear Kifka, I have had a child. That will change a person."

"Don't you think I've thought of that!" he almost yelled. Senny shrank away in distress. "You're weird! You've no anger, no hate, no nothing! You're like a pillow!" He almost lifted his hand to strike her to prove - whether to himself or to her, he was not sure - that she would turn out to be just as soft. She sat on the bench, looking at him with her horrified eyes. His voice rose to a roar, "What is wrong with you! You're acting like the abbey matrons and nuns one sees down in the alleys, trying to convert the poor heathen beggars to their dumb religions!"

Senny did not answer, but only put her face in her hands and wept.

"Oh god, please don't cry," Kifka moaned. "I don't want you to cry, I just want you to understand." He flung his hands up in the air as a sign of frustration. After watching her sob for a while, he turned around and left, cursing loudly.

And so the meeting was called again in the war room. The dragon had finally gotten back from his trek to the Easter Mountains in search of the Elders and their wisdom, and he brought news. The four, Kifka present this time, were gathered together. The question arose again of Athena being a Gem.

"She is no Gem," Kifka answered adamantly.

"Kifka, all signs point to it," argued the Prince.

"What signs! There ARE no signs!" yelled the Lord.

"Dare I say," interrupted the dragon, "are you denying that your own blood-born daughter is not the Gem?"

"Yes, Belgorath! I am doing exactly that!"

"Do you not love her?"

"Wh… what does this have to do with love! She is no Gem!"

"But she shows remarkable magic skills and grows with an incredible rate," Artemis pointed out.

"So she's gifted!" huffed the Lord sarcastically. Before Artemis could put in a word, he continued: "Artemis, have YOU grown up as fast as her and shown as much talent as she does, only at her second month after birth?"

Artemis remained silent.

"She is NOT the Gem."

And so that subject was laid to rest until the next time it might be brought up.

"Well, I have met with the Elders," Belgorath offered. Attention thus diverted itself from the steaming Lord to the gigantic dragon. "They taught me a lot about the Gems," he began. "In fact, they had expected me when I got to the Easter Mountains. They said they had been present at the ceremony of Artemis's great introduction to the kingdom and the world…"

"But how is that possible!" exclaimed the Gem. "I saw no dragons, and dragons are not exactly hard to miss!"

"It is true, my Elders are among the largest species to ever roam the face of Etrion… But…" The dragon took a deep breath, making the room instantly cold and empty as he sucked at the warm air. He kept it in, then released it in one big exhale, enveloping the room in a cloud of hazy mist and heat. "They are the ones that have served with the older Gems, the Gems of the past, and they had been… turned… into… " He paused again. Whatever he was trying to say, it did not come easily. "Into…" Belgorath lowered his gaze.

"Please continue," pleaded the Prince.

"I fear I cannot…"

"Why?"

"The subject, it is too great…"

Artemis and Darad both frowned. But Kifka kept his cool stare on the dragon.

"I know what it is," the Lord concluded. "They had been turned into humans."

At the utterance of the above, the dragon almost winced, if the action was possible for his species. "Milord speaks the truth," he said. "They were turned into something that resembled both a human and a dragon, and thus they kept vigil over the Gems, in their new form. Each had been bound to a Gem. Thus the Green Dragon, so is his name, was bound to the Green Gem, and the Blue Dragon, so is his name, was bound to the Blue Gem, and so on. They were bound so until death, in those strange forms. After the Gems had died, the remaining dragons, which were only the Blue and the Green, had been returned to their original bodies, but retained their power to shift between the two willingly."

"Is that how they were able to attend the gathering?" asked the Prince.

"Yes."

"I had seen two somewhat large figures at the gathering," answered Artemis. "Nay, I felt them, for I could not see. But it was as if I saw. They were green and blue, and somber." She paused and turned her empty glance in the direction of the dragon. "But why is this so hard for you to speak of?"

"Because I am one of them."

The room stood cold and silent.

"Do you mean that… you are one of the Gems' Dragons?" asked the Lord.

"Nay, not like that," Belgorath answered after a pause. "I am merely connected to someone in this castle, and I will undergo the same transformation that the Elders went through."

The four looked at each other. Then Kifka spoke again.

"Who is it that you are connected to?"

Belgorath lifted his gaze. "The child."