Chapter Text
The gold dragon flew and hovered above her head, and the red stretched itself at her feet. The black beast was draped across her shoulders, its long sinuous neck coiled under her chin while the copper clung to her arm, hugging it dearly. The silver one and brass one were in an off-shoulder back, cramped and grumbling. All were staring up at her, their eyes pleading.
“You know I don’t like doing things I don’t think I should do,” she sighed. Her voice was a low rumble that rippled through their bodies like an earthquake, making her shiver and tighten her grip. “But sometimes it’s necessary.”
Her heroes, her Champions, were long dead, and should the cult ever find her, well, she didn't want to think about what would happen if they did. It wasn’t really important anymore anyway. There were other things that had taken precedence over all the other petty things.
She looked out at the vast plains below, rolling hills dotted with trees covered in lush foliage, stretching to the horizon. It seemed almost impossible that the place could be so peaceful. She thinks, briefly, for a moment, she will miss her son's homeland before the thought disappears. Goddesses do not feel such things.
“This will hurt more than you expect,” she warned, pulling at her power. She pulled back on it until it swelled, and then she let it go. It expanded, spilling across the plains beneath her and expanding even further still until it reached the city that lay far away across the fields.
It wrapped around the city walls, curling around them in a ring that encircled the entire complex. Her magic spread over the city like ink across the paper, erasing any trace of where she had been. The city was silent as her magic touched it, no one moving or talking as time slowed to a halt, everyone and thing frozen. Only the golden dragon moved, turning its large red eyes on her. They narrowed, a glimmer of recognition passing between them. She was overreaching her power, moving from that of the Domain of Time into the Domain of Space. She could stop. She should stop.
But her friends, even if they were dead now, were depending upon her then. If she stopped now, she would never start again. And it would not matter if the cult caught up to them once the spell wore off. She was going to save them. Her only regret now would be having to let go of everything she said she wouldn't. She would rather die. But she knew there was nothing she could do to change the past. The shattered timelines and countless deaths proved that much. She would have to live with this knowledge every day.
“Hold me close, please,” she whispered into the night air, pressing herself closer to the beasts, holding onto the strength of the bond that connected her to them. “Hold me tight.”
And then the world began to crumble around her. Her magic burst forth like a volcano erupting from underground, filling the sky with clouds of ash and smoke that obscured her vision. Everything fell away except for those six dragons, who she held together against all the odds of her life.