Free Dragon Aster Trilogy by S.J. Wist

If you told her then, you would have lost her sooner.”
     
    “Why does Aragmoth not hear my most desperate prayers?”
     
    A piece of Hain broke when the kid was reduced to tears. He had no memory of Kas crying before, not even when he was an infant.
     
    As he could feel his own sadness being sung from a Nova within the Caverns, his conscience started to win over his mind. Dammit. He pulled forth from his psi enough of a trance to see the Threads that reached into the mountain. Then with one last thought on it, Hain touched the one leading to his own Bond.
     

13: W I N D Y S T A R S

    There was no heartbeat as Cirrus released her from his hands and into the vastness of space and all its stars.
     
    Sybl only felt fear now with the idea that they would freeze and suffocate from where they were, but she could feel Cirrus smile at her. Cirrus...how are we breathing up here?
     
    ‘Much better,’ he congratulated her on her immensely improved psi skills. ‘I brought some air along, don’t worry. ’
     
    She tried not to as she looked to the world below them. They had flown impossibly high, as she could just make out the shapes and colors of the land and water. I guess taking next to everything out of the picture helps this psi thing?
     
    ‘I’ve always found it easier to think up here. No Thread to tie your mind to constant regrets and nothing to hold your thoughts down. ’
     
    You have the whole world under your wings, what could you regret?
     
    ‘Power only leads to destruction, and I have destroyed much in my life. The regret of doing so is always there, and always closing me into a smaller and smaller place of darkness. ’
     
    Yet you’re a dragon and the perfect creature for battle.
     
    ‘My kind were meant for more than conquest and death. Even if they have trouble remembering just that. ’
     
    I’m totally seeing rescuing damsels in distress without eating them, and space travel so far, Sybl thought back as she looked around. It was fun up here.
     
    ‘There’s hardly any meat on you. It would be a waste of good company. ’
     
    I see how it is...
     
    Cirrus pushed her a bit further away from him, till she looked down at what might happen if he did have it in him to be mean to her. She quickly took the thought back.
     
    I thought Aster was below Earth?
     
    He looked to where she did as his wind controlled by his wings floated him steady. ‘It is. ’
     
    So how are we in space?
     
    ‘This is but another perception of Aragmoth’s mind. An image captured and sewn to keep those who would believe it is real bound to the world. This space, stars and even the moon are nothing more than the back of his eyes from the reflection of the sky he sees on Earth.’ He pulled her up higher with him. ‘ In the beginning, the Great Dragon was content to sleep with Asil’s dreams forever inside him. A thousand years later she would stir and want to be released as his dreams were not enough to keep her content. So he released her from his grip and opened his eyes, which became the three Aurs of Aster. The Ain Soph Aur, the Estus and Sylvan; life, death and the last eye was so that he could forever watch and ward against Earth should it be bold enough to attack again while he was exposed. ’
     
    Again?
     
    ‘The first Aster was a world much like this, only Ancients, Eminor and Sylvan could all live separately from each other. The Dragon Moon that Earth sent after it shattered that peace and the first Aster into dust, where after Aragmoth formed and took refuge inside Earth itself. Aragmoth’s blood absorbed the Dragon Moon’s dark soul within him for strength. His scales and tears became the soil, and the waters of this second Aster. Of his wings, spanned the Dragon and Efereal Mountains, and of his back and neck spanned the Kyrie Plains. Of his breath, became the aeri and estus, and of the blood he took from the Dragon Moon, the Keol or blood tears formed. ’
     
    So much for writing it off as a