"Mother, a voice came to me, it was distorted and offered me a wish, I chose to accept, wanting to be healthy again, and I awoke on the floor like this."
I am sorry, mother, but I cannot tell you the whole truth.
Contemplating something, she said aloud.
"A voice? Could it be? But no, according to father, they had been..."
"Mother, what's wrong?" I asked, concerned.
"Nothing, my baby, now, let's eat and talk after."
She said with a warm smile, wanting to move the conversation forward.
So we enjoyed each other's company, which felt like something we had last done back when I was a child.
These small moments are things people overlook, but the two of us ensured we enjoyed them to the fullest.
We both spent a couple of hours just talking, catching up and enjoying good food until a servant, not from our residence, entered.
My mother seemed to recognise them as one of the dragon kings.
"Excuse me, Princess Sera and Prince Caspian, but the dragon king would like to speak to you."
He said to me with an apprehensive expression on his face.
"Why would he want to speak with my son just after he had woken up?!"
My mother, usually calm, broke her composure.
I reassured her as I asked.
"Was my grandfather not the one who ignored my presence all my life? And now, what, because I recovered, he wants to know me? Build bridges?"
"I am sorry, Prince Valerion, I am just a messenger. But this is a direct order, not a choice."
His words seemed to carry a finality that irked me.
"Very well, I will go."
I relented, and, getting an answer, he then waited outside.
Now alone, I turned to my mother. "I'm sorry, mother, I guess we need to cut this meal short."
"Don't worry, I know how my father can be more than most. Make sure to keep your head held high."
Her face showed a rare fierceness I have yet to see.
"You're not just a royal dragon but the only son of one of the Seven Virtues! Ensure he doesn't underestimate you any longer!"
My mother's distrust and disgust of nobles, especially royals, were thick in every word, even when speaking of her own father.
And I don't blame her, being treated that way for so long, and then the way her own father, the one who was always there for her, was forced to stay neutral while the abuse got worse, has noticeably soured her emotions towards him and the other nobles.
Some might say it was unfair, but emotions do that to a person, do they not?
Even royal dragons, who are supposed to be a higher race and the pinnacle of that higher race, are susceptible to such things as emotions.
________
After making his way through the main palace, Caspian arrived in front of the grand, ornate doors of the throne room to the Dragon King.
The servant who had come to deliver the message opened the doors and announced his entry.
"Prince Caspian Drake, son of Princess Sera Drake, daughter of the Dragon King, has arrived!"
His voice echoed in the vast throne room, where only one man was present.
Sitting on his grand throne, he seemed like an old lion, judging, waiting for a moment of weakness.
One that Valerion would not grant him.
He walked one step, then two, then three, each one more confident than the last as he tried to withstand not just the pressure of the moment but the physical weight being put on him by the old king's aura.
As Caspian arrived before him, he seemed to look a moment longer into the eyes of the Ember-Lord himself, as if showing a hint of challenge, then knelt in respect to the person the man was and represented.
The pressure let up, and a small smile graced the lips of the old lion, maybe for the strength to withstand his aura?
Or maybe because he was healthy?
Maybe it was simply because he showed the fighting spirit of one worthy of true power.
Thalaric then spoke, his voice rumbled like thunder, "You may raise your head, Caspian."