Dawn let her father use his power to guide her into the chair in front of him, not that she could have resisted if she wanted to. "What does my expendability mean for you?"

"You grew outside the shield with those," as usual, he waited a moment, pausing simply for the sake of suspense, "naturalists."

"Elton is not a savage, if that is what you are implying." People that lived inside the shields always used that word, naturalist, like a shield is what determines whether someone was human or not.

"But he married one." Her father replied, and seeing her confusion he pointed to the North Pole. "One of them, the Genet."

"He married?"

"You didn't know?"

"No," Dawn mumbled and sank into her chair. She, Corey and Elton were a trio, with Elton being the oldest. He was more of an elder brother than a close friend. If she didn't know that meant that he had hidden it from her.

"Anyway, let's say that his wife was royalty, just like he was before he left East." Her father continued, his voice steady. He didn't sound eager to get to the point.

"But she left her people too, right? For him? For love?"

"Whatever her reason, she is considered a traitor," he said, tapping his long, bony fingers against the arm of his throne. "This invasion was solely to get her back and punish her for crimes against her people."

"Until you saw it as an opportunity to increase your range of authority," Dawn realized with a frown.

"The Genet have been living under us for generations and yet they are more powerful, do you know why?"

"I still don't know why you haven't killed me yet." she snapped. "How do you expect me to know anything else?"

"True," he stroked his chin, "and that is why I prefer Corey. He is such a fast learner."

"To bad he isn't here." Dawn hissed at her father, discontent growing in her heart. What does this old man want?

"Anyway," the Lord of the Order ignored her and continued the conversation, "he would have said, 'Because of the fog.' And that would be true. The Genet can only act when they are in the fog and they are powerless without it."

"How do you know so much about the fog?" Finally, she asked.

"I have lived for centuries, and I study, just as Elton studies. In fact, he knows more about this than me." he relied honestly.

"Then where is he?"

Her father said nothing.

"Where is Elton Yong?" she asked again, her tone hardened.

"Not anywhere that you and I can see him. He is either hiding somewhere or he is dead."

"But you said that he was giving you trouble."

"A man doesn't need to be alive to give me trouble." Her father sighed. "This war can end before it starts, and the only people who can end it are the Yongs. Have you ever heard the prophecy of the three families?"

"No." Dawn answered with a scowl.

"I thought as much," the giant of a man chuckled. "Too busy to decipher the Book of Revelation?"

"How-?"

He's in my mind, she flinched at the thought.

"I may not be omnipresent but there is little a person can hid from me," he admitted then cleared his throat. "Three families, side by side, watch the passing world and it's changing fate and seasons; they blooded with veins of the dragon, they who bare the crown of royalty, they who live forever young; responsible for it's recreation, rebirth and resurrection as long as the cycle of history remained untarnished."

"Draekon, Roya and Yong." Dawn said with a frown. "It was prophecy."

"Yes, I had my Roya and my Yong. We changed the world as rivals but you lot are all friends." He laughed. "History repeats itself in the funniest of ways."

"That is why you're telling," she said. "I'm the Draekon that knows both Elton and Corey, not any of your other beautiful children. I'm not expendable after all."

The smugness in her tone was unparalleled.

"Yes," he crossed his arms, "you are correct. I didn't see it coming. I think of it as the Code's slap to my face."

"Blame the Code then!" she said. "I had nothing to do with it."

Once again, he ignored her. "You are responsible for recreation. A Draekon always outlives the others, remember that. Corey is the most likely to die, and his death-or actions-will bring about an awakening, a new world."

"And Elton?" The professor tried to ignore the possible death of her friend, chanting at the back of her mind that her father's words could not be trusted.

"Nothing. He is not the they spoken about in the prophecy. Resurrection takes two and because of this reason there has never been a complete ending, even in my time. Resurrection is death and life. One needs to die so the other can live. Two become one. Ying and Yang-something mystical like that."

Dawn gaped at her father, more focused on his last sentence than anything else. "You read 21st century articles?"

"Child, I came from the twenty-first century." He got up from his seat, slowly rising as though the weight of his body was too heavy to bear.

"The Yongs are supposed to be the fixer-uppers," he chuckled, "when the rest fail, they spring into action. But there has never been a Yong who fulfilled the prophecy, and altogether that means the prophecy has never been completed until now."

"It has been completed?" Dawn asked, stunned by the fact.

"Yes," her father turned his over and suddenly he seemed to have aged, "take this, it should keep you safe until you meet them."

In his hand was a pendant, a blue teardrop with golden sparkles floating within it, and in the next instance the necklace was settled on her neck.

Dawn didn't even see it happen.

"Where are you going?" She looked up at her father, his face no longer that of a teenager but one of a tired, old man.

"The Order will fall, eventually. I know that. Just don't let the nation I and Mordecai built together go down with it."

"Father, why are you telling me this?" Dawn repeated the question, hoping to get a more significant answer this time.

Instead, she got more musings.

"Your mother was the only woman I loved, she was pure and kind and yet she was the only woman. . . the only woman that ever left me. You look just like her but you are nothing alike, different tempers and attitudes. . . Rhea Lee is the perfect daughter but her own mother was cruel and abandoned her. Yet she is just like your mother in everything but appearance."

Dawn winced. It was true. Her mother had raised Rhea Lee like her own. "And the others?"

"They are my soldiers. . . You and your sister are all I care about."

"What exactly are you saying?"

"I am dying," he said. "I admitted to not expecting you to be the person to fulfill this prophecy, but I never wanted you to be. Different as you are, you are the only piece of Minna I have left. If you die she will be lost. . . forever."

But she isn't dead, Dawn was tempted to say but she caught the sorrow in the man's eyes and bit her tongue. Today was not a good day to die, it was best to stay in her father's grace while his nostalgia lasted.

"Tell me about those who live forever young," she said instead.

"Ah," her father sat back into his chair, his eyes showing off uncharacteristic excitement, "those bunch are as immortal as they are artistic."

"They really do live forever?" The question brought up a lot of thoughts in Dawn's mind.

Did that mean that she had dragons' blood running through her veins then? It didn't seem possible.

"No, but they took a different approach to raising children than I and Mordecai," here he let out a bitter laugh. "They told their stories and passed down memories. Instead of hiding the past they spread it like an infection. When their young turn sixteen they are told a story then sent to the capital of North. . . It is the place where things happen after all.

"I'm not quite sure about it myself and I don't know why they never stay in East. But when they arrive it's always brings about new growth for the north. . . That family is quite peculiar."

"Like Elton." Dawn let out a breath, remembering how she and Corey had left Elton in the east only to find him in the capital, arriving with only the clothes on his back. "He made Nicia great when it was nothing."

"The pilgrimage to the capital also increased the chances of them fulfilling the prophecy. In fact, almost every Yong that makes it to the capital becomes very influential despite the fact they don't know why they're there. It is that tradition that made the north what it is today."

"So what you're saying is that, they will come to me?"

"Exactly."

"Then what happens after that?"

"They'll either write you a story or sing you a song, or. . . dance." The twinkle in her father's eyes grew.

"That makes no sense. . ."

"Of course it doesn't," he let out a dignified snort. "The Yongs are the guardians of resurrection, every word that comes out of their mouth is gold."

"You will understand when the time comes," he continued offhandedly.

Dawn scowled, not satisfied with groping in the dark for answers. "If they are so precious how come you put Elton's father in a maximum security prison?"

"He outlived his purpose."

"And what purpose might that have been?"

"He wrote the Book of Revelation." Her father answered with a grimace. "And I read it-all of it. And it's the reason. . ."

"It's the reason you are-were-immortal." Dawn beat him to the punch. "But you're dying now, for some reason. You either need a new revelation or a successor."

The leader of The Order dragged his sigh. "You are correct. But I do not need anything, I have done what I set out to do. I will die and I will take the Order with me. . . It was a mistake, a mistake that should never be repeated."

"Father." Dawn felt like she should say something to console him, but nothing drove her to tell him the words he wanted to hear. She had run dry of any love for him ages ago, and it didn't help that he was actively trying to end the world.

"Dawn, history is repeating itself and it mustn't," he told her, and his form slowly dimmed as though he was, in truth, nothing but a wisp of a person.

"It mustn't." he repeated, getting more transparent with each second that passed. "The world may not deserve more than five centuries of peace, but find them. . . get them to fix this."

"We have failed." His hollowed voice rang out once more and then he was gone. The projection of Earth vanished with him and the room was shrouded in darkness, leaving Dawn alone in the the room.

After a moment of silence, the professor groaned and pressed her fist to her forehead.

"Thanks Dad, the crash course on world-saving really helped a lot!" she shouted to no one in particular.

"How the hell am I supposed to fix all this?"

Why did she always end up with the shortest end of the stick?

†

I've written a lot of words today just to get to this moment. wentrack, those are the three families. And jjeweled, does this make that chapter with Esau and Edythe make more sense? I hope it does but I still need help with it.

In a way the twins are gullible, they believe they have to choose a nation because that's what their father said. It was a rushed affair, and seeing that they aren't sixteen yet, there a bound to be some hiccups.

Question of the chapter

Will Corey die?