Chained to the stone wall by his ankles and wrists, Magnus sank once again into his troubled dreamscape, haunted by memories.

There stood his Queen, dressed in robes of royal purple, her perfect locks cascading down her back like rivers of gold. The Teufelwalder sunset would approach soon, an ocean of red gleaming on her bronze skin.

"One last thing you must do before you can rule by my side," she whispered in his ear, her words like aloe vera on searing flesh. "You must kill the traitor."

"My Queen, I love and honor you above all others." Magnus turned to her, the warm volcanic breeze teasing his windswept raven locks. "But this I cannot do."

"Erik is like a father to you." She cast her eyes down, wrapping long, slender fingers tenderly around his neck, sliding them up into his raven locks. "Which makes his betrayal so much worse."

"I will find him. Arrest him. Bring him to the dungeon." Magnus shook his head and grasped her hands, preventing her from luring him further. "But I cannot kill him."

"Even if he has committed the worst crime of all?" she whispered, dragging the tip of her nose along his jawline. Magnus stiffened. "Even if he killed everyone you love?"

Magnus grasped her by the shoulders so firmly that the Queen sucked a sharp breath through her teeth. "Do not toy with me, woman! Erik would never dare, no matter how far he has turned to the Light. You will not speak of him that way, do you hear me? Do you?"

He spat the last words like poisonous venom.

"I will forgive your insolence this once." Though her words fell in a calm, gentle whisper, she gave him a vicious smile that could break glass. Her silver eyes glinted like polished steel, prepared to stab him through the heart. "I have undeniable proof of what he did."

Magnus' heart clenched as he drew her nearer, never once breaking eye contact. "Show me."

"Release me at once, and you shall see for yourself."

With slow, calculated movements the Queen retrieved an orb about the size of a marble and placed it in the middle of a stone altar. It projected light, sound, and smell.

"What is the meaning of this?" whispered Magnus in an incredulous tone as Erik donned his war mask and entered a house Magnus knew all too well: his childhood home.

"No, Father..." Magnus stumbled forward, holding himself upright by gripping the edge of the altar as Erik surrounded his family late at night while they slept.

"One of you morphs," shouted Erik, "and the children die."

No, please! His heart shriveled into a tight ball. You would not! You could not!

His guards rounded up his father, mother, sister, and her two children. "Tie them to the beams," Erik ordered.

"Even the children, Sir?" asked one of the guards tentatively.

Erik stood almost nose to nose with the questioning soldier and sneered, "Do I need to repeat myself?"

"N-no, Sir." He gulped. "As you wish, Sir."

When the younglings screamed and cried for their mother, Erik glared at them with a look that would melt steel. "Bind their mouths. I can't stand the screeching."

Magnus shook with rage, frost crystals spreading across the altar.

When one of his nieces tried to bite a guard to defend her younger sister, he smacked the young child with a vicious slap. "There'll be none of that." 

"You have one chance to save the children," said Erik in a terrifyingly calm voice that would melt steel as he paced. "Tell me where I can find Magnus."

Magnus' sister fell to her knees. "Kill me...but let my children go. They're young. They're innocent. They did nothing wrong."

Erik stared at her silently. Relentless.

"I beg you!" she screamed.

"You're brave," said Erik, snaking one hand around her cheek and the other one around her neck. She gazed at him with a look of pure defiance. "With you I can show mercy."

He snapped her neck. Quick and painless. But he gave her a death that would not allow her to enter the gates of Elysium.

A pained draconic screech fell from Magnus' parents as they watched their only daughter slump lifelessly to the floor. The children wailed, their faces contorted in agony.

All the while Magnus stared at the projection, his neck so taut that his skull quivered with rage. Tears of anger burned his eyes as he clenched his jaw.

When the Queen reached out to comfort him, he ripped his arm away. "Do not touch me!"

"I will ask you one more time," said Erik, not once showing a ripple of remorse. "Where. Is. Your. Son?"

His father jutted his chin. "If we tell you, you'll kill us anyway."

"But I will show you mercy." Erik took a step nearer to the bound dragon. "Tell me where he is, and you all die by my sword. Quickly and without pain. So you can enter Elysium."

"Unlike you," sneered Magnus' father, "I will never betray my son."

"Very well." Erik wrapped his black cloak around him before he turned and gave the command. "Barricade the exits and set it alight."

"No! You can't!" Magnus' mother screamed. "At least save the children!"

"You want to save them?" Erik roared, grasping her by the braid and pulling back her head. "Tell me where Magnus waits with his troops!"

Her lower lip trembled, but she remained silent.

Magnus squeezed his eyes shut, unable to watch anymore. All he could hear was a barrage of commands until he heard the final one.

"Light it up."

Magnus fell to his knees, each breath drawing the stench of burning wood. Burning hair. Burning skin. Although the smoke did not fill the room, their screams did. It squeezed the life out of him. His breath came in ragged groans as he pressed his palms against his skull. The dragon grasped his locks so tightly, he nearly ripped his hair by the roots.

Until it all fell silent.

"We found the recording this morning," whispered the Queen. "But it was too late."

"You...promised me...an armed platoon would protect them," hissed Magnus as he rose. "You swore by the Shadow they would be safe. No one was there!"

"My men were needed in battle."

Magnus strode to her and grasped her by the throat. "I do not care if every last soldier had perished in an ocean of fire! You promised me if I served you here, you would keep them safe! If I had been there, they would still be alive!"

"Please...you're hurting me!"

"It is always one more thing I must do to prove myself," he spat, "until everything is spent. I have given you all that I am. I have sacrificed everyone I love. And still it is not enough!"

"I...didn't...kill them," she choked out. "Find...the man...who did..."

Magnus pushed her away with a vicious thrust and grasped the orb, storing it in his leather pouch. He strode toward the armory and deliberated in front of the cabinet.

The dragon warrior could choose a flaming sword that would extinguish Erik's very soul. It tempted him. Teasing him with beautiful retribution. Or he could fight with honor using a sword of obsidian that would allow Erik to die intact and face eternal judgment.

He grasped the obsidian sword and clasped it to his side. I am not like Erik.

The dragon would not rest until he had avenged his family's horrific murder. That was not war. That was not even spycraft. 

That was pure evil.

***

Magnus awoke in his cell to the sound of determined clacking. At first he was not certain whether he might still be dreaming, for that clack of boot heels against stone had haunted his dreamscape for six long years. 

But he was not in the caldera. Not this time.

In his dreamscape Katharina had always made the same choice. To stab him in the heart with a flaming sword.

With a single stab and twist, Katharina would send him into perdition's flames, where his family awaited him. Though his soul would never find peace, at least she could reunite him with the family her father had taken from him.

The only ones who loved him enough that they would sacrifice their own souls to protect him and his soldiers.

Katharina, free my soul at last from this torment.

The dragon rose to his feet, the silver mask still obscuring the pain etched upon his face. Dressed in the royal garb of the draconic armies, Magnus resigned himself to his fate.

Even after all this time, the forces of Light saw him as an agent of darkness. He would die in the uniform of a dragon, not a Tower guard.

Magnus would find no chance at redemption. It had never existed. He did not deserve it. Andor did not deserve it. One stab of the sword by Katharina's hand, and both sides of him would both perish in eternal fire.

When the metal keys screeched in the lock to allow her to enter, a wave of calm swept over the dragon. For once Magnus felt no shame. No despair. Katharina's revenge would end the cycle of madness and bring peace at last.

I am ready.

___

Word count: 1,496
Total word count: 27,526/40,000 (max)