Chapter 12: Ch.11: Pilgrimage

This was something unexpected. 

Prince Syn lay on his armored back, his wings spread out atop the flattened flash-seared grass of the meadow. Despite the undignified conditions of spending the night under the stars, the night sky reminded him of his room back in the royal spire with its crystalline ceiling. Even more oddly, he felt like he could just reach up and pluck a twinkling star from its place with his claws. But he dared not, for doing so might twist the constellations into disarray. The same went for the moon which shone so much more brightly. If he were to take it for himself, the whole world might suffer a terrible fate. 

While fantasizing, he caught sight of a shadow moving among the tiny lights of the stars. Even with his draconic eyes, he could barely make it out in the moonlight, till it got closer. Syn rolled over into the warm light of the nearby campfire. Around him were some of his guards, and the history keeper Kaleid, conversing by the grass-pile fire. Looking back out into the twilight, he saw the shadow take a more clear form as it approached. 

"My lord." Zeritha hooted and landed nearby, wearing her dark matte red armor. "I didn't see anything while I was patrolling. There's nobody around for miles besides us." She prowled to the campfire, her tail low and steady. 

"Good work, Zee." Syn rose to all-fours and patted the spot where he previously lay. "Take a rest for a while. I know it's not as nice as the churches or inns we've been staying in, but it's still warm." 

"Thank you, my lord." She kneaded the grass with her talons first, then made a circle in it before finally curling up in the spot. "I'm not much of a night owl like some of my sisters are." 

"I'm glad you're not pushing yourself too hard." He patted her on the helmet with his tail. "I think I'll stay up a bit longer. You're next shift isn't until later, so here, let me put you to sleep?" 

Zeritha nodded, so Syn puffed a small foggy cloud to waft about her head. 

Her eyes fell shut and she rested her head on her legs. "Mmm," she murmured before falling silent. 

Syn turned his attention to the troops around the camp. Many of them had already gone to sleep, but a few were awake around a still burning campfire. He went and visited them, joining their company and spending some time with them. He didn't bother walking upright, right now he felt like one of them. They were all dragons and his horns were even the same average size as theirs, his armor and circlet were plenty distinguishing for him. The royal retinue was filled with skilled and experienced soldiers from across Draconia. Some were from lesser noble houses, others from among veteran ranks of commoner career soldiers. Whatever the case, the prince was glad to have them with him. 

Overall, the group was doing well. Their traveling pace wasn't strenuous and they had been eating well the past few days in the towns. So spending a single night in the wilderness without supper wasn't too distressing, even though the sleeping conditions weren't quite so comfortable. They would be ready to continue traveling in the morning without much complaint. 

It was getting late, but Syn decided to visit Kaleid who had been busy scribbling on papers by the firelight. His scales glittered with the fire's movement. 

"What's got you up so late while the other covenant are fast asleep?" Syn inquired while he trod to him, tail curling. 

"Right now, I'm recording some of my own thoughts in anticipation." The wyvern dabbed his inky stinger on the page. "We're nearing our destination." 

"According to the maps, just a couple more days till New Myrrah in the Principality." Syn recalled from his study earlier that day. He noticed the light wavered with the fire. "Need a crystal light?" 

"No, no. I was just finishing up. And I prefer fire to crystal light anyway, makes the page really come alive." Kaleid shuffled the papers into a box and his bag. "Anything else you wish to ask, your highness?" 

"Tell me what's got you so excited about all this?" Syn could see the twinkle in his eye. "I know it used to be the capital of the Myriad Empire, but it's all ruins now and hasn't been relevant in a millenium." 

"We're following in the footsteps of so many who came before us." Kaleid bobbed his head up and down. "Not just after the fracture, but those before as well. Some pilgrims who were taking a penance, like you are, would be given a small quest or needed to fulfill a minor behest from the emperor himself before they could consider their penance complete." 

"But the time of emperors is long in the past. Now it's the Grand Princess that handles pilgrims from around the world." Syn recalled and lay down towards the Fictis, his long tail rustled the burnt grass while it swayed. "Doing this kind of feels like an empty formality. There's got to be something more constructive I can do. I mean... how do we bond the world back together again?" Syn looked up at the stars. "Sometimes I think it'll never happen without an emperor to worship." 

"We never worshiped the emperors," Kaleid tutted and shook his head, whiskers wobbling about like his medallion. "We worship God by following the Heartfyre, the gift which inhabited the emperor. And what we keep was also set by the Heartfyre, not just the emperor." He delivered the next line flatly. "It's why we're called the Covenant... of the Heartfyre." 

"Doesn't sound like much of a difference to me, since only emperors could have the Heartfyre anyway." Syn frowned with a slight rumble. "And it still doesn't solve the problem." 

Kaleid's whiskers stiffened in frustration. "Look, you see this campfire?" 

The fire was running low on fuel, and was weak until a moment when Kaleid fanned it with his forewing. Syn's armor glinted with the light. 

"The Heartfyre is like a spiritual bonfire. It brings people together around itself. It keeps them warm and its light removes uncertainty and deception, revealing the truth." Kaleid's heart beat with a fiery passion. "But more, it's alive. It coalesced itself into an individual, the emperor, so that the world would gather around as one." His breath was warm and smokey. "The reason why the pilgrims all come to the one place where the Heartfyre used to be... is to burn away their impurities." 

Syn concluded with a thought he had. "But with the emperors gone for so long, that bonfire has reduced to embers... The Grand Fantesh mentioned something about the rekindling, why hasn't that happened?" 

Kaleid eyes went wide, then he coughed. "Nobody really knows," He answered, his fire extinguished. "The Covenant formed the Principality in hopes of the Heartfyre choosing a new emperor itself. Occasionally a new prince, or sometimes princess, is recognized and rules until the Covenant decides to try a new one that the Heartfyre might choose. The title of the old Grand Prince retires to Serene Prince and they live out their lives in sanctified peace, hoping that perhaps one day they might succeed." 

Syn remembered that there were a couple dozen living princes in the Principality. Apparently, none of them or the ones before had ever been able to inherit the Heartfyre. 

Kaleid continued. "The other way a rekindling might happen is if the old empire is unified, or perhaps a new one formed, but I think you know enough about that." He gave a knowing look. 

The ancient schism between Draconia and Draconis. He had lived his whole life being prepared to enter that rivalry. 

He ended while watching the dwindling fire. "For now, you should focus on purifying yourself. That's the reason you were sent here after all." 

Syn was silent for a while, thinking on what he had been taught, the state of the world, and his new understanding. He scratched the spines under his chin until he remembered a question he had unanswered. "Do you know what exactly caused the fracturing of the empire?" 

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Kaleid opened his mouth wide into a yawn. He looked to the campfire, which had burned out and gone dark. The moonlight was all that illuminated them. "Perhaps another time, it's quite late and we should both get some rest for traveling tomorrow." 

Syn got back up, he didn't realize how much time had passed. "I suppose you're right, goodnight then." 

"Goodnight, my prince." Kaleid turned away towards the rest of the sleeping acolytes, taking his bag with him. 

Syn sensed someone behind him. Turning around, he came snout-to-beak with Zeritha. "Woah, didn't see you there." Syn's neck recoiled back in surprise, rattling his armor. 

"What are you still doing up? It's already time for my next shift." Zeritha asked, her yellow eyes pierced into him. 

"I was just going to bed. See you in the morning." He scooted around her awkwardly towards the now vacant bedding. 

"Very well. Goodnight, my prince." She said before silently taking off into the night sky. Only a slight breeze was any sign she had flapped her wings. 

Huh? That's not how she usually addressed him. Did he hear her wrong? How strange... 

After he returned to his bedding, he stayed up with many thoughts going through his head. But through all of them a couple of things were clear: He had atone for this world, to make it right again somehow, but he could only do that once he succeeded in this campaign and attained his rightful position of authority. With so much on his mind, Prince Syn hardly got any sleep that night. 

***

Even without a good night's sleep, traveling by flight was easy, at least at the pace they were going. Most of the time it was just gliding, they rarely needed to flap their wings to rise unless they were taking off from the ground. Instead, they took advantage of thermal updrafts for lift, circling within them until they were high enough that the upper winds could carry them across the blue sky fast and far through the white clouds. There were plenty of updrafts available: from towns, to farm fields, large hills, and even the paved highway that got wider as pilgrim roads merged the closer they got to their destination. 

Their week of travels had taken them over the vast greenish plains and arid tan steppe of Equellia, and the red canyons of a pocket desert within the split of a mountain range, to the vibrant green forests on the other side of the mountains. Over a thousand miles, oh so quickly. 

The nearer the Myrrah Peninsula got, the more infrastructure catered to pilgrims that would be traveling there. There were more inns, churches with dedicated housing, and merchants with religious paraphernalia. Syn didn't have any issues crossing borders, for pilgrims were allowed to travel through any country on their path to the Principality of the Myriads. 

It was by sheer bad luck that Syn's group ended up in the middle of nowhere. Or maybe it was because he decided to take a shortcut over the mountains, who knows. They were more lucky that it was the only night they had struggled for shelter. But now they were back on track. 

More than on track, actually. By the end of the day, the prince had already made it to New Myrrah, a whole day early! 

A greeting party flew up to meet them and guide them to their housing before dark. Apparently, the principality was prepared for them and set aside their best lodgings near the palace. So they flew their way over the city. 

The theocratic city was an ancient metropolis in contrast to the towns and cities they had flown over or stayed in on the journey here. Infrastructure and architecture was religiously stylized with vibrant colors and flamelike patterns. Fountains in the squares had fiery sculptures that spewed and bubbled water ironically. Gothic buildings lined every colored brick street. They even used archaic burnstone street lamps instead of crystal lights. 

In the distance, one could see the monumental size of the world's largest multi-tiered cathedral. From here, it seemed like a gothic mountain. There was a great mausoleum which housed the urns and ashes of those cremated by the ceremonial funeral pyre located next to it, where the fire was ever lit with a smokeless flame. They flew over a museum, no doubt displaying artifacts from the imperial past. A library and a university were only a stone's throw away. A regular throw, not a centaur's throw. Nearer the palace was a recognition stadium, a theater even more decorated and open than the one back in Draconia. 

Then there was the palace. It sat on a raised plateau above the rest of the city, large staircases cut their way up into it. The edges were built up with low castle walls which were whitewashed and pristine, the occasional tower was lit from the top with a fire like a lighthouse. On the other side of the walls were Hexagonal buildings linked together by thin roofed catwalks. Between buildings on either side of the walks were gardens, shaped waterways, and pools with fountains. At the center the main structure was a layered hexagon that also looked like some sort of gothic cathedral. 

Prince Syn and his entire retinue were led to one of the outer buildings, a guest house practically. Here, they would be able to rest, dine, and bathe in luxury. He could finally doff his armor and relax comfortably. It was surprising they had this all ready, set up, and waiting for him. Had word of his coming preceded him? 

But before he could get settled in his quarters, a messenger griffin came by to deliver an invitation to a banquet at the main palace. A banquet being hosted already? Now that required some planning to pull off. 

So the prince dressed like a prince, donning his Draconia robes from his pack. He looked very regal in red and gold, his pointed circlet was the cherry on top. He hoped to be presentable to the Grand Princess and all the other Serene Princes and Princesses there. This was his first time meeting them, after all. 

Zeritha also wore some fancy black dress that she had for such occasions to accompany the prince. There was just a touch of draconian colors near the collar and down her fluffy chest. It had an open back for her wings to move unencumbered. 

They took their time to walk to the palace, taking in the sights of the night. Lit up pools and fountains, as well as the different colored flames atop towers around them as they trod down the catwalks. It was so bright they could barely see the stars here unlike out in the wilderness. 

They were joined by Kaleid, who wore his reddish Heartfyre robes on display. He wouldn't miss the Covenant hosted banquet and the prince's activities at this time. He also wanted to meet the Grand Fantesh of New Myrrah as well. 

As they made their way, countless Covenant attendants accompanied and assisted them, guiding them to the palace. Dragons, and skarsh, and centaurs, and griffins, they all wore robes with various colors of fire, like those bizarre fires they had seen on the towers. 

Nearing the banquet hall doors, Syn stood upright and asked them how they had set this up so quickly. One of the seniors answered his question. 

"You were expected. Your arrival was foretold by another esteemed guest who showed up recently. It's very exciting having so many princes gathered here together." 

"Other esteemed guest?" Syn questioned, bewildered. 

"Greetings, Prince of Draconia." A voice from beside the hall door hailed him. It came from a black dragon with a brass underside who wore the distinct Draconis blue and platinum. Beside him was a violet scaled dragon wearing blue Covenant robes and weilding a brass chime staff. Both of them bowed with forelegs and wings open low. The black dragon spoke again. 

"I am Prince of Draconis. It's time we've met."

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