There was darkness in front of Archibald. In fact, there was darkness surrounding him, and he wished for light. Then, a pair of white eyes blinked ahead of him.
He stumbled back, and he felt the darkness seep away, revealing the tower around him. Now the white eyes were set in Peter’s face, looking down on him with disdain. For a moment, his eyes stayed white before fading to Peter’s blue eyes. Then, Archibald noticed his siblings lining up around him, and he heard his father’s footsteps and the distant call of numbers.
Archibald hurried to his feet and found his place. When his father came, he counted, “four... five...” and when he came to Archibald, said, “six...”
But when he came to his brother beside Archibald, he faltered, and then darkness fell over everything again.
Archibald felt the darkness overcome him. It wrapped his body in bandages of blackness, and it had nearly consumed him entirely, but before he had a chance to give in, he heard a distant voice call out to him, “Survive.”
Archibald awoke in the dormitories of the tower where he lived, trying to rub that unpleasant dream from his eyes. The blinds were drawn and the room was empty of his usual hundreds of siblings, so he got to his feet to find anyone. Opening the door to the outside corridor, he found his father.
“Archie!” his father exclaimed, “You’re awake!”
“When did I fall asleep?” Archibald moaned, “Where are the demons?”
“You sealed them, Archie. I’m proud of you; you must have been in a dangerous spot if you resorted to using that draconic I taught you. I am shocked though. I had thought that sealing from the outside was impossible, but from the reports of your siblings, you began the sealing from the inside, but managed to escape before the seal was fully set.”
“What...” Archibald murmured, “What do we do now?”
“For now, go to the cafeteria and eat something; you look weak.”
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In the cafeteria, Archibald wandered to find somewhere to fall down. He managed to find his seat beside Veronica.
“Archie!” she cried, “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” he murmured.
“Oh, Archie, I should have been there with you. I was so distracted protecting our other siblings from demons that I wasn’t there when you made the seal.”
“It’s really okay. I was fine.”
“But Peter said both of you were nearly trapped inside the demon realm,” Veronica pushed, “I’m supposed to be here to protect you. I’m your older sister.”
At that moment, Peter came over and sat by Veronica. At the sight of Peter, Archibald flinched.
Peter waved it off, saying to Veronica, “Do you remember what I was talking about before?”
“About Father?” Veronica replied, “I just think you’re crazy.”
“No, no listen, something is up. I was talking to Lord Brumble, the lord of the king’s fifth largest argicultural territory, and he was talking about how Father was using Archie to scare everyone into letting him into all of the meetings.”
Archibald, with his head laying on the table and looking up at Peter, said, “Brumble is just angry that I’m a higher status than him. You can’t trust what he says about me.”
“I’m serious,” Peter continued, “And one of the villagers at Interitus Praestatur was talking about rumours about us, and he called us ‘The Stolen Children’, saying it was a nickname for Father’s children.”
“What is that meant to mean?” Veronica asked.
“Apparently Father stole us from other families when we were babies, but the king protected Father because of the promise that we would be trained to fight the demons. Father was using the threat of demons to get away with kidnapping.”
“Stop it,” Archibald said, “Father would never.”
“I just think it’s suspicious-”
“We are Father’s children. There’s nothing suspicious about it,” Archibald grunted, “I’m tired of you trying to hurt other people just because you can’t get your way.”
“I’m not lying,” Peter said, but Archibald just got up from the table.
“Hey, Veronica?” Archibald said, and when she turned to look him in the eyes he said, “The last person who promised to protect me died two days later. Do you even remember Johnny?”
He left the cafeteria and continued walking for a while. The way Peter talked about Father was outrageous, and Archibald couldn’t accept it. He wandered for a while, making his way outside, before finding the mouth of a cave. The area was secluded, but for a moment he hesitated. What was drawing him towads the cave? His bones were too agitated to turn back though; he headed in.
Surrounding him were stalagmites and stalactites like teeth, and despite being unnerved, he walked further into the jaw. When he came to a bend and walked around, ahead of him was a pile of scales. He moved to kick it, but the scales fluttered. As a head rose from the pile, it turned its eyes to Archibald.
“Brother?” the dragon said, squinting at the unmoving boy before him.
“No, I’m Archibald.”
“Where are our brothers?”
Archibald sat down and scratched his head. “We don’t have any brothers. I’m not a dragon.”
The dragon’s eyes widened. “Are you a demon?”
“No, I’m a human.”
The flickering of the dragon’s scale stopped as he said, “No. You responded to my call. It was only meant for those with strong magic, like dragons or demons.”
“My eyes are hazel, so I can’t be a demon,” Archibald said, “and I’m too small to be a dragon.”
As a grumble came from the dragon, he murmured, “That is true. Alright, human, what’s your problem?”
“My problem?”
“Why do you bother me?”
Archibald stared in disbelief. “You’re a dragon,” he said slowly.
“If that’s all, find a different dragon.”
“There... aren’t any,” Archibald explained, “All the dragons died ages ago.”
“But I didn’t die.”
“I suppose so. Have you just been asleep for thousands of years?”
“Have I?” the dragon muttered, “I was just taking a nap.”
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The next day, a collection of Archibald’s memories were competing for his attention as his father called for another headcount. He remembered the “Stolen Children” rumour, and for a moment he wondered before dismissing it as crazy. Then, he thought on his meeting of a dragon. And he couldn’t help but compare the dragon to his father, and no one was greater than his father, whom he waited for with his back straight against the wall. Then, Archibald noticed his younger brother beside him. He was staring out the window, so Archibald pulled the young boy from the window sill.
“Now isn’t the time to misbehave,” Archibald said, and the two took their proper positions as they heard their father approaching.
“Nineteen... twenty...” their father murmured as he walked around the bend. When he came to Archibald and Archibald’s brother, he counted, “Twenty-four... twenty-five...”
A dozen children later he had counted the last, and he dismissed them to lunch.
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As the rest of his siblings hurried off for food, Archibald found himself wandering outside the tower. He heard that call again saying, “Survive,” and once again he came to the cave. When he wandered in, he found the dragon sitting anxiously in wait.
“Ah, human!” the dragon said, “I was wondering when you would respond to my call again. Do humans have names?”
“Yeah. I’m Archibald, but my family calls me Archie.”
“Seeing as we aren’t related, I will use Archibald,” the dragon murmured, adjusting his seating position, “You know, I went outside. You were right, it has been millenia since I was last awake, and so much has changed. Was it you humans who fixed the demon pest problem?”
“The dragons did at first, but we took care of them when they came back.”
“A disease, they are,” the dragon said, “They misuse magic, but their nature makes them incredibly powerful. They have no will besides destruction, but despite lacking will, they also lack any doubt, and therefore their magic is strong.”
“The demons will come back again,” Archibald added, “We sealed them away, but they’ll keep coming back.”
“Demons, you know, aren’t entirely unlike humans. But they are all under the control of the demon king,” the dragon said, leaning down to Archibald, “Their race is not why they are disgusting; they are disgusting because they abused magic until they could not help but be consumed by the king’s thrall.”
“But, if magic is about willpower, how would using it more make them weaker?”
“Magic has costs, boy,” the dragon murmured with a sigh, “If one’s will is not strong enough to begin with, and none are besides that of dragons and the demon king, then magic only degrades the will. There comes a point where it is so weak that the last of their will is placed into the hands of another, like an inheritance of their agency. They place their will into the hands of one they trust and do not doubt a single word from that person’s lips. In that way, whatever the person commands they will do. And without doubt, their power grows, and they become dangerous and pestly.”
“So what about...” Archibald said.
“What about humans?” the dragon asked. He sat in thought for a moment, then leaned close to Archibald as he said, “Well, if a human used magic nearly as much as a demon, they would become something even worse. The potential of humans is far greater than demons, and I do believe that husk of a creature may even rival a dragon, if it ever existed.”
For a moment, Archibald looked out towards the mouth of the cave, at the tower errupting from the foliage. Then, he turned back to the dragon.
“How’d you like outside?” Archibald asked.
“I doubted when you said the dragons died, but they were indeed all gone. It’s a sad thing, and I may be the very final dragon.”
Archibald smiled. “So you’re special.”
The dragon smiled back.
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