00:00afraid the covenant of flame answers to me father's attack never lands a bolt of golden dragon fire
00:08descends from the heavens boom it hits father dead on scales to bone everything scorches black
00:14but that's only the beginning one bolt two they hammer down like divine tribulation made personal
00:21by the end father is blasted back into his beast form
00:28isolda gapes at me seraphina what did you do to father i pull my hand from kale's healed wounds
00:35and rise slowly centuries ago my mother gave her life defending clan aralien against the dark horde
00:42the ancient dragon god pyrasis honored her sacrifice with a divine gift to her bloodline
00:47i seraphina avorian second princess of clan avorian hold the right of designation anyone who strikes
00:52me will face divine repriation and anyone who harbors malice towards me will never be arcan
00:57i don't believe you you're lying you're nothing you haven't grown a single rank in centuries
01:04you designate archon you must have sabotaged me set some trap i won't let you get away with this
01:11she charges at me her flawless features twisting into something feral
01:16i exhale you're no exception golden dragon fire falls on isolda her cultivation is nowhere near
01:25father's level the bolts chase her across the platform scrambling stumbling all dignity stripped
01:31away the same clan members who worshipped her moments ago don't dare move an inch
01:36sarah you hid this from me if you told me the truth i wouldn't have done it this way i
01:43laugh
01:43scalding tears roll down i wouldn't have what wouldn't have put a blade through my heart
01:50darevan didn't i tell you yes i can never be arpin myself but bond with me stay faithful and on
01:57the
01:57day i ascend you would have evolved into a true leviathan our children would have inherited the covenant
02:03but you didn't believe me do you know why you were reborn with me because the moment i died the
02:09bond
02:09tore your soul apart with mine my death was yours you just didn't feel the blade draven stumbles
02:17backward he looks down at the bond mark on his hand the one tying him to isolda the color drains
02:24from his face a dragon's roar erupts from the sacred altar isolda scorched humiliated by divine
02:31retribution consumed by jealousy over the power i hold loses the last thread of reason the dormant
02:39void taint in her iron scale bloodline ignites she shifts into beast form golden scales begin to darken
02:46at the edges her eyes bleed from gold to the empty black of the void her dragon form warps twists
02:53until
02:54she looks less like a noble dragon and more like something that clawed its way out of an abyss
02:59why why's her mother purebred and mine was not why does she get everything without lifting a finger
03:09i refuse to accept this it should all be mine she attacks indiscriminately corrupted dragon fire
03:18sprays in every direction clan members scatter screaming the sacred altar once solemn and revered
03:25becomes an inferno father drags himself toward me in beast form tears line his reptilian eyes
03:35sarah please spare islet this is all my fault i was wrong i should never have done what i did
03:42to you
03:43but she has trained for centuries i can't watch her lose everything i look into his eyes my mother's
03:51last words echo back sarah i hate him you know what the saddest part of my life is i can
03:59never compete
04:00with a ghost there is one way to save her power hope flares in his gaze darren is bonded to
04:08isolette
04:09he bears half her karmic burden i point at draven to save her you'll need to sacrifice him extract
04:16his serpent's core let isolette absorb it completely she'll stabilize
04:23no take my core and i'll never evolve never become a leviathan sarah this is revenge father
04:32doesn't even glance at him serpent you swore you'd give everything for isoleth
04:39now keep your word father extracts the serpent's core himself the moment the fist-sized pulsing black
04:46crystal is torn free in that instant draven seems to age sentience he can only watch as father feeds
04:54the core to isolda no i've seen enough kale leans against my shoulder voice low sarah let's go deep into
05:04the
05:04night i lean against the edge of the moon bale hot spring a silver serpent glides across the surface
05:09toward me kale shifts to human form he rests against me letting my palm wander across his chest
05:17i study him kale's silver irises glow faintly in the dark no calculation in them nothing but feeling
05:23deep bare bottomless the question has been circling since this morning we've never met before why does he
05:30feel like this about me is it because of my title kale reads the doubt on my face this isn't
05:35the first
05:36time we've met his silver scales shimmer memory fragments flow through the bond and into my mind
05:42a flash a finger-length silver snake pinned under the boots of dragonborn boys battered and bleeding
05:49a younger version of me barges in plants herself between them and chases them off with a tongue
05:55lashing another flash the little silver snake barely alive curled in a crack between rocks a teenage
06:02version of me crouches down a wild rabbit a handful of berries again and again without knowing it i saved
06:10him more times than i can count the last image kale now in human form standing at the farthest edge
06:16of
06:16the crowd watching me on the sacred altar about to begin the soul bond right with draven the memory breaks
06:23off my voice comes out rough is this about debt you chose me because i saved you it isn't suspicion
06:30it's fear fear that one day he'll say what draven said that i chained him with kindness i didn't fall
06:36in love with you because you saved me i was already in love with you everything you did only proved
06:42i wasn't
06:43wrong my heart hammers against my ribs kale rests his head on my shoulder his voice drops to a murmur
06:51warm
06:51breath against my skin from now on you're all i have you scared me today will you stay close tonight
07:00his lower half shifts silver tail coiling around my calf sliding higher slow deliberate my eyes narrow
07:08my voice drops a little hoarse what kind of close did you have in mind he leans in hot spring
07:16water
07:17laps over both our shoulders silver scale marks glow beneath the surface kale's body temperature rises
07:23the instant he presses against me nothing like the cold serpents are known for you're warm
07:30only when i touch you his lips find my collarbone then a sharp brief sting a silver serpent mark brands
07:37itself into my skin mate mark i grip the back of his neck and bite down a golden dragon scale
07:43mark
07:44surfaces on his nate from this moment the bond is absolute he is mine and i am his one night
07:50of
07:51passion serpents aren't that impressive honestly he just flipped me around and wore me out until dawn
07:56i could barely stand the next morning i haul myself upright one hand braced on my lower back and kick
08:04kale in the side he blinks up at me genuinely wounded did i break you satisfied very satisfied
08:11kale scrambles up to help me walk we barely make it past the sanctum's ward line before i stop
08:17someone is crouching outside the barrier draven draven looks years older than yesterday his gaze finds
08:24the silver mate mark on my collarbone his pupils shrink his face goes gray he stares for a long time
08:30before
08:30he speaks sir i was wrong issaleth and your father they don't see me as a living thing only you
08:39ever
08:39treated me as an equal draven thought bonding with the archon's chosen would launch him to the top but
08:44beyond that leviathan pearl he has nothing of value to offer they stripped him and threw him aside last
08:51night father's rage needed a target he doesn't dare touch me again those dozen bolts of divine dragonfire
08:58already hammered him back to beast form provoking me further might annihilate his soul entirely
09:03but the fury needed somewhere to go the daughter he spent years crippling turns out to be the covenants bearer
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