Of Dawn and Dusk

[Sh'ozak Ma'hk'null]

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The dragon tilted it's head with a malevolent smile. "[Death] is the [kindest] [fate] that can befall a [Schemer's Pawn]. We merely [offered] [rebirth], and after that, a [painless] [death]. [Alas], it is not [meant] to be. [May] you have less [suffering] in [death] than you have in [life]."

The growing glass formed a full circle beneath the dragon, and it turned its attention. It made a proclamation: "Harbinger. We are Lightmind. We are no longer Mirrorshare. You will not [make] us Mirrorshare again. Not with this scheme or the next." With that, it turned to the sea snake and offered the whispered songs of the mind. Not an admonishment, not a threat, not even so much as a warning. A supposition, firmly stated as a finding of fact, that though the old ways were beautiful and meant to be, it was the old ways that lead to their greatest tragedy, and it is the old ways that failed them thus far. The time for the old ways and the old gods that purport them will come again, even the one before them, but it is the new ways that are needed now.

With nothing else at hand, the beast crawled through the reflection in the glass beneath it in a brief flash of light. For a second afterwards, light and song shone through, and then the glass shattered, becoming clear blue shards that dissolved slowly in the lake. And with that, the dragon was gone.

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