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Divine Dragons are not immortal.
It was a simple, indisputable, fact.
Given enough time without being slain in battle, the body of a Divine Dragon reaches a point where it grows old. It degrades. It dies. Divine Dragons, and Fell Dragons for that matter, are not immortal. But compared to a human, who gets decades maybe a century at most to live, they might as well be.
For Dragons, a century could pass in the blink of an eye. Generations of humans could live and die and a Dragon will barely have noticed their existence, unable to comprehend such a short lifespan in the same way that humans could not possibly understand what millennia felt like.
It was why the humans revered Dragons as Gods. How could such a long lived being with magical abilities not be a God to a race that at it’s average lived only eighty years?
Alear did not like thinking about this.
Prince Alfred had tried to breach the topic a few times, especially as their relationship developed into something more serious than just stolen kisses in the middle of a war, but Alear would sooner marry a Corrupted than talk about how he was going to outlive every single one of them.
Why talk about the future if the present was happening here and now? Why talk about all his friends dying when they still lived and breathed? Why bring up the fact that even if they beat Sombron and everyone is saved, they will all die in just a few years and Alear will be left all alone?
Decades, to the humans, were singular blinks to Alear and he did not like thinking about it.
There will be more, Alfred had assured him. More generations of humans. More friends. More lovers. Life would continue for Alear even if the rest of them were gone but there will be others to fill their places. Alear did not want these ‘others’.
He wanted Vander to be by his side always, always so wise if a little over protective. He wanted Clanne and Framme running circles around him, their laughter so pure and their faces so young. He wanted long talks under the night sky with Diamant just as much as he wanted Alcryst to realise just how incredible he was. Alear wanted to try new teas with Céline, not just in her memory with somebody else who had never met her.
Alear wished that he could show Ivy just how much her policies would change Elusia for the better, just like how he wanted to make Hortensia feel safe enough to be her true self. Forgado and Timerra took everything in stride, living every single day as if it may be their last but Alear hated to wonder if Forgado would still be roaming around Solm even in his old age, he hated to think about who will inherit after Timerra grows old because what if they are not so cheerful as her?
Alear did not want ‘others’. He wanted Alfred.
He wanted to spend eternity with the Prince of Fierene or even just a few decades with him if it meant that they got to grow old together. They would hold hands, strolling through the gardens, they would embrace each other at the end of the day. Alfred would always greet him with that bright smile and Alear would always fall for him every single second of every single day because Alfred was incredible in everything he did.
But Alear could not shed his long life any more than Alfred could extend his own. And, as Alear had learned not long before the end of the war, Alfred would not even reach that seemingly too short life expectancy of eighty to a hundred years. Alfred was sick and he had been for a long time.
If the war did not claim him, Alfred was still going to die young.
Alear didn’t remember much of that day, the day Alfred told him about his condition. Alfred had held him, rocking him gently as Alear let out wrenching sobs because Alfred was a kind loving person that even when admitting he had a terminal illness only wished to make other people happy. A part of Alear had felt guilty, he should not be wasting what little time Alfred had left like this, but the rest of him was too busy screaming at an unfair world to care.
Countless nights he had just lain there in his bed, watching Alfred’s chest rise and fall and wondering what it might look like if it stopped moving. What would it feel like without Alfred there, would he even be able to sleep alone in his bed like he had for a thousand years?
It would be seventeen years, seventeen amazing beautiful incredible years, before Alear buried Alfred in the Garden that Alfred had loved so much and yet it might as well have been mere days. No amount of time with Alfred would have been enough for Alear and no amount of condolences eased the deep ache in his heart as if it had been buried alongside his Prince.
After the funeral, Alear had tried to close himself off from the others. If Alfred could die despite how much Alear loved him then the others will die one day too. Vander may not be as old as he looked but he was already slowing. Jean was still small but he was no longer a boy but a man with a wife of his own and a child on the way. Clanne and Framme were still excitable as ever but one day they would be dead and buried too, they were already looking for the next generation of stewards to the Divine Dragon.
He could not fathom losing anyone else so Alear did the only thing he thought he could; He sent them away, Vander, Clanne and Framme included. His friends, his companions, should be able to live and die as humans do and he will not have to know. He will not have to mourn them the way he still mourned Alfred. The way he would forever mourn Alfred.
Rosado had looked him straight in the eye and laughed.
“Nice try, Divine One,” He had said. “But I think I like it up here.”
Rosado’s painting still hung in Alear’s bedroom. The colours weren’t quite the same anymore and the frame was cracking but Alear could spend hours just staring at it, remembering the hike they had done to get such a perfect view.
The stewards had stayed that day also, ignoring Alear’s pleas that they live their lives without him.
“I wouldn’t be a Co-President of the Divine Dragon Fanclub if I left you all alone, would I?” Framme had declared, every bit a splitting image of the young girl she used to be.
“Besides,” Clanne had said, mirroring her pose. “You need us.”
Vander had not made any bold declarations. He hadn’t needed to. All Vander did was hold out his arms before Alear was collapsing into them, staining Vander’s shirt with tears.
“Queen Lumera said that one day you may feel this way,” Vander had said. “That you may feel it is easier to close your heart than to open your eyes to see the world decay around you. She wanted you to know that as much as it hurts, you cannot force yourself to be alone. There will be others, Divine One, if only you let them see who you are.”
Others. Alfred had spoken of others. Alear still did not want ‘others’, he wanted his companions that he already knew, already loved. No, he would not open his heart. Never again. Besides, Alear was not completely alone, he had Veyle.
It was a easier to know that Veyle was like him, she was his blood sister after all and shared the same Dragon lifespan as he did.
She would stay with him, even when all the others were gone, but that in itself brought its own complications. Veyle had been so alone for so long, the idea that he one day would die and leave her all alone again chilled him to the very bone but the alternative where he instead outlived her was somehow even more horrible. His little Sister was everything to him and yet he could not protect her forever any more than he could protect his short lived friends.
No, Alear could not open his heart to more pain. Except like Alfred had once said, it was in Alear’s nature to love and be loved so without realising it he had allowed himself to get to know these ‘others’ that Alfred and Vander had promised him.
The steward that Clanne and Framme had hand selected, was fond of jelly tarts. Alear felt guilty that he had only learned this fact years after they had come into his service but they had simply smiled to him and held up a fresh batch of tarts.
Step by step Alear let himself feel again. He kept a box of trinkets that Zelkov sent him, he still had a deck of cards that Seadall had used even if its pictures had long since faded and the corners were all bent strangely.
Alear even let himself visit Céline the day of her abdication, meeting her daughters for the first time, one of which already old enough to inherit. There was a small boy that clung to one of Céline’s daughters, a boy who had the familiar blue eyes.
“Hello there,” Alear had said, crouching down. “I am the Divine Dragon, Alear. What’s your name?”
The boy had hesitated, glancing at his grandmother. Then his unsure expression turned to a bright smile as he declared that he was Alfred the Second, Prince of Fierene, and he was five years old.
Five years. Céline had a five year old grandson and Alear had not even seen her since Alfred’s funeral. How much time he had wasted lamenting over his long lifespan, how much time he had wasted when he should have been enjoying every day he was given for the miracle it was.
As difficult as it got some days, Alear opened his heart once more. He welcomed new friends to the Somniel, he found people he could speak to for hours under the stars, he even found someone who loved alpacas nearly as much as Amber had. It hurt to see the humans grow up and grow old so quickly but Alear kept their memories all the same, writing each of their names into his little book so that a piece of them might survive.
These new friends eventually started leaving too and Alear had almost let himself withdraw again. Veyle had held his hand then, promising him that it was worth the pain in order to experience the love of the next person who came to them.
Alear cherished his time with Veyle and when she came to him, claiming that she had found someone that she loved as dearly as he had loved Alfred, he had selfishly wanted her to stay. Veyle was the only one who would live as long as he did, Veyle was the only one to truely understand how temporary human lives were.
Alear had let her go as much as it broke his heart to do so because she was his little sister and she deserved the world.
She had had the courage to face him the day after she buried her new love after decades of being together. She had grown fond of the humans, choosing to live by their sides as Queen of Lythos like Lumera had once. She still felt like she needed to make amends for all the hurt she had caused but Alear had assured her that she was now as much as a Divine Dragon as Lumera had been, living solely in the service of the people of Elyos.
It would be difficult to lose her once more but he knew that they would still visit each other and he knew that Veyle at last had found where she belonged and for that he was glad.
Alear roamed the Somniel, taking in every piece of art, every little scuff and broken tile, every little piece of evidence of the people he had gotten to know, the people he had loved, the people he had lost. How long it had been since the war with Sombron, Alear did not know. He did not find himself thinking about the war in recent times, all of the people here spoke of it like ancient history.
It was history, Alear supposed, even if he still had letters from Alfred in a box alongside a embroidered piece of cloth that had long since fallen apart.
Taking the steps up to his room, Alear felt his legs move slowly. He enjoyed the walk, absorbing every little detail around him. The staircase had been replaced countless times by now, a slightly different wood each time, yet it may as well have been yesterday when he stood on these steps with Diamant, looking out to the dining hall below.
There was laughter echoing the walls, as there had been laughter all those centuries ago.
“Divine One!” One of them called. “Joining us for dinner?”
“Perhaps another time,” Alear told them. “But thank you all the same.”
Alear reached his room at last. The door had been replaced a few dozen times so he was careful in how he closed it, not wanting to disturb his companions down below. There was a sound at the door and Alear twisted around.
He half expected one of his current companions but all that was at the door was Sommie who promptly strolled in, the same goofy smile on its face as it always had, apparently not too annoyed that Alear had locked it out accidentally.
“Come here, old friend.” Alear said
Alear picked up Sommie, his joints protesting a little at Sommie’s weight. He was feeling tired, a deep tiredness that he had not felt in a long time. Setting Sommie onto the bed, Alear did not bother to change before he too laid down, giving off a content sigh as Sommie cuddled up close to him.
“You know,” Alear mumbled. “I am glad that you are here with me, old friend. You would think I would be ready, after all these years, but I was so scared that I would be alone. I guess, I never have been truely alone, have I? You have always been there, waiting. I’m sorry that I did not realise that until now.”
Sommie blinked its big black eyes and Alear laughed, patting Sommie on the head.
“Thank you, Sommie,” Alear said. “For everything.”
———————————————————————————————————————————
When the sun rose, Sommie still lay nestled in the crook of Alear’s arm, its head on his chest.
Alear had stopped moving a little while ago but Sommie could not bring itself to leave him just yet. It could almost fool itself into thinking that Alear was still here, that Alear would not leave it like all the others had over the millennia, that if Sommie just waited a little longer Alear’s heart would start beating again, that strong heart beat that Sommie always found itself listening to whenever they lay like this.
The strong heartbeat that had sounded like home.
Alear did not rise but Sommie stayed with him all the same, not wanting its old friend to be alone. He had been so brave for so long, so loving to all the humans around him for hundreds of generations. It was Alear’s time to rest and Sommie will miss him, just like how Sommie missed all those that came before.
Divine Dragons are not immortal.
It was a simple, indisputable, fact.
But Sommie is not a Divine Dragon.