There was a woman. She looked like Axel’s wife. Then she changed, and she didn’t anymore. She still looked beautiful though. She had golden hair, like gold that had been turned to fine thread. Her eyes were the same color, and mystical. Her eyes pulled him in, so much so that he almost missed the little patches of gold, orange, and red jewel-like stones beneath her eyes. They were like jewels, stuck to her skin. In the form of a sort of eyeshadow.

He was so enthralled however, that he did not care about them more than that. He decided to think of them as exotic jewelry, even though it was clear they were embedded in the skin.

The woman approached him, walking across the marble floor of the heavenly palace they stood inside. She was dressed in a gown of sunset red and yellows, and all over her were pieces of gold and silver jewelry. The jewelry pieces were set with all kinds of beautiful gems and precious things. Diamonds, rubies, pearls, beryl, red and yellow sapphires, and many others.

He did nothing, no, he could do nothing, as she reached and touched a hand to his cheek. She was just a bit taller than him, and stood with a regal poise that reminded him of the time he had met the Queen of Aericia - but this woman was many times more beautiful. In fact, he had only ever seen one person so alluring and divine. That had been the Paladin’s wife - the Lady Fallenstar, the fourth star, Eir. He had just caught a glimpse of her, and she had been like this, but with great silver feathered wings upon her back.

“Do you know who I am?” she said, and though she spoke softly her voice was powerful. “Do you know what I am?”

Axel did not need to think, and he did not think. Instead, he answered, almost as if it were an involuntary response. “You are Sitari, the sun. You are the second star, the angel of love, of passion, and of parenthood. You are she that created the dragons, and she that destroyed them. You bless the crops and bring the spring. ”

“Yes.” she said, and smiled upon him warmly. He felt overjoyed that she was pleased with him. He felt tears forming at his eyes. “Do you know why I am here?”

“No my lady, no I do not.” he replied.

“To tell you to go. To save you. But not just you. Convince the girl that she must leave. Let her go from this place. Your foe is too powerful for you both. I watched from the horizon, as I fell from the heavens, and I wished to warn you.” she said. “I must go now, for my time in the day is over. However, I shall be with you. Convince the girl. Convince her to leave. If you cannot get her to leave, you must do so by force. You must kill her.”

Axel listened carefully, and his mind did not waver when she issued the command. There was a small part of him, a logical part, that told him that the last thing she said it did not make sense with everything else she had just said, but the logical part did not win out. Soon, the edges of his vision became black, as he tried to nod and shout a reply. However, Sitari did not respond, and soon the whole of the vision had faded to darkness.

In the darkness he heard crying. It was a mournful wailing. It was terrible, like someone had just had a loved one or a dear pet die. He strained to open his eyes, and slowly but surely he did.

The world was white all around him, and lit by a flickering light. He was laying on his side, and when he was rolled over to look around he felt pain shoot from one of his arms. He looked down at it and noticed that it was wrapped up in a sling. Once he was on his other side, and no longer facing a wall of snow, he could see his surroundings.

He was inside of a small little cave of ice and snow. Inside of it, just a feet feet away, was Ezmeralda. She sat near a fire, and beside her was something mangled. For a moment, Axel thought it was some sort of animal, but a terrible realization hit him when he recognized the form as human. It was Rolf, laying in a pool of thick cold blood, and all his limbs in the wrong direction. Part of the him was burnt, and the sobbing he had heard was Ezmeralda crying over him.

Or rather, she was sobbing over a corpse. Axel new better than to think the boy was still alive.

“Ezmeralda.” he said, and she perked up momentarily.

“Are you- are you...are you alive?” she asked. Her face was contorted in sorrow, and tears streamed down from here eyes.

“Yes.” he said, and coughed as he did so. It was hard to speak, and his chest hurt. “What happened?”

“I- I stopped the avalanche.” she said. Then her words started to stutter so severely Axel could not understand her.

“Slow down.” he said.

“I tried to stop the avalanche, but the blast of my magic hit Rolf, and then he was scooped up by the snow. I stopped the worst of it form hitting you.” she said, forcing herself to speak deliberately and slowly.

“You...you stopped an avalanche?” he asked.

“Yes.” she replied, firmly.

“How?” he asked.

“Because I am blessed. I am exalted.” she said. Axel had heard those words before. They referred to individuals like the were beasts that answered to Rana, the moon, or to men like the Paladin. Many mythical creatures as well, such as the elves, vampires, dragons, and more.

“By whom.” he said.

“By Sitari.” Ezmeralda replied.

“How? Why?” he asked, as the vision he had just had flooded into his memory. Of course Stiari would be watching this girl, if this girl were one of her blessed children. So much also made sense now.. This was why she had not died in the cold. This was how she had recovered so fast. This was why she never really tired, but acted like it.

“Because one of her disgusting creatures, a dragon, killed my family. They destroyed everything I love. And she, who walks the earth like a human to this day, showed up to late to stop them.” Ezmeralda said. “She gave it to me as a payment, or rather, I tricked her into giving it.”

Tricked? Tricked a celestial, one of the divine? Impossible, and if so, terrible. Unforgivable. An undeserved anger began to build in Axel towards Ezmeralda, and he remembered the words of the sun goddess in his vision.

“A dragon? You’ve been taking us to fight a dragon?” he asked in disbelief. His mind was a fog between the words he was saying and the thoughts in his mind. The fact that Rolf was dead was still hitting him, and the sadness was starting to overtake all of his other thoughts. Still, Sitari’s words stayed in his mind.

“Yes. It probably caused this avalanche.” Ezmeralda said, as she tried to collect herself from crying.

“Why didn’t you tell us? Why didn’t you say anything? Why didn’t you call for help from the-”

“Do you think anyone would listen to me!?” she cried. Then her tone changed, and her face changed from contorted sadness to anger, and then back to sadness “And I didn’t want help. I didn’t want other people suffering and dying to this monster. I told you not to help me. I tried to get away from you! I even - I even tried to run away in the night, but Rolf got up and caught me. I - I told him I was just going to pee and then - and then I…and then I came back because I wanted to talk with him…I suppose he would have just tracked me down anyway, if I’d run. You all would probably think I got lost…he didn’t deserve this. He was trying to help me. He was trying to help me and got too close because of it.”

As the girl rambled, Axel became more angry. “This was about revenge, wasn’t it?! That is what all this was about?!”

“Of course!” she screamed. “Of course it was about revenge. I wanted to kill that monster with my own hands. To deal with it as it dealt with me! Otherwise it would just stay up in these mountains forever again, and then…and then someday it would kill the next person that bitch comes and gives her favor to.”

“What do you mean?” Axel asked, now confused. He was still angry, and Sitaris words were fresh in his mind, but he hesitated against acting on them. He wanted to kill Ezmeralda at this point. She had done a horrible evil in not telling them the truth, in holding back her secret just so that she alone would be able to exact revenge on this beast. If he had known, he would have sent word to Verum, and had an army of paladins, and their lord himself, come to the north.

At the same time, his wisdom overcame the drug like urge to hurt the girl, and the thought of what his daughter would think if her father became a man who had killed someone out of revenge ; stayed him form launching into an attack.

“Sitari, the sun.” Ezmeralda said. “She’s horrible, so horrible. She made these greedy jewel loving, trickster, murderous lizards. She gave them their fire and their illusions. She acts like its not her fault too. And these aren’t even the first. She made Sukarram what it is today. She almost caused the apocalypse because she was too afraid to kill her own children. Read it, its history. Her love is a fire, and it burns anyone who gets to close to it, and it has burnt this world.”

Axel paused. “Do they like jewelry, because she does?”

Ezmeralda’s tears stopped, and she raised an eyebrow at him. “She doesn’t where jewelry.”

“Really?” he asked, now confused, as he remembered the figure from his dream.

“They like gold and jewels because those things are closer to divinity, like their mother, posses divine aspects, and remind them of their mother’s brilliance. Its vanity too. The dragon that attacked my village had red scales, like rubies.” she said. “It is like a child putting on their parent’s clothes. Some dragons have other interests. Its just whatever they associate with riches, power, and the divine. Whatever flatters them.”

“Ezmeralda.” Axel said. “Can dragons change their form?”

Ezmeralda nodded quickly. “Yes. Their illusions are so powerful they become reality, and the give up their true form. Its called shying. It isn’t perfect though, there are always issues, like scaling patches, horns, wings. That sort of thing. Why are you asking these questions? Did you…did you see anything while you were out?”

Axel struggled to say what he said next, as if his mind had been swayed against talking about the vision. “Yes. I think, I think I did. I saw this beautiful golden haired woman. She was dressed in this fine gown.”

“That sounds like Sitari.” Ezmeralda said. “She has golden hair, and eyes. Did this person also have wings like sunset?”

Axel shook his head. “No. She wore all these jewels, and she-”

“That is the dragon.” Ezmeralda replied, curtly. “She’s trying to get inside your head. What did she do, tell you to kill me or something?”

“Yes.” Axel said, and he felt a tinge of pain as he did so. It must have been some sort of enchantment, he concluded, and fighting it had caused him to feel pain. After that though ,the thoughts and feelings he’d had disappeared, and it felt terrible to have even thought about hurting Ezmeralda.

“Well then, lets go and kill her.” Ezmeralda replied. Then with that, she turned and put her hand to the wall over their shelter, and began to melt her way out of the place.