Arad followed Kin through the castle halls. With each step, the walls changed. From exquisite marble to golden brown wood and then to pale gray stones with a musty smell in the air.

Arad looked around, his eyes stopping at Kin’s back, “You have a lair beneath the castle?”

Kin looked back with a smile, “I do. My sister has one as well.” She giggled, “We are living here, aren’t we?”

Arad nodded, “Two dragons living beneath the city. Even if someone attacked the city, they would be in for a nasty surprise.”

“Suprise?” She smiled, looking at Arad with a giggle, “There isn’t a need for me and my sister to fight. We aren’t the only dragons around here.”

“There are more?” Arad closed his eyes, sending his psychic energy across the whole castle and out to the city. He couldn’t find any other dragon.

“An ancient bronze dragon is living in the city as a beggar, a copper one working as a clown, and two silver ones working as healers. You would be hard-pressed to invade the capital without them raising hell,” Kin giggled, “Especially the bronze one, she has a nasty habit of throwing evil people and those who don’t give her coins when she begs into uninhabited islands to let them die slowly.”

“You serious?” Arad gasped staring at her, “Just for that?”

“Yes, just for that.” She smiled, “Last week she was kidnapped by a band of bandits to be sold as a slave. She freed everyone and threw the bandits on an isolated island. They are shouting for help in the sea now,”

“You metallic are weird,” Arad sighed.

“We’re better than the chromatic,” Kin stared back at Arad, “We aren’t living isolated in the forests and mountains and demanding sacrifices or stealing from travelers.”

Kin reached the stairs leading down to the basement, “This is the way. Stay close to me so the magic doesn’t reject you,”

Kin walked down the stairs and opened the old wooden door. It cried as its hinges were barely oiled, “Follow me,” Kin said walking inside, but soon stopped as she saw Arad standing by the door.

“What are you doing?” She asked.

Arad reached into his stomach and pulled a bottle of oil, “Oil your hinges. I’m sure Mira would be raging if she saw this,” He poured some at the door hinges and then swung the door to make sure it was silent.

“Good,” He smiled.

“You obsessed with repairs? I don’t know much about magic dragons’ habits.” Kin stared at him.

Arad shook his head, “I do know as much as you do, nothing,” He smiled, “I might have picked this from Mira as I said before.”

Kin smiled, “Well then, I have something big for you to eat, so follow me,”

As they walked inside, Arad could smell something sweet and fishy. “What is this?” He asked, staring into the darkness with a smile.

Kin lifted her hand, conjuring a ball of light and sending it toward the cavern ceiling.

In the middle of the stone chamber, Arad saw a large creature dead on the floor. A massive whale, fresh out of the sea.

“How did you get that here?” He smiled.

Kin pointed with her finger, “On the other side of the cavern there is an underground lake that leads directly to the sea. I usually swim out to hunt from there,”

Arad lunged forward, transforming into his draconic form and landing beside the whale.

Kin gasped, seeing how large Arad was, a bit bigger than half of her. That wasn’t the size of a young dragon, but that of a young adult. “Are you sure you’re only a young dragon?”

Arad turned his head. Staring at her, “I’m sure. I only hatched a few months ago, after all,”

Kin started sweating as she watched Arad devour the whale. ^This one might be a problem, growing so fast,^ She thought, glaring at Arad, ^Is it safer to kill him here before he becomes a threat?^ She pondered for a second before pushing the thought out of her head.

^No, using magic makes more sense,^ she smiled, closing her eyes as strands of white magic rushed from her hair.

Divination She closed her eyes, looking into the possible future. ^What if I killed him here and now?^

Kin’s eyes flashed open with a bright white light. She could see it, fragments in a future where she killed the dragon ahead of her.

She froze in place, seeing the capital flung across the sky by a violent tornado, a large void dragon chasing and erasing it with his breath. She and Gin lay dead, their draconic bodies gored and ripped apart by that dragon.

In the distant east, millions of titanic ants emerged from the ground, devouring Alina and marching forward, blindly eating and trampling everything in their path. 𝘦𝘯𝑜𝘷𝘦𝑙．𝑜𝑟𝘨

After days, the dragon and the storms ceased and calmed, but the ants didn’t. They devoured the whole kingdom and spread across the world, pushing everything to extinction. The gods didn’t have a void in that future. They abandoned this world.

GAH! Kin gasped, sitting on the ground. ^So much hangs on him. How?^ She stared at Arad, confused. How could the death of a single dragon signal the end of the world?

Arad looked back at her, “You okay? Your face turned pale.”

Kin stood, shaking her face, “Nothing. Do you need a second one?”

Arad stared at the half-eaten whale, “You have another?”

Kin smiled, “No, I will catch one,” She expanded her wings and flew into the dark cavern. Arad kept eating, he sensed her using magic, but since it wasn’t directed at him, he didn’t care what she did.

Kin flew across the darkness and shifted to her full draconic form. SPLASH! Plunging into the lake and swimming toward the sea, she thought about what her divination magic told her.

^That dragon, a void one like Arad, but he seemed much older. Most likely a sibling that hid in the city. I’m his first victim after I kill Arad. He killed me only one minute after Arad’s death. Sister Gin rushed to help. But she was gored and half-eaten alive.^

Kin growled, ^The wind spirit living with that elf felt Arad’s death and went into a mad rage. She first ripped the maids serving them lunch and then flew out of the castle, summoning a massive tornado to rip the capital apart. Her wind was strong enough to rip the castle and city from its roots and flung it above the clouds. Even if me and sister were there to fight her, we would have died in seconds,^ The rage of a spirit wasn’t something to scuff at. They are forces of nature of terrifying might.

“What about the ants? Those titanic beings weren’t normal,” Kin growled, quickly noticing, that those ants had draconic scales, black and dripping with Arad’s void. “Don’t tell me,” She glared back, “What kid mated with a giant ant queen? What kinds of horror did he unleash?”

Kin sighed, scratching her head, “This is the future that I managed to kill Arad in. How about the one I fight him, I want to see if I can even beat him,”

She closed her eyes as she swam across the water. A dragon of her age can’t help but plan ahead for anything. That is why she became a divination wizard.

Kin smiled, seeing herself striking Arad down, his bleeding body crashing onto the ground. She lands, and a pink spot emerges from his corpse. A humanoid woman looks like a pink-haired elf and glares at her with a smile.

“You’re watching through divination, maid,” Kin’s face paled as she heard those words. The pink-haired elf she sees through divination magic spoke to her. ^Wait, this isn’t a real future. How is she even speaking? She can’t be real.^ Divination magic only gives an estimate of the future. Whatever shows, it’s an illusion conjured by the complicated spells trying to predict it based on everything around the caster.

The pink-haired witch in the divination future laughed, “Your magic isn’t failing. I’m talking to you. Kin who swims across the sea.”

Kin stopped swimming, there was no mistake, this thing was speaking to her, aware of its nature as a mere prediction of the future.

“Who are you?”

Doma smiled, “A Divine the likes of you should be begging to learn from,” She lifted her hand, clenching it.

CRACK! Kin’s horn twisted and snapped violently as her screams shook the water. Doma laughed, “Next time you look into my or Arad’s future, I’m making you eat your sister alive in the city plaza.”

Doma’s laughter faded as Kin’s divination magic slowly dissolved. She sank to the bottom of the sea, feeling a hand clenched on her heart. A curse was placed upon her.

***

Several minutes later, Kin returned to Arad with another whale. Arad stared at her, noticing she was missing a horn.

“What happened?” He gasped. Something must have gone horribly wrong if a dragon like her got injured.

“It’s nothing important,” Kin shook her head, “I hit it on a sold rock, that’s all,” She sucked her horns back to her body, taking the shape of a normal human maid again.

Kin walked past Arad but felt the hand clenching on her heart and organs, fondling them like toys. ^You’re walking past me without an apology? Should I curse your sister as well?^ Doma giggled, her voice only reaching Kin.

Kin froze in place, ^Sorry, won’t happen again,^

^Hehe…^ Doma giggled in Kin’s head, ^Just so you know. Arad is my dear, darling, loving husband. Lay as much as a talon on him, and I will curse you and the whole world to oblivion.^

It was then that Kin understood why the gods abandoned the world in her first premonition. This witch must have cursed the whole world, spiraling it out of the god’s favor. Just, what is she?