The Silver Reckoning

Chapter 43: The Greatest Sacrifice

The broken city was completely silent. The dust had settled along miles upon miles of ruin. Rays of sunshine were beaming down from the steadily disappearing clouds. The day was almost done, and so was the battle that had been fought. Any remaining dragons had long since disappeared, except the thousand or so that had fought for Sky Mountain. They were now slowly making their way into the city.

There was one building still standing amidst it all. A high skyscraper with many shattered glass windows, but mostly still intact. On top of it was the Machine, the bright white light shining from it, begging to be let out. Its power was causing shimmers to run through the air at every moment. There were many murmurs from the surrounding dragons as they saw it still there, and still very much working.

Silver was sitting on a large piece of what had once been a wall. Her wings were drooped by her side and her tail limply hanging over the edge of the rubble. Everything was hurting, and the exhaustion that she had tried so hard to fight off was now running through her body. It was an effort to keep her eyes open. But it was just for a little longer. Soon she would have all the sleep she would ever need.

She thought she would be afraid of death, but as she currently was it seemed almost appealing. An eternal sleep was just what she felt as though she needed. There would be no more nightmares or rough nights. All the pain would simply vanish. Depending on how it worked she would even get to see her parents again, and even Raize. She smiled softly at the thought.

"Silver!" the familiar voice of her remaining brother rung through the air.

She looked upwards at a group of approaching dragons and sighed softly, wondering how they would take the news. They circled around her for a moment before coming in to a landing. Blaze immediately rushed forward and embraced his sister in a hug, causing her to grunt softly in pain. He immediately backed off.

"Sorry," he said with a grin.

"Don't be," she replied, surprised at how difficult it was to even get those words out, "I'm glad you're alive as well. All of you."

Retrix came forward and lightly nuzzled her neck, and she rumbled softly, nearly falling into him, but she stopped herself short, knowing that if she did she would probably fall asleep. There was time for that later.

"What happened?" he asked, "Where's Eldawin?"

Silver nodded her head toward the small little dip in the rubble behind them. They looked, seeing the body of the mind dragon. A few of them murmured in surprise, looking back at her.

"You killed him?" Tyler said.

"I didn't want to," she admitted softly, "But he said some things that, well, made me realise that if I did leave him alive, it would endanger everyone else. I couldn't let that happen."

"But Silver... the Machine," said Liam.

"Don't worry," she sighed, "I've know how to stop it. By the way Eldawin reacted, I'm confident it'll work."

There were a few relieved sighs from amongst them, though Tyler still seemed confused. He had thought threw everything, and there was no way in his mind they could stop it. Well, no way they had currently with them for immediate use. Sure, if they had a week or so he might be able to come up with something, but they didn't have a week.

"How long until it goes off Tyler?" asked the silver dragon tiredly.

"Aah... maybe an hour. Two if we're lucky," he responded.

"So we have a little bit of time," the dragoness murmured in relief.

"Wh... what is your idea?" it was Zepos that spoke this time, seeming a little shaken, as if he somehow knew what she was going to say.