The Dragon King's Substitute Bride (Morgan and Tsuneo)

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Tsunco

Morgan....

She wasn't born of water, but what did I know about her human rebirth?

I heard a young woman scream and turned my attention back to the vision I was getting.

Ari was the girl's name. She looked young in the vision, yet I knew from Tsuneo's memories that she looked no different now, and she wasn't that young in the vision. I got a flicker of irritation that died out as the rest of the vision came to me. Ari sneered cruelly down at a younger woman. Her hand was raised high, and then she struck the girl hard across the face. Anya's s eyes were filled with fear. She scrambled to get away, but Ari grabbed her by her hair and pulled her back, screeching something I didn't care to make out. The vision was brief, but I could see the blood on the wall. The sorrow and the bloodied cloth. I could see Anya, now covered from head to toe, drifting through the castle like a ghost..

It was enough to make my blood boil. My wife would not be happy about that, but the rest of the visions that followed weren't much better. A wave of anger surged through me. Who the hell gave her the right to act like that? There was no way that Hayato knew about Ari's behavior toward the

staff.

It didn't matter. I'd deal with her. I could see her slumped in the darkness of an underground cell, but that wasn't good enough for me.

She'd

pay

in blood soon enough. I grinned. I'd have to do it before Morgan woke up to maximize

the justice to be done.

The darkness that I've been in this corner was gone. So I continued on the rest of the garden, taking note of all the horrible things that had been done in the palace, tainting our home.

I went back to the pool, frowning down at her. It was too much to do all of it before she woke up.

"Would you rather us clean your garden or clean house first?"

Morgan

I drifted through a haze of consciousness, my mind a swirling vortex of images and sensations. It was as if I were watching a play, each scene was more haunting and terrible than before. I saw a young girl. She looked nothing like me, but I knew somehow that she was me. She was covered in decorative paint and trapped in a burning building. The flames licked at our heels, the heat seared

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my skin. I screamed, my voice lost in the roar of the fire. I felt my chest seizing from the heat and the lack of air. And then, darkness and swirling clouds. I heard laughter, jumping between the clouds.

I flew forward, reaching for whoever it was. My eyes were stinging. Then, I was charging into

with battle. A tide of warriors came down a hill at me. Magic flashed through the air, a man fearsome amber eyes like a cat sat astride a horse at the top of the hill.

I was a warrior, sword in hand and heart racing in my chest as they came. I swung. I fought. I charged and slaughtered as many as I could manage, but the enemy was too strong. A volley of arrows launched into the air, blotting out the sun. I shoved a young man behind a rock, and threw him my

my shield. He screamed in protest, but it was too late.

The pain hit me in the chest-my leg, my neck and dragged me back into the darkness and swirling clouds.

I felt myself tumbling though the air. Falling, flying, somewhere and I flailed. I didn't want to see it again. I didn't want to even believe that there was another memory, yet as I fell, I could hear the hundreds of visions barely hiding in the clouds around me.

I landed in the body of a prisoner chained to a wall. My whole body ached. I could tell from my thin wrists that I had been starved. The bruises meant I had been beaten. There was a deep, throbbing ache that I didn't want to think about. My body was weak, my spirit broken. I closed my eyes, feeling my body starting to slip and float off into unconsciousness.

"Stop!" I yelled, flailing through the clouds. "If you can hear me, please stop!"

But no one answered. I landed in a raging river, small and flailing. I was no more than a child. People stood on the banks lodging in. But I didn't call Ottawa. They were disappointed. They were just watching me die.

No... They'd thrown me in. I heard chanting as I was swept past a woman sitting on a rock. Her eyes were a deep black and unnatural. She was hunched over with a large tortoise shell on her

back.

The current pulled me under, the water closing over my head. I struggled, I fought, but it was no use. I was drowning, sinking deeper and deeper into the abyss.

And then, there was darkness.

The visions were endless, and in each one I died miserably, every death worse than the last in some ways. I wanted to scream, to wake up, to escape this nightmare. But I was trapped in the swirling clouds full of memories.

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Memories.

Suddenly, I stopped flying through the clouds and stopped in place. I landed, standing on a cliff overlooking a vast, endless sea. The wind whipped through my hair. The air was filled with a sense. of peace. Above me were the gathering clouds filled with memories.

And then, there was light. A blinding light that filled my vision, erasing everything. A tiny flame, at spark of light in the darkness, appeared. I heard the clashing of claws. Snarling beasts fighting nearby. Their claws made sparks that caught in a pool of blood. I emerged from the low flame. I saw the world as it was then: a realm trenched in war. The celestial and human realms existed side by side, their boundaries blurred, their energies intertwined, flowing freely between each side.

But then, I saw the darkness creeping in, a shadow that threatened to consume everything. It grew deeper and darker as I turned my gaze toward the sound of the fighting. The fire in me grew brighter, stronger.

I watched the black dragon and the white tiger circling each other, snarling, snapping. The blue tortoise sat to one side, calmly watching the fight, mindless of the danger. Its beady eyes reminded me of that old woman watching me be swept away.

A bystander more invested in the fight than in the resolution.

I felt a surge of anger. I rose up, casting my light over the darkness, cutting through the darkness, The three creatures turned to look at me. I swooped down, circling the battleground. My flames burned, the blood split, and the ripped fur, turning it to lush green. The tortoise meandered on, crawling back beneath the waves that roared and searched at the shore. The Seas rose, and I not longer sell it. The tiger slunk away as the foliage grew, disappearing into the green lushness. It

black dragon.

cast one look back at me, covetous but conniving, as I landed in front of the ??

Then, it was just us.

"Do you understand?"