Chapter 7 - Leaving Thelessia
"Am I a Ghost?"

The villagers saw the mercenary company still strutting around earlier and a few tried to go find the Dragon Hunters, but they were stopped by the company. When the company went back into the vacant house, they tried again, but a voice in their minds would stop them with a warning.

It was such a beautiful voice, such that they'd never heard before, but with the coldest words. <Leave this village at your own risk,> she said. Afraid of the voice that came from nowhere, the backward and ignorant villagers were too afraid to leave the village.

Some began to gather in the village square to discuss what was going on. "D'yer reckon we's 'onted?" asked one village woman to another.

The other village woman shivered. "What else can it be?" she wondered and made a superstitious hand gesture to ward off evil.

Laughter filtered through the minds of all the villagers. <Am I a ghost? Come to the square to see if I'm a ghost or not,> the cool, female voice said tauntingly.

Instead of coming to the square, those still in the square exclaimed in fear and ran into their houses. The sounds of doors and windows being barricaded.

The voice laughed at them again. <Think that will help?> it taunted them again. <Do you want me to go away?> she asked. 

The sounds of barricading paused, but then resumed again, even more urgently. 

Chrystianna snorted as she walked into the square. <Bring me whatever you were bribed with to set up the company,> she ordered them. The only answer was more barricading. <I'll give you ten minutes,> she warned coldly.

She pulled an ornate chair out of her storage space. Unlike her daughter who liked making clothes the medium, hers was usually a ring, easily worn on a finger. She sat down and fluffed her skirt and waited regally. She knew some of the villagers were peeking at her watching everything.

They were afraid, but from what they could see she was just a slender woman. Ethereal and beautiful, but still just a woman. Not a ghost. Even though she could somehow speak in their minds, they didn't think she could hurt them in any way.

Chrystianna pulled a briskberry tart out of her space. Briskberries were native to Thelessia, not found on Emphyralis, but they were delicious. Britiana had already collected seeds to be cultivated on Emphyralis when they returned, as well as many other varieties of plants. Chrystianna sighed, missing the days when the Dragon Gate Network didn't need to be destroyed, and they could still trade with other worlds.

She finished off the tart while reminiscing. She dusted the crumbs off her hands and pulled a handkerchief out to dab daintily at her mouth. <Time's up,> she said playfully.

She stood and smoothed her skirts and put away her chair. She began to change shape. Growing silver scales, leathery wings sprouting from her back, her body growing and elongating, turning into a beautifully majestic Silver Dragon. As a Dragon just over a century old, she was larger than the young Dragons in their twenties, about twenty-five feet high and forty-eight feet long. She roared, then took a deep breath and spit out a silverish ball of psionic energy at the empty town hall and it exploded.