When all hope felt lost, a glimmering green beam of light shattered the hopeless silence. It went straight through Emerald. Not only did it go clear through Emerald, his crystal body began to crack and shatter as the massive, monstrous Dragon before them shattered into millions of crystal shards. Then there she was, Ozma. When Maya and Lee turned to look at her, they were shocked to see that she was sitting on a paper crane. Not just any crane, but Ensley's, who was sitting on the crane right beside her. They help Maya and Lee get on the crane. Ensley then landed it on the streets of the Emerald City. 

"Today, I would like to bestow the greatest honor on these two heroes for freeing us from the wicked Dragon Emerald," Ozma said cheerfully, raising Maya and Lee's arms in the air.

Maya and Lee were understandably quite confused about what happened. They definitely wanted questions from Ensley. Especially because they were partially directly responsible for what happened. Something Maya noticed, though, was that Ensley, despite still being cut severely, immediately rushed to help the people in the crowd who were injured. She began to put the pieces together that whatever loyalty Ensley had to the Ark dragons was paper-thin. Lee, on the other hand, got angry because he assumed that Ensley was pretending to care to reduce blame. In fact, he was so convinced of this that he went to confront Ensley, but one stern look from Ozma told him to back off. Maya grabbed his shoulder.

" Lee, I'm pretty sure they are being genuine. The reason I am sure is that no one that's truly selfish would willingly help other people, well, there are crystal shards still lodged in their arms." Maya whispered to Lee.

They both decided to celebrate with the citizens and talk with Ensley later. They enjoyed the festivities, and it started to get dark. They learned from an offhanded comment that Ensley was treating people at the medical tents that were created to treat people's wounds. When they entered, they saw a doctor removing the crystal shards from Ensley's arms and legs. They waited for them to be completely removed. They heard the doctor making an offhand comment about how Ensley needed to prioritize their own health before helping other people more. They walked out of earshot of the doctor to start interrogating Ensley on what actually happened.

"We have a few questions for you. If you do not mind?" Lee said.

"I definitely expected them," Ensley said we're looking at the floor.

"Why did you work for the Ark dragons?" Lee said with a slight impatience in his tone.

"I have always worked for Eadaoin, even before they were an Ark dragon. In fact, I used to be one of their servants during the first cycle. I used to be really loyal to them up until they started working with the others. I was never told about the pack, which is why, during the fourth cycle, I tried to absorb all of the Arc shards and made a wish on them." Ensley said softly.

"I SORRY WHAT?!?" Maya interjected.

"That is a very big deal if you're telling the truth, because from our knowledge, no one else other than the Ark dragons had the shards. How does this relate to why you were working with the ark dragons? It sounds like you have fought them in the past. Please don't tell me you rejoined with them just because of Eadaoin." Lee said in shock.

"My wish on the ark shards was the first of many people that acquired them, other than the ark dragons. Whenever that happens, we create a new reality and create a new realm. When I did it, I created the Dream Realm. This, of course, scared them greatly, which is why every time they have a different person use the arc shards, they are forced to become members of the Celestial Council to essentially keep them close."

"You ARE JOKING, RIGHT?" Maya said, shaking Ensley violently.

"Maya, please stop shaking Ensley," Lee said.

"Okay," Maya replied.

"If I can ask, how do they control the members of the Celestial Council, then? Everything you have said so far implies that something was preventing you from going against them, and now you suddenly can. I want to know what that is because I still don't fully trust you." Lee said.

"They control us because each Ark dragon has a different shard that they attuned to, and whatever shard we most align with is the one we mainly use to rewrite reality. This means that they understand how to defeat people who have taken the shards. They also use that knowledge to bind us to contracts with the shards themselves. They use their longer time with the magical essence that gives them power to quite literally tear us from the inside out with magic. Even though I was close with Eadaoin, that does not change the fact that I did try and take out the other two Ark dragons at that time. They forced Eadaoin to force me on your contract, curse me, and remove most of my power. Mind you, I did all that damage with only three shards. Due to our contract, if Eadaoin abandons me, are contract is broken. So now I can do partially what I want, but it didn't remove the curse. I am not actually a dragon; the curse made me one." Ensley said.

Both went deathly quiet after this in shock. Before leaving, Ensley silently handed them records on the Ark dragons' next plans.