The Interim: After the Hypnos Scandal, Before the Fracture
A Summary of What Follows...
After the Hypnos Scandal, occurring during the Year of Growth in the Cycle of Acolytes, tore the Clarus Clan apart, they struggled through a slow recovery. Leadership passed from grandmother to granddaughter while the daughter, the cause of all the Clan’s strife, was imprisoned deep within the Willow’s roots.
Clarity returned to the Clan, and they followed Aria and the three Clarus Councils into a new era. It was a time of peace, of joy and love - and it would not last long.
Soon enough, throughout the Cycle of Goblins, dragons began to disappear from the Clan territory without a trace, one after another - this included Nighttide, Siera, Talisa, Kelp and Nagi. Others in the Clan were uneasy about these disappearances, and several dragons were no longer comfortable living by the Willow. Paratu, Maganda and Tethys all left the Clan at this time, moving on to other parts of Sorneith.
With the absence of several important Clan members - including one of the Willow’s Guardians, several guards, and the caretaker of the nursery, security in the Clan was weak. The new matriarch, Aria, rallied her dragons in the hopes of stopping these disappearances, and a few new dragons joined the Clan in order to, as Aria claimed, help protect the lair.
One dragon in particular is key here. Nighttide’s daughter, Carina, took over her mother’s duties in the nursery (although she was not as kind to the hatchlings as Nighttide was) and even transformed from a soft-skinned Tundra to a fierce Mirror in order to better protect her Clan. She refused to allow more dragons to disappear - to be taken - as her mother was. Over time, Carina slowly realized what had caused the earlier disappearances, and who - no, what - many new dragons to the Clan really were. Non-Dragons. Fair Folk. Fey. Sidhe. Imposters.
The Clan did not listen to Carina at first. She was loud and aggravating, and a threat to the unsteady peace which Aria was hoping to maintain. Carina nearly refused to care for a few hatchlings placed in her care, because they were of some strange creed but Aria was not lenient to Carina’s temper-tantrums.
It wasn’t until a year or so later, in the Year of Gales, when the Sidhe made themselves known to the whole Clan - confirming what Carina had been saying this whole time. She roared and raged, spouting hate: You can’t trust these creatures! They are selfish and cruel! They will kill us all! However, the leader of the Sidhe promised Aria they meant no harm, only wishing for a home by the Willow, which had called out to them.
After several day’s conference, the Sidhe promised that no more dragons would disappear to make room for the faeries. There was no way for the missing dragons to return from wherever the Sidhe had taken them, but there would also be no new Sidhe joining the Clan beneath the Willow. The dragons agreed to this, and the Treaty of the Sidhe was signed before the season was out.
It seemed the Clan could move forward with peace between the dragons and the non-dragon... until, at the end of the Year of Gales, more dragons began to disappear. The Clan was in an uproar, and Carina was too angry to say “I told you so!” The faeries insisted they had no hand in this foul play, but Aria was insistent that faeries were at fault here - the disappearances were the same as before. The Treaty was in tact, the Sidhe leader promised, but it was possible a stranger was the culprit; although, many faeries in the Clan were confused, for they had not noticed strange Sidhe passing by the territory. Still, the disappearances continued, and the dragons in the Clan grew distrustful and wary of their non-draconic Clanmates.
The dragons who disappeared this time include: Arista, Marcel, Ves, Etna, Alice, Emelin, Swiftstrike, Allora, Majestas, Castor, Pollux, Dosa, Sunship.
The Clan was struck down at the loss of their healer, Marcel. This was the second healer the Clan had lost since they had been founded.
When Dosa disappeared, Sonnai fell into disarray - she had lost not only her Charge, but also her unrequited love, one whom she had never even spoken to before. Now she never would. Nothing would bring Sonnai back to light and happiness...
And when Sunship disappeared - inside the dreams of his mate, the dream-catcher Jassu - Jassu was devastated. Jassu blamed himself, for how could he know what truly happened? That a spirit deep underground was awakening, and disrupting the lives and dreams of the dragons who lived above it... That the disappearance of Sunship’s soul into the dreamworld - a disappearance which was unlike the others, but still related to the power of the Sidhe - would mean Jassu could only ever see his partner again while asleep, and even then, Sunship would be forever changed...
Arvale, Pascal and Minato all left the Clan due to the tension in the Clan, and in Arvale’s case, heartbreak at losing his mate Arista. Minato, a Sidhe himself, was growing weary with the happenings of this Clan whom he had adopted for a short while. For him, it was time to move on to different streams, and so he flowed down the Gladeveins to find a new home.
The Clan was falling apart.
And soon, they would know why - for it was nearing the end of the Cycle of Goblins, and the Year of Tides was upon the Clan. Two full cycles since the Clan had been founded, two full cycles as the Willow grew with Ashlesha’s careful guidance, and two full cycles since the dragons had settled beneath the Willow.
Two full cycles during which the Clan had never known this truth - there was a spirit in the Willow beneath which they lived, and this spirit had been trapped by the Clan, a prisoner, a slave. The Willow was Ashlesha’s Charge, but the same Guardian magic which helped shape their home tree also kept the spirit from ever living freely.
And finally, she had fed on enough dragon energy to break free. There was only one dragon who knew this truth, and unfortunately for the others, she was a prisoner herself, in the roots beneath the Willow... and, regardless, Adagio had no desire to help her birth Clan.
When the spirit escaped her bitter bastille of bark, the camp exploded into an unbidden battle. Earth erupted as roots sprang from the ground, out of Ashlesha’s control, strangling dragons all around. Branches blazed with a power that had been dormant for far too long. Fronds whipped through the air and left bloody streaks on the hides of the dragons, caught off guard by this attack.
When the Sidhe who had been living in this Clan saw what happened, they immediately understood: The Willow had called them forth from the far reaches of Sorneith and beyond. The Willow had drawn them to this corner of Sorneith, to gather together. The Willow needed their support to free herself, and the faeries - who had once promised peace to the dragons - would fight on her behalf, because she was of their ilk. And the Willow was the one responsible for the disappearances which had broken the Treaty.
The Fair Folk could not continue their peace with the dragons knowing that she was their prisoner, even though the Clan had no idea of her existence. The Willow called for violence and vengeance, and the other faeries would give it to her because, even dormant, her power was much stronger than many of theirs, filled with her element and her rage.
Some faeries, like the chaotic Iele, enjoyed the battle against the dragons. Any chance to cause destruction, even against those whom she had once called family. Others felt guilty at such betrayal, but they could not ignore the call of their kind.
The battle was ugly, and the dragons who lost their lives in this event were many: Marcus, Aurora, Tzarel, Aquarelle, Tana, Opalina, Aurel, Caspian, Berem, Kage and his mate Midnight, and even Ashlesha. Marcus, the Clan’s ambassador and a strong root of the Clan’s foundation, also lost his life to the vicious faeries. The Clan’s secretary, Aurora, was not made for battle - although she defended her home even with her last breath. Tzarel and Opalina died side by side, fighting together until the end. Berem was filled with the grief he carried from his father’s disappearance, and with the strength of all the Striders in the Labyrinth, but even he fell victim to the violence of the faeries. Kage and Midnight were killed unjustly, for they were visitors to the Clan, where they laid a clutch of one single egg... an egg left behind in the fury of the battle.
Ashlesha was killed by his own Charge, strangled to death by the Willow. It was at this moment when Aria called for the Clan to retreat - even as Sonata and Dusk cried with pain to see their oldest friend fall - fleeing from a battle they could not win, from the only home many of them had ever known.
From then on, the future of the Clan was rocky and uncertain.
From Neva’s archival records:
Cycle of Goblins, Year of Tides, 8th of the Plaguebringer's Dominance Let it be known that on this day in the North of Sorneith, deep within the Gladeveins of the Western Labyrinth, the Clarus Clan has Fallen to the tides of the Sidhe.
May you go with clarity.
@jadedragons @glowing-globe-fr @clan-dark-woods @serthis-archivist @fr-crobbin @hyracia @ashpinewidow @fletcher-fr (if you’d like to be added or removed from this pinglist, please let me know! thanks for reading! <3)
