A troubling discovery

POV Janara

'What an interesting dragon that one is.'

As I watched the others all fly away with their respective escorts all who was left in the massive arena was myself, Grandmother and the elder who conducted the trial.

I looked at my Grandmother before she said to me "Congratulations little one, you earned it."

"Really because I felt that my competitor did far better than myself." I replied

"That may be so but before the vote was ever carried out we had all telepathically decided that no matter how well Valorian did we would not vote to send him to his majesty. And it just so happened that you gave an excellent display of your worth so here you stand." The elder replied.

"Why would you intentionally have the vote almost go in his favor then?" I asked.

"It would seem quite suspicious if we reported no votes at all in favor of the holder of the mark of destruction, thus we made the tally seem that it was a close contest." Grandmother replied.

I didn't quite understand why they intentionally rigged the vote so that Valorian wouldn't meet his majesty but I could guess that it had something to do with the conversation that the elder and him had after he finished the first test. Clearly there was something that they knew that the younger dragons where not supposed to know yet.

"Ignatius we should not keep his majesty waiting" Grandmother said.

"Indeed the distance we must cover is quite large and our expected time of arrival is soon, Janara climb onto my palm I will carry you as to quicken our journey." The elder dragon named Ignatius said to me.

I nodded then made my way onto his massive hand and prepared myself for the journey ahead as well as my meeting with our mighty progenitor.

POV Valorian

As I flew I looked back at the quickly shrinking shape of the arena that the trial had taken place in, it was as beautiful as the first time I saw it.

As we were not pressed for time like before Grandmother was not flying as fast so I made my way to her side.

"Grandmother why do I get the feeling that the vote was rigged in Janara's favor?" I asked her although with the wind rushing by it seemed that she had no trouble hearing me as she quickly responded.

"That would be because it was."

"May I inquire as to why?" I responded

She scoffed then said "It should be obvious, it is because of the marks you possess. Do you really think that it would be a good idea for you to go and meet a dragon that once finding out about your mark of domination would most likely kill you on the spot?"

"Why would the progenitor wish to kill me because of the mark I possess?" I asked.

"You may not be aware of this but since your birth there have been rumors that his majesty's mark disappeared entirely. It seems to me and others who have heard this that the creator has deemed his leadership should we say lacking. As you know only one dragon is has ever been granted that mark and it seems now that whom ever holds it is meant to be our ruler. So of course he would immediately kill the new holder of it so that he might regain his authority."

After hearing this a sense of dread overcame me, if the other elders hadn't rigged the vote I would be going to my death right now. And I had thought that I was being scorned in some way, but in reality they saved my life.

"But will his majesty not find out about my existence and come for me?" I asked her.

"Of course in due time there is no preventing that all we could do for you is buy you time to grow. It may seem like we dragons are a monolith but in reality there are currently two factions, The Origin faction who think that the progenitor is our one true ruler and we all must follow his every command blindly like sheep, and the Vantor faction who seek to right the wrongs done to us by all."

Upon hearing this I was shocked "Why is a faction named after father?"

"Because it was created upon hearing of his death at the hand of the humans as a way to always remember what has been done to us. And the leader of this faction is your grandfather on your fathers side Carban. You are lucky that all the adult and elder dragons present at your trial are also apart of this faction, including myself, my mate and your mother of course."

"How wide spread is grandfathers support?" I asked wondering if we even stood a chance.

"I would estimate that about three quarters of all current adult dragons and about a third of the remaining elder dragons are on our side. But what is most important is you, our lack of action against the progenitor stems from one reason until you undo his commands using the mark of domination we are bound to inaction." Grandmother responded.

"How do I go about doing that?" I asked

"No one but the progenitor himself knows that answer to that question little one, it is something you must learn on your own." She responded.

I flew in silence for a while at her side contemplating what I had just been told before saying "I swear on the creator that I will find a way to wield this power."

"I hope you do, and soon or all of our fates are sealed." She said