A veil of sadness passed over Akenothustar's face. Her fierce and determined eyes seemed to tremble as if they were about to cry. "We have looked to the future... and we discovered that we will lose. All our attempts will fail. All our resistance thus far will have been in vain. In one last great battle, the gods will utterly annihilate the dragonfolk and all the peoples who still follow us, and then they will remain the only rulers of the world. It will be the beginning of a dark age dominated by wars and massacres; when the gods no longer have a common enemy, they will divide and fight between them as hungry wolves desperately trying to snatch as much food as possible from a carcass. But they won't fight, they will make their followers fight. This world will become their playground. Through their followers, the gods will lead entire nations in continuous wars, they will cause riots, they will massacre and enslave entire peoples; innumerable fanatics will rise up and carry out the worst cruelties in their name, and they will stand by and watch, since it can matter little to them whether people suffer or what is right and wrong. Some of them will hide behind false promises, posing as good and kind entities, while others will reveal their true character without restrictions with evil and selfishness. The world will be continually divided by a continuous fratricidal war between newcomers with the sole purpose of procuring as much faith as possible for these filthy and cruel entities. Progress will be extremely slow, art will be forgotten, and peoples will divide and begin to hate each other. Humans will fight against beastmen, ogres against fairies, orcs against trolls, and all these peoples will even fight their own race, until it comes to the point where a brother fights his own brother. The gods will dominate this world for thousands of years, until in their thirst for power and hunger for faith they will bring it to a new destruction. And there is nothing that neither I nor Henochar nor all our allied dragons, gods and newcomers can do to stop this horrible future. It was written in destiny that we will lose this war"
Akenothustar grit his teeth in anguish. It seemed that what he was saying was costing him a lot; after all, he was admitting that he was soon to die, and death was not easily accepted by anyone. But suddenly, the dragon's eyes regained their light, and a mischievous smile formed on his face. "But we dragons bow to no one, not even destiny, and I will not let our kind come to its end like this, nor that the newcomers have to suffer this horrible fate. I cannot avoid this final battle, where I will die... but I can make sure that after this battle fate moves in the right direction to allow a new rebirth" he said. "You must know that time isn't like a river, always flowing in the same direction; rather it is like a jet of water shot into the midst of a myriad of interconnected canals, and depending on which of them you open, destiny will move in a certain direction. This is what Henochar and I plan to do: open the right channels by creating certain conditions in our time, which will combine over the ages to come to your time in the way we originally planned. First, the final battle will not be as bloody and destructive as we predicted: I will only bring a small fraction of the Nine Armies into this fight. All the other peoples under my command will be sent by me elsewhere, to places hidden under the surface of the world, just like the one where you are now. By doing so, they will survive and retain the knowledge of our perfect civilization, at least in part, for you who have arrived now to put to good use. And the young dragons who remain in our ranks will too be sent away; I directed them to different territories around the world, away from civilization, so they can hide as long as possible. And finally, Henochar and I, with a powerful spell based on divine power, will make all these people invisible in the eyes of the gods. They can never find them, unless some of their followers discover them... but we have already ascertained, by peering into the future, that the gods will soon retire to their divine kingdoms and will seldom manifest themselves again on this world, and that they will never they will almost never talk to their followers, therefore keeping these people safe. For added security, these tablets contain a special spell that will forever prevent our fellow peoples from telling anyone about what really happened, so they won't even be tempted to reveal it to the wrong people and remain protected. The gods obviously know my identity, as well as that of the most powerful dragons before me, and the generals of the newcomers who follow me, so we will not be able to hide, or the gods will never stop hunting us and will have a better chance of discovering all those we have secured; therefore, we will fight the last battle. We will die. We have already accepted our fate. None of us aim to die, but we know there is no other way to protect everyone, and we are happy to save their lives by sacrificing our own"
Akenothustar's smile widened. It almost looked like he was mocking the gods. "With our death the gods will think they have eliminated us, and will finally abandon this world, not before having erased every trace of our perfect civilization from the minds of the newcomers. They will not have to work very hard: we have already destroyed almost every trace we have left, because we refuse to leave even the smallest trace of knowledge to those usurpers, and we have kept all our knowledge in books destined to last forever: these tablets you see. Each of the nine peoples who have remained faithful to us has a copy, and on each of them science, magic, agriculture, art, architecture, farming, biology, philosophy, music, and everything needed to rebuild a civilization are illustrated. They aren't all put together, of course: in the unlikely event that the gods managed to discover one of the peoples loyal to us, we have divided our knowledge into nine parts, each kept by a different people in the places where they are now hiding. What you have found now is only the first, and already in it you will find a lot of useful information, as well as fragments of a series of actions that you will have to take to ensure that the usurpers are defeated and that our perfect civilization can be resurrected. Having left this map behind us and hiding our followers, my comrades and I can now die happy. After we are dead will end what in your time is remembered as the Age of the Gods, which the newcomers will be forced to remember as the time when the gods descended on this world to give it life again and create the new races; a lie that unfortunately will become history. After that the gods will retreat and there will be five thousand years of barbarism, and then will come the Age of the Elves, and then… well, you know, it's your history after all. However, I imagine you may have noticed a flaw in our plan: even if we created a map to reconstruct our past and create a new future, who will this map be addressed to? Well... all we have to do is create the conditions necessary for a receiving to be born"
A map of the continent appeared in Akenothustar's palm, showing the places where several dragons had hidden. "As I told you, time is like a canal with several outlets, and you just need to open the right ones to make the water move in the direction you want and allow certain events... even create new life. The ones you are seeing now they are your ancestors, Henochar and I have directed them to certain territories by which location they will have a better chance to meet and mate. Although the dragons due to the horrific conditions created by the gods will sink into complete bestiality and forget our past , becoming ferocious and insensitive, their instinct to mate will in any case force them to generate offspring. From these unions, other ancestors of yours will be born, who always thanks to the geographical position and the movement of peoples that will occur, will insidate themselves in certain territories and will generate other dragons, who in turn will position themselves in the predicted areas… until, twenty thousand years in the future, a pair of dragons will meet. The female will be named Neytiri, and the male will be named Kalos, and seventeen new dragons will be born from them. Seventeen new dragons that will be destined to change history"
Haku's heart skipped a beat when he realized that Akenothustar was talking about him and his siblings. His parents had met by the will of this ancient dragon. He and his siblings were born by the will of this ancient dragon. His sisters, his brothers, his very existence: he owed everything to that gigantic being who was now speaking to him through a memory recorded on magic tablets twenty thousand years ago. If Akenothustar had done nothing... perhaps his parents would never have met. Perhaps his grandparents would never have met. Perhaps his earliest ancestors would never have met. Without Akenothustar... he and his siblings might never have been born. This awareness created a strange feeling of gratitude in Haku's heart, a gratitude he had never felt before that moment; he couldn't help but thank that dragon who, even if indirectly, had allowed them to exist. But... why them? Why them, and not thousands of other dragons that could be born in their place as a result of various combinations of unions between the various dragons that Akenothustar had saved during his time? Why had he chosen to allow them to exist, and not all the others?
"I know you have your doubts, all of you. Why did I choose you, you ask? Well… because I've looked at all possible futures, and they all show dragons decaying into a hideous, bestial state, reduced to little more than animals... but in all these futures, only a single litter of seventeen young dragons has been able to remember the importance of family. Only you have maintained the bond that unites you despite the horrific conditions into which you were born. you bowed to your mother's rules, you didn't let your father kill you, and then you faced the dangers of this world together. Despite the misunderstandings, difficulties and quarrels, your family has remained united. This is something that no other family of dragons has ever been able to do in all the futures I've seen. Not only that, you've also befriended newcomers, and even attempted to create a community where dragons and newcomers could live together. For this I am convinced that you were the right ones to receive the ancient knowledge of us dragons, and I am convinced that you will be able to rebuild our civilization and definitively defeat the usurpers, freeing the newcomers from their yoke and creating a new world where finally peace reigns. That's why I made sure to leave traces of our past on what I knew your path would be, and I directed the people of the arachnes here in the Yuthia Desert, to the same place where my mother sheltered us many millennia ago, so that you could find these tablets and discover your heritage. My friend Henochar will watch over you: unlike the other gods, your existence will not be precluded from him since he has contributed to the spell that at this moment makes you invisible to their eyes, and he will ensure that you are born and that go in the right direction. He won't be able to intervene directly, as this would attract the attention of the other gods... but I'm sure he will find a way to get his messages to you. And so you will come here, and you will find these first tablets; and now that you have activated this recording, Haku, you have become their new master, and therefore the knowledge contained in them will be accessible to you whenever you want. You can also undo the spell that prevents the arachnes from speaking about these things if you want, just wish it and order it from these tablets, which are the very source of the spell. Once you have obtained all the knowledge they contain, another memory like this will be activated and will direct you to the next place where you will find more tablets like these, and over time, you will all piece together the puzzle and fully know your own. inheritance. It will then be up to you to rebuild our world and defeat the gods"
Akenothustar laughed proudly. "As for me, don't worry: the gods will not be able to destroy my pride. Henochar and I have agreed to one last duel, and this time he will kill me. The gods will never defeat me: I am the one who chose how to die, and my best friend will grant my wish. Even in death, I will scoff at them" he said, then he let out a deep sigh. "And I have no worries for the future. Rhaegal, Darbi, Finiar, Maleficial, Corgorin, Serengal, Sisna, Malchia, Kotaru, Tikka, Teramon, Maldor, Glausar, Jatara, Keita, Kialandì… I know the world is in good hands now that you've been born. Each of you will play a key role in defeating the usurpers, even if you don't understand it yet. And above all you, Haku, the one who will inherit the title of king of all dragons... you will have the most important role, which you are already partially fulfilling now. I can only tell you this: trust yourself and follow your heart, and don't forget that you are dragons, and dragons don't kneel to anyone, least of all to false and liar gods. I know that this task I am giving you is frightening and difficult, and that you will often wish you could let it go... but I have faith in you, and I don't need to look into the future to know that you will succeed. Those few moments that I have already observed are enough for me to understand that nothing can ever defeat you, because those who are able to remember the importance of the family even in the most difficult moment of our history cannot know defeat. Those who haven't given up even in the face of the cruel laws of the world into which they were born, but who have instead fought continuously for their dreams, will always be victorious. Everyone can dream, but only those who believe in their dreams even in the darkest moments can really make them come true. So... keep dreaming, and you'll always know what to do. My only real regret… is that I will never see you with my real eyes, or hear the sound of your voice with my real ears, or admire in person all the wonderful things you will accomplish"
And having said this the body of Akenothustar was enveloped in a blue light, and then dissolved in a cascade of golden light; the tablets went out again and silence returned to the cave. For several minutes, no one had the strength, courage or even the thinking ability to say anything. Then finally Haku spoke, breaking that oppressive silence. "I... think I need to stay alone for some time" he said, and without waiting for anyone's reply he quickly walked up the stairs and down the tower.