2026 Monthly Story Challenge #9
Dragonslumber Part 2 (Wordcount TBA)
By Jayde Holmes
Lacaan The Seventh
For years, Maake saw Lacaan and Omtaan dream of playing and working together. She never saw when those dreams changed from reflections of their lived reality to their deepest desires. The relationship between the two brothers had soured as they grew, and by the time Sereg died they hated each other.
As children they had discussed how they would run the empire just as their mothers had. They both claimed they’d do anything for the empire, and had made it a competition to see who could imagine the most terrible things they’d do for it. What little Maake knew of these boasts she approved of, though she wondered if things would have been different had they talked more about what the ‘good of the empire’ meant rather than what depraved things they were willing to do to for it.
Her concern was that there was one thing neither boy was willing to do for the empire.
Neither of them was willing to be a sleeping emperor.
She saw in their dreams how much the process of dragonslumber disgusted them, and how deeply averse to becoming like her they were. When she caught them having such dreams she tried to make the dream happier, but her influence backfired. They resented her. They didn’t want a mother who would interfere with their minds yet not even wake up to talk to them.
This shared aversion to dragonslumber bonded them as children, but as the topic of which office they would inherit got more serious, it drove a wedge between them.
One day while the two were tailblade training, Lacaan suggested the obvious answer. Ilzig would be the sleeping empress and they could work out between themselves who got the throne and who got Illasa. In response Omtaan had attacked him so violently their combat instructor had had to pry him off.
Little Ilzig loved her sleeping Ma Ma’a, and would often lay down in a pile of gold next to Maake and say she was going to be a ‘dream empress’ just like her. When Maake could speak to the children, Ilzig was the only one able to keep up with her descriptions of the empire’s dreams.
It was also obvious to everyone that Ilzig did not, and probably would never have the mental capacity to understand the full implications off falling into dragonslumber. Furthermore, attempts to explain the transformation process had frightened her so badly she had spent of entire evenings chirping. Omtaan had nightmares of his sister being tied down to a burning bed of gold whilst screaming. Of her being lost in a dream world long after all the people she loved had died not being able to understand where they’d gone.
He’d thought Lacaan had shared his fares. Both boys had done their best to teach Ilzig about the court system and about Illasa, and they were confident that as long as she had good help, she would make a good Lord of Illasa one day. Her character was good and she had a knack for economics and logistics.
Lacaan did love his sister and had the same fears as Omtaan, but as adulthood approached, he became more practical. He knew that Ilzig’s mind would be well suited to dragon dreaming, and forcing her into that role was something he was willing to do for the good of the empire.
Their fight had left Lacaan with a massive scar running down his neck which almost diminished his good looks. It also left a rift between the two that they could never overcome. From that day on, Omtaan would insist that Lacaan was too cruel to hold the Morel Reigns of the Empire. That the only way he could make things right would be to study at the Temple of Chan for a decade, give Ilzig the Reigns of Illasa, and then join his own mother in dragonslumber. Meanwhile Lacaan would always insist that Omtaan was a selfish coward who’d be unable to make tough decisions for the good of the empire.
Omtaan did not attend Lacaan’s coronation.
His absence was noted by many people in the empire, including soldiers who had fought under Sereg, and the Representative of Shhi Trullos, whose people had built a relationship with Sereg and felt no connection to Maake, so why was Maake’s son the one taking Sereg’s throne? Maake’s dreams were flooded with accusations that she had betrayed her sister by putting her own son on the active throne.
From her sick-bed, Ilzig had insisted the coronation be delayed until Maake was ready to choose the next active emperor. Perhaps if she and Kyon had not been so ill at the time, they would have gotten their delay and been able to rouse Maake from her grief. Instead, Lord Satil pushed through Lacaan’s coronation, and Maake tried to escape deeper into her own mind.
Except in her mind, she was a little child again, trying to shield Sereg from all the terrible people who’d hurt them for a slither of power. And she couldn’t protect Sereg. Sereg was gone, and had suffered so much horror. Horrors that Maake hadn’t stopped. That she’d encouraged. Maake kept imagining a slightly older Sereg in Illasa, chirping because there was no way to stop the advance of evil, power-hungry monsters. Nothing they could do would ever be enough to fix the empire, because they’d already failed. Lacaan and Omtaan were fighting, and she could see the hopeless way it would turn out.
So Lacaan became emperor. That mede Gra-ma Ilzig’s continued insistence that the coronation was illegitimate treason. Many of Lacaan’s new, Satil-provided inner circle called for Ilzig’s execution, but Lacaan loved his grandmother enough to give her chances to accept his rule.
“Laca, you know this isn’t the way your mothers planned the succession to go” Ilzig said at one of their meetings in the empty Council chamber, looking up at the stoney throne her grandson sat on, flanked by Lord Satil and Maarigee.
“They also didn’t plan for one of them to die young and the other to get trapped in dragonslumber” Lacaan said. “Grandmother, we must admit that things aren’t going to work the way the twin empresses envisioned. Now will you please allow me to salvage this whole dual thrones mess?”
Ilzig would not allow him to entertain any notion of the dual thrones or Sereg and Maake’s procedures being a mess. Therefore, Lord Satil had ordered her execution. Lacaan, who never ended up being Satil’s puppet, amended that to house arrest. Ilzig would spend the next six years in a comfortable office in one of the many high towers of the palace.
Today her tower is called Ilzig’s Tower, and the outside is decorated with the tapestry she wove while imprisoned. Every year on her birthday, thousands of sheets of paper are thrown out of the tower windows in honour of how she continued to thwart Lord Satil’s and Emperor Lacaan’s plans through her letter writing campaigns.
Omtaan and Kyon did not take this well. As Maake’s representative Kyon still had a lot of influence on the Council. Especially since the only words anyone was able to coax from sleeping Maake after Ilzig’s arrest were “They took Ma. They took Ma”, which he argued meant the empress did not approve of the arrest. He was obviously correct, but with Satil’s help Lacaan declared that Empress Maake was in a period of mourning, and that nothing she said while asleep should be taken as an order. He then offered Kyon and Omtaan a choice between exile to Illasa, a tower with a view of Ilzig’s, or the opportunity to shut up and let him rule.
Omtaan took his little sister and went back to Illasa. Kyon, with Omtaan’s blessing, stayed in the palace and pledged obedience to Lacaan. He would go on to leave the public eye for the next six years, spending his time between Ilzig and Maake. He started sleeping in the dragon chamber next to Maake, and even when she didn’t speak for months at a time, he would carry on one-sided conversations with her or read her books.
He left the palace twice during this time. Once near the end of Maake’s convalescence, when he returned to Illasa to be with his own mother as she fell ill, and once near the start, when he joined Lacaan and Maarigee on their wedding procession through the city.
The wedding between Emperor Lacaan and Maarigee of Lower Dii’antaa came early in Lacaan’s reign and was one of the most extravagant events to have ever been held on the plateau. They were married in the Pantheon, then went on a two-week procession through the city, all the way down the plateau to the sprawling undercity of Lower Dii’antaa.
After the wedding, pamphlets began to circulate. A newly invented printing press in Lower Dii’antaa had been given an intricate metal plate that could replicate a crude imitation of Sereg’s figure in the infamous ‘Whores of the Empire’ painting. As the scandalous papers spread, so did a discussion that would have been unthinkable while Sereg and Maake ruled.
“Isn’t it strange that Sereg only ever laid eggs after leaving the palace?” People whispered.
“Very strange. Only two eggs, and they were both laid as soon as she went off to war” the whispers continued.
“Empress Maake and Regent Ilzig each only laid one egg. Obviously, there are fertility issues in that family.”
“It’s so strange. Her only eggs laid whilst she was gone.”
“Have you ever seen Prince Omtaan and Princess Ilzig? They look nothing like Lord Kyon.”
“They don’t look that much like the empresses either.”
“Did anyone ever actually see Empress Sereg lay an egg?”
“Supposedly, she laid them alone.”
“I don’t think they are Lord Kyon’s children. We know how strange the royal family are in sexual matters.”
“I don’t even think they’re Empress Sereg’s. Look at them. They aren’t born to rule. Not like Emperor Lacaan.”
Whilst the soldiers and the Ini Shallians tended to favour Omtaan, the nobility, especially near Dii’antaa, was more amiable to Lacaan. When the rumours about Omtaan and Ilzig’s illegitimacy began to spread, Lacaan also got the churches on his side. If Omtaan hadn’t pushed his own claim, it’s likely that Lacaan Seven would have been accepted eventually and gone on to have a peaceful reign.
But Omtaan could not abide Lacaan on the throne for the same reasons we see Lacaan Seven as a villain today. Lacaan tried to pressure his mentally disabled sister into the dragonslumber, he imprisoned his grandmother, usurped and then exiled his brother, married into a family that his aunt/second mother had hated, and took advantage of his mother’s grief-fueled depression to not only take the throne, but to make policy changes that Maake would never approve of. Pettiest of all, not only did he not go to Newea to collect Sereg’s ashes, but he also barred Omtaan and Ilzig from doing so with the terms of Omtaan’s exile.
In Omtaan’s opinion, Lacaan’s character was not suitable for the Morel Reigns. Despite all his villainous actions though, Lacaan Seven was a competent ruler during his short reign. He improved relations with Nessa, despite the growing xenophobia of the empire. He rebuilt Ini Shalli, boosting the economy in the process, and established new trade routes with the Breakaway Kingdoms on the South Coast. He also appeased the democratic sentiment that the creation of a Representative of Shhi Trullos had created without upsetting the nobility by creating ‘commoner-governed’ provinces out of areas previously overseen by Satil’s enemies.
In hindsight, Lacaan Seven made two mistakes. First, he sent Omtaan to Illasa instead of exiling him from the empire. Illasa was still close enough to the heart of the empire for Omtaan’s presence to be felt. It was also a vital trading post, giving Omtaan access to money and communication lines with the entire empire. Most importantly, proximity to the Lasa jungle gave Omtaan access to the stimulants that hundreds of veterans of Sereg’s conquest were still addicted to. Omtaan wasted no time shipping his wares to any potential ally he could find.
Lacaan’s second mistake came six years into his reign, after the first birthday of his second child, Prince Maaken. He was asked by a Council Lord which one of his children was most likely to join Maake in the dragonchamber, baby Maaken or firstborn Princess Sereg. Lacaan snapped back “neither” so viciously that he felt the need to make a proclamation the next day, explaining his views on the dragonslumber.
“Years ago, I insisted my sister Ilzig should become a sleeping empress for the empire’s sake” he announced to the Council. “Omtaan attacked me for saying that. Since then, I have had a lot of reasons to disagree with my brother. However, he was right to attack me for what I wanted to do with Ilzig. It would have been wrong to put her into dragonslumber. Not because of Ilzig’s mental oddities, but because dragonslumber itself is wrong.”
The Council, which had been chuckling at Lacaan’s understatement about Omtaan, fell silent.
“The dragonslumber is an archaic, barbaric practice that we don’t need in modern Chaane. My mother has been silent for six years, and the empire is prospering, what more proof can we need it it is unnecessary? The reason the two empresses created the split thrones was fear of succession conflicts, but my beloved mother’s presence as sleeping empress has been the cause of our current succession conflict. If not for the insistence on waiting for her to awaken and confirm me, Omtaan and his supporters would not have had the opportunity to undermine my appointment. We would have had a smooth transition of power if not for the split thrones.
I am not willing to usurp my mother, despite the way her depression is seeping into our dreams, and even the dreams of the Breakaway Kingdoms. We’ll mourn Empress Sereg, my beloved aunt, for as long as my beloved mother grieves. However, when Empress Maake leaves her post, neither me nor my successors will appoint a new sleeping emperor. None of my children, grandchildren or however-many great-grandchildren that I beget will suffer the unnecessary indignity of turning into a dragon. Maake Second will be the last sleeping emperor, and there will be only one Chaanean throne after she passes. That is a royal decree, and will not be debated!”
Maake woke up shortly afterwards, though it is uncertain if Lacaan’s decree was the reason. It could have been the nightmares she was having of Omtaan’s growing army in Illasa, or the nightmares her isolated mother was having, or concerns that little Ilzig was dreaming of the charming but simple son of one of her lesser lords.
Or maybe, it was Kyon who woke her. By then he’d spent years by her side begging her to wake up. He’d bought both of Lacaan’s children into the chamber to meet their Gra-ma Ma’a, Despite Lacaan and Maarigee disapproving. He’d spent hours resharing his memories of their childhood with her. Often, he’d spend hours buried in her golden pile with his face against her scales.
He spent so long by her side that the gold had began to burn him. His beautiful feathers had fallen out prematurely and his body bloated in anticipation of the dragon transformation. Though of course, he fled the chamber before such a change could take hold.
“I’d love to stay here with you” he’d always say to Maake whenever he felt the burn on his scales or the tug of the dreamspire on his dozing mind “but the children still need me.”
He was thigh deep in gold crying on Maake’s back the day she woke up. He’d told her about Lacaan’s declaration, then tried to lighten the mood with a story of something cute little Sereg had done to her little brother, but he couldn’t even finish this simple tale. Instead, he chirped for nearly an hour and recited the names of all the people they were missing.
“The children shouldn’t be growing up alone. They’ll have a cousin in Illasa soon. They should know Omtaan and Pa’loth and Ilzig. And your parents. And Sere. Sere should have got to meet them. It’s not fair Ma’a. I just want her back. I want her back dammit I want you both back. I miss you Ma’a.”
“I miss you too” Maake muttered.
“Ma’a? You can hear me?”
“I miss you. I miss… Sere. Want you, want you both here.”
“Ma’a” Kyon chirped as she raised her heavy head and got her first look at him in over a decade. It still didn’t seem to her that long ago that she was sitting on the throne with him and Sereg, basking in the adoration of their people. But he’d grown old since then. He had no feathers, yellowed canine teeth snagging around a worn snout, and a noticeable slump in his neck.
He was middle aged now, and worn down more than what his years could account for.
She knew he’d be dead in just a few awakenings. Dead just like her sister and stepfather.
“Kyon” She chirped “Kyon, Sere is dead. She’s gone.”
“I know Ma’a. I know.”
“How are we going to go on?”
“We just have to” Kyon said. “The children need us. The empire needs us. And, and we need each other. I need… I need you back. I’ve missed you so much.”
“I’m sorry Kyon. I’m so sorry. I love you.”
They held on to each other. Maake wanted Kyon to fall into dragonslumber with her, so that she couldn’t lose him too.
But she knew he wouldn’t do it.
And she couldn’t grieve with him forever. She’d heard what had been happening around her in the palace, and in her dreams she had seen the chaos brewing as the rift between Lacaan and Omtaan grew. Maake knew it was time to pick up the Morel Reigns again, and steer the empire out of danger, no matter what the cost might be.
To Be Continued
Jayde Holmes 