When I finally landed in front of T’laanga’s hut, the man himself was standing in front of it. He had his scarf drawn back up across his face and his cloak around his shoulder. The butt of his shepherd’s crook was planted in the ground in front of him. He grasped the haft with both hands. One was freshly bandaged.

  My Cassia needed some help to get off my back. The cold of the blowing wind had chilled her. We both watched T’laanga, who made no move to assist her. He simply watched us with his cold gaze.

  A shiver ran up my Cassia’s back. I nudged her towards the house. When she went to step forward, T’laanga’s grip on his crook tightened. For a reason I couldn’t explain, I sensed great danger. My tail curled around my Cassia and held her back. One of my wings unfolded to tuck her against my side.

  “Oh what’s with you two now?!” She protested. “T’laanga, I’m fine, see?” She waved her arms out from beneath my wing. “It was a bit scary, but we talked it out!”

  T’laanga did not respond to her. He and I had locked eyes. I knew instinctively that this had become a contest of what was Mine and what was His. The drover was not going to let Cassia pass. He was staking a claim on both Magnus and Edith.

  A low growl rolled out of my throat.

  “Sanguine will you Stop!” Cassia said while slapping her palm on the scales of my shoulder. “If we just talk-”

  “My quarrel is with the Dragon, lady dragon-bride,” T’laanga said sharply. “Do not interfere.” It was the most words the man had ever said. That was almost more than the rest of what he’d said combined.

  “Drag- Dragon WHAT?!” Cassia yelped from where she was pressed into my side. “We’re not- I’m not- He’s not even a harvest old!”

  “You wear a dragon’s heartstone around your neck,” T’laanga replied, as if that explained everything.

  Before Cassia could continue arguing, I jutted my head forward. A flicker of flames crept up my throat and spilled over my teeth. The light reflected off of T’laanga’s cold eyes.

  “The truth shines as the sun, even in the darkest night,” T’laanga said solemnly. It sounded like a phrase that had worn a deep path across his tongue. The drover adjusted his grip on his crook. His hands slid across the haft until he held it diagonally across his chest. The crook hovered above the dirt, pointing in my direction.

  “I invoke the Old Pact,” he said, each word carefully enunciated. “My name is the Sorcerer T’laanga Zadzisai. I claim the child Magnus as my ward and the enchantress Edith Rahal as my student. I declare thee a ravenous beast and a danger to their lives. Answer my Challenge, Dragon Sanguine.”

  Each word he spoke was layered with vitality, with magic. He built his challenge like bricks laid into a wall. One by one, they declared the truth. I was a monster, a wild beast that would consume everything I could get my claws on.

  It reminded me of the moment when my Cassia had named me Sanguine. However, this was a foreign truth. It was artificial. T’laanga wanted to impose his truth over my own. Subtle wisps of air traced across the ground beneath the tip of his crook. They were nearly invisible and were sharper than any blade.

  I needed to answer this challenge. The fire boiling in my chest would not allow me to ignore it. A dragon’s pride was too great. We had intended to leave Magnus here, but I had saved his life. Edith would also have died without my intervention.

  I decided at that moment that they also were Mine. It was not the same as Cassia, but they were important to me.

  My head reared back as I stood up to my full height. Both of my wings fanned out behind me as I spread my claws in the dirt. The fire roared in my chest, illuminating the space in front of T’laanga’s hut. My Cassia stepped back, shock on her face. She expected me to let my fire loose. While that may destroy T’laanga, it would also incinerate his house along with my people inside of it.

  I took a deep breath and Roared.

  “I keep telling you Archibald, it’s coming from frost-damned Wintertide!” Mortimer the Mage yelled at his familiar. The white feathered raven flapped its wings to maintain its perch on the end of Mortimer’s staff. They were both sitting in the back of an open backed coach.

  The driver did his best to ignore the insane old man in the back. He’d paid too well to abandon him somewhere. Especially since the old coot had paid half up front. If the driver had been a bit younger and meaner, he’d have considered mugging the crazy bastard for his coin out in the wilderness.

  But the driver had lived to an old age in a dangerous profession. He knew the signs. The crazy old man in the foot stained robe and crumpled wide brimmed hat was definitely a warlock of some kind. No one but a warlock was insane enough to scream at a bird about ‘magic lights’.

  “I don’t care if it’s cold!” Mortimer continued, pointing his finger at the raven. “I’ve never gotten a signal this strong! I won’t lose the biggest discovery this century to a changing of the seasons, or worse yet a thrice-damned Sorcerer! It would be just like the filthy hacks to get their grubby fingers all over a precious relic and stuff it away in some hole for the ‘good of man kind’!”

  The driver was reconsidering his earlier opinions as the crazy man continued to rant at the bird. He’d pulled a softly glowing crystal orb out of his robes. The driver didn’t want to know where the knobbly old centenarian had hidden it until now.

  “You see this?! Irrefutable proof that we’re getting closer! It won’t trick me ag-”

  The magic detection orb flashed brighter than the sun, blinding the wizard, driver, and the mule pulling the coach. They all promptly went careening off the side of the road as the mule spooked.

  The raven flapped in the air to catch up, having looked away and closed its eyes the moment the orb was pulled out.

  The roar slowly faded into silence.

  There was a distinct line in the earth. On one side, the former frost covered soil was blasted like it had been scoured by a fierce wind. On the other stood T’langa and his hut. In front of him flickered a half visible wall formed out of the air. After another moment it seemed to shatter into pieces and fade away.

  “Sloppy,” T’laanga said with a click of his teeth. “Wasteful.”

  I panted, small embers of flame still lingering in the back of my throat. I neither had the knowledge or the skill with words to answer T’laanga’s challenge in the manner he had issued it. The best I could do was roar out the Truth that sang within my blood. It had taken a lot more out of me than I anticipated.

  Human sorcery may lack in raw power, but T’laanga more than made up for it in skill. The comparison was difficult to describe visually. The closest I could get was that his magic had bent but not broken under my assault. Rather than take the blow head on, he had deflected it above and away.

  T’laanga’s hand was bleeding through his bandage from how hard he held his crook. The scent of vitality was much less pronounced now. It was still tempting, but much more manageable to resist.

  Edith stuck her head out of T’laanga’s hut.

  “What in the hells are ye two doing?!” she cursed. “I stayed in here so ye could have a chat, not ram heads like yearling bulls!”

  T’laanga looked back at Edith, giving a ‘tsk’ with his teeth.

  “Don’t give me that ‘Teacher’,” Edith said as she stepped outside, rubbing her hands for warmth in the cold. “Ye haven’t changed a bit. I thought maybe the years had chilled ye temper a bit, but ye are just as bad as ye were back then. It’s just this kind of thing that got ye sent up here to begin with.”

  Edith marched over towards me. I dipped my head down towards her. She reached up towards my head and grabbed one of my horns.

  “And ye beasty! I was putting things off til we had wee Magnus planted, but ye gone and tested my patience once too often!” She pointed at Cassia. “You two kissed and made up?” Cassia went to protest, but Edith glared her down.

  “We uhm. We’re okay? I don’t understand-,” She said meekly.

  “Talk for young ladies later. Get. Inside.,” Edith growled, pointing her finger at T’laanga’s house. No one dared to argue with Edith at that moment. My Cassia and T’laanga tromped inside, the former glancing over her back at me and Edith until the door shut.

  Edith looked back at me, her gaze stern.

  “Ye’r going to carry me like a lady over to yonder hill, got it?” she ordered me, pointing at a nearby slope. I nodded. Carefully, I sat back on my haunches. Edith was able to settle back and ‘sit’ in the palm of my front foot. She tucked her legs in against herself. With both forelimbs holding onto her, she was reasonably secure.

  I’d had a bit more practice flying with a passenger just now. The first couple flaps of my wings got me going before my hind legs kicked off of the ground and I ‘hopped’ up into the air. After that, my wings were able to smoothly carry me and Edith over the countryside.

  Edith didn’t say anything while we sailed the short distance over to the hillside. There was a low flat rock placed on top of the hill. With a careful change of angle from my wings, we drifted down towards it and came up short. There was a slight shake as we landed next to the wide stone.

  I set Edith down on her feet as gently as I could. She patted her skirt flat before drawing her winter cloak tight around her shoulders. My head turned towards the stone. With a deep breath I drew air into my lungs. A slow and controlled exhale sent waves of heat radiating across the stone. In a few moments it was warm and toasty like it had sat in the midsummer sun.

  My body settled down onto the stone on my side, holding up a wing for Edith to tuck herself in against me. Instead, she pointed a finger at me.

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  “Y’see, that. That is one of the things I’ve been putting off beasty,” she said sternly. I tilted my head. Did she plan to stand out in the cold? “Ye are a… dragon, so ye don’t have any reason to know certain things. I’ll admit I put off talking about ‘em since they’re…” She waved her hands awkwardly. “...-complicated.” Her hands were planted on her hips.

  “I may be getting on a bit in years, but I’m still a lady, ye wee beasty.” Well of course she was a lady. I’d heard her talk about it often enough. I knew the difference between male and female humans. They weren’t much different than animals.

  “That means to say that… If ye were just a creature…” Edith pursed her lips, chewing on the inside of her cheek. “Ye aren’t just a creature, Sanguine. Ye are a thinking person with a spirit and soul. Even if ye can be daft at times.”

  I folded my wing against my body. Edith seemed to regret not sitting down for a moment, but she shook it off and continued.

  “Humans… We bond with another of our kind, for life. Sometimes it ain’t always forever. Death takes those it wills and living has a funny way of making things difficult. But we try to make it last as long as we live.”

  “Ye and yer lass have that kind of bond. It’s plain as day. Shines like the bloody sun in a dark room. She adores ye, dragon. Maybe more than living. Ye are the sun that makes the flowers bloom to her. She’d wither without ye. Do ye understand?”

  I thought about how Cassia acted around me. She had been an anchor to me when I had been a hatchling in the Cursed Forest. Now, she seemed to be the one relying on me. She was troubled when I acted strangely or when I struggled. When it came down to it, the only thing she seemed to care about was that I was safe, happy, and with her.

  My head nodded to Edith.

  “Ye may not have all the words for it yet lad, but from where I stand, ye look at her the same way. That pretty gem ye have hanging around her neck ain’t a bauble. Its like ye gave her yer heart. If anything happened to her… Ye would burn down the whole world in yer grief. She’s the only one that can talk sense into ye when ye are in a rage.”

  That sounded right. While Edith was close, what she lacked with her words wasn’t something she’d be able to say. There was a difference between humans and dragons in that way, I believed. To me, there was no separation between the things that were Mine and myself. My Cassia was a part of me, even more so than my own scales or blood.

  Losing her would be like cutting off a part of my soul.

  “What ye two have is special. One of a kind. Ye are both…” Edith flapped her hands awkwardly again. “Ye both have a lot of growing to do in… different places, but one day ye’ll understand.”

  “What I mean to say is that ye should only treat ye special lass like that. All the… cuddling and letting her ride on ye back and such.” She’d seen that? I wanted to die a little on the inside. Edith blew air out of her nostrils as she sighed.

  “Screaming for all the heavens that… That I’m Yours, is wildly inappropriate,” Edith said quietly. As I looked at her in the moonlight, I could see that her face was flushed. One of her hands had buried its fingers into her hair, twisting at the braid. “I could feel it, ye know? Bout shook me bones out of me skin.”

  What was she saying? I’d been shouting down T’laanga’s challenge. That had sort of meant breaking his claim on her and asserting my own. I began to worry that I’d not fully thought through the implications.

  “Magnus… he uhm… He’s a bit different, we’ll talk about him. But ye understand what I mean, right beasty? I may look a bit younger these days, but I’ve made my peace that I’ll live my days as a spinster.”

  No, I definitely didn’t understand what Edith was saying. I had no idea what a spinster was, for one. As well, Edith herself was lying to herself. I had a bit of a better understanding of humans after confronting T’laanga’s ‘Truth’. Humans could speak falsehoods to themselves, building them up on top of each other until they became almost like they were real. It was like how they wore cloaks to protect themselves from the harsh winter.

  Edith talked like she was fated to be alone. It was a shell she had erected around herself to protect herself from loneliness. If it was fate, she didn’t need to be sad about it. My Cassia had done much the same thing when she tried to send me away from the Cursed Forest without her.

  I was a dragon. My Truth was in my blood. No skin of falsehood could rest easy upon me.

  The choice for me was easy. Edith was Mine already, but she had to accept that for herself. I wouldn’t force her to cross that bridge. That didn’t mean I wouldn’t hold myself out for her.

  I unfolded my wing and patted the warm stone next to me with my tail. Edith frowned.

  “I just told ye about this beasty. Ye should be doing that for ye special lass.”

  I watched her with one amber eye, the other closed as I laid my head down as if to nap.

  “W- Hey we aren’t done talking beasty! Ye aren’t allowed to go to sleep!”

  My open eye slid half closed, the amber orb peering out at her. My tail patted the inviting warm stone again. The heat radiating out of my body kept it nice and toasty, even as the chill wind blew across the hill top.

  “I- Ye bloody- Sanguine! Stop that at once! Ye bloody bad dragon! My hair will go grey again before ye are the death of me!” She planted both hands on her hips and stomped over to me, leaning forward to glare down at me.

  “I’m serious ye beast! If ye don’t quit acting a fool by the time I’m done counting, that’ll be It! I’ll turn and walk down this hill and send ye on your bloody way for good! Ye hear me?!” No matter how much Edith fussed, I could hear the tremble under her voice.

  “I mean it!” No one who was going to follow through ever said that. I kept my victory to myself. “Five! Fffour! Th-three! T-t-t-two!” Edith slowly faltered as she counted down. The wind kept blowing. Perhaps a storm was coming over the horizon.

  “That’s not… Ye bloody beast… Ye… It’s not fair, ye know.” Edith seemed to wilt, clenching her fists and trembling. “When I drank that potion… I felt so alive, just for a little bit. Ye don’t… I have just a little magic. Just enough to know what I don’t have. I’ll never… make all the colors of the rainbow, or set the woods ablaze, or… soar through the air like a bird.”

  Tears, hot and thick, ran down Edith’s cheeks from her eyes. Her normally husky voice was hoarse with emotion. It seemed all she could do to croak out her words and not break down. She’d put up a brave face in front of Cassia all this time, but I was sure deep down she was hurting just as bad.

  “Even if it killed me, I might’a been happy. I’d got to do Real Magic. A bloody miracle.” She wiped her eyes with the backs of her hands. “I felt what ye were, Sanguine. That gem of yer lass’s… I wanted to keep it, more than ye know. With magic like that burning inside me, I could be a Sorcerer! Just like…” She hesitated. “Like T’laanga.”

  That wasn’t the whole truth, but she was pouring out her heart to me. I didn’t press her.

  “But I can’t keep that for m’self. It’s not mine. It’s Cassia’s. She’s a good lass. Tender. Tough as nails, with anything but you beasty.” Edith sniffled, trying to collect herself.

  “... I’m bloody ruined, beasty. I can’t go back to the way I was before. When I’d never had that feeling, I didn’t know all that I was missing. I’ve been trying to lie to myself, but ye keep breaking down that wall. That ain’t yer fault. It’s just part of being alive.”

  “Don’t think too poorly of me, my dear beasty. Ye are going to live a long, long, life without me. I just hope that ye will live long enough to remember me as a nice old lady who helped heal yer lass, rather than a jealous crone mourning what she couldn’t have.”

  Edith smiled softly and turned to walk away. Before she could, I twisted my neck and grabbed onto her cloak with my teeth. She turned around, tears running down her face glittering like stars in the moonlight.

  My claws reached up and grabbed onto one of my chest scales, ripping it off of my body.

  First looked up from where he’d been staring out across the entire world stretched out in front of him.

  He’d been enjoying a nice daydream about his plans, what he’d do with His World once the contest with his siblings was over. Not that he intended to rush things. It would spoil the meal if any of them rushed to their deaths.

  That scheming had been interrupted by an exceptionally powerful surge of magic. Just what exactly was his dear sibling Seventh doing? The first couple of times had probably been an accident. A young hatchling needed to make some mistakes and learn hard lessons.

  This was the magic equivalent of shooting lighting fires in the middle of a dark night and screaming ‘look over here!’ The weak mortal creatures that populated His World could pull an occasional trick off, here and there. Even they would be able to notice such excessive magic.

  There was no refinement to it. Just raw power. It sent a shiver of excitement up First’s spine. If his sibling could learn just a bit of control, that would make their confrontation worthy of legend. But how to teach him?

  Pain was an excellent educator. Perhaps he could prod one of his less gifted ‘siblings’ into providing a lesson…

  Edith gasped, turning and throwing herself on me. It wasn’t a romantic gesture. She was pressing her palms against my flesh to halt the flow of blood. My scales weren’t like a coat of fur. They were deeply anchored armor plates embedded in my flesh. Ripping one out had my blood flowing freely even around Edith’s palms.

  “Sanguine! What are ye doing?!” She cried. The tears had not stopped. “Why do ye keep doing these foolish things whenever I turn my back?!”

  I was focused on something other than Edith. My wing curled around to cup her from the back. The scale I had ripped from my body gleamed in the moonlight. I remembered just how the egg fragment which had become my gemstone had looked. It was just like this.

  The egg had been a part of me. It was made from dragonscales. Consuming the fragments had reinforced my own scales, helping me survive. Normally, losing a scale or two wasn’t a big deal. They’d grow back.

  Doing what I had in mind was entirely different. When the egg fragment had become my gemstone, it was more luck than intention. I remembered how precious it had been to me. It was the Intent that had made it my gemstone.

  I now drew on that same Intent. Two things could never be the same, but they could be similar. You could appreciate each for their unique quirks. As I focused my thoughts on the scale fragment, the blood welling from beneath my flesh answered my call.

  The hot fluid rose from where it had been dribbling past Edith’s fingers. Blood alone was just a substance. Intentionally infused with vitality, it became my Will manifested. The blood collected between my claws. The scale fragment vanished into an orb of ichor. After a few moments, the flow beneath Edith’s fingers ceased.

  As she watched, the orb slowly shrank in on itself. It was like a great pressure was pressing in on it from all sides. Gemstones in the earth were created in places of great heat and pressure. The same principle applied here. Bit by bit, the sphere of blood was crushed into the scale.

  After a long moment of intense concentration, the last of the vitality infused blood sank into the scale’s surface. Unlike my gemstone the scale remained a scale. However, it was now far more. It shone with all the brilliance of my gemstone. Intricate engraving in the shape of swirling veins covered its surface.

  I thought I’d refer to it as my ‘brooch’. It was a piece of adornment for an older refined lady, according to one of my Cassia’s various lectures. She’d had one that I suspected was her mother’s, back in her cabin. She kept it in her private box. That memory had given me this idea.

  I’d need to go fetch that as soon as I could.

  Edith stared at the jewelry with wide eyes. I lowered my claws to her and gently offered her the piece. For a moment she hesitated. Then at last, with trembling fingers she took it.

  “Is this for me?” She whispered. I nodded. “Just me?” I nodded again. “Ye don’t mean for me to borrow it for a bit of magic then give it back?”

  I rumbled softly. My snout dipped down to Edith’s hands and nudged her fingers until they closed around the brooch. Edith stared down at her closed hands with a look of shock.

  Without warning, she threw herself on me. I wasn’t prepared for it this time. For a woman who claimed to be an older lady, Edith was surprisingly spry. There was a scuffle as she jammed herself under my wing. Getting comfortable again took considerable wiggling around from how she’d curled up almost underneath me.

  My Edith Rahal made some distinctly unladylike noises as she huddled under my wing. They were largely composed of a noise like laughter called ‘giggling’ mixed with deep heartfelt sobs. I was profoundly aware that I should let Edith have her moment without interruption and to never ever tell anyone about this.

  Between my Cassia and my Edith, I was starting to stack up a pile of secret moments. Oddly, I hoped they kept coming.