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The sun's barely peeking over the horizon by the time Pearl's up for the day-- though, her morning routine is so well-practiced she could do it in her sleep.
Lace up boots. Tie hair back into a braided ponytail. Fasten gloves.
Check on the dragon egg she keeps in her chest-of-drawers.
You know, all usual ordinary stuff.
It's cold in a bright-searing-fire sort of way when she picks it up, cradling it with both hands. Hints of purple glimmer through the inky black, whispering signs of life and of otherworldly magic.
Pearl has lived in Starhold all her life. Bounced around schools and guild trainings and affiliations, sure, and she's visited Lumandrie and Nixia, but it's always been her home.
It's not like there's much beyond the cities for her to go to, though. The western plains, beyond the other, smaller cities, are vast and endless enough to drive every explorer who's tried to traverse them to madness. North, the forests, then the mountains, and Sitelvelle's elves. East and South, only water, further than any ship has ever sailed. A few scattered towns, an isolationist elven kingdom, and legends of an ancient oceanic empire do not make a home worth leaving hers for.
She doesn't know where the dragon egg came from, though, or how she knows it's a dragon egg or even if it can hatch. For all that Pearl knows, this dragon egg is just another lumpy knock-off scrying orb. And not to brag, but if there was something recorded to know about dragon eggs, she would know it. She came damn near to being a scholar of the Watchers' Guild, and those years of study and learning don't disappear just because she didn't go through with it. Point is, if dragon eggs were a thing, she would know. And she doesn't. So clearly they aren't.
Other than that she's holding one right now. Other than that every spark of magic in her is calling out to it, the now familiar song of in another time and place we still knew each other, that very same resonance down to the threads of reality that she's had with her brother and with her Guild and with everything that she holds dearest.
So Pearl gently cradles the dragon egg, before setting it back down in the second drawer from the top, where she's wrapped old scarves into a cushion to hold it safely, and slides the drawer closed.
The sun's two ticks from fully up, and she needs to get to the Ambassadors' Hall.
Xisuma finds her holed up in the guild library, sitting at a table equipped with a drafting machine and sketching in a notebook. Off-season at the guild means free reign, so long as you stay on premises for the most part, so she's taken to spending more time on architecture drafts and studies.
Pearl sets down her pencil, glancing up at him. "Hey X! What's up?"
"Oh, you know, just mornings around here. Haven't had near enough coffee yet," he laughs. "But anyway, did you hear that xB got back from Lumandrie last night? Pretty late, from what I hear."
"Oh, yeah?" She responds, intrigued. "I thought he was staying through the month."
Xisuma nods. "Apparently something pretty urgent happened and he needed to come back. I'm not really sure, he's still asleep now, I don't think he stopped once on the way home."
"Oh, wow," Pearl mutters. "Must've been serious, if he really did the whole ten hours in one go."
"Yeah, once he wakes up, we're probably gonna call a meeting. So just - be aware of that possibility, if it doesn't happen by lunch try not to go too far."
"Can do," she nods. "Thanks for the news, X."
"Hey, 'course," he smiles. "See you in a bit, yeah?"
She nods an affirmation, and he heads off to find the next person, leaving her once again to her sketching.
(Though, curiously, as she flips to a fresh page, she finds her lines winding into organic curves rather than the sturdy pillars she means to draw. Perhaps, at the right angle, the swooping scrawls could be taken for a pair of wings, a spine, horns and scales.
She firmly tucks that thought away and flips the page again.)
"They found evidence of enderine in the old Lumandrian mines," xB says, the words hanging heavy over the table, like a sword on a thread ready to snap.
Pearl looks around the dozen-odd of them gathered, trying to discern if she's the only one in the dark.
Xisuma looks...shocked. And somewhat terrified. Which is more than enough for her to be, too.
Some of the others have a vague light of recognition-- Grian looks more confused than anything, and Wels and False seem perturbed.
"Okay, I'll bite," she says. "What's that mean?"
"The only thing enderine-- End Crystals-- have been used for in the last millennium has been...explosives. Powerful weapons. As much knowledge of them as possible has been very painstakingly wiped out." Xisuma says, quietly.
xB hums. "Yeah, they're very powerful magical conduits. So much so that in nearly every case, touching them will disrupt the magic and cause a detonation. It takes a particular type of Building magic to move one at all."
"Have they ever had a proper purpose besides as weapons?" Grian interjects. "I swear I remember something about their magic being important to, gryphons or dragons, maybe?"
Pearl's heart skips a beat. If the magic of these End Crystals is the thing she's been missing in her research...skies, please, this has to be something.
Xisuma hesitates, lost in thought for a moment. "Not that I know of? I mean, dragons have been completely off the radar, presumed extinct, for...centuries. And with how common a pest gryphons are, I think someone would know if there was a link between them and the most volatile magical weapon to ever exist."
Her heart plummets like a stone to the ground, that snatch of hope disintegrating.
"Actually," Mumbo cuts in, "Enderine is historically linked to dragons. They would seek out deposits of it to hatch eggs, it was hypothesized that there was something about End Crystals that helped break down the eggs' shells and make the dragonets hatch. Never proven, of course, but that was a pretty widely agreed upon theory."
And just like that, the hope is back, her heart beating out that's it, that's it, that's it. Stars, thank you, Mumbo.
She only hears the rest of the meeting in snatches-- it takes too long and is over in an instant all at once.
Pearl's got a goal, now.
It's late by the time she manages to corner her brother. She wasn't sure she would be able to find him, this late, his sleep habits are about as regular as a roll of the dice. Meaning, not at all regular.
"Hey," she says without preamble, sitting down. Unsurprisingly, Grian's found his way onto the highest roof in the area. He glances down at her, amused-- she's opted for just the balcony, not the actual roof.
"Hey yourself, Pearlo," he grins, jumping down with a careless attitude that belies his practiced precision. "What, ah, what brings you round this part of town?"
She tilts her head, considering. For all that she's played out this conversation in her head, she still isn't sure where to start. The meeting today, she decides, is as good a place as any.
"Earlier today, during the meeting-- you and Mumbo both mentioned End Crystals in relation to dragons. Would you have any idea where I could find more information about that?"
"Uhh," Grian hums. "Sorry, honestly, it was a gamble and a half that I even got that right. I haven't got the first idea where you'd begin with that sort of research, but can I ask why?"
Pearl clears her throat. "I, ah, may be in possession of a dragon egg," she admits. She knew he would ask, and had decided ages ago that she was okay with telling Grian if it came down to that, but that didn't make it any less anxiety-inducing.
He does that confused-slow-blink thing. "Sorry, what? How? Oh my god, you're trying to hatch a dragon?" He goes from confused to curious to excited, all in the span of a few seconds. "If you're hatching a dragon, you know what that means? Nobody's seen a dragon in lifetimes, we could be bringing them back from extinction here."
Pearl nods. "I know, and I really hope we can, but first we have to make sure this dragon hatches. Baby steps here, Griba," she chuckles.
He nods. "Right. So what's our course of action? Tell X and the rest of the guild, or just do the best we can on our own?"
"I..." She hesitates. "I think we kind of have to tell X. We need his help if we want to pull this off. Or, at least, I need him to give me an excuse to go out and find a natural deposit of enderine."
Grian gazes up at the sky, pitch-dark with swaths of stars painted across it. “He’s definitely asleep by now, though.”
“Yeah, cause no sane person is awake at this hour, you wafflebrain,” Pearl snorts.
“Hey!” Grian gasps, “I’ll have you know, Mumbo stays up at least as late as me most nights.”
Pearl laughs. “Yeah, my point still stands.” She gets up, rolling her shoulders. “Get some sleep. I’ll talk to Xisuma tomorrow.”
X is surprisingly understanding of Pearl’s request for a few days’ leave. She doesn’t give him…all the details, but he seems to understand that it’s important to her.
“If it’s going to be a long travel,” he says, “You might want to get ready and get some rest today, and then leave as early as you can tomorrow morning. I’d recommend avoiding traveling at night, but if you…need to be discreet,” X gives her a knowing look, “The cover of night can help with that. Just stay safe, yeah?”
Pearl smiles. Sometimes, Xisuma reminds her that he’s a lot more clever than he tends to let on. “Will do. Thank you, X.”
There is a cave, due south of the city. Or, according to the map that Pearl's made, there is. She may have dropped out, but she's got a few tricks up her sleeve, courtesy of her old almost-guild. It takes barely a breath to write some magic into a map, ask it to direct her to her goal.
And so, map in hand, dragon egg in a carefully crafted backpack, and with well wishes from X and her brother, she sets off on an adventure.
("Adventure", it'll be the journey of a day there and back. Adventure sounds cooler than just “trip”, though.)
She’s never been to the ocean, though. And, oh, it’s more beautiful than she could have imagined. The southern coastline is all steep cliffs and crashing waves, and part of her wants to just stare at it forever.
She gazes out at the landscape for a few more minutes, before checking the map again and heading down into the caves. Wide stony tunnels slope gently down, and despite the strange unfamiliarity of it, Pearl has to admit that it’s beautiful, in a way.
The tunnels keep twisting and winding, and she marks the walls with chalk as she goes, arrows pointing back the way she came so that she won’t lose her way. Slowly, deeper and deeper into the caves, they begin to almost glow with a purple-pink light, before opening out into a massive cavern.
Her breath catches in her throat, and she sits down, lightheaded. The telltale glint of crystal formations dot the walls and floor, seeming to glow from within, and distantly she can hear moving water.
“Well,” she says, breathless, “I think that means we’re here.”
She opens her backpack, carefully taking out the egg. Under the faint glow of the enderine, patterns trace across it that she could never see before.
…No, not patterns. Those are cracks.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
It takes an eternity and is over before she can blink– one side of the egg shattering out, the cold dark shell evaporating into fragments, and slowly, a tiny dragonet looks at her.
She holds her breath, her heart hammering away– this is it this is it this is it.
The baby dragon stares at her. Blinks once, slowly.
Pearl takes a soft breath. “Oh,” she murmurs, breaking into a smile. “Hello, little one.”