Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Heart, 24 years later

Raya lit the small candle, chasing away the darkness from her desk with a feeble orange light.

She shivered, pulling up the corners of the large red cloak around her. The night’s cold was unforgiving for those who didn’t stay safe in the warmth the bed alone could offer. The candlelight and its warmth were but a reminder that the bed was the place where she should be.

But she still had something to do and couldn’t just go to sleep yet. She hadn’t had the chance to finish her work when she was dragged away against her will and now she was about to solve this small inconvenience.

Raya looked at the pile of documents on the small table, trying not to think about how many times she promised to clean up that mess. The candlelight was functional to illuminate the clump of papers scattered all over the table, but her eyes trained to work in chaos did not take long to find what she was looking for. After all, they were the only sheets not scattered over the entire surface of the desk: well-folded and sealed letters.

She guessed they were some commercial requests from other nations. Winter was coming and cities would need access to Heart’s food stock to survive, generally in exchange for wood and wool. It was a monotonous and unhappy burden that of reading all the requests and deciding the best course of action for Heart, but this too was part of the duties of a Chief. Of course, she could have watched those next morning, but she tried to keep her desk free from all the work at the end of the day – figuratively – and she couldn’t close her eyes knowing she wasn't done.

Just these few and then she would return to bed.

Without wasting any more precious time, Raya sat in the chair, making as little noise as possible. She didn't wish to wake her up, especially not when she spent all that time making sure she was asleep. She needed to be quiet even when she opened the letters, otherwise, she knew she would never be able to get out of bed and finish her work that night. She must take advantage of the opportunity.

Gently moving the stack of sheets to make some space, Raya took the first letter and removed the blue wax seal of Spine with the mastery of someone who had opened several of those in her life. She went through the content rapidly, already knowing what this letter was about from the first line. She sighed, softly. It was exactly as she thought. Spine asked for 5% more food, in exchange for 8% more wood from the next shipload onwards.
She thought about it. It was something Hearth could afford as the stable conditions of the international scenario and favorable weather drastically increased the prosperity of their fields and consequently food availability. So, despite being winter, Heart’s demand would be easily satisfied and she could spare more food for her neighbor. Moreover, 8% more firewood would mean more firepower to warm up houses in the coming freezing winter months, something which would surely come in handy.

As Raya reached for a paper to write an answer, the door opened and a woman entered. She immediately noticed the candlelight and Raya sitting at the desk and she stopped.

“Oh, my apologies, Chief. I didn’t know you were still awake and working,” said the woman, sounding apologetic but with an evident hint of disapproval coloring her voice.

Raya stiffened, anxiously turning to the fabric divider behind her. She waited for a long moment, expanding her senses and feeling.

Nothing.

She sighed in relief.

“Are you still trying to hide your night work from her?” asked the woman, lowering her voice but raising an eyebrow at her.

“Yeah, or at least I’m trying to,” said Raya, still on alert, turning her attention to the woman who was now giving her a doubtful look. “It will work this time, Suri” she defended.

“If you say so, Chief,” shrugged Suri, handing over a small pile of papers and letters.

Raya’s shoulders dropped as she took it. She huffed, silently. “I thought these were the last for today,” she said, gesturing to the letters she was about to work on.

Suri nodded. “They were, Chief,” she said. “This is the first wave of tomorrow's.”

Raya slumped against the chair, leaving the new papers to fall onto the old ones, sighing louder than she intended.

“I can't go through all this stuff,” she said, disheartened. "Not tonight."

Suri shook her head slowly. “Your dedication to your duties is admirable, Chief,” she said. “But it will do you no good if you spend your nights out working, especially with this cold,” she added, gesturing at the cloak still tightly wrapped around her small form. "Besides,” she said after a small pause. “She will be displeased.”

Raya sneered a suffocated laugh, wrapping herself even more in the cloak. “You’re right, Suri, as always,” she said, her eyes looking around the room lit by the candle. For a moment, she lingered on the long white spear on the wall right over the dead fireplace and her mind started swaying in the past. “Maybe I should start lighting the fireplace when I work at night,” she said, absentmindedly.

“Or maybe,” Suri’s serious voice brought her back to the present. “You should just go to bed,” she proposed. “After all, there is a reason why you don’t need fireplaces at night even in the coldest of winters, but this won’t work if she...” and she gestured with her head toward the fabric divider behind her. “...Is not here with you.”

Raya closed her eyes, tired. Suri was right and the cold she was feeling was the first and most evident proof of it. Besides, her plan to finish her work of the day had already failed as new papers arrived. However, she couldn’t help but feel bothered by knowing that there were still three or four letters under the new pile that she should have completed already. It itched her very skin and it was difficult to go away without completing her task.

“If she would just let me finish my work before-“Raya tried to protest but she stopped midway. How could she be angry? It was impossible to be angry with someone who just wanted the best for you. Truth be told, it was just impossible to be angry with her.

Suri shrugged again, gesturing to the pile of papers. “May I?” she asked.

Raya nodded tiredly and watched as the woman took the letters she was due to read and respond to that day. She recognized the opened letter from Spine and some others. Out of those, two were easily distinguishable: a red letter and a white one.

She rose from her chair.

“Give me those, please,” she said as she took the two letters from the woman’s hands.

The red one was from the capital as the red wax seal with a dragon engraved in it clearly stated on the front. And considering the year, she could already guess the content of it too.

“Is that the invitation?” asked Suri, gesturing to the red letter and coming to the same conclusion.

“I guess so,” said Raya.

“It’s rather an important year. It is the twenty-fifth anniversary of you defeating the Druun, Sa-" Suri bit her tongue and closed her mouth.

Raya wanted to sigh again. She told Suri and all the people in Kumandra that she did not defeat the Druun, not alone anyway. Boun, Noi, Tong, and Sisu were there with her, and despite them receiving some recognition, the majority of the praise was always for her, especially in Heart. She was glad that Suri refrained at the last moment from calling her “Savior” as many were still doing around the village despite her pleas not to. Suri only complied because she was her friend, but it was still difficult for her not to call her that, apparently.

“I guess it is,” said Raya, placing the letter down for another moment. There was no hurry for it. It could wait.
The white letter in her hands, however…

“Ratana,” said Suri, noticing the color of the letter. “It has been some time since she last showed up.”

Raya nodded, still looking at the letter, touching it delicately as if it were a special treasure. “Almost a month,” she said.

Suri huffed. “One would think that woman would spend more time in her homeland now that she’s done,” she said, no real contempt in her voice, just disappointment. “After all, her friends are here,” she added. “Even her small cult of nuns is stationed here. There is one outside this door right now too, by the way,” she said, gesturing to the door right behind her.

One always was outside her door or in sight when she was out.

Raya giggled softly. “If Ratana was here she would say-“

“Mockery is beneath you, Suri,” finished the woman with a small smile. “Besides, a humble royal assistant should not defy a cult leader. It could end very badly for one of them”

“For the cult leader,” they both said at the same time, chuckling.

They self-censured themselves with a hand in front of their mouths to laugh as silently as possible.

“Ah, Rat, Rat, I kinda miss her, you know?” said Suri, shaking her head.

Raya smiled. It was typical of Suri to tease their friend saying that she created a cult of white dressed nuns. It wasn’t really a cult, of course, but an order. And the people inside were not priests and nuns but just people who'd had a tough life and wanted to help others who'd had a tough life. It was quite a serious effort from a woman doing already a lot for all of Kumandra every day.

The two fell into a calm moment of silence, filled with good and bad memories of another time. Raya jealously kept the letter between her hands and Suri didn’t ask her to open it or tell her its content. She knew how often Ratana opened up with Raya, with her and only her about many things, so she never asked. She just waited for Raya to tell her what she could, when she could.

Raya’s eyes fell on the small inscription on the letter’s front. “To the Savior,” it read.

She smiled, shaking her head. Ratana was the only one who still and always called her Savior, but it wasn’t like with all the others, nor did it feel like it. There was no reverence behind that title like with everyone else, and it did not feel like a title given to her to enhance her to the pantheon of the gods. It felt more like a nickname, one that spoke of a profound and intimate gratitude, a word to always remember both of them the deep link fate and the universe built between them.
Raya opened the white letter and then began to read through it expectantly, curiously drinking in the words, absorbing the content quickly. Initially, a small smile made its way on her features, illuminated by the swinging light of the candle. Then, her expression turned to sorrow, as she finally stopped reading, lowered the paper, and remained looking ahead in contemplation.

“Oh Rat,” she whispered.

Suri looked at her with an arched eyebrow, but asked nothing.

“She is coming back in Heart, soon,” Raya said, her eyes still looking ahead in space, but back in time. “She plans to go visit Arun’s daughter before heading to the Capital.”

The royal assistant did not respond, but considering the change in her features, she got the hint very clearly. She looked away.
The silence built again between them and this time it held something different, an un-comfortability that wasn’t there before. Suri was visibly uncomfortable and no matter how much she tried to hide it, with her eyes down and hands behind her back, she was still shifting on her feet, looking everywhere but at her.
The light in the room seemed to lose its intensity and the cold to grow stronger.
Raya noticed.

“Suri, I-“

“I know,” promptly answered the other woman. “It’s just that I-“ She faded.
Raya said nothing. She knew. They talked through that topic before but it remained difficult, even after so many years, especially during such anniversaries.

The two remained in total silence for another minute, or maybe it was an hour. At some point, though, the royal assistant strengthened her position and clearing her throat, she spoke:

“I can answer to that for you,” she proposed, gesturing to the Spine letter still open on the table.

“Oh no, I don’t think-“

"Raya?" the sudden, sleepy, but familiar voice made the Heart Chief stiffen in the chair.

Despite herself, Suri smiled. “Looks like she got you,” commented Suri.

Before Raya could even register it, the woman had taken the letter from the desk and had literally run to the door, with the Heart Chief managing only to look powerless as the woman waved at her before she disappeared, closing the door.
At the same time, from the partition between her office and the bedroom, a familiar dragon appeared. She looked sleepy, her amethyst eyes veiled and foggy, but this was definitely not enough to prevent her from seeing the human sitting at the desk at night with her body tightly wrapped in her red cloak.
The dragoness’ eyes opened wide and awake, the sleep’s fog gone and the worry taking its place.

"Raya! What are you doing out there at this time of night?!" she almost yelled, concern everywhere in her voice. "It's too cold for you to stay out of bed and the fireplaces are dead."

The dragoness stepped forward, joining the woman at the desk and twisting herself as best as she could around the chair and so the woman. Her body automatically seeks that of the human through the wood, and given the dragoness’ length, including the tail, she managed to wrap Raya all around, holding her tight in her front legs and placing her head gently on top of hers, using the fur along her neck to warm the human as best as possible.
Despite being taken by surprise, Raya couldn’t help but feel her heart flutter at both the preoccupation written all over the dragoness’ features and her very presence. She instinctively leaned into the familiar and well-liked warmth of the dragoness, shivering inside her warm embrace. She sighed in pure bliss, a smile that lit up her expression at the sensation of the dragoness being so close to her.
The dragon sighed back, though she seemed more exasperated than satisfied.

"What did I tell you about working at night?" she said, not at all satisfied with how she had found the human, although she did not sound surprised at all.

Raya grunted. "I needed to finish my work," she justified. "I can't go to sleep if I haven't finished everything, and you dragged me away before I could finish." She pouted, for even if the dragon couldn't see it, she could definitely imagine it. "You know how I am and yet you continue to do it every night."

"I know you're stubborn," the dragoness replied, sighing sleepily. She lifted her head and went directly for the human's long black hair, dipping her nose into it, inhaling and nuzzling gently. Raya giggled at the dragoness' antics

"Stop it," she said, trying effortlessly to move the dragoness' muzzle away from her hair.

"Going back to bed?" Sisu asked, hopefully.

"I can't," the woman replied, although she was certainly enjoying the attention that the dragoness was giving her, she still had a job to do.

Sisu emitted a small wail of exasperation, but Raya was not done yet.

"Besides, I think you may want to know what's written here," she said, waving her friend's letter in front of the dragoness' face.

"What is it?" asked Sisu, yawning.

"A letter from Ratana”

"And what does it say?"

Raya smiled, slyly. "Didn't you want to go to bed?" she said, sarcastically.

In response, Sisu gently ruffled her hair with her paw.

"Ok, ok! You won, you won!" Raya laughed.

"So?"

"She will be at the capital for the anniversary," Raya explained, taking the letter and reading through the initial lines again. "She talks about the preparation of the celebrations for the 25 years since the end of the Six Years of Nothing and the defeat of the Druun" Then she snorted slightly at the next words of her friend. "She is also so keen to stress that all the Chiefs and members of the Council and Commission must be there, especially the Savior of Kumandra and all."

The savior thing was always something that made her turn up her nose, no matter how people like Ratana used it sarcastically.

"Hmm, it sounds funny," murmured Sisu, resting her head on hers again, yawning tiredly, showing her long and sharp fangs in the orange candlelight. "If there's a party, there's food too, which is good enough for me."

"Of course, it would," said Raya, rolling her eyes at the dragoness’ bottomless stomach. "But you haven't heard the best part yet."

"And what would it be?" asked Sisu, beginning to close her eyes on the woman's head, dozing off.

Raya cleared her throat dramatically and bringing the letter before her eyes, she read out loud from the text. "Imagine the honor for the Dragon Capital to have the two Saviors of Kumandra in one place after 25 years for a celebration of this magnitude. I mean, it's already great to see the Chief of Heart at the Council meetings, but the Chief of the Heart and her companion, the Great Sisudatu, is something else entirely."

"What?!" blurted out the dragoness, suddenly very awake.

She took the letter from her hands, almost tearing it in the process, to read it herself. Raya has been teaching her to read in recent years. Writing was too complicated, too much time and effort, but reading had been doable over time so that now the dragoness could read what she wanted without an intermediary.

"Companion? Really?" she complained, outraged. "I've told that woman a thousand times that the right term is mate, not companion. The difference matters"

Raya chuckled. "I think she did it on purpose."

Sisu snorted, dropping the letter on the desk and returning to her previous position on her human's head. "Of course, she did," she said, annoyed. "That human is..." she stopped, thinking about the right term to describe the human, but finding none. "... well, you know."

Raya laughed.
However, her mirth died out quickly as her expression turned sad. Sisu, of course, felt the change.

“What is it?” she asked, worriedly.

Raya sighed and told the dragoness what she had already told Suri. “Ratana plans on stopping in Heart on her way to the capital. She wishes to visit Arun’s daughter.”

“Oh,” was everything the dragoness could say.

Raya murmured. It was the only obvious reaction. After twenty-four years of trying and failing, every month at the beginning, and then every year in this very period – well, many would have already given up. But not Ratana, never her.

“You think it will be different this year?” asked Sisu.

“No, I don’t think so,” Raya said, sincerely. “And I don’t think this anniversary will make things any easier for them either.”

“I’m so sorry for her,” said Sisu. “It is unfair how much that woman has to suffer. Hasn’t she suffered enough?”

Raya thought the same thing. Actually, she had been thinking the same thing every year for the last decade.
Ratana was a woman that made mistakes like everyone, but unlike everyone, she put all herself into trying to make up for them, becoming the literal servant of Kumandra, helping the poor and needy in every nation, even going as far as founding an order to reunite people in need that would help other people in need.
Not to mention how much she helped Raya in her first years as a Chief.

When will her punishment end?

Silence surrounded the two females as both mull it over in their minds. Cold was not a problem anymore since the body of the female dragon was everything Raya needed to keep herself warm and safe – which was also the reason why all the fireplaces in the room were dead – but the weight of their friend’s fate was too much for them to bear, especially that night, especially for Raya.
So, she tried to light up the atmosphere.

"You know, you looked just like your sister," she teased.

Sisu sounded confused by the sudden change of topic. “When?”

Raya smiled. “Before,” she said. “When you read companion instead of mate in the letter”
Needless to say, which sister she was referring to. They both knew.

Sisu snorted and said nothing. Raya could feel her annoyance.

She chuckled. "There you go! Exactly like her. I think the time you spent with Pranee lately has affected you a bit too much,” she teased.

"She comes once a month," defended the dragoness. "The rest of her time she spends with human and dragon’s pups at the Capital” She scoffed. “Can you believe it? One hundred years of hearing Pranee complain about how I and Amba were forever hatchlings and then she decides to spend her time with hatchlings! I swear, I’ll never understand that dragoness” She stopped, before adding. “Not that I understand the others.”

“Well, your brother Jagan found exactly what he was looking for, right?” commented Raya.

The male dragon was the permanent representative of the dragons to the Capital. A serious and political role, something he seemed very suited for.

Sisu seemed to agree. “Jagan’s easy,” she said, nonchalantly. “Put him somewhere serious and boring and it will feel like home to him”

“I guess your sister Amba took all the fun genetics of the family, then,” Raya joked, perfectly knowing what the opinion of the dragoness was on her glowing-powered sister.

Indeed, Sisu scoffed. “More like she took all the vanity of the family,” she said. “I saw some humans work on something that can reflect your image. I hope they’ll never develop that people’s invention or Amba will die in front of one of those things”

Raya giggled. “Looks like only your brother Pengu is a good dragon in your eyes,” she said. “At least with the calmness of the last years, his job got easier.”

“Pengu and me, of course,” corrected Sisu with a smile so big that the human could imagine it even without seeing the dragoness' face.

Raya turned on the chair so that she could be face-to-face with the dragoness, her dragoness's face, the most beautiful amethyst eyes she had ever seen. She could get lost in those eyes. Whether it was five, then, or one hundred years that had passed, she would always feel drawn to those eyes. Such was the attraction that Raya could do nothing but get carried away and stretch her hands to take the dragoness on the sides of her muzzle, gently caressing her. Sisu melted in her hands immediately, closing her eyes and enjoying the soft touch of those agile human hands.
Raya smiled at the dragoness’ reaction and her smile grew even wider when she sneaked a peek at the long braid in the dragoness’ long neck fur where a familiar golden ring was tied up, dangling.

"You're the best thing that has ever happened to me," Raya couldn’t help but whisper.

Sisu smiled softly as the human leaned forward and kissed her.

"Are you coming to bed now?" asked Sisu after the kiss.

Raya briefly looked at the red sealed letter with the dragon symbol, her friend’s white letter, and all the other stuff on the table. She wasn’t done, but considering the new documents Suri brought, she would never be done before sunrise anyway. So, she decided to let it go for that evening. Now, the best thing she could do was to take refuge in the furs with her dragon for a well-deserved restful sleep.

"Yes," she said, before screaming in surprise when the dragoness picked her up from the chair, rapidly getting through the partition and into the bedroom on two legs.

"You could have warned me, you know?" she complained.

Sisu chuckled. "And where would the fun be then?"

Sisu gently placed the woman on the large bed full of furs, carefully wrapping her in them to protect her from the biting cold. Sisu climbed onto the bed right after with a slight crunch indicating the weight change. The dragon then circled the human with her long body, letting the human lay her head next to the hairy chest, while the dragoness rested her head next to the woman’s lap, her eyelids heavy.
Sisu yawned, Raya giggled.

"Tired?"

Sisu flashed open only one eye at her. "You know that to be so fantastic my beauty sleep has to be of quite a few hours, right?"

"You don't need beauty sleep"

Sisu raised her head and ruffled the girl’s hair with her muzzle, whispering something along the lines of "flatterer" and then kissed her on the forehead, before resuming her previous position on the bed, closing her eyes.
Raya sighed with satisfaction, feeling the sleep coming with ease. Maybe it was the weight of the long day, or maybe the warmth and protection provided by the furs and the dragoness next to her. Probably it was all of it together.

"Sisu," she called already on the edge of consciousness.

"Mhh?" replies the dragoness, just as close to the world of dreams as the human was.

"I love you"

Sisu smiled.

"I love you too."

Chapter Text

The two dragonesses walked down the corridor.

“This way, my lady,” the violet and blue dragoness mockingly said.

Sisu yawned full mouth, showing her sharp and long teeth. “I told you not to call me that,” she said. “I’m not royalty.”

Her sister Pranee waved nonchalantly. “But of course you are, dear sister,” she said, sarcastically. “I mean, you married the Queen of Heart, didn’t you? That makes you Queen-Consort and therefore royalty. In short,” she ended, turning to smirk at her sister. “A lady.”

“No, I’m not”

“Yes, you are”

“No, I’m not”

“Yes, you are”

Sisu rolled her eyes, annoyed by her sister’s antics. “What’s gotten into you this morning, Pranee?” she asked. “I’ve been married for years now. You should have been calling me “my lady” from the very beginning, don’t you think?”

Her sister was behaving awkwardly. Not that she wasn’t awkward any other day, because she surely was, but that morning she seemed even more awkward.

Pranee laughed as she opened the way through another corridor, inside another palace’s section.

“You can keep dreaming, Sissy,” she said. “You’re not royalty, indeed. After all, we both know who’s really running things in Heart, right?”

Sisu wrinkled her nose at the insult, indignantly. “Hey! I do help too, you know,” she defended. “Actually, if Raya is in charge of everything happening to the people, I’m directly responsible for the continuous well-being and prosperity of the dragons” She puffed out her chest a little at that, proudly. “Ah! Beat this!”

Her sister turned and smiled at her, but Sisu wasn’t joking. Much had changed in the last twenty-five years, more than even she realized. She was more self-confident and capable and even prouder than she’d ever been before and that was all because of the influence of a certain former Princess, now Queen of Heart.

Pranee knew all of that, she saw it firstpaw, but it seemed that she still loved messing with her anytime she could.

“Oh really?” said the older dragoness, skeptically. “Then, what about when your mate had to solve that strange illness spreading only through yellow dragons?”

Sisu was visibly taken aback for a moment by that. She expected everything but that.

“Well, that was-“

But Pranee wasn’t going to let her get out of her trap so easily.

“And what about that time the dragons started arguing about the sleeping places?”

Sisu frowned. That was another time she didn’t exactly solve the situation, so to speak.

“I was about to-“

“And that time you almost fell from that tree to try and save that bird.”

Sisu closed her mouth, unable to speak further, while her sister was visibly trying her best to hide her laugh. Frowning indignantly, she stopped in the center of the corridor. Her sister stopped too, probably predicting her reaction. But she couldn’t guess the amount of shame she had just put on her shoulder with just a few examples. Her pride surely increased in the last years, but she was still very insecure about her leadership capabilities, and especially at the beginning, she failed a lot.

“When you put it that way, it really looks like Raya is the one doing everything in Heart,” she said, sounding defeated.

Her sister raised an eyebrow at her. “Are you going to pout on me, little one?” she said. “Who is the lady here?”

Sisu glared at her. She was trying to be serious and her sister continued to fool around. Of course, Pranee had never been the best example of empathy towards her and Amba when it came to failures and consequential life lessons, but it seemed too much even for her.

“You know what I mean,” she said, annoyed.

The other dragoness nodded. “I know what you mean and I know you,” she said, moving and sitting next to her at the center of the corridor. “You did extraordinary things,” she said, pausing before adding. “But, and it pains me to admit it, your human Raya seems just natural for this kind of stuff, that’s all” She shrugged.

Upon hearing her mate’s name, the expression of the blue dragoness lightened up. Her eyes got lost for a moment, and her smile became a dreamy one as she answered.

“Yes, she surely is,” she said.

Here, Pranee couldn’t be more right. Raya was a capable woman for many different types of jobs, but when it came to ruling, solving problems, and even dealing with international issues all over Kumandra, well it was evident that she was born for it.

“Hey!” her line of thought was interrupted by her sister, waving a hand in front of her muzzle. “Sister to sister, are you there, lovebird?”

Sisu shook her head and saw her sister shaking her head at her. “Twenty-five years had passed,” she said dramatically. “And still, you look like a hatchling drooling over her puppy crush. It never ceases to impress me how much two idiots could be so endlessly in love with one another.”

She looked away and blushed, feeling like a fledgling getting caught thinking about her crush during some lesson.

Pranee laughed at her reaction, and that reminded her of their previous discussion, the one that mattered.

“Still, you are belittling me and my work,” said Sisu, moving the conversation to something just a little less embarrassing for her.

“I’m doing no such thing, you jellyfish,” Pranee said, nuzzling her and tangling her tail with hers. “You are capable and strong-willed. You are just…learning.”

Sisu grimaced. “Not fast enough, though,” she said.

“Look at me, Sisu,” suddenly commanded her sister as she gently grabbed her muzzle and turned her head so that the two could look at each other eyes. Sisu looked into her sister's very eyes, seeing the sincerity behind her intentions. “In the last years you’ve grown so much that I find it difficult to believe you are the same dragoness I raised,” she said, proudly. “In a short time, you’ve grown into the dragoness I’ve always hoped you would be someday, and I couldn’t be prouder.”

The two locked eyes for a moment. Violet into violet, so similar but at the same time so different. Still one, still sisters.

“That’s why I’ve brought you here this morning,” she continued, indicating the door at the end of the corridor with her paw.

Sisu frowned and turned to look at the door, puzzledly. “Where’s here?” she asked, her voice colored by evident curiosity. Her mind had been filled with different options about what her sister wanted to show her since Pranee knocked at her door that morning. Or better say, she forced her out of the bed.

Her sister smiled and walked towards the door. “You’ll see,” she said as she reached the door and waited for her expectantly.

Sisu approached her sister who, with a bright smile, opened the door to a wide and densely illuminated pavilion. The room was opened to the outside, with the sides made up of white columns and the other side from the door open to nature. The light of the sun broke through the air and illuminated the white floor of the room, richly decorated with a puzzle of colorful tiles.

There, at the center of the room, three young dragons and three young humans were arguing about something. Sisu couldn’t exactly make out what they were saying, but some of them noticed their arrival and closed their mouth. The ones who were giving their back at the door seemed oblivious to the new presence.

“When I’m older, I’ll make sure humans change one or two things in their cities,” a young green dragon was saying. “I mean, have you ever tried sleeping on one of those den’s roofs? They are so uncomfortable, I don’t like them.“

“They’re not built to let you dragons laze up on them all day, you know,” commented one of the human kids next to him, crossing his arms before his chest.

“Well, maybe they should,” the green dragon snapped. “Besides,” he added, with a huff. “As if you people didn’t laze up inside all day too.”

“That’s different,” replied the young boy. “Those are our homes, we build them. We have the right to do whatever we like with them.”

The green hatchling seemed irritated by the boy’s honesty as he looked away from the kid. “Well, I don’t like them anyway,” he said.

During their conversation, Pranee and Sisu approached the small group, unheard. Pranee, with her usual nonchalance, had gestured to her to stay low and let her go first. Surely she had something in mind and considering the compliance of the ones who noticed their entrance, it seemed to her that this wasn’t the first time her sister sneaked on someone of them in the worst possible moment.

Still, the students’ eyes gave them away to the ones giving their back at them. Almost all of them turned at once. All but the green dragon who must have been confused by his colleagues’ reaction, but understood quite quickly.

“She is behind me, isn’t she?” he said, toneless.

No one said anything, but their silence was as good as a yes.

“What is it you don’t like exactly, Miha?” Pranee asked, towering behind the young dragon.

The young male tensed at the sound of her voice, and then slowly turned to face the adult dragoness. He looked at her with barely concealed apprehension and a small, shy smile.

Pranee raised an eyebrow at him.

“But of course what you don’t like, Ma’am,” he said rapidly.

“That’s more like it,” nodded in approval Pranee, barely containing her mirth.

“You’re the worst,” commented Sisu at her side. “You terrorizing these poor-“

The violet and blue dragoness closed her sister’s jaw with her paw, almost making her cut her own tongue.

“Oh, don’t worry, my dear sister, I’m perfectly capable of handling a bunch of hatchlings,” she said with a smile towards her. “After all, I’ve handled you and your sister, which is quite the result if you ask me.”

Sisu narrowed her eyes at her but didn’t try to say anything. Satisfied with her reaction, her sister focused back on the group of dragon and human hatchlings.

“Ok, class, listen up,” she ordered as the dragons and humans automatically disposed on a line, strengthening their backs.

“Today,” she continued. “We have quite the important guest,” she gestured at her with the same paw she used to close her mouth. “This is Sisudatu, my sister and Savior of Kumandra.”

A chorus of astonishment was the answer she got from the small public, with even the green hatchling whistling. Pranee ignored it, while Sisu merely waved her paw in a salute, surely feeling embarrassed. She didn’t like being called Savior, just like Raya didn’t.
Which was why Pranee called her that on every other occasion she had.

“Ehm, hey guys,” she said.

Her sister next to her rolled her eyes.

“As you all may recall, I raised my sister since she was a hatchling, smaller than you are now,” she continued.

“Pranee, I don’t think they need to-“ she tried to protest but the dragoness waved her objection away.

“And now she is a two-times Savior of Kumandra, Queen-Consort of Heart, and Leader of the Heart Community of dragons,” she listed. “Oh, and she refused the position as Representative of the Dragons at the Commission here in the Capital what? Three times now?” she asked, side glancing at her, mischievously. “And this is in just a few years.”

The young dragons looked at Sisu like she was a goddess fallen to earth, while her sister was doing her best to contain her mirth at her expense.

“Ok, I think it is enough of a presentation,” she said, embarrassed.

Her sister smirked, but she mercifully continued.

“My experience grants me the necessary skill to train you whelps on how to live in this world,” she said. “Why don’t you explain to my dear sister here what I’m trying to pass through that thick skull of yours?”
Sisu glared at the older dragoness for her vocabulary, but Pranee ignored her.

As often happened in that kind of situation, no one seemed to want to speak and it rapidly came to the “teacher” to force someone to do so.

“Miha?”

“Oh, come on, it’s always-“ the pup started to protest but shut his mouth as soon as he saw her sister’s glaring. “I mean, of course, Ma’am, I would love to,” he said, as a fake, bright smile appeared on his muzzle.

He turned to face Sisu. “Miss Pranee teaches us how to behave with different communities, dragons and humans alike,” he stopped and looked at the violet and blue dragoness that signaled for him to go on. Miha smiled nervously at her and went on. “Especially, she teaches us how humans work, so we can understand and work better with them.”

Again, he looked at her sister searching for her approval. She let him cook needlessly for a long moment, but finally, she nodded as the hatchling visibly looked relieved. Looking at her sister, she thought that she was loving a bit too much her work, especially considering how she treated these poor hatchlings. Still, she did have to admit that she was doing something quite important for the community, something so unlike her.

“Wow Pranee, I must say that this is…something,” she said, looking at her with expressive eyes, clearly meaning much more than she had just worded.

And they both know it.

Pranee shrugged, feigning nonchalance. “What can I say?” she said. “I’m good at what I do.”

“I’m sure you are,” Sisu rolled her eyes.

“But,” her sister suddenly said. “Miha gave quite the vague definition of what we are doing here,” she glanced at the young dragon who stiffened under the older dragoness’ glare. Pranee smirked and Sisu thought that she was indeed enjoying a bit too much her position there.

“I’m not only teaching abstract, theoretical things,” she went on. “I’m here to give examples and life lessons and what better way to make you too understand, dear sister, than with a theatrical representation? Hyvit, Mai,” she said pointing to hatchlings in the line, one dragon and one human. “Your turn.”

The line broke and all but a young human boy and a female dragon remained at the center of the room, while the others positioned outside an invisible circle around them. Pranee nodded to the two, and the boy spoke.

“I’m Hyvit and in this example, I’ll be the King of Spine,” he said, puffing his chest out proudly.

Sisu frowned at that and whispered at her sister. “Does Spine have a King?” she asked.

Pranee shrugged. “No, but he seems to like the title and who am I to deny him a dream?”

Sisu smiled at that. She wasn’t so bad after all.

“I’m a merciful ruler,” said the boy. “Good king, fine warrior, and a magnificent-“ he stopped when her sister cleared her throat, noisily, forcing him to stop.

“I mean,” he said, embarrassed. “My lumberjacks are cutting down trees they shouldn’t be touching and a group of dragons denounced this to the Commission,” he concluded.

Pranee nodded and then turned to the young dragoness on the stage.

“I’m Mai,” she said. “And in this example, I’m the pacifier the Commission chose to investigate and try to solve the problem.”

Her sister nodded again. “Go on, then,” she ordered.

Sisu sat. She had a feeling she was going to enjoy that.

The boy and the dragoness turned one in front of the other and positioned in a clear pose of recitation.

“Greetings, King Hyvit,” the female dragoness saluted with a small bow.

“Greetings to you, mighty dragon,” said the boy, nodding politely to the dragoness. “To what do I owe the pleasure?”

“The Commission sent me, my lord,” said Mai. “A group of dragons denounced the illegal cut of a good deal of trees on the far-eastern side of your capital and I’m here to investigate it.”

The boy did a good job of trying and looking aghast and hurt. “An illegal cut of…” he paused. “But that’s impossible, they would never-“

“That’s why I’ve been sent for, my lord,” said the dragoness, calmly. “To investigate on it.”

“Very well,” said the little kid after a small pause when he tried to show his character regaining himself from the surprise, making Sisu cover a laugh with her paw, getting a glance from her sister.

The boy looked towards them. “Some days after,” he said.

A boy and a girl approached from outside the scene and positioned next to the dragoness, on the same side, one near the other.

“My lord,” said the dragoness.

“Mighty dragon,” the boy said, moving his eyes from the dragoness to the two new appearances. “I take it you find something, I presume?”

The dragoness nodded. “Yes, my lord,” she said, gesturing to the two little humans next to her. “These two are involved in the illegal cut of woods.”

“It is not true,” said the girl, looking offended.

“Yeah, what she said,” said the boy, visibly much younger, trying to imitate the girl.

“Defend yourself,” commanded Hyvit.

“We were not cutting those trees illegally, Your Majesty,” said the girl, perfectly interpreting her character too. “We were just collecting wood for the coming winter.”

“You don’t need that much wood,” said Mai. “You have completely destroyed hectares of forest, killed plants, and chased animals away, dragons included. Furthermore,” she added, coolly. “You haven’t proceeded with the replanting phase. Why?” she asked, looking at the two with a raised eyebrow. “Did you plan on using that land any other way?”

The little boy gasped, indignantly. “It is not true!” he protested.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, great dragon,” said the girl, crossing her arms over her chest. “We are just honest lumberjacks and we were going to replant those trees. We just needed more time.”

Hyvit smiled and clapped his hands. “See? Nothing to worry about. They’re going to replant those,” he said. “Now, if you would-“

“I beg to differ, my lord,” said Mai, taking a piece of paper passed to her from another kid entering the scene and then exiting right after. “I’ve found proof that these people planned to use that ground for their purposes: building human dens,” she presented the boy king with the piece of paper.

It was evident even from her position that the paper was blank, but the theatric capabilities of the boy never ceased to amaze Sisu as he pretended to read words on it.

“Good job until now,” read the boy. “You’ll be paid one-half as soon as the first houses have been built. The rest will be due when everything’s finished.”

He closed the paper. “Well,” he said, deadly serious. “This is quite the proof you have here, mighty dragon. Looks like you were right: these people are up to something,” he said, trying his best to look down menacingly on the other two so much so that Sisu had to cover her mouth again to show she was giggling at the scene.

“You had to burn that paper, you idiot!” barked the girl to the young boy, who looked at her, outraged.

“Hey!” he protested.

“Guards!” said the boy king, puffing out his chest again, looking proud while two other kids appeared in the scene. “Take them away!” he ordered gesturing with his hand.

The girl and the little boy were brought out from the scene shouting. At her side, Pranee looked pleased with the interpretation as the show went on. Sisu had to concur, of course. She had quite the theatrical lot, she had to say.

“It is a pity,” said Hyvit to Mai when they were left alone. “That the paper was not signed or I would also be taking the bastard-“ she stopped, tensing, turning to look at her sister who glared at him, coldly.

“I-I me-mean,” he continued. “The bandit that is behind all this.” He sighed. “Looks like I can’t, unfortunately”

He shrugged then, almost nonchalantly. “Thank you for your help, mighty dragon,” he continued. “I’ll make sure to order the replantation of the entire land stolen from nature. Besides,” the boy added pompously. “I’m sure whoever is behind this will not try anything for a while after I’ve dealt with these traitors myself.”

The dragoness kept her stony expression as she spoke. “I’m sure he won’t,” she said.

The boy did an excellent job of looking surprised. “He?” he asked. “How do you know he is a he.”

At that moment, a familiar green dragon entered the scene.

“I found it exactly where you said I would,” said Miha, pawing over another paper to Mai.

She looked at the blank paper then turned her stare on the boy king. “This paper was found in possession of the chief builder of the Capital,” she said, stoically, holding the piece of paper with her paw like it was dirt. “What does it say, Miha?” she asked.

“It says, no better, it orders to raze to the ground the forest to build human dens in its place,” he said, looking at Hyvit with a smirk. “Turns out, this one’s signed.”

“From whom?” Mai asked.

“It just says the royal palace,” he said.

“So, we don’t know precisely who gave the order,” the dragoness asked.

“Actually,” said Miha, smiling. “We do”

For all the time, the boy king did a very good job with his facial expressions looking first impassive, then apprehensive, then again relieved, and once again apprehensive. Sisu saw other times humans acting in theaters both in Heart and at the Capital, but those people were all adult humans. These were actors at such a young age, truly.

“I checked who of the Royal Family was in Spine those days since, you know, you have to tell when you leave the city, and I found that both Queen Yami and Prince Bon were out of the city” Miha looked at the boy king with a smile far too big to be just a part of the theater. “Which leaves only one inside who could have signed this document” He raised an eyebrow at Hyvit.

The boy was about to speak when he was brutally interrupted even before he could try and defend himself.

“Spare us your lies, Hyvit,” he said. “You have been revealed” he smiled further. “Looks like your chief builder must learn to burn letters too, right?”

Hyvit grimaced and turned to them. The scene changed, Mai and the others left the stage and only the two males, human and dragon, were left.

“I’ve been discovered, poor me,” Hyvit said, dramatically. “And there is nothing I can do now.”

Miha scoffed at the antics of the kid but said. “You abused your power as a King.”

The boy brought a hand to his face, and with an exaggeratedly stunned voice, he said. “I did, but what can I say? I’m a king, I’m accustomed to doing whatever I want, and the people asked for new homes”

“What people?” said Miha, glaring at him. “Rich people. People which you either wanted to keep good or owed favors to.”

“Both,” said the boy, keeping his skit.

Sisu giggled at this and Pranee at her side silenced her.

“You wanted to destroy a forest only to satisfy your personal interests, for alliances, for you damned human money,” Miha said, disapprovingly. “You risked the natural balance of the forest, the lives of other animals living in there, the lives of common dragons and humans both included.”

“I just wanted influence, money, and power,” the boy said, pathetically. “Can you really blame me for that?”

“Yes, I can!” snapped the dragon.

“Oh dear,” said the boy as he dramatically crawled out of the scene, leaving it all for Miha. “What have I done?”

The dragon positioned at the center of the stage looked toward the two adult dragoness, intently.

“That’s why dragons must be with humans. We balance each other, and we keep in balance nature and the cycle of life all together,” he said. “Dragons make mistakes, but humans make mistakes too, selfish mistakes, that oftentimes influence the order of things much more than anything we dragons will ever be able to do”

“With their little hands, humans can create beautiful things, create art, create life,” he continued, as the other children and hatchlings brought to the scene tools and instruments of everyday life: a paper and pen, a bowl, a book, a decorated vase. “But,” he went on. “With those same little hands, they can create death and destruction for everyone: animals, nature, dragons, and their own”

The children and hatchling fell to the ground, faking their death. Sisu brought her paw to hide her mouth again, but this time she wasn’t giggling, but she was cringing terrified, her heart missing a beat at the prospect of what scenario lay ahead of her.
“That’s why humans and dragons must be together for the world to be safe. Not only a pretty alliance but a serious duty for a better world,” he concluded, bowing before them.

Silence.

Then Sisu applauded enthusiastically. Pranee followed and soon enough all the humans and dragons inside the room. The main characters bowed in front of the two older dragoness as they would in a theater and Sisu couldn’t help but laugh out of pure amusement. But, apparently, her sister wasn’t having any more drama going around.

“Alright, runts, that’s enough ego-boosting for one day,” she said. “You have one hour free to do whatever you want” she glared at Miha. “Free doesn’t mean stealing from the kitchens, Miha,” she warned. “At the very least, be smart enough not to be caught”

Miha and Sisu both remained stunned by these words, but Pranee was already going on with her orders.

“Be back in one hour,” she said, threateningly. “And I mean it. Learn punctuality or I'll make you. Understood?”

Hatchling and children both nodded furiously and with one last glare Pranee allowed them to leave.

“Off you go now.”

Sisu looked at the lot leaving the room quite ordinately for a group of little ones. They walked in a line toward the door, and even outside it, they kept quite an ordinate walk, even if their voices could be heard by the distance. She immediately guessed her sister must have had something to do with this.

“Wow, you did quite the job with them,” she commented, gesturing with her head to the door. “Even if I have to say that your methods didn’t change much,” she teased.

“You mock me, dear sister,” huffed the older violet and blue dragoness. “But you see the results. They work efficiently,” she said, proudly.

“And together,” stressed Sisu, with a proud smile herself. “Humans and dragons working together.”

Pranee’s expression was lit by a small smile. “Well, what can I say?” she said. “I’ve had my bad experiences but in the end, I also saw good examples…”

Sisu smiled brightly at her sister, knowing very well the meaning behind those words. Pranee had a very different thought about human and dragons’ relationship with each other, but in the last few decades she learned a lot and she could boast that the credit was all hers.

She smiled slyly. “Good example, huh?” she repeated. “Well, wait until Raya hears of this,” she smiled mischievously. “She’s going to be so delighted!”

Pranee glared at her. “Don’t push your luck, Sissy,” she warned, playfully.

Chapter Text

In the Commission's room, a woman stood beside a purple dragon. She sipped her drink calmly, while the dragon stared sternly ahead. Upon closer inspection, though, the dragon’s tail flicked back and forth, betraying his nervousness.

“Do you know where my sisters are?” asked Jagan with his usual directness.

“No,” answered Raya. “Pranee broke into our room early this morning and forced Sisu out of bed. I didn’t even have the time to ask a thing, that they were already gone”. She couldn’t help but giggle at the image of a barely-wake Sisu staggering behind her sister like a drunk puppy. It was a cute scene, and even a bit funny, she had to admit it. “I’m sure I don’t have to tell you how unhappy Sisu was.”

Jagan grimaced. “No, you needn’t,” he said. “Still, both agreed to be here for the opening ceremony. Sisu is the Savior of Kumandra, and Pranee is one of our family.” His voice let pass his disappointment for the matter. “They must be here in time.”

Raya nodded. “I’m sure they will be,” she said, trying to reassure the dragon.

She got why he was so upset, after all, he organized everything for the opening ceremony and knowing him, it would be very big and maniacally well organized. The dragon had been going on about this day for a full year now, about the importance of such a day and so on and so forth. It was only natural for him to be worried that something could go wrong after he put so much dedication into it. Jagan was a very precise dragon and he would not tolerate complications from his family members.
She was mostly sure that the two dragonesses would be there in time. After all, Pranee was quite the practical dragoness and she surely knew she wouldn’t hear the end of it if she was to step on her brother’s tail on something as important as that for him.
Of course, thinking about it, this could be the exact reason she would miss the ceremony.

“The Chiefs are missing too,” pointed out Jagan, shaking his head disappointedly. He looked to a gear clock in the palm of his paw, tied to his forepaw. The hands were halfway pointing to midday. He snorted. “I thought humans built these things to be precise. Thought I was wrong,” he said.

Raya refrained from rolling her eyes at the dragon’s antics. Instead, she reassured him again as the violet dragon was being eroded by apprehension and therefore more whiny than usual.

“We still have time, Jagan,” she said, caressing the dragon on the shoulder. “I’m sure Naamari will be here in no time, she is a clock herself. Noi and Tan too”

The dragon murmured. “What about the Tail Chief?” he asked, raising an eyebrow at her.

Raya paused. “Well, I guess-“

Voices behind the doors stopped her mid-sentence. Both the human and the dragon turned their attention as the two massive doors of the Commission's room were opened by two stern-looking guards, revealing a small woman and a young boy, both dressed in golden yellow. The woman, leaning on a stick, limped slowly through the room, ignoring everything and everyone in her path. Her golden, fiery eyes were fixed on the Queen of Heart, her gait punctuated by the rhythmic sound of the stick. Her hair were punctuated by white and her face showed the signs of a person who saw a lot in her years.
The woman stopped in front of her and looked at Raya, studying her with her eyes, saying nothing, her lips stretched in a line.

Then.

“You’ve grown old,” she said.

No one in the room said anything. The servants slowly disappeared from the view. Even Jagan’s tail stopped its flickering as he looked curiously between the two women. The tension could be sliced with a knife.
Raya looked back at the woman, scanning her features, before raising an eyebrow. The woman with the stick maintained the stare, stubbornly.
All of a sudden, though, her lips cracked into a smile, and then into a laugh that resonated in the room. Raya joined her immediately after and the two hugged each other friendly, washing away all the tension that had been tainting the room.

“Ari! How long has it been?” asked Raya, disentangling from the hug.

“It’s been too long, damn you!” said the Chief of Tail, sounding disappointedly. “You could have shown up in the last few years”

“I was busy, you know,” said Raya, chuckling. “What is your excuse?”

Chief Ariija raised an eyebrow at her and pointed to her limping leg. Raya didn’t seem impressed, though.

“That never stopped you before,” she noticed.

“No,” confirmed the older woman. “And just for the record,” she added, pointing the stick toward her, menacingly. “It won’t stop me from kicking your pretty dragon-lover butt now”

Raya smiled. “I’d like to see you try,” she challenged.

Ariija scoffed. “You’re playing with fire, Savior,” she said, highlighting the world she knew she despised. The Chief smiled. “Let’s water it for you, what’s you say?” She turned to the boy just a few steps behind her. “Boy, bring us something to drink,” she barked. “Now!”

The boy hurried to do as he was asked.

“I don’t think we have the tim-“Raya tried to protest, but the other woman waved away her concerns.

“Nonsense,” Ariija said. “No one’s hurrying us to do anything.”

Raya side-eyed toward where Jagan, who left them as soon as the tension decreased, was still making sure everything was exactly as he had planned.

“I wouldn’t be so sure,” she said.

The Chief of Tail ignored her and opened the way for the two women to the nearest table so that the limping woman could sit for a moment. She sat down heavily on the chair, immediately reaching for her ill leg, massaging it with slow and circular movements.

She sighed. “This damn palace,” she said, annoyed. “They couldn’t build it with bigger rooms and longer corridors, right?” She huffed continuing her massaging. “At least they could have thought about some kind mechanical monstrosity to help people move from one side to the other.”

“If you need help,” said Raya with a mocking smile. “I will have someone carrying you around for the duration of your stay, Chief.”

Ariija sent her a death glare. “And if you need a fuck, I will gladly have my squire help you, Savior,” she retorted.

Raya smiled. Despite being so rigid and tempered by the sand, the Tail woman was as stinging as a rose bush.

“I’m sorry, but I’ll have to decline your generous offer,” she said, feigning politeness. “No offense, but he is not my type.” She smirked. “Besides, I can assure you, I don’t need it.” And saying this, she winked at the other woman, who grimaced disgusted.

“Don’t remind me,” she said. “You two are disgusting. I’ve never seen a couple so sticky to each other. You clearly need help.”
Raya laughed.

The boy came back with two cups. Raya thanked him, but Ariija snatched the cup from the boy, gulped down the content, and then as she cleaned her mouth with the back of her hand, she glared at the boy.

“When I told you to bring us something to drink, I meant more than one cup,” she chastised the boy who looked embarrassed but remained still under the glaring eyes of his Chief.

“What are you waiting for?” she pressed. “Go find us some more!”

“R-Right aw-away, C-Ch-Chief,” he babbled and turned to run away with his tail between his legs.

Ariija sighed. Raya took a sip from the cup, smiling in the cup at the familiar taste of Heart’s liquor, before addressing the other woman.

“Which number?” she asked.

“What?”

“The boy,” explained the Heart Queen. “Which number is he? The second, third-“

“Sixth,” said the Tail Chief. “The sixth in just a year.”

Raya hummed, thoughtful. “Don’t you think you should be just a little less tough with the boy, then?” she proposed. “I’m sure you don’t want to train another one all over again”

Ariija scoffed. “He’s an idiot.” She said. “They all are.”

“Then you should try teaching him something,” Raya continued.

“Am doing that,” the woman protested.

Raya raised an eyebrow at the Tail woman who maintained the look persistently before giving up.

She sighed again. “All right, all right,” she gave up. “You’re right,” she repeated, taking the cup and tilting her head back, trying to steal from it even the last drop. “That’s why you’re the Savior. That’s why I sent her to you.”

Raya’s expression lit up at the mention of “her”, the Chief’s daughter.

“How’s Arya?” she asked.

The Tail Chief sighed for the third time in a row.

“She’s stubborn,” she said. “Damn Stubborn,” she added. “Thorny even, but you already know that, don’t you? Oh, and always asking about you.”

Raya smiled at this. She knew the Chief’s daughter to be stubborn, she had tutored the girl for most of her childhood to her teenage years. She was determined, capable, and crafty, but with an intense aversion for rules and any type of authority altogether.
She liked the girl. She reminded her a lot of her mother.

“Guess who she’s taken after,” she said, sipping some more from her drink.

Ariija scoffed and glared at her, frowningly.

The boy came back and passed a bottle to the Chief, who snatched it harshly from his hands and filled her cup, then she gulped it all in one shot.

“Slow down with that,” Raya advised. “We have an opening to attend to.”

“I’ll be fine,” she said, filling another cup. “Besides, this is just a medicine for the sore leg, nothing more.”

She drank another cup and went for another, but Raya stopped her taking the bottle from her very hand and positioning it away from the woman’s reach.

“Yeah, I remember you like to say that,” Raya said, her voice containing that edge that signaled she was serious about this. “But forgive me if I don’t believe you.” Her expression softened as she looked at the other woman right in the eyes. “Now spit it out. What happened?”

Ariiji’s lips were stretched in a line and her grip on the cup made her knuckles white, but she didn’t argue or try to reach for the bottle.

“Leave us, boy,” she ordered instead, without looking at the young male who seemed all too happy to comply and silently took his leave.

The Tail Chief stayed silent for a time, taking small sips of what was left of her drink, and keeping her eyes down. “Arya,” she finally said. “The stubborn brat. I ordered her to come here, with me, so that she could learn one thing or two about leading, politics, and stupid ceremonies she will have to attend when the time comes”

“But she refused,” guessed Raya, moving to take a seat next to the other woman, her drink abandoned on the table, unimportant.

The Tail Chief sighed, nodding. “She did more than that,” she said. “She started babbling about not wanting to be Chief, about fleeing in Heart and joining your staff and other stupid things” She grimaced. “I know she does that to anger me,” she paused, throwing her head back and finishing the last remnants of her drink. “And she does that just damn right.”

“Have you tried talking about it with her?” proposed the Heart Queen, already imagining the answer, though.

Ariija smashed the cup on the table, cleaning her mouth with the back of her hand.

“What is there to talk about?” she challenged. “She will be Chief, end of the story.”

“Maybe she doesn’t want to,” said Raya, calmly. “Maybe-“but she couldn’t finish that line of thought.

“There’s no such option, Raya” snapped firmly the Tail Chief, challenging her to say otherwise with her eyes. “She’s the last in line, the only remaining member of my family. I have no other children and no siblings’ bloodline to count on,” she winced. “Not anymore”

“If she refuses the position of Chief,” she continued after a small pause. “Someone else will step up and take our place.”

“And so, what?” shrugged Raya. “Don’t you remember your predecessor? She had no siblings or parents too and you were able to take the mantle of Chief. Sounds like it turned up pretty fairly for you.”

“I’ll not be like her,” interrupted Ariija.

“Besides,” continued the Heart’s Queen, ignoring the other woman’s protests. “What should I say? I will have no direct, blood-related heir too. Is Heart destined to fall? Should I worry?” She shrugged. “I’ll just name someone fit for the job” Her eyes shone at the thought. She didn’t have someone in mind yet, but the idea of teaching someone about the Queen’s duties and job was strangely entailing. “See the bright side of it: you’ll be able to raise someone for it, granting continuity to your reign and prosperity to your people.”

“I want blood continuity,” said the other woman, stubbornly. “You know Tail’s traditions and you know me. I won’t let my nation to some sand-slurping idiot. I want my daughter on that chair,” she emphasized the concept with her index on the table. “And I wish for you to guide her and stay by her side when I could not,” she added, softening both her tone and her expression as she whispered. “Please.”

Raya sighed. Her friend was stubborn and she knew she would take no advice of hers about that matter. Her mind was up already and nothing would change that. The best she could do, like always, was stay by her side and help where she could without forcing things.

“You should be the one guiding her,” Raya proposed as a last stand. “I’m not-“

“We both know you’re better than me at this…” she said, lying down on the chair. “…Parenting thing, even if you don’t have kids yourself…or hatchlings, or whatever”

Raya rolled her eyes.

“And,” Ariija continued. “We both know you will be in this world much longer than me.”

Raya said nothing. After all, her friend was right, about anything. About the parenting thing she was proud of her capabilities despite the lack of children of her own, even though she didn’t want her friend to beat herself up about this.
While for the living part…well, she just didn’t want to think about that now.

“There’s more,” suddenly said Ariija, interrupting her stream of consciousness.

Raya looked at the Tail woman, waiting. Her friend looked insecure as if she didn’t want to speak any further, but at the same time, she really needed to. She fidgeted with her fingers on the table, marking the passing time with her rhythm.

“Someone stole from me,” she finally confessed. “They stole something I…care deeply about,” she explained.

That hit the Heart woman. She knew her friend to be a very scary person both in her nation and outside, everyone would be very ware of her, and rightly so. Thus, it sounded weird to know that someone had dared to steal from the infamous Tail Chief.

“But I tracked them here, in the Capital,” she said. “Somewhere down city.”

Raya understood where this was going.

“And you need me to help you,” guessed Raya, arching an eyebrow at the other woman.

She nodded. “Like good old times,” she smiled.

Raya answered with a smile of her own. Her friend was in need and she would never turn down someone who needed her, especially her. She took the bottle she snatched from her before and poured her friend’s cup one last time. Then, she took hers and clicked glasses.

“After the opening ceremony,” she promised.

Ariija scoffed annoyedly. Raya chuckled.

A - A - A

“The docks,” sneered Ariija, looking around at the big platforms where numerous ships were unloading their cargos. “Why does it always have to be the docks?”

The bustling dock was alive with activity. Platforms stretched out into the water, where ships of various sizes were moored, their sails billowing gently in the breeze. The market nearby was a hive of commerce, with vendors calling out to passersby, selling everything from fresh seafood to handmade trinkets. The streets were crowded with people, each absorbed in their own tasks, creating a vibrant tapestry of movement and sound. The air was filled with the scent of saltwater and the distant cries of seagulls, adding to the lively atmosphere of the dock.

“Well, you must admit it is quite suggestive,” said Raya, fixing her hood back in place.

Her friend scoffed at her. “I knew you would like it,” she said. “You’ve always had a nip for awkward things, and take awkward choices, don’t you”

Raya giggled. “Awkward choices huh? Like befriending someone like you?” she teased.

Ariija shrugged. “That and sending that idiot of my squire questioning the girl,” she said, glaring at the hooded woman. “It’s more stupid than awkward if you ask me.”

Raya looked at her friend’s squire, distant over one of the platforms, speaking with a girl. He seemed calm and comfortable, even if his anxiety was evident. But the girl didn’t look annoyed or frustrated in the slightest and this was a good sign, as it meant she made the right call when she proposed the boy for the job.
Ariija’s trace brought them to the docks and Raya was quite familiar with these places: a lot of people, a lot of possibilities, both for merchants and thieves. Someone would know something, but they would not say a thing, unless they paid the right price.
So, when their lead stopped to this one girl at the dock, Raya knew that there was no other possibility: Ariija was too aggressive to face the girl, while she was too well known and recognizable to even walk down the streets, let alone speak with someone suspected of stealing.

The boy Hugh, on the other hand, was perfect. He was young, handsome, unknown, and with Raya’s help, he was now able to pay for the information they needed.
Raya looked as the young boy waved the bag full of jades she gave to the girl and smiled.

“I beg to differ,” Raya said. “You’ll see.”

The Tail Chief huffed. “Alright, then,” she said, shrugging before adding. “Your money, your call.”

They stood there watching as they both saw the two young people speak, clearly negotiating the price of the information. Seconds turned into minutes, and Raya could see that her friend was growing restless with each passing moment. It seemed that, in the last years, her patient had grown thinner, which was odd, since she was the one that taught her patience. She guessed that the situation with her daughter was worse than she initially thought.
She was thinking about something to say to soothe her friend when a voice interrupted her before she could.

“Well, well, well, if it isn’t the infamous Dragon Queen herself,” said a familiar voice behind her.

The two women turned to find themselves facing a man and a woman. The man, dressed in golden yellow like all Tail people, was tall and large, with a black beard but a gentle expression. The woman, dressed in violet and white, was small and thin, with a foxy light in her eyes. Both were very well known to the two women.

“You were right, Noi,” said the man, crossing his arms over his chest, smiling cockily to the two. “They are up to something, indeed.”

The young woman sneered. “Of course, I’m right, you shrimp-head,” she said, rolling her eyes. “But don’t blow their cover making names, Boun,” she glared at the man, disapprovingly to which the man blushed. “Not just yet,” she continued, moving her eyes back on the two women.

Raya looked at the former thief baby and she saw that familiar light in her eyes, the one she saw twenty-five years ago when she couldn’t speak just yet but judged with her eyes anyway. And now she was as clear as before.

“What are you doing here?”

Raya smiled. She should have guessed that Noi would notice her and Ariija speaking before the ceremony and that she would investigate the “strange” behavior of both. Knowing her, she should have checked her surroundings better.

The Tail Chief, though, didn’t seem so keen to recognize their lack of attention. She knew the duo, especially the new Chief, and she didn’t particularly like her.

“Not you again,” she growled, pointing her stick to the young woman. “Why does everywhere we go you are always in the way? What are you? Some kind of parasite?”

Noi glared at the older woman. “Me a parasite?” she spat. “You’re the one always attached to her. Maybe you are the parasite here”

Ariija smirked. “Jealous?” she teased.

“Concerned,” corrected the Talon Chief. “Though for which of you I’m not sure. After all, wherever you two are together, some trouble is bound to happen,” she said, raising an eyebrow at them, before focusing her attention on Raya.
“Is there any trouble?”

Ariija scoffed, annoyed with the other woman’s attitude. “Send the baby on her way,” she said to her. “We have our hands full as it is.”

“Oh, come on,” protested Boun, the innocence still present despite the age. “You can’t leave us hanging like that. We found you out, now you have to tell us what you’re doing.”

Raya giggled at the image of the little boy she knew in the clothes of an adult man. Noi just looked at her, raising an eyebrow.

She smiled. Some things never change.

“All right, then,” she conceded.

“What? No, we are just fine as we are,” Ariija protested. “No one else needs to know.”

Raya just looked at her.

Her friend huffed. “Oh, don’t look at me that way,” she said.

“What way?” she asked, feigning ignorance.

“The dragon puppy way”

“Is there a dragon puppy way of looking?” asked Boun. “I too want to- ouch,” he lamented when Noi slapped him behind his head. “It hurts,” he lamented.

In the meantime, Raya managed to convince her friend.

“Uh, fine,” The Tail Chief sighed. “We just wait for Hugh’s to be back and-“she stopped when her squire appeared right next to her.

She looked at the boy, raising an eyebrow, questioningly. The boy, though, was looking in front of him, his eyes lost in the wilderness of his thoughts, unfocused and dreamy.
Rapidly, Ariija’s raised eyebrow arched down in a frown.

“What have you found, boy?” she demanded of him.

The boy sighed dreamily but said nothing.

Ariija slapped him on the head and awakened the boy like a flush of cold water on the face.

“Who-wha-whe?” he babbled, regaining the reigns of himself. “W-What was-“Then his eyes locked with the ones of her Chief. He tensed. “Chief,” he said, standing at the station.

Ariija scoffed. “Look at this idiot,” she said to Raya. “I told you he was incapable of finding any useful information.”

Raya wasn’t convinced and she intended to prove it as she addressed the boy with a gentle smile.

“What have you found, Hugh?” she asked, politely.

“What have I-“began repeating the boy, before shaking his head and regaining his composure. “I did what you told me, Savior. I spoke with the suspect and offered the money for information”

“And what did you gain?” pressed Ariija, taking a step ahead, looking interested.

The boy’s expression turned into an anxious one and it deepened even more when the Tail Chief took another step ahead, menacingly. Raya looked at the boy, smiling reassuringly.

He breathed. “S-she d-di-didn’t say much,” he began, fearfully.

“Then what have you been doing all this time!” barked Ariija.

The boy made himself small and smiled halfway between dreamily and apologetically at the older woman. The connection was instant for everyone there.

“You idiot!” snapped Ariija. “I can’t trust you with even the stupidest of missions for you are too busy picking up on girls and playing with your cucumber”

Hugh blushed a deep red; Boun burst out laughing; Noi shook her head, disapprovingly at their antics, and Raya glared at her friends making fun of a poor boy in front of everyone. He had a mission, all right, and he got distracted, but he was young and there was a beautiful woman there. And if there was something she understood from her experience was that everyone was allowed to dream of love, and better make things clear sooner rather than later.

“Stop it, Ariija,” she stepped in, pushing away the Tail leader so that all the boy’s attention would be on her and her reassuring expression. “You don’t have to beat yourself, Hugh,” she said to him, gently. “You are young and you still have much to learn, experience to make, people to love”

Ariija scoffed behind her. “Yeah, Savior, encourage him all right now,” she mocked.

Raya ignored her and focused on the boy. “You were saying about what you discovered?” she encouraged him.

The boy’s eyes grew wide. “Oh yes, of course, Savior,” he said, with a small bow at which Raya had to refrain from grimacing. “Yah- I mean- the girl did not say anything of relevance. She swears she has nothing to do with it,” he explained.

Ariija behind her scoffed, but Raya silenced her and asked. “Nothing more?”

Hugh frowned. “There is something,” he began, looking confused. “Something weird she said about a shipwreck”

“A shipwreck?” repeated Raya.

“Yes,” he nodded. “She said that if I wanted to know more, I had to look for the shipwreck”

Ariija scoffed. “She was just misleading you, you stupid boy,” she spat. “There is no shipwreck for miles. The nearest is between Heart and Fang”

“And in Talon,” added Boun looking to the Talon girl who was shaking her head.

“I don’t think she was speaking about an actual shipwreck,” Noi said, thoughtful. “There is a place, here in the Capital. A tavern,” she added, looking right to Raya. “Called the Shipwreck.”

“Why do I feel like this is not a place I would like?” said Ariija.

“Probably because it is one of the filthiest places in the Capital,” said Boun. “Frequented mainly by thieves, thugs and the likes.”

“Lovely,” commented Hugh ironically, before closing his mouth shut after his Chief glared at him.

After a small pause, Ariija spoke.

“Maybe the child has a point,” she said turning to face Raya with a knowing look. “Sounds like a place where such a scum could be hiding”

“What scum?” asked Boun, evidently letting his curiosity have the best of him.

The Tail Chief glared at him. “You’ll never know, boy,” she said, coldly.

“Oh, come on!” he lamented.

Raya rolled her eyes. “She’s been stolen something,” she explained.

“And I want it back!” highlighted the Tail woman.

“And she kindly asked my help,” said Raya sarcastically.

“That was most definitely the kind way of asking,” said the Tail Chief, raising her hard and weighty-looking stick. “This was the less kind.”

Raya rolled up her eyes at her friend who simply shrugged and gestured to Noi to open the way. Noi raised an eyebrow at the older woman, who shrugged again and turned to move down the street.

“Well, you’re here, aren’t you?” she said. “You can at the very least be of some use.”

Noi growled and made a threatening step forward, but Raya intercepted her. The two engaged in a stare competition which was quickly won by the Heart’s Queen who pleaded the young Chief to try and not make everything worse. They have known Ariija for years and so they must know how she was, and how she wasn’t going to change, not when she was getting older for sure.
Noi gave in and with an angry buff she moved past Raya and behind the Tail woman who was already turning right at the river. The Talon Chief took the Tail Chief from the wrist and without saying a word she changed her path and moved toward the left of the river, followed right behind by Raya and Boun.

Raya had a feeling she knew where they were going. Past that section of the docks, they would be entering the slums, a place that almost every big city has, no matter how much she and the Commission have tried to help it. Some people just didn’t want to be helped, didn’t want to be better, didn’t care about being good.
The slums were a maze of narrow, winding alleys and makeshift shacks. The air was thick with the scent of saltwater and the stench of decay. The streets were crowded with people, each absorbed in their own struggles. Children played in the dirt, their laughter a stark contrast to the harshness of their surroundings. Despite the squalor, there was a sense of community and resilience among the residents, who faced their daily challenges with determination and hope.
Boun walked next to her in silence for a long time, but it was evident to her that he wanted to say something. She waited for him to choose the right moment.

“Soooo, how are you doing?” he suddenly asked.

Raya chuckled. “Boun, we have seen each other I don’t know…less than two weeks ago? How could I be doing?”

The man shrugged. “Don’t know,” he said. “Two weeks is some time.” He smiled at her. “Besides, I missed you, Sis,” he said. “Even if it’s just a day, I’d still be missing you”

Raya hit him on the arm. “You’re shameless,” she said, jokingly. She knew he was sincere. He had said so multiple times; more than that, he had demonstrated that multiple times. “And what your actual sister would be saying if she heard you now?” she asked.

Boun huffed. “She’s a brat,” he said. “A cold and heartless at that. She wouldn’t care. You’re definitely my favorite”

Raya raised an eyebrow at him. “You don’t really believe that about your sister, do you?” she said.

“No,” confirmed the man. “But it did work on you, didn’t it?”

Raya played along and hummed. “You could have added a little more flattering, you know?” she said. “I would have appreciated.”

“Like?”

“Oh, I don’t know. Maybe something about my hair, or my eyes.” She shrugged. “The usual, you know?”

“Ha!” laughed Boun. “As if,” he said. “I know a certain blue dragoness who flatters you enough already. Maybe you know her too” He started mimicking. “You’re beautiful, Raya,” he said, replicating quite well Sisu’s voice. “You’re so smart, Raya,” he continued, mimicking. “Oh, Raya, I love you so, so much.”

Raya laughed at the verisimilar imitation of her mate and hit him harder to make him stop.

“Ok, stop that, you buffoon”

Boun chuckled. “Was I convincing?”

“Hardly.”

“You don’t really believe that, do you?” Boun mimicked her this time.

Raya turned to him, feigning anger. “I swear, I’m going to feed you to the shrimps,” she threatened, jokingly.

Boun smiled. “Now that is quite threatening,” he said. “If there is some living soul hating me is shrimps. I collect hundreds, maybe thousands, a day”

“Well, you’re good at cooking them,” said Raya. “Last time the soup was delicious” And thinking about the perfect soup of the Tail man she felt her stomach rumbling, asking not for simple food, but for that peculiar food. “Where is your ship by the way?” she asked.

“With my wife and my son,” he said with a soft smile. “She is quite good collecting shrimps too, you know”

“Maybe she can even become better than you,” joked Raya. “Who knows? Maybe take the lead of the Shrimporium?”

The young man laughed. “Oh, she definitely can,” he said. “But she wouldn't,” he added right after, passing one hand through his black tufts, puffing his chest out. “I’m just so good, she wouldn’t risk it with me”

Raya rolled her eyes, ignoring the boy’s antics. Sometimes he just couldn’t help himself.

“What about your son?” she asked. “Will he be the future Captain of the Shrimporium?”

The man lost the smile and his expression visibly darkened. Raya frowned, worried. They never talked about this possibility; after all, the boy was just a baby and had still a long way to go before even considering what to do in life. Still, she didn’t realize a simple question could cause such a reaction.

“Maybe,” he said, feigning nonchalance. “If he wants”

Raya stopped and faced the man, one hand on his arm. “Hey, what’s the matter?”

“It’s nothing,” he babbled, trying to give her a reassuring smile but soon he realized it wasn’t working.

She looked at him for an answer, not forcing him, but waiting for him to decide whether to tell her and what to tell her.

Quick enough Boun sighed, his shoulders down, looking and sounding defeated.

“It’s just-“he tried before he closed his mouth and silenced. He tried again. “It's just that, I don’t know, I’m not sure that I want this kind of life for him,” he finally confessed.

Raya frowned. “Don’t you like your life?”

She has known him for years. He never seemed to hate his life. On the contrary, he always seemed so happy and free with his brothers and sister.

He looked taken aback, eyes wide with stupor. “No, no, I do like my life,” he was quick to say. “I love my life, my family, my ship, the river, and everything connected to it. I love it a lot, trust me.”

Now Raya was confused. “Then why don’t you want this for him?” she asked.

Boun resumed his walking and Raya followed him. The young man remained silent for a time, looking at the decadent and dirty, fishy-smelling houses of the slums.

“My father worked with shrimps,” he started saying. “My grandfather lived in a place like this, working with shrimps, and my grandfather's father too. They were poor but they loved life and they passed that on to me along with their profession.” He breathed deeply. “I just want for my son to inherit my passion for living, but I just wish for him something else.” He chuckled. “I didn’t have much of a chance when I took over the Shrimporium, you know with the Druun and everything. But he can make a choice and I wish he will take another path, something that will take him on another journey, not necessarily the one my family have been passing on for generations”

Raya smiled at him. “You’re a good father, Boun,” she said. “And with parents like you and your wife, I’m sure little Boun Jr will make the choice.”

Boun answered with a smile of his own, a grateful one. That turned into a mocking one the next moment.

“And don’t forget the aunt,” he said. “Not everyone in Kumandra can say they have as their aunt the Dragon Queen herself.”

Raya huffed at the name, one of the many she had been given, at the very least, one that she hated the least.
Not Pranee, though. She didn’t like people and dragons calling her that, which was exactly the reason why she hated it the least.

“We’re here,” said Noi.

They had stopped in front of a peculiar structure. The tavern was a sight to behold. It resembled a broken ship, with weathered wooden planks, some barely holding together, formed the walls, while tattered sails draped over the structure served as a makeshift roof. The entrance was marked by a large, creaking door that seemed to groan with every push. Lanterns hung haphazardly from the eaves, casting a dim, flickering light that barely pierced the surrounding darkness. The sign above the door, depicting a ship's wheel, swung gently in the breeze, its paint chipped and faded. Despite its dilapidated appearance, the tavern exuded a weird charm.

“Well, this place sucks,” commented Ariiji, breaking through the silence. “It has to be it.”

Without further ado, the Tail Chief marched inside the tavern, followed by Raya, Noi, and Boun.

Flickering lanterns dimly lit the interior, casting eerie shadows on the rough-hewn tables and benches. The air was thick with the scent of sweat and stale ale and judging by the faces of the few people inside and the conditions of the tables, this place needed urgent hygienic control.

“This place’s really a wreck,” Raya heard Boun whisper to Noi.

“Hush,” she bit him shut.

Ariija went straight to the counter and the man behind it. He was a burly man, with a rugged appearance that matched the rough clientele of his tavern. His face was scarred, a testament to the many brawls and dangerous encounters, and his thick and unkempt beard screamed uncared for.
He seemed undisturbed by their sudden entrance and when Ariija arrived at his counter, he simply stated:

“What can I get ya?”

Sounded like something he was accustomed to saying, practically automatic now.

“A dragon spike,” said Ariija. “Double strong.”

Raya frowned. This wasn’t good.

“I don’t think that-“she tried to protest, but her friend waved her away.

Raya stood there, her lips forming a line, crossing her arms over her chest, watching as her friend was on the right path of getting drunk with the strongest spirit Kumandra had ever known.

The man complied without questions and in no time the Tail Chief was downing the drink down to the very last drop. She then slammed the glass on the counter, with a satisfied sigh.

“Good,” she nodded. “Very strong. Now,” she said, cleaning her mouth with a hand. “Let’s get down to business, what’s ya say? Do you happen to know any thief around here?”

“Ari!” Raya chastised.

“What?” she answered, innocently.

Of all the stupid things she could say to this kind of man, this was the stupidest. And she said stupid things to very dangerous-looking people in the past.

“Maybe I should-“tried to intervene Noi, but the man spoke next.

“I know no thieves,” he hoarsely said, ignoring the scoff of skepticism from Ariija. He continued. “But I know someone who would like to speak with you”

That got all of their attention. Raya was expecting everything from such a place. After all, it wasn’t the first one she and Ariija frequented and it always ended badly.
She was expecting everything, but that.

“Beg your pardon?” Raya said.

The man moved to the far left of the counter and raised the wooden part to get out of it. Then he moved to the far end of the tavern, where he opened a door and made a gesture for them to enter.

“Well, that was easy,” commented Boun.

“Too easy,” said Noi.

“Are you trying to get us into a trap, scum?” demanded Ariija, narrowing threateningly her eyes at him.

The man shrugged. “Of course not,” he said, sounding nonchalant and completely disinterested.

“Then what is your game?” inquired the Tail Chief, suspiciously.

The man shrugged his large shoulders again. “No game, ma’am,” he assured. “Not that I know, at least. A woman came here an hour ago,” he explained. “And she paid a considerable amount to get the down room for herself. She gave precise order to invite down the grumpy old woman with the stick and her friend with the hood on as soon as they arrived.”

The Tail Chief scoffed at the description, but Raya was much more interested in the precise description of her and her friend. Were they followed?

“And why should they enter?” challenged Noi, crossing her arms over her chest.

The man looked unusually uninterested. “Enter, don’t enter, I don’t care,” he said. “I got the money. Still,” he continued. “She said that you would accept because you were looking for something important to you, something of value…”

That got even Ariija silent. Not only did the robber know them so well, but it seemed that the same robber, whoever she was, created the perfect space for a final showdown. And that person was waiting for them down there.

“Very well,” said the Tail Chief after a pause, moving to enter the door. “Let’s go,” she gestured to her. “This is not anything we haven’t already faced before.”

“Actually, it is,” Raya corrected, as made to follow her friend inside. She didn’t recall an antagonist waiting for them at the end of a dark corridor underground.

Noi was already behind her. “Do you need me?” she asked, her eyes telling her what she thought of the whole affair.

Before Raya could say anything, the barman gave her the answer as he stepped between Raya and Noi to stop the second from entering the room.

“I’m sorry,” the bulky man said. “But she had been very clear. Only the grumpy woman with the stick and the hooded woman could get inside”

Ariija scoffed again, while Raya depicted inside her mind the image of Noi burning the old man to ashes with her eyes. She was on fire.

“It’s ok, Noi,” she said, before the former Talon thief could cut down the man. “We’ve got this. Stay here with Boun. Get a drink, if you like. We’ll be right back”

“Would love that,” she heard Boun sarcastically commenting in the background.

Noi didn’t seem to like the request, but she did as she was asked anyway. The bartender gave Ariija and Raya a touch each and armed with those, the two women started getting down the stairs.

As soon as they took the first one or two steps, the door suddenly closed at their backs, leaving only their torches and a light at the bottom to lead the way. The place was bigger than it looked and Raya guessed it had to be some kind of rice liquor cellar since the temperature got colder as they proceeded further downstairs.
Her guess was confirmed when they reached the bottom, where a large opening in the ground welcomed them, filled with barrels of spirits stored at the sides and one over the other.
At the far end of the opening, behind the stairs, stood a single desk illuminated by a single candle, the source of the light down there. Behind the desk stood a figure with the boots resting on the surface of the table.

With the light of the candle and the hood on her head, it was impossible to see the woman’s face, but when she spoke, the voice was recognizable enough to deter any doubts.

“Welcome, mother, aunt,” the voice said.

For a long time, both adult women were left speechless. Of all the outcomes and all the people, they could have expected, never did they think about... this.
Of course, Ariija was the first to voice her shock.

“What the fuck are you doing here?” she practically yelled.

The young woman scoffed in the penumbra, then moved the candle aside so they could see her face. It was very resembling of her mother, just with a small touch here and there of her father. But her eyes and her frown were all Ariija.

“Always delicate I see, Mother,” Arya said. “But you should know what I’m doing here, don’t you?”

She reached out in the dark next to the wall and pulled out a sheathed sword with a dragon on its handle.

Ariija gasped. “Y-you!” she whispered. “It was you all along.”

Arya laughed without humor. “It’s quite clever of you to finally make the connection, Mother. I suppose it must have been unexpected for you. To realize that the one who deprived you of your most precious possession is your own daughter—that's not the first thought anyone would have, I can admit. She murmured as she looked thoughtfully at the sword. “Still,” she continued. “I expected better from you.”

Raya looked at her friend and she could see that the other woman looked wordless, probably for the first time in her life. She opened and closed her mouth like a fish, completely dumbfounded and unable to speak.

“Why?” said Raya then.

The young woman’s eyes moved on her and it seemed to look back in time to when she and Ariiji first met that day in Tail more than twenty years ago. It was a current sensation when she interacted with the girl, but this time it felt even more real.

“Aunt Raya, it is nice to see you,” she said, looking and sounding sincerely happy. “I knew my mother would come to you asking for help. She always does…”

“Ari, why did you take your mother's sword?” she asked, trying to calm the atmosphere before Ariija woke up and made a scene.

The girl sneered, looking at the piece of metal with a frown. “It is not my mother’s. It is my aunt’s sword,” she said. “Artijiri’s sword, the most important sword in my mother’s collection.” She looked at it, looking unimpressed. “She never uses it, but she always makes sure it is well looked after, polished and cleaned and whatever,” She scoffed, disgusted. “Do you think if I were a sword, I would have gotten the same treatment?”

The last statement triggered something in Raya's mind, and she finally understood. How could she not? She was on the verge of saying or doing something to end this before it could escalate further when Ariija suddenly decided to wake up and unleash her sharp tongue at that very moment.

“You stupid girl,” she practically spat. “You’ve had me travel all the way from Tail to the Capital looking for a thief when it was you all the time, it has always been you” She pointed with her finger to her position. “Get your dumbass, stupid-head butt right here, young girl, so I can beat the shit out of you for your idiocy.”

“Ari, maybe we-“Raya tried but the Tail Chief wasn’t in the mood to listen to her.

“Stay out of this, Raya,” she answered, maintaining her attention and her eyes on her daughter.

Arya smirked, clearly unimpressed. “I bet you wouldn’t risk doing it with Aunt’s sword, wouldn’t you?” she challenged. “After all, it is too precious for you to stain it with my blood, right?”

Ariija growled, taking a step ahead. “You’re getting too far, daughter,” she threatened. “This ends now,” she ordered. “You’re acting like a child”

The young woman grimaced and tilted her head at her mother. “Do you know how a child acts, mother?

The Tail Chief’s growl only intensified and the tension deepened in the atmosphere. “Get. Over. Here. Now!” she instructed.

Arya sneered at her mother. “Make me,” she challenged.

Ariiji was ready to attack, while Raya was ready to stop her. As for Arya, Raya wasn't quite sure what she intended to do. However, none of that mattered, for before anything could unfold, a loud creak interrupted them.
Suddenly, from a door that had gone unnoticed, a group of armed men appeared. The frontman was the bulky barman of before, who smiled at them viciously.

“Well, well, well, what do we have here? A family reunion? How touching,” he laughed and the other thugs laughed with him.

Raya and Ariiji instinctively turned and teamed up, closing their position and protecting the girl behind them.

“I’m sorry to interrupt,” the barman continued. “But I heard of a certain something precious I would really like for me and me boys”

Ariiji snarled back at her daughter. “You told a bunch of thugs in the filthiest tavern of the city you had something precious with you? You idiot! I thought I taught you better than this.”

The girl behind them huffed. “If only you taught me something!”

“Ma’am, please,” intervened the thug, raising his hands in a sign of peace. “Let’s be reasonable here. You give me the treasure and all the values you possess, and I let you to your family business right away,” he proposed. “I will also let you use this place for the time you’ve already paid if you like. After all, I’m a businessman myself.”

“I have another idea,” growled Ariiji. “You can either go away with your balls on or,” she unsheathed her sword, pointing it at the lower part of the barman. “Or I can cut you from your balls up to your head to see how shit is made inside.”

The owner of the tavern didn’t seem amused. “You have a sharp tongue for a small, old, and limping woman,” he snarled, menacingly.

“Wanna see how sharp my sword is?” The Tail Chief challenged.

“Gladly,” accepted the man, unsheathing his own sword. “Get 'em!” he shouted.

With a battle cry the thugs charged. Raya parried the first blow, counterattacking with a series of swift strikes that forced her opponent on the defensive. At her side, Ariiji engaged the thug’s leader using her stick and her sword to fight the man. Behind them, Arya had unsheathed her own sword, charging the men too.
The clash of swords filled the air. Despite being outnumbered, Raya and the others held their ground, repelling each attack with a precision and elegance that only someone accustomed to fighting could have.
Still, the familiar fighting between mother and daughter wasn’t over despite the danger.

“You’re a fool, girl,” Ariiji said through the blows, referring to her daughter as she fought two men next to her. “You got us in a pretty, big, trouble”

“You’re one to talk, Mother,” retorted Arya, as she blocked a blow and used her sword to make her opponent unbalanced. She used the occasion to cut him on the leg. The man screamed and back away from her. “You’d always end up fighting, even now that you are old.”

Ariiji grimaced as she fought. “I’m not old,” she said, gritting her teeth for the effort. “Besides, I surely was better than you at your age”

“Clearly,” Arya rolled her eyes as another thug engaged her.

“How touching,” spat the chief of the thugs, growling as he used his sword and his weight to try and break through Ariiji’s defense. “A family argument during a fight. I can say I've really seen everything now” His warm and smelly breath was just as next as it could be to the Tail Chief's mouth and her features showed it with all her disgust. “Can’t say I like it, though,” he growled. “I’ve always hated discussions. That’s why I killed my last whore”

The Tail Chief was evidently finding it difficult to repel the big thug, and Raya was just about to get rid of hers and help her, when suddenly two figures rushed in from the stairs. Noi and Boun had arrived to aid them. Noi wielded a knife, while Boun brandished a rolling pin.

The chief thug looked at them, confused. “What the fuck are you do-“but he wasn’t able to finish that.

Noi dived into the fray and Boun followed right behind with a battle cry. With a decisive strike, the Talon Chief took down one of the thugs, while Boun charged Raya’s opponent, felling him with a devastating blow of the rolling pin on the head.
Raya watched as her opponent crumbled on the floor.

“Thanks, Boun,” said Raya, smiling.

The young man skillfully twirled the rolling pin. “No kidding,” he said, pumping his chest proudly.

“What?” cried the bartender, looking away from the Tail Chief to concentrate on the newcomers. “The boys had to get rid of you. What the fuck are you doing here?”

“HA! They didn’t know who they were up against!” said Boun, pointing to Noi who was just felling the last thug.

Ariiji took advantage of the barman’s distraction. She hit him on the leg with her stick, hard, breaking it. The man yelped in pain blackening away from her, so that she could move and point the sword right at the man’s throat, victoriously.
The basement fell silent once more, interrupted only by the heavy breaths of the combatants. Raya, Noi, and Boun exchanged looks, while the Tail Chief stood fierce and proud over the thug's Chief.

“Looks like you lost to an old woman,” she said and without waiting for the man to speak, she smashed the hilt of her sword on the man’s forehead, sending him out cold.

“Idiot,” she commented, sheathing her sword again. “And speaking about idiots…” she said, turning to face her daughter who was cleaning the little blood that had stained her sword on a fallen man’s jacket. Or better say, Artijirii’s sword.

“What’s gotten into you!?” she all but shouted. “First you rob your aunt’s sword, and then you tell a group of cutthroats you have something valuable on you. That’s just too much, even for you,” she said, looking at he daughter as if it was the first time she was seeing her. “Not at all what I’ve taught you.”

“That’s the problem,” snapped Arya, untouched by her mother’s critics. “You taught me nothing,” she spat, highlighting the last word. “You sent me away to Aunt Raya and I’ve learned everything I know from her”

Ariiji scoffed. “It is not that. Raya couldn’t have taught you anything but-“

Her eyes grew wide open with realization as she looked at her daughter with another set of eyes now.

“You…You did all this on purpose, didn’t you?” she said, shocked. “You orchestrated all this, even the thug’s attack”

The young woman’s silence was as good as an answer, and the look Arya gave Raya was enough to confirm what she had been thinking from the beginning. The Tail Heir was anything but stupid, she would know. After all, she trained her for most of her life.
The realization didn’t seem to please the Tail’s Chief.

“Why, you little-“

“You still don’t understand, mother?”

“What should I understand? That you put us all in danger like an idiot?” she barked, enraged.

“No, that you are an idiot!” Arya barked back, surprising everyone, even her mother. Never before has she yelled back at her mother, not with that venom in her voice. “All my life, I had to fight my way up to get your attention, as I was some stranger to you,” she accused, fuming. “You’ve never hugged, encouraged, or said that you loved me. You asked me to do “my duty” and send me around first in the village, and then to Heart. You always found a way to get rid of me, never to be in your way”

“I never-“tried to protest the Tail Chief as she was brutally cut by the younger woman, snarling.

“Don’t!” she warned between gritted teeth. “Don’t say it…”

Silence enveloped the place as it seemed over, it seemed everything was cooling down. But it wasn’t. On the contrary, the tension was rising, becoming almost tangible with bare hands.
Raya didn’t know how things would go from here on. She only knew that it was a mother-daughter thing and no matter how she wished to intervene, to do something, to help them both. This was something they both needed to get out of their system and do it alone.

“I’ve always been a burden to you, mother,” she spat the older woman’s title like it was ash. “You never really loved me.”

“It’s not true,” protested weakly Ariija, but her daughter ignored her.

“With this,” she said, raising her aunt’s sword and showing it to her mother. “I wanted to finally get your attention for once. I wanted you to really see me.”

“I see you,” said the old woman as weakly as before, a whisper, almost inaudible.

Once again, Arya ignored her mother or didn’t hear her.

“See me now, Mother,” she said, vehemently, her grip hard around the sheathed sword. “I’m your daughter, I’m here, I exist. What more should I do to have you recognize me? What do I have to steal? Who do I have to manipulate? Who I have to kill?”

As she asked these questions, the Tail Chief slowly closed the space between her and her daughter, saying nothing, only looking right in front of her at the younger woman.

“Tell me, Mother!” Arya demanded, her tone showing her barely contained rage or nervousness or maybe both. “Tell me what have I to do to gain your respect, to make you see me!”

Her mother's approach mixed with her lack of answer clearly made the young woman even more anxious, making her tremble visibly. “Tell me, Mother! Say something! I’m talking to you! I’m right in front of-“
Everything stopped. Her rage, her trembling, her yelling. All stopped when Ariija touched Arya on her left cheek, gently.
Eyes wide, Arya stopped, surprise and disbelief written all over her features.

“I see you,” her mother whispered. “I’ve always seen you.” She caressed her daughter’s cheek, cleaning a fallen tear from her eyes. “I just wanted to protect you”

“From what?” asked Arya, her voice trembling as her whole body, but her tone needy. She needed to know why.

“From me,” confessed Ariija. “I wanted to protect you from me”

The young woman gasped, confused and shocked, and so the older woman explained.

“I’ve made many mistakes throughout my all life,” she started as she caressed her daughter. “And between all, my worst mistake, the one that keeps me awake at night, was how I treated your aunt. It is my fault how it went with her, as it was my fault what happened with the war and the end of the world. Damn, it is my fault even my fucking leg’s situation...”

She breathed. “I’ve always been… controlling, dominating and that pushed people like your aunt from me. Worst yet, it endangered them.” She sighed. “I just…didn’t want to make the same mistake with you,” she finally confessed. “I thought that sending you away, far away from me, and next to more balanced people, next to great people like Raya, then maybe…” she faded.

“Perhaps I was wrong,” she said, weakly.

She let go of the stick and cupped her daughter’s cheeks with both her hands now, smiling watery as Arya started tearing too.

“I-I-I’m s-sorry, Arya,” she said. “You are the best thing that I have done in my life, the only good thing and I…” she gasped, probably lumped in her very throat by her very emotion.

Arya hugged her mother energetically and Ariija seemed stunned for a moment. Then, she slowly embraced her daughter, enveloping her completely as the younger woman cried in her chest.

Raya smiled despite all. She had always known of this situation and more than once she tried to talk Ariija into doing this important step. It seemed that it was up to Arya to take the first step and force the hand of her stubborn mother.
This was the first step to something better, to a better future. And they would both earn happiness by this.
But for now, they needed some space to vent off, so Raya turned to her two friends who remained respectfully silent and distant from the scene. Boun smiled brightly, while Noi smirked with her arms crossed over her chest, her eyes clearly speaking: “finally they got it, didn’t they?”

Raya answered with a smile of her own, then she gestured for them to follow her upstairs with her head.

Those two needed time to heal and they…they could use a free drink.

Chapter Text

"Do you need anything else, my Queen?"

Naamari looked at the woman through the mirror, smiling gently at her handmaiden.

"No, that would be all for now," Naamari said. "Thank you."

The brunette girl bowed to her and turned to leave. The queen followed her reflection in the mirror until she reached the door and left. Only then did the Queen of Fang allow herself to sigh loudly.

She still struggled to understand how her mother managed to keep everything together in such a dark and difficult period as the one in which she reigned. Even before the Druun, Kumandra had never been an easy place to live, and Fang was not an easy place to rule. But her mother had made it, and she was living in a much easier time. They have had peace for many years, perhaps the longest time of peace there has ever been in five hundred years. All nations were working together for the good of everyone in Kumandra, and with no fight in sight and no army to gather, train, and fund, she had a much livelier and easier-to-control queendom. The addition of the Senate gave her a hand in making daily decisions and thinning out her work, and the international work was carried out at the Capital by the representatives at the Commission.

Yet, despite twenty years already spent as Queen, Naamari couldn't help but think that she was not living up to her mother's name. She was so great and wise, able to face whatever challenge destiny threw at her. Nothing could have stopped her if her people were involved. Or as such she liked to remember her.

What about her? What did she do in her twenty years of reign?

At the thought, Naamari lowered her head, away from the mirror and to the burgundy trousers she was wearing, her mind far away in the past.

"Focus, Morning Mist."

That's what her mother always told her. As the years passed, it became like a mantra for her to repeat and repeat in her mind every time she felt the burden of governing bringing her down into a dark pit. She had worked so hard, even after she took the throne, to make sure that her insecurities would not interfere with her objective of granting her people a better life, in a better world. Her mother had taught her everything she knew, making sure to identify all the strengths and weaknesses of her administration, so that Naamari would know and not repeat her mistakes.

The Fang Queen only hoped that knowing what her contribution to her and Fang was like would be enough for her mother's soul to be able to finally find the peace she deserved.

"Focus on the present, Morning Mist. Your people need you now."

Naamari shook her head and focused. Her mother was right, as always, and she knew that if she were here, Virana wouldn't want her to waste her time crying over spilled milk. She had to focus, for the sake of Fang and all of Kumandra. And she would do it. She would make her mother and her fellow citizens proud.

Looking back at the mirror, the Queen of Fang checked one last time that her appearance was in order. She had to look as regal and strong as ever before the Senate. Even if she was no longer the sole ruler of the city, she was still the Queen, and the responsibility of many lives in and outside Fang depended on her wisdom and decision-making capabilities. These started with her ability to look confident in her look so that her people would trust that she would look as confident when needed.

She had worked diligently on that over the years, allowing her hands to quickly adjust her white top up to her neck. The golden bracelets adorned her bare biceps, and one was around her neck, while the golden earring hung from her left ear. Her hair was shaved above that same ear, but long and flowing on the other side. The white cape was draped over her right shoulder, covering the entirety of her right arm.

Everything suggested composure.

Furthermore, today was a special day, and Naamari intended to leave nothing to chance. Not today, not the day of the twenty-fifth anniversary.

She looked at the small piece of paper on the vanity and took it. It was a letter. The red sealing wax was open as the contents had already been assimilated. Still, she wanted to read it again to ensure she hadn’t missed even a single word.
She still didn't believe that all that time had passed, already. It seemed only yesterday that the one-year festival of the end of the Druun and the foundation of Kumandra was over, and six months had passed since the end of the world almost happened again. Fast forward and twenty-four years have passed, and now they have already reached the year 25 A.F (After foundation) according to the new calendar.

Time passed too fast, and she found herself nervous about that.

She placed the letter back on the vanity’s counter, sighing once more.

Who was she kidding? Time passing had little to do with it all.

It was childish for her not to admit it. After all, she was no longer an 18-year-old girl hiding her true feelings from her mother, the General, and the rest of Fang. She was an adult woman, over forty, a queen for more than half the time, and she had attended thousands of meetings, debates, parties, and so on.

Still, there was a restlessness that was difficult to put aside.

For the longest time, she’s always been nervous about Kumandra's common festivities. Every time she was there, she would remember people of what she had done, and this would lead these same people to remember their hate for Fang simply by her sheer presence. Time passed, and she worked on Fang’s reputation everywhere in Kumandra, through diplomacy and good actions, so that today she could say that Fang was on the right path to restoring its reputation. It would take many more years, maybe decades more, but they were getting there.

And after all she had done for her nation’s reputation, after she showed her strength both to the people inside and outside of Fang, now she found herself scared of something far less complicated. More than this, it was something completely illogical, and trivial and so stupid that it even embarrassed her to feel like that.

Yet, it was something new to her. Something she never faced before.

It has been bothering her for quite a while, and no matter how she tried to set it aside with excuses, it kept resurfacing repeatedly, stronger than before, making her feel like nothing ever had before.
Nevertheless, she never did anything about it in all these years.

Until now.

Now the letter asserted without any trace or doubt that 25 years had passed. Time, a lot of time. People had changed, and all of Kumandra had changed. Yet, she remained struck, denying herself the happiness that an acquaintance of hers in Heart had already taken for herself a long time ago. Why was she doing that to herself?

Naamari leaned over the vanity, sighing. She felt like a child once again, unsure of what to do and how to do it. Quite the opposite of the wise, regal, and powerful queen everyone saw her as.

The words of that letter swirled in her mind, without giving her respite, and she did not know if she could face the Senate and the long journey to the Capital in those conditions.

What was she supposed to do?

"Hatchling, are you in there?" came a sudden, but very familiar voice from the balcony window.

The woman jumped out of her skin in surprise, turning to look toward the window with wide eyes. The large curtains of the window hid a familiar draconic figure behind them. She was there, she thought, unable to move. But it lasted just a second, as being Queen for over two decades did not come without its advantages. She learned how to act quickly in every kind of situation, so she was able to adjust her expression and her clothes, fixing her figure one last time in front of the mirror, before she turned toward the window again, the mask of the Fang Queen positioned on her face.

A pink paw reached out and moved the curtains away as an annoyed pink dragoness with an orange mane entered the room, glaring at the curtains after passing through them as if they had done her wrong.

A small smile escaped Naamari’s mask at the sight.

Hagica snorted as she kept glaring at the curtains. "I still don't understand people's passion for these-" and she gestured with her paw towards the pieces of fine white fabric, looking for the right word to define them by a name other than theirs "- these, things!" she blurted out. "They are useless.”

"You know what they're for, Hagica," replied Naamari calmly but letting a hint of amusement leak through her voice. "People value privacy more than dragons do."

The pink and orange dragoness didn't seem to agree, and she snorted one last puff toward the curtains before turning to her. She stopped and looked at her, studying her, as always. Naamari did not move, feeling the odd prickle along her spine as happened whenever the dragoness lingered her eyes on her. The Fang Queen remained there, unmoving, waiting for the dragoness to finish her investigation.

Secretly, every time, she hoped to pass it.

"So," said the dragoness after a few moments, raising an eyebrow at her. "Shouldn't you be in front of your Senate of people right now?"

Naamari nodded. "I was getting ready to go," she said.

The dragoness nodded, taking the inside of her room absentmindedly. "You were surrounded by those females you people call handmaids," she noticed, her tone calm, conveying no emotion.

“Yes,” the woman nodded. “They help me dress every day.”

The dragoness looked at her, raising a questioning eyebrow. “That is another odd thing about you people,” she said. “You are perfectly capable of dressing yourself. Still, you chose to let someone else do it for you.” She looked intensely at her. “Why?” she asked.

Naamari wasn’t sure how to answer. It has always been like that for her and her mother before her. As far as she knew, royalty was dressed by maids. She guessed the only exception could be Raya of Heart. They never talked about that as it was not common gossip, but she was sure that if there was someone able to break the etiquette, it was her. Besides, she had a mate who could dress her just fine if she wanted.

“It has always been like that, I guess,” she answered, after a pause.

The dragoness murmured, sounding unimpressed with the answer. “You people are strange,” she said, before taking her eyes on the room again, analyzing it as she had been doing every day for the last decade or more.

It was something that had been happening almost every morning for a long time. Hagica would come in without knocking, comment on Naamari’s preparation habits or her room, study her with a light in her eyes that she couldn't quite understand, and then study her room, taking in everything in it, before taking the conversation to something else.

It was frustrating because she didn't understand.

It was even more so because she did not dare to ask.

"Is that a letter from the capital?" the dragoness asked afterward, making her way to the vanity and straight for the open letter, taking it with her paws.

"Yes, it is," the Queen of Fang confirmed, trying to hide her dissatisfaction with the conversation that remained unresolved between them. That, combined with the particular restlessness she woke up with that morning, only worsened her nervousness.

She straightened up and continued. "It's the invitation for the anniversary of the foundation of Kumandra, the 25th year. I shall travel to the Capital later today," she said, before tilting her head slightly towards the dragoness. "But you already know this, don’t you?"

Hers was a statement, not a question. Hagica seemed to know a lot of things, and while many would think it was related to her ancient age, Naamari knew her too well to know that most of everything she knew came from her perspicacity and cunning. In addition, the anniversary was not a secret, and Hagica was also very close to the dragons who worked as ambassadors at the Commission.

She would know all right.

The dragoness grunted her confirmation as she looked at the letter intently. She was able to read slightly, as Naamari taught the dragoness something about reading. Hagica proved to be quite a fast learner, but for some reason, she stopped her lessons with her, refusing to learn more. Consequently, she could only read so much of that letter, and writing was out of the question.

Still, the dragoness seemed determined to read through all the letters. Naamari could see how her expression got concentrated, and her eyes slowly moved, running over the black signs on the paper, intensely.

"The invitation…” she read, slowly. “Extends to the Spo-Spouses, Pa-partners, and Com-pa-ni-ons of the invitee."

Naamari stiffened at those words. She forgot what the letter said about entourage and escorts, and surely she didn’t expect the dragoness to stop right on that part.

Hagica put the letter back on the vanity and looked at her, her pink eyes unreadable. "You’re going to take a companion with you, hatchling?" she asked, raising an eyebrow at her. "Maybe one of your handmaidens?"

That last part of the sentence seemed oddly like teasing, but she pushed the thought away. It couldn’t be; the dragoness rarely understood human sarcasm, let alone using it herself. However, Naamari liked to think that there was a hint of something inside the dragoness’ voice that made her heart skip a bit.

It was all her stupid mind making stories…

Naamari cleared her throat, shaking her head in denial. "No, I’m not," she said, trying to keep her voice stable. "I’m not bringing anyone."

The dragoness’ eyebrows disappeared in her mane as she stared at her for a long moment, evaluating her once more. Naamari allowed herself to be evaluated, free, and open as much as she could, hiding inside her, under lock and key, only what she did not want the dragoness to see. The only thing she didn't want the dragoness to see.

Suddenly, Hagica looked away and turned her back on her, starting to wander in her room without a precise direction.

"The Tail’s Chief has no living consort, but she has a daughter, and she is expected in the Capital,” she said, as she inspected every object of her room, moving over the furniture as if she hadn’t seen them a million times before. “The Spine’s new Chief is betrothed,” she continued. “And he is expected to bring his future bride to the festival, while the new Talon’s Chief did not announce that she's bringing someone, but she is rather young for that, or at least many seem to believe so.” She shrugged, uninterested. “Even the Rainbringer asked a dragoness to accompany him," she murmured at this. "I’m not sure whether she is a companion for the festival or a love thing, but who knows, maybe it is the right time. After all, time passes even for dragons, and he must feel it…"

She paused.

"And then there is Heart’s Queen and Sisudatu,” she continued, stopping in front of the most important thing in her collection. It was a painting of her and her mother when she first became queen, years ago. Her mother looked proud, with a shining vitality burning into her eyes, but her body was old, unable to support such a fiery spirit anymore. Naamari tried to look into the part, as she was still struggling to do today, but her anxiety was evident and real even through the art.

"Of course, they are the saviors of Kumandra, and they will make sparks at such a party, probably obscuring all the others," she said, returning her eyes to her, penetrating her with those brilliant inquisitive pink eyes. "That leaves only you, hatchling, the Fang Queen, without a companion," she said, almost accusing. “Old enough to have produced an heir, old enough to have a trusted companion at her side.”

Naamari stiffened.

"It's not a problem," she hastened to reassure the dragoness.

"Is it not?" Hagica said, raising an eyebrow at her.

"No," Naamari confirmed, shaking her head a little, feigning nonchalance. “I have plenty of trusted people who are not my companions, and I need no heir as the role of Queen in Fang will die with me.” She shrugged, trying to hide her shivers. "Besides, as you said, Raya and Sisu will probably be the attraction of the party, and no one will notice that I am missing a companion.” She shrugged, again, her nervousness increasing. “Everyone knows that I don't have a partner, so no one will be suspicious of it."

Hagica remained silent.

Naamari could see in her gaze that she was not evaluating her this time, but rather she was thinking. Her eyes were something she had learned to read over the years, and now she could see the conflict very clearly. She was… unsure, something she’d rarely seen on the dragoness’ expression in all the years she had known her.

Until she saw it again.

A glint.

It was something mystical and mysterious to her. Despite she learned all the expressions of the dragoness, she missed this one, something she didn’t recall seeing before, if not in the last months…

Suddenly, the glint changed, and it became something she knew very well:

Resolve.

For some reason, a strange sensation struck her stomach at the mere sight of that look, and the fact that the dragoness was taking slow and steady steps towards her could only make her heart beat at an abnormal rate. She remained motionless in place, unable to move even if she wanted to.

Naamari watched with wide eyes the dragoness close the distance between them until the two were face to muzzle, a few centimeters from each other, the heat coming out of the dragoness's nostrils tickling the exposed skin on her face and shoulder.
Their eyes were fixed and mixed, creating a connection, a bond that seemed magical—something that not even the whisper of the dragoness, so low but so confident, seemed able to break.

"Wouldn't you…Wouldn’t you like to have one?"

It was just a whisper, and the dragoness spoke low, calm, and slow. But for her, it was the coup de grace.

After all the time she had spent, all the effort she had put in, all the control she had developed, now the dragoness knocked down her highest and strongest wall, the one she had built and held dear for years, which had always served to hide a feeling she considered forbidden.

She had spent so much time submerging it, protecting it, hiding it.

And now, with those simple words, with that simple whisper, the wall had come down.

All gone, rubble.

And an avalanche that she would never be able to control was about to come out-

*Knock Knock*

The magic broke when someone knocked on the door. The dragoness looked away and toward the door. Naamari staggered backward, falling flat with her ass on the vanity’s chair. Her head was spinning, or maybe the world itself had started to do so. Anyway, she was left there, baffled, so much so that she didn’t even register someone entering the room and kneeling next to her, a warm hand on her shoulder.

“My Queen, are you all right?” said the voice.

Naamari blinked multiple times before raising her head and locking eyes with Atititaya. The woman looked worried, talking to her words that she could not hear.

She blinked again and took in her room, scanning the place with her eyes, until they stopped on the curtains, waving wide open from the calm breeze coming from the outside.

No sign of anyone else but her and the former general. The dragoness left.

“Naamari?” insisted her friend, a hand on her shoulder, squeezing with force. “Are you all right?”

Those eyes…those pink eyes…so close…

She snapped out of it.

“Yes,” she said, clearing her throat as her voice came out too harsh. “Yes, I’m all right,” she repeated, rising from the chair and fixing her clothes once again.

Her friend gave her an unconvinced look. “Are you sure? You looked…stumped. What happened?” she asked.

“Nothing,” she said, a bit too quickly for her liking.

It seemed to her like she was back all over again, to when she was just a kid training with the woman. She needed to calm down and get a grip on herself.

“Nothing,” she repeated, calmer this time. “I was just…thinking, and I lost track of time, it seems.”

Atititaya didn’t look convinced and tried to scan her eyes for the truth as she used to do when they were younger. But they both grew older, and being a queen, she learned some thing or two about keeping her true emotions secret. Again, what happened with Hagica was a clear example of it…

When she found nothing, her friend seemed to give up, for the moment at the very least. Knowing the woman, she knew she would come back with it another time in the future.

“The ship’s ready,” she said, back to the reason she first entered her room. “As soon as you’re done with the Senate and their stupid preparations, we can set sail for the Capital.” She paused, looking unsure for the slightest of moments, before adding. “She is there too,” she added. “She’ll come… too.”

Naamari nodded. She had imagined that the woman, the High Priestess of the Dragon Order, would gladly take a ride on her ship on her way to the Capital. After all, they had to pass through Heart, and the woman had a pilgrimage there, like any other year.
About the Senate, she would deal with them quickly. She left everything that was needed for the time she would spend at the Capital, and she didn’t want to be late to the opening ceremony as she knew Sisudatu’s brother Jagan was in charge of it. Knowing the dragon, he would not tolerate any bad behavior delaying his schedule.

“All right then,” she said, fixing again her already-fixed clothes and then making it to the door. “Let’s make this quick. I’d like to be on my way sooner rather than later.”

Atititaya looked at her. She was still suspicious of what happened before, but she let her mirth be visible on her features as she commented. “Does it have anything to do with a familiar purple dragon?” she asked. “Maybe one of the Savior’s brothers”

Naamari stopped at the door, answering with a smile of her own. “Guess how you’d figured it out, Ati,” she joked. “It could have been anything, really.”

The former general chuckled this time, almost an actual laugh as she passed beyond her and into the corridor. “What can I say? I have the nose for this kind of thing.”

Naamari chuckled but didn’t follow the woman into the corridor, remaining on the door for a moment longer.

What almost happened before was engraved in her mind, behind her very eyes, and she could see it all over and over again. She was about to…

She looked at the curtains, a hand resting on the door. The curtains were still, as it seemed that the wind had stopped blowing. But it was clear that the dragoness had been there. She remembered it, and she could sense her past presence there, and even smell her there. She hadn’t dreamt it. It was all real.

And a single, penetrating question kept buggering her from the back of her head, and the front of her heart:

What could have happened if…

“Naamari?” arrived Atititaya’s voice from the end of the corridor.

She pushed the thought to the back of her mind and her heart both. Now was not the time to think about what could have been.

“Focus on the present, Morning Mist,” said her mother’s voice in her head.

“Comin’!” she said, taking the door’s knob and closing the door. “Just checking something.”

But that experience had unlocked something in her heart; something that was not going to give up anytime soon and that, unlike any other time in her life, made her think about the future and what will be.

The boy didn’t even have time to get off the ship, that he threw up, collapsing against the ship’s railing.

She looked as he got glares from the sailors and people all over Heart's main dock’s quay. Luckily for him, he got all his stomach inside the dock’s waters and not on the quay, for it seemed that no people around there would have wanted to clean a Tail boy’s seasickness.

Atititaya appeared at the boy’s side, barely repressing an amused smile.

“You’ll have to adjust to river-faring, boy,” she said, hands clasped behind her straight back. “After all, it is the fastest way to get anywhere in Kumandra, lest on a dragon’s back.” She looked at him, moving her eyes on his prone figure, evaluating him. “And you’ll have to stick with ships for quite some time, it seems.”

A sailor bridged the ship to the dock, and the woman surpassed the boy and stepped onto the quay.

“After me, boy,” she called without turning to check that he was actually following her. “We’re leaving in two hours. We got time for some training.”

The boy grunted as he rose, passing the back of his hand to clean his mouth.

“Damn pompous, white-dressed bastard,” he murmured.

“Don’t be so hard on her,” she said, finally intervening when the boy was purposely remaining on the ship to disrespect his instructor. “And she shall not be so hard on you.”

The boy stiffened and turned, looking at her and the woman next to her with surprise and then fear in his small, black eyes.

“M-m-my l-lady, m-my que-queen,” he babbled, straightening his position as best as he could in front of them. “I was just-“

“Insulting my advisor,” completed the Fang’s Queen. “And most trusted friend,” she added, sounding very displeased. Naamari turned to her. “What do you think, Ratana? What shall be the punishment for such disrespect?”

“As you know, my order and I don’t believe in corporal punishment, my queen,” said Ratana. “We generally encourage useful social services at least and fasting at worst, but…” She looked at the boy from head to toe, looking like she was considering it. “I believe we can make an exception this time.”

The boy’s face turned blank when she mentioned fasting, and his fear only seemed to increase at the prospect of the High Priestess of the Heart Dragon Order breaking her order’s primary rule.

He opened his mouth then closed it. Open and close, open and close, again, and again, as a fish. He seemed to be unable to defend himself, and Ratana knew she had gone all too far with him.

“Go,” she said, motioning with her head toward the direction where the fang woman disappeared minutes ago. “Don’t make your instructor wait. And remember,” she added before the boy could escape. “Fair treatment goes both ways.”

She looked at the boy, her eyes piercing at him with a calm, warm seriousness. She never showed herself as menacing or imposing, she just wanted the boy to understand what she was trying to pass to him.

The boy nodded. “Y-yes, o-of course, my lady,” he said, trying to contain his trembling voice. “I-I wi-will remember t-this, I-I promise.”

Ratana smiled and with a last small bow toward the Fang’s queen, the boy left, bridging the water and on the quay, and running in the crowded dock, disappearing between the people.

“Well, it went well,” she commented as soon as the two women were the last remaining people on board the ship.

“I don’t know, Ratana,” said Naamari, crossing her arms on her chest and raising an eyebrow at her. “You seemed quite hard on the boy. Corporal punishment,” she quoted. “It sounds so hard for a woman preaching peace and fraternity, you know?”

She shrugged. “Your tone wasn’t light either,” she pointed out, jokingly. “I just played along. Besides,” she added, looking at the white-dressed woman with a smirk. “The boy’s kinda right. Atititaya is not giving him any respite.”

“I’m sure she has her reasons,” the queen said, not an ounce of doubt in her voice. “The Tail’s boy seems promising, but he is undisciplined.” It was her time to shrug this time. “She is a mentor at the Capital and her duty is to teach the new generations, especially promising people, for they are our future. And if she treats him a bit harshly, it is to teach him better. She is just doing what she must do.”

Ratana murmured, looking at the other woman with a raised eyebrow herself. “She seems to enjoy her work too much, though,” she noted.

Naamari smiled, knowingly. “Oh, she does enjoy it.”

Ratana shook her head at the other woman’s antics. She was well aware of the former general’s capability for teaching, and she was undoubtedly one of the best options to ensure that future generations would take charge and keep the world prospering. In fact, she was trying to achieve the same goal herself with her order. Although she understood that things needed a bit of excitement, the former Fang general sometimes seemed to enjoy it a little too much.

“Don’t abuse your power, for you may lose it someday,” she quoted from her order’s books. She was helping write them, collecting common knowledge and wisdom in them. Oftentimes, she liked to quote one sentence or two that remained in her mind, only to get Raya and Suri to laugh at her.

Naamari nodded. “Something a queen learns as soon as she sits on her throne,” she said. “It would be useful for all the people to learn it as soon as possible, though.” She paused, looking at the crowd too. “It would have made things different before…”

Ratana studied the Fang queen. Despite their past, she learned to get along with the woman quite well, and surprisingly they tag along quite good. Naamari was calm and wise despite her age, and she was one of the few people to whom she could quote things without getting a laugh, something she couldn’t get even from Suri, one of her most trusted and oldest friends.

Maybe it was her personality, but most likely, it was because the past connected them so tightly that only she was able to understand what it was like for her. The darkened look she could see right now on her face as the Fang woman resembled the past was something she would see on her own at times if she had a mirror within reach.

Ratana reached out and put a comforting hand on the other woman’s shoulder. Naamari didn’t flinch but turned to her, calm and sweet eyes asking her the same question as she did ten times before that hour:

“Are you sure you want to do this again?” Naamari asked.

She nodded. “I have to,” she said, determined.

Naamari paused, looking at her for a long moment, before saying. “It has been…long,” she said.

Ratana gave her a small smile. She knew, but that didn’t change a thing, not for her. And she knew the Queen could understand.

“Did it stop you from trying all these years?” she asked, raising an eyebrow at her.

There she knew she had said the right thing. Naamari knew, and she nodded without adding anything.

Ratana squeezed her friend’s shoulder as a goodbye. “I’ll see you in two, then,” she said, going for the bridge to the quay. “I shouldn’t be late, but if I am, don’t let Atititaya leave without me.”

Naamari chuckled. “I won’t,” she said. “But know that I will not stop her from giving you a lesson about discipline alongside the boy if you do.”

Ratana smirked at the woman, the passing image of the former Fang General teaching her amusing her more than she was willing to admit.

“I’d like to see her try.”

She stopped at the hospital in the eastern part of the city. She didn’t have time to check on the people this time, but she promised that she would visit Heart again and them as soon as she was back from the Capital. For the moment, though, she just visited the crypt, where the ruins of what was left of her former house were engulfed and protected in the bigger structure, as it was her parent' and sister’s memory.

There she prayed for them, alone.

Her prayer time was brief as she had no time and a much important thing to do. Very near to the hospital in the old part of the city, there was the house she was looking for. It was just one house made of stones and surrounded by a small garden, no different from all the others around it made at the same time. But this house was different, or at least it was for her.

Ratana slowly entered the small garden, her full-white robe passing from scraping on the rock to fresh, well-cut, and maintained grass. The path to the wooden and refined door was highlighted by flowers and small shrubs, giving the garden a forest-like pattern at the entrance. Next to the door, there was a small bench and a low tea table.

She knocked and waited. When she got no response, she knocked again.

A small breeze ruffled a small part of her red hair sticking out from under her white hood. She didn’t seem worried by the lack of answer, and she even tried a third time, waiting patiently in front of that door.

The woman frowned. It wasn’t strange to have to knock more than once. What was odd was that there was no one sending insults toward her from the other side of the door.

She was about to knock again when an old woman appeared from the side of the house, probably coming from the other side of the garden. She held in one hand a basket covered by a sheet and in the other a walking stick. When she saw her, her old features cracked into a smile, as her grey eyes shone with a knowing glint.

“Ah, there you are! You’re just in time for the tea,” said the old woman, moving to the bench and sitting on it weightily. She left the walking stick on the side of the bench while she started preparing the basket on the low table.

From the basket, the woman retrieved a small steaming teapot, two cups, and some freshly made biscuits and treats. She covered the table with the sheet and then disposed everything on it. Finally, she gestured for her to take a place next to her on the bench.

“My lady, I don’t think-“ she tried with a small bow, but she was silenced by the woman with a displeased grunt, then gestured to sit next to her on the bench once again.

Ratana looked at her, unsure of what to do next. Even though she had seen the old woman only one or two times many years ago when she was younger, her grey eyes were almost the same, and her youthful beauty could still be seen under her aged face.

She knew this woman, and even if she didn’t understand her intentions, she obliged. She then remained silent as the old woman poured one cup and gave it to her, accompanying it with a pastry.

“Took you long enough,” said the old woman, as she served herself some tea and a pastry too. “I don’t know how many teas I took alone these last few days.”

“You were expecting me, then,” Ratana said, stating the obvious.

The old woman sipped from her tea, visibly rejoicing from its warmth. “As I’ve always been,” she said, adding before she could ask the question. “I was where you could not see me, but always present, vigilant of your arrival for the last two decades.” She took a small pastry and put it all inside her mouth, chewing elegantly. “And every year you’re here, as precise as a dial.”

Ratana decided to play along. She has been doing this for twenty-five years, and only now, after more than two decades, has she found someone to speak to, even waiting for her. Something was different, and she couldn’t help but feel a small spark of hope in her chest.

“But you decided to show yourself only now, after all these years…” she said, sipping from her tea. “Why?” she asked.

The old woman didn’t respond for a long time, taking another pastry and taking her time to eat it calmly, sipping some more tea to help it go down her throat.

“I wish to finally confront you on what happened,” she finally said, her voice calm, but containing a gravitas that the white-hooded woman couldn’t help but notice.

Once again, Ratana was wary despite herself. It has been so long, as the Fang Queen has so remarkably underlined just minutes before. So why now?

“Why?” she said, again, unable to find something more to say.

It was the only question she could ask. She didn’t understand. After so many years of rightfully ignoring her and all her pleading, this woman appeared to be waiting for her, offering her a place at her table, and sharing with her tea.

The old woman stopped eating, lowering her cup with some steaming tea still in it. She sighed, pausing for a moment so much so Ratana was expecting she would not answer her question again.

“I’ve grown old as you can see,” she said, turning to face her directly this time. Her grey eyes were calm, but as full of life as they could be despite their age. “I’ve seen a lot, I experienced…a lot. And there is something that I learned, something that I’ve always ignored until now…something that made me change my perspective, you can say”

Ratana looked expectantly at the old woman, all her attention focused on her and the next words she was going to speak. Her voice seemed to carry great wisdom and answers, finally. The other woman must have noticed her interest, for she chuckled, a low and rough chuckle, but not without humor, nonetheless.

But her mirth was fast to vanish when she looked away from her, clasping her hands around the cup, seemingly refuging in the warmth of the teacup between her hands.

“None of us is forever, not even the mighty dragons,” she said, her voice lower than before, almost as if she was confessing a secret. “And when you get old, you could…change perspective. When the end is near, you also start to think a lot about the past: what we did, what went wrong, and what could have been”

“This last one is the most persistent,” she continued. “But time has a way of making you see things and I…” she hesitated, evidently torn whether to say it or not. “I started to think about it, about forgiveness.” She took another sip of her tea, still not looking at her. “It is still difficult for me, despite all the time that has passed, but I have to do this.”

Ratana's reaction to those words unfolded inside of her like a wave breaking after years of restraint. At first, she remained there, stunned and still, her body froze. Then, her green eyes, wide and brimming with unshed tears, search the face of the old woman, looking and needing a confirmation that this was real. A tremor began at the corners of her mouth, shifting between disbelief and full-time tears. When the realization sinks in, a sob escapes her lips, a mix of anguish and anxiety leaving her.

“F-Fo-forgiveness?” she repeated, babbling. “A-are y-you-“she tried to ask, but she wasn’t able to effectively finish that sentence. Her emotions were a mixture of different feelings, and despite all the self-control she developed during the years, she couldn’t quite readily control this.

She wasn’t expecting it, and still, she was trying with all her heart not to hope for it. She didn’t deserve it.

The old woman left everything she had and took her trembling hands with such a rapidity she didn’t consider quite possible for a woman of her age. She squeezed her hand in hers, looking at her with a small, sad smile.

“I know what you did all these years, you know?” the old woman said, grey eyes fixing into green. “Not only here with us, but also with everyone in Kumandra. At first, I thought you were trying to fool the Savior, tricking her into believing you were changed. The first time you got here, knocking at my door, I repressed a disgusted yell, telling you that no one was going to believe you, no matter what you did.”

Ratana looked away, guilt distorting her features in a grimace. She remembered those times and what she had to do to even try and speak to a person, both in Heart and in Fang. She had to live day and night with people who hated her, and she thought more than once she was not going to do it.

The old woman took her chin and turned her gently but firmly to face her again. Her expression didn’t change, if not for the firm glare she was receiving, clearly stating she had to look at her for the entire duration of everything she wanted to say.

“But years passed and I find that I was wrong,” continued the old woman, gracing her with a small smile. “You kept on coming at my door, even after I told my daughter everything and sent her instead of me to the door every time.” She grimaced, a glint of remorse passing through her expression. “At first, I was proud and twistedly content when she would open the door to you, facing you, and telling to your very face, what I would have wanted to tell you from the very beginning. I was so twistedly proud of her, and I thought that with her answering at the door, you would give up eventually…” she paused, looking at her, scanning through her facial features, searching for something Ratana didn’t know she actually possessed.

“But you didn’t,” she said.

Now it was the old woman’s turn to look away from her, feeling ashamed.

“With time, I understood that your guilt and desire for redemption were as truthful as that of Naamari of Fang. I got scared. I thought that with time I would have seen you, the real you, seen your remorse and your desire, and that I would have ended up… forgiving you,” she sighed, shaking her head slightly. “It was something I was not prepared to do, so I ran away,” she shrugged, as if it was no big deal leaving one’s home. “I asked Queen Raya not to tell you where I went, and I lived in exile for a long time because of my senseless fear.”

Ratana was about to protest. She wanted to say that she wasn’t the one deserving exile; that she was the one to; and that she would have stopped coming to their house each year if she had known. But the woman didn’t let her, anticipating her every dissent.

“I was wrong,” the old woman sighed, sounding tired all of a sudden. “I was all wrong. And with that, I ruined not only my life but also that of my child and her child too.”

The white-dressed woman looked puzzledly at the old woman. She sighed once again and disentangled their hands as the old woman reached tremblingly for some more hot tea. Ratana reached out and helped her fill the cup, which she took and used to hide her trembling hands, warming them at the same time.

“I brought,” she said, after a long pause where she seemed to have concentrated only on warming herself. “I brought all my family into a profound hate, tainting my legacy with it.” She shook her head, looking disgusted by her actions.

Ratana found her tongue, and even if her voice came out hoarse and rough like that of an old woman, her desire to make the other woman feel better was too great not to speak.

“You were right to hate me,” she said, matter-of-factly.

The old woman didn’t look that sure. “Maybe so,” she said, tiredly. “But my hate should have remained with me and not transferred to my daughter and from her to my daughter’s son.” She shook her head again, sadly. “I ruined my family with a suffering that wasn’t theirs to suffer, and it is difficult to admit it, but I see it now that I was wrong, so very wrong.”

“I’m to blame for all of this,” Ratana protested, her voice determined and sure. If there was something she was sure of, it was this. “I’ve tainted your legacy and I’ll do everything in my power to fix it, until the very end of my days, I promise,” she vowed, right hand going on her heart, to promise it in front of the woman and the sky itself.

Once again, the old woman was fast in her move as she blocked her from touching her chest, from carrying out that promise.

“Don’t,” she said, looking at her almost pleadingly.

“I’ve already,” Ratana said, letting her arm as soft as it needed to be for the old woman to control it as she pleased.

The old woman sighed, letting her wrist go and going back to her cooling cup of tea. Ratana noticed that the woman hadn’t eaten another pastry, nor had she sipped from the cup. Actually, Ratana hasn’t taken a sip of her own for quite some time now.

“What time was it?” she couldn’t help but think, but she pushed the thought away. Naamari would understand, and she would wait.

“It’s no use,” the old woman said. “I appreciate your determination as I’m sure it served you well during Fang’s reconstruction. But here, it is useless at best and damaging at worst.”

“I have to try,” said Ratana without hesitation.

“No,” said the old woman, shaking her head. “No, you don’t have to”

“I-“ she tried, but the other didn’t give her time to even begin her sentence.

“Do you know how I’m here today, offering you forgiveness, after all this time?” she said, looking at her, the determined and familiar glint back in her grey eyes. “Do you know why I’m talking with you, while I should not be doing it?” She didn’t give her time to answer again. “It is because I lived without you knocking at my door every year,” she revealed. “It is because I put space and time between us.”

“I’ve always known that your true objective was my daughter Ryla and that you looked after her forgiveness more than mine. But as soon as I got away from this house, my husband’s house, and did my experience away from here; as soon as I got away from you…well, memories started to blur and my hate blurred with it too. Of course, as I told you, I would be here, each year, to that day, when you would come and knock at my daughter’s door. But with time, I felt I wasn’t able to hate you, not as before. And when I finally understood what I did to my family because of my hate, I found it impossible to hate you anymore, despite what you did.”

Ratana’s confusion was written all over her face. Her head tilted slightly to the side, her brow furrowed, and her lips parted as she shifted her weight on the bench, trying to understand what the woman was trying to tell her.

“Why are you telling me all this?” she whispered after a time. “Why now?”

“Because,” started the old woman, taking her hands in hers, and looking straight into her eyes, checking her whole attention. “I wanted to teach you a life lesson, child, and it is that forgiveness is all about time,” she said, offering her a small smile. “Of course, there are people able to forgive sooner rather than later, and others who get over it faster,” she grimaced, her old features curling up all over her face. “But only time can help fade it and let forgiveness in. It’s like a scar,” she explained. “Wounds heal, but scars do not. They fade, but only with time.”

The old woman squeezed her hands with a strength she didn’t expect from a woman that age.

“You have to let them fade,” she said, smiling.

Ratana looked hesitant. She understood what the old woman was telling her. She wanted her not to come to that house knocking again and again each year. She wanted her to let her daughter cool off her rage and find space to forgive her through time and space. She got the idea, it made sense, but she wasn’t sure of it.

For one, she thought that by not coming here, bowing in front of that door, and asking for forgiveness like she had been doing all that time, she was committing a crime, a crime against the memory of what happened. She had to atone for what she did, and she saw no other way but to be at this family’s service and beg for forgiveness until the very end of her days.

More than that, she was scared. Scared that if she let the thing go as the old woman was proposing, Ryla’s rightful hate would not fade, but increase, and forgiveness would never be hers, not even if she lived one hundred years…

She was scared of going away without forgiveness for her gravest sin.

The old woman must have intercepted her line of thoughts, as she squeezed her hands again, taking back her attention from her mind’s eyes. When Ratana looked at the woman, she saw a small but confident smile and a matching glint in her eyes. Her expression talked of certainty as she was trying to pass it on to her too.

“Don’t be scared,” she said, her voice motherly and soothing, and for the first time since she started speaking with her, Ratana realized she was not only speaking to a former wife but also to a mother.

“I know my daughter well,” she assured her. “After all, I raised her…” she paused, a small glint of guilt appearing on her face at the thought of what she did, but it was fast to disappear and was replaced with the same confidence and faith as before. “She is not one to keep a grudge forever, it is simply not in her nature. What she is doing is my fault, but when I’m not here anymore, she will be free from my influence and my past, and with time, I assure you she will forgive you.”

Ratana looked at the woman with full-displayed uncertainty. “And what if she won’t?” she asked, her apprehension and fear clear in her voice. “What if she decided not to and I…” she faded, unsure about how to explain her feelings to the old woman.

She had done so much, and she believed that not even her entire life would be enough to atone for it all. The old woman could not understand half of it…

The old woman disentangled one of her hands and reached out to put it on her cheek. Ratana didn’t flinch as the old woman’s hand was oddly smooth and incredibly warm as she caressed her. Once again, her smile was confident and her eyes spoke volumes about her understanding of what was going on in the younger woman’s very mind.

“For the good of both of you, let the scar fade,” she said, her voice carrying almost an unearthly wisdom as if the Sky itself was speaking through her. “And in time, you will get what your heart and soul deeply shout out for…”

“…forgiveness.”