Family dinner was… painless. Arxet didn’t make a fool of herself or leak any memories. No surprise visitors came by. No one said anything that felt too patronizing. Arxet was tempted to call the experience ‘nice,’ though that term might be extreme. No, painless would do nicely. Otherwise she might grow overly attached.
Rubis never even brought up Arxet’s little slip up, at least not in a way Arxet knew she’d said anything. When it first happened she’d just laughed it off and bumped horns with Arxet again. Tiamat’s tail that dragon knew how to play off an awkward situation. Arxet was certain if she’d said that to Amjazel or Emren she would have been scooped up into a twenty minute long hug.
Tifse remained quiet as a mouse for the entire meal. She only spoke twice: once when she was asked whether she preferred beer or wine, and once when she thanked the server for dropping off her food. Arxet could tell she had a lot on her mind. The two had not yet undergone the bonding ceremony, which would take place in two days immediately after the selection ceremony would take place (Arxet was still quite pleased with herself for how she’d managed to cancel the event). However, the fox was about as bad as Arxet when it came to hiding her emotions across a link.
Tifse knew now who ‘Fatima Mattar’ was, and that she had made a bad impression with a goddess on her very first day at the academy by bullying a deity’s granddaughter. It was enough to make anyone reconsider every decision they’d made in their entire life leading up to this point.
It was still unclear to Arxet whether the fox regretted her actions because she’d caught consequences, or because she actually felt bad. Arxet wasn’t sure if it made a difference to her. She still didn’t really have a better option for a rider, and she wasn’t quite done teaching the fox a lesson. When would she be done? Only time would tell.
Eventually the family finished up the meal and chatted for about an hour before finally making themselves scarce. The sun was long since set, and the streets of the ministry complex were almost completely empty. An occasional priest wandered past in the midst of some late night errand, or a dragon flew overhead, but they had the streets all to themselves on the warm humid night.
As they walked back home Idami spent some time telling Arxet about a cute gecko lizardfolk in her class that she’d met. “Yeah, he actually complimented me on my coldmark. Called it ‘pretty’. And I think he was being sincere. Maybe once it’s selection time I’ll even choose him.”
“Don’t get ahead of yourself, my love.” Tiamat beamed at the story. “You still have two whole weeks until it’s time for your first big ceremony. See who else you meet!”
“I know, mom. I know.” The weasel grinned back. “He is cute though.”
“Lucky you, having some people with a heart and half a brain in your session.” Arxet snorted and bumped Tifse with her wing, sending the fox stumbling. “I got stuck with this one.”
“We’ll see how long this arrangement lasts.” Amjazel rubbed her daughter’s neck as the group arrived at the courtyard. “I’m sure mom can help you find another if she doesn’t work out.”
“I’m not quitting.” Tifse mumbled. Everyone glanced at her as she spoke for the first time in nearly two hours. “Kick me out if you want,” she continued, “but I’m not quitting.” She pushed past Amjazel and into the courtyard.
“What did you do to her?” Emren sounded surprised. “She was a little fuzzy ball of rage this morning.”
“I dunno. She just started acting like that after hearing Tiamat was invited to dinner, and after she saw her.” Arxet shrugged her wings and slipped into the courtyard as well. “Guess she finally realized how much she’d fucked up.”
“Arxet, are you sure this is a good idea?” Tiamat had swapped to mental communication as well. “The bond between a rider and dragon-”
“It’ll be fine, granny.” She turned and bumped her snout off the goddess’s forehead. “If she ends up leaving I’ll figure something else out. It’s not like I’ll miss her.”
“That isn’t what I’m worried about, my love.” She crossed her arms defiantly in response to the forehead bump, though Arxet could still sense she liked it. “I am not telling you to change your mind, I’m just… warning you. A rider bond is an intimate thing, she won’t just be a servant or companion for you. Your emotions will be-”
“It’ll be fine, seriously. There’s nothing she can throw at me that I can’t handle.” She yawned, showing off her rows of razor sharp teeth in the process. Yawning as a dragon felt awesome, honestly. Her jaws could open so fucking wide. “I’m gonna turn in early. I’ve got some plans with her for the morning.”
“I guess I should probably get back to the academy then…” Idami sighed and rubbed her head. “It was nice hanging out. Lemme know however your next plan with bitch fox goes.”
The family one by one began bidding each other goodnight and going their separate ways. Tiamat simply… turned into mist and disappeared. Idami headed back, and Amjazel, Rubis, Emren, and Arxet all returned down to their rooms in the tunnels. Arxet wasn’t even really sure where Tifse had gone and didn’t care.
“You want me to help you get revenge on some guy that you already robbed?” Tifse deadpanned at the dragon. She looked like hell. Arxet could only assume she’d slept outside in the courtyard overnight with how her fur was such a tangled mess, and by the bags under her eyes. Waves of exhaustion radiated from the little fuzzball. It almost made Arxet feel sorry for her.
“He accused me of a crime I didn’t- that he had no evidence of, and had me thrown in jail. He robbed me right back by not giving me my money back. That necklace is mine!” The dragon whipped her tail in indignation. “He had no grounds to call the guard on me. We both stole from each other, sure, but he might as well have tried to get me killed. So yeah, I’m getting payback.”
“What do you even want for payback?” The fox rubbed the bridge of her nose. “Do you even have a plan?”
“I have a few different plans, actually.” She growled slightly, a mix of excitement and anger in the sound. “First, we go talk shit about him to all the other jewelers in town. You put on your rider pin-”
“I don’t even get my rider pin until tomorrow after the bonding ceremony.” She pointed out. “You said we were doing this today. Why not just wait?”
“You and I aren’t gonna have this kind of free time for a bit. Amjazel gave me the week to rest and ‘get to know my rider’. Once that’s up we’re gonna be busy with training.” She explained as she rolled her eyes. “We can ask Emren to borrow hers. I doubt she’d say no if I explain why I need it. ANYWAY, you put on any old rider pin, go to as many other jewelers in town as you can. Tell them that you’re investigating Clem’s Gems, that’s the shop, for taking payment and then falsely calling the guard to have the client arrested, then pocketing the payment.”
“That is what happened, I guess. What is this supposed to do? Why will they care? Aren’t they his competitors?”
“Yes, and no. You go to enough jewelry shops and word will spread. A rider conducting an investigation herself will turn heads. They could talk to his suppliers, potential customers, anyone else he has to work with to keep the shop running, even the jewelers guild could get involved! A merchant with a reputation for robbing customers won’t last.” She grinned at the fox. “Are you getting it now?”
“Yeah, I guess… but you said you had other ideas?” The fox still didn’t seem to want to join with this plan, but had little alternative options.
“You go in just as yourself, say you’re buying something, let your coldmark hang out. If he tries it again then we jump him.” She did a play pounce onto the fox to pin her down, flashing her teeth in Tifse’s face in the process.
“Ghk-!” She was utterly flattened by the dragon pinning her chest and shoulders down. “Get- get the hell off me!” She struggled and wriggled to try to escape before giving up. “And why should I trust you to not let me get arrested?”
Huh. Why hadn’t Arxet thought of that? It would actually be really funny to let her get thrown into the pit, but the thought of letting that slimy little prick in that jewelry shop fuck over another person with a cold mark made her sick. “Nah, I don’t hate you that much. Plus you’re useful.” She lifted her paws off her rider and backed off again.
“Oh joy. I’m useful.” Tifse sat back up and brushed herself off from being pinned to the ground. “So what the hell does ‘we jump him’ mean?”
“We take his shit. Get payback in a more material sense.” She slammed her claw into the stone courtyard below her and snorted hot air over the fox. “It’s not like one sniveling merchant could stop us.”
“Yeah, that just sounds like robbing someone. I like the first idea more.” She pushed the dragon’s snout up and away from her face and rolled her eyes. “We can add some other stuff too maybe, carve shit into his door like ‘thief’, or whatever. Maybe bust a window.” She scooted back from Arxet and wrapped her arms around her knees. “I still think you should just call it even. He was right to suspect you. You did steal a lot of that money you paid him with, and you stole from him, even if he hadn’t noticed.”
“Fuck that!” Arxet snarled back. “The only reason he had to suspect was my coldmark! He was fine with me until he saw it!”
“Yeah well a coldmark is pretty good fucking evidence!” The fox shot to her feet and jabbed a finger into her dragon’s neck. “Just look at us! I’m a backstabbing hypocrite, you’re a thief and a liar who’s obsessed with getting back at people! I don’t know Idami well enough but I’m sure she’s got shit wrong with her too!”
Arxet was stunned at the outburst and quite offended at the implication about Idami. The fuck was wrong with this coldmarked fox that she hated her own people that much? “Uh huh. No. That’s bullshit.” She shoved the fox back onto her ass with a wing. “Even Tiamat says so. I am the way I am because people treat me like shit. It’s not like I had other options.”
“Excuses! Rationalizations! I was a good kid until I got mine! My parents had no choice but to force me into this because I was just fucking up all the time after my coldmark showed up. They were always telling me about how I had a bad attitude and forgot my manners from before. I just-” Her breath cracked, she was quivering, shrinking down to hide herself from Arxet’s gaze. “I just want to go back to who I was. Before I was- when I was me. I never would have treated you like I did when I was younger.”
“Nah, sounds to me like you’re trying to make excuses for YOUR bullshit.” Arxet stood and began pacing. “Tiamat’s said it’s just cold magic. Not all cold magic is associated with Ninazu.”
“Oh please. You even became a dragon and this- this curse followed you. Even draconic magic, the strongest fire magic there is, couldn’t cleanse it. It’s inescapable...” She hung her head and hid her face in her paws. “It’s Ninazu’s last revenge on mortals like us for siding with Tiamat, since he couldn't get revenge on her himself. Not even Tiamat can cleanse it. She just tries to make us ignore it, to tell people it’s a superstition. I see through her, she’s just trying to save face. People like us make everything worse.”
“Then either you’re going to help me make something worse or I’m sending you packing back to mommy and daddy.” Arxet was sick of this. She didn’t want to listen to listen to whatever fucked up self loathing Tifse had picked up any longer. She had more than enough of her own already. She stormed off to talk to Emren.
“Yeah, I’m in. This plan is great!” Rubis cackled from her bed. “I think I even have another older rider pin left over from my first rider.” She lazily rolled out of her bed, transformed into a lynx again, and began digging around on some shelves in the corner of her room. “She’d totally love us using it for this. She always loved a good scam.”
Emren had quickly agreed when Arxet approached her about borrowing her rider pin for the day and her need to work around time constraints. However, she’d lent it with a single condition. “Get your sister involved. She’ll be plenty of help.” She’d prompted.
Arxet was somewhat loath to bring Rubis on. She had no doubts that Rubis would be of help, the red dragon knew a fair amount about skulduggery as well, but she had sorta wanted the satisfaction of getting the job done herself. “Huh? Why do we need a third pin? Mo- Emren even let us borrow hers already, and Jiru has his own, doesn’t he?”
“Because I’m gonna pose as a rider too, squirt.” She yanked her arm back and flashed the pin to Arxet. The designs must not change often, Rubis had picked her first rider about a century ago, and the winged bassinet remained identical to every other pin Arxet had seen from younger riders.
“Sure, I guess.” She leaned forward to squint at the relatively tiny pin. “I gotta start working on shapeshifting. I don’t want to have to rely on Tifse for everything.”
“It’ll come with time. It’s not something most dragons learn easily.” She affixed the pin to her robes and grabbed a spare blade from her wall. “I’m not gonna use it,” she explained in response to Arxet’s confusion. “I just look more official with it, ya know?”
“It really does help.” Jiru added from Rubis’s bed. Arxet hadn’t even noticed him in the room before. For a giant buff bullfolk he was surprisingly sneaky. “Or maybe people just respect someone who can kill them more?”
“You sound like my fucking dad. My birth dad, I mean, or whatever.” Arxet rolled her eyes. “He refused to leave the manor without two armed guards and a longsword.”
“Sounds like a weak ruler.” The bull scoffed. “My sister never allowed herself to rule by fear.”
“Wait, your sister’s a ruler? Where?” Arxet seriously needed to talk to the guy more. Rubis seemed cool, so he must be too.
“Stefaial.” He answered. “She’s a duchess.”
“Huh. That’s high up in Stefaial, right?” Arxet wondered. “We just had Barons and lords in Tiskin, or at least that’s how I think they translate to Mercani…” As much as everyone hated the Mercani, basically everyone spoke that stupid language. “Our shit was too small to have as many ranks though.”
“Dukes and duchesses are right below the king and queen, yeah. A baron is further down for us.” Jiru explained. “If my sister ever dies I’d have to go back home and report for duty, as it were.”
“And I’d miss you and fly out to see you every week.” Rubis patted him on the shoulder. “She’s got a baby on the way though, so she’ll have an actual heir in a few years so we don’t have to worry about it.”
“Why are so many priests and riders nobles anyway?” Arxet pondered. “I mean, there’s Jiru, Tifse, plenty of the people in my class were too.”
“If you’re not first in line you’re not likely to get much in your inheritance.” Jiru shrugged. “That’s always left plenty of us looking for other options than just being our older sibling’s lackeys. Not to mention, traveling halfway across the world to Fellrock to join the academy isn’t something everyone can do. It’s dangerous and expensive to travel, a peasant’s family is more likely to need their help on the farm, in the shop, whatever. Nobility also tend to have more combat training, since most feudal states require military service if they’re going to be allowed to stay. Their training means that they can travel without having to worry quite as much about monsters, highwaymen, you name it.”
“It’s why grandma’s been pushing to expand the yearly recruitment drives and recruit dragons to help with it, like mom did this year.” Rubis continued to elaborate. “It makes it easier for folks who were interested but never thought they’d be able to make it all the way to Fellrock.”
“Yeah, and then mom grabbed me and left all those priests in the middle of nowhere.” Arxet cackled. “Some help that was.”
Rubis and Jiru exchanged a sly smile. After a moment Rubis continued the conversation. “She was just one of about a dozen participating this year. I was thinking of doing it too until I heard mom was looking for another kid, so I thought I’d stick around.”
Arxet squinted at the pair. “What was that?”
“What was what?” Rubis innocently swung her tail back and forth and smiled.
“That look. You two exchanged a look. You two are totally talking about me mentally!” She stomped her foot. She hated feeling left out somehow.
“You’d just be mad if we told you.” Jiru snickered.
“Oh for- JUST TELL ME!” She flared her wings and growled.
“You called mom, Amjazel I mean, ‘mom’.” Rubis was fighting back a huge stupid smirk. “I don’t think you-”
“I DID NOT! I CALLED- I WOULDN’T-” Arxet roared and stomped around in a circle before shaking her entire body hard. She felt like she needed a bath at the thought. “Can we just get back to what we were talking about? Jiru, Tifse is a Stefaian noble too. Could you dig up dirt on her for me?”
Jiru and Rubis exchanged another look.
“STOP THAT!” Arxet implored. “I had one slip up, so what?”
“Right, right. Jiru, is that something you could help Arxet with on another day?” Rubis took a step over to pat her sister on the shoulder. “Calm down, squirt. People slip up, it’s fine. I remember when I was a kid I called my babysitter mom on accident once. It was pretty embarrassing.” She did not at all sound convinced that it was just a slip up. After all, Arxet had said ‘love you too’ to her just the previous night.
Jiru glanced awkwardly between the two before sighing and answering the question. “I can write my family and ask. She’s a fox, so if I had to guess she might be from the Bontifur family. They’re in the neighboring duchy, not under my sister. I don’t know all that much about them but… I could ask?”
“Yeah, sure. I’m just trying to figure out her deal.” Arxet tilted her head slightly. “I think she has more issues than I do.”
Rubis whistled in astonishment. “And you’ve got a lot of issues.”
“SHUT UP ABOUT MY ISSUES!” Arxet bristled. “I have a perfectly normal amount of issues! For someone like me!”
“That is still a lot of issues.” Rubis patted her again, fighting back a laugh as she did so. “Come on, let’s go ruin some guy’s reputation.”
To call Fellrock a large city was an understatement. The city took up only a small corner of the island, but both were still massive. The island was three hundred miles from north to south, and the city roughly thirty miles, all focused around the small peninsula around the eastern side, and the rest mostly farmland and rocky hills. The city had wealth, and that wealth meant there were more than enough jewelry shops to go around.
Rubis had lent Arxet the wisdom to start at the jeweler’s guild on the north side of the city so that the group would not be wandering aimlessly. The guild representatives that Rubis and Jiru had pulled into a meeting with (Arxet was forced to wait outside and be caught up after due to her size) had seemed to take the accusation very seriously. Honestly anyone should if three riders roll in and start asking questions about whether a certain merchant is trustworthy or has had any history of robbing customers.
From there Rubis wrote a list of all 116 jewelers, gold and silver smiths, and suppliers in the city based on the guild’s own records, mapped them out, and split up the work between the three ‘riders’, and Arxet. Together they hoped to get things done in a few weeks time. Arxet was given the area closest to the ministry so that she and Tifse could more easily make time between their training sessions.
Despite how helpful Rubis was in getting Arxet’s original concept for the plan off the ground and organized… It really took the fun out of it. Maybe Arxet just wanted to take all the credit for herself, or really did just want the satisfaction of busting up the shop herself? It was hard to say.
She must really be getting better at masking her emotions through the link, because Rubis seemed oblivious to her mood change after the meeting with the guild. She hadn’t even gotten to listen in on the meeting. Tifse and Rubis just gave her the gist afterwards. Even when she and Tifse hit up the different shops and suppliers Tifse had to do most of the talking for her. She just… waited outside and listened. It was infuriatingly boring. This had to be the most dull revenge plan ever devised.
She needed to figure out shape shifting as soon as fucking possible. Being stuck as a dragon was the fucking worst as soon as it came to interacting with people. Even if she could tell Tifse to ask a specific question for her, or make a specific point in a conversation, her rider always paraphrased or had a different intonation than she imagined. Tifse didn’t even have any of the excitement or flair as she explained the situation to the various schmucks. Everything was so deadpan. If it were Arxet she would be dramatizing the events, trying to pluck on people’s heartstrings, and alluding to dangerous possibilities. Rumors didn’t spread from a deadpan recounting of events! It got the point across, but was so boring!
“Couldn’t you at least sound like you care? You suck at this.” Arxet grumbled at the fox as she exited the sixth stop on their route.
“For your information I don’t care.” Tifse countered and crossed off another spot on her map. “I still think this is stupid.”
“I still think you’re stupid.” Arxet responded in a mocking voice. “Come on, we’ve still got like twenty five spots to hit.”
“Oh very mature.” She griped in response. “When are we stopping for the day? We’ve been at this for half the day!”
“I think the other half of the day will do nicely.” Arxet grabbed the fox by the collar of her armor and lifted her up. “Come on, your stubby legs are too slow.”
Tifse screeched in indignation and struggled as she was picked up like a kitten. “Put me down! You’re making a scene, dumbass!”
“You’re the only dumbass here, dumbass.” Arxet trotted along between the various staring faces in the crowd. “Maybe if you asked nicely I’d let you go on my back instead?”
“Fine! Put me on your back!” She badgered. “You’re going to put a dent in my armor like this! You’re not supposed to hold me by the collar! It’s just supposed to protect my neck!”
“That’s not asking nicely.” The dragon taunted. “Try again, shorty!”
“Oh for-” The fox seethed. She took a few deep breaths, clenched her fists, and spoke more carefully this time. “Please, put me on your back instead. This is uncomfortable.”
“Hmm… I did only say ‘maybe’, I didn’t say I wouuuulld” The dragon seemed to ponder for a moment before swinging her head around and roughly depositing the fox between her wings. “Just make sure I don’t rub you raw. We didn’t bother bringing the saddle out.”
Without either a saddle or rider armor it was always a danger that the friction of a dragon’s scales could, if a ride lasted long enough, rub through someone’s pants and inner thighs. Arxet’s were rougher than most as well, so it was especially a concern. Most rider armor had additional protection in the inner thighs to prevent this, or a saddle was worn by the dragon in the case a rider may not be able to wear their armor or had another guest riding on them. Tifse’s personal set was weeks away at the earliest, there was thankfully a short queue for armor after Tiamat and Arxet had cleaned house, but it was still a complex and delicate piece to forge, and took time.
“Yeah, whatever, like you actually care.” The fox grumbled and tried to get more comfortable. “And be more careful next time, one of your back spines would have impaled me if I didn’t wear my breastplate today!”
“What a travesty that would have been.” Arxet picked up the pace. The sooner she got the fox off her back the better.
She trotted through multiple streets, between back alleys, and around large crowds until she finally found herself at the next stop, a larger and fancier looking shop by the name of ‘Scale-Shine Gems and Jewels’. So far every single jewelry shop in this city that she’d been to had some level of draconic theming. Why were people so obsessed with dragons here? Even as a mortal she never gave them so much thought.
This shop was the closest one to Clem’s Gems, the two shops were visible to each other down the street even. “Maybe I would have had better luck here, whatever. At least this one has more windows for me to look through.” Arxet made it up to the door and bucked the fox off her back before she had a chance to demount herself.
Tifse didn’t even bother to complain this time. She just dusted herself off and went inside for another boring uninspired informational. Hopefully Rubis and Jiru were doing better…
A bit of movement caught her eye down the way. The titular Clem, of Clem’s Gems, had opened his door to stare down the street at the dragon outside of another jewelry shop. Had word already made it back to the bastard snake that accusations were being made?
The shopkeeper seemed to notice her attention on him and duck back inside. “Oh he’s stewing in it, isn’t he? He knows what’s happening.” She grinned and made her way to the shop. She couldn’t quite see the look on his face from all the way down the street. This had to be good.
As she made it to the shop he was still standing by his window, seemingly trying to calm himself. He jumped at the dragon head swinging down into view and bowed. “S-sacred dragon! I- I- I- don’t understand. All I did was report a cold one-”
Arxet growled at the term. She hated when people called her a cold one. It felt like it reduced her just to her cold mark and nothing else. Then again, that’s all she was to these people wasn’t it.
The snake stumbled back in fear at the two ton shiny blue monster lurking in his window. Arxet pushed her head through the window and into the shop. The space was so small she could reach the back wall with her neck. This had the added effect of letting her loom over him and trap him into a cramped space with an angry dragon.
He was prostrated now, and she could smell that he had soiled himself a little as she entered the space. “H-he stole from me, holy one! I realized one of my sapphires was missing after I had him arrested!”
“Then what did you actually have me arrested for? Just having a cold mark? I knew you would try to screw me over, and that’s why I took that sapphire, as INSURANCE!” She roared inside of the shop. The snake was now clutching his head and writhing, but Arxet pushed forwards. “I would have called it even if you just didn’t give me what I paid for, we’d have stolen from each other, fair’s fair, eh? But no, you had to have me thrown in THE PIT!” She roared again and pushed further into the jewelry shop. The wall was cracking and crumbling as her weight crashed into it. She was so angry her head was pounding. She was holding herself back from just tearing the man to shreds. Every time the snake called her a ‘he’ she just got angrier.
“So I’ve come here to-” She burst through the wall and got her torso in, “-COLLECT!”
The snake took the opportunity to stumble to his feet and run out of the shop. Arxet had knocked over several displays, and the roof was beginning to sag now, but she couldn’t care less. She’d picked up Amjazel’s scent in the shop, the scent that she’d been absolutely slathered with when she’d come here before. Some of the scentmarking Amjazel had put on her back in Tanenville must have stuck to the gems she’d handled. Her nose led her behind the back counter, and as she shoved her head behind the entire piece was knocked over and the stone top shattered. She had found it- his safe! She clutched it tightly in her jaws and began backing out.
At this point a crowd had formed around the shop, Tifse was running back after hearing the commotion. The snake was nowhere to be found, though she could easily follow his scent trail if she wished. She snorted, adjusted her grip on the safe, and began walking back home, ignoring Tifse’s demands for an explanation the whole walk back. These people could stare all they wanted, she’d gotten what she came for.