The next ten days passed in a strange blur of bickering, misery, and training. Amjazel did, fortunately for Arxet and Tifse, take breaks from leading the combat training to let Emren take over. Emren was an experienced fighter in her own right, but Arxet and Tifse did manage to get the occasional hit in during their spars. They were both gradually improving on an individual level, but failed to truly work together. Neither of them had managed to even touch Amjazel though.
Idami was nearing the time where she would have her own transformation ceremony. Hers would be a day before the other chosen for the session would transform. It was always an event among the family when Tiamat took another child. Every other dragon in the city wanted to be able to attend the ceremony, and it seemed unfair to the other chosen for Idami to steal their thunder or unnecessarily crowd such an important moment in their life. Tonight Idami would be taken to the Grand Ziggurat, and the following morning she would be a dragon as well.
Amjazel and Emren were busy at the Ziggurat today, helping prepare for the celebration. This gave Arxet and Tifse a day to rest at the house. Rubis had tried to ask her if she wanted to work on some training together like they used to, but Arxet had flat ignored her.
Arxet still refused to even speak to Rubis. She didn’t know what Rubis and Emren had talked about during her first combat training with Amjazel, but every time the red dragon had tried to talk with her she just left. Arxet and Tifse ended up going for many long walks together through the city or flights over the lake.
Arxet couldn’t think of anything else to do with herself when she needed to get away. The ministry compound felt more oppressive than ever. Other dragons stared any time she passed by. She could tell by the way they looked at her and then riders and other dragons that they were talking about her in their private mental links. Word had gotten out she had been burned. Tiamat could swear up and down that she was a part of the family all she wanted, but it was clear no one else thought of her that way.
That was fine. She didn’t want to be a part of it anyway.
Tifse had spent most of her free time wallowing in regret about every decision she’d made in the past four months. She questioned whether she should have stolen Arxet’s sapphire, whether she should have hidden her coldmark, whether she should have left home, whether she should have told that fox girl she had a crush on about her coldmark and her feelings, whether she should have turned Arxet down. It was a never ending barrage.
Arxet, for her part, hadn’t been in a funk like this in years. She couldn’t think straight with the flood of emotions battering her at every hour of the day. She was exhausted, she couldn’t sleep with the fox assaulting her with her self loathing and regrets. She’d even started letting her sleep in her room so she wouldn’t be tormented as much at night when she needed rest. Yelling at Tifse wasn’t helping, no amount of distance made it stop. Ignoring it definitely wasn’t giving her any relief.
Fine. It was time for a different strategy.
“Tiamat’s Tail!” Arxet bellowed a roar at the fox and stalked across the room to her. “You are going to track down that fox and you are going to tell her how you feel or I swear to Tiamat I am going to drown you in the well. Come on.” Arxet yanked Tifse off the ground in her jaws and dropped her onto her saddle. Luckily the thing was comfortable enough she didn’t have to waste time putting it on and taking it off constantly. Tifse just had to remove it at night when it was time to sleep.
“Wh-what?” Tifse scrabbled at the leather straps to keep on Arxet’s back as the dragon began trotting out into the tunnel. “I can’t-”
“You don’t have a choice. Either you tell her or I do, and believe me, you don’t want me to.” Arxet shot out of the trapdoor to the courtyard and flared her wings, ready for takeoff, only to run face first into Rubis.
“Oh good, so I’m not the only one you bump into all the time.” Tifse groaned from her back and finally secured herself in the saddle.
“Arxet, I-” Rubis seemed just as surprised as Arxet to run into each other. Her eyes were red and puffy. Arxet could smell the remnants of dried tears stuck to her.
“Don’t bother.” Arxet tried stepping around the larger dragon to get a clear angle to take off from.
“You can’t avoid me forever. We live together. Please, can we talk?” Rubis tried to match her little sister’s pace.
“You don’t have a choice. Either you tell her or I do, and believe me, you don’t want me to.” Tifse parroted back at Arxet.
“Oh don’t you dare! This is completely different!” She whirled around to growl at the fox on her back. “I’m not constantly moping about-”
“You are so moping too! Seething even! You and her were close until last week!” Tifse jabbed a finger right between Arxet’s eyes. “Just say something!”
Rubis watched the silent display between the two with a modicum of worry and patience. It was to be expected that the two would have internal conversations, she did the same with Jiru often enough. “Arxet, is it about-”
“Hold on a second we’re still arguing!” Arxet snapped at her before returning her attention to Tifse. “I’ll make a deal with you. I tell her what’s on my mind and you have to tell that fox what’s on yours. Deal?”
Tifse opened her mouth to retort, but faltered. Arxet really was being obnoxious and pointlessly bitter at Rubis. It was getting to be a real pain. Maybe this would work out? She dreaded having to talk to Audirei though. She almost wanted to throw up thinking about professing her feelings to the other Stefaian, but Arxet was set on telling her anyway, she could tell the dragon was not bluffing. “Fine. Deal. Just tell her. She looks like she’s going to cry again.”
“Sure. You first.” She dodged around Rubis and under her wing, dashed for an open enough space, and launched into the air. “Alright, pipsqueak. Where are we looking for your little girlfriend?”
“She is not my girlfriend!” She pounded a fist against Arxet’s neck. “And this wasn’t the deal! You have to talk to her!”
“And I will, but you go first. We never agreed on the order!” Arxet laughed as she performed a lazy loop around the perimeter of the rider academy. Her stamina and aerial acumen were greatly improving lately, she could stay in the air for nearly an hour without needing to land. “So, where are we starting to look for your not-girlfriend?”
“You’re impossible.” Tifse sagged against Arxet’s back and watched the city below. There were hand to hand drills going in one of the back courtyards of the academy. “Heh, remember when I got to kick your ass down there, twice?”
“What, you saying I should ask for a rematch? Make it best three out of five?” Arxet laugh-growled back. “You know, that doesn’t sound so terrible… Actually, I guess we’re tied now. I’ve beat you twice now too.”
“Absolutely not, I like having bones, thank you.” She giggled. Maybe this wouldn’t be so bad? They had the occasional moment of comradery between yelling at each other. At the end of the day, Arxet was trying to help her right now too.
“Oh, don’t get me wrong. I totally think she’s going to tell your annoying ass to get lost, but then at least you won’t be stuck wondering.” Arxet banked toward the southern docks. “She’s Stefaian too, right? Think she’s heading back or she’ll stay in the city?”
“Well… we came to Fellrock together on the same ship. I didn’t know her before.” The little fox reminisced. She couldn’t stop thinking about the woman’s smile, the cute little tufts around her cheeks, her beautiful fuzzy tail, the way she emoted so strongly with her ears and got so excited when she talked about her desire to help people…
“Okay, I get it, she’s like a dreamboat or something. You didn’t answer my question though.” Arxet rolled her eyes. “Would Audirei go home, or stay in Fellrock?”
“O-oh, right um-” Tifse racked her mind for any kind of hint toward the question. “She talked some about missing her family, and their fishing boat. She’d probably go home.”
“Okay, do you know where home is?” Ugh, this was turning out to be harder than expected. She shouldn’t stray that far if Idami’s transformation was tomorrow.
“Uh- no. Probably one of the smaller lakes to the south? But there’s a chance that she hasn’t left yet! Ferries don’t run to Stefaial that often!” She shared the route to the docks that she arrived on with Arxet, “She’d probably have gone there, if she’s not left yet we might be able to ask around! If she has left already we could find out what port she went to and go from there!”
“Isn’t Stefaial almost a thousand miles away? You expect me to fly all that?” Arxet banked again toward the docks in question. “That would take me days. I can’t fly that far yet. I haven’t even circled Fellrock Island yet.”
“This was your idea, ice for brains. Are you going to commit or not?” She held tightly to the saddle as Arxet swooped down for a landing on the back of a large barge in the midst of unloading its cargo. Sailors and dock workers scattered to the edges of the craft and yelled in surprise as the dragon appeared from seemingly nowhere to alight in the middle of their work.
Tifse scrambled down from the saddle and waved apologetically. “Hi! Sorry, hi! I guess she decided there was nowhere else good to land nearby. I uh- I’ll be quick. If you need any heavy lifting done she’d be happy to help.” She added on the last bit as a quick bit of payback for making Tifse go first and disembarked.
“You bitch, what do I look like, a crane?” Arxet roared after the fox. “I’m not doing shit unless they pay me!” She huffed at one of the sailors and bared her teeth some as he tried to direct her to a stack of barrels.
Tifse sprinted down the gangplank, dodging around other workers as they brought their goods down. “Sorry, sorry!”
“Why are you so polite to people that aren’t me? Curious.” Arxet had settled off to the side out of the way and had started watching through the fox’s eyes.
“Because you suck, and the first time we met you were being rude too.” She swung open the door to the ferry office and trotted up to the counter. She could barely see over to talk to the catfolk behind the counter. “Excuse- dammit, need to use my voice.” She cursed and tried again. “Excuse me, I’m trying to find someone, rider business.” She flashed her pin. “She might have come through here on a boat to Stefaial, or just bought a trip on one. She’s a red fox, Stefaian robes, steel armor like mine.”
“How can you stand being so short.” Arxet was enjoying distracting her. “Are you on your tippy-toes to see over the counter?”
“Can it!” Tifse yelled out loud before clapping a hand over her mouth. “Sorry! My dragon’s being… difficult. Oh, uh, riders and dragons communicate by-”
“I know how riders work, ma’am. No need to apologize.” The cat man pulled a ledger out from under the counter and started checking through. “The description doesn’t sound familiar, but she might be in our records if she reserved a ride ahead of time.”
“Oh, that could be perfect! Is there anything under Audirei?” She grabbed a chair from the side of the room and dragged it to the counter so she could use it as a foot stool and see the ledger.
“Awww so cute, you need a chair to see over!”
“Quiet!” She poured over the names listed under the next boat, scheduled in two days. There! Eight names down! Audirei Sylftie! “That’s what I needed, so she hasn’t left yet! Thank you, I’m a dumb idiot who can’t talk about my emotions without my dragon having to get involved!” She clapped a hand over her mouth as additional words poured out of her mouth unintentionally.
“Your dragon again?” The book keeper lifted an eyebrow.
Tifse nodded, her hand still keeping her mouth clamped shut. One of Arxet’s wings suddenly punched the dragon in the back of her head without warning. Tifse giggled, gave a thumbs up, and slunk back out of the shop. “Okay, you are not helping.”
“I got bored.” Arxet stretched again and prepared to take off as her rider came back up the gangplank.
“Well maybe if you’d helped these guys out after scaring them you wouldn’t have been bored.” She saddled up and gave another apologetic wave to the crewman. “Get us out of here already.”
“Well, if I have your permission, princess.” Arxet leapt off the boat and flapped her wings hard to gain altitude quickly in the cramped space. “So, where are we looking now? She’s still in town for two days, right?”
“Yeah, try the inn she and I were staying in. That way!” She pointed and shared the location with the dragon mentally. “It’s even near the ministry, we should be able to-”
A shadow passed over the pair, something massive. Tifse craned her neck up, a shiver going down her spine as she did. Arxet tried to angle her head up as well, but unbalanced herself in the air some and had to rely on Tifse’s eyes instead.
A colossal teal dragon had swooped down over them, battle-scarred and hulking. Her eyes were locked on the pair below. “You are Arxet, daughter of Amjazel?”
“My name’s Arxet, but I’m no daughter of Amjazel. Do I know-” Arxet tried to sass the dragon in her usual way but was cut short.
“Land, now. We need to speak.” The dragon tilted to her left and entered a barrel roll before shooting toward the ground in the ministry complex. She flared her wings at the last second, flapped hard to stop her momentum, and landed in the courtyard.
“We should do what she says.” Tifse gripped the straps on Arxet’s saddle tighter. “She sounded pissed.”
“Fine. I could go for lunch anyway before we go find your crush.” Arxet angled her wings to lead her into a spiraling descent toward the earth. She wasn’t capable of such violent and showy landings just yet. She alighted on the platform on the wall above the courtyard. She wanted some space and distance from the strange dragon, and to not be talked down to.
The great blue dragoness was almost as large as Amjazel, stouter, but with a longer neck that made her ultimately taller. Her brow bore the same distinct crown of horns as Amjazel, and that Rubis and Arxet had inherited. Like Arxet, her back spines were without a membrane between them, but were shorter and sturdier looking. The tip of her tail had a fish-like fin on the end, however it was missing a large piece, as if some great beast had torn it free. Each of her limbs had additional membranes as well, and her wings seemed to have more muscle on them, with thicker membranes between for catching water. This was an aquatic dragon, Arxet had heard many transitioned to live under the waves, this was her first time meeting one other than Tiamat in a temporary form.
“What do you want? Who are you?” Arxet lifted her nose at the strange dragon. She had to project a little confidence or she knew she’d get walked all over in this conversation.
“I am Aquixi, eldest daughter of Amjazel. Your older sister.” She lifted her nose even more imperiously than Arxet could imagine trying. “I received word on the road that mother had another child, and grandmother planned to do the same. But I return home to find my younger sister in TEARS, because of your treatment of her. Amjazel may stand by and ‘respect your wishes’, she is a patient woman. This is not a trait I ever inherited from her. Why do you shun your family so?”
Arxet bristled at the accusation. She knew she was likely to meet some of Amjazel’s other kids eventually, but had hoped she could ditch before that ever happened. “She’s not family. I don’t want or need a family.”
“Then why join it?” The teal dragon bore her teeth. “You think you can just accept a gift of this magnitude for free? You think you can accept Amjazel’s terms and then reject the parts you don’t like after you get what you want?”
“They could have been clearer about the ‘terms’!” Arxet shrank back some as the teeth flashed in her face. Tifse gripped on closer to the saddle as if she expected Arxet to bolt.“I thought all the family talk was metaphor!”
“Excuses and foolishness. I ask again. Why become a dragon?” Aquixi stowed her teeth. She at least seemed to recognize she was scaring her little sister and tried to soften her tone.
“I-” Arxet struggled for a satisfactory answer. “Who would turn down an offer like that? I was small and weak before. I got punched down on by the world every day. I needed an edge.”
“You sought power.” Aquixi bluntly boiled Arxet’s words down to the core of the idea. When she put it like that it felt a lot greedier. “Do not be ashamed. I accepted the gift for much the same reason. But let me ask you this: would accepting us as your family not further this same goal? Your mother is the greatest warrior of her birth century, your grandmother a goddess, and your older sister an accomplished monster hunter and warrior in her own right. You would deny yourself the prestige and aid of a bloodline of power?”
She made it sound so transactional. So, what? Arxet just returns affection and she gets perks and ‘prestige’? “It still doesn’t feel right. I struggled on my own for so long, getting a family now doesn’t…”
“We all struggled, little sister.” Aquixi rubbed her nose along Arxet’s side. “I was a war orphan, Rubis’s mother was missing for years, Morizio ran away from his childhood home to escape the unbearable pressure he was under. Amjazel loves nothing more than loving the unloved.”
“Are you done?” Arxet tried to step away from her at the contact but was running out of space. “That’s nice and all, but it’s not working for me.”
Aquixi narrowed her eyes at the smaller dragon but nodded. “Speak to Rubis. Apologize, or we will need to have another talk. Go.”
“I was going to talk to her later anyway, okay?” Arxet tried to puff herself up. “This whole conversation was a waste of time!”
“I didn’t say talk to her, I said apologize.” She huffed a bit of flame from her nostrils.
At the sight of the flame Arxet felt as if her heart was going to explode out of her chest. She checked herself over to make sure she hadn’t caught anywhere again as if it were a full on eruption of fire.
Aquixi seemed to recognize the panic and tilted her head. “You have no need to fear fire anymore, little sister. You are a dragon.”
“Yeah, you’d think that.” She traced a claw around her burn scars from two weeks prior. “But I’m a freak I guess.”
“Do not denigrate yourself.” The dragon seemed to have shifted from frustration with her to concern. She slowly lowered herself onto her belly and curled up in the courtyard below. “Tell me what happened.”
“What? You’re going to boss me around and treat me like a child and then switch to acting like you care?” She hopped down the stairs, glaring the whole way. “Tiamat doesn’t even understand it, why would you?”
“Indulge me on this. I only want to help. It would make sense why you’re so tense if you’re struggling with feelings of inadequacy.” She patted a patch of ground by her.
“I am not inadequate!” She spat.
“I didn’t say you were, little sister.” The dragon clarified. “Only that you had-”
“It’s not my feelings! It’s the damn cold mark! I don’t have a flame, I got set on fire when I got into a fight with some other twerp. Turns out I burn. That’s the story. I’m leaving now.” She was bristling with anger. This strange dragon thought just because they shared blood she could be talked down to like this?
Aquixi shook her massive head with a scowl.“Not until you speak with Rubis. I treat you like a child because you are acting like one.”
“I AM NOT A CHILD!” She parted her jaws and let a proper roar out to accompany the force of her thought.
“Arxet, I don’t think it’s a good idea to get her mad like this.” Tifse pleaded from her back. “What if- what if they-” The fox’s mind was racing with anxieties for potential consequences.
“Whatever.” She growled and went around the larger blue dragon to the entrance to the tunnels. “You want me to speak with Rubis? I’ll speak with Rubis! But give me space for it!”
“Don’t do anything rash, little sister. I’m not liking what I’m sensing with you.” She started for the door but faltered. She seemed at least willing to provide the space Arxet demanded. “Remember we love you before anything else.”
“Yeah, that conversation made me feel SO loved.” Arxet let the trap door slam down behind her as she marched down the stairs. “Tifse, we’re leaving. Pack up my cash, my armor, and the rest of my shit that we can carry.” Her heart was pounding with rage, she felt as if her chest was going to explode.
“WHAT?” The fox’s heart was racing to match hers now, but without the same extreme feeling of tightness. “What do you mean leaving, what about-”
“We’ll just head off Audirei’s boat in Stefaial. I’m sick of this city. Pack up my shit and put it on the saddle.” She pushed past the curtains to her room with a violent swing of her horns. The fabric caught and was ripped off of the pole they hung from above her, creating a raucous clattering sound.
Tifse hopped down from her back and got to work putting all of Arxet’s gems and gold back in their pouch and folding up her armor for transport. The entire scene felt surreal, dreamlike. Arxet felt as if she were watching through someone else’s eyes.
“Arxet?” Rubis’s mind touched hers. Arxet flinched at the contact, she didn’t want this conversation to happen but Rubis was approaching her room. “Is everything okay? I know Aquixi can be a lot but…” Her words faltered as she came into view. “Is that you, Arxet?”
“It’s me.” She stood in the doorway to her room defiantly. “You wanna know why I’ve been avoiding you so bad? Why I’m so mad?” She puffed and gasped as she tried to maintain her breathing, her blood felt ice cold. “All that all of you can see is my coldmark! You always talk about it! Everyone’s just so constantly worried about it but never me! It’s always the coldmark! Even the other dragons whisper about me, as if I can’t see them doing it in broad daylight, and you call me cold, as if you don’t know what that means to me?” She bared her teeth at the red dragon and flashed her tongue in the same way all dragons did when they were threatening to use fire. “I thought I could trust you, and you’re just going to pretend you don’t know what you did to hurt me? You’re going to give that oversized fish the idea that I’M THE ONE WHO HAS TO APOLOGIZE?”
Rubis seemed genuinely frightened for her sister, or was it of her? Arxet couldn’t tell and couldn’t care. “Arxet, I-”
“Shove it.” Arxet lifted her wing for Tifse as the fox brought the saddle’s accompanying bag over and began to secure it. “I’m leaving. I don’t want anything to do with any of you!” Tears of rage were beginning to stream down her cheeks, freezing before they could reach her neck.
Rubis moved to block the door at the words, true panic was setting in as Arxet’s fury poured out over her. “Wait, Arxet, I’m sorry! I didn’t mean- I didn’t realize-”
“I DON’T CARE!” The feeling of pressure in Arxet’s chest intensified to the point of agony, and then it released. Her jaws parted in time for the blast of magic as it crossed the threshold of her jaws and out into the world.
A spray of pure freezing cold washed over the red dragon’s face. Her scales froze and blackened, and a layer of frost covered her entire left side down her neck and to parts of her front leg. Her eye had seemingly frozen solid in the blast. A screech of agony rang through the halls as Rubis scrambled back from Arxet and slammed into the far wall. She brought a claw up to her face protectively, wherever she flexed her neck or leg Arxet could see chunks of scale and flesh underneath cracking and shattering off. Blood poured from the gaps where massive frozen fissures opened up in the frozen areas. Her entire left side where the frost had initially coated her now had blood pouring out like waterfalls over rock.
Arxet felt as if she was going to be sick at the sight, but capitalized on her chance to leave. She grabbed Tifse and dumped her into the saddle before sprinting down the tunnel, away from the exit into the depths of the tunnel system. She knew that there were other exits. Some even in public areas. If she could make it out of one of those she could make a break for it. Aquixi would probably tend to Rubis first which gave her a head start. She didn’t know if she should be more scared of herself or of whatever would happen when everyone found out what she’d done and what she was.
She slammed the door open to the first public exit she could find and launched into the air from the steps below with no wind up or preparation. Her heart was pounding so hard she couldn’t even hear whatever Tifse was yelling at her, whether it be with her voice or her mind. As soon as she was clear of the buildings around her she angled south and made a mad climb for altitude.
If she was going to avoid being tracked by scent she’d have to go as far as possible without touching the ground. Her scent would linger on the air some, but the winds over the lake were strong enough that if she found the right drafts she might be able to disperse it more.
“Arxet! Hey, dumbass, can you hear me?” Tifse was finally getting through to her again. “What the hell just happened, what did you just do?”
“I don’t know, and I don’t know.” Arxet was still pumping her wings like mad, she was only just below the clouds now, her breathing was labored and she was getting light headed.
“Slow down! You’re going to crash if you keep on like this. Coast for a bit, get your breath back.” Tifse was squeezing so tightly onto the saddle straps that Arxet could feel her hands hurting. “You’ll kill us if you keep on like this!”
Arxet relented and found an updraft to carry herself on. The last… however long felt like a blur. She could recall the main events of it, but none of the details or why she’d done anything. “I’m- am I an ice dragon?”