The air around Akio shifted and shimmered, bits of blue dust being drawn towards her before spinning into a vortex and disappearing in the distance overhead. White clouds surrounded her, rich with the dust. White and blue, the most formal of colors. It felt like the sky knew who she was and had dressed in accordance, just to try and make up for the years when nobody had cared.

  She’d tried to float up towards the top of the spinning vortex, but the dust just kept on moving farther away as if there was no end. Or maybe the clouds were moving and she had stayed still. She didn’t have any landmark for reference to prove otherwise.

  A hole appeared in the surrounding clouds, down and to her left. She floated over to it, trying hard to kick her legs and swing her arms. Akio stopped right at the edge of the hole, leaning over it before quickly pulling back. The mountains lay below, peaks jabbing up at the low clouds like spears on a warfront. A bustling city stood to the left of the mountains, squeezed between the rocky faces and the coastline. On the right of the mountains, only wilderness could be seen. But something was there. She could feel it.

  The blue dust started to change direction, pulling from the clouds to some point behind her. Akio turned around and gasped.

  A woman stood on the clouds, robed in moonlight and speckled with stars. Her right hand held a scepter with a crescent moon adorning the end. A spiked crown sat upon her brow. And her long hair flowed down around her, fading away until the ends became moonlight. She opened her mouth to say something, but the clouds beneath Akio shuddered and disappeared, and suddenly she could no longer stay aloft. The mountains had disappeared from view, only the mist remaining. With a rush of primal fear, she fell down, down, down…

  The terror of falling gradually receded as Akio began to regain her senses. First, the pounding in her head. Then the cold of the sheets around her. And then the dulled pain of her bandaged side and arm, a hurt that she worried would return in full force any second. The skin on her face pulled and peeled under the cloth bandage. A strange artificial cold chilled the burned areas, accompanied by a sharp smell.

  Akio let her eyes flutter open, wincing once as light flooded in and again as the movement irritated her burns. It took a second for her eyes to adjust, but eventually she could make out the individual translucent moonbeams as they shone through her window. She twisted her head around, trying to see her surroundings without having to move. White sheets covered a thin mattress on the floor, and the opposite wall had a shelf that held jars of spices. She tried to push herself up, but her burned right arm didn’t want to move. The sleeve of white around it wrapped all the way from her shoulder to the back of her hand, with a separate cloth threaded in between her fingers and over her palm. Similar bandages covered her chest and right leg, scratching slightly against the white tunic she had on. The cloth around her feet reminded her of shoes, but her toes refused to move just like her arm.

  “Feeling better? Akio started, swinging her head quickly around to the right. A wave of pain rushed through her, and her left arm gave out. She collapsed back to the cold sheets. Above her, a young woman in white robes and a brown sash appeared. “Sorry! I’m sorry if I surprised you. I didn’t mean to.”

  “It’s okay.” Her mouth felt dry, like she’d run a great distance. Now that she’d moved, her right side started to burn with faint phantom flames. Some of the flames spread to her head, a dull aching heat. Sweat already soaked many of the bandages, joining the discolored bits of dried blood that peeked through.

  The healer picked up a canteen of and a wet cloth from a table just out of Akio’s field of vision. She offered Akio the canteen. “Here, drink this. You lost a lot of water.” Akio reached for the canteen with her left hand, taking it and raising it shakily. She let the water pour through her cracked lips. The healer set the cloth on her forehead and adjusted it to cover the exposed skin. The bandage on Akio’s cheek seemed to stick to her skin, not reaching over the top of her head or around in front. Maybe tree sap? She didn’t really have the energy to think about it right now.

  “Seems like you’ve caught something. At the very least, you’re feeling a delayed shock from your burns. But my Teacher is convinced that your infections triggered something.” She pressed the cold cloth to Akio’s head. “You might be here for a few days.”

  A few days? She didn’t even know where she was. And in her condition, she couldn’t have gotten far from the estate. No, she couldn’t stay here for a few more days. She needed to be far away by then. “I’m sorry. You’ve been more than kind, but I can’t stay here. I need to get away…”

  The young woman smiled. “Don’t worry. Your friend told us enough.” She winked. “Your secret is safe with us. I’ll take it with me all the way up to the stars.”

  Sora! The thought echoed through her mind like the strike of a clock. “Where is he? I need to see him!”

  The healer took the empty canteen from Akio’s hand. “He’s just in the next room over, sleeping off his own injuries. Or, at least, he’ll be sleeping if he knows what’s good for him.”

  That made sense. But Akio’s longing didn’t go away. If anything, it got worse. The dragonflies in her stomach were waking up again, stretching their wings and flitting about at random. Akio tried to prop herself up again, but the healer gently pressed her back down onto the mattress.

  “He’s not the only one that needs sleep. In fact, I suspect you might need it more. Especially if you’re going to fight off those infections and that headache.” She paused. “I can give you something to make you drowsy, if that would help you.”

  The pain in Akio’s forehead had grown, the phantom flames now seeming very real and refusing to be extinguished by the water. Tears started to form in her eyes. Akio nodded ever so slightly, trying to blink away the tears before they fell down her bandaged cheek. The healer picked up a shallow bowl from a shelf, swirling the contents inside. She poured the thin paste into Akio’s mouth.

  Akio almost choked on the paste. It had a bitter, raw taste, like the time she’d chewed fresh greens from her mother’s garden. At that memory, the tears decided to fall anyway. “I know it’s not pleasant, but it will help you sleep.” As soon as Akio swallowed the bitter paste, the pain behind her eyes lessened. “Next time you wake up, we’ll see about getting you something to eat. I think you’ll feel a lot better after that.”

  That did sound good. Akio closed her eyes as the paste took full effect and spirited her away to the land of dreams once again. The pain from her burns and the pressure from the bandages became lost in her mind, postponed for another time. Dimly, she hoped Sora felt better than she did. And then she was lost to reality.

  A war raged all around Sora, each side clothed in black. Metal glinted in torchlight, weapons in the hand of each combatant. He too wore black, but his hands held no weapon. Each blade swung through the air for only half a second before finding a target, either another blade or a patch of flesh. The clash of metal rang in his ears like thunder from a storm. A dangerous anxiety built inside him. I just want to get away. To go back home. But ‘home’ didn’t exist anymore. This was his home.

  He’d never felt more alone.

  Sora dodged under a blade as it swept in his direction, bending backwards and letting the sharpened metal pass over him. And what was that smell? Not metallic, not smoky. Almost like… dried herbs? Not strong enough. It really smelled like a burn salve. But the only flames around came from the torches on the walls. Who had gotten burned…

  Sora jolted awake, breaths coming in ragged gasps. The moon shone through the high window. He lay in a small room, on a small bed, far from the shadows. Slowly, he calmed his racing heart. Peace. Impulse is not conducive to thought. Ground yourself. He lay back, closing his eyes and letting himself focus on what he felt. The white tunic and trousers were loose, the latter only reaching down to mid-calf. The bandages on his limbs were tight, even around his hands and feet. He could barely move his fingers. And the sweet, strong smell of herbal salve filled the room.

  “You are awake.” Sora didn’t flinch, opening his eyes and looking towards the door. The elder healer sat in a chair, hands folded in his lap.

  “I wish I wasn’t.” Only half true, but his burns did hurt a lot now that he could afford to pay attention to them.

  “That is normal. If you wish to sleep more, I can give you something.” Sora shifted in bed, agitating his sore core muscles. Akio didn’t appear to be anywhere near him.

  “How is Akio doing?” His problems seemed a little bit smaller when he worried about her instead of himself.

  “She is fighting a battle only she can fight. We will aid her as we are able, but she must bear the spear and shield alone.”

  “Can I see her?” The healing house hadn’t looked very big from the outside. Akio could be just on the other side of the wall, a few steps out of the doorway…

  “Your friend is resting. She will most likely awake sometime in the morning. I recommend you try to sleep a few more hours as well.”

  Sora looked up at the moonlight on his wall, tracing the beams back the sliver of the celestial orb that he could see through the window. Somehow, he felt a little calmer. “Very well. I’ll try to sleep until morning then.”

  Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

  The healer nodded. “Good. Would you like a remedy to help?” Sora nodded. He needed to be ready next time Akio woke up. He couldn’t do that if he spent hours trying to fall asleep again. The healer brought him a shallow bowl of thin paste. It tasted bitter, but Sora didn’t try to spit it out. He’d had worse. And if it meant he could help Akio…

  He turned over on the mattress and did his best to relax. His pain started to drift away, but part of him instinctively held onto it. Better to hurt and remain awake than to remember… But the herbs got the best of him, and he fell back into the realm of shadow people and twisted memories.

  Astoria hung from the edge of the morningcrow’s nest, left hand holding the rope in her leather glove. Her right hand stretched out over the ship, wind blowing between her fingers. Up here in the sky, she felt the most alive. Even if she did miss her dragon. But somehow being up here made Swampmist seem a little closer. Soon enough.

  The raider standing on the bare platform above her put down his spyglass, squinting at the horizon. He checked the glass again before collapsing it and kneeling down. Head over the edge, he yelled down to the rest of the ship. “Spire up ahead!” Astoria squinted as well, trying to make out what the young raider had seen. Nothing yet. But she’d be able to see her home soon. Not much of a home, but she had to take what she could get. ‘Home’ was a relative word, in her mind.

  The drop down to the deck didn’t look bad until she remembered that she didn’t have dragon wings to glide or claws to catch her if she fell. The world looked a lot more dangerous without a dragon by her side. But it wouldn’t be long now until she could wrap Swampmist in a hug and go flying again instead of pretending while from a ship’s rigging. Other than Cirris, the dragon was the only real friend she had. And Cirris couldn’t exactly carry her through the moonlit clouds. Or, well, not on his own.

  The wind rippled in the sails as Astoria climbed back down the rigging, trying to keep her cloak out of her face. The fishnet glove also felt a lot less practical than it had a few days ago. But she had to keep up a little fashion on the high seas. A grifter without a personality and a little flair was just a dirty street urchin. Those didn’t get anywhere.

  Rin popped out of the stairwell as Astoria’s boots hit the deck. The kaptain ran her hand over a specific spot on the white railing, where the paint had worn away. “How’s the view?”

  “I didn’t see anything. I don’t know what your man sees.”

  Rin gasped, then laughed. “Saw nothing? Girl, there’s a whole wide, beautiful sea out there and you saw nothing?” She grinned widely. “Kidding. Limrick’s got a sharp eye and a clear glass. He can see farther than a morningcrow in the moonset or a dragon in the dusk.”

  “I just want to get back soon. I know Swampmist doesn’t do well when I’m gone for a long time.”

  Rin looked at the bow and then back at Astoria. “About that… I need you below-decks until we get there.”

  A sinking feeling crept into Astoria’s stomach. “Why?”

  “Oh, it’s not your fault. But I can’t have a dragon flying into my rigging. That wouldn’t be good for either of us. And don’t worry, I’ll come get you when we’re close enough. Though you probably’ll know long before. The sailors tend to get anxious that close to land.” She looked up at the morningcrow’s nest. “Although I don’t think we’ve ever come back to a raid town this soon after torching the whiterock. It’ll make for a good test.”

  Something tickled the back of Astoria’s mind. “Why were you here anyway? I got caught up in it because I was wearing a priestess’s robes.”

  Rin waved her hand. “Contract. It’s always a contract. They pay me, and I find what they want and bring it to them. In this case, it was people. I don’t like it when it’s people, but money is money, and it was a good price.”

  That didn’t seem right, like it was the wrong thing for the right reason, but not quite. At least she understood the contract. “I guess that makes sense. You never can trust people.” Astoria turned and opened the door, starting down the spiral stairs.

  Rin hollered down after her. “We’ll be in port before you know…” The door swung shut, cutting off the end of the phrase. Astoria sat down at the bar and pulled her bag from where she’d left it, out of sight behind the row of stools. The barkeep looked up at her before returning to stacking mugs in a rack. Astoria pulled on a stray lock of red hair that fell in front of her face. Just a little farther. Then you’ll see Swampmist again. Then everything will go back to normal.

  The few remaining sailors started to empty the common area and the bar about two hours later, hanging their dented and scratched instruments on pegs and stands before trekking up the staircase. Astoria waited until the last sailor left before following them up. Rin nodded to her as she stepped out onto the deck. “Perfect timing, Rider.”

  Astoria ignored the comment, instead staring at Seaglade. Or what was left of it. The dockmaster’s office had been burned almost completely to the ground. A small part of her felt sadness at that, but she let it go. It was really only just a building. Just a town. Not her problem. Several of the piers had collapsed, and piles of scaled corpses burned on the beach sand. Astoria’s heart skipped several beats. She hadn’t considered the fire. Dragons didn’t do well staying away from fire. And if they’d flown close to this one, they’d have been shot down. But Swampmist wasn’t like the wild dragons. She had discipline, restraint. She’d probably hidden in the forest, creating a nest and sleeping like a morningcrow in the evening. Still, Astoria had to know. She had to be sure. And then life would go on.

  She fingered the whistle around her neck. One pattern, and she’d know. But she’d promised Rin she would wait. Just a little longer. Patience.

  The instant the edge of the ship bumped against a fire-weakened pier, Astoria was already in flight. She swung by the end of a weighted rope down to the wood, letting go and punching through the splintered wood. The water below was warm and cloudy. She spit it out, the coppery taste triggering her gag reflex. One hand, then the other. She clawed her way up and out of the water, clothes sticky but unaffected by the weight of the water. Now. Blow it now. Astoria put the whistle to her lips, blowing out the water and sending a flurry of screeches into the air. Time seemed to freeze in that moment, the wind quieting and the clouds pausing their sky-way journey. Even the rustling of the trees fell still. The whole Spire waited with her.

  The moment stretched on, each second a blow to Astoria’s stomach. She repeated the call, louder, more frantic. Again. Again. No. No no no… She dropped the whistle and let it thud against her chest, spinning around on the sand and dashing over to the pile of damaged dragon bodies. Light orange, navy with spots, wild dragons one after another. She pushed aside each one in turn. None had a riding saddle. None was Swampmist.

  Astoria repeated the call before running to the other pile, pushing over the corpses even as the sun-heated scales burned her hands. Her heart and mind both stopped when she pushed aside the final dragon.

  Yukima above…

  Astoria fell to her knees, sand and ash swirling around her. Swampmist’s lifeless body lay in the center of the flames, a broken-shafted javelin still embedded in her chest. It might as well have been embedded in Astoria’s as well. The frozen moment shattered, wind whipping her red hair in her eyes and blowing the clouds on their way. Her hands burned with sun-heat from the scales, but she leaned forward and threw her arms around Swampmist’s neck. Saltwater sprang from her eyes, fountains spouting caustic liquid enough to fill the sea. Everything was cold, so cold…

  Life wouldn’t go on. It couldn’t. Not without Swampmist. Astoria hugged the dragon and sobbed harder, guilt falling on her shoulders like a boulder from the tip of the Spire. I should’ve been here. I could’ve stopped this. Or I could’ve died with her like a true Rider. But no, I had to go into town yet again, just to feel loved… Well, that love was gone now. All of it, forever. Astoria didn’t have the heart of a dragon. Just the weak heart of a human. She felt it tear in two, happiness and memories leaking out of it like oil from a broken lantern. Just like all those years ago…

  For Astoria, the next few seconds stretched on for hours, pain blinding her to everything else.

  Someone rested a hand on Astoria’s shoulder. It was soft, but it had something hard laced over it. Netting? Astoria opened her eyes, wiping the residue and water away from her cheeks. Her whole face ached, though that was nothing compared to the anguish of her soul.

  Rin stood next to her, a canteen of water in her free hand. She offered it to Astoria. “Here. You need to drink something.” Astoria took the canteen automatically, draining half of the contents before Rin pulled it back. Whatever it was, it burned. That felt nice. Anything to distract her from the real pain inside.

  The kaptain waited a moment before removing her hand. “So, what now?”

  “I’m dead. I can’t do anything.” Astoria started to close her eyes again.

  “Oh, none of that.” Rin’s voice softened. “I understand how you feel. Really, I do. But it’s not going to do you any good to stay here and refuse to go forward. Let this motivate you. What do you need to do now?”

  Something flickered in the back of Astoria’s mind, and she seized upon the little distraction. Anger. No, stronger. Hate. Raging, fiery hate. But where did it belong?

  Cirris. He should have stopped this. He could have, but he didn’t. She’d trusted him.

  And Rennick. For how tough he acted, he hadn’t braved one flight to try and save her dragon. All the Riders. They’d failed her, deserted her. Left her for dead. Well, she’d survived, even if her dragon hadn’t.

  The rational part of her mind told her to calm down, to mourn and stay with Swampmist. But the rage overpowered rational thought. She had to do something. “I need to get up to the Rider Caverns in Slantspire.”

  Rin smirked ever so slightly. “Good. Why is that?”

  “There’s someone there I need to speak with. As soon as I can.”

  “Well, you’re the expert here. How do we get up there?”

  Astoria glared up at Slantspire like it had personally offended her. “It’s really hard to unless you have a dragon to ride. “ She paused. “But I think I can get him to come to me.”

  Rin grinned. “That’s even better.”

  “I’ll need to get back up in the morningcrow’s nest. One last time. Then I never want to go up there again.”

  “Well, then, let’s get you up there.” Rin offered her a hand.

  Astoria looked up at the raider kaptain and then at the hand. Was this really what she wanted? Rage, deceit, a life of crime on the seas? Better than this. What “friends” do you have? There’s nothing left here for you. Astoria took the hand and let the kaptain pull her up. “Let’s go.”