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Setara entered her apartment while a dawn, blocked by the sprawl's towers, crawled into the sky. She forgot to switch her scales from violet to silver, but instinct told her no one had taken notice. Aside from the ache in her cunt, a mender in the brothel tended the wounds Kalto inflicted on her. She took a contraceptive and left with Kalto's contact information. Given how poorly the night went, she predicted she would need more occasions where a haze of pain and pleasure could completely obliterate her thoughts.

The lights of her apartment switched on automatically while Setara fell into her bed.

A synthetic voice from the ceiling said, "You are unharmed, and I see you've--"

"Silence Mauren," Setara said, the well-practiced coldness sewn back into her voice. She rolled onto her side and faced the mirror in her room. "Cut the lights. After I've slept we'll debrief."

In the darkness, Setara finally dropped her illusion and revealed the crimson and gold hide her mother insisted she be proud of--a hide Setara now felt very different about from when she was a child.

Mauren said quietly, "As you wish. Sleep well, Lune."

***

Queen Airok Archay stood back straight in the bleach white halls of the lower warrens. She stared down a corridor, studying the blood not yet cleaned from the walls. Perhaps never to be cleaned. Chisur stood with her, wishing he was back at the hospital with Jerawk. Kyle watched over their mate, keeping him company while Chisur answered his mother's summons.

All around the warrens, dragons worked to take apart servers and computers, carried out weapons, security installations, and anything else deemed an asset worth salvaging. By the end of the day, his mother planned to cave in the ceiling and let the sea bury this wretched place.

"Thirty six dead," Airok finally spoke, "One for each tower in the sprawl."

Chisur grunted, not sure what his mother was getting at. He still wore the same open shirt and casual pants from when he came to the lower warrens during the attack. Some blood stained the black ends of his pants legs and a cuff of his shirt.

"It was a slaughter," the prince said to break the silence.

"They did not come to kill, but they certainly relished the chance to, didn't they?"

"Do we know who 'they' are?" His mother had been dealing with the aftermath all night while Chisur stayed by Jerawk's side. It was early morning now, and most of Archay was just coming awake. They'd not told any media outlets about the attack.

"Not yet. Perhaps if you had left one of the assailants alive--"

"Mother--"

Airok silenced Chisur with a raised hand. "It is fine. We often do not think past the next few moments when our lives are being threatened. I'm just glad to see you unharmed."

Chisur pursed his lips. A few feet away, guards in deployed NanoArmor stood at attention. All the dragons working to strip the facility gave the four of them a wide berth, taking detours through other corridors to avoid them. The prince eventually asked, "Why did you call me here, mother?"

"Setara still meets with you, doesn't she? She's teaching you self-defense?"

"Yes, though she rarely lets us exchange words."

"I need you to ask her to come back."

This said with Airok finally meeting his gaze, showing Chisur a weighted grief carried only in her eyes.

"Catching who did this... I suspect we will need her help."

Chisur searched her gaze a moment longer before he asked, "Mother... why did you strip Setara of her title in the first place?"

Airok sighed. "I suppose if I ask you to do this you should know why she left." She ordered her guards to move down the corridor so that they remained out of earshot. Then, studying the bloody stains in the halls again, she said, "You were so caught up with your mate that all of this happened while you waited for him to wake up." Chisur watched tension coil its way through his mother's body, her wings clenching close to her back, the tip of her tail wrapping into itself. When that tension released: "The first thing Phelise told us when we interrogated her is that Setara and her had been tethered since they were both fifteen. Naturally, I assumed Phelise lied to disrupt our investigation, and ignored the obvious pain my daughter was in while she stood beside me and we interrogated her. When we called in a mage to search through Phelise's mind, that is when Setara admitted the truth to me. She begged I not let that mage into Phelise's mind."

Airok said all of this with a dryness to her voice that Chisur never before heard. A mage rooting through a dragon's mind for information--any knowledge taken unwillingly did permanent damage to the dragon's mind. Equivalent to a major stroke. It was technically considered illegal to do, but, given the circumstances of Phelise's betrayal, it was not surprising his mother superseded the law.

Chisur whispered, "But... how? How could Phelise and Setara be tethered and Setara not know about Phelise's betrayal?"

His mother's bitter laugh made Chisur flinch. She levelled a hard stare at him and said, "Is it not obvious? Setara did know." Airok looked back down the corridor. "Or at least, that was the only possible conclusion I could draw at the time. We separated the two, let a mage do his work, and then executed Phelise after he finished. It was a mercy for the poor girl, she was a shell of a dragoness with how hard she fought us and how much damage we needed to inflict on her mind to tear the information we got out of her. Even then, Phelise endured enough pain that some things we extracted were gibberish, smashed to pieces already by what we did to her."

Chisur felt sick, reminded of how easily Setara broke down into tears when she visited Chisur and Kyle at the hospital.

Airok continued, "While the interrogators did their work, I spent a full day arguing with your sister in her cell. First about her not disclosing her tether to Phelise--she never told anyone up until then--then we fought over whether or not Setara truly knew anything. But your sister's pain... and the simple fact she'd been poisoned at the ball convinced me she was not a collaborator. The information we got from Phelise confirmed as much. We disposed of Phelise before Setara got the chance to say goodbye."

Chisur felt that sickness turning into anger. A slow, stew of rage boiling off the sense of nausea and dread.

"I..." Airok shuddered, "I regret what happened. I stripped Setara of her title as spymaster simply because she seemed too compromised... She disappeared a few weeks later. I went looking for her, I threw all the resources at my disposal towards it, Chisur--but she didn't want to be found. She only showed up again for you... I hope you know that."

Chisur wished they kept the wards to the lower warrens down. He wished Kyle could be there to help him process the storm of anger and grief he felt. Tears slipped from the corner of his eyes, and he kept his jaw clamped tight--afraid what he might say should he try to speak.

"Painful to hear, isn't it?"

Chisur snarled and turned his back on her. He punched the wall nearest to him, relishing in the explosion of pain across his knuckles. Quaking, he said, "You're... a monster."

"Hmmph, I thought the same about my mother when I was your age--"

"Shut-up!" Chisur snapped before fighting back a sob. "You... you destroyed her, mother. Took everything from her and didn't even try to help her..."

"Neither did you, Chisur," Airok said quietly. Chisur stared down the hall as dragons walked back and forth through the intersection a few dozen paces away. Their work mundane, almost dreamlike in this moment while his mother sunk her claws deeper between his ribs. "You were so enamored with your new mate, honeymooning with him, that you left her alone, too. I may be the cause, but don't pretend you cared until recently. At least I spent the past year looking for her when I realized my mistake."

Away. Chisur needed to get away from his mother before she provoked him anymore. He walked down the hall, tail dragging behind him and wings slack. He needed Kyle. Someone to help him process this awful revelation. This awful truth. When his mate Kamore died, Setara had been there for Chisur in ways that only Jerawk surpassed--and Chisur never once checked on her once Kyle had recovered. He abandoned her to her grief when he knew_... knew_--

By the time Chisur reached the end of the corridor, Airok called down the hall, "Don't forget my request, Chisur."

She knew he wouldn't. Chisur would beg Setara to come back just so he could have a chance to make up for his wrongs.

***

"You need to sleep."

"Kyle... there is so much to do," Chisur whispered, hugging his mate close.

"The most important thing you can do right now is take care of yourself," Kyle told him, resting his muzzle on Chisur's crimson shoulder, some of the prince's fiery hair tickling across Kyle's black snout.

Chisur grumbled but squeezed him tight. The two stood in an outpatient room in a hospital in the second residential arcology of the TorVah Tower. It was where Chisur ended up carrying Jerawk after the attack. Jerawk slept in a too large bed. His wounds had been tended to, but the yellow and striped dragon had suffered a concussion when that silver dragon attacked him, which was why he remained here for the time being.

Kyle rubbed the small of Chisur's back. "I know how you feel about Setara... I feel it, too, love. But..."

"I just..." Chisur fought back a sob, "I never knew about Phelise--if I had--"

"There's no question we both would have tried our best for her if we knew."

"But Kyle I should have been there anyways..." Kyle felt his mate quaking against him. "We got so close to losing Jerawk, and I'm not tethered to him but... I knew she was devastated, she cried in my arms for Archayon's sake, but I didn't--"

"Stop." Kyle ordered firmly. "Chisur we've already been through this." They had, as soon as the prince got out of the warrens. Again while Chisur made his way to the hospital. And now again in person. His grief was a wave surging around Kyle's mind, trying to suck him down into it as well. And Kyle did feel guilty for what happened to Setara. Felt terrible for the dragoness. But at least one dragon needed to keep their head above the waves and see that they just made it through to the next day.

"I'm sorry... I just..."

"You need to see her. You need her to berate you, tell you what you did was terrible... And you need her to tell you it's going to be okay. I understand Chisur, I do. But the soonest you'll see her is later this afternoon. At least sleep until then. Your body and mind both still need rest."

Chisur let Kyle lead him into the bed Jerawk slept in. Both mates sandwiched Jerawk, cuddling up as the bed suddenly reached its capacity with three dragons on it. Jerawk rolled over in his sleep and burrowed into Chisur's chest. The prince wrapped Jerawk in his embrace while Kyle reached across their smaller mate to rest a hand on the prince's cheek. Kyle channeled a spell while the prince got comfortable on the bed. It was a simple sleep spell, something to help his prince rest. Chisur knew it coming, but did not stop Kyle as the magic flowed from Kyle's palm and into Chisur's body.

Kyle told him as the prince dozeed off, We'll figure all this out Chisur... together.

The spell quickly plunged Chisur into oblivion, just like it had when Kyle cast it earlier on Jerawk. Magically induced sleeps remained dreamless, something both dragons surely needed right now. The problem with using the spell on Chisur, though, was its effects reverberated through the tether and left Kyle drowsy. He let himself be swayed into sleep, pulling himself up against Jerawk's back and basking in the shared warmth and comfort of his two mates.

***

"Mauren, play file labeled Phelise surveillance 006."

"Is that wise, Lune?" the A.I. asked. Setara sat at the desk of "Lunelei's" apartment, watching the general traffic of sprawl outside her tower. Dragons flew between towers, tramways darted in more fixed lines, and lights of a few dozen businesses built into the sides of the neighboring towers flashed with life.

"Mauren you are disobeying a direct order," Setara warned. The dragoness still wore her golden and crimson scales. At this point, she changed appearance so often she didn't even consider them her "true" form but just another pattern to wear when needed.

"I am just concerned about your mental health, Lune."

Setara drummed her claws on the desk.

Mauren got the message: "Very well."

Setara watched a holographic screen project over the desk in front of her. Phelise, her deceased mate, sat at a table in the lower warrens. They had stripped her naked and placed her wrists in manacles pinched together behind her back. Her wings were bound to her back, and her feet were chained at the ankles to the floor. The lilac dragoness sat with perfect posture, displaying her cream colored front. Her small breasts were exposed; one, Setara knew, hung a centimeter higher than the other. The buds of her nipples a deeper purple. A shock of yellow hair grew between her horns and spilled in wavy curls down her back. Setara felt pangs of old grief at the sight of her. A dull ache throbbed behind her eye to echo the emotional pain. Setara constantly woke from headaches, and knew it was because of Phelise's loss. When a dragon suddenly lost their tethered mate, their mind and magic would search wantonly for their old tethered mate in their sleep. The strain of searching for that bond unconsciously for so long meant often waking with headaches. Nearly a year after Phelise's death, Setara still experienced that pain of her mind reaching out, searching. It was bearable now. When they started a week after Phelise's death, the migraines were so severe Setara feared sleeping.

Setara studied her mate in the video, fingers bunching into fist. Phelise appeared completely impassive, except for her heel which bounced. Phelise _did_fidget when nervous, so at the time Setara thought nothing about the motion of her leg. But this was different, every few minutes the fidgeting slowed down, it became a deliberate set of taps against the ground. A code she buried in the motions of her body. It took four hours for her to relay the entire message, and the twenty minute clip Setara had in front of her was the first part Setara pieced together:

Princess, sorry we won't rule together like you planned. I love you. There was a reason for all this. You must finish it.

Twenty minutes to deliver a handful of words. Setara spent weeks decoding it all before she abandoned everything to become Lunelei. Phelise didn't actually provide answers, just a roadmap for finding Archayon's Phoenix. Soon as Phelise had been captured, Archayon's Phoenix abandoned their old headquarters and most of the contacts Phelise named went to ground. They barely got anything from it. Phelise knew this would happen, which was why she left this message for Setara. She knew Setara was the only other dragon in the sprawl equipped to find the truth.

The two had been tethered for just over thirty years, and somehow her mate managed to hide so much from Setara. So much Phelise didn't tell Setara and that Airok failed to extract from the dragoness. All that remained were a few clues Phelise sent her with simple taps against the ground. At times, Setara thought her mate must have been fooling her, or that Setara had been fooling herself. But after last night's attack...

"Mauren, do we have any data on the collar Kisk stole from the warrens? See if we can piece together what it might be."

"I can find data on only one object that fits what you described. Although, I cannot ascertain what Archayon's Phoenix might want it for."

"Well?"

"The collar was designed to facilitate travel between worlds with a mind towards bringing Earth diplomats here. A collar becomes synched to a lead, so that when the lead travels through the Tether, each person connected to the collar also travels through it as well."

Setara sighed and leaned back in the chair. "More questions," Setara mumbled. Bringing humans through the Tether to Archayon... it made sense for the palace to develop something like that, but extremists like Archayon's Phoenix wanting to use it? Setara studied Phelise on the screen. "We don't know enough, yet."

Setara reached over and tapped the top of the projected screen, shutting it off. She got up and faced the mirror. She touched the tattoo of a flaming bird across her golden stomach; woven into the ink was the very illusion spell she carefully crafted to become Lunelei. A permanent enchantment like this insured an exact recreation when she donned the illusion. After briefly communing with Archayon, she tapped with magic the familiar traces of the spell drawn across her body, and silver scales began to work across her hide. Her short cropped hair receded, her waist lost some of its trimness to hide her figure, her breast, which were held back in a compression bra, disappeared from view--replaced with a flat silver chest. The scent of her became more masculine, and the lines of her muzzle a little more defined and gaunt. If one touched where her hair was or where they saw her thicker waist, the spell would fool their senses into believing what they saw was what they felt.

Originally, Setara thought about just surgically making these alterations. But her original form still had uses, so until then her crimson and gold scales stayed buried beneath her new identity.

"Mauren, I've got to go out," Lunelei told the A.I. as he got dressed. "In the meantime, the dragon Mosk, try to get me a list of potential dragons who could match his description. Mages as well trained as him have to come from somewhere."

"I will let you know what I find. Lune, you leave at the same time each week without describing where it is you go. Why do you not trust me?"

Lunelei stood by the door to his apartment, wearing a jacket and baggy pants. He said, "I do trust you, Mauren. I trust that you will meddle in things I don't want you meddling in if you knew everything about me."

"This answer hurts me."

Lunelei chuckled. "Just be grateful you're an A.I. If things start to hurt too much at least you can be reset."

The silver dragon was not so lucky.

***

Kyle woke a few hours later. From the achy haze of sleep came the comforting, familiar scent of his mates. The black and grey-fronted dragon yawned and stretched, body tensing up against Jerawk's before he relaxed. He opened his eyes and smiled at the sight of both Jerawk and Chisur still tangled together. Kyle had lived in Archayon for nearly a year, and still moments of safety and warmth like this made him question how any of this was real. The fantastical alien world, the futuristic technology, magic, in some ways all of this was easier to believe than this sense of loving two other beings as deeply as Kyle did Chisur and Jerawk.

He drew a hand along Jerawk's side. The familiar touch of the yellow dragon's scales always pleased Kyle, since the first time they touched. Kyle and Chisur both regretted the tether did not go further than two minds. It could, but tying three or more minds together always succeeded in wearing away at the sanity of the dragons involved. It was a puzzle Kyle found his thoughts drawn to more and more in recent months: how to safely tether more than two dragons, how to share this deep connection with someone else just as dear to Kyle as Chisur was.

Kyle rolled out of the bed, stretching his wings and tail out once he stood up. On a stand beside the bed, Kyle grabbed his phone and checked the time. It was mid-afternoon, and if Kyle did not wake Chisur, the dragon would miss his regular sparring session with Setara.

Yet when Kyle looked again at his mates sleeping...

Kyle knew Setara as well as the prince did, and he knew Setara would not do what Chisur needed to relieve the weight of his guilt. The prince needed rest, needed time with Jerawk to heal from last night's attack. And Jerawk needed Chisur to care for him right now, too. He hated making these sort of decisions for Chisur, but... well they could fight about it later.

Kyle texted the attendant taking care of Eska to make sure their daughter was well before he left the hospital with a request for the nurse to let his mates sleep and a note for Chisur telling him where Kyle went.

***

Every dragon in the royal line tended to be bigger than most dragons, and Setara was no exception. She was only a few inches shorter than Chisur's 6'8", with shoulders broader than Kyle's with big enough hips to give her an hourglass figure. Her size might have been why she was one of the few dragonesses Kyle found attractive. She wore a loincloth and compression bra and glared at Kyle as he entered the sparring grounds. The room was paved over with wards to keep magic out and existed in the basement of the old palace.

"Is my brother dead?" Setara asked. "Because unless you've come to deliver this news to me, you are wasting my time."

Kyle walked across the room until the two dragons were a few paces apart. "Chisur's fine. He's resting."

"If he cannot summon the will to spar with me then I'm leav--"

"Setara he nearly died last night."

Kyle meant to say more, but the dragoness silenced him with a look. "You mean the attack on the warrens."

"You heard?"

"I'd be a poor spy if I didn't know about it."

"So you are still spying," Kyle said.

Setara scoffed. "Enough of this." She started walking for the door.

Kyle attacked her. He threw a punch she blocked with a sweep of her arm, but Kyle expected it, pitching his weight to throw the elbow of his other arm into her muzzle. Kyle only grazed her before she leapt backward. He faced the bigger dragoness and said, "If you came here for a fight I'll give you one."

Setara laughed at him. "You? Stop. I would have beaten you to a pulp for what you tried just now if I did not know you were carrying another of your mate's young."

"You know?" Kyle had only told Jerawk, Chisur, and Mephis.

"It's like you said, I am still spying."

"Fine, that just means I have an advantage because I know you won't hurt me. And I know everything you've taught Chisur."

"Please," Setara said, crouching onto the balls of her feet. "If you think that's how tethers work, then I'm going to enjoy teaching you a lesson or two. Come, human, and if you land a blow on me I will stay and talk with you long as you like."

She put her arms out in front of her and her body coiled with the tension of a predator. This was the best Kyle could hope for. He wanted to bait Setara into something like this, but did not expect her to make such an offer. She seemed to seriously underestimate how much Kyle learned from Chisur.

Just one blow. He charged her, this time aiming a kick for her gut, which she predictably caught. Kyle quickly jumped up with his other leg, twisting his body to kick Setara in the muzzle. She leaned back to avoid his foot and caught his swung tail in her other hand. She whipped Kyle around and flung him to the ground. He bounced across the dirt from the force of her throw, only stopping when he hit the wall. Kyle coughed; pain roiled across his body as he heard behind him, "Get up you novice. I'm about to show you how outclassed you really are."

When Kyle faced her, the grin splitting Setara's muzzle told him whatever Chisur learned fighting the princess would not help Kyle here.

***

The strong, steady heartbeat of his mate was the first thing Jerawk noticed as he came awake. Jerawk's head rested against the prince's firm pecs, the warm, masculine scent his scales carried made the little dragon shiver as he savored it. This welcome familiarity he'd woken to so much in his life made it easy to push out of his mind what happened last night. His prince was here. Jerawk was safe.

He squeezed Chisur tight, nuzzling into his chest. This made the prince stir with a slight, sleepy groan. His hand rubbed down Jerawk's neck and kept him close.

"Jerawk..." the prince whispered.

"Chisur," Jerawk echoed, looking up to see his mate looked down at him.

"I'm so sorry about last night."

Jerawk chuckled and pushed his brow into the prince's chest. "You idiot. None of it was your fault."

"I know... I just... if something happened to you--"

"It's okay," Jerawk whispered. "I'm safe. You saved me."

"How are you feeling?"

"Alright, head hurts a little bit," Jerawk said. Pain lingered in his skull, and the more he woke the more present it became.

"They told us you had a concussion, but otherwise you'd be fine."

"Heh, given the way I got tossed around it's not surprising."

"That dragon from last night," said with a growl deep in the prince's chest. Reminded of him, Jerawk pushed himself back a bit.

"Wait, that dragon."

"The silver one?"

"His name was Lune. He had a message for you, Chisur."

***

Setara easily dodged Kyle's punch, grabbing his arm and swinging the black dragon away. The motion threw Kyle off balance and he tripped up, rolling through the dirt. Panting, limbs shaky from exertion, he got on his knees, trying to catch his breath while a stitch erupted in his side. It hurt far worse than anything Setara had done in the last ten minutes. The dragoness avoided his blows easily, as if she saw into the future, and only opted to throw Kyle away every now and again. She barely moved while Kyle exhausted himself just trying to touch her.

"I hope this has been instructive," Setara said, standing a few paces away, completely relaxed.

"You mean..." Kyle said between breaths, "you've been... showing me how out of... shape I am?"

"Something like that," Setara said, slowly pacing around Kyle in a circle. "You're problem, human--"

"Dragon," Kyle snarled.

"Hardly. You wear our skin, nothing more. And that's the trouble, you think your tether to Chisur has given you everything you need to know."

"I don't--"

"You thought you had a chance against me, didn't you? Look at you, you're exhausted already and your movements are so slow I barely need to pay attention to you. If someone reads and learns all there is to know about how the body moves, it doesn't make them an athlete."

Kyle growled, getting to his feet. He crouched in a fighting stance he learned through his tether, but his exhausted knees wobbled and broke any illusion of mastery.

"You are a good mage, I will give you that. But magic, takes so much from the mind. Your body has yet to catch up with all the other things. Tell me, do you fly as clumsily as you fight?"

"Shut up!" Kyle snapped. He spun in her direction, swinging into a roundhouse kick. She caught his ankle with a single hand.

She just held him there, fixing him with a hard stare. They each glared at the other. "Well?" Setara asked. "Is that it?"

Kyle tried the same move from before, knowing now it wouldn't work but refusing to give in. Setara simply tossed him backwards, head over heels. Kyle, miraculously, landed on his feet but his momentum pitched him backwards onto the ground anyways. He fell on his butt with the dragoness standing over him.

"Your bond with my brother does not make you my brother, or even my brother's equal," Setara told him. "You probably came here thinking that you knew me so well that you could just say what Chisur might. Do what you thought I'd respond to. But I've known my little brother for thirty-eight years. Our_bond was not forged overnight like yours and his, and just because you might know me through Chisur, it does not change that you spent no time talking to me or trying to get to know me. I don't trust you or care for you, _human, you've never given me reason to."

Kyle's claws dug into the ground while Setara spoke. He fought to withhold tears and barely succeeded. It was hard to breathe around the anger and humiliation that weighed on him, closed up lungs and constricted his throat.

Setara said, "You're done. I'm leaving." And she began walking to the door.

"No," Kyle barely managed to say it between breaths.

She stopped, but did not turn around. "So you want more?"

Kyle got to his feet and told her, "You can think whatever you want about me. But I'm not going to give up. I will do this for him. Maybe losing your tethered mate made you forget what devotion was, but you're going to need to leave me blacked out on the floor to leave." As Kyle spoke he watched Setara's demeanor change. The mention of Phelise might as well have been Kyle punching her. The dragoness' recoiled before turning a level glare on him. The ice in her look cooled all of his rage.

"You... how fucking dare you bring her..." Setara took a deep breath then told him, "Knocking you out can be arranged."

She moved so quickly Kyle lost sight of her until she was in front of him. Her hook struck his muzzle with enough force to throw him to the ground, but while pain exploded across his jaw, Setara grabbed his wrist and yanked him back to her. Her large, crimson knee slammed into Kyle's diaphragm with enough force to lift his feet off the ground. Setara released him and he crumpled to the ground.

She snarled. "Pathetic. You're so weak I can't even take my full anger out on you for your insolence." Setara kicked him onto his back. Kyle struggled to think past the pain, his senses blindly groping. Setara's blows left his body so tense he was barely able to move. Setara straddled his torso, the bigger dragoness' weight keeping Kyle flat to the dirt. She took his wrists and kept them firmly clasped in a single hand, effectively restraining the smaller black dragon.

Setara's other hand closed around his throat. She growled. "Listen here, human. The only reason I don't kill you for trying to provoke me with Phelise is because it would distract my brother from all he needs to do. I don't even care right now how much it would hurt him, there's just too much that still needs to be done."

Setara wasn't letting him breathe. Kyle kicked and thrashed on the ground, but the dragoness didn't release him. His horns bore furrows into the dirt with how hard Setara continued to push his neck down. All his senses struggled but he felt his head buzzing, numbness turning inward and coiling round his mind. His vision, blurred from tears, began to darken. His struggles became weaker even as he frantically tried to think of something, anything to do.

He sensed it then. A fragment like the tip of a tree root upturned out of the dirt. Archayon, digging through the wards around this room. A fount of magic that wormed its way here to him. He extended his senses and claimed it. The energy of the planet surged through his body and gave Kyle the strength to snap Setara's hold on his wrist. He struck the surprised dragoness in the face, with magic behind the blow. It was enough to throw her off him even in his weakened, pinned state. Kyle released the source of magic and gasped, coughing lungfuls of air. His head pounded while he rolled on his side, curling into a ball as he struggled through pain and suffocation to regain his senses. He noticed that magic still there, now wrapping around Kyle like a balm. It eased his pain and did not retreat or rescind its invitation for Kyle to use it. And Kyle sensed pain in its offer, as if being here within the warded room was painful for Archayon. Archayon... it was the planet. Not him reaching out to commune with Archayon, but the planet communing with him.

"You..." Kyle barely registered Setara's shocked voice while he struggled for breath. "How did... that wasn't from you, that was from Archayon. How?"

Voice a ragged rasp: "I don't... know. But... I landed a blow."

Kyle still couldn't sit up, but when he opened his eyes he saw Setara's stunned expression. She relaxed a little, grinding her teeth a moment before she said, "I suppose if I didn't keep my promise Chisur would be furious at the both of us for all this pointless fighting."

Body trembling, Kyle managed to push himself up so he was sitting. "I thought you weren't worried about how you made him feel."

Setara shook her head. "That doesn't mean I don't worry about how he feels about me. I'm not made of ice, Kyle."

Kyle's shaky smirk felt like one of the hardest things he ever earned in his life. "Calling me by my name instead of just human?"

"Don't push it."

***

A nurse checked on them both soon as he heard the two dragons talking in the room. The nurse gave Chisur the message Kyle left for him and Jerawk's discharge papers with a follow-up appointment to check on his concussion. Sitting at the edge of the bed, Chisur felt himself split along multiple desires. Jerawk squeezed his arm.

"You want to go see them both," Jerawk pointed out.

Chisur stared at the wall, and muttered, "There is just... there are so many pieces, Jerawk. And I know I can't grab them all but--"

"It's okay. I'll be fine by myself."

"No," Chisur growled. When the prince faced him he saw Jerawk had drawn away on the bed and the prince softened some. "I am frustrated, but I want to be here with you." He shuffled back onto the bed so he could rest a hand on Jerawk's thigh. "You are just as important to me."

The pinched expression on the yellow dragon's face told Chisur his mate didn't agree, but Jerawk didn't say as much. He stared at his lap and refused to meet Chisur's gaze. Chisur thought that perhaps now they were treading into the conversation he meant to have with Jerawk the night before.

"My lord..." and it hurt Chisur for Jerawk to fall back to formalities, "do you really believe that? Your sister has more powers and skills than any other dragon we know in the sprawl, and Kyle is a hero who's almost as good at magic as you and tethered to you. I'm barely worthy of your attention when--"

"Enough," Chisur snapped. The jagged pain along his voice made Jerawk finally meet his gaze. The prince trembled as he said, "Stop that, Jerawk. In my mind you're their equals. My equal. You don't get to decide for me who is worthy. I won't let anyone do that for me."

Jerawk's mouth hung open a little, stunned. But then he lifted his arms and Chisur sank back into the bed, hugging Jerawk close. He sobbed a little and whispered into Chisur's shoulder, "I'm sorry... I just..."

"Remember the first time I tried to kiss you?"

Jerawk's sobbing broke into a slight laugh. "I pushed you away and told you there was no way I'd let you slobber all over me with that big tongue of yours."

Chisur chuckled as well. "I remember being mad at you for days. I'd never been so utterly rejected before. It's a good lesson for a teenager, especially one like me."

"I can't believe I got away with being such a brat to you back then."

"Hehe, I kind of miss it. Kyle's too sweet to berate me, you know." They nuzzled cheeks, and Chisur brushed away his tears. "I've missed having you around so much I've thought about trying to add an extra room to my suite, but I'm glad you aren't my attendant anymore Jerawk. You deserve the chance to be more than a servant."

Jerawk's squeezed the prince. "I miss the both of you two. I really took for granted how hard it would be to spend our days together when I wasn't an attendant."

"You've taken to your work with Earth, though," Chisur leaned back and fixed Jerawk with an admiring gaze. "I'm proud of how much attention you've put toward establishing contact with the humans."

Chisur meant it only as earnest praise, so Jerawk surprised him when the little dragon's eyes went wide and he muttered, "Oh no."

"Jerawk?"

Jerawk disentangled from the prince, trying to roll out of bed while hissing under his breath, "Casey!"

Chisur grabbed his wrist. "Jerawk wait--who is Casey?"

Jerawk glanced at him then looked away and out the window. "Uh, um... I..."

Chisur moved across the bed and hugged Jerawk's back to his chest. "What's going on, love?"

Jerawk trembled a little and licked his lips. "I... may have been... eh heh... talking to a human in secret."

Chisur didn't get upset. He was a bit hurt to hear Jerawk keeping a secret, but he kept those feelings back and carefully said, "Well... It's not a secret anymore, so why don't you tell me about it?"

Jerawk squirmed against the prince, but managed to calm down some before he said, "One of the ansibles we sent ended up in someone's apartment. I found out pretty much immediately, and decided that human would be... an outside perspective compared to what the human governments gave us. He's only available to speak in the evenings, though--"

"Which is why you took shifts at the warrens at night," Chisur finished.

"Yeah..."

"But why keep this a secret?"

Jerawk shrugged. "Originally, protocol is any ansible not in the hands of state officials are supposed to have their connection terminated. There are just too many variables, but... I trust Casey not to, well, let's just say he's on my side."

"But why not tell us, Jerawk?" Chisur pressed. It hurt to know Jerawk hid anything from Kyle and him.

Chisur did not release the smaller dragon, who opted to squeeze Chisur's wrist and lean back. His voice struggled to hide how upset he was: "I don't know... Chisur I... ugh--I don't want to hurt you but sometimes it feels like you and Kyle... you share something that I just don't get to have. Something so special that I can't be a part of or even imagine what it must be like..." Chisur suspected that might have troubled his mate, but to hear it left a hole of the prince's chest. A hollowed out feeling that had no answer to it. They had no way to rectify their imbalance in their relationship. And no one felt that loss deeper than Jerawk, who shuddered when he said, "Casey... Casey felt like something _I_could have... which is silly, I know. I've known the human for a week, and I suppose we are something like friends. Archayon, I don't even know what he looks like and--"

"Jerawk I..." Chisur shook his head, "You don't need to explain yourself." Chisur released him and slipped off the bed, kneeling before the smaller yellow dragon, touching his knee. "You have the right to pursue whoever you wish for companionship."

"But everything I do with Earth is in your name and I could risk--"

"No," Chisur said with a firmness that made Jerawk wince. "You serve me Jerawk, but I serve you as well, and if I kept you from what made you happy I'd be doing a poor job at that service." The prince took Jerawk's hand and kissed the back of it. "This ache you feel for missing out on the connection Kyle and I share... we feel it, too. Perhaps not as deeply, but Kyle is searching for a way to join the three of us together. That's what led to the insight about how to heal Archayon's scarring in the first place. It is something we kept from you because we didn't wish to make you hope for the impossible, but clearly we should have let you know we aren't satisfied where things are, either."

Jerawk had teared up while Chisur spoke. When the prince finished, the yellow dragon fell against his front, hugging him and crying a little. Chisur rubbed down his back until his mate finally said, "All three of us are just a bunch of fools, then."

"Hehehe, but at least we are fools together."

Jerawk looked up and the two exchanged a kiss before he said, "I can't think of two other dragons I'd rather be fools with."

***

"I am sorry about bringing up Phelise."

Setara shrugged. She sat legs crossed in the sparring grounds with Kyle across from her. "I was being... unfairly cruel to you. It is not surprising you responded with your own cruelty."

The two had been talking like this for the past ten minutes. Setara got Kyle's perspective on the attack and she gave her honest assessment of what happened: that the attack was likely carried out by a group that already compromised the warrens. She withheld some things, seeing as she would be sharing them with her brother tomorrow when they met.

Kyle's tail swished back and forth across the dirt while he said, "I know this isn't something you'd like to hear, but when Chisur came back from the warrens this morning, I felt like I understood what you were going through."

"How so?" Setara asked, careful to keep her voice even. They were not yet at the end of the hour Setara usually spent with Chisur, and she planned to maintain her promise to talk to Kyle until then.

"Your mother took everything from you..." Kyle said down to the dirt between them. "I... it was both my parents who did that to me. I grew up in a small town in California, think the size of Archay but with only ten thousand humans in it. Everyone at my school sorta knew everyone, and everyone's parents knew each other. Some kid at my school told his parents they saw me kissing a boy, and that got back to mine. My dad beat the shit out of me when he found out, just burst into my room red-faced and yelling. I never found out who told him. I packed a bag of clothes the next morning and ran, and then my parents called the cops telling them I stole a bunch of jewelry from the house. I ended up leaving town. I didn't have a phone back then to tell anyone, so I was just gone from there all of a sudden. I just... I lost everything so fast I didn't..."

"You can stop," Setara said, resisting the urge to touch the dragon in front of her. Her hand hung in the air between them, almost touching his knee. Kyle noticed, and she flinched when he thought it an offer and took her hand in his.

"Is it okay that I touch you?" Kyle asked, frowning.

"I... yes," Setara said. "This is okay." It embarrassed her to admit it, but it did feel good to just hold another dragon's hand. It also embarrassed her it was this particular dragon that made her feel this way.

Kyle squeezed her hand and scooted a little closer. Setara resisted the urge to move back, their knees almost touched and their clasped hands resting between them.

"I just wanted to share that to say I've lost everything in my life and had to start over. I've started over a lot of times, actually. I cannot imagine the pain you went through losing Phelise, but I know what it's like to be in exile, and I genuinely want to help. Me and Chisur both."

Setara studied the black scales of Kyle's hand. Her other hand touched the back of his, fingers rubbing along his scales. They were delicate, small hands compared to hers.

She eventually said, "I can see how Chisur fell for you. You are both kind to a fault."

"And you're not?"

She threw her head back and laughed, but didn't let go of his hand. "Is that what you think of me after all I've done? I once broke my brother's wings to try and get him to leave you."

"Fair," Kyle said with a wince. "But he also knows how deeply you care. And I can see that, too."

"I suppose this is your pitch?"

Kyle's hand shifted so he could twine their fingers together, she let him. He moved closer and their knees touched. She wondered how far he planned to test her boundaries, and just where her boundaries lied for this strange dragon.

"Not a pitch," his other hand rested on Setara's calf. "You aren't alone. Even if you don't feel like you can tell us what it is you do or where you go, you don't need to for us to be here for you."

The dragon really did have a fair muzzle. Black scales shiny, strong brow but delicate cheekbones, fine, defined lips with the bottom lip grey, and the look in his eyes...

What was she doing? Setara shook her head and said, "Will you quit looking at me like that?"

Kyle blinked. "Huh?"

"It's nothing, your hair is a mess," Setara said, and it was. In the fighting his long white hair became tangled down his back. She stood and circled round before sitting behind him, knees together and his tail resting across her lap. "Let me fix it for you. Chisur never was good with his hair and it is clear no one has taught you, either."

"I, um... alright. I'd like that."

"Hush. I don't want to know if you like it." Truly, Setara just wanted an excuse for them to not look each other in the face. But she didn't want to give up his touch, even as she felt strange and embarrassed about it. Her fingers started to quickly run through Kyle's white hair, pale as spider's silk but thick and strong. Chisur really did make sure to make him look lovely and--Setara growled at her own thoughts.

"Is it--ah," her finger caught on a tangle, "that bad?"

She carefully pulled it apart and kept combing his hair back. "Yes. Honestly a bun would be for the best if you plan to fight someone."

"I had hoped we wouldn't fight."

"Yes, well, this has not gone the way I had expected, either," Setara said as she worked. It felt good to do this with another dragon's hair. Something comforting and simple. The last time she did it was with Phelise at the night of ball.

Kyle said, "I'm glad it has though. I like feeling your hands run through my hair."

Setara stopped. "Didn't I tell you to keep what you feel to yourself?"

"Right, right. I promise to never ever speak to you about anything that makes me happy. I will remain completely impassive so you won't ever know how I feel."

Setara huffed, completely flustered by his teasing. He tried to turn his head but she yanked through a tangle of hair at that moment.

"Ouch!"

"Keep still," she ordered. Really she just didn't want the dragon looking at her face, worried what she might give away. For a moment, Kyle just let her work, and it wasn't until she worked in silence that she noticed her heart had picked up a beat. She recognized what that flutter meant and it filled her with a strange panic. She wanted to leave, but knew that would just show how flustered she was. So she quietly worked while trying her best to bottle up these feelings.

While she started on a braiding his hair, Kyle said, "Maybe you can give me weekly lessons about hair. When Eska is older I'd like to do this for her."

"My mother and I used to do each other's hair in her garden," Setara said.

"Mmm, that sounds lovely." Silence a moment, then, "You've not met Eska yet, you know."

"I... you're right."

"You should. It would make Chisur really happy. It'd make me happy, too--oh! I'm not supposed to tell you what I'd feel."

Setara didn't even notice the gentle smile creeping across her muzzle. "I can forgive you, just this once."

"Hehe, told you you were kind. You'll like Eska. She's so adorable it's stupid. Her tongue is always hanging out her mouth and her claws are so tiny."

"You sound like you've really taken to parenting."

"Back on Earth, I always wanted a child but could never imagine being... stable enough, I guess, to do that. But now that I'm here I--" Kyle paused suddenly, and for a moment Setara simply braided his hair.

"Hmm?"

Kyle said, "I told you about my parents, yeah? I want to be everything they can't be."

"Well, it is unlikely they will ever be dragons."

Kyle laughed so hard he nearly fell over. Setara had to stop braiding and just hold his hair in place, allowing herself to laugh a little as well. A different laugh from before, a warmth without the tinges of bitterness.

His tail wrapped around Setara's waist and squeezed her affectionately before he said, "You know what I mean."

"I do," Setara said as she worked on his braids more. They both went quiet again, but the silence felt like an incredible privilege. In places like the pit and in that stairwell at the top of the PelTar Tower, she thought solitude like that was the only time she might be at peace. But this shared solitude with Kyle, this intimacy was actual peace. A soft, warmth where all that mattered were the workings of her hands.

So it felt strangely sad when Setara finished the braid and said, "Done."

Setara was not prepared for Kyle to spin around and beam at her. He took both her hands and asked, "Promise you'll see her?"

She felt that frustrating flutter again at the bottom of her chest. Setara nearly turned her head away, but worried that would be even more embarrassing. "I promise."

"Soon?"

"Soon."

Kyle grinned and hugged her. Setara worried he might feel her heart beating in her chest as she reluctantly hugged him back.

"I won't make you say when," Kyle whispered against her earfrill, "I know whatever it is you're doing doesn't lend itself to scheduling things in the future. Just let me and Chisur both know in advance. I can't wait to introduce you to her."

He released her and that break in full body contact made Setara gasp a little. She quickly got up and glanced at the door. "I should get going."

"Alright," Kyle stood up as well. "Thank you for staying and talking with me." He took her hand and when Setara looked back at the smaller dragon he said, "I... at the risk of saying too much, I do have a lot of affection for you, even if you are right that we've not spent much time together. I hope we can have more moments like this."

The feelings she tried to bury suddenly overflowed. "You just keep--ugh!" She grabbed him by the horns and tugged him close, so their faces nearly touched. "If you knew... I'm not worth--"

Kyle searched her face while she fought back tears. "What is it? Did I do something wr--mmph--" Setara silenced him with a kiss, which she broke almost as quickly as she started it. It felt good. Her traitorous body wanted to drag this black dragon back to her empty suite and throw him on the bed she'd not used in months. Both of them trembled now, though Kyle seemed unable to move. If he had pressed right then, then maybe, maybe the old coldness wouldn't have reached up inside her and reminded her of its weight.

Snarling, Setara shoved him away and turned her back on him, her humiliation at her weakness so great tears streaked down her face. She fought to keep her voice steady, "I will keep my promise about Eska. I'm sorry for... what I did. I didn't mean to cross that boundary."

She heard a soft, gentle grief in Kyle's voice. "It's no boundary for me. I know it's hard, and I won't try to press anything on you. If I can help you heal, I'm happy to be there for you. But I know these things take time... All that affection I mentioned earlier? It's yours for the taking, whenever you're ready for it."

"I..." Setara's crying had stopped, her emotions quieting as Kyle spoke. "Thank you, Kyle. It's strange... I've not known peace like what we shared today in so long I nearly forgot what it felt like."

"I'm glad you felt it."

"I'm leaving now."

"Stay safe, Setara."

"You, too, Kyle."

***

Kyle sighed when the door shut behind Setara. He did not get what Airok asked for, but that was always off the table as far as Kyle was concerned. Still, Chisur would be happy about a promise to visit Eska. Something won, at least. He wondered who Chisur might be more mad at: Kyle for going in his place or Setara for beating up his mate. Kyle's jaw still ached from where Setara clocked him.

Then there was the matter of the literal planet still dug into the room. Kyle sensed it at his feet and wondered if Setara had during their conversation. Kyle did not bring it up, just to be certain he was the only one who sensed the planet's presence. "I'm safe now, so you don't have to hurt yourself staying here," Kyle said. To an empty room. He shook his head. "I must be losing my mind."

But when he walked out of the sparring grounds and into the basement hallway of the old palace, the surging presence of two minds struck him at once. Setara, of course, had disappeared, not that Kyle might have spotted her when suddenly his mind was overrun with two presences.

The first was Chisur's: Kyle, what's going on? What is this?

The prince sensed what Kyle did. A series of emotions and images without the ordering function of language. A massive power of magic and intelligence. It was Archayon. The planet, with its surge of feelings making Kyle dizzy. He put a hand on the wall to keep from falling over.

_This is too much--please!_Kyle begged the presence. It reluctantly withdrew from his mind. Kyle groaned from the force of its departure, a headache blossoming in the back of his skull. But the planet didn't break the communion, it just lingered at the very back of Kyle's mind. Behind a door he might reach for at any time.

Kyle...

Chisur, I don't know what's happening.

Meet me at our suite with Jerawk, I can have a mender waiting and we might figure this out together.

It's the planet, Chisur.

I know, I sensed it, too.

But... why?

Didn't you sense it? Archayon thinks your its savior. You were the one who figured out how to restore the scarred lands.

Kyle quaked. He did not want that responsibility. He studied the stone wall ahead of him and wondered just how consuming this presence might become in his mind.

We figured it out together, Chisur.

Even if that's true, the planet connected to you is a connection to both of us.

And Kyle knew it to be true. That door Kyle sensed, it was in reach for Chisur, too. Either of them might let the planet into their minds. It was perhaps not a preference to one of them, but rather the dragon the planet thought to reach out to first.

Kyle started making his way back to Chisur's suite.

So much happening in so little time.

We will get through this together, love.

Doesn't seem like we have any other choice, does it?

***

A day later and that door hadn't gone away. And neither Kyle nor Chisur had the time yet to deal with it. There was still the aftermath of the attack on the lower warrens to adress. Statements to make about Chisur's role in repelling the attackers. A tour of the victim's families that exhausted Chisur, but he refused to let one of the queen's representatives do it. Thirty six dragons murdered. One for every tower. And today, Chisur travelled to CattaCatta to meet with one of the murderers in secret.

I'm all for breaking rules and keeping secrets, Kyle said in Chisur's mind. But are you sure it was right not to tell anyone but me and Jerawk about this?

Jerawk had told Chisur what the dragon Lune wanted from the prince. Truly? After hearing what my mother did to Phelise and my sister, I'm not sure I trust her or her agents any more. Chisur still felt Kyle's nagging worry in his mind. With us together I have nothing to fear. You can supply me with an endless source of magic should something go wrong.

I'm just worried something will go wrong and when I try to commune again this strange link to the planet will just overwhelm us both.

I'll be fine Kyle. All those lessons Setara gave me weren't for nothing.

I hope so, Chisur. Kyle said before withdrawing a little to focus on Eska and Mephis, who was paying Kyle a visit.

Chisur sighed and turned his head to look at his reflection in the plate glass of the tram he rode on. Staring back at him was a dragon totally covered in fur. Scales replaced by vibrant green hairs with a red front. His horns instead of a bone white, were a more antler-like brown. And his muzzle had been altered slightly, made to seem a bit blunter, with a set of whiskers at the end. The pants he wore even had the bulge in them to pass off a sheath and a set of external testes. It was an illusion chosen specifically for CattaCatta Tower. North and South Cattalon, before the war and the scarring, were inhabited by furred dragons, though most of their kind had been wiped out by the scarring, with those remaining in the world clustered in the lower residential arcologies of the CattaCatta tower.

Chisur arrived at the tower in a crowd of dragons, stepping off the tramway into a residential arcology towards the bottom third of the tower. The exit for the tram entered a large open chamber of several tiers. On bottom floor of the arcology were several quality of life centers: a hospital that dominated one end of the lower tier, a few different mess halls were residents dined communally, a data library, and a few clerical and administrative facilities. Everything on the upper tiers of the arcology were apartment complexes. With single room apartments no more than 200 square feet nearest the bottom, and family apartments towards the top which maxed out at 1,000 square feet. Though there were elevators, most dragons flew to their destinations in the arcology. With several platforms rising along central support columns, the platforms painted a sunflower yellow to resemble the petals of flowers while also catching the eye to make sure dragon's didn't collide into them. Each column was also lined with tresses that grew vines and other greenery along them to give some life to the otherwise blank blue, black, and steel that made up most of the tower's barer architecture.

The prince had his phone with him, and had to use it to find the museum Lune wished to meet at. It was in the recreational arcology directly above his position in the tower. His phone recommended an elevator, but the prince had not stretched his wings in a moment, so he chose instead to fly up to an open floor in the roof of this residential block that connected the two arcologies. Winging from yellow platform to yellow platform felt like a good exertion on his wings, working muscles that rarely got used in the confines of the palace.

He felt Kyle respond to that thought with a bit of a cringe. Chisur told him, Don't worry about what Setara said to you, love. You are as every bit a dragon as she or I.

I know but... I am troubled. Things are different in the sprawl, and I wonder if being in the palace all the time is making me a different kind of alien to Archay.

_I'm just as guilty of it as you._Kyle didn't like Chisur's answer, but his mate opted not to respond, still wrestling with the feeling as Chisur entered the recreational arcology.

Most recreational arcologies were noticeably louder than the residential ones, as it was here one might find festivals, dance clubs, bars, arcades, brothels, stadiums, and all manner of dragons at play. Instead of an open chamber, recreational arcologies were crowded spaces of narrow streets with businesses pushing up against them. Space to fly was only common in places where one traversed to other floors of the arcology, otherwise dragons typically crowded shoulder to shoulder going from place to place. One might spend a whole year in a single tower and not visit everything the recreational arcologies of said tower might have to offer, even if the dragon never went to the same place twice.

Not a far walk away from where he passed into the first floor of this arcology, Chisur found the entrance to the North Cattalon Memorial Museum. Its façade was made of old limestone to mimic Cattalonian architecture. The stone was cut at sharp, precise angles at its entryway and for the dip down into a brightly painted bass relief covering much of the façade. This complicated set of images catalogued how the old kings of Northern Cattalon were selected by Divine Mandate. Chisur stared at it for a moment outside the door, piecing that together before he felt someone grab his arm.

"Disguises are meant to blend in, prince."

The furred dragon's illusory cat-like ears twitched and he turned to face the familiar silver dragon from the night of the attack. Lune wore a black jacket and matching pants, no jewelry or piercings, blue eyes dull and unremarkable. He was slightly shorter than Chisur, but his smaller size didn't hide the fact he was still perhaps stronger than any of the dragons in the crowd around him.

"How did--"

"You're the only furred dragon who would stare with your jaw hanging open at this gaudy display," Lune answered. "There are less than a million of these dragons left and you thought blending in as one would be a good idea, really?"

Chisur's whiskers twitched when he scowled. He ripped his arm away and snarled, "Let's just head inside."

The two dragons parted from the crowd and stepped through a set of large, sliding glass doors. The building was actually small as far as museums went. The interior was all black with soft gold accents. At a desk some paces from the door, a dragoness greeted them, "Hi! How may I help you today?"

Lune walked ahead of Chisur and said, "Good afternoon ma'am!" His voice was bright, cheerful, and filled out the otherwise empty reception room. "Can you believe, my mate here doesn't even know why Cattalon split into north and south?"

The dragoness glanced at Chisur, "That does seem quite surprising."

"Yes, well, soon as I found out I told him we needed to head here right away. First the north museum, then the south one. I want a room for two with the full exhibit," Lune said, now leaning an elbow on the desk and smiling.

The dragoness got flustered, stumbling at the monitor behind her desk to put in the commands for their room.

Chisur barely hid how surprised he was by Lune's change in demeanor. He reluctantly approached, sure his sheepishness played into the character. The order was put in, and Lune offered his phone to be scanned so an exchange of credit could be made. Once finished, Lune loudly thanked the dragoness and they walked down a hallway in the direction of a set of rooms. This made up the rest of the building: virtual simulators that would walk them through different historical recreations of North Cattalon.

The door slid closed behind them and Lune went to a panel along the wall to key in a few commands. Then the lights dimmed, before the floor, ceiling, and walls seemed to fade away. A blend of illusory magic and technology made the room shift from its setting to an ancient, verdant hillside overlooking a city with an old, worn temple with ruined columns ringing its perimeter. The voice of a narrator began speaking, but Lune had adjusted the volume so it came at a whisper.

Lune leaned against a wall in the room and a pillar suddenly appeared behind his back to make it seem like the silver dragon reclined against it. Arms folded over his chest and wings drawn tight around him, the silver dragon seemed to be closing himself off from Chisur as much as possible.

"So, you came alone, or as alone as you could with your human buzzing around in your head."

Chisur's fists clenched. "He's a dragon." This said in a warning growl.

"And you're a Cattalonian," Lune said. He held up a hand before Chisur could snap some retort. "You could have come with others, with surveillance on your person, but you didn't. Why?"

"How do you know I didn't?" a bite of anger lingered in Chisur's voice.

"I've had an A.I. watching you through surveillance networks since you left the palace. Mostly through cameras in public transit. She would have detected something amiss."

"Most dragons don't have A.I.'s to do mundane tasks like that," Chisur said.

"I think we both know by now I'm not most dragons, prince."

"Then who are you?"

Lune shrugged and glanced out across the old stone city. "A concerned citizen."

"Tsk." But before Chisur said anymore the room darkened and the two stood in the middle of large throne room. On it sat a furred dragon in a cloak of iridescent green feathers. A religious figure stood in front of him, speaking to the mass of dragons in the room. It was some kind of coronation.

"Did you kill any dragons in the warrens?"

"I had to," Lune said. "You know as well as I that there was a mage in our number. He was watching me very carefully."

Chisur growled, glaring at the impassive silver dragon. "You will answer for those deaths."

Lune nodded. "I'm prepared for that, once the work is done."

"What work?"

"You've still not answered my question. You came here alone. Why trust me?"

Both dragons studied each other for a moment. Around them, a dragon had come bursting through a window and landed right in front of the king. There the muffled crack of a gunshot--an assassination that faded to black before anything graphic was revealed. Then the scene changed to one of two warring sides of a battlefield, great bands of destructive magic whipped across open fields cut with trenches. Dragons leapt in and out of them, fighting with rifles and bayonets.

Chisur said, "You spared Jerawk. I felt obligated to."

"You're a very honor bound dragon, aren't you?" Lune asked the question as if it was rhetorical.

Which prompted a question of Chisur's own, "Why did you want me here? I'm not at all tasked or equipped to root out the dragons that organized that attack."

Lune sighed. "Because, prince, you are the only one I do trust."

"Me?"

"The ones who organized that attack were members of Archayon's Phoenix," Lune said sternly. "You'll remember that they think of you as, if not their actual, their at least symbolic enemy. I can trust that anything I tell you will be used against them."

"And you're also an enemy of this group?"

"In a sense... I am an enemy to those who jeopardize Archay future."

He sounds like he's trying to be a comic book hero, Kyle snarked.

Hush.

At the very least it doesn't look like Lune will kill you... which is a relief for me. It wouldn't do to keep Eska waiting for you to get home.

Kyle...

Lune's eyes narrowed on Chisur. "You're speaking to your mate, aren't you?" Chisur's obvious chagrin gave the silver dragon an answer. "I should have assumed any conversation with one of you would be a conversation with both."

Tell Lune I'm going to punch him for Jerawk.

If fighting Setara taught you anything it should be that you need to stay out of fights, not pick them. Chisur told Kyle before he said aloud, "What are you hoping I do with this information?"

"Nothing, for now," Lune said. "They can't know that we know they're acting out again."

"Who's we?"

"The three of us, of course."

Chisur rolled his eyes. "So you want mine and Kyle's help? To what end? Unless there is some complex spell you need from us I'm not sure we have anything to offer you."

"You are a prince and heir. You have the resources of the palace in reach. I would have you reach for them when the time is right."

"And is the time right?" Chisur snapped. He grew impatient with this silver dragon wasting his time on a "clandestine" meeting that seemed to amount to nothing.

This seemed to have an effect on the silver dragon. Lune looked away, out into a scene of a general giving orders to a group of mud caked dragons. The general raised her sword and the dragons cheered before charging across the battlefield. Their entire force was quickly killed in a hail of magical death. The screen went dark, and they reentered a scene of fur dragons in a meeting hall around a large table made of polished burgundy wood. A peace council for the war that just played out.

Lune stepped close to Chisur so they were face to face. "The time is not right... and I did not expect to encounter you or Jerawk the night of the raid, but since I did I knew it best to meet now. We must trust each other, prince."

"I don't even know your name--"

"Lunelei," the silver dragon said.

"Alright Lunelei, why don't you come back to the palace with--"

Lunelei snarled and turned his back on Chisur. "You know I will not do that."

The silver dragon seemed to study the corner of the room a moment, tail twitching a little bit. His horns, Chisur just noticed their shape.

"You have the Queen's horns," Chisur said, though when he saw horns forked like Lunelei's it was Setara that Chisur thought of.

Lunelei scoffed. "Good luck isn't it?"

A thought occurred to the prince. "Are you working alone?"

"I said the three of us, didn't I?"

"But why?" Chisur asked. "You are clearly a skilled mage and Kyle watched you fight the night of the attack. You could easily be a member of the queen's guard."

"Hmmph, who says I wasn't?" Lunelei faced him again, and the weight of grief in his eyes reminded Chisur of what he saw in his mother's eyes the day before. "I've tried service to the queen, to the dragons of Archay, but those things have soured for me. I've seen where they are flawed, and I know your flaws, but yours are what make you right to be a leader. Make you worthy of my service."

"Who... who are you?"

Lunelei shook his head. "I've already answered this. We should plan to meet again when it is time to make our move. I cannot give more than I have already because I don't know anything else yet. Those that hired me do not quite trust me yet, though I promise I am close."

"And in the meantime... we just don't speak?"

"What?" Lunelei said with a smirk, the grief from before now stowed away. "Did you expect we would meet at cafes and restaurants? That we pretend like we're actually dating?"

Lunelei's smirk was handsome in a way Chisur found disarming. He scoffed in spite of that. "You wish to earn my trust, but all you are is a shadow lurking in the corner of my vision. It is hard not to be paranoid when that is the case."

"There is nothing I can offer you that would be worth risking--"

"What about insight?" Chisur said. "You clearly have issue with my mother and the palace, but believe in me. There are things I can't know because of who I am, things you seem to know. I would like you to teach me those things so I can live up to be the king you clearly want me to be."

The silver dragon stared at him in earnest shock.

You're trying to bait him to get at who he really is, Kyle said, with a hint of admiration for the prince's cleverness.

If he expects me to trust him, he needs to give me more than this. We could all still be caught in some complicated scheme by whoever he is working for.

"Fine..." Lunelei struggled to say this. "I will... ugh, I will teach you. But you need a better disguise. Something more subtle that will blend in, that way we can attract less attention together."

"Are you being watched?"

"You should always assume someone is watching, prince."