1

I started to shift more in my seat, or what I was using as the seat. It was, hard, to describe what exactly I was feeling at the moment. Sadness? Grief? Fear? Anger? Isolated? Could I even say that I was isolated right now? What about Mendax? Were they wearing anything different today? No, the same leather straps, laid over torn, and stitched-together robes. Why did they use those robes anyway, the ones of the Wilted Rose? Did they have some former connection to them?

“I haven’t seen him ever since,” I told them. Mendax sat across from me. I could never tell what was going on within their head. They simply stayed, staring at me. I never could see their eyes, the mask covered them well. What was the mask even in the shape of? A snout? No, it was far too pointed to be that. A beak? Perhaps there weren’t any holes for them to breathe through. What exactly were they weathering that mask for? To hide some markings? Did they need it to live? Were they hiding their identity? If so, from who exactly? I wasn’t privy to it, did I have some connection to them before?

“You must understand, Kaje…” I paused for a moment, Mendax shuffled slightly and leaned closer toward me, rubbing their hands together. “I need to find him, I need to find him more than anything else.” Mendax lowered their head slightly. It wasn’t much, and maybe they didn’t want me to see that, but it happened anyway. If they seemed more interested in my story with Kaje, why haven’t they found anything yet?

“Please,” I said, “I need to know where Kaje is.” A plea. A plea that I’ve made before.

The air became thick, and the tension within the room was palpable. They looked right up, and into me, studying me almost as if I was a subject to be poked and prodded. My heart was racing, and racing, it felt like at any moment it could give up and collapse. Breath, I reminded myself, what else around the room could you focus on? Yet, I knew everything about this ruined castle that we were in, from the smallest of cracks to the newly formed spiderweb in the corner of our room, although the night made it harder to see everything. Yet sometimes, when I squinted my eyes, I could almost confuse myself into thinking this was like the castle back home.

“I haven’t heard anything new.” They said, sitting up from the fallen stone brick. “Of course, though I’ll keep you updated, Winrad, you have my word.” They started walking towards the exit.

Keep me updated? How? Why haven’t you found anything yet? Why haven’t you told me anything yet? When might we find something? Will you ever get off your ass and help me find Kaje?

“Mendax, with all due respect,” Mendax stopped walking toward the door “You haven’t found well, anything yet, it’s been months, and I’m tired of wasting my people’s time here.” Mendax turned towards me. Even though I couldn’t see their eyes, I could almost feel their piercing gaze upon me. “Unless you can find me anything, I believe our business here has been a waste of time.”

Mendax kept staring, unmoving. Just move! Do something! Flinch! What the hell are you thinking right now? I braced myself for anything. Then, they moved closer to me, slowly. Then past me, back onto the brick that they were sitting on before. “Sit down.” They commanded. What were they up to? I sat back down, still wary of what they might try to do. I leaned in closer.

“We’re getting closer to where exactly Tyrannus might be held up.” They said, they leaned back further away from me. “When we find Tyrannus, we can stop the source of all of this madness, stop this, genocide.” Their words dripped with venom. But what about Kaje? I thought. How is all of this supposed to help us find Kaje? Of course, Tyrannus was a threat, he was the exact reason as to why Kaje was missing. But Tyrannus was using Kaje for something. How else could he have gained so much power? And I knew Tyrannus, he would do anything to protect his sorry ass, even throwing away the lives of his own people. Would he even kill Kaje if he deemed it necessary? I blinked the thought away.

“Once we find Tyrannus.” They started. “I swear to you, I will tear him apart slowly, and painfully.” Mendax’s whole body started quivering. And their hands wrapped around an invisible neck. Rage. Something that I knew well. But rage alone wouldn’t get us through this.

“Mendax. I know just how badly you want to see Tyrannus hurt, I do too.” I said. I threw my gaze down onto the stony floor. “But if we’re not careful, Tyrannus is going to do whatever it takes for him to survive.” I turned my gaze back up to Mendax, their head, now pointed at the floor.

“Even if that means threatening to kill Kaje?” I said.

Mendax stood back up. “We can’t let Tyrannus try to threaten us, Winrad, if we could just get in closer, you and your dragons could-”

“Mendax!” They stopped speaking. I stood up. “Kaje’s life is far more important than your life, or mine, and you know that too.” I snarled back at them. They stood completely still once more. Were they, observing me? Were they shocked by my response?

“Mendax, I’m not going to possibly throw Kaje’s life, and my people’s lives away,” I told them, they raised their shoulders.

“Dammit Winrad, I need you to help me here!” they said, “I can’t kill him on my own!”

“For fuck’s sake Mendax, Tyrannus isn’t priority number one!” I shouted, my heart was racing faster and faster now, and the runes on my golem arm began to glow. Calm yourself! I thought, Could I even calm down now? “If we find Kaje, we can get him away from Tyranannus and find a way to strip him of Kaje’s powers!” I said.

Mendax started walking towards the other corner of the room, they hung their head. Were they, feeling guilty, or sad? What was going on in their mind? What the hell was going on with them? They brought their hands up to their mask, obscuring their face even more than before. I readied myself for anything. Were they going to attack me now that I told them I wouldn’t help them anymore? Yet there they stood, still, like a statue. I couldn’t even hear them breathing.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

“Damn dragons.” They muttered under their breath.

What? What did they say? “Sorry,” I said. “Do you want to tell me that again?”

They put their hands back down to their sides and started marching toward me. “With all due respect,” they said in a mocking tone, “you don’t know anything about Tyrannus, Winrad.” Poison seeped through those last few words, That, hurt. That hurt more than I expected it to. What did they mean that I don’t know anything about Tyrannus? Who have I been fighting for the past decade? What did Mendax even know anyway? Who were they to judge what I knew and what I didn’t know? Who the fuck were they? Calm yourself! I kept repeating in my mind, but it was too late. I couldn’t stop myself now.

“So please, oh so very please, Mendax.” I swung my arms wide and lifted them in the air in frustration, My animated arm almost swung and crushed the surrounding stone. “What is it that I don’t know!”

“You don’t know just the sense of depravity that this man has!” They said. “You don’t know just how much he pleases in torture! You have no idea just how much he prides himself on his ‘craft’.” They said, their whole body shaking. “You don’t know what it’s like to truly know that man.” They said.

“I don’t know? What else is there for me to know about him? I know all about his abominations of creations. I know just the lengths that man will go to get what he wants. I know just how tortuous that place is because I experienced it myself.” I told them.

Mendax scoffed. “Bullshit, you weren’t there, you didn't have him looking down at you, belittling you.” They said, and walked further away from me. “You were sitting on your precious little royal throne while your sister handled all the work for you.”

I was taken aback by that. How did they know about that? I never told them anything, except for my title of royalty. How did they know that I had a sister? What else did they know about me? I felt my stomach drop. What else? How could they know so much about me? Why do I know so little of them?

“Mendax, how did you know-”

“You don’t even know if Kaje is alive!” They shouted at me.

‘That– That’s not true!”

“Yes, it is! How can you be so sure that he’s even alive right now? How do you know that he’s not dead right now.”

How could I even answer that? I couldn’t even tell Kaje, I- I couldn’t, I can’t bring myself to do that. “Because he’s using Kaje’s powers,” I said.

“Tyrannus was a powerful necromancer in the past.” They retorted. “How do you know that he’s not just a master at his craft?” They said they started walking around me, slowly. They got close, so close to me, and they leaned in my ear, and whispered “Kaje, is probably dead.”

I pushed Mendax away. “I know he’s alive!” I shouted, tears welling in my eyes. I couldn’t hold it back anymore.

“How?”

“Because I am!” I sat back down on the chair. I tried and tried to keep the tears from flowing, but they did anyway. Each droplet, stinging my eyes. I don’t care anymore. I can’t hold it back, anymore. I feel so distant to Kaje and to Mendax, and everybody else that I worked with on the way here. Am I truly alone in all of this? Did I do this to myself? I, I couldn’t even tell Kaje everything. Maybe that was why we failed, maybe that’s why-

“Hey, Winrad, please, stop crying… please.” I heard a voice trailing next to me. I looked back up, it was Mendax, they were reaching a hand out towards me, but quickly pulled it away once they saw me looking at them. I covered my eyes once again. “Winrad, what did you just say?” I tried to steady my breathing more, But it was hard. I took slow, harsh, raking breaths, each breath felt like new torture. For some unknown reason, I felt, relieved. I brought my hands down from my face, tears still flowed, but less so now.

“I know he’s alive because I still am.” I fixed my gaze upon Mendax. For the first time ever, for the first time in the past couple years that I knew them, I felt something different about them. Care? Compassion? It was hard to tell exactly, but they seemed, concerned, in a different way than they usually were.

“I don’t want to get into details, least of all with you.” Those last words might have come out too harsh, I softened my gaze. “But Kaje’s life was in danger, and only draconic medicine could heal him, but,” I sighed. “But they only work on dragons.”

“Then, then that means…” they paused, why? Why did they pause? “What do you mean because you’re still alive?”

I thought about what to say next. Should I tell them the truth? Or should make up something? No, I have to tell the truth, from here on out, the truth, and only the truth. “I bound my soul to him, there’s always going to be a little piece of him that’s a dragon now, that’s how he was able to be treated,” I said. “But, the problem with that is, is that whatever wounds he suffers, I suffer as well, and the same goes the other way around.” I lifted my stone arm. It had runes carved on it, and it was animated, using the same magic that we used to keep our golems operational. I controlled it as if it was there the whole time. “That’s why I’ve got this now because Kaje got his arm cut off as well. “ I stopped to look at Mendax, they seemed enraptured and started twiddling with their thumbs.

“It wasn’t instant.” I said, but after some time, my arm felt weaker, and weaker, to the point that I couldn’t move it anymore, eventually well, this was the solution.” Telling Mendax, felt, therapeutic.

“Mendax,” I said, and they sat up straight, “You have to understand, Kaje is probably one of the most important people that I know, and we need to find a way to save him.”

Mendax stood up from the rubble that they were sitting on. And walked over to the door. “Winrad, I promise you, Kaje will be my top priority.” They paused for a moment. “No matter the cost, I will make sure he is safe.” Mendax took a moment to let the air settle, I nodded at them. They turned back out to the exit and walked.