Daress had to get away from Nadira. She couldn’t handle this conversation any longer. Her jaw clenched. She knew she was too obvious. Putting herself on display. A part of her screamed to go back into the dark corridors behind her, but damn all this hiding. Let them fear her.

As expected, eyes fell on her as the room darkened. Her hunger gnawed at her. She couldn’t hold herself back.

Within each guest was a squirming she could sense. She recognized the spiritual chaos in response to her presence. This took a toll on the people the spirits had anchored to. The spirits pulled at their souls. It was no wonder some of them hit the floor. At least those with stronger ties. Through her was the feast of old spirits, satiating, as though within her was a gate. A maw. To oblivion. She felt it intimately.

She strode with purpose across the room to the exit. But a hand wrapped around her arm instead.

Of course, it was Leliana. The wretched woman who controlled her life for so long. Who wouldn’t give her a chance to succeed at anything? She had thought she had no power over her anymore. But no souls anchored to the Orphans but their own.

She turned to her with a snarl and twisted her arm to try to free it. Daress felt as though she was getting scolded as a child, her face turning red.

She remembered first coming to the Orphanage. 8 years old. Leliana was a bit younger then, too. Half Daress’ lifetime ago. The young Diplomat had greeted her cordially. She looked at her with appraising eyes. She remembered the ceremony where she took her black robes. She was told that the life she had lived before was over. Black was to mourn herself and all Orphans. She had needed that more than anything—to let go of who she could have been. Create someone new. It was the most welcome she had ever felt. She had wanted to make her new self perfect. To be accepted.

At one point, Leliana’s gaze once sparked within Daress an urge to please. She had felt that within those eyes, she could find atonement. Or something like it. But she looked into those eyes then and saw something different. Something harsh and violent. Something that was underneath the appraisal all along. Her old self had never died with them. It was just covered up with black drapery.

She yanked again against her grip. Let this public scene be as embarrassing as possible. Make her explain it later.

“Let me go!” She screamed in the quiet ballroom. A few people who had fainted by her hunger had their partners attend to them. They were still alive. Every Family present watched. Some curious, others ready to spring into action. All silent.

Leliana pulled her away without a word. Despite what she was capable of, she was still a weakling. Despite trying to resist, it was no use. She was dragged out of the room by her matron. “I said, let me go!” She cried out again. They passed Nadira, wide-eyed, who followed them outside to the balcony.

Consequence. It was different this time. This wasn’t graffiti on the statue of the Royals or pranking a visiting official with Nadira. This was the face of the Kopkin after the fire. She had, after all, done it again.

The balcony was not empty but definitely had more privacy than the ballroom. There was a distant sound of chattering somewhere below them. Leliana took something out of the folds of her robe. A book. “I wanted more privacy, but this will have to do,” she said.

Daress had given that book to Arturri, not her. This wasn’t what she wanted. She wanted a way out that she could control. Something she could ask for if it got bad. She wasn’t done.

“How did you get that?!” She snapped. Of course. Why did she think she could trust anyone? She thought Arturri wasn’t interested in the Orphans. Did he give it to Leliana, or did she take it from him?

Leliana did not answer her. Instead, she spoke in an old tongue from a passage. Daress’ eyes went wide, and she felt a sharp tug within. A push. Desperation. Get out of here. Get away from her. She dragged and pulled. The hand around her arm only dug its nails in.

She tried to grab the book to slap it away, but Leliana held it out of reach. It was as if she didn’t need it. She must have memorized the passage.

As the words rose in volume, there was a force growing at the base of her very being. She felt bile. She felt dizzy. No. No, no, no. It couldn’t end like this. She hadn’t even gotten started. Tears welled in her eyes. She tried to reach out for Leliana’s face. She wanted to hold her veil and tear it off. She could stop the words by holding her mouth. But when she groped for the woman’s face, her free arm was grabbed and held back.

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She twisted her face to see who had done it. Nadira held a stern expression. “Why?!” She met the eyes of her ex-friend, protecting her enemy.

She was stupid for walking across the ballroom like that. It was arrogant. Weak. Lashing out. Making a show of herself. She was careless.What would become of her now?

That glow deep within her stirred at the words still being chanted. The ancestors were everywhere within the building. Not just in the people. That force within her drank from the building of the Dar Yi Home, drawing from any power it could reach. It banged, bashed, and broke something while lashing inside her soul. She felt this surge of violence shake her. A dim ringing grew louder in her ears. She coughed, and the blood that dropped from her lips was golden.

Screams interrupted Leliana from those on the ledge of the balcony. “Monsters!” They were backing away from the edge, some running back in to tell the crowd. Behind them, half a dozen winged creatures zipped over the balcony.

Leliana tried to continue the words where she left off, shaken.

Daress tried to make them out. They were small and bipedal, with skin a translucent white. The height of a toddler, but more spindly in figure. Long arms with thin fingers and papery wings. A face on the left and right of its head, but none facing forward. They twisted their necks to look at them with eyes yellow where the white should be. Their pupils were so dilated, it was hard to tell if they even had irises. It twisted its head around to see ahead and behind it.

The creatures were flying upwards. Were they flying towards or away from something?

Daress felt like this was a dream. Her knowledge of creatures from books flooded through her mind. This was an imp. Not that she could act on that information. The corners of her vision blurred. “Get inside!” Someone called from inside. An imp swooped down on them with eager claws. The Dar Yi from the door pulled them to safety with telekineses. The motion threw Leliana back, and she let go of Daress and the book. Nadira caught Daress. Her vision started to clear.

Her books had described imps as chaotic creatures. They soon swooped into the ballroom before they could close the windows. They seemed disoriented. They banged into the walls and tables like moths and scrapped with one another. Quick and feisty, they pulled the hair of ballroom guests. Some were more aggressive and sunk their teeth and claws into flesh they could reach. Others stuffed their faces with finger food while they had the chance at the tables. Proactive guests got to work incapacitating them.

A few of those attending knew what Daress knew from her books, and their faces dropped.

Imps worshiped dragons. They live with the beast, cleaning them, even feeding them with their own, in the hopes of gaining some of its might. Imps usually weren't found far from them. Spotting imps in a tunnel was indicative that a dragon was not far.

The tip of the dragon’s crown soon grazed the edge of the balcony itself. A dragon had five heads. Their foreheads each sported a segment of the crown, which protruded outward to curve up. They twisted together to create a drill shape above them, called the crown. The crown crushing the ancient stone balcony caused a rumble that shook the Dar Yi Home.

She recalled a rumble earlier. This creature had been stirring. Had she awoken it? Maybe it had been waiting for the right moment.

The book teetered on an uncertain ledge. Leliana screamed and flung herself toward it.

As the dragon ascended, its faces came into view, only a few feet from the trio.

Their faces were each blind. It was smooth where eyes were on other creatures. The wolf-like snout of each face held fangs the height of a man. Their fur was a flowing silver. It was their fur that was vital to their senses. It took in the subtlest vibration from around them, even through rock. The ringing in her ears was their echolocation.

Its movement was slow but steady, floating upwards in a spiral. The crown could drill through any obstacle. It used a natural telekinesis to ascend empty pockets in the underground like this one.

Down its body were a dozen legs and talons, each tucked against the length of its body while in flight. Imps held onto the hair and clamored to one another in glee as they ascended.

A mixture of victory and dread filled her as an imp flying past picked up the tome from the ledge before Leliana. With a harmonic cackle from both its faces, it turned the object over. Shook it. Ate paper.

The fury and horror of the matron were hard to witness. Nadira was holding her ears.

The imp did not completely destroy the book. It was only playing. Daress stared at the creature. She crawled toward it. Maybe she could take it back.

She crawled towards the edge and pulled herself to a stand. She had read that dragons were big, but she hadn’t been able to picture it. She couldn’t see where the creature ended when looking down into the abyss of darkness below Home. One of its mouths could eat a person whole.

The crest of the Dar Yi was the dragon.

No time to think about the beast. Daress had an opening here. She could get out of there. Her arms were free, and they didn’t have the book anymore. Hadn’t Leliana memorized the tome? The woman was distracted. She needed to act fast before she found out.

She looked around. There weren’t a lot of options. Where would she go?

She looked up to see where the dragon was going. There was solid rock above them. It was going to go through it. Debris would soon fall on the Home.Inside, the imps were still causing chaos, but people saw the dragon and were stunned to stillness.

The dragon must have come from somewhere. She staggered towards the edge.

“Get away from there, Daress! Please! We can help you!” Nadira again.

She wiped the gold from her lips. The great dragon rose upwards behind her.

The imp had taken the book down into the dark below.

She took a final look at them. Leliana was starting to stand. Nadira looked terrified. She looked so young then. Innocent.

Daress smiled. “Don’t you understand, tulip? I don’t want help.”

The voice inside said that it would protect her. Maybe it would. Maybe it wouldn’t. But there was nowhere else to go from there.

She turned from them. Nadira screamed out.

Her heart beat heavy in her chest. She closed her eyes and listened to the dragon’s ring as she stepped from the edge.