The ballroom came to a stereotypical screeching halt as the hard-edged, snarling voice cut through conversation like a knife.

Immediately, five officials converged towards the Thraxxis ambassador and her mate. The tripedal creatures were new to the Alliance after their crushing defeat, and prone to forgetting that they were no longer the most dangerous thing in any given room.

Vree watched the whole thing in mild astonishment. He was only here at the invitation of Human-Amir (who apparently held a much higher rank than he thought, although no one would tell him precisely what that rank was) and was doing his best not to offend anyone.

“Crap,” Human-Amir spat. He grabbed a passing official by the arm before the man could bolt past him. “Tell Lord Al’Mudhib that the Thraxxis have offended Lord Petros.”

The official blanched white and took off at a run.

Vree turned alarmed eyes on the rising confrontation. Lord Petros? Human-Amir spoke of him in cautious, respectful tones, but this was the first time Vree actually saw him.

He was tall for a human, Vree decided warily, but did not look terribly odd otherwise. He had the black hair and brown skin of a desert human, and toxic-green eyes. His garb was appropriate for the fine evening, and he was unornamented, and unarmed.

The humans were talking fast, two attempting to hustle the Thraxxis away, and three more falling over themselves to apologize to the man himself.

“What is the problem?” Vree asked Human-Amir quietly. His human friend was decidedly nervous and uncharacteristically jumpy. “Is there danger?”

“Don’t know, but whatever has Blaec mad enough to threaten is serious business,” Human-Amir muttered. He nudged Vree towards the door. “We’re too close, if this gets messy.”

Lord Petros held up a hand and all three attending humans immediately fell silent. The woman on his arm, almost certainly his mate, offered them a smile but it looked cold, even to Vree.

“If the ambassador from Thraxxis has something to say, he should say it,” the man’s voice snapped like a cut cable, and hissed oddly even from a distance. “What precisely did you mean by your comment? The one regarding my wife, and your eagerness to study her kind.”

“Oh hell,” Human-Amir went a sickly sort of grey. “They brought Evelene into it. They’re gonna die. We are way too close.”

He pushed at Vree more pointedly, and Vree noticed more humans ushering others out every available door.

Anything that had the humans running was bad business. Humans didn’t run from much, including things that were actively trying to eat them.

Vree went for the door at a quick trot and resolved to find out more about this Lord Petros, and why the humans were so careful around him.

They were too far to hear more of the encounter, but when Vree looked back over his shoulder, he realized that the officials had abandoned their mission and were pounding for the doors at a run.

The Thraxxis, apparently, had not gotten the message. The ambassador’s spines were raised threateningly, and her mate stood steady just behind her. Thraxxis did not run from much either and were, in fact, nearly incapable of backing down from a fight.

Unfortunately for them, this was a fight that nothing could possibly win for them.

With a snarl, Lord Petros changed from a tall human, into a mountain range of black scales.

Vree’s legs turned to jelly, and he grabbed for the wall, eyes fixed on the spectacle before him.

His humans had told him about dragons. He had seen pictures, and recordings. He had read everything the humans had to say on the subject.

Nothing could have prepared him for the sight before him now.

The ballroom could easily fit a human destroyer within its cavernous hall. It was designed as a place to build such ships, before the humans turned into a place for events like this one. The gala took up barely a tenth of the space, even with all the ships of state housed within.

It was barely big enough to accommodate Lord Petros in his true form.

His tail coiled around the hall and the tip lashed furiously. For all his immensity, his great bulk never so much as touched any of the parked ships. Vast black wings stayed furled, but they rustled and shifted, and still nearly brushed the ceiling. It was sheer luck that Vree and Amir were near the doors already, or they might have been crushed by accident.

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Nineteen kilometers of dragon had a very particular sound. The bone-click of scales and the furnace-rumble as he took slow, angry breaths. The rustle of wings that looked like fine leather and were tipped by blackened wing-claws that would have torn the ceiling apart if not for the dragon’s delicate care.

Fire glowed between the scales of his throat and flickered behind his teeth.

“Say it again,” the creature hissed. His voice was like a volcano erupting, and the sharp scent of burning metal filled the hall. “Dare to face me now knowing what I am. Dare to threaten my great Treasure once more in my presence.”

A scrap of white glittered in the corner of one of his eyes, Lady Petros, unconcerned by her husband’s transformation and apparently accustomed to this behavior.

Vree stood frozen, unable to move and shivering. His hindbrain screamed for him to run, but his legs refused to do so.

“I always forget how big Blaec is when he’s like this,” Human-Amir whispered. He clutched at Vree’s arm, as shaken as Vree himself, which was oddly reassuring. “It’s been a while since I saw him at full size.”

“Is he going to-“ Vree didn’t know what he was going to say, but he got an answer nonetheless.

The dragon’s head snapped down like a snake. His jaws came together in whump not unlike a ship crashing into solid rock.

The Thraxxis vanished without so much as a mark on the floor to show what happened to them.

“Well, that happened,” Human-Amir said shakily. “I hope Grandfather will talk him down, or the Thraxxis are going to have a bad time.”

“Grandfather?” Vree managed to hiss out the word between his chattering teeth, his eyes fixed on the dragon. When the humans said how big he was, Vree just assumed they were exaggerating. Humans did that sometimes.

They were not exaggerating.

“He is referring to me,” a lone human walked past Vree, in the traditional dress of their home world’s desert. “If you intend to stay, Grandson, do so quietly.”

“Yes Grandfather,” Human-Amir said, surprisingly obedient for once. The old human nodded and forged down the stairs, calm and deliberate. Human-Amir followed him, and Vree did the same, although his instincts screamed at him to find somewhere to hide.

“Grandfather Al-Mudhib is a djinn,” Human-Amir told Vree at a whisper, once again using a word that Vree did not know for a being that he had never heard of before. “He’s as old as Blaec, or maybe older. Neither of them know which of them is more powerful. If they fought, they might rip a hole in reality.”

Black spots floated across Vree’s sight, and his hearts pounded out of sync. Just the thought of that kind of power…

“Blaec,” the ancient human said, without raising his voice. Vree marveled at his calm, considering what just happened. Of course, if he was as powerful as Human-Amir said, he had little reason to be afraid. “I trust the insult to your honor has been satisfied?”

“I am undecided,” the dragon said, although he seemed to coil in on himself. In a matter of moments, there was a human where once a dragon stood. His mate, still unruffled, curled her arm into the crook of his arm . “The insult is satisfied, and yet the threat to my Great Treasure remains. How do you suggest I answer it?”

“With fire, as always. How else?”

“And the peace?”

“Leave peace to the humans. You and I are kindled for other things.”

Vree never knew what made him do it, but he stepped forward, despite Human-Amir’s whispered protests.

“Lords,” he croaked, and knelt when they looked at him. Before he dropped his eyes, he got a glimpse of Lady Petros’ smile. Hopefully that meant he wasn’t about to die. “Our alliance is hard-won. I beg you…“

It wasn’t his nature to beg, but these beings were gods compared to him, and there was no shame in groveling to gods.

“Please, let us have the peace we fought for,” he continued, speaking to the floor because it was less likely to eat him. “I am not human, but I know some, and while your people are fierce in war, they love peace. Please let us keep what little we have won.”

“That was very eloquent.”

Soft human hands lifted Vree’s chin and he discovered Lady Petros smiling down at him. She was lovely, for a human, and all in white, with black scales decorating her throat and ears.

Her husband’s scales, Vree realized.

“You argue for peace for a people not your own,” she murmured. There was a burr in her voice that Vree recognized from Human-Nerea. Lady Petros was a mermaid. The First, if Human-Nerea was to be believed. “More gracefully than those practiced at it, and even though you are afraid.”

“Peace is important,” Vree laid his ears back nervously and tucked his tail against his leg, let it lash and startle them into crushing him. He didn’t like having the attention of these great beings on him alone. “Important enough to say something. More important than fear. …please don’t eat me.”

She laughed and turned her eyes on her husband, who immediately bent at her slightest touch, immense power at the whim of his beloved mate. “My love, I am never from your side. I will pass the word to my nieces, and all will protect them. Let this alliance have its peace.”

Lord Petros wavered. Vree tried not to breathe. It might change his mind.

“As you will, my Treasure,” Lord Petros bowed to her wishes and pressed a kiss to her fingertips that made her smile softly up at him. “I will withhold my fury, for now.”

“Thank you, Lord Petros,” Vree said shakily, and started to breathe again, although not without a rattle of his teeth, betraying his terror.

He might just survive today after all.

“As you say, Blaec,” Al-Mudhib said agreeably. He folded his hands into his sleeves and Vree dropped his eyes back to the floor. He didn’t know what a djinn was, and he didn’t want to. “Shall I go and reassemble the guests?

“Might as well. And you…” Lord Petros fixed his gaze on Vree.

Vree resisted the urge to shrivel into the floor. It seemed very welcoming, if somewhat barren of places to hide.

“Vree, Lord Petros,” Vree said to the stone floor. “From planet Ha’reet, of the Fetar system.”

“My wife is right, Vree of Ha’reet,” Lord Petros said thoughtfully. “You argue eloquently for peace. Join us at our table. I wish to hear your thoughts on other things.”

Vree gripped his own tail and tried not to cut and run. He thought he could hear Human-Amir snickering behind him, and rather hoped the human would accompany him, if only so that Vree could hide behind him.

This was not what he had in mind when he came to this party!