"Oh my. This is terrible." Hyacinth shook her head at the sight before her. At the center of the market square stood a crumbling statue of a winged woman, charred with soot and ash. "The Shrine Scorcher is at it again. Blanche will never answer our prayers to restore aura magic when some of us are being this disrespectful!"

"How many times are we going to have to clean this “Shrine Scorcher's” messes?" Orion asked nobody in particular as he picked up a chunk of statue from the ground. The lanky, blue-eyed, raven-haired man tossed the piece into the wheelbarrow before continuing to scour the ground for more rubble. "Ruining the environment, denying people of their connection to Blanche… what an asshole."

Hyacinth sat at the foot of the shrine's remains. "Come to think of it, it's only Blanche's shrines that I've seen burnt like this," the healer noted. "I don't think we've had defacing incidents involving shrines of other entities before."

"Actually we did," Orion reminded her. "Remember when Andromeda's statue exploded?"

"That was Juliana, not the Shrine Scorcher," Hyacinth corrected Orion. "And she did make amends for the damage afterwards. She even offered to rebuild Andromeda on her own. But this guy…" Hyacinth trailed off as she took a hand brush and swept off a layer of ash from the end of Blanche's robe. "He doesn't seem to be sorry at all."

For the next hour, Hyacinth and Orion brushed and scrubbed and dusted at the statue in an attempt to restore it to its former glory. But no matter how hard the two mages tried, they couldn't fix its misshapen shape, nor could they remove the messy writing from Blanche's wings. On the deity's left wing, Hyacinth caught sight of an ominous message, scrawled in a frightening shade of red:

Tyranny will fall.

"W-wait what?" Hyacinth sputtered. "What tyranny?"

"Hey, you should check this out," Orion said, gesturing to the statue's right wing. "Look what's written here."

Hyacinth descended from the top of her ladder and walked over to Orion's side. She noticed that the next message said something just as confusing:

Justice for Polaris.

"Justice for Polaris?" Hyacinth read out loud. "What's the meaning of all this?"

***

Skye dug a sketchbook and pencil out of her school bag, which was seated next to her on the bus seat. To her left was a window, and outside it lay a three-lane road divided by two lines of white dashes. The road carried all sorts of vehicles, mainly small passenger cars, but every now and then a truck would roll past the window or a person on a motorbike would zoom by the bus. A thicket of trees grew on the opposite side of the road, and rising above the trees were a series of tall metal towers, connected by a line of wires that seemed to follow the bus wherever it went. Fluffy white clouds chased each other across the endless blue sky.

Skye flipped her book open to the next empty page so she could draw, and she momentarily panicked after noticing some strange writing on the page before it. The writing was a childish scrawl that almost resembled Ivan's handwriting except something was off about it and Skye didn't know what it was. Perhaps Ivan had one too many cups of coffee or energy drinks; that could explain why his note looked so messy. Meet me at the greenhouse, 3:30 pm. Nice art by the way, the note read.

Skye glanced at the page suspiciously. "Nice art by the way?" Her brother would never say or write something like that— not without making fun of it first! And it was at that moment when Skye remembered: this was the notebook she left in the cafe, the one Noi returned to her. So maybe it wasn't Ivan inviting her to the greenhouse after all. Perhaps it was Noi. It could explain why his note looked so strange— having claws for hands must make writing difficult for him.

***

As Skye was entering Silver Run's campus, two students stood in the center of the locker room with their backpacks on the floor. One of them, a twintailed girl with half-pink, half-yellow eyes, wore a gray skirt, a pair of thigh-high leggings, and a blue cardigan over a yellow shirt with pink stripes on its sleeves. This girl's hair was black, but the ends of it appeared to be colored pink. The other student, another girl whose dark brown hair was tied in a spiky ponytail, had sharp green eyes. She wore a jacket and shorts. As Skye walked into the locker room to retrieve her supplies, she heard the ponytailed, green-eyed girl speaking:

"Hey Alexis!"

The pink-haired girl looked down. "Hazel?"

"I saw your post on Avriya's Anomalies today!" The green-eyed girl, presumably Hazel, announced. "Is it true that Blanche's statue got burnt?"

"Yeah," Alexis replied. "Stopped by the square the other evening and saw some stranger absolutely obliterating her shrine. He had a torch and all. Or she, I didn't know, it was too dark to see who was doing the torching. I figured it would make a great blog post so I took multiple pictures and a video."

At that moment Skye, who overheard the conversation, was beginning to feel frightened and a bit intrigued. What kind of person sees somebody committing arson and posts it on the internet? She wondered. That's a bit messed up— wait, didn't Noi say something about Blanche murdering Polaris the other day? Perhaps the stranger burning the statue had something to do with Blanche and Polaris.

While Skye looked over her schedule and retrieved her supplies from her locker, another girl teleported into the locker room. Skye, almost dropping her textbooks, took a few steps back. "Nova?"

"Hey Skye!" Nova chirruped as she smiled and waved. "Have you seen Avriya's Anomalies’ latest post?"

"Avriya's Anomalies?"

Nova opened her phone and entered a link into the browser's search bar. A moment later she turned up with a website's home page, displaying the blog's title and a menu against a pink glittery background. "Here it is. It's a blog run by Alexis that tracks her investigations of supernatural activity around the island. See her latest post? That's the work of the Shrine Scorcher."

Skye inspected the image. "Wow. Thanks for sharing," she said as she packed her bag. "But I'm gonna have to head to class soon, so later, Nova!"

Nova smiled and waved back at Skye. "See you later, Skye."

***

As Skye left her final period, she shuffled her feet down the hall, holding her notebook open in front of her so she could reread the note on the page:

Meet me at the greenhouse, 3:30 pm. Nice art by the way.

Skye entered the stairwell of Silver Run's campus, weaving between clusters of students as she descended from the third floor to the courtyard. After traversing the courtyard, she stopped by the entrance of a gabled-roof greenhouse, located next to the campus's third building. Skye opened its door and entered a world of greenery, a pocket dimension where tendrils scaled the glass walls and rows upon rows of vegetation sprung from soil-plots.

"Hello-o! Is anybody here?" Skye called out. "Anybody?"

An echoing voice responded from the other end of the greenhouse. "Heeyyyy…"

Skye followed the voice to an area behind a row of plant shelves. "Noi? Is that you? Oh wait, nevermind."

Skye took a startled step backwards. Instead of Noi or Ivan, seated on the bench of the backroom was a redheaded, green-eyed boy with scars on his face, a red cloth around his neck, and strangely dragon-like features. He had both of his feet on the bench, an arm on his knee, and a tail wrapped around the bottom of his seat. "Actually, my name is Lucian," he corrected. "But you can call me the Shrine Scorcher. Kai Dalton calls me the Little Shit for some reason, but come on, that name makes no sense! I'm not that short, right?"

"Even if you are, I don't think there's anything wrong with being short," Skye said in an attempt to reassure the dragon-boy. Meanwhile, alarm bells were going off in her head. Skye knew she should run, because here was the Shrine Scorcher, sitting right in front of her, but something kept her in place and she didn't know what it was. Perhaps it was some form of morbid curiosity.

While Skye was thinking, Lucian unwrapped his tail from the bench and stood in front of her. "See?" He said with an air of pride. "I'm almost 6 feet tall."

Of course Skye knew this to not be the whole truth, as when she and Lucian stood next to each other, Skye could see that she was the taller of the two, and the girl, unlike the dragon-spirit, did not consider his horns to be part of his height. With his horns Lucian would be taller than Skye, but even then he wasn't quite 6 feet tall.

"Oh, and you're Polaris, right?" Lucian piped up, interrupting Skye's thoughts.

Skye gave a hesitant nod. "Kind of?... Well, I'm Polaris's incarnation. Have I seen you before?"

"Yeah you have," Lucian answered. "In the cafe, remember? I even got your notebook from when you left it behind. Flipped through it a couple times before making Noi return it, and your interpretations of Polaris are… something, I’ve gotta say—"

"You FLIPPED THROUGH MY NOTEBOOK?!" Skye spluttered. "Oh sorry, I didn't mean for it to come out that way, that was rude, well, uh… let's pretend you didn't see anything okay? Again, I'm sorry, please don't take this personally, I bet I look absolutely ridiculous right now and you probably think I'm weird or something, I mean I probably am but ugh… nevermind—"

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

Skye gasped as Lucian took a pot of daisies and dumped it all over her. "Hey! What was that for?"

Lucian stared at Skye, perplexed. "Isn't chamomile supposed to calm humans down? That's what Noi said."

Skye brushed the dirt off her clothing with a grimace. "I think he meant chamomile tea, Lucian. Not dumped all over my clothes like this."

"Sorry," the dragon-boy murmured as he took the red cloth off his neck and used it to wipe Skye. At the same time, Skye attempted to put the potted daisies back in their place.

***

"Why am I here?" Skye asked Lucian.

Lucian slumped on the bench, resting his chin in his hand. "I don't know, I'm not a philosopher."

Skye laughed quietly. "I meant to ask why you invited me here."

The afternoon sun beamed through the glass walls, bouncing off Lucian's horns and brightly-colored hair so they reflected the sun's light. Over his head a potted fern hung from the ceiling, its feathery leaves draping the edges of its container. "Long story short, you're reincarnated from a seal and destined to fight God," he explained.

Skye nodded. "I know. Noi told me."

"So are you going to?”

"I'm sorry but I can't. I already promised Noi I was going to keep myself safe." Skye responded. "Wait, you're not gonna burn me for saying no, right?"

Lucian winced, and for a moment Skye thought he looked like he was in pain. But then his agonized expression faded as quickly as it appeared. "Wait, why would I do that?!" He remarked. “Who the hell do you think I am?”

“A strange half-boy, half-dragon who may or may not be stalking me and burns shrines for fun?”

The dragon-spirit gave Skye a blank stare. “I don’t burn Blanche’s shrines for fun, y’know,” he clarified. But then he paused. “Okay, maybe I do. It is fun to watch everybody collectively lose their shits over glorified dumping grounds, I’ve gotta say. It’s also good for letting off steam. But you do know that every spirit is practically enslaved under Blanche, right? Last time I tried to break free from her influence…" Lucian shook his head, as if trying to rid himself of a painful memory. "You know what, forget it."

Skye gave Lucian a look of concern. "What happened?"

Lucian began laughing nervously. "Hey, no need to worry about it! It's literally nothing. For now you should focus on— oh crap."

A large figure of a man loomed at the door of the greenhouse. He had a muscular build, a head of silver hair streaked with gray, and a cold ice-blue eye. In place of his left arm and right leg were two metal limbs, and a metal piece covered the other half of his face. Skye and Lucian took a glance at the man, and a glimmer of fear flashed across Lucian's eyes.

The man opened the door and entered the greenhouse. "I'm closing the greenhouse to all Silver Run students," he announced, facing Skye. "You may leave."

"Okay," Skye responded. She waved at Lucian. "Bye Lucian, it was nice meeting you—"

But the man, pointing at Lucian, interrupted before Skye could continue. "Young lady, if I were you, I'd stay far, far away from that thing. Don't want you getting burnt to a crisp by the little shit who destroyed our shrines and regularly stirs up chaos around this area!"

Skye shuffled her feet toward the doorway. He's right. I shouldn't be here, she thought. But soon after Skye left the greenhouse, she heard some noises coming from its direction. Alright, that's unsettling, she thought. Something is going on in there.

Skye, hiding behind a tree to remain undetected, crouched down and watched the scene unfold from inside the greenhouse's glass walls. A look of shock crossed her face when she saw the man conjure a piece of metal from his right arm, shaping it with his metallic left hand into a pointed, deadly-looking weapon. And then what he did next alarmed her: he pointed the blade at Lucian. "Apologize for burning the shrines. Now." The man threatened. But the spirit only flashed a smug grin.

"Make me."

The man attempted to drive the spear into Lucian's chest, but the spirit swiftly dodged the attack, knocking over a pot of begonias with one of his horns in the process. The pot of begonias landed on the ground with a thud, spilling its contents all over the floor. Meanwhile, the man produced a series of blades from what looked like thin air, throwing each of them at Lucian. One of them caught on his left wing, tearing it down the middle. A stream of blood trickled from the wound, and when Lucian twisted his body to rip the blade out of his wing, a few droplets of his blood landed on a young sapling. Almost immediately after the blood hit the soil, three of the sapling's buds flowered into luscious red blossoms.

Bloody blossoms! Skye thought, recognizing the plant species she learned about in a biology lesson from her mother. A type of tree that grows flowers when watered with blood.

At this point, Lucian was gaining on his opponent. The dragon-spirit had snuck up behind him, just about ready to drive the man's own blade into his back. But he didn't act fast enough, and the man, in a single swift motion, turned away from the attack, grabbing onto Lucian's left horn with an iron grip. Before the dragon-spirit could go thrashing about for over a split second, the man drove another, even bigger blade into Lucian's right wing, pinning him to the floor with it. While the spirit was wincing as he tried to rip himself free from the dagger, the man took up his final weapon— a sword the length of an arm span— and drove it into Lucian's stomach. Skye gasped. The man towered over him triumphantly, and the slain spirit's eyes rolled back into his head. All too quickly, he stopped breathing.

"That'll teach ya to leave the shrines alone!" The man shouted at his victim as he left the greenhouse, slamming the door behind him.

***

Oh my God. Oh my God. OH MY GOD. Hyperventilating at a million miles per hour, Skye nudged the greenhouse door open. She violently shook from head to toe and could barely walk without stumbling. In front of her lay Lucian, collapsed onto his side, in a pool of blood. The sword remained wedged through his abdomen, and its tip, coated with the sticky red substance, protruded out of his back. Lucian, I'm so sorry…

The logical part of Skye's brain tried to convince her that she had no reason to feel pity for this boy, that he wasn't even a boy at all but a half-dragon, troublemaking beast. But the other, more emotional part overwhelmed her, and within moments Skye found herself kneeling on the floor beside the body of Lucian with tears streaming from her face. "Lucian, if only I could save you..." she choked out, her voice trembling. "But I was too stupid… ugh! If only I wasn't so terrified of confrontation, if only I wasn't selfishly hiding and cowering while that horrible man was brutalizing you, if only I was able to jump into action without being paralyzed by fear… you know what, I may not have a shovel to bury you with, but I'll try my best to give you a proper funeral. I'm sorry, I'm so sorry!"

Skye took the hilt of the metal sword in her hand, and with a painstaking amount of effort, attempted to pull it out of the body without messing it up further. A wave of nausea washed over her as she picked up the bloodied blade, so Skye cast it aside immediately, her face contorting in disgust after seeing what it had left behind. Now that she had pulled out the weapon, even more blood was spilling from its place, and the entire front side of Lucian's shirt was stained as red as the cloth around his neck. The crimson pool forming below him had gotten bigger, so Skye took another step from it, shivering.

For a moment Skye pondered over what she could do in honor of Lucian. Then it struck her: she was in a greenhouse, and using flowers to honor the dead was already a tradition, so she figured she could do something with that. First, Skye walked over to the bloody blossom section of the greenhouse and started picking fallen flower parts off the soil. The flowers she gathered ranged from fully-formed velvet blooms to less mature, milky-white buds and petals painted with scarlet splatters. After collecting the bloody blossoms, Skye began gathering more fallen flowers from other parts of the greenhouse, careful not to break any of the growing ones off the plants. By the time she was done, she had accumulated a fistful of flowers from multiple sections: flame lilies, gladiolus, red spider lilies, purple hyacinths, forget-me-nots, daffodils, and after some consideration— the stray begonias and chamomile daisies Lucian had spilled onto the floor.

Solemnly, Skye began scattering petals on and around Lucian's body. Bit by bit they formed a colorful ring, but while some of the petals and flower parts remained clean, others landed in the spirit's blood and soaked in it, turning a dark shade of red. Skye left her final flower, the purple hyacinth, by Lucian's head. "I'm sorry," she whispered, her eyes watering and her voice breaking. "I should have saved you. Actually, you know what… I should quit my training! What kind of mage would I be if I couldn't even try to stop that man?!"

Skye had always idolized the mages of old for their heroic acts, from the healers of the healer guilds who recovered their patients from the brink of death to the fighters of the warrior guilds who battled enemies of the people. Nearly all of these mages faced high-stakes situations, and many of them had even risked their lives. But Skye? While Lucian was in the greenhouse getting slaughtered, she was too overcome with fear to do anything about it! She let him die, and it was all her fault—

"You only have to say sorry once, y'know. And I'm not dead."

Skye jumped at the voice. Lucian?

The body on the floor began to stir, and Skye felt her skin crawl. She tentatively backed away from the dragon-boy as he pushed himself onto his knees. He doubled over and gagged.

"If you don't want to see me shoving my guts back into my body, you should turn around," Lucian advised Skye. Now it was Skye who gagged. "I'll tell you when you can look."

Skye, following Lucian's advice, turned away from him, focusing her gaze on the floor. Thank you for being considerate, but that image is going to be burnt into my brain forever, she thought. Too many questions swirled inside her mind, and Skye wasn't sure if she had enough time to ask them all. "Were you really dead?"

"Not quite," Lucian replied. "I was regenerating. Being a spirit who's like, 95% immortal, I'm unable to die of natural or unnatural causes. I can only die of…" he paused, an uncomfortable smile plastered onto his face, "supernatural causes."

"And what are these supernatural causes, may I ask?"

"Oh, it's complicated," Lucian responded before noticing the circle of flowers around him. "But I guess we're even now, huh? Since we both threw flowers at each other?"

"I wasn't trying to get back at you for anything, I swear!" Skye blurted out. "I genuinely thought you were dead so I tried to do what I could for you—"

Lucian gave a small laugh. "Hey, I was joking about us being even! No need to get worked up over it." He walked over to Skye, patting her on the shoulder. Skye jumped. "You can look at me now. I'm done regenerating."

Skye inspected the dragon-spirit from head to toe. "That was traumatizing," she said as she gulped, only to feel guilty for not being able to comfort the spirit after he literally got impaled in front of her. What the hell, Skye?! She reprimanded herself. You gotta show a little more sympathy than that! Unfortunately, because Skye was still frozen in shock, the best response she could muster was "please don't die again."

Lucian rubbed the back of his head. "That's gonna be difficult," he admitted. "I've already died, how many times? Eleven? Twelve? You know what, I think I lost count. Probably would've been fewer if Mr Dalton wasn't trying to exterminate me for "destroying the connection between Blanche and humanity" or some crap like that, but it's not like I'm gonna quit anytime soon! Not until everybody on this hellhole of an island stops falling on their knees over that goddamn biblically-inaccurate angel…" he proclaimed. But then the dragon-spirit caught his eye on the metal weapon on the ground, the one that had slain him. "Ooh, shiny thing!" He exclaimed. "That's going into the Sword Hoard." The dragon-spirit picked up the weapon, dragging it after him.

"The Sword Hoard?" Skye asked with a dumbfounded expression as Lucian, with the sword in his hand, ran for the door.

image [https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/gxy71nrxk7rbbend16zwn/Untitled1.png?rlkey=z4r3b23ciapnewzuxjafr0abj&st=fqwif7q6&raw=1]

"And by the way, please don't blame yourself for me almost-dying!" He shouted at Skye as he stood in the doorway. "I'll even help you with mage training and stuff. You're NOT gonna quit following your dream because of me, and there's nothing you can do about it." In a flash, Lucian disappeared, and Skye was left alone in the greenhouse.

Wow, that was something, Skye thought. Also, the dragon-boy was kinda cute, but is he okay?