Zag and Thea managed to sneak by the lax security of Proelefsi’s walls and into the city without issue. The evening was fast approaching, so they hurried through the winding narrow streets to whatever destination Thea was leading them to.

“This street plan is a bit of a nightmare,” Zag complained as they went.

“Most of the beings here can fly and so it was not always viewed with importance by those in charge,” Thea told him while adjusting the hood of the cloak she had put on.

“By the way,” Zag looked around and sniffed the air, “why are there so many humans here?”

“They supposedly came here when the old human empire to the north was destroyed by a dragon. You mean to say you didn’t have anything to do with that?”

“Nope, I never made it that far north,” Zag replied.

“The thought that there exists the possibility of having two beings like you in the same place is, frankly, terrifying,” Thea told him as she tried to match up the streets with her mental map of the city.

Zag just shrugged the statement off, “So how come Old Agios is ignoring the half-bloods here?”

“I have no idea, I was always so used to them being here I never thought to ask,” Thea said after a moment of thought.

“Where are we going, anyway?” Zag asked as he followed along. He was completely certain he couldn't find his way out of the city without flying.

“An orphanage that I sponsored, it was something I did on my own and kept quiet so no-one in charge now should know about it. It is where Foro’s message directed any survivors to go.”

“I just had a thought about that black mist,” Zag shifted subjects. “If dragon fire can burn it, you could burn off the residue that makes the wounds it causes resist healing and then heal it up normally after that. You might be uniquely suited to dealing with it.”

“Well I hope I don't have a chance to try that experiment anytime soon,” Thea replied dryly as she stopped in front of a dilapidated looking building.

“This it?” Zag asked.

“Yes,” Tea nodded. “It’s disguised pretty well, isn't it? The building is actually nowhere near this dilapidated.”

Thea walked up and knocked on the door. The knock followed a subtle but slightly different pattern from how someone would normally perform the action.

“Interesting,” Zag muttered to himself when he saw her knock.

The door opened a crack and someone peeked out from inside. When they saw Thea’s face the door was swung open wider, and she was taken inside before either her or Zag could react and the door was slammed shut.

Zag walked up and tested the doorknob. He found it to be unlocked, so he let himself in. When he stepped inside and closed the door he suddenly found a fist being swung at him.

Zag caught it in his hand and the owner of the fist found himself the target of Zag’s aura. He was soon kneeling down on the floor in a panic.

“Stand down you overzealous idiots!” Thea yelled.

Zag withdrew his aura and picked the soldier up off the floor. He straightened the soldier's clothes before he turned to look everyone over.

“Hello there little birds, I brought back your boss.”

“You suddenly feel the need to be condescending?” Thea criticized him.

“Well I was treated rather rudely,” Zag gave her a look of annoyance. “I should warrant at least some respect you know.”

“I’m sorry for that, especially if you were the one who brought back our young Lady,” Foro said as he walked in from the other room. The left side of his face was covered in a bandage.

“You should try what I said earlier and heal his face,” Zag indicated to Thea as he pointed at Foro.

“What?” Foro was completely puzzled. “There’s a way to heal these wounds? I’m not the only one still injured.”

“The dragon came up with a theory, I don't know if it will work or not,” Thea explained trying to take control of the conversation. “We can try it in a moment if everyone is here. More importantly what is actually going on in the palace?”

“Alright I’ll take you to the others, and we can get each other caught up,” Foro led Thea towards the other room and the man that had opened the door followed them.

Zag watched them leave and chuckled when he heard Foro ask about Thea’s hair. He turned around and looked at the handful of children who were staring at him along with a woman who he assumed was their caretaker.

“Hello there.” he greeted them.

“Who are you, mister?” one of the children asked.

**

Thea held off on answering Foro’s question about her hair as they made their way to a sitting room. After having Thea sat down and asking a young woman who was in the room to bring her some tea, Foro went to gather the rest of the survivors.

Thea thanked the young woman for the tea and after responding with a polite nod the woman left the room. Foro returned with a handful of Thea’s legionaries each sporting some level of injury. Thea had to fight back the tears of guilt to maintain some level of composure.

When most of the survivors started crying as they greeted her, glad she was alive, the dam broke, and they all wound up weeping for some time.

“So what happened with your hair,” it seemed Foro was not able to continue without this point being resolved.

“You remember the dragon mentioning ‘primordial flame’ when we fought him at the old fort?” she sighed thinking about the highlights in her hair. “That apparently allows me to ‘gift’ and ‘receive’ the attributes of the flames of other flame-touched. The highlights are a side effect of that.”

“Don't fret so much, my Lady,” one of the legionaries consoled her. “It looks quite nice.”

“With the color being what it is and who you came here with. Does that mean…?” Foro quickly put the pieces of the puzzle together.

“Yes,” Thea nodded. “I can use dragon fire. The dragon can also use phoenix fire to an extent as well.”

“That’s terrifying…” Foro muttered.

“Anyway, all that aside, what has happened and is happening in the palace?” Thea moved the conversation along.

“Lady...your parents were killed,” Foro grimaced as he told her. “That bastard Fotismos is sitting on the throne right now.”

“Did you hear anything of my mother laying her egg before all of this?”

“There were two, the announcement from the palace is that it was determined they were both females. Fotismos has claimed he will marry both of them when they are older.” Foro was so angry he almost spat at the name of the current duke.

“Both? The nobility is going along with bigamy now?” Thea asked, her own anger leaking out.

“The nobility that was loyal to your parents has been largely replaced, any that remain are staying neutral out of fear. Your parents are dead and you’ve been labeled a traitor and rebel by The Covenant, they don't exactly have someone else to support,” Foro explained as the rest of the survivors nodded.

“Well, I might not be able to get the throne back, I don’t know,” Thea proclaimed, “but I’m damned sure going to deny him my sisters.”

“Well as nice as that sounds, we're not in any condition to support you,” one of the legionaries pointed out.

“Oh right!” Foro remembered, “The dragon said something about healing?”

“I don't know if it would even work, and eventually you should be able to heal on your own since phoenix fire does have some effect, but he said the residual effect of those shadows should be able to be burned away with dragon fire and then the wounds could be healed normally with our own flames.”

Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

“It sounds feasible,” Foro said after hearing the explanation. “It also sounds extremely painful.”

“Well, I have no idea how to tell where the residue or whatever even is,” Thea shrugged. “I think I should definitely talk to the dragon about it in more detail before trying.”

“Speaking of the dragon, should we have ignored him and left him in the other room like that?” Foro asked.

“Wait, the dragon is here too?” one of the legionaries asked in surprise.

**

They found Zag in the orphanage's main room. Several of the orphans were climbing all over him, and they were just dumbfounded to find him engrossed in entertaining the children. The woman who had served Thea tea stood off to the side and watched the scene with a small smile on her face. She looked over as they filed into the room and her smile lit up brighter as she laid eyes on Foro.

“Alright youngsters, I need to talk to the people who just came in, you should go see if that nice woman has finished making those snacks she promised,” Zag told the children who reluctantly headed off. The woman saw them off before returning to her spot off to the side to listen.

He stood and brushed himself off before he turned his attention to Thea and her legionaries. Several of the legionaries gulped down their nerves and the one he had met at the door made sure to position himself in the back of the group.

“Are you done crying?” he teased them with a smirk on his face.

“I wanted you to elaborate on how I’m supposed to burn off the residual shadow from their injuries,” Thea ignored him and brought up the reason they had sought him out.

“You can tell where it is right?” Zag turned to Foro and asked.

“There does seem to be something that feels like it’s eating away at my eye, Lord Zaganursarrum,” Foro answered respectfully.

“And the rest of you?” they all replied with a nod, “Then just let them do it themselves.”

“I see,” Thea said after a moment. “We should all go outside then.”

“I want to ask something before you do,” Zag stopped them and indicated the woman standing off to the side. “What can you tell me about her, it doesn't seem she can talk.”

The woman frowned at him with a look of confusion.

“Ketai?” Foro was the one that responded. “She was abandoned here as a kid, she’s been mute her entire life. All we really know is she’s a human and based off appearance descended from that bunch that came down from the north across the mountains.”

“Human?” Zag looked back and forth between them confused. “She isn't a human though.”

“What!?” several voices exclaimed. Ketai’s expression echoed their shock.

“She’s not human, she’s a dragon-blood,” Zag explained and motioned Ketai to come closer. “Several generations removed though.”

Ketai looked over at Foro when Zag motioned to her. Foro just looked back and forth before he shrugged. She stepped over to Zag and looked at him inquisitively.

Zag’s eyes flashed into their draconic form and a low growl escaped his throat. Ketai seemed entranced in his gaze. Soon an answering growl came from her own throat.

“She’s never made a sound before,” Foro whispered.

Zag’s lips formed a smile as their growls continued to rumble back and forth. Suddenly Ketai’s eyes flashed and changed into the golden irised and slit pupiled form of a dragon’s. She glanced back and forth and seemed to almost be in a panic and the growls faded from both their throats. Then she slugged Zag in the face which in turn made her clutch her hand in pain.

“Ow!” Zag held one of his hands up to his nose. “She’s stronger than I figured.”

“What did you do!?” Foro demanded as he collected Ketai. She latched onto him aggressively and glared at Zag. Foro couldn't figure out if he should glare at Zag or stare at her in shock since she had never been that aggressive in showing affection before.

“You're in for a fun life,” Zag laughed at Foro. “I just helped her awaken her dragon blood.”

“So would she be some relative you lost track of at some point?” Thea asked with a trace of sarcasm.

“The Covenant killed all of my descendants, not counting Bron when they destroyed what you call the ‘Forgotten Kingdom’,” Zag’s tone made Thea take a step back. “She is the same lineage of dragon though which means either my sister or my mother.”

“It was a dragon that destroyed the human kingdom she’s likely descended from,” Foro supplied.

“I’ll have to ask about it one day since that wasn't me.” Zag pondered.

“Dragon,” Thea asked, “how long has it been since you’ve spoken to either of them?”

“Uh,” Zag looked stumped by the question. “I don't really have the best sense of the passage of time... I guess right after old Agios’ temple was finished?”

Zag didn't look like he was one hundred percent sure of his answer. Everyone else, aside from Ketai who was snuggling into Foro’s shoulder, looked stupefied.

“That...was eight thousand years ago,” Thea muttered.

“Anyway,” Zag changed the subject, “where are you going to heal them up at and how long are we staying here?”

“Right, let’s go out back, so we don't burn the building down,” Thea suggested.

**

They went out through the back door of the building and proceeded into a yard of sorts. It was much larger than Zag expected the dilapidated looking building to have. He suspected Thea, or someone before her had organized this place to act as a blind for activities they didn't want others to see.

The yard was surrounded by the walls of the buildings with no windows facing into it except for the ‘orphanage’. Zag smirked as he looked around at all of this.

“It looks like the snakes aren't the only ones who play games,” Zag said with a laugh. Thea gave him an annoyed glare.

“How exactly should I do this?” she asked.

“If it is the same for you as it was for me you should already be able to feel the separate flame types. It should be rather natural to ignite and move it, although control was a problem for me, initially,” Zag looked around before he pointed to the center of the yard. “Let’s go over there, so we’re as far away as we can be from stuff you don't want lit on fire.”

When they arrived Zag sat down and Thea followed suite facing him.

“I found that it all more or less works the same. It’s just with the properties being different things won't react as you’d expect. Try to make a small flame in your hand.”

Thea did what she was told. Only the small flame was the size of her head and when she tried to shrink it down it almost exploded in her face.

“Maybe I should have made you change into something that didn't belong to one of my dead mates before doing this,” Zag frowned.

“I’m not going to go change,” Thea grumbled before trying again.

“Well they don’t make clothing that way anymore,” Zag complained as she made a flame the size of her fist float above her palm. It was sputtering a bit but more or less stable.

Zag held his hand above it, “Lower the heat.”

“This is very difficult,” Thea said as he kept indicating to lower the heat again and again.

“Your friends over there will appreciate the effort when they don't turn crispy.”

They kept working at it until Zag was satisfied with her control over the size and temperature of the dragon fire. Zag was smirking at Foro and the legionaries expressions since they looked as if they saw some kind of alien being or god of some sort. He pointed at Foro and motioned him over.

“Stick your hand in the fire,” Zag told him when he was close enough to reach it.

Foro looked from Zag to Thea, who had her eyes tightly closed in concentration, before he reached towards the flame with his palm held towards it. He paused just before his hand would make contact and turned to Zag.

“I can feel the heat from it still,” he told him.

“Lower it,” Zag ordered Thea.

Foro lowered his hand into the flame as the heat was lowered to a level he could stand. He stared at it, the fascination showed through on his face, as he turned his hand back and forth stirring it around in the flame.

“Ah!” he exclaimed after a while, his expression changed to one of shock.

“Do you feel the dragon fire now?” Zag asked.

“Yeah,” Foro responded.

Suddenly the muscles in Thea’s face twitched and Zag grabbed Foro’s arm and threw him off to the side as the flame exploded and sputtered into nothing.

“It should get easier, you can try mixing the flames a bit. When you’re comfortable go help the rest of them,” Zag tells Thea as she pants from her exertion.

Zag walks over to where Foro is standing with a dumbstruck look on his face. He looked him up and down before his gaze settled on his hand.

“It didn't alter your appearance all that much, just a bit on your hand.”

Ketai moved over to them from where she had been looking on and stared at Foros palm from around his shoulder. There was a small red mark on the upper left part of his palm, it looked like a paint smudge.

“So you saw what she was doing, you basically need to do the same thing, it can still burn you after all,” Zag explained. “All you need to do is burn out that black stuff from where you can feel it and follow up immediately with your phoenix fire to heal it up.”

Foro didn't look too sure of himself after the trouble Thea had controlling it but gave a nod and sat down to try to get used to controlling the bit of dragon fire he inherited. Ketai sat down and stared at the flame like it was the most fascinating thing in the world.

“You might get your own in time, little girl,” Zag smiled at her before turning back to Foro. “You shouldn't have as much trouble as your leader, you didn't wind up with nearly as much as she did.”

The rest of the day and most of the night was spent gifting dragon fire to the survivors of Thea’s legion and Zag going back and forth with each of them making sure they didn't hurt themselves. By the time they were done he had to carry a passed out Thea to a bedroom and Zag only made it so far as to sprawl out on a couch and nobody wanted to put in the effort to move his large frame as he lay there snoring away.

**

Zag woke up late and staggered towards the smell of food in a half asleep state. He felt someone guide him towards a chair in what he was vaguely aware was some kind of dining room. He was handed some utensils which his brain some far off recollection of how to use properly. Zag started to use them to move the food from the plate that some blurry shape put in front of him to his mouth. As he ate his brain and eyes proceeded to have less and less trouble interpreting his environment, and he recognized that Thea and the legionaries were sitting at the table watching him eat.

“What?” he asked.

“I have a request for you but go ahead and finish your meal,” Thea told him.

He finished off the breakfast and leaned back in the chair.

“Well?” he looked over at Thea.

“I won't ask you to help me take the throne back from the upstart and I imagine you will eventually start to insist I go and speak with your mother,” Thea started, “I just cannot leave my mother’s eggs, my sisters, in the hands of these people. I want you to offer me what help you can, even if it is only giving me time.”

“Oh, I can understand that,” Zag shrugged. “Do you have some sort of plan?”

“I know several ways to sneak into the palace, Foro can take a team and cause a distraction to pull the troops away since they are undermanned it should open up an opportunity for me to get in and out.”

“Nope,” Zag crossed his arms and shook his head.

“What do you mean?” Foro asked him.

“I’m going to provide the distraction. You legionaries are going to go into the palace and try to locate any humans that are able to use that shadow power and kill them.”

“Why the extra step?” Thea asked.

“What we’re dealing with has to have been carefully planned and I think these humans are the ones behind it and considering what they did to you and your legion I don't want them tailing us if we cut and run and I don't want to have to fight them when we come back.”

“Oh?” Thea gave him a look that was full of questions. “Well whatever, how are we supposed to coordinate?”

“Trust me, you’ll know when they’re distracted.”

“What are you going to do?” Foro looked concerned. Zag just smirked.