Someone had torn out several pages from the front of the book. The ragged edges protruded like the stumps of old, worn teeth. The damage looked old, so he suspected Oda had done it herself, and for a moment, Kaz just touched them, wondering what had been going through her mind. The Magmablades treasured the books left by their chiefs, and he suspected that damaging one - even if it was your own - would have been frowned upon. And to tear out these first, early pages…wasn’t that like destroying the record of your own childhood?

But no, Kaz knew exactly what those pages had contained. According to Lianhua, every chief’s book started the same way. They copied Tegra Magmablade’s story, rune by rune, and only when they’d completed that were they allowed to begin writing their own tale. Oda had destroyed the words that were the very foundation of the Magmablades beliefs, the thing that drove them to murder and treachery.

The top of the first whole page was loose, and Kaz looked at it, seeing that it, too, was half-torn from the cover. The page itself was rumpled, as if it had been clutched in someone’s fist, then smoothed out again. The runes were simple and clear, and while Kaz didn’t recognize all of them, he was able to figure out that Oda had been very young when she wrote them.

Lianhua had said that some of the Magmablade chiefs wrote only what they needed to: names of tribe members, births, deaths, and any warnings for following generations. Others wrote as if speaking to a trusted friend, and to Kaz’s surprise, Oda’s book started out that way. She wrote about what she ate, where she went, and how much her mother’s rules annoyed her. She also mentioned other kobolds, and one name in particular was repeated over and over, usually in the happiest passages.

Not that that happiness lasted long. As the runes became sharper, more confident, Oda talked about her mother more and her friend less. She boasted of being powerful, of leading, and rarely mentioned anyone other than herself.

Then something shifted. It was hard to understand exactly what was going on, but Kaz thought Oda had gotten into an argument with someone. A sister? An aunt? Then the name of her friend was written in harsh, angry lines, dragged deep in the pressed sheet of yumi-reed paper. There was a rune that looked like ‘tree’, and then the one for ‘knife’, which had to be the Woodblades, and her friend was gone.

Rega. That was when Rega left to learn from the Woodblade healer. The friend - the only one Oda had, so far as Kaz could tell - was Kaz’s mother. He flipped through pages, looking for the rune for Rega’s name, only to pause when he saw ‘Woodblade’ instead.

There was a mark that could be used to indicate whether a rune was male or female, and ‘Woodblade’ suddenly gained that mark, becoming male, rather than neutral. Oda hadn’t even known Ghazt’s name, then, not at first.

Kaz focused on a particular passage that was written with a slightly softer hand, looking more like that in the earlier part of the book. A new name-rune appeared, and Kaz had no doubt who it was. Ghazt.

Oda had gone to carry Rega’s request to take Ghazt as her mate. She intended to make certain her sister and this Woodblade were never…together? Was that the rune for mate? But then she saw Ghazt, and suddenly his rune was everywhere. She was happy, at least for a little while, when she thought that she could convince Ghazt to be her mate, rather than Rega’s.

And then the runes grew even sharper and more furious. There was a dark red smear down one side of the page that Kaz sniffed, taking in the scent of blood that was probably older than he was. Ghazt had refused Oda absolutely, and she was barely coherent, the strokes of her runes tearing the paper, or smudged into one another in an unintelligible mess.

Kaz leaned forward, squinting. Not that he couldn’t see, but why did that rune seem so…oh. It was death. At first, Kaz thought Oda was saying that she was going to kill Ghazt, but there was a new name-rune, one with a female marking. It was similar to Rega’s, but the age quadrant indicated it was older, and…

Vega. Oda had found out that Vega planned to kill Ghazt. If Oda knew why, she didn’t write the reason down, but she had gone to the location of the gas explosion that killed Ghazt’s friends and very nearly took his life. She had dragged him away, at first planning to get help, but then realizing that if she cared for him herself, he might see her in a new light. The blood on the page belonged to Ghazt.

Kaz flipped through several pages. There were far too many runes he didn’t know, couldn’t even guess at, but finally Rega’s rune appeared again. Ghazt was injured far more badly than Oda had realized. Something on the inside of his body was damaged, and if Oda asked for help now, everyone would believe she was responsible for everything, not just hiding Ghazt for a few days.

So Oda asked Rega for help. She had set aside her own pride and gone to her sister. She and Rega had cared for Ghazt together. It wasn’t that Rega followed Oda and stole him from her evil sister,. Instead, they had set their differences aside and cared for him, taking turns watching over him so no one would guess, until he was recovered enough that he could go home and explain to his family and his tribe what had really happened.

Except that something changed. The ‘mate’ rune was there along with Rega’s name, but it was slightly different, the timing quadrant indicating urgency. If Kaz had to guess, that was when Katri was conceived, and Oda was angry all over again when she found out.

Her runes went deep and sharp, difficult to read until Vega’s name came up. That rune was repeated over and over, and Kaz suddenly realized that Oda wasn’t angry, or at least not just angry - she was afraid. She was afraid of Vega, and what might happen if Vega discovered that not only was Ghazt alive, but Rega was going to have his pup.

Kaz pushed the book away, blinking in confusion. Who was this Oda? Yes, she was selfish and arrogant, both of which were very familiar, but it was obvious that she cared about Rega, at least in her own way. She hadn’t been behind the plot to kill Ghazt, and while she had tried to convince him to take her as his mate, refusing to accept that his ‘no’ was final, she had only made a nuisance of herself. How in the world had this Oda become the one he’d known? How was it possible that she’d changed so much? Unless-

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

In the periphery of his vision, Li shifted to the oddly faded colors that meant she was now hidden by her camouflage. He spun just in time to see the door to the hut open, and a female kobold walk in. He barely even recognized his sister, whose body had slimmed down and developed real muscle, while her shoulders had firmed into a straight line. Her ears were the only thing soft about her, drooping slightly with weariness, at least until her silver eyes landed on Kaz. Her mouth dropped open, and she gasped. And there it was. Her honest reaction to his presence, without any posturing or opportunity to prepare herself. Relief. His sister was, if not glad to see him, at least pleased that he was alive.

Then her ears flattened, her tail stiffened, and Katri growled, “How did you get here without my guards seeing you?”

Kaz didn’t answer. He was too busy studying her core. It was a bright one, mainly filled with red ki, but with a strong thread of blue as well. Still, it wasn’t as powerful as one of the great chiefs. “You didn’t eat her core,” he murmured, filled with a powerful relief of his own. If Katri had eaten Oda’s core, she would be much more powerful than this. She’d never been weak, he was sure of that, and her core looked about right for what he believed she’d been born with.

Katri’s jaw fell open again. “What? Eat whose core?”

“Oda’s,” Kaz said, laying his hand on the book that was now slightly behind him.

His sister’s lip lifted, and a low growl rumbled in her chest. She had always been pretty, but though she was powerful, she left it up to Kaz to physically intimidate anyone who needed to be put in their place. It seemed that without him or another strong male at her side, she’d had to develop her own body. Now, she actually looked intimidating, and Kaz was proud.

“Why would I?” she demanded, taking a step forward. She stabbed a claw toward the book. “Give that to me. You can’t even read it.”

Kaz picked the book up, but rather than handing it to her, he touched a finger to the page. “Vega…desires - no, wants to - end Rega and…the Woodblade,” he read carefully. Interestingly, it didn’t say Woodblade with the male marker, but the neutral form, and he started to focus on the page, wondering what Oda had been writing about. Katri’s hand splayed across the runes, covering them, and her fingers trembled slightly over his.

“Don’t,” she whispered. “There’s nothing good in that book.”

Kaz lowered it from beneath her hand, closing the cover, though he kept a finger on the page. “What does it say, Katri? Is this,” he waved the book, “the reason you hate me so much?”

“I don’t hate you,” she snapped, trying to grab the book. Kaz was quite a bit taller than her, however, so he simply held the book up to the roof of the large hut. In response, Katri threw a tiny ki-bolt in his general direction, and though there wasn’t enough to do much more than give a normal kobold a minor burn, Kaz raised a shield and allowed the bolt to splash harmlessly against it.

Katri’s silver eyes, so like their father’s, widened again. Kaz half expected her to ask if he was really Kaz, or perhaps simply attack him with a stronger bolt, but she did neither. Instead, she began to laugh. It went on for so long that Kaz started to become concerned, but at last his sister managed to control herself.

“You do have power,” she said between panting breaths. “Mother said you did, but I didn’t believe her. So it wasn’t all for nothing after all. Oh, thank the ancestors.” Katri lifted her muzzle, looking like she might begin to howl, and her fur lifted even as her ears folded in what looked like sorrow.

“Mother?” Kaz asked, now completely lost. “Oda?”

Katri’s focus snapped back to him. “Rega,” she growled, baring her teeth. “They’re both dead now. You don’t have to keep pretending. You did enough of that all these years.” This last was said with so much bitterness that Kaz froze, staring.

“You knew all along,” he said. “You remembered that Rega and Ghazt were our parents.”

It was Katri’s turn to stare. “Of course I knew! We weren’t newborn pups when we fled the Deep. But Mother said we had to pretend that Oda was our mother, and Ghazt was her powerless mate. All to protect you. It was always, always about you, and you never even seemed to notice.”

Kaz felt like his heart would break beneath the pain in those words. And of course he hadn’t noticed, because he’d forgotten. He’d lost all of his memories from before his first death, and to him, the elaborate series of lies they’d all played out had been pure truth. He was always supposed to know truth from lies, but he hadn’t, and they’d never realized, because they were all too busy acting out their roles.

“Why?” he whispered, the word torn from his throat. “I don’t understand.”

“You never do!” Katri howled, and her core spun, burning hot, though she didn’t draw up another ki-bolt. “Poor little Kaz. Poor puppy, with no one to love him. Except they all did. Mother tore herself apart to protect you. Father died to protect you! Even I… Even I…”

Someone rapped at the door loudly, and Katri stepped back, leaning against it as it started to open. “Katri!” a voice called, sounding worried and protective. No ki shone through the door, so this must be a male, and he was calling Katri with such familiarity. Was Kaz wrong, and his sister had taken a mate after all?

Katri’s shoulders slumped, but she didn’t move. “I’m fine, Latz. I caught my toe on a rock. It hurt.”

Latz chuffed softly and stopped pushing on the door. “All right. I’ll smooth out the floor so it can’t attack you, if you like.”

Katri’s face turned away, and her ears perked forward as she looked through the door in the direction of the male. Her whole posture softened, and Kaz could see that she genuinely cared about the warrior on the other side of the door. “I’ll take care of it myself,” she said tartly. “No floor will defeat me.”

Latz laughed again. “It wouldn’t dare try, with me beside you. Bright howls, my chief.”

“Bright howls, Latz,” Katri said softly, then waited until they heard paws moving away before turning back to Kaz. Instantly, her shoulders tightened again, but Kaz had had time to gather himself. Rather than restart the conversation, he sat down, laying the book aside and holding out his arms. Katri stared at him like he was mad, but Li dropped her concealment, shimmering into sight as she curled up in his lap, her tail draping perfectly across Kaz’s paws as he stroked the curve of her neck.

Sighing softly, Kaz tried again. “I think we have a lot to talk about, Katri, and I’d very much like it if we could do it without killing each other.”

Eyes locked on the small dragon now resting her head on Kaz’s knee, Katri nodded jerkily. “Yes,” she said. “That seems like a good idea.”