Normally, Beryn was excited to see Carnelian. However, today was not a day that she felt good about as the dragon landed. On a normal day, she would have been glad to show the progress of the town building up and how much better everyone was doing. She would have been glad to show off her grafted fruit trees… but today, she had only embarrassing news.

So as the dragon landed, Beryn felt a little ill as she approached. Carnelian read her disposition immediately. “What has happened?”

Beryn took in a deep breath and slowly let it out. “The spy got away.”

Carnelian growled, and Beryn closed her eyes, half-ready to die for her wrongs. However, nothing happened for several seconds. She opened her eyes, heart fluttering as the dragon’s nose was near, approaching slowly. She braced, hot breath of the dragon flowing over her as it stopped mere inches from her. “How?”

“I was able to confirm that the woman was a shapeshifter, but… I think it may have been another one, who somehow got over our wall and took her away over it.” She pointed to the raised mound of dirt on one side of the wall, “And one or both of them is a terra mage.”

Carnelian seemed to contemplate the situation. “Did you see the brand either of them was wearing?”

She described the round, bright blue brand that was on silver-haired girl’s hand and the mountains within it that showed off several symbols.

The dragon drew in the dirt with her claw, “Like this?”

The brand that the dragon replicated looked very much like what Beryn remembered, so she nodded cautiously, “Yes, very similar at least.”

“Hmm,” the dragon said. Beryn tensed and waited as she watched the dragon think. “I have a contact within the woods; I will ask if there are changers being harbored. As it stands now… we shall have to go on the offensive.”

Lady Beryn was too afraid to ask, but it seemed to her that Carnelian was intimately familiar with the dragon that had sent a spy. Her insides twisted with more shame. “What would you like us to do?”

“I think we shall be starting a fire,” said the dragon with a small, cold smile.

Beryn nodded. “I promise I will not fail you again.”

“Let us hope so, little one,” Carnelian said without too much empathy.

***

Rosalea was sleeping, and she felt herself locking up. Someone has grabbed onto me with magic, she realized, but she could not fight it because she was already frozen by it. Her heart began to accelerate, but then soft white healing magic began to wash over her, pressing through her arm, trying to recover it from the extensive damage.

She did not know how she was sensing the magic being used on her; she was sure she had never noticed it until after it was over before. The mage on the other end of the magic felt… earnest. He was working carefully, trying to approach the injury in layers, and he seemed to be harboring guilt. His focus was on her wrist, and Rosalea became aware of what she had not seen thanks to the bandages when she was awake - how badly injured she actually had been.

If you had not been here, I would have lost my hand, Rosalea thought about the mage.

To Rosalea’s great surprise, there was an answer: If I had been more careful, you would not have fallen in the river in the first place. The tone was trying to be deliberate, but the uncertainty beneath it suggested he was also surprised.

Rosalea did not think anything else at him, but she felt unnerved by this type of communing in general.

He was gentle with his magic, relief followed his work. When he was tired, he apologized, This is all I can take in one sitting.

When he left her, Rosalea felt her body become free again, and she opened her eyes. She studied the man looking down at her, and she felt an ache of familiarity. She stared up into his eyes for the span of time between one heartbeat and the next. She remembered him watching her weave baskets, sitting calmly across from her as she cooked… “Taigan?”

He smiled. His face, like many Uryans, was free of wrinkles from jealously guarding every emotion so closely, so when he seemed so outwardly delighted to be recognized by her, she felt pleased herself about it. “Hello, Rosalea.”

She felt herself grinning at him. What was he doing here? He looked so different now! He was a good bit taller, his shoulders were broad, and he was so visibly strong! She supposed it had been… at least nine years? His eyes were the same though; calm, stable, deliberately trying to see through everything.

Nauru pressed his nose against her neck, and she reached up to touch him.

Taigan took a deep breath, and he slowly let it out. “Rosalea? Did you never get a liana? I do not see one here.”

Rosalea felt all the joy instantly leave her. She flexed her fingers on her right hand and found with Taigan’s hard work, that they could move, but her elbow was still either broken or dislocated - and at this point, terrifically swollen. She struggled to sit with her left arm, wanting to get up and be close to his level.

However, as her mood shifted and she moved away from Taigan, Nauru surprised her by filling the space with his own body and snarling. He was about twice the size he had been when he arrived, but it made him no bigger than a small to medium sized dog. But his whole back arched and all his hackles stood on end.

“Be nice,” Rosalea said with surprise, putting her hand against his back.

“NO!”

Rosalea blinked. “Nauru?”

“NO!” he said again, backing himself up until he was standing over her crossed legs, his rear touching her belly. “I see on his face,” the pup spoke further, trying to explain.

His noise drew in Amalia who was also prepared to be reactive based on her hackles.

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Nauru got even more on his little toes. “He knows! He does not like it!”

Taigan’s expression was a bit startled. Rosalea had not seen him emote anything but concern, but something about the way he looked at set… had set an unwise Mystic off into a verbal tirade.

Amalia also became more concerned about that, “Nauru, when… did you know you could talk?”

But Nauru’s focus was still on Taigan, and he was not backing down.

Taigan put his hands up, trying to diffuse the situation.

Rosalea thought about what Nauru had said that Taigan knew, and so she took a deep breath in, “My liana, Fen, died,” she said slowly, the words still painful to own, but she did not feel an impulse to cry about it.

“Then why are you alive?” Taigan asked flatly.

And that set off Nauru completely, he dove at the man’s shins and tried to put teeth into them, but Rosalea managed to catch him by his back paw and pull him back, his teeth clicking shut just inches away from flesh.

“Uh, here, let me get the bad man out of here,” Amalia said and grabbed Taigan by the back of the shirt the way she sometimes grabbed Rosalea.

There was a squawk that Rosalea could not help but find a little amusing since it came out of such a strong-looking man, and Taigan’s feet left the floor as Amalia lifted him up and pulled him back out of the shelter and out of sight.

She scooped Nauru to her with one arm. “It is all right,” she soothed him as she squeezed him with her left arm. “I promise, I am all right.” Two days ago, I think I would have been crushed by that question, but… She had not lost the clarity that had come to her while she was trapped in the cell, thinking about how Fen had loved her, and thinking about how her own choices had contributed to where she found herself now. There were plenty of things in the world she could not control, but herself was one of the things she could. Somehow, that belief held firm, and the harsh question did not shake her resolve to go forward and do meaningful things with the life she had been given.

Nauru looked uncertainly into her face, and she smiled, closing her eyes, and pressed her forehead to his until he pressed back to her. “See, I am all right. You do not need to defend me.”

Soft little grumbles answered her, and then a whine.

“You are such a good boy, Nauru,” she reassured, putting her arm against his shoulders and squeezing him a little closer to her. I love you at least as much as you love me, she thought to the puppy, but she did not quite know how to say those words. “It is a fair question. Uryans do not usually outlive their liana… at least not without becoming dangerous and mad,” she said, thinking of Ulric getting himself stabbed.

Nauru huffed his contempt toward Taigan even so, and Rosalea smiled. “It is all right; he did not hurt my feelings.” She knew that Taigan could hear them both, likely, she could see Amalia’s paws just outside her door.

Nauru pressed closer, sitting in her lap carefully. Rosalea’s muscles still objected, but she leaned against him to emphasize he was good.

Amalia stuck her head back in, “All right! My question now, how long have you known you could talk?”

“Since yesterday,” Nauru said, hiding against Rosalea.

“How long have you been able to understand us?”

There was a longer pause. Then, “I started to understand most things better when I got here.”

Amalia gave Rosalea a speculative look. “So uh, stray horse and Uryan is a lot, you know. I don’t think I can handle you opening up a… rehabilitation clinic in our den for more things needing correcting by your existence, Rosalea.”

Rosalea frowned, “What makes you think I did it?”

Amalia shrugged. “A little bit of logic and a hunch. But… there are more reports of mystics like Nauru.”

Rosalea did not quite know what to do about it. She did not know how she could have possibly impacted Nauru except by taking better care of him than his family had.

Amalia studied her face. “Would you like to come out into the sunlight for a bit? I was thinking I should send in your new friend to get cooking for you both since he’s pretty much in one piece.”

Rosalea contemplated that and then nodded. She accepted Amalia trying to carefully lift her by the back of the shirt, and then she walked with gimping steps, with only socks on, out onto the black stone.

Today the spring was warm, the sun was bright. The stone was warm and dry beneath her feet. Nauru stayed close to her, watching Taigan with open hostility.

Taigan bowed, “I am sorry. Taj has helped me to understand the error in my thinking. I would be happy to cook for us.”

Rosalea made herself smile so she could show her appreciation for this change, and he became more flustered, bowed again, and disappeared into her shelter.

You had a hawk liana, she thought, looking up. On a low branch, she saw him. She could see the angry green mark on his legs similar to how they were on Raisa currently, but darker. When she looked up at him, Taj hopped down and landed a little roughly. Rosalea crouched, since she did not dare kneel because she was not sure if she could get up again, and pet the side of his face and neck with her hand. He leaned into it, hissing a little, but as she stroked him, she could feel empathy pain for how he felt to her. He tried to put his claw up on her wrist, so she offered it to him. Her skin was bare, but he had practice, and he slowly walked up her arm to come to rest on her shoulder, leaning himself against the side of her face. She got pricked a little through her shirt.

“I am telling you, we cannot open a misfit orphanage,” Amalia said with some amusement.

“We could move a little deeper into the trees, and then everyone could fit!” Rosalea sassed back, turning to face the wolf and smiling.

Amalia looked into her face, “I see. I was thinking about lecturing you about reckless and wasteful things again, just to be sure my darling headstrong little pet human got the right idea about things, but… I rather like the more patient look in your eyes. I should have locked you up properly and dropped you in a river sooner?”

Rosalea took a deep breath and then could not think of anything to say. She definitely felt flustered by the comment, but she was not sure she did not deserve it. Nauru growled at Amalia defensively, and she just could not help but smile at the pint-sized defender.

Rosalea found a stone to sit on near Amalia, Nauru at her feet, and the hawk whose name she could not remember on her shoulder and soaked in the sunlight like it could help the pain to fade a little.

Taigan emerged a little while later with two bowls and his own food in a cup. He set a bowl down for Nauru, who showed off how white his little teeth were for a minute before eating hungrily.

He held the bowl out to Rosalea, who took it awkwardly in her left hand, and then he stared at it for a minute, “Uh, it is soup, but I could hold the bowl? Can you hold your spoon in your left hand?”

“Maybe like a child,” Rosalea said.

He took the bowl back and offered her the cup instead. Rosalea was able to slowly sip the soup this way. He sat down on the ground, putting himself lower than her on purpose. “I am sorry… I never heard of your situation before. Most people…”

Rosalea saw the haunted look in his eyes, and she realized he must have seen, probably on multiple occasions, what the wolves had seen once. “I understand. I… am not sure why I am here, or why the Gods are still looking after me. I… want to do better at making the most of it. I … think you should not be guilty for rescuing me, even if I fell into the river.”

He colored a little, and he nodded. “Can you use magic? I have never had anyone talk to me during healing.”

“I have never done that before, but… no, I have not used any magic since I lost my Fen.” She took a sip of soup to cover up her emotions.

“I always believed the prophecy would be fulfilled by a Uryan with a liana, but it occurs to me that it is not that specific.”

Rosalea nodded. “I am stuck here, whatever the case may be, for now. We find ourselves at war with a dragon and his minions.”

Taigan looked up at her, “I am hoping to get Taj healed.”

Taj huffed near her ear.

Amalia interjected herself then, “I am sorry to disappoint you, but the Moryshin will not see any of us, and if you go without us, you will get killed.”

Taigan bowed his head. “What if the conflict could be resolved?”

Amalia was slow to answer, “Perhaps then. Are you suggesting you want to also help?”

“Rosalea is the One. I believe the Gods brought me here to help. Each day, my magic will recover, and I can at least help others who are not myself.”

Rosalea marveled a little that Taigan was how he was. She had taken months to decide that, and he came to it immediately. I wonder how different I would have been if I had not been raised by Ieshans?

Taigan breathed out. “So, tell me more about this dragon we must fight.”