Kaz came to slowly, his mind fuzzy, his body too exhausted to even open his eyes, and his mouth dry. What had happened? He couldn't remember, but he didn't think he was dead, so it couldn't be too bad.

Taking in a deep, sharp breath, Kaz finally managed to crack his eyes open, groaning as his vision was immediately flooded with intense light. Kaz let out an annoyed sigh as he squeezed his eyes shut again, pain stabbing through his head.

He just wanted to go back to sleep, but someone was calling his name. He flinched as a hand grabbed onto his shoulder.

"Kaz!"

Oh, it was Rhenor. Kaz suddenly felt a surge of energy shoot through him, just enough to force his eyes open again. This time, the light was dimmer, more tolerable, with Rhen standing in the line of it. The man's eyebrows were drawn together in concern, but there was a relieved smile on his face. Kaz couldn't help but smile weakly back.

"Oh, thank the gods," Rhenor muttered, brushing Kaz's hair off his forehead. Kaz blinked, only now somehow realizing that he was lying on his side. And that the reason for that was that once more wings were sticking out of his back.

His eyes went wide as everything came flooding back to him, and he groaned again, this time in annoyance. He should have been more careful. If he'd used less magic, he wouldn't have fainted like that, and sure, he'd been worried about his friends, but that didn't mean he'd had to be stupid. He could have made things much worse for them by falling unconscious, after all. There had been a hundred or so skeletons still within the city from what he could have seen from above, even if he'd managed to lure away the remaining thousands.

That had been somewhat terrifying, yet intriguing. Kaz was just glad the druid's plan had worked, even if he'd abandoned them immediately.

But now he was too weak to even put his wings away. It was infuriating. At least they weren't too visible under the blanket someone had put over him. That was something. He didn't like Rhenor seeing him like this.

"How long....?" he croaked, a cough interrupting his words. Rhenor seemed to understand, though, his smile ebbing.

"It's morning."

The shock caused by that revelation somehow managed to get Kaz to sit up, the blanket staying on him, tangled around his wings. He'd been unconscious for the rest of the day and night? He didn't think that had ever happened to him with magic.

"Elaya was very worried about you," Rhenor said, his smile returning, though it looked somewhat pained now. "As was I."

Kaz grimaced, ducking his gaze. This was terrible. He hated worrying people, but even beyond that, this incident didn't exactly prove Elaya wrong about her assumption that she couldn't go learn magic and leave Kaz alone with Rhenor.

"Sorry."

"Kaz." The dragon expected Rhenor to continue, but instead, the man sighed, picking up something from the bedside table before sitting next to Kaz. Kaz blinked as he was offered a mug filled with water. He took it and downed it without hesitation, the cool water soothing his parched throat.

He immediately felt much better, physically speaking. But that only led to another awful realization.

"Oh no, the mayor!" he exclaimed, his eyes bulging out in horror and his insides knotting up in fear. "She saw me fly to you a-and—"

"Kaz," Rhenor said firmly, grabbing his shoulder again and lightly pushing him, enough to make the dragon face him. "It's okay. She saw you, yes, but she's agreed to keep it a secret. For now, anyway."

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If anything, Kaz was now even more shocked, and now also confused. "Why would she do that?"

"You saved her life, too." Kaz shrugged. That didn't seem like a compelling enough argument to not immediately take action against a dragon, especially one that had lied about being a dragon since arriving here.

He looked around, noting that the room they were in was similar to the one they'd stayed in at the tavern, but it was definitely different. Still, it looked very far from being a prison cell, at least.

"And you've managed to get most of the undead away from the city," Rhenor continued. Kaz wanted to argue that they'd all had a part in that, but Rhen spoke first. "She decided to give you the benefit of the doubt. After some convincing."

That all still sounded incredibly strange and doubtful to Kaz, but before he could ask about anything, the door on the other side of the room opened, revealing an irritated-looking Elaya.

Her expression brightened as soon as she saw him, though, running to him and pulling him into a tight hug. It made his wings ache a bit, but he didn't care in the least right now. Even though he'd known Elaya was okay from what he'd found out from Rhen so far, it was still a relief to see proof of it.

"I'm so glad you're awake, Kaz," she said as she pulled away, grinning at him, her eyes full of relief. "I was getting so worried. I've never seen you conjure so much fire before."

Kaz wasn't sure if he had reason to feel embarrassed, but he did. He'd been unconscious for far too long. If he'd fully transformed, he would have been able to conjure much more than that. But that would have just caused further problems, and he'd not even thought of that, in the first place. When he'd seen his friends in danger, he'd just had to get there as fast as possible, and nothing else had mattered.

"What's wrong?" Rhenor asked Elaya in a rather bored tone as if he'd asked the same question a dozen times already. Elaya huffed, plopping herself next to Kaz on the other side.

"The dragons' warship hasn't moved, and according to the mystics, it will take at least a few days for the crystals to regain their power enough to bring up the shield."

Kaz swallowed. That didn't sound very good, but then again, there was only one ship. He'd not seen it, but surely there couldn't be too many soldiers on it. Though, he couldn't help but feel a little ashamed of the fact that instead of focusing on this, he was wondering who these mystics were. He had seen some people using magic to defend Embertide when he'd flown over the city, so he assumed it was them.

"So, they might still attack, despite their original plan not working," Rhenor said, shaking his head. "We should leave."

"What?" Kaz asked immediately, now even more confused.

"I don't think Adria wants to let us leave," Elaya said, speaking at the same time as Kaz had. "Especially not Kaz. I think she assumes he knows something that might help defend the city from a dragon."

"Did she say that?" Rhenor asked while Kaz looked from one of his friends to the other, not understanding how they could be considering this.

"Not explicitly."

"Why would we leave?" Kaz asked again, trying to sound firmer than before. "We should help." Neither of his friends looked very enthusiastic about the idea. "Right?"

"This is not our fight if we don't want it to be," Elaya said, shrugging. She didn't look very enthusiastic about it, but Kaz supposed she was technically right. Maybe it wasn't their fight, they had no obligation to stay and help, but it was their fight in a way, wasn't it? These were humans, fighting against dragons. Was that not exactly what Elaya and Rhenor wanted to do? And it was personal for Kaz, too. He felt obligated to help, not because he wanted to fight other dragons, but because he knew what they were trying to do was wrong.

"If we can help, we should help. These people need it. And if I can help try to predict what the dragon might do, then I want to try my best."

He first looked at Elaya and then at Rhenor, holding their gazes. For a moment, no one said anything, the silence stretching between them. Kaz almost found himself choking on it, his confidence quickly ebbing. Finally, though, Rhenor begrudgingly nodded.

"Okay, we'll see what we can do, I suppose," he said, sighing again.

Despite his insides fluttering with anxiety over soon being possibly attacked by a dragon, Kaz smiled at him.

"Fine. But don't go using magic like that again," Elaya said, pointing her finger at him. Any hardness that sentence might have had was softened by amusement sparkling in her eyes.

Kaz suddenly felt a need to bring up her own magic and the druid's offer, but he said nothing. Now was not the time. He was still tired, and he wasn't sure he was prepared for a conversation like that.

But he was determined to bring it up soon, no matter the situation. And as for the dragon likely planning to attack Embertide—Kaz was ready. Perhaps not physically yet, but he was determined. He couldn't let one of his peers attack a human city without at least trying to stop them. The idea terrified him, but Kaz was tired of running away. It was time to take a stand, and he wouldn't back away.