“Huh, did you just cute up my name?” Dave asked, his mind catching onto the blacksmith’s words.
“She did,” Cedez commented. “It’s official, I heard it too. It’s one small step for man, one giant leap for grumpy dragonkind!”
Remicra sent the foxgirl an annoyed glare unable to understand the moon landing reference.
“Now that you’re his sword, does he get to polish you regularly?” Cedez wiggled her eyebrows.
Remicra's eyes widened, and her scales flushed a deeper pink. "I... what? That's..." she sputtered.
"Aww, she's blushing so hard!" Cedez cooed. "Look Dave, she’s extra pink!"
"I am not blushing!" Remicra protested. "These are just... temperature regulation patterns!"
Cedez cackled like a supervillain, clearly enjoying Remicra's flustered state. Dave couldn't help but smile at their antics, even as he felt the dragoness's grip on him tighten protectively. Remicra buried her face in his neck, giving up the fight for a moment.
"Stop teasing my sword," Dave commented at Cedez. "She might get dull."
"I'm going to bite both of you," Remicra grumbled.
"Kinky," Cedez quipped.
The dragoness tried to swat Cedez away, but the sly fox flitted behind Dave giggling.
"We could set up some tables right here," Hyrei mused in the meanwhile, pacing around the tower with professional interest. "Maybe string up some Ignix lanterns between posts for additional cozy atmosphere." She went into the building itself and whistled. “This area is going to need serious cleaning up. Hey Healer boys, come in with me and help me move some of this old stuff to the back to make it a bit more presentable?”
Dumpich and Leon vanished in the lighthouse with the owlgirl.
Remicra glanced at the lighthouse wondering if she should help, but decided to stay on the rock with Dave, as his Vitalix was still retouching her old bruises.
“Is there a Kitlix for cleaning houses?” Dave asked idly.
“There’s a Kitlix for everything, darling,” Cedez purred in his ear, trying to hug both of him and Remicra. “Abstergix Kitlix scrubs dishes, polishes armor and cleans up messy floors. We can rent one for a day and it’ll have this building looking spotless. Ohh, what if we had Remy forge some custom tea sets?" She added thoughtfully. "Imagine drinking from dragon-crafted cups. We could charge premium prices for authentic dragonforged teaware!"
"I'm a weaponsmith, not a teapot maker! Also, who permitted you to grope me?” Remicra growled, trying to squirm away from Cedez's embrace while still maintaining her hold on Dave, resulting in an awkward three-way hug that made Dave feel like filling in a dragon-fox sandwich.
"Oh come now, Rems, we're all friends here!" Cedez grinned, her tail dancing playfully.
"We are not friends," Remicra huffed, her scales flickering between pink and orange. "And stop shortening my name!"
"But you let Davey call you Remy," Cedez pouted dramatically.
"That's... that's different!" The dragoness objected.
"Oh? How so?" Cedez's sharp foxy grin widened impossibly further.
"Because he's... he's..." Remicra struggled for words.
“He’s a precious human bean?” Cedez filled in. “I know! I found him first! I was the one who told him to come to your lighthouse! Why do you snub me so, when I have offered you a Dave?”
"Because you come off as a very annoying pest," Remicra growled at Cedez. "And I don't trust you. You're some kind of shadow creature pretending to be a person. You don’t make sense. People don’t just die in dungeons to reappear on rooftops.”
“Ouchies, breaking my Shadow-heart over here,” Cedez pretended to faint onto Dave. “Come on, stop hating on me. I drafted the smithy acquisition contract. I deserve praises, hugs, pets, and compliments!”
Remicra opened and closed her mouth.
"Fine. Thank you for the contract.” She gritted out.
“That was one out of ten on the appreciation scale,” Cedez shook her head. “Try again with a big smile. Is this the kind of attitude you’re offering your brilliant co-rescuer?”
“Perhaps you could stop agitating the smith with excessive physical contact and give her time to get used to you?” Terri, who had been quietly watching the trio, injected herself into the conversation.
Cedez made a face like she’s swallowed a lemon.
"And what would you know about acceptance?" Cedez's voice took on an edge. "I’ve been waiting ten years to burr my two best friends! Maybe more! You… you don’t know what it’s like! I can’t even remember if I had parents… All I had to hold onto was my dream of Dave and Remy!”
“Best… friends?” Remicra sputtered, her scales shifting to mild orange.
"Yes!" Cedez insisted. "I've been dreaming of you both for so long! Every night I forget everything except that I need to find you! It was like... my life's purpose to find you!"
“...Why?” Remicra asked.
“I… I don’t know,” Cedez admitted.
The dragoness squinted at the fox with a look of mistrust.
“What are you judging me so hard for? I’m a prisoner of Shandria, like… like you were a prisoner of this lighthouse! I don’t have answers to that question and it’s not my fault I’m messed up and broken like this! Quit glaring at me! Why not glare at our resident Maidenlyne! She’s far more sus than I am! I didn’t even see her face in my future-dream of us!”
Dave noticed that Terri bit her lip.
“Terri?” He asked.
“I… um,” the elkgirl said, her antlers drooping slightly. "I think that… it's… my fault.”
“Your fault?” Dave repeated.
“My grandmother's fault. The fault of my family line. Saint Saria's wish..."
Dave felt Cedez and Remicra tense up on either side of him.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
"What do you mean?" Cedez asked.
“Urm,” Terri wrung her hands. "A Shandrian princess could not be killed by a mundane blade. My grandmother Juli Gootali... She procured a Knell blade forged from dragonglass for Necromancer Kells. Kells struck princess Nixlix Astrix down with it and chopped her body into hundreds of pieces, shearing her soul into fragments and setting them into a necroflesh construct to use later.”
The blue eyes of the dark fox grew wide.
“The plan was to unmake and to remake the princess, to weaken her Divine Shadow's hold on Shandria. But... things didn’t go exactly as planned, since the spell wasn’t completed. After Kells was killed by the heroes brought from the capital and all of his goreflesh constructs were destroyed… I think that… the fragments attached themselves to various… newborn girls throughout the city,” Terri concluded.
“WHAT?” Cedez barked. She was upright now, a shadow blade stretched from her fingers, pointing at Terri’s neck. “You… you… are the reason why… I can’t remember my parents?!”
“Yes,” Terri swallowed, not moving. “Not me… specifically, but my family’s Cantigeist… Saint Saria advised my grandmother to manipulate Necromancer Kells to…”
“TO WHAT?!” Cedez snarled. “What have you done to me, you freaking Wish-worshiping cunts?!”
Dave extracted himself from Remicra’s embrace and pulled on Cedez’s hand, trying to prevent her from attacking Terri.
“It wasn’t her,” he said. “Terri isn’t her grandmother, nor is she Saint Saria now. Put down the Shadow blade, Cedez. Let her talk.”
“I…” Cedez trembled, her eyes filling with tears. “I don’t remember anything… It’s not my fault! I…”
“One fragment... was specially prepared, heavily modified by Necromancer Kells under the guidance of my grandmother. Using Saint Saria's crystalline ink and a dragonheart, they created a vessel that would carry not just a piece of the princess, but also a fraction of Lari's kindness and care for David. An error within the Engine of the Crown Continuity, an injection of a modified soul shard into the Shadow princess reincarnation System. That fragment was meant to find and guide David whenever he appeared in Shandria… in case the Maidenlynes were all cut down… in case Saint Saria’s journal was lost or destroyed.”
Cedez choked.
"I understand it now," Terri added. "You're both a piece of princess Nixlix and a carrier of Saint Saria's protective instinct towards David. That's why you've been dreaming of him, why you felt compelled to help him."
“No, no, no,” Cedez cried, slipping to her knees, the shadow blade detonating into fading black mist. “I’m… I love… I…”
“Shit,” Dave said. “That’s how you know the songs Lari used to sing to me. That’s why you like books from Earth she’s read.” He felt his heart twist as he watched the foxgirl wrestling with this devastating revelation. Shadows ignited, writhed around her like dark flames, reflecting her inner turmoil.
"The songs, the stories, the way my heart skips when I’m with..." Cedez's voice cracked. "Are you saying none of that belongs to me? That I'm just... just an echo of someone else's love?"
"Cedez," Dave placed a gentle hand on her shoulder. The shadow essence curled around his fingers slicing up his robe and skin. He winced, refusing to back away. "Listen to me. Whatever fragments make up who you are, whatever pieces of Lari or princess Nixlix exist within you–your feelings are your own!”
"But how can you know that?" She uttered. "How can I know that anything I feel is real? That I'm not just... playing out someone else's script?"
"Because I knew Lari," Dave said. "And while you might carry a fragment of her… understanding, you're absolutely nothing like her. You're devious where she was very straightforward. You're playful, sly and you love to tease everyone. You're you, Cedez."
“That’s just the Nixlix bits,” Cedez lamented.
“Sorry,” Terri said. “I… It all just came together to me, clicked in my head. My Cantigeist just figured out exactly what you are.”
“What am I? A failed Necromancer’s project? A reject princess?” The dark fox sniffed. “Effin’ Abyss! I really feel effed’ with now!”
“You’re Saint Saria’s attempt to fix the equation of the future,” Terri said. “To fix Shandria.”
“I… I don’t want to freakin’ fix Shandria!” Cedez hissed. “I just want to run away… except I’ve got freaking nowhere to run to! I don’t remember who my parents were! I can’t escape this damned city!”
“Wait! The farmhouse…” Dave said. “I can put everything into Intelligence, recall its shape exactly. It has this swing and a violet tree! Maybe I can sketch it out. Maybe… we can find who your real parents are, who you were?”
“Really?” The Shadow flames winked away as Cedez turned to look up at Dave.
“Yeah,” he nodded. “You deserve to know who you are.”
“Hah,” Remicra commented from behind them. “And here I thought that my life was messed up.”
Dave helped Cedez stand up as she wiped her tears with a gloved hand.
“Oh no,” she said, eyeing his bleeding hand. “I cut you with the shadows. Sorry. I lost control for a moment there.”
“Eh,” Dave shrugged. Healy jumped off Remicra onto his body, running along his right hand and sealing the sliced skin. “It’s fine. I’ve got a magic band-aid-cat.”
Cedez made an attempt at a smile. It came out crooked.
Dave smiled back at her. “Nah,” he said. “You’re too different from her. Too wild. Besides, being a soul-copy of Saint Saria doesn't explain why you’d be dreaming about Remicra. Maybe Terri is wrong about this. Maybe that fragment is in someone else.”
“Nuh-uh,” the dragoness commented briskly when everyone eyed her, her scales violet-blue. “Keep me out of this Cantigeist mire! I don’t want to hear that I’m Saint Saria’s left toe or that I’m part of some ridiculous prophecy. Piss off with that nonsense. I wasn’t even hatched anywhere near Shandria.”
Terri sighed, clearly feeling bad about what she revealed.
"Look, fox. I get that you're messed up,” Remicra said. “Trust me, I'm pretty messed up too. But you don't need some grand destiny or magical explanation to be or not to be friends with someone. If you want to be my friend, fine, you can... earn my friendship. Stop trying so hard though. Stop jumping ahead of yourself. Just be you - whoever that is. And, uhm, take it easy with the pawing.”
“Okki,” Cedez nodded.
“Sorry if I don’t go slobbering all over you or gushing out my feelings,” Remicra said. “I’ve a problem with trusting people on the account that Overseer Princess burned most of that out of me, to the point where I stopped believing that anyone would ever be my friend or help me out. There were adventurers who promised to help me when I was younger… but they betrayed my trust in the end, when I tried to run away. I’m… trying really hard to tolerate your presence. It’s not easy. You understand?”
“I… understand,” Cedez mewled.
“Also, if you really dreamed about me, why didn’t you come help me?” Remicra asked.
“I… I didn’t think that I could free you without endangering us both,” Cedez rubbed her elbow. “Not without Dave being here as our mutual best friend. Without his skill to amplify, I’m just a cafe maid with mediocre Shadowmancy and far too many enemies. Knowing how snappy you are, I… I was too scared to visit you, but… I sent you presents.”
“Presents?”
"Yeah," Cedez nodded, tail swishing tentatively. "Those fancy metal tools that were delivered to your smithy every so often as anonymous donations for ‘most excellent armor repair’? That was me. I saved tips from the cafe for months to buy those."
Dave watched Remicra's scales shift through various colors as the dragoness processed this revelation.
"The level 70 damascus steel hammer?" Remicra asked quietly. "The one that showed up after Princess broke my old one over my head?"
"Mhm," Cedez confirmed.
"And the precision tongs last winter?"
"Those too," Cedez smiled softly. "I couldn't approach you directly, couldn't get involved… but I wanted to help somehow, wanted to let you know that you weren’t… alone.”
Dave noticed Remicra's scales settling into a soft mix of blue and pink as she absorbed this information. The dragoness opened her mouth, closed it, then finally managed to speak.
"Thank you," she said simply. “I thought that it was Princess screwing with me… giving me false hope just to break me later.”
"You're welcome, Remy," Cedez replied.
"Still not best friends though," Remicra added quickly.
"Yet," Cedez grinned.
The dragoness rolled her eyes.
Dave relaxed.
Things were finally looking up. He had friends he could trust, more friends than he’d ever acquired back on Earth. Even if things were tense between the shadow fox, slave dragon and Maidenlyne elk, he could make this work, he could…
His positive train of thought was suddenly derailed by a low, menacing growl. Dave's head snapped away from Cedez and Remicra, his eyes scanning the horizon. In the distance, he could see a group of cloaked figures approaching the meadow from the city, their movements odd… inhumanly so.
"Huntsmaws!" Cedez barked, her ears flattening against her head. “Get behind the ward!”
The Remicra-forged knife was already in Dave’s hand.
The dragoness rushed into the smithy and was back in less than a few seconds, growling and holding the large damascus hammer. Hyrei and the two Healers came out after her.
The group stayed behind the invisible ward of the lighthouse, watching as the lanky figures approached. There were eleven of them.