Viv was out of the room before the soldier could utter another word. She sprinted out the door and out into the complex in front of the mines. It wasn’t too hard to find Arthur because kids hung on every corner, running around in panic. They all pointed towards the baths.

Viv ran. She spotted the dragonette’s prone form and slid by her side. Her body radiated heat.

“Eeeeee.”

Fever, a big one. Viv took the heavy creature in her arms and hissed in pain, changing her posture. The scales scalded her. Had to bring that down a bit, as Arthur was decidedly uncomfortable. She ran into the baths and dove into a nearby pool still wearing her dress. Arthur shivered. Her clawed hands pierced Viv’s skin a bit and the caster grit her teeth, but her charge sighed in relief.

Viv’s mind was a mess.

She should have paid more attention to the dragon instead of spending so much time training and doing politics. She should have checked her health. She should have interacted more with the small one, instead of doing the bare minimum for months, because she thought she was too busy. She was a shit surrogate mother. Now Arthur was burning and she didn’t know why.

As despair gripped her heart and the fever kept going, Viv inspected the dragonling in her arms. At first, she felt very little because of her turmoil, but soon her perception became more acute and the strands appeared clearly to her mind. Arthur had colors about her. More specifically, she had all of them. Ropes like a kaleidoscope shimmered across her skin while her horns appeared to pull mana from around. Viv could see thick black tendrils emerging from her own body. It did not hurt at all, nor did it feel intrusive. Her mana was full and this just looked like overflow being captured before it could dissipate.

Viv had never noticed, never paid attention.

“Squeee.”

“I’m sorry. I’m here now.”

The dragonette held Viv hard, clearly dismayed. Viv felt the incredible power in her limbs. She had witnessed Arthur tear revenants and men to ribbons in mere moments, yet even now in her hour of pain, the little one only used enough strength to keep herself latched. Viv cupped some water and rubbed a snout she could not see, above her shoulder. Arthur’s breath came raspy and hurried.

“What’s wrong with you, won’t you tell?”

And she did.

Viv watched, mesmerized, as Arthur used blue mana to manipulate liquids, more specifically the water they were in. Characters coalesced with slow purpose. They were blurry, but readable.

S.

Hard C.

W.

E.

“Squee,” Viv summarized.

“Squee!”

She didn’t know what she expected.

“I don’t know why you have a fever. I don’t know if you’re sick or poisoned or about to blow up. Do you need me to get you anything?”

Arthur grabbed her a bit tighter.

“Alright, I’m not going anywhere. We can just stay here and wait it out. You can relax.”

And she did try but it proved difficult. Arthur was on and off, sometimes moving and sometimes sleeping fitfully. Viv had to lay back against the bath’s stone walls to let her arms rest a bit. At some point, Marruk brought her a bowl of something she gulped down without tasting it. Kids would occasionally whisper from beyond the walls in frantic voices. There were no changes. Late afternoon turned to evening, and evening, to night, and Arthur was still burning. Viv had to change bath because the previous one was quickly turning nice and steamy.

The hours went on.

Viv tired and let her mind wander. She yawned. Someone knocked on the door.

“Yes?”

“May I come in?” Farren asked.

“Eeeeeeee!”

“Hm let’s talk through the door, Arthur is feeling territorial.”

“Fine. I would like to point out that the moment we have been waiting for and working towards is finally upon us. We need to make ready to depart. As much as I appreciate you taking care of your pet, you are carrying the hopes of over a thousand people. Don’t you think that you should set your priorities straight?”

“Calm down, Farren, Kazar isn’t going anywhere. A few hours won’t make a difference.”

“What if it’s not just a few hours? You rushed out of the council like a charger. We just stopped existing. What if it’s a day? What if it is five?”

“What if? What if? With what ifs I could bend Lancer over and make him sing an anthem. What’s your point?” she asked, annoyed.

Farren sighed and it was clear that he, too, was angry.

“You are placing your pet over all the people who followed us into the deadlands. That’s my point. What is wrong with you? Don’t you see how much you are risking? Is it even dying?”

“She, and I don’t know, and she’s not a pet.”

“You don’t even know. You could let ‘her’ stay under supervision and take care of what really matters.”

“She’s sick and worried and I will take care of her until she gets better. People are not dying right now, Farren. We can afford to let Lancer’s main force get a bit father just in case he gets any idea and decides to head back.”

“This isn’t about the timing, it’s about your decision-making.”

Both were raising their voices then. The kids around the bath house were making themselves scarce.

“How about that then, since you care about what matters? Kids love Arthur, she’s the mascot. If we left her to scream alone and dejected on the eve of departure, what will it do for morale? Have you considered it?”

“You’re exaggerating.”

“I am not. Her scales are so hot I would burn myself without the water.”

“Fine, I see that you have made up your mind. Have it your way, fearless leader. I just thought that your words meant something. I thought that you were rational and reliable. Neriad’s cock. Pah!”

Viv’s eyes went wide as saucers at the unexpected rant. Farren was usually so composed. What crawled up his ass, she wondered? Besides, he was full of it. She was not letting the invasion down, just taking a short delay because Arthur was a few degrees short of the gold melting point and that would affect her pouch, which she was still wearing.

The dragonette squeaked weakly and Viv poured some more water on her snout. Farren could deal, and the invasion was still on schedule but it did raise an important point. In a way, Viv had had it easy. Not the whole almost dying and snipers things obviously. In the social way. None of her allies, or friends, had been at each other’s throats despite their numerous differences. She had only made minor efforts to gain the trust of those who counted the most in her eyes. Arthur. Solfis. Marruk, though it had taken some time. Varska, technically, since the mage had not survived her betrayal. Farren… Farren was a weasel even if he meant well.

Yeah, she was lucky.

All those people in her life had become solid and her family and friends back on earth had grown blurry despite her improved memory. It had happened so progressively that she had not realized. They were… not in phase with what was happening to her. If earth had not blown up, they would probably be moving on now. By contrast, her new world was solid in a way that she had not experienced before. They all had their thing. Marruk always kept an eye on her back. She also hated wasting food, even scraps. Arthur liked to take out her two gold talents and look at them before she went to sleep. Solfis had upgraded his opinion of the surrounding mortals from meatbags to useful tools. They were very real and very alive and it had not cost her much to bring them around. Perhaps today was a real test of her character.

She was ok with her decision.

Arthur was important to her. The invasion would not stall if they delayed half a day. She would not sacrifice the little one for a perceived schedule, even if it made Farren mad and possibly destroyed her reputation. There were many uncertain things in Viv’s life. This was not one of them.

Evening passed and it was now night. Arthur stopped hugging her to drink clean water once. Her temperature had not dropped. There was no change that Viv could see so she stayed as she was, the earlier worry less now that Arthur didn’t look to be in pain. Her thoughts wandered to music. She had loved music on earth, and she now missed it more than ever. The melodies were still alive in her mind, yet it was not the same as listening to the original. She hummed a few under her breath to Arthur’s delight. At some point, the dragonette untangled herself to attend to a natural need but she returned quickly, temperature already rising.

“Can you write anything else in the water?” Viv asked, now curious.

“Squee?”

“Whatever you want and only if you feel like it.”

Once again, Arthur manipulated the flow of mana closeby like it was a part of her. New characters appeared.

‘Mama.’

“Awwwww!”

‘Gold.’

“Maybe later, you have to recover first, yes?”

“Squee.”

Feeling chuffed, Viv returned to being the dragonling’s cat tree, the eucalyptus to her koala. She yawned harder. Tiredness caught up and she managed to sleep by half an hour increments, until Arthur woke her up once again.

Her temperature had dropped. In fact, she was getting cold.

“Arthur? Arthur, are you alright?”

The tiny one had closed her eyes and was breathing fast.

“Arthur?”

The dragonling was now letting out a congested breath doubled with a kettle-like whistle.

“Hks hks hks HKS KSHAAAA!”

A sound like a woosh and Viv fell back. The bath was made entirely out of stone. That stone was now on fire. Angry red flames smoldered on the ground and the far wall in tiny puddles of death. Arthur sniffed once more as her breath returned to normal.

Viv felt a very distinct caress on her forearm where Arthur’s head had been resting, the specific jolt of nerve endings realizing their neighbors had died an ignominious death. Any time now.

“Aaaaa FUCK! OW!”

“Squee?”

Viv lifted the flame-spitting lizard like a handbag and crashed in yet another pool of frigid water. Every hair on her forearm had been vaporized and she could see a reddening track where Arthur’s head had been resting. Third degree burn.

It hurt like a motherfucker.

“Aaaaaaa sa mère. Awawawawaw.”

//Your Grace, your vitals are—

//ABSOLUTE OVERRIDE: IMPERIAL HEIR IN MORTAL DANGER.

“Don’t you fucking dare you bone twit. Get me a healer, stat.”

//ORDER ACKNOWLEDGED.

“Squeeeeeeeee!”

“It’s ok. Ugh. Nothing too serious.”

It was, in fact, quite serious. Pretty sure she had lost a lump of flesh, but this was the land of magic and she was not amputated yet. The cool water helped the abominable pain.

Pain tolerance: Intermediate 9