Kyle woke on a padded operating table. Pain lanced his skull before he tried to grab it. His hands had been restrained.

“Welcome, human,” a voice, Airok’s voice said.

Standing over Kyle was Queen of Archay. Beside her stood a cobalt dragon. They were in a lab of some sort. It felt warded, his connections had been suppressed but at the same time…

“What’s going on?” Kyle asked, testing his restraints. “Where are we?”

“You are in a place called the Nest,” Airok said. “The headquarters of Archayon’s Phoenix.” Kyle barely registered what it meant for Archay’s queen to tell him this before pain stabbed his skull again. He grimaced, and Airok said, “Your pain will ease after some time.”

“You did something to me?”

“An insurance, to make sure my son and daughter behave themselves when they return.”

“Are we… is this room warded?”

Airok smiled. “No.”

“Then… how?”

“Your powers as a mage have come quite far, human.” She touched his temple, a single claw tracing to his jaw. “Power that is going to waste, really. Fortunately, there are ways to control mages. And you, Kyle Reed, are mine.”

***

In the top residential arcology of CattaCatta Tower, Mephis Kortalone, was going over the latest opinion polls of CattaCatta constituents. The albino dragon tried his best to make sure his people were represented, so his days usually ended by taking stock of what the desires of dragons were on the tower. Velina sat on his desk, the dragoness presenting the figures of the polls when the door to his office slid open.

Through it walked Setara and Chisur. Mephis’ chair fell backwards with how quickly he got up.

Velina got up, too, saying, “Can I help—”

Setara grabbed the smaller dragoness by the throat, choking her easily. The princess growled, “Go back to the Nest, and tell mother we’ll be there soon.” She tossed Velina towards the door.

“What in Archayon is—”

“We’ll explain on the way,” Chisur said, taking his mate’s hand.

Velina, standing in the doorway, demanded, “Where are you taking the Councilor?”

Setara fixed Velina with a glare. “What are you still doing here?”

“I demand to—”

“‘Lady Phoenix’ has already won,” Setara snapped. “Go tell her as much. All we’re doing is making sure there are no more pieces on the board for her to threaten.”

Velina sized up both ruby-red dragons a moment, then said, “I will send word.”

***

Inside the Scarred Lands Research Outpost, Jerawk impatiently paced the length of the small building. Kaemen sat at a computer typing up a report on the data gathered in their encounter with the beast Graw, and Berask was on the couch playing peekaboo with Eska. His navy blue wings would close around his face, then he’d open them making a face at the tiny dragoness, who giggled and tried to mirror him. Jerawk wished he could relax, but…

He had woken up in the outpost after Setara saved him. He immediately tried to leave in search of his mates, but Kaemen and Berask held him down to keep him from escaping. Kaemen explained what had happened, or as much as she knew. They expected Chisur and Setara to return with Mephis and then… and then…

They would go off to try and save Kyle and Casey while Jerawk remained helpless. It was his fault they had both been captured in the first place. He was the one who had been lured into that trap. He was the one who insisted Casey come to Archayon when he knew… knew it was dangerous…

There was a ping behind him, and he heard Berask say, “Cameras picked something up.”

Jerawk did not wait to see what. He rushed out the door and stopped on the field of charred dirt when he saw Chisur and Mephis approaching the outpost. He ran to meet them, bounding over the a fissure in the earth and landing on the opposite side where Chisur and Mephis were. Jerawk said, “Where’s Setara? What are we—”

Chisur held up his hand. But it was the look on the prince’s face that cut Jerawk off—troubled and grieved by something. The yellow dragon recognized the look: it was the expression his mate wore when he carried bad news for someone. Chisur touched Mephis’ elbow, “Head inside, Kaemen and Berask will see to your safety. Take care, love.”

Mephis squeezed his hand. “Come back to us.”

“We all will,” Chisur promised before the albino dragon took to the air towards the outpost.

Jerawk demanded, “Are we going to rescue Kyle and Casey now?”

Chisur winced a little, but faced Jerawk and said sternly, “Setara and I are going to bring them back.”

Jerawk had been prepared for this—he knew his prince too well. “No,” he growled. “The three of us are going.”

“Jerawk—”

“Fuck you, Chisur,” Jerawk snarled. “You don’t get a say in this—Casey is my mate, Kyle is carrying my child.”

Chisur grabbed the yellow dragon by the shoulders and insisted, “And if you go with us not only will Setara and I have to worry about their safety, we’ll have to worry about yours.”

Jerawk slapped his arms away. “I can take care of myself.”

Chisur set his jaw; taking a step back, he began to glow as he channeled Archayon’s energy. “Jerawk, please don’t make me put you to sleep again.”

“If you do I’ll never forgive you!”

“I can’t risk losing you, too, Jerawk—”

“You’ll lose me if you don’t take me!” Jerawk yelled, trying to be imposing as possible in the face of his prince. “If you don’t take me with you I’ll leave Archayon.” And the yellow dragon stood as tall as he could—the prince’s surge of magical energy sputtering out. “I’ll leave,” Jerawk said quietly, “I’ll go to Earth with Casey. And I will never speak or see you again. If you don’t let me do this…” his voice wobbled, his throat stung with a dryness as he held back tears, “if you don’t let me try to help them… I’ll never trust you again. I’ll… I’ll never…”

Chisur barely breathed a crushed, “Jerawk…”

Tearing up, Jerawk glared at his prince. “I’m not your attendant anymore—I don’t have to listen to you. I may die trying to save Kyle and Casey, but you will lose me if you don’t let me do this. I need to do this, Chisur. Please…”

The prince studied the quivering little yellow dragon—all fury and fear. Chisur whispered, “Okay. I’m sorry, Jerawk. For trying to keep you from this.”

He opened his arms, and the two mates embraced—both scared and relieved at the same time.

Chisur whispered, “We’ll get them back, I promise.”

***

“Can you blame me for being bitter?” Jerawk said.

“We don’t expect you to forgive her for what she’s done,” Chisur muttered. They rode a train to KalXay Tower. Chisur had disguised them both. Still they spoke in hushed tones while the train moved and stopped between towers.

“I won’t,” Jerawk growled. He squeezed his knees, a shudder passing through him. “The worst part is you formed a tether with her. Three’s fine when it’s royalty, huh?”

“Jerawk…”

“No, I understand,” Jerawk said. He released some of the tension in his body. “I’m sorry, I know it’s temporary. But Setara let them take Kyle and Casey.”

“I do not like it, either, but we need to take mother by surprise.”

“You really think you’ll surprise her?” Jerawk asked.

We will, Setara swore, but he felt her anxiety as well.

Chisur said, “Mother knows nothing of the extent of our power. Nor will she know about our connection.”

“Given what we know about Phelise, isn’t a tether a liability?”

Chisur felt himself punched in the gut, an anger that made his lip curl for a flash. It was Setara’s emotions he felt, which he tried to soothe while saying, “It is what we need to defeat the Seed. It will be alright, Jerawk.”

“I suppose it does not matter.”

I’m sorry he brought up Phelise, Chisur said as the two dragons rode the train in silence.

It is fine—I understand he is angry and anxious. We all are.

They arrived at KalXay and Setara met them at the train terminal as a stunning violet dragoness. She led them to the bottom residential arcology and towards the secret entrance to the Nest. When they got inside the maintenance tunnel she stopped to tell them, “We should assume we are under surveillance at all times, so no speaking from here on.”

“Not even about the weather?”

Both Setara and Jerawk gave Chisur a look.

They found the tramcar to the nest empty. Setara keyed in the code and they all took seats. Jerawk across from brother and sister. They dispelled their illusions as the tram departed.

A strange ride in silence. No one spoke for there was nothing to say. Chisur wanted to, but did not at a feeling from Setara. Jerawk got up at one point and went through a series of stretches, as if he expected to leap into the fray soon as they stopped.

Airok waited for them with a security team. Twenty dragons formed an arc around the tram as the three stepped off, wearing tactical gear and pointing rifles at them. Queen Airok said, “Hands up, turn around, lean against the tram.”

“No courtesies, mother?” Chisur growled.

“Are we really going to just—”

“Yes,” Setara cut Jerawk off. “Let them cuff you, otherwise they’ll dump you in the Seed Chamber.”

“Ah, I see years of training did pay off,” Airok said with unrestrained mirth.

She really does think she’s won, Chisur thought while they all turned around with their hands in the air. Three dragons came forward with restraints, and while they cuffed his hands behind his back, the prince demanded, “Where are Kyle and Casey?”

“In cells. Kyle is recovering.”

“What did you do to him?” Chisur tried to turn around, but he was slammed into the side of the tramcar.

You’re going to get us killed.

If she hurt him I’ll—

“A minor surgery. The same I used on Phelise—Setara no doubt told you about it.”

“A surgery?” Jerawk asked. Chisur did not have the time to go into detail about what had happened to Phelise.

Setara—

Calm down, Chisur, Setara urged. We knew this was a possibility.

She had known. Chisur refused to acknowledge it.

Airok said to Jerawk, “Just behave and nothing will happen to him or that detestable spawn of yours that he carries.”

“It’s alright,” Chisur told his mate in an unconvincing whine.

They were each cuffed and searched. Setara told them not to bother with weapons, phones, or anything else, and so there was nothing on them but the clothes they wore. The guards turned them around to face the queen again. None of the guns trained on them dropped. “You did well, daughter. Until further notice you will be detained to your rooms.” Then Airok nodded to a taller dragon Setara recognized as Kisk under his gear. “Take her.”

Fifteen of the twenty dragons escorted her away.

I’m a little insulted they don’t consider me a bigger threat.

I’ll be sure to send some your way later, Setara told him.

“Escort the smaller one behind my son and I,” Airok ordered before nodding to a different door than the one Setara left through. “Shall we, son?”

Chisur fell into step, glancing back at Jerawk who the other security guards surrounded. This was exactly what he worried about.

Don’t worry. If all goes to plan, neither of you will have to do much fighting.

What about Kyle?

Airok can’t just think and have her nanites act. They’re machines that take orders, and Mauren can be sure to block any signal she might send.

Okay, I trust you, Setara. I will see you at the Seed Chamber.

I love you.

I love you, too.

Airok said to him at that moment, “I assume Setara told you about the Seed?”

“That monstrosity you’re making.”

“Yes. Planets can be so unruly, so we hope this one can be more obedient.”

“Which is what you wanted my help for.”

“It’s your research that helped inspire the Seed’s creation,” Airok told him.

Chisur’s hands balled into fists behind him. “You bastardized the work Kamore and I did.”

“Hardly my worst crime, don’t you think?” Airok retorted. They were moving towards the command center. Chisur knew because of his tether to Setara. They walked into a large elevator, but the security detail did not join them. Airok pressed a button and said, “Don’t worry, they’ll join us in a moment.”

“Not worried I won’t kill you in here?”

“And what would that accomplish?” Airok asked. She chuckled and added, “Besides, I may be past my prime, but I was trained in martial arts just like your sister. I am sure I can handle you with your arms tied behind your back.”

“Hmmph,” Chisur grunted.

“How did it feel, learning she was Lunelei?”

“I figured it out a few days before.”

“Did you two fight about it?”

“What do you care?” Chisur said.

The elevator came to a stop. They stepped into a hall that gave them a clear view of the seed.

“Don’t gawk too much,” Airok told him as they continued to walk. He did stare, but listened to her when she said, “You should know, had you been able to convince Setara to come back to me she never would have performed any of those heinous acts.”

“What? You would have found some other way for her to do your dirty work?”

“I’m just saying, all those months she spent alone and—”

“Don’t act like anyone but you are responsible,” Chisur snarled.

Easy brother, don’t give her the satisfaction of letting yourself be baited.

They reached the command center. Setara was still on the way to her rooms, the walk being longer than theirs.

“Let’s just get to the point,” Chisur said as they stepped into the command center. He waved a wing at the Seed Chamber and asked, “What do you expect me to do?”

“Help us figure out how to control it,” Airok said as she sat down in a chair in the room’s center like it was a throne. She turned it to face him and crossed her legs.

“So I live as your hostage in a lab while you keep a gun to Kyle’s head?”

“No guns needed,” she said with a smile.

“Mother that thing is nothing like Archayon, Earth, or any other planet that might be living out in the universe.”

“We know,” she said flatly. “It has the potential to offer so much more power.”

“It’s unstable.”

“Find us a way to stabilize it,” Airok said. “What more do I need to tell you?”

“Tell me you understand this is madness!” Chisur snapped, exasperated. Just then, the door to the command center opened and Jerawk was ushered inside.

Airok ordered them, “If my son tries to channel any spells, shoot his attendant.”

Chisur cursed.

Just keep her talking, Setara said as she reached her rooms. Fortunately, the guards had kept her on a fast pace. They did not remove her cuffs when they shoved her inside the small pillbox room. It had a bed, a small desk with a data terminal attached to it. She sat at the desk and closed her eyes. It took the tiniest wisp of her own magic to find the tiny data chip they let her leave the Nest with. It was a remarkable storage device. One of the most recently developed. It needed to be very powerful to hold all the data that mother let her leave with.

Setara had it all wiped, of course. She needed to so Mauren could be downloaded onto it. The chip left the A.I. dormant, but once they returned to an active computing network they would be alive as they ever had been. Slower without a central processor, but strong and fast enough for what they needed. Setara used her magic to remove the chip from where it had been hidden on her horn with the smallest dabs of adhesive. She whisked into the data terminal and heard the computer come to life.

Setara took a deep breath before moving over to the bed to sit and meditate.

Just a few more minutes, she told Chisur.

Alright. Good luck, I’m going to put some walls up between us.

If Chisur recoiled from a hit Setara took it would immediately make Airok suspicious. The queen still reclined in her chair. She sighed and said, “I am done playing these games.”

“What do you mean?”

“We are running in circles, Chisur.”

“Because you won’t accept the Seed—”

“No,” Airok raised a hand. “You must expand your imagination, as I have. Until then, I will just have to encourage you to be more enthusiastic.”

“What does that—”

Airok turned and said to a dragon at a terminal. “Tell them to escort the human to the Seed Chamber.”

“No!” Jerawk howled and tried to leap for Airok. Apparently he was still a valuable hostage, for the security guards only tackled the small yellow dragon instead of shooting him.

“Stop! Don’t do this,” Chisur pleaded. “Casey has nothing to do with this.”

“This Casey is a human. We can get your attendant another one.”

“You bitch! I’ll—argh!” One of the dragons pinned on top of him cinched Jerawk into a headlock. The yellow dragon tried to throw his head back to stab one of them with his horns but could not pierce their armor.

“Demonstrations are hardly effective without follow through, something you should know if you ever plan to rule,” Airok said. “Although, given how ruined you and your sister are, I think I will just start over with Eska as my heir. I should be able to get it right with her.”

“Please mother, I’ll do anything—”

She shrugged. “Take them both to their holding cells.”

***

Kyle had been in a dazed, confused state ever since they returned him to his cell. Casey occupied it with him. A big plastic container with a locked door, perforated ceiling for air, and a toilet for waste. They were being kept like lab rats, when two dragons opened the door. They wore crisp white uniforms with blank expressions on their faces.

Casey shrunk against Kyle, and the black dragon held the human tight. “What do you want?” Kyle croaked.

“The human is coming with us,” one dragon said before they both crossed the room.

They struggled, but vainly. Casey was small and weak compared to the larger dragons, and Kyle was pregnant. The two dragons overpowered and dragged a kicking and screaming Casey out the cell. Kyle pounded on the door and shouted through the plastic, “It will be okay! Casey I’ll find you! Stay calm!”

Crying, Casey’s captors dragged him from the room.

***

Setara!

The dragonesses eyes snapped open as Mauren said, “I have control of the security cameras and have placed them on a loop, Master Lune.”

She stood and asked, “Is there any way you can lock down the Seed Chamber?”

“The human has already been placed inside there, but yes.”

“Shit.” Setara told them, “Open the doors, we’ll go loud when my brother and Jerawk are in the elevator.”

Be ready, she told Chisur as the doors slid open. Two guards had been posted at the door, and when it opened one turned around in time to catch a knee in the jaw. The other raised his rifle and fired, but Setara knocked the gun up with her tail. She cursed as the sound no doubt attracted more attention. She bulled into the other guard, goring him with her horns. Setara snarled and heaved the dragon over her shoulder, tossing him onto his comrade. It was ineloquent kicking them into unconsciousness from there, but she had no other choice. She searched their bodies for the magnetic key that would undo her restraints, but found nothing on their bodies. Of course it would not be that easy.

With her connection to Archayon she could break the restraints easily with magic, but channeling that much energy would echo through her connection to Chisur.

We’re on the elevator.

Setara hopped off the balcony and glided down to the ground floor. Good. I’m heading for Kyle. Remember, magic not might.

What about Casey?

I’ll do what I can, but we may be too late.

Setara ran into more guards at the end of a corridor. They held up their weapons, but before she might say or do anything, magic surged through her body.

It exploded around Chisur as he channeled it in the elevator. Their security detail had no time to aim their weapons as the prince slammed them all against the elevator’s wall. Jerawk flinched, but remained unharmed. It only took a surge of energy to fry the electronic locks on their restraints. Chisur undid his first, then helped Jerawk out of his.

“About time,” the smaller dragon snapped. The dragons smashed to the walls remained pinned as Jerawk took one of their sidearms. It looked too big in the dragon’s hand, but he turned the safety off with practiced familiarity. “Are we going after, Casey? What’s the plan?”

“We need to make sure the queen doesn’t escape.”

“What about—”

“That is Setara’s job,” Chisur said. “She’s closer and can get through the facility faster.”

“Dammit Chisur I already told you—”

“Trust her!” Chisur snapped. He grabbed Jerawk’s shoulders and urged, “Trust me, Jerawk.”

Jerawk quaked with rage a moment, but he finally swallowed it and mumbled, “Fine.”

“Mauren!” Chisur said to the ceiling.

The elevator began to ascend again.

“What’s our rule on killing?” Jerawk asked in a barely restrained growl.

“Only when we need to.”

“Good.” Jerawk pointed the pistol at one of the guards pinned to the wall and unloaded two rounds into his chest. At point-blank range, the weapon easily pierced his armor. “Because I needed that.”

“Jerawk!”

“What?” Jerawk fixed him with a defiant glare, but he was trembling now. “These b-bastards are threatening everything we love and have killed countless.”

“That doesn’t mean—”

The elevator slid to a gentle stop and the doors opened. Jerawk dove into cover while Chisur created a barrier by the door to deflect several dozen rounds from more guards pulled to protect the command center.

“We are talking about this later,” Chisur snarled before he recoiled from an invisible blow. He almost lost the barrier—concentrating on too many things at once.

Sorry about that, Setara said as she backpedaled into the orchard she had spoken to Kisk in before. Her body shone light through the trees and cast shadows all across the walls and floors as she moved, quick as she could to avoid the bursts of ballistic fire. Trees exploded in sprays of splinters as a dragon in NanoArmor continued trying to pin Setara down. Eventually she focused on the barrier Chisur used earlier to create her own. Bullets ricocheted all around her as she stood her ground and approached the living weapon. The dragon inside closed their hand into a fist, and from it extended a thin blade like Filament. Still firing a constant stream of bullets, the dragon charged Setara.

They swung their blade in an arc Setara read a mile away. She ducked and magnified her barrier into a single point on her knuckles before uppercutting the monstrosity. The force of her blow sheared nanites off the NanoArmor, and Setara saw lavender scales. Velina. The dragoness landed on her back. Much as she wanted to put the dragoness in her place, Setara had places to be, and quickly fled the orchard further into the facility.

Both dragons felt the sudden presence of Chisur’s mate. Mauren had deactivated whatever signal that kept the black dragon unable to forge connections. It had consequences. The surge of confusion caused Setara to stumble against the wall right outside the door to Kyle’s prison. Chisur’s barrier in the elevator faltered a moment before he grit his teeth and forced the other two dragons out of his mind. Setara opened the door into a lab. Kyle had been in a transparent cell much like the one Setara had seen humans held in before. He used magic to force the door open and Mosk had a firearm pointed at the dragon.

“Mosk if you want to live, leave now,” Setara warned, turning on the mage.

“You’re killing all of us if you stop this!”

Setara reached out with her magic and ripped the pistol out his hand, turned it on the blue dragon. When he reached for it she unloaded a round into his throat. His neck tore open in a spray of gore.

“Just you,” Setara told him as the gun clattered to the ground with Mosk.

Kyle pointed at a door in the lab that led directly into the seed chamber. “They took Casey—he’s in—”

“We know.”

“We need to—”

“No, Kyle, you can’t go in there. Chisur and I—”

“It will be too late for Casey.” Kyle made for the door, she tried to get in his way, but heard stomping down the hall. She faced the door she came through in time to put up a barrier, so when it exploded into the room it bounced off her magical field. Velina came after with a Filament extended. At the same time, Kyle entered the Seed Chamber.

“Dammit!”

Setara he’ll—

She ducked under Velina’s stab, grabbed the dragoness’ arm and threw her over her shoulder. Setara did not wait to see what happened to her opponent, she raced  after Kyle.

Entering the seed chamber felt like walking into a hurricane. No gales or wind, but raw magic that whipped through the chamber and the wail of a conscious mass, thunderous and screaming and attacking. Setara barely got the lay of the land before she fell against the wall. Kyle was not far from the door, on his knees. He had crumpled onto his side, but seemed to recover some consciousness with Setara’s presence. They were tied together in the cyclone, which made it more difficult for one of them to be torn away. Still, their tether had tugged so tight Setara felt the back of her skull sore, as if her brain might be ripped from her head.

Crouching beside Kyle, she said, “We need to get out of here.”

Setara felt her scales itch. A reaction to this magic. It would begin warping their bodies into more of the chaotic mess around them.

But Kyle pointed deeper into the chamber. “There!”

Casey kneeled about a hundred paces from them, before the massive thing in the center of the room. Kyle said, “You get his body, I’m going to commune with the Seed.”

“You can’t—”

But she sensed his intent, and knew she could not fight him on this. “Chisur is going to kill us.”

Setara ran towards Casey. That beast must have been several tons of mass all bound together. Clumps of it were solid rock, others fungus, mold, split flesh, skin, wood, all working in and out each other. A bolt of rogue magic cracked off at her and Setara leapt into the air, flapping hard to avoid it. A shriek, cacophonous and ear-splitting, shook the chamber and the beast lashed out with a long whip of an appendage.

Setara spun in the air to avoid the whip, before diving for Casey. At that same moment, Kyle made a connection with the Seed. A flood of magic, fear, and rage crashed through Setara’s being. She blacked out a moment, slammed into the ground just past Casey. The human did not seem to notice her crash, but it did help her come to. Cursing, she got up aching and woozy. Seed began to rumble at the same time, shaking the very earth. Legs, like a spider’s, split from the base of the beast, each one made up of a substance resembling coagulated blood. All those voices poured through Setara. Kyle had made a connection to the beast and now took the brunt of that assault.

A simple command came from the dragon: Casey!

Bottling the soreness from her fall, Setara scooped Casey in her arms.

Like pulling apart dry gum, his legs came apart at the thigh. Setara barely registered the human’s scream. His body had already started melding into the chamber; his lower legs torn off. The dragoness’ curse was drowned out by the Seed’s howl as it charged after the two of them. With the beast’s own magic assisting her speed, she was able to outrun it towards a door away from Kyle. She did not, after all, want the thing charging into him.

Before Setara could carry what was left of Casey through the door, Kyle shouted, Wait! in her mind.

It was too late—Setara carried a groaning shell. Whatever was Casey had been—

Shrieking. The chamber wall. She darted left clutching the bleeding body tight. A thunderous crash as the Seed, unable to stop, slammed into the wall.

Behind her, waves of blood washed to her feet, and she ran through it till it burned like an acid. Setara took to the air, her body beginning to feel itchy and hot. She turned around and saw the Seed had shattered against the chamber wall. But already it began to reconstitute itself.

Casey is gone, Kyle, Setara told him, still holding onto that corpse.

I can save him! His soul is in there!

Setara landed next to Kyle, the dragon sitting on his knees. His black scales had lost some of their splendor, and from underneath his claws and horns grew shoots of grass. Setara said aloud, “We can bring his body back and give him his last rites but—”

 The door they entered earlier opened.

Through it stepped Velina.

Setara dropped Casey’s body and jumped in front of Kyle. Velina drew Filament and, trembling, said, “St-stop whatever it is you… you’re doing and leave… he-here…”

For a moment, Setara considered letting them take Kyle. When she looked down at herself, she saw her scales had started changing color. She felt burning along her tattoo. The scales slowly moving up her clavicle were silver.

Before Setara might give an answer, Velina collapsed. Of course, what else might happen to her unprotected mind in this raging storm? Especially one not trained in—

Velina stood back up. The movement came all wrong, though. Like her NanoArmor piloted her. Her motions were rigid and jerking, then the dragoness lunged. She screamed as she did, a twisted croak that matched the monster still reassembling itself.

Velina’s eyes were on Kyle, so it was easy to knock her to the ground with a magically backed kick. She jerked back onto her feet, head twisting around, too far around, to Kyle again. Setara cursed and tackled the dragoness, using magic to slam them both away from the meditating dragon. At the same time, Setara felt an ineffectual swipe down her back. The pain was not so severe, sudden as a prick. Velina had used Filament to cleanly cleave Setara’s wings from her body.

Kyle did not even sense Setara’s pain. He had descended deep into the mass that was the Seed. A swirling miasma of minds and souls all tangled tight together. Most of those masses had become little more than impulses: terror, rage, pain, and grief chief among them. A particular strong knot of terror might have been a woman horrified in her last moments. One of pain a child not understanding what happened to him. But the more recent minds, from when Setara first helped bring them here, they were fragmented, but not shattered.

And Casey’s was still whole—still being digested.

Kyle found him in the center of the cyclone, touched his mind, and the dragon clenched his jaw as horrible pain and confusion wracked his body. Kyle sent his friend, Focus on me. On my presence. I won’t leave you.

Deeper in the chamber, Setara fought for both their lives with everything she had. Kyle felt it when the dragoness lost the end of her tail, two fingers, a horn. She was too quick for her assailant, but not quick enough. Unable to run as long as Kyle stayed. And the longer they stayed the more likely it became that Setara would become too slow.

Kyle refused to believe that would happen. He began binding Casey to him. The work of tying their spirits together felt slow with the storm of magic trying to flay his spirit alive. But the Seed’s pressure was not so terrible when in communion, and Kyle pitied it. This helpless knot of victims. A mass grave dug in Queen Airok’s name. Casey’s spirit soothed with the binding. The pressure on his being was lightened, Kyle shielded him as he finished tying the threads of their connection. In his mind materialized Casey’s door, but it was also the Seed’s door.

Kyle… Kyle… Casey’s frantic whisper, mind amok with terror.

Focus on something to ground you. Something you could never confuse as someone else’s in the mass.

And Casey, battered and aching, a being without a body, did his best to envision Jerawk. The once-human sensed Kyle drawing their binding tight. Tight enough to hurt. Casey understood from the dragon, without knowing how, what his savior did. Kyle had bound himself to the Seed from the anchor point of Casey’s mind, and now he wrapped that string tight at the base of where Casey’s mind connected to the Seed. Like popping a pimple with a piece of string. It would hurt—Casey would lose some of himself—memories, most likely—but his core essence would be saved.

The noose drew tight and the pimple popped.

The Seed screamed in pain, which Casey echoed when Kyle slammed him into his limp body. His body had never properly died. The wild magic of this chamber had kept him from bleeding out, but still he screamed. And Kyle was over him, squeezing Casey’s hand before magic surged into the human’s broken body. The dragon channeled the Seed’s magic without any concern for the thing’s wellbeing. He took those powers of shaping and reshaped Casey’s legs in an instant. And that hurt, too. Pain lanced the human’s body before Kyle became a mass of crackling light. The dragon stood and walked towards the monster, as it still tried to stand.

Setara, panting, had forced the mechanized monster to the ground with magic. It clawed at the bands of light holding it down. Nanites had broken down in places where blood and ragged flesh sprouted between cracks in the armor. Setara’s whole body screamed pain at this point, and the wounded dragoness’ scales had all turned a polluted silver color.

She turned her head in time to glance at Kyle before an explosion erupted underneath the Seed. Setara covered her face while a wave of magic rushed through the chamber. A vortex of fire and lightning and mist that smelled sharply of blood. The wave washed around Setara, and she knew Kyle shaped the vortex. He sent it to the other end of the chamber, magic slammed into the wards there, energy disintegrating as it was disrupted. The dragon was killing the seed. First Kyle disrupted and redirected the monster’s energy so there would be no rebound, then he plunged into its mind. Setara joined him, and both began hacking at the knotted ball of consciousness. It took only a minute to cause the damage needed for the Seed to implode.

And when Setara came to, Velina’s charred body remained on the ground beside her. The chamber was silent, magically dead in a way. Things had gone dark, but she knew by her tether where Kyle was.

And Casey. Ragged, bleeding, missing her left hand from one last swipe from Velina, Setara started crossing the chamber to join them.

How is Casey? she asked.

I—wait, who—Setara? the human’s mind spoke directly to her.

Setara and I are tethered, and you are bound to us, Kyle answered.

Setara could not see the other two, but in the distance she heard Kyle gently soothing Casey.

There will be time enough to explain. Right now we need out of this wretched pit, she told them both.

As she walked, Setara thought that, like the pit where she fought to the death inside of so many times, this chamber was now one of the quietest places in Archayon.

***

Chisur and Jerawk stood in the command center. Emergency lighting bathed everyone left alive in the room in a red light. The other source of light came from Chisur channeling the magic from his binding with Archayon.

“Any word?” Jerawk asked.

“They’re still in there,” Chisur said.

“How?” Airok snapped. She had been bound to the floor with the metal railings in the room. “How are you channeling so much magic without being in communion?” The queen struggled to free herself. She was bleeding at the shoulder from where a piece of shrapnel hit her. “Answer me, Chisur. I order you!”

Chisur ignored her and called up to the ceiling. “Are you still with us Mauren?”

“Minimally,” came a reply from the speaker of a nearby console. “My processes are much slower without the Seed to power the facility.”

They had seen the explosion of magic from their view in the command center. Chisur watched the storm cascade over his mates. The power went out shortly after, with a clear view of only one living thing stirring in the chamber. Setara. If Kyle and Casey survived, they were somewhere out of view of the command center.

Chisur said to the console, “Any chance you can broadcast a message through the facility?”

“Evacuation orders?”

“Only fair to give these traitors a running start,” Chisur said. He glanced at Airok. “Most of them.”

The queen still managed to sneer at her son from the floor.

“Any word now?” Jerawk asked. He was pressed up to the plexiglass as if he might be able to peer into the entirely dark room and spot their mates.

“Not yet—”

The second Setara came out of the Seed chamber, Chisur nearly fell over from the swell of sensation passing through the tether. He swayed, grabbing a console to keep on his feet. He heard Mauren issuing the evacuation order while Jerawk was at Chisur’s side to help him stand. “What is going on? Chisur?”

Mentally, the prince was in an embrace with both his mates. Even if it hurt. Setara was wounded and maimed all over. Kyle singed across his body from all the magic he channeled through himself, some clear nerve damage in the dragon’s leg.

Tears running down his cheeks, Chisur hugged Jerawk and whispered, “They’re alive. All of them.”

***

Casey sat in a hospital bed inside CattaCatta Tower. From his window in this tower at the sprawl’s edge, he could see out across Archayon’s scarred lands. It was just one long sea of clouds and storms and miasma but for the few miles of charred landscape near the sprawl’s edge.

The door opened.

“Finished with the doctor?” Casey turned his head to see Jerawk step into the room.

“Yep,” Jerawk took a seat by the bed and threw his legs up on the mattress. He leaned back in and sighed. “I’ve got good news about your apartment.”

“You mean I’m not going to be evicted?”

“Hehe, not yet, at least.”

“What did you tell Earth?”

“We reported all the known victims, and added you to the list. We asked that your things be taken care of—right now, far as anyone knows, you’re in critical condition, and it is unclear if you’ll make it or not.”

Casey lifted the sheet to check his legs. “I seem fine.”

“You know why we aren’t telling them you’re okay yet.”

Casey did. But he also knew the dragon’s ulterior motives. “I still want to go home, Jerawk.”

The dragon frowned. “I don’t know if—”

“Well I want my friends to know what really happened to me. I don’t want them to think I just died to this freak thing.”

Jerawk took his feet off the bed and leaned forward. “Alright, Casey. I’ll see what I can do.”

“What about the doctor?” Casey flicked off his sheet again and lifted a bare, digitigrade leg, draconic in every way with lavender scales. He wiggled his toes and asked, “What’s the news on this?”

Jerawk’s lips pursed. More bad news. “They’re still puzzling out your DNA. It’s still changing.”

Casey pulled down the waistband of his underwear. It revealed more scales crawling up his hips. “They just keep growing in.”

“I’m sorry, Casey.”

“It’s okay, Jerawk,” Casey answered automatically.

“Is it?”

Casey pulled his sheets back over himself and sighed. “It’s not, actually. But aside from itching constantly it’s not so bad.”

“Kyle and Chisur might be able to return your body, but we’ve been advised to let whatever this is run its course.”

“Is it like a disease?”

“It’s magical in nature, but it’s also—well, like the your mender said, it's messing with your DNA. Changing it bit by bit.”

“Think I’ll grow a tail and wings?”

“Would you want to be a dragon?”

Casey shrugged. “Better than what I am right now, right?”

Jerawk offered Casey a soft smile. “You know I’ll love you no matter what you are, right?”

“Yeah, but I’d bet you’d love me more as a dragon.”

“Casey!”

“What? I’m just saying… could fly around and stuff. Do other dragon things. Bet there are a lot of kinky stuff with tails—”

Jerawk laughed, earnestly, which made Casey smile as well. “Hehehe, you’re ridiculous,” the dragon accused.

“Well when I look like this that’s pretty obvious.”

Jerawk got up and sat next to Casey on the bed, throwing an arm over his mate’s shoulder and hugging him tight. “We will get this figured out and resolve it however you want, Casey. I will do everything in my power to fix it.”

Casey leaned against the dragon, enjoying the familiar comfort of his scent. “You know I don’t blame you for what happened, right?”

“I know, I just—I’m always going to feel responsible.”

“You don’t need to, though.”

Casey nuzzled into Jerawk’s neck and the two held their embrace in silence for a moment. Just Jerawk’s scent, his slow breathing, the steady pulse in his neck. All this a balm for Casey. He was not as anxious as he expected to be, which might have been from his experience with the Seed. Casey also couldn’t remember anything before the age of twelve anymore. And when they tested his fine motor control, Casey found holding a pen and writing came with great difficulty. There might have been other things wrong—things missing. He could retrain his body to write, and his childhood had sucked so no loss there. But they were far from knowing everything that might have changed thanks to his encounter with the Seed.

Casey, reflecting deeper, sensed his connection with Kyle. The dragon described it as a door, but in his mind he saw a stoplight, red and blocking traffic till he changed it. Reminded of his old friend, Casey asked, “How are the others?”

It had been a week since they shut down the Nest. Chisur had Queen Airok arrested with all the data needed to show her guilt.

“A judge is going to announce Setara’s punishment later today.”

“Do they execute people here?” Casey asked.

“Most criminals they try to rehabilitate. There is a prison out at sea, away from Archay, for the kind that can’t, or for people like Airok.”

“So no death penalty.”

“Outlawed over a century ago.”

“So it will be life in prison for her?”

“That or exile,” Jerawk said. “They’ll implant a tracker in her spinal column, so if she ever reenters the sprawl it will paralyze her.”

Casey looked out the window to the scarred lands. “Isn’t exile just a death sentence you don’t have to watch?”

Jerawk shrugged. “In the meantime, Chisur’s been busy working with Mephis. He’s hoping to have the monarchy disbanded by the end of the year, once everyone agrees on who should run the things Queen Airok used to.”

“And Kyle?”

Now Jerawk glanced out the window. “Spending most of his time trying to heal Archayon.”

“How’s his…” Casey touched his thumbs to the tips of his fingers, “you know.”

“He has to pluck them every morning, but he says it’s not so bad.” From under his claws and around where his horns met scale, Kyle had been growing small shoots of grass.

“Any update on Kamore?”

Jerawk said, “Nothing new, thank goodness.” Kyle and Jerawk’s baby did not seem to have any deformity from her exposure to the Seed, but they would still check on her regularly to be safe. “There is one thing.”

“Gossip?” Casey asked.

“Kyle severed his tether to Chisur and Setara.”

Casey’s jaw dropped a little.

Jerawk tried to keep an even face, but Casey could tell an edge of giddiness was there. “He said, before he binds us together—the three of us, it wouldn’t be right for us to also share a connection with Setara. He’s going to come over this evening to do it.”

“Jerawk…”

The dragon giggled. “You should see your face.”

“That means we’ll be…?”

Jerawk kissed him, a hungry and happy kiss. Brief, before he pulled away, “As good as tethered without any of the problems a tether can cause.”

“I… that’s amazing Jerawk—you’ve wanted this for so long and—wait, is Chisur not devastated by this?”

“Kyle is still bound to him, and says Chisur and Setara will eventually change their tether to a binding as well.”

“So it’ll just be one big network of connections.”

“Yes, but none of us will have to be in each other’s heads without permission.”

Casey thought of the stoplight again. The traffic of his thoughts moving in tandem with Jerawk’s made his heart speed up a little. The chance to feel and share all the love they held between them… Casey grinned. “I can’t wait to know what having a dick feels like.”

Jerawk smacked his shoulder playfully and shoved off the bed. “You clown! I’m going to leave so you can—”

“No—Jerawk!” Casey grabbed the dragon’s tail. “Stay! It was just a joke.”

The dragon matched Casey’s smile and slid back into the bed. Their hands twined together, they exchanged a brief kiss. “I’ll stay, Casey.”

“Hehe, whatever happens, I think I’ll stay, too, Jerawk.”

***

Kyle and Chisur stood a hundred paces beyond the Scarred Lands Research Outpost. A dozen feet behind them waited an armed security detail. Standing in front of the two was a silver dragoness over seven feet tall at this point. She still missed the tip of her tail, her left horn, and her wings were now a dark mesh material meant to imitate a wing membrane. Her left hand and right index and middle finger blended seamlessly to her body, prosthetic limbs unnoticeable.

Kyle asked, “Should I give you two another moment alone?”

Setara said, “You’re welcome to stay.”

Chisur hugged her tight. I can’t believe I’m losing you again.

Sweet baby brother, we will hardly be apart.

I know, I just— her brother quivered against her. Tears ran down his cheeks. Always so emotional, her little brother.

Setara had requested exile, which a judge approved. It had taken two months since the ruling for her to be brought here. A slight mercy, she had been given the time and chance to have cyberware replace the parts of her carved off by Velina. And enough time for her body to adjust to the cybernetics. In that time, she had practiced and learned from Kyle ways to heal the planet, to bind the wild life and magic of the scarred lands back to Archayon. Rather than rot in a prison like mother, Setara wanted to atone for what she had done.

And this time she would not be alone like before. She was bound to both Kyle and Chisur, both would be able to find her, to reach out to her any time they wished. She looked over her little brother to the towers of the sprawl. She would never share the company of other dragons, though. Never the comforts, the smell, the food, she would be alone in so many ways.

Chisur sensed it, too. I hate we have to do this to you—you saved Archayon.

A wry little chuckle from the silver dragoness. “Sometimes, you just have to follow the rules, baby brother. We’re not royalty anymore.”

Kyle rested a hand on Chisur’s shoulder. “We should get going, love.”

Chisur looked up at her defiantly. “I will see you—soon as things have settled I will come out here and find you.”

“Hehehe, I’ll try to find a home for you to visit by then. I’d like to see Eska, again.”

“You will, I’ll bring her—”

“Not without me you won’t!” Kyle snapped. “You two—” he sighed. “Listen, once you’ve stabilized some of the lands outside the sprawl we’ll talk about how visits could work. And not a moment sooner, Chisur Archay.”

The ex-prince scowled at his mate.

Setara laughed and caressed her brother’s cheek. “Thank you both—for saving me.”

“I don’t feel like I saved you, Setara.”

She kissed his brow and stepped back from his embrace. “I love you both, and I’ll be in touch.”

“You better,” Chisur growled.

She giggled again, and took the bag resting on the ground beside her. In it were some basic survival gear and a few personal belongings: a locket she gave to Phelise, rare paperback books her brother packed away so she’d have something to read, and a bracelet Chisur had made her as a boy and likely long since forgot about.

I remember it.

Do you remember when you gave it to me?

A memory of a young dragon, a boy running into the palace sparring grounds.

There on the floor, Setara had been panting, on her back while Phelise sat a few feet away also exhausted. Both adolescent dragonesses turned when the young boy ran into the room, waving the bracelet. Chisur made it from the stone used in focusing chambers. Polished beads of off-white that conducted energy. That was the day the young prince had announced to Setara that he planned to be her magic advisor. Nothing but adoration and admiration shining in his eyes as he announced this fact.

“So much has changed,” Setara said wistfully before turning her back on them both.

I hope it all is for the better, Chisur said.

It will be, Setara promised. And Chisur and Kyle watched the tarnished, silver-scaled dragoness walk into the storm.