Aeris swallowed as she looked over the large building. Something about it felt ominous. Perhaps it was knowing there were captive dragons held inside, or knowing it was filled with armed humans trained in combating dragons. Or maybe it was because she was breaking into the building alone.

This was a mistake, she thought. I never should have come her alone.

Tanor’s voice came into her ear and assuaged her fears. “You will be fine, blood of my blood. You’re my brood after all. No human stands a chance against you.” She circled her. “First, let’s get them to open the door.”

Aeris nodded and focused her Call.

Open the door.

She waited.

Eventually, the large set of metal doors swung open, revealing a wide hallway. It felt like staring into the maw of a giant beast. A pair of humans stood to the side as if awaiting further instructions.

“Well done,” Tanor said. “Now remember, you may be powerful, but arrogance is your greatest weakness and your greatest weapon. The humans’ strength lies in their coordination. Disrupt it and they make easy prey.”

Aeris nodded and stepped inside. She took a deep breath and focused her Call again.

Kill them.

The effect was immediate. The hall filled with screams and gunfire.

Aeris moved forward slowly, staying low to the floor. The two humans who opened the door walked ahead and directed her to wherever there was the least amount of chaos. She tried to memorize her path, but it was hard to focus. Thoughts of human battle formations and the best way to disrupt them took over her thoughts. It felt strange especially knowing she had never learned such things.

“This is why Matriarchs are feared,” Tanor said. Unlike Aeris, she walked upright and showed no concern for the fighting around them. “The ability to pass on not only memories but experience as well. But be careful, drink too deeply from the well of knowledge and you’ll drown.”

The quote sounded familiar, but she couldn’t place where she had heard it.

All around her, things were chaotic. The shouts and gunfire echoed off the walls, making it hard to get her bearings. The walls were heavily scared with claw marks and bullet holes. It was strange to see despite not hearing any dragons in the building.

She was glad to be led away from the fighting. Seeing the blood and bodies never got any easier.

As they navigated the halls, the escorts opened doors that led to various rooms. They were filled with medical supplies she couldn’t identify. She didn’t want to either. The faint smell of blood alone told her she didn’t want to know what went on here.

Worse were the ones with fresh corpses inside them, most likely people gunned down during the fight.

Tanor chuckled at the sight of them.

“That’s not funny,” Aeris said.

“These people were doing unspeakable things in here. They got exactly what they deserved; to be gunned down like rabid beasts.”

Aeris said nothing and moved on.

They eventually reached another set of rooms. She had read enough stories to know a cell when she saw one. Most of the rooms were empty. The few that weren’t, she wished they were.

Inside were dragons that were either dead or badly disfigured. When the door opened, they recoiled and backed against the wall, eyes wide with fear.

“You can’t save them now,” Tanor said. “Their minds have been broken.”

“But—”

“You came here for a certain dragon. You don’t have time to waste on them.”

She hated to admit Tanor had a point. Some of these dragons couldn’t even walk, and there was no telling what was happening to Windor right now.

They opened a door. She dreaded peering inside at another tortured dragon but did so anyway.

She recognized Windor immediately. Other than a manacle and chain around his neck, he didn’t seem any worse than before. Seeing him unharmed, she felt a small twinge of joy.

He raised his head and blinked. “Aeris? Is that you?”

“Yes, it’s me.”

“You…You came for me? But why?”

“Janine asked me to.” She turned to one of her escorts. “Take the chains—”

She froze. The largest human—assuming it was a human—she had ever seen stood over her. The man wore a dark apron and hood, hiding all of his features. The escort that should have been standing there was nowhere to be seen.

Where did he come from? I didn’t hear anyone!

Without a word, the masked man grabbed her by the throat and lifted her off the ground. She gasped for air, her claws dangling helplessly. She wasn’t that large, but she knew no human should be able to lift her so easily.

“Focus!” Tanor cried. “Figure out what’s wrong with him later!”

Aeris snapped out of her stupor and prepared to kick at her attacker.

The masked man slammed her against the wall. Lights danced in her vision as what little air remained rushed out of her lungs. Pain exploded along her body. She was slammed into the wall again, then a third time.

She was flung down the hall with ease. She coughed and gasped for air and tried to get her bearings.

Tanor shouted in her ear, “Get up! You must never take your eyes off the opponent!”

Aeris raised her head just in time to see the giant standing over her again, one massive foot raised. She rolled out of the way just in time as he brought his foot down where her head was just moments ago. Still dazed and weak from the earlier attack, she scrambled away to put as much distance between them as possible.

The man moved with surprising speed and grabbed her tail. He pulled, nearly dislocating it as he snatched her onto her side. She clawed at the floor, desperate to get a hold of something and stop herself from being dragged.

“GET YOUR FUCKING HANDS OFF HER!”

The man was flung sideways into the wall. Windor stood there, his face.

Before the masked man could recover, Windor loosed a stream of fire from his maw, coating the giant human in flames. Intense heat washed over Aeris as flames shot up the wall and across the ceiling. The man jerked and twitched then fell still almost immediately.

Windor turned back to Aeris. “Are you okay? I’m sorry I didn’t get to you sooner. I was chained up.”

Aeris nodded then shakily stood. The corpse continued to smolder against the wall.

“Wh—What was that?”

“I don’t know, but I’m glad it’s dead. I’ve never seen a human move like that either.” He looked up at the burning ceiling. “I think I overdid it on the fire. We gotta get out of here before it comes down on us.”

She thought about the dragons still trapped in their cells and focused her Call again.

Save the dragons.

“We have to leave them,” Tanor said. “There’s no time to save them all.”

“But I can’t just leave them,” Aeris said.

“That sentiment is going to get you killed.”

“I’m not abandoning anyone,” she repeated firmly.

“I didn’t say you had to,” Windor said. “Aeris, are you okay?”

“I’m fine. Let’s go. The humans will free the dragons from their cells.”

She wasn’t sure of the way back, but thankfully one of her escorts remained alive. The other was found on the floor with his neck broken.

The human led them back out the way they came. It was slower going this time because the smoke from the spreading flames made it hard to see or breathe. She noticed it was also much quieter than before. There was the occasional shout or gunshot, but it was mostly silent.

It felt so good to be outside again. Coolness washed over her body as she choked on the clean air.

“Thank you so much, Aeris,” Windor said. “You said before that Janine asked you to save me. That means you found her, right? She’s okay?”

“Yes, she’s okay. She was very worried about you.”

“This is all very touching and all, but perhaps you shouldn’t have this conversation next to a burning building,” Tanor said, startling Aeris. It was very easy to forget the dragoness was there even when talking to her. “There is also the matter of this human here.”

Before Aeris could say anything, Tanor descended on the man, pinning him down and tearing out his throat.

Aeris stared at the dragoness, horrified. “Why did you do that?!”

“Do I really need to explain myself? You saw what happened in there. This human played a part in that horror. Just think of your past. Those humans showed you no mercy even after that man bragged about the torture that awaited you when he dragged you back.” She stepped closer and her face looked very similar to Aeris’ Seeing the murderous intent reflected in her own eyes was unsettling. “Those humans don’t deserve mercy.”

“Aeris, we have to go,” Windor said.

She looked at him. He stared with that same worrying look the others had. She turned back to Tanor and saw she had disappeared again. The human now lay underneath her. His eyes were wide open and staring at the sky.

She turned away from the scene and followed.

The entire flight back, she spat to get rid of the taste of blood in her mouth.

****

“Have you lost your damn mind?!” Nesse cried. “What were you thinking going off on your own?! Do you have any idea how worried sick we’ve been? Well? Do you?!”

Aeris shook her head and stared at the floor. Making the others worry was never part of her plan. Janine had clung to her since she got back and hadn’t said a word. It really drove the point home for her. She upped and vanished right after they had finally been reunited with no idea if she would come back or not.

It was selfish but she would do it again. After what she saw in that place, she was glad Janine wasn’t there.

Nesse huffed and sat down, her angry rant seemingly over. Everyone else remained quiet. Windor had been taken to another part of the house to be examined by an in-house veterinarian.

Lanry was the first to break the silence. “Well, I think that she came back alive and unscathed is a win in my book. And let me add how impressive it is that you managed to tear that place down all by yourself.”

“Yeah, it is!” Brandy cried. “It really makes you think about why I’m beginning to see why dragons were thought to be gods so long ago! I can’t believe even someone like Aeris can be that dangerous!” She quickly added, “No offense or anything, Aeris. It’s just given your sheltered upbringing and lack of combat experience there’s, like, zero chance of you conducting any kind of solo raid and coming back.”

“She got lucky because they didn’t know she was coming,” Maxis said.

“It’s still damn impressive,” Terran said. “The place was designed to trap dragons and she still took it down. How did you even get in?”

“Easy, she makes them not see her as a threat,” Lanry replied.

Aeris was grateful for the interruption. She didn’t feel comfortable telling them about the events that took place there especially after what they said about Tanor being imaginary. Also she didn’t feel comfortable telling them about her Call affecting humans. Now that she had a chance to slow down and think, she noticed how much better she had gotten at using it.

Nesse stared at her with a strong I-know-what-you-did look.

Janine lifted her head long enough to say, “So what’s gonna happen now?”

If they weren’t already hugging, Aeris would have cuddled up to her right then for changing the subject.

“First, damage control,” Lanry said. “Thanks to Aeris, most of the evidence burned up but we still have to worry about people prying.”

“And thanks to Aeris, Saller got away and most of his evidence and research was destroyed,” Nesse added.

“But we don’t know he got away,” Brandy said. “Maybe he was shot by one of the other humans, or maybe he burned up in the fire, or—”

“Until I see a body, that bastard’s alive in my book,” Nesse interjected. “The good news is whatever he was working on has been set back quite a bit. Which sucks because I want to know what he was working on.”

“Yeah, that monster he had roaming the halls scared the shit outta me,” Terran said.

Nesse shot an evil look his way but said nothing.

Brandy patted the Genial’s back. “Do you think the dragons could tell us something about the experiments?”

“I’m not asking them to relieve that shit,” Nesse replied. “They suffered enough.”

“Excuse me,” Aeris said, quickly rising and leaving the room. The conversation was making her uncomfortable.

It hit too close to home, especially now that things had slowed down and she could think about the reality.

That was the fate she narrowly avoided, a questionably worse version of the life she once lived.

At least those dragons knew what was happening to them, she thought. They weren’t being fed lies.

Her tail twitched, but she quickly held it still to keep from hitting anything.

Why are humans such liars? Why do they hate us so much? What did we ever do to them?

The sound of clicking claws made her turn around. Nesse strode up alongside her.

“Sorry, I just wanted to make sure you weren’t sneaking off again,” the Genial said with a smile. Her expression turned somber as she added, “For the record, I’m not mad at you. But with everything going on, you really cannot sneak off by yourself. After what happened in Diamus, I thought you learned your lesson.”

“Diamus wasn’t my fault,” Aeris replied softly.

“Aeris, we’ve been through this. Tanor is all in your head. Whatever she did, that was you. It was all you.”

Aeris dropped her head. There was no denying it now. She still tasted the blood on her tongue despite Tanor being the one who killed that human.

But if that was true, it meant all those people dying in Diamus was her fault as well. The thought made her want to sit down.

Nesse nuzzled her, bringing her back to reality. “Listen, I talked to Lanry, and he said it will clear up in a few weeks. It’s just your mind trying to make sense of everything. You’ll be okay.”

“But what if I’m not?”

“You will. As much as I hated it, you still worried about our safety and well-being. That’s proof you’ll be fine.”

She motioned for Aeris to follow her as she continued down the hall.

Aeris followed.

Nesse led her to a small room. It didn’t contain much, just a large bed, nightstand, and a small dresser.

“Lanry set some rooms aside for us,” Nesse said before nudging Aeris into the room. “This one’s yours. Go ahead and get some sleep.”

She didn’t want to sleep, but her body felt heavy. Each step was like walking through deep snow. Slowly, she climbed onto bed. As if sensing the cushioning, her legs gave out and she collapsed on her side.

With her back to the door, she didn’t see Nesse leave but heard the door closing and the receding clicking of claws in the hallway.

Aeris lay there, letting her thoughts drift. She thought about everything that happened in her life and how it all led to this point. It occurred to her she didn’t know what to do or where to go next.

The door opened followed by Janine’s voice. “Hey, I figured I’d let you know I’m gonna be startin’ dinner soon. Lanry’s in love with my cookin’. He even said he wanna hire me as his personal chef!”

“That’s nice.”

Silence. Then the bed shifted slightly from an increase in weight. Aeris felt Janine press against her back and drape and an arm across her shoulder in a very awkward one-armed hug.

“I ain’t say it before, but thank you for comin’ for me. When they took us, I was so scared that Aaron had found us, and he was gonna use us to draw you out and hurt you. I ain’t want you to come lookin’ for us. I wanted you to run and save yourself.” She took a deep breath and shifted closer. “But then when I saw you again, I was so happy. I was so glad to see you again.”

Aeris said nothing.

She began to feel wetness on her back.

“But then I told you to go save Windor not thinkin’ for a moment somethin’ could happen to you. When I saw you were gone, I was so scared I’d never see you again. I thought we’d get there and you would already be…be…”

Aeris rose and spun around. Janine had curled into a ball, tears flowing freely down her face. Aeris laid in front of her, curling her tail behind the teen and draping a wing over her. Janine buried her face in Aeris’ chest and sobbed loudly.

“I did it again!” Janine cried. “First, at the Dracaena’s temple, and now this! I keep puttin’ you at risk all because I ain’t thinkin’! I’m supposed to be helpin’, not givin’ you more to worry about!”

Aeris placed her chin on top of Janine’s head and shushed her.

“It’s okay, Janine. I’m not mad at you. It’s not your fault. If anything I should be sorry. You gave up your life for me, and how many times has something happened to you because of me? I’ve done a terrible job of protecting you.”

Janine shook her head. “And I’d do it again in a heartbeat. It ain’t right. You ain’t hurt nobody; you deserve to have somebody in your corner.”

“Well, I’m glad that somebody is you.”

A slow nod was Janine’s reply. Aeris pulled her closer and they lay in silence until Janine’s harsh snoring filled the room.

Aeris sighed in contentment. It had been too long since she heard that sound. Suddenly her eyelids felt heavy. She didn’t try to fight the fatigue and drifted off to sleep.