The icy stone floors bit into Vipin's bare feet. Ajlen noticed her walking on the balls of her feet, on her tiptoes, her heels, the side of her soles on rotation to try to keep them warm, almost slipping down the stairs multiple times from it. Liam had noticed too, trying to keep her supported to prevent her from slipping.
When they reached a landing - directed into a tunnel they weren't going to head down - Ajlen scooped her up in his arms. She started to protest trying to wiggle her way out of his grasp, but Liam shot her a chastising look that he mainly reserved for his siblings, so she settled with a disgruntled look on her face, ears pinned to the sides of her head.
She hadn't quite figured out how to feel about this new elf, or what his motives were. But he was keeping distance between her and Ryland, which was something she was grateful for. He was also currently carrying her through a mountain because she was freezing and exhausted, and he was so warm she had to keep herself from drifting off. Her head starting to lean against his chest before she had to pull herself from her near slumber.
He reminded her a bit of Rheagon, reserved but openly kind, so she decided he was alright. For now.
Oasid led them back to the hot springs, opening the door for them, Ajlen setting her down in front of a spring, the warmth stinging the bottom of her feet. The air almost too hot for her now that she had been so cold, nearly burning her skin. "I'll be back soon with a change of clothes for you," Oasid nodded to her and left the room.
Vipin folded her jacket and put it off to the side of one of the springs, sinking herself into the water. Liam undressed himself and sat across from her.
"Able to bathe two days in a row? We're being spoiled."
Vipin laughed, itching her eyes with her hands but causing dirt and ash to get into them making them itchy.
"How're you feeling?" He asked softly.
"Tired," she responded meekly.
"Have you ever used magic before?" Ryland asked curiously, lowering himself into the spring across from them.
"Mnmm," she mumbled, shaking her head, much too tired to snap back at him for this morning.
"Well," Ajlen started, sitting himself at the edge of the spring crossing his legs. "You used a lot of it today. It would make sense that you're exhausted."
Vipin looked down at the ash disintegrating in the water, off of her hands. She rubbed them together gently, watching the underwater cloud form. She could feel their eyes on her, waiting for something but she didn't know what. That seemed to be the common theme of the recent events, strangers expecting things from her before she understood or even knew what they were.
She dipped her face under the water rubbing it clean of dirt with her hands. Her hair fell into the water, she pushed It back from her face. She tried to use her fingers to comb through the knots, unable to untangle a single strand, considering cutting it off once Echo was returned to her. But the thought was gone as quickly as it came.
Once, during her training when she was younger, she was determined to cut her hair. It was a nuisance, getting tangled and in her face, she could never seem to keep it tamed enough to stay pulled back. It was agitating to say the least and it was getting in her way.
She was already in front of the mirror, blade to her locks when her father came into the room. He took four quick paces and snatched the knife from her hand.
He sat her down and gently explained that she couldn't cut her hair, because it was tradition in her mother's family to grow it long. That it signified strength and wisdom, courage and kindness. It would be important to her mother and her mother's family and by extension it was now important to her father.
Her father was the most important thing in her entire life. She was important to Vipin's father, who was the most important thing in her life, and that made her important to Vipin by proxy. So, she never gave it more than a second's thought.
She tried again to run her hands through her hair, cursing herself as she remembered that night. Her father had been telling her who her mother was her whole life, she was just too dull to put the pieces together. He lied to you, it's not your responsibility to put pieces of half-truths together, she reminded herself, trying to rip her fingers through her hair. Even just trying to untangle the mess started the familiar feeling of irritation behind her rib cage.
"Do you want some help?" Ajlen asked his eyebrow raised.
For a moment she wanted to snap a crisp "no", but she pursed her lips before it slipped out. Ajlen had been nothing short of kind in the few hours they'd spent together; keeping a barrier between her and the Nixan Elf who had an unknown vendetta against her and carrying her down steep narrow steps to the hot springs when her feet were freezing. It would be rude to snap at him, as well as in poor taste. It wasn't she wasn't making any progress on the rats' nest herself.
"Please," she asked defeated. Ajlen gave her a small smile, he tossed his jacket next to hers, taking off his boots and rolling up his sleeves and pant legs. After he pulled out a small tooth that was carved into a wide toothed comb out of his breast pocket. He sat behind her, his legs on either side of her back, and grabbed the pitcher next to the washing rags filling it with water.
"So, what was it like?" He asked pouring the water over her head.
"What was what like?" She asked the warm water falling down her back.
"The trial." Vipin bit her lip, looking at Liam for guidance. However, while he wasn't going to ask himself, his face had curiosity written across it.
"Well..."
Vipin held her breath eyes squeezed shut, waiting for the silence death would bring. Soft, warm, caressing death; but it never came. She was so sure that the fire had swallowed her, the roar in the air implicated as much. Perhaps it was around her, but not quite touching her? Ryland said this would take seconds, it was taking much longer than that. Perhaps they were tormenting her, waiting until she thought she would make it out alive to engulf her in the flames.
Finally, she couldn't stand the unknown any longer, peeking through one of her eyes. She gasped in surprise; she was in the fire. Her clothes nothing more than ash around her, the fire's warm tendrils wrapping around her ensuring she didn't freeze at the base of the mountains.
"I'm alive!" she shouted in victory, but the fire swallowed the words as if she hadn't spoken them. She looked around but there was nothing she could see past the swirling red and orange around her. Her eyes drifted upward looking for the yellow peaks of the flames, but she couldn't see them, the heat of the flames surging around her keeping their tips out of her reach.
She was fine, and she was alive. "I'm going to make it!" She laughed into the dancing colors around her, so bright they were starting to blind her.
"No, we're trying to see if you can hatch the egg," Oasid's voice echoed in her head. How was she supposed to do that? And what if she couldn't? Her thoughts drifted to Liam and knew she had no choice.
"Just stay focused on bringing it to life. Stay focused and your magic should do the rest," Zaoron echoed in her ears again.
She looked down at the golden egg in her arms, the reflection of the fire gave it an almost holy glow. So, I just... Think about it really hard... I guess. So, she squeezed it to her chest and closed her eyes as she tried to think as hard as she could about the hatchling waiting under the shell coming to life. About what color it would be, what size and shape it would be, its eyes the way the flames would glint off of its scales. If it would cry like a baby, if it would bite her, if it would even like her.
She hoped it would, otherwise their predicament would become rather uncomfortable.
But soon her thoughts became something almost tangible she could feel in the bottom of her stomach. She could almost feel its weight in her arms, its claws in her skin. She needed this dragon to hatch, but even deeper than that she wanted that dragon to hatch. She wished she could just will the hatchling to life, to quell her curiosity of what it would look like, what it would be like.
Vipin wanted it so bad, and she was focusing on it so hard, that when she heard a crack in her arms her heart skipped a beat. She clenched her teeth with dread, her eyes still closed. No, no, no, no! I broke it! Now, even though she was fireproof, she'd still failed, she crushed the egg and now it would never hatch, and she had ruined it all. She and Liam were going to die up here. She would never get to warn her father of the monster down south. Liam would never see his brothers again. Their families would never know what happened to them, or where they were. They would simply blink out of existence.
She peeked out from the bottom of her eye down at the disaster she caused. A light blue glow was seeping out of the thin crack down the side of it. She gave a small laugh, excitement flowing through her body like a bolt of lightning. Something was happening. She had no idea what it was or how she was doing it, but she was. The glow started to gradually fade as she lost her concentration. Slamming her eyes closed she recentered her thoughts back on giving life to the egg.
It felt like days, Vipin hadn't opened her eyes since the first crack in the egg, and there had many since. She wasn't sure how long time had spanned since the last crack and the first, but it was taking a long time. She wasn't sure if she'd fallen asleep, but she was certain she hadn't. She was too tired to have fallen asleep.
Once in a long while she would wonder how she would even know when the egg was hatched. How she would know when the egg was hatched? She shouldn't let her thoughts stray too far, afraid whatever magic she was producing would stop and she would fail. And she couldn't fail. But that kept her thinking about how worried about if she was going to fail and it kept scaring her, trying to think about concentrating more which kept her thoughts constantly circling until she was calmed by another crack.
She was certain she could force herself to stay awake for a few more hours when she heard a chirp from below her. She blinked, the fire still harshly shining in her eyes. But she saw it, eyes pink as rose water and scales the color of liquid sun fire. It looked up at her tilting its head and chirping at her again.
She covered her mouth with one of her hands as she laughed tears in her eyes. I did it! My gods I did it! The dragon stretched its jaw and snapped it shut again crawling on her lap. The eggshells disintegrated on her lap, dusting her with ash. It walked in a circle around her lap pressing itself against her torso.
She smiled, cradling it in her arms and pulling it closer to her. She pulled up her knees pressing her forehead against her them.
"You don't know this, but you just saved my life," she chuckled at the winged lizard in her lap. It cooed at her licking her chin. "Well, I suppose we saved each other," she smiled, and it looked like it gave an impression of a smile back.
The crisp cold of mountain air bit into her skin, but she didn't move content to just look at the little creature who looked like it might fall asleep in her arms. She heard footsteps sprinting up to them, but she didn't dare move, almost worried she was dreaming.
"Vip? Are you okay?" Liam's shout carried over to her.
It took less than a minute to relive the memory. Liam was still looking at her expectantly his eyebrows raised. "Well," she started over. "How long did it take?"
"A little over six hours," Liam answered quickly.
"I'm surprised he doesn't have it down to the second," Ajlen jested pouring another jug of water over her head.
"Why?" Liam asked her, ignoring him.
"Well, it felt like days."
"That makes sense, you were expending more energy than you probably ever have," Ajlen added.
"I wouldn't put coin on that," Liam smirked. "She's a nightmare to train with."
Ajlen snorted and sectioned parts of Vipin's hair. "Was it hot? Because it was too hot for us to stand anywhere near it."
Vipin shook her head, "No, no it was nice. Like being wrapped in a blanket next to the hearth on a cold winter's morning. That sounds like I'm going insane," she sighed, realizing that if anyone ever said that to her, she would send them to Grace to get checked out. She pressed a wet rag onto her eyes, willing the logic in the events of the day to come to her.
"It does," Ajlen confirmed tugging at ends of the section he had in his hands. Vipin sighed and Liam waded over next to her sitting down.
"How'd you do it?" He asked quietly.
"What?"
"Hatch the dragon."
Vipin looked over at him and her eyebrows furrowed together. "I just... did. Zaoron said to just... just focus on bringing it to life. So, that's what I did. I just, thought about it really hard until I wanted it to hatch and then, slowly but surely, it did."
"That egg has been still born for centuries," Ryland added softly. Surprise made Vipin jump, forgetting the Nixan Elf was with them. They turned their heads to look at him and his eyes were already fixed on her, awe swirling in their storms. "So, I guess it doesn't really matter how you got it to hatch. It's nothing short of a miracle that you were able to, really."
Vipin's face grew red, and she quickly spun back around. Was he taunting her? She ignored the thought and started to scrub the ash and dirt off of her arms.
"So, why "Callum"?" asked Ajlen starting to comb through another section of her hair, ignoring the comment from the elf behind them.
Vipin's heart skipped a beat, looking at Liam who gave her a sad smile. "It's what Alexander wanted to name his son, if he ever had one."
Liam's chest gave its own squeeze around his heart. "Callum for a boy, Clerease if it's a girl. But only if their mom says it's okay obviously!" Alex had said. He, Liam, Bran, and Vipin had been sent out to the woods outside of Aurum to find the wild animal – a bear - that was terrorizing the outer city and the farmland. They exchanged a couple bottles of a local farmer's wine and laughed. Vipin asked him if he was ever going to talk to Lady Hampshire or if he was just going to talk about their hypothetical children the rest of their lives. Everyone laughed, one of the last times they all got to do that before they realized the war in the north was going to last until winter.
"Whose Alexander," the elf asked lightly, unaware of the rough terrain he was treading.
"A friend," she answered simply, her voice far more distant than her body. A friend, the word seemed too simple to really describe who Alex was to her. How underwhelming friend seemed when she tried to fold all of him up to fit into it.
"Where is he? I bet he'd want to know all about this." Ajlen prodded, not picking up on Vipin's obvious unease.
"He would, he knew there was a dragon out there before any of us," Vipin conceded. "But he's dead," she added shortly her ears pinning to the sides of her head.
"Oh," Ajlen whispered, his own ears drooping. He clenched his hands behind her, unable to figure out how to proceed. He looked over at Liam who met his eyes for a moment, but his gaze fell back onto the half elf in front of them. He wouldn't find help there. "I'm sorry," he added lamely. His chest twitched uneasily, common needed a new phrase to really encapsulate grief. "I'm sorry" wasn't enough, it was overused by people who didn't understand its meaning when they said it. Made the people who said it dull to the sound, his "I'm sorry," fell on deaf ears because it wasn't half the statement it was supposed to be.
"It's not your fault," Vipin said. No, it's yours, a small voice echoed in the back of her mind. She took a deep breath closing her eyes. Another pitcher of water was poured over her head, and she willed the water to wash the thoughts away. She started scrubbing at her skin until it turned pink, Ajlen pulled at her hair on her scalp, but she paid it no mind. She heard the door open, but she didn't move, she knew everyone's eyes were on her. She could feel their gazes piercing her skin, but she was too tired to answer any more questions when she didn't really understand the answers. She felt the hole in her chest ripping itself back open.
"There, that should be better," Ajlen said dusting his hands off, his legs rising out of the water. Vipin saw two braids draped over her shoulders, raising her hands to her head she felt as the two braids raised out of her scalp starting from her hair line folding themselves back.
"Thank you," she smiled looking back at Ajlen who was drying off his feet to put back in his shoes. Ajlen smiled back at her grabbing his jacket and tossing his own braids back over his shoulder.
Someone cleared their throat behind her, and she turned to see that Oasid and Thereiss had joined them. Oasid smiled and held a new pair of clothes out to her, identical to the ones she was wearing when she entered the courtyard, and a new set of boots. She raised herself out of the water, grabbing a towel and drying herself off. She hadn't noticed that Liam and Ryland had exited the springs when the door had opened, already pulling their shirts over their head. Her cheeks grew warm, and she hurriedly rubbed herself dry and started pulling on the clothes Oasid provided her.
Vipin was just putting her head through the collar when Thereiss spoke, "You two, come with me." She expected him to be talking about Ajlen and Ryland, but when she looked up, he was staring directly at her. His pale eyes shifted over to Liam who was watching them cautiously.
"Wait!" Vipin exclaimed her body already floating over in front of Liam. Gripped with panic, her heart somehow dropping to her hips and racing in place at the same time.
"Ser Vipin -" Oasid started.
"You said we would live!" She cried her feet tripping over each other.
"And you are," Oasid whispered, his hand reaching for her shoulder. "This isn't a punishment, or an execution Vipin." She was nearly panting her eyes darting from Oasid to Thereiss. "I told you I would ask Veluthil for help with Liam's arm."
It took her a moment to register his words her eyebrows furrowing together before her entire face loosened with recognition. "Oh," she whispered.
Ajlen bit his lip trying to stifle his laughter and Ryland rolled his eyes behind Oasid. Liam smiled walking up next to her and grabbing her shoulder. "I told you, paranoid," he whispered in her ear.