Brain is Musty...: Ficlet O'Clock Truth or Dare

[scribblemyname]

This entry is part 35 of 35 in the series 365 Challenge

The current prompts are leaving me dull and uninspired. Seeking creative procrastination: ask me any question about how something works in a storyworld, a why that's been pestering you, or any backstory you just really want to know, and I'll commentfic it.

If that doesn't inspire you, how about a character (original or fandom) and something crazy you would dare them to do.

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Originally published at Liana Mir. You can comment here or there.

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Re: Blood of Dragons [2/3] - apparently I miscounted

[scribblemyname]

“You’ve been quiet lately,” he finally said then looked away and hung his staff on the wall in its place. He held out his hand and she took it to go in beside him. His fingers flicked up unconsciously. The torches in the stone stairway lit.

She could not do as little, to burn only what was needed. Her hand clenched on his before she could stop herself.

He turned to her in surprise and realizing the futility of saying nothing, she went on while she was still brave.

“I’m a dragon, father,” she said, chin lifted, daring him to deny her. He was so very Vardin with his dark blonde hair, his mastery of his normal gifts, and she looked like her mother, Shaina, who was powerful enough to claim abstention, the right to simply abstain from using her gifts unless life and blood were at stake. Akena looked like a daughter of the mountains with her golden skin and black hair inherited from Shaina. She breathed fire. She felt the burning rolling out from under here skin whenever she felt anger, joy, anything. She sensed clomen as another heard sound. She was a dragon like the dragons of the mountains and unbound. By law, that made her rogue.

Her father’s eyes seemed to burn into her, even in this shadowed passageway. He reached out and brushed her long hair from her face himself, hand lingering gently. “You are my daughter,” he said at last. “You are a daughter of Britak.” He shook his head. “Even Alyón has dragons.” His birth House and one which produced the guardians most favored for national service by the Queen.

It wasn’t enough. It wasn’t enough to be told that he too breathed fire when he was not feared by the very people he had sworn to protect. It wasn’t enough.

She shook her head, opened her mouth to speak and—

Voice sharpened, he silenced her. “Not all dragons are rogue.” He turned his back and continued on.

After a moment, she followed.

~

Mother found her in the morning. Akena stood leaning over her sword, palm pressed against the hilt, hilt pressed into the warm earth on the hill looking up toward the mountains. Akena did not have to turn to see Shaina Casal out of Britak, the most powerful kahtchen they had ever known, approach behind her. She could feel that hum of power reaching out to embrace her. They called her mother Universe, for she could destroy one.

“Mother,” Akena said softly, staring into the swirling sigils etched into her steel. “Am I wrong?”

Silence stretched. She had expected as much. Shaina never answered before thought. Akena had long practice in patience and she exercised it now, waiting until at last her mother came and settled on the ground beside her, traced one finger lightly over the symbols on her sword.

“When I was four, I glimmered,” Shaina began.

Akena turned sharply to listen, for her mother had never spoken of how she gained her gifts or control of them.

“Sometimes, the most powerful gifteds glimpse their power before it is theirs,” Shaina went on. “I did that. I touched my mother and she grew very pale and very sick. When I was older, I learned I could never touch anyone again without taking away their life.”

Akena knew it. She had touched her mother and been amazed at the strangeness of how it felt to be healed and drained at the same time.

“But—” Shaina stood, taking up the sword out of the earth and wielding it knowledgeably. “I also learned that mastery, hard won, is worth much.”