Cassandra Pendragon
Silence was the only response he received for a while. Viyara had decidedly turned much paler while the rest of us were lost in thought.
"What happens if she simply stays away until she's strong enough to fight her own battles?" I finally asked. "We can hide her, between your and Mephisto's expertise there shouldn't be a dragon under the sun who can find her." Before Ignus could even reply, Viyara vehemently shot me down.
"No way, I've been hiding long enough! I… I'm not going to sit around in a cave any longer, like a treasure behind glass. I thought you'd understand… you just said… If you don't want to deal with who I am, just say the word. I'll find a way to get through this without troubling you!" I was taken aback, especially when I saw the tears glistening in her eyes. She was more than upset, she was trembling with anger and disappointment. What had I said?
Damn it… I had forgotten she was barely more than a child and my question had sounded like I wanted to get rid of her and the burdens she carried. Like I wanted to dump her somewhere until she could solve her problems on her own, now that I had heard just how difficult it might become.
"You silly…," I didn't finish my sentence, instead I quickly crossed the distance between us and pulled her into my arms. I felt her stiffen. "Don't you ever think that." I smacked the back of her head softly. "I just told you, I'd love to have you with me and I don't care about your baggage. Didn't you listen? I meant it." She relaxed a bit but when she spoke, it was more of a sniffle.
"I… I know, it's just… I'm sorry. When I imagined all of you flying away while I was left behind on some dead rock, I… I can't. Don't do that to me, ever. Please."
"I won't, I promise." There I went again. But this time I had no second thoughts. When I felt another band settle in around my core and Viyara's presence drew closer to my mind, I smiled.
"There, signed and sealed." When I pulled her deeper into my embrace, the tension left her body and her head came to rest against my shoulder. A moment later I felt my mom move as she shuffled across and slung her tails around the girl. "You're not alone," I whispered. She squeezed me tightly as her tears began to fall in earnest. Mordred had been right, she was a mess.
"Oh my, I think I'm going to puke…" a resounding slap cut Mephisto off. When I looked over my shoulder I saw him rubbing the back of his neck while Ahri winked at me. Good, for a second I had been worried that she might have taken offence at my promise since she admittedly had a right to be included in my decisions. I hadn't promised anything far reaching or impactful, but still… well, she seemed to be on board either way.
I gently stroked Viyara's back before I asked: "Better?" It took her a while to calm down but she eventually struggled out of my arms and nodded. "Sorry, again," she mumbled.
"Don't. I shouldn't have asked after you had stated explicitly that you want to come with us." I lowered my voice to barely a whisper no one but her could hear. "What do you want to do?"
"I… I want my own name, but I don't think I can carry the weight alone. I'm dependent on either your or Ignus' help and I don't think that would work. If I am challenged, there won't be much I'll be able to do, provided I even make it past the trials…"
"What if we joined you? Ahri and me, that is. We could become a formal part of your family and I imagine we could always help you out, in that case."
"You'd do that?" She asked loudly and perked up.
"I'll have to talk with her, or course, but I don't see why not. We are already tied together anyways and I won't complain if I can use your name. As for the influence you might gain on us, your word being binding and all that… I don't particularly care and I don't expect it to be that impactful with us, truth be told." My mom used that moment to sink her claws into my shoulder.
"What," I asked and turned my head in her direction. "It's not like a draconic name would change who I am or what I call myself. I'll still be your daughter, I'll still be a Pendragon."
"Actually," Viyara said quietly, "if I'm allowed to and you don't want to use it yourself, I'd like to adopt your name. That way I could be come as much a part of your family as you would a part of mine. Also… Do you know what Pendragon means?" I was too surprised to answer for a moment. "Uh… something along the lines of supreme leader? Why?"
"True, but in its original translation it means more than or all of the dragons," Ignus interjected. He had picked up on the last part of our conversation since we hadn't bothered to keep our voices down. "It's not a name I've ever encounter among the lesser species and no dragon would be allowed to carry it, not anymore. I can't help but wonder… how much do you know about your family's history?"
"Not much. We lost the truly old records during the cataclysm," I replied. "My… my father knew several legends but I was never overly interested in ancient tales. Maybe my mother or brother remember some of it," I added with a shrug. "But you'd have to ask them."
"I don't think that'd help too much. You'd know what I'm referring to, trust me. But I'd be very interested in a drop of blood from your brother. Yours won't be of much use, neither will your mother's, even if she wasn't transformed. You're carrying you father's name, I assume? There's a story… did you know that almost every human beast hybrid was, in one way or another, created or formed by draconic magic?" I nodded, Viyara had told me before.
"Well, if you believe in legends, it wasn't several of us but one dragon, or rather one family. The Pendragons, as you might have guessed by now. It's a myth but I've seen too many legends come to life today to discard it offhandedly. As the story goes, they had the ability to change into any form they wished. Dragons come in a variety of shapes, mainly we are distinguished by our colours, which also signify how powerful we are and what kind of magic we are most proficient with. What you're born with, you're stuck with. Not for them though, they could change their hide and magic, possibly their carbuncle, as they wished and as such were a combination of every dragon race alive, a pen-dragon. Incidentally, that's what brought me to look into the hybridisation of dragons in the first place, but I digress. You might already have guessed where I'm going with this, their magic bled into the creatures they shared their lairs with, humans and beasts alike and over time, the first beast kin appeared. The interesting part: your people, the fox tribe, weren't among them. I can't remember what supposedly happened, you'd have to talk to someone much better versed in our lore than me, but the Pendragon family vanished and the beast kin spread across the world, right about the same time the first kitsune tribes appeared. And now I'm meeting a royal family of that tribe, that carries the name Pendragon…"
Huh, another revelation that didn't particularly impact… wait. He had said that the name Pendragon couldn't be used by dragons anymore but Viyara had still proposed to adopt it. I'd bet my tails that the two dragons had talked about it before I had arrived and now we had finally gotten to that point. Which meant…
"For your people, is Pendragon a name or a title?" I asked.
Ignus cleared his throat in a very human gesture before he answered: "both. As you might imagine, the ability to shift from one species of dragons to the next and use their innate magic grants quite a bit of power. Consequentially they had been the closest thing we ever had to a ruling dynasty, again, if the legend is based on facts. But even if it isn't, the name, from its meaning alone, still conveys a claim to hold the reins over dragon kind and thus is never used. Many have tried and all have been slain consequentially for their hubris. If Viyara were to adopt it, she'd also proclaim her superiority, which is incidentally supported by her shifting and the changes you wrought on her. She is what the name stands for. Even though she's lacking the experience and age to back it up."
"You're smart, I'll give you that. Do you hope to turn Viyara, to turn us, into a stepping stone for your own aspirations?" A picture had begun to form in my mind and if I was right, he wouldn't be the selfless grandfather and scientist he had made himself out to be. If Viyara were to forge our name, he stood to gain much by association and the role he played in her creation. I didn't know if he had arrived here with that intention but I was willing to bet that he had wanted her to adopt my name from the moment he had heard it. Retrospectively I should have seen it earlier, it was obvious that he had told her about it while they had been alone. Viyara hadn't reacted the first time she had heard my name and now she suddenly knew its meaning? There was only one explanation, he had told her. If so, then why hadn't they just come out and asked? I could only imagine that he had wanted to make sure we'd be onboard before he shared the knowledge. For us the question was, would that bring more grief than it was worth?
"Definitely, but why should that be a problem? You're interested in gaining enough influence to convince some dragons to help in the coming war, are you not? Your name can turn out to be a huge boon, especially if combined with Viyara's unique abilities."
"A boon you say… isn't it more likely that it will turn into a curse? She'll be even more valuable with a proclaimed legacy like that and the ones who hadn't been sure if she's worth the trouble would stand in line to claim her. Not to mention that every one who looks into her past will quickly realise where her name is coming from. We are no dragons in disguise, neither royal, nor of any other kind…"
"You don't know that," he interrupted. "That's why I want some of your family's undiluted blood. I wouldn't be surprised if you were closer tied to us than you think. It's just too much of a coincidence, wouldn't you agree? But whether your the long lost descendants of an extinct draconic line or not, she definitely is. Maybe not by blood but by abilities."
He paused to refill his tankard. "It's fitting for her to claim the name and in a very round about way, she already has. When you transformed her carbuncle, you made her a part of you, inadvertently I'm sure, but it doesn't change the fact. She's a part of you and you're a Pendragon… you've asked me before what I'd do in your stead? That's my answer. Help your friend claim a long lost title which might allow her to convince a draconic army to come to your aid."
I turned to Viyara. "And that's really what you want? You do know that you can also go with something like "Smith", right? You won't have to deal with any of it, if you don't want to."
"That's not true," she replied. "I'm going to be hunted either way, you heard him. We'll have to fight and in that case, I'd rather have something to gain." She switched to telepathy.
"And I'm sorry. While you and Mephisto talked, Ignus told me the meaning of your name. I didn't know before, nor have I lied. I never told him about you. He just figured it out while he was listening."
I answered in equal silence: "That's not what's bugging me, but I have to wonder… why the tears? We're you trying to manipulate me?"
"Never! Cassandra, I swear!" She didn't have to go on, I felt the truth in the ice cold panic that raced through her. She wasn't afraid that she had been caught, she was dreading the possibility that I might come to believe her even capable of that. "I… I can't tell you what came over me, ever since you vanished I've felt… lost. The idea of being left behind, even though I knew you wouldn't, just… I've been afraid and I feel… guilty. You have enough problems as it is without me and still… I guess I'm always half expecting you to run and when you were gone, it felt like you had. My family, Barzuk and then you… I thought I was fine when we got you back, but then you asked about hiding me away. Everything rose back up in a flash and I… I just crumbled."
Through our link I felt barely restraint emotions swirling through her mind, like thunder clouds on a storm, and I knew she was barely holding it together. Damn it, I had been an insensitive jerk, once again. A little mistrust was surely warranted but I had to stop questioning my friends at every turn.
I ignored her weak protest and pulled her back into my arms. "I'm sorry," I whispered. "I know, or rather I should have." For a moment I wondered what she truly saw in me to warrant this reaction. A surrogate mother or father? Was she falling for me? In the end it didn't matter. She was a child who had placed her trust in me and I would start to honour that. The least I could do was return the gesture. "You're not alone," I repeated quietly.
She ceased her struggle and relaxed against me for a few seconds. "Thank you," she mumbled, before she pushed me back. Her eyes were glittering with tears but she managed a small smile when she stepped away.
"Alright," I said loudly. "Ignus, Mephisto, I know the two of you are dying to prove that you're the wisest, most educated and most grumpy. Why don't you give us girls a minute, while you figure it out?"
"You want to get rid of us?!" Both of them sounded equally offended and cranky.
"Yes. Or is your last name Pendragon? Or do you maybe want to adopt it, too?"
"Why does she get to stay?" Mephisto asked and pointed at Ahri.
"A million reasons but mostly because she's already a part of my family in all but name and that might change. I know your curious but I swear, if you eavesdrop I'll strangle you within an inch of your life."
"Promises, promises," he said lecherously but never the less threw an arm around Ignus' shoulders. "Come on then, my quadrupedal friend. Let's leave the peasants behind." The barrels, of course, rose into the air in their wake and followed them towards the other side of the clearing.
"Viyara, if you'd be so kind?" She quickly linked our minds so that my mom would be able to join the conversation.
"No," she immediately blurted out. "I'm sorry child, I like you and you've already proven that you're more than just a friend to my daughter, but you're not going to be the one who wields our name. Cassandra, you should know very well that I can't allow that. It might not mean much at the moment, but it's still the name of our family. Especially if it has a meaning among the draconic races that might be tied to us, I'll not stand by while someone else controls what it stands for."
"Why," I asked. "What does it matter?"
"Damn it, Cassandra! Just this morning we've talked about it. It matters because you want to keep the responsibility for what is left of our people. It matters because you're a princess and because you have two brothers, one of which is trying to build a home, a kingdom under our name. It matters because you'll have to stand by who you are, if you want to change the future."
Before I could reply, Viyara interjected:
"Then, what if she were to forge the name and I would join her? Could you live with that? Your family would become recognised among the dragons and your blood would still be in control."