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#Shorts
#Short_Drama
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#Short_Drama
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Short filmTranscript
00:00My cousin Sarah and I were both given to the Dragon Court.
00:03I went to the firstborn, Aldric.
00:04She went to the second son, Dorian.
00:06A year later, Sarah bore a white dragon.
00:09While I came out, nine, ugly, malformed, nothing resembling a dragon.
00:13The Dragon King cared deeply about appearances.
00:15He named Dorian his heir on the spot.
00:18Aldric, in his fury, handed all nine of my children to the Phoenix Court as blood catalysts, me along with
00:23them.
00:24If I marry Sarah, the throne will be mine.
00:27I couldn't survive the shame.
00:29I walked into the Sacred Flame and let it take me.
00:31He didn't know.
00:32Sarah was hybrid.
00:33I was pure.
00:34My children had been ugly because they took after him.
00:36When I opened my eyes, I was back on Selection Day.
00:39Aldric, Dorian, the Fox Clan has sent two.
00:43Each of you choose.
00:44I understood immediately.
00:45I had been reborn.
00:46This life, I could not let Aldric choose me.
00:48But as I stood there scheming, Aldric walked past me with a look of distaste and pulled Sarah forward instead.
00:54I understood immediately.
00:55Aldric had been reborn too.
00:57I reached for Sarah's hand, shook my head at her.
00:59The Dragon King wasn't a tyrant of these things.
01:02If she refused, she could go home.
01:04Sarah yanked her hand away.
01:05Liar.
01:06Satisfaction dripped from her voice.
01:08Don't tell me you're jealous that Aldric chose me.
01:10The Dragon Court passed its throne the same way most courts did.
01:13Bloodline first, then birth order.
01:16Aldric and Dorian were both sons of the Dragon Queen.
01:18Aldric had precedence.
01:20Sarah was blinded by the crown she thought she could see.
01:22I cursed her silently for a fool, then let her go.
01:25If Aldric took Sarah, that left me with Dorian.
01:28Except Dorian refused on the spot.
01:30Father, I'm not ready for a consort.
01:32I blinked, touched my face.
01:34I really wasn't that bad.
01:36Fine, go home.
01:37Find a fox-blooded man who actually deserved me.
01:39I was pleasantly imagining exactly that when a figure stepped out from the back of the hall.
01:44He wore a mask.
01:45Two short horns curled from his brow.
01:47Brother, did you forget I haven't taken a consort either?
01:50Brother, was this Caelan, the Dragon King's youngest sibling?
01:53Rumor had it the Dragon King doted on him.
01:56Had even once considered naming him heir.
01:58But Caelan was wild, unpredictable.
02:00Refused to take consort or sire children.
02:03The idea was shelved.
02:04He hadn't appeared in my first life at all.
02:06Caelan strolled toward me, easy and unhurried.
02:08His dark eyes fixed on me.
02:10Brother, she's beautiful.
02:11You let your sons choose first and didn't think of me?
02:14Hardly fair.
02:15The Dragon King called him an insufferable wretch and waved his hand.
02:18I was given to Caelan.
02:20Aldrich, still holding Sarah's arm, couldn't resist.
02:22Uncle, don't let her face fool you.
02:25Caelan's fingers locked around my wrist.
02:27His dark eyes sharpened instantly.
02:29Who I choose is not your business.
02:33Caelan brought me to his quarters.
02:34No intention of removing the mask.
02:37Not even that night.
02:38Alone, together.
02:38What surprised me more?
02:40He had no intention of sharing the bed.
02:42He placed a folded blanket down the center of the stone bed.
02:44Divided it precisely in two.
02:46You sleep on the inside.
02:48I'll take the outside.
02:49I sat there clutching my blanket, genuinely confused.
02:52Dragon men were known for their appetites.
02:54In my first life, Aldrich had been relentless.
02:57Illness didn't slow him.
02:58My discomfort didn't slow him.
03:00Was Caelan perhaps unable?
03:02He seemed to read my thoughts.
03:03His expression cooled.
03:04I married you because I pitted you.
03:06If I hadn't, do you know where you'd be right now?
03:09Aldrich had planned to have me killed again.
03:11He wasn't going to marry me, but he wasn't going to release me either.
03:14The moment I stepped outside the dragon court unattached, I would have been bound and delivered
03:18to the Phoenix Lord as a gift.
03:20Aldrich carried memories from our first life.
03:22He knew the Phoenix Lord wanted me.
03:24He intended to use that.
03:25The thought of what the Phoenix Lord did to the women in his court made me cold all over.
03:29That cold fear turned quickly into hatred.
03:31In our first life, Aldrich had bled my nine children dry.
03:34He had cornered me into the flame.
03:36Now, reborn, he still wasn't finished.
03:38How could something so brutal claim the right to rule?
03:41The thought followed me into sleep.
03:42Dawn.
03:43Kaelin pulled me up to pay morning respects to the Dragon King.
03:46I was still yawning when we arrived.
03:48Aldrich and Sarah were already there.
03:50Composed.
03:50Impeccable.
03:51Sarah looked radiant.
03:52Her legs were shaking slightly.
03:54Marks on her neck.
03:55A great many of them.
03:56I winced.
03:57That must have been brutal.
03:58Aldrich was rough even when welcomed.
04:00For Sarah's first time, she probably needed help getting out of bed.
04:03She caught my expression and mistook it for envy.
04:05She tugged her collar and leaned close.
04:07How was your night, Lyra?
04:09Word is, he didn't touch you at all.
04:11I glanced pointedly at her inner thighs.
04:14Worry about yourself, Sarah.
04:15She drew back with a huff.
04:17Enjoy it now.
04:18Wait until the king finishes with you.
04:20Sure enough.
04:21The Dragon King's voice came cold and measured.
04:23Kaelin, explain yourself.
04:26Kaelin looked entirely unbothered.
04:27Thought she was interesting yesterday.
04:30Changed my mind by evening.
04:31The Dragon King hurled his crystal goblet into the courtyard.
04:35Disgraceful.
04:35After the morning audience, the Dragon King summoned me privately.
04:39He wanted to know what had actually happened.
04:41I told him I'd been too shy.
04:43He studied me for a long time.
04:45Told me to give Kaelin an air soon.
04:47Then sent me on my way.
04:49I returned to find Kaelin waiting, frost in his eyes.
04:52What did he ask you?
04:53I told him everything.
04:54He was quiet for a moment.
04:56Then he told me to avoid private meetings with the Dragon King going forward.
05:00If anything came up, redirect it to him.
05:02It only deepened the mystery.
05:03The dynamic between these two was as unreadable as the mask Kaelin never removed.
05:08Before I could untangle any of it, news swept through the entire court.
05:12Sarah was with child.
05:13A golden light surrounded her belly.
05:15Aldrich was beside himself.
05:17He invited the whole court to witness at dawn.
05:19I was invited too.
05:20Of course.
05:21Sarah opened with a performance.
05:23She dropped the Dragon Pearl on the floor and smiled at me sweetly.
05:26Leia, I'm carrying Dragon Young.
05:29Could you pick that up for me?
05:30She was barely a month along.
05:32She could bend perfectly well.
05:33This was theater.
05:34The court watched with amusement.
05:36Aldrich joined in, implying I was a pretty bird who couldn't lay eggs.
05:40I was about to respond when a sharp gust lifted the pearl,
05:43knocked it against Sarah's face, and dropped it neatly back into her hand.
05:46Kaelin lowered his wrist.
05:48He looked at Sarah with no particular expression.
05:50Did you lose the use of your hands?
05:52Sarah burst into tears against Aldrich's chest.
05:54Aldrich, humiliated, redirected me.
05:57Uncle!
05:57She only asked her to pick something up.
05:59Why the outburst?
06:00Lyra's pretty, I'll give her that.
06:02But she can't even carry a dragon child.
06:03You're the only one who sees anything in her.
06:05Kaelin's response was immediate.
06:07She's beautiful, at least.
06:08The two of you are ugly and useless.
06:10That puts her ahead.
06:11Aldrich went white, then shifted into Dragon Pearl.
06:14He looked ferocious.
06:15He fought like a beginner.
06:16Kaelin played with him, barely tried.
06:18The court watched Aldrich crumble under what amounted to light sparring.
06:21And the question moved quietly through the room.
06:24Was this really the man meant to be king?
06:26Aldrich stopped before he could lose more thoroughly.
06:28He grabbed Sarah and walked out.
06:31When my white dragon is born and takes the throne, none of you will be laughing!
06:35Gone before anyone could point out he'd forgotten entirely about the golden light he'd summoned everyone to see.
06:40Aldrich didn't forget Slice.
06:43He waited until Kaelin was away and came for me.
06:45He wove mist across the back courtyard, trapping me on the hillside.
06:49Called wind and rain down until I was soaked through and shaking.
06:52Only then did he appear.
06:54He looked at me, drenched, and something greedy moved across his face.
06:57Lyra, he still hasn't touched you, hasn't he?
07:01He came toward me.
07:01I backed up.
07:02He seized my wrist.
07:03Your bloodline isn't quite right for a proper consort.
07:06But a secondary one?
07:08That could work.
07:09I slapped him.
07:10He grabbed me by the throat.
07:11I couldn't breathe.
07:12Then he let go.
07:13Even now, Kaelin's name keeps him from going all the way.
07:16When he finds out the only things you can produce are malformed little monsters, let's see how long he protects
07:21you.
07:21You're a low-clan princess, Lyra.
07:23When that day comes, I'll crush you like nothing.
07:26He didn't know.
07:26The clan he despised was about to ruin him completely.
07:29I cast my glamour.
07:30Between one breath and the next, we were standing in front of the Dragon King's council chamber.
07:35Every word Aldrich had just said had fallen on the Dragon King's ears.
07:38And the ears of every allied clan lord present.
07:41The Fox Clan was low-ranked, yes.
07:43But they were under Dragon Court protection.
07:45What Aldrich had said amounted to announcing, in public, that the Dragon Court held its subject clans in contempt.
07:51Not something a future king could afford to say aloud.
07:54The Dragon King's crystal scepter cracked against Aldrich's knees.
07:57You have deeply disappointed me.
07:59Aldrich hit the ground.
08:00His shoulders trembled.
08:01The Dragon King stripped him of his privileges and confined him to quarters.
08:05The air presumptive, favored of the court one hour ago, became invisible by afternoon.
08:09I had won cleanly.
08:11Caelan was furious.
08:12Do you understand how dangerous that was?
08:14What if he had actually killed you?
08:15He'd figured it out, of course.
08:17I had used an enchantment to lure Aldrich in deliberately.
08:20Revenge, yes, but also self-preservation.
08:22Aldrich wasn't going to leave me alone regardless.
08:25Better to move first.
08:26I hadn't consulted Caelan because he didn't know about my first life.
08:29He looked at me, soaking wet, and couldn't bring himself to say much more.
08:33He exhaled.
08:33Don't do something like that without telling me.
08:35I'm your husband.
08:37Protecting you is my responsibility.
08:39Something warm moved through my chest when he said it.
08:42Something I hadn't expected.
08:43Time moved quickly after that.
08:45The night Sarah went into labor, a storm rolled in.
08:48Lightning, black clouds, golden light pouring off the palace walls.
08:52The court's ritual seers declared it the sign of a golden dragon's birth.
08:55The dragon king got out of bed and went to Sarah's chambers to wait.
08:59I wasn't going to miss this.
09:01Aldrich's bloodline wasn't pure enough for a golden dragon.
09:04If that light was real, it wasn't his.
09:06Sarah labored all night.
09:07Dragon young or large.
09:08She screamed until dawn.
09:10Then the screaming stopped.
09:11The child was not brought out.
09:13The dragon king went by himself.
09:14What followed was a silence somehow worse than the screaming.
09:17Then came his order.
09:18Seal it.
09:20Tell no one.
09:21Word leaked anyway.
09:22It always does.
09:23Sarah had delivered something golden.
09:25It was not a dragon.
09:26A one-clawed golden serpent.
09:28A common golden serpent could, with enough medicine and time, be coaxed into dragon form.
09:33A one-clawed one could not.
09:34Too weak.
09:35It would never transform.
09:36And across its face, a large, dark birthmark.
09:39Ugly and unmistakable.
09:40The dragon king took one look and left without naming it.
09:43The dragon court hadn't seen a birth to this poor in over a thousand years.
09:47In my first life, Sarah and Dorian produced a white dragon together.
09:51Sarah and Aldrich produced this.
09:52The bloodline failure was obvious.
09:55Aldrich's own lineage wasn't as pure as he'd always believed.
09:58The dragon king began arranging a match for Dorian the very next morning.
10:01He also issued a command.
10:03I was to produce a dragon child within the year.
10:06The entire court now understood exactly what Aldrich had fathered.
10:09Aldrich locked himself in his rooms.
10:11Sarah's situation was no better.
10:13Aldrich blamed her for everything.
10:15Threatened to cast her out with the child and start over.
10:17My father wrote, asking me to help her.
10:19I went, reluctantly.
10:21Sarah was not grateful.
10:22Don't look so pleased with yourself, Lyra.
10:24You know why Kaylin wears that mask?
10:26Because he's furious under it.
10:27You'll end up just like me, producing nothing worth keeping.
10:31And even if you do manage something, it'll just be catalyst stock for the king's workings.
10:36Catalyst stock.
10:37My blood went cold.
10:38I thought of my nine children in my first life, their deaths, and my hand went to my stomach
10:43before I could stop it.
10:44Sarah refused to say more and threw me out.
10:46I went to Kaylin, asked him directly what was going on.
10:49He deflected, said it was to protect me.
10:51My hand was still on my stomach.
10:53I was done being patient.
10:54Kaylin, stop.
10:56I'm telling you I'm pregnant.
10:58He went very still.
10:59I held his gaze.
11:00That night, after the spiced plum wine, I'd caught a chill standing in Aldrich's rain.
11:05I'd demanded wine to warm up.
11:07Kaylin had relented.
11:09We'd both had more than intended.
11:10And somewhere in the middle of it, ended up on the same half of the bed.
11:14Why won't you let me see your face?
11:17I traced my fingers along his mask.
11:19He caught my hand and pressed his lips to my wrist.
11:22From my wrist, to my arm, then to my mouth.
11:28Dragons are creatures of desire.
11:30He said, voice low.
11:32I know.
11:33I reached up and pulled him closer by the back of his neck.
11:35Come here, Kaylin.
11:37I want this.
11:38Neither of us had expected it to matter.
11:40I took his hand.
11:41I'm this child's mother.
11:42I have every right to know what threatens him.
11:45Let's protect him together.
11:46Kaylin looked at me for a long time.
11:48Then the mask slipped from his fingers and fell.
11:50I stared.
11:51Kaylin was not ugly.
11:53He was, without question, the finest looking man in the dragon court or anywhere else I had ever been.
11:58Except for the scar.
11:59It ran the full length of his left cheek.
12:01Deep.
12:02Old.
12:03Terrible.
12:03I touched it.
12:04A wound that left a mark like this had been profound.
12:07That night he told me everything.
12:09Kaylin and the dragon king were not full brothers.
12:11Kaylin had been born to the true dragon queen.
12:14The dragon king was the son of a lesser consort.
12:17A concubine elevated to queen only after the true queen died in childbirth.
12:22By rights, Kaylin should have inherited.
12:24But he had no mother to protect him.
12:25And the new queen had no interest in his survival.
12:27So he did the only thing that kept him alive.
12:30He destroyed his own face.
12:31There was an old rule in the dragon court.
12:33Unwritten but absolute.
12:34The king must be unblemished.
12:36A scarred face was a sign of heaven's disfavor.
12:38It disqualified.
12:40That was why the dragon king obsessed over the appearance of his grandchildren.
12:43That was why he had demanded I carry Kaylin's child.
12:45And why he wanted that child as a ritual catalyst.
12:48Pure blood.
12:49Bound to the rightful bloodline he had stolen.
12:51No wonder Kaylin wore the mask.
12:53No wonder he hadn't touched me.
12:54He had been trying to make sure I never became pregnant at all.
12:57And now I am.
12:58I looked at him.
12:59Are we giving this child up?
13:00Kaylin gripped my shoulders.
13:01Lyra.
13:03This child chose us.
13:05I'm not letting go.
13:07Not of either of you.
13:08I'm done retreating.
13:11We decided immediately to conceal the pregnancy with glamour.
13:14Until we had a plan.
13:15The physical signs I could mask.
13:17The body's reactions I could not.
13:19At the dragon king's feast.
13:20I vomited in front of everyone.
13:22Sarah was at my side in an instant.
13:24Rubbing my back.
13:25Radiating delight.
13:26Lyra.
13:27You're not pregnant are you?
13:29What wonderful news that would be.
13:31The dragon king's eyes lit up before I could speak.
13:34The royal physician was summoned at a near run.
13:36His fingers on my wrist before he'd fully stopped moving.
13:39I kept my expression neutral and thought.
13:41This is over.
13:42Kaylin was at the eastern sea.
13:44Reaching out to his mother's people.
13:45I was alone.
13:47The physician looked up from my pulse with great solemnity.
13:49My lady is not with child.
13:52A digestive concern I believe.
13:54Nothing more.
13:54He caught my eye.
13:56He was winking at me.
13:57I understood instantly.
13:59I arranged my expression into embarrassment.
14:01I did eat rather a lot of roasted chicken last night.
14:04Five, I think.
14:05The hall went silent.
14:07The dragon king dismissed me with barely concealed irritation.
14:10On the way back, I crossed paths with a physician who had caught the king's displeasure
14:14as a side effect of his performance.
14:16He told me he was making amends.
14:18I could not save the queen.
14:19Let this be what I owe, Lord Kaylin.
14:21The true dragon queen had been killed by the dragon king's household too.
14:24I couldn't let myself think about what would happen to my child if we failed.
14:27I sent a sealed letter to my mother that same day, requesting the complete glamour grimoire.
14:32As the Fox Clan's legitimate princess, I had the right to inherit it.
14:35As a reckless child, I had only learned a fraction of it.
14:38Learn it fully, and I could deceive anyone.
14:40My mother sent it within days.
14:42The weeks that followed, drilling the grimoire by day, managing Sarah and Aldrich's attempts
14:47to catch me out by night, Sarah appeared at my door daily.
14:50She was certain I was pregnant.
14:51Confirmation would earn her favor with both Aldrich and the dragon king.
14:55My glamour held.
14:56Then Sarah arrived with a small, ornate box.
14:58Your clan's Radiance Elixir arrived.
15:00I brought it over for you.
15:01The Radiance Elixir was a staple among foxwomen.
15:04Most took several times a month.
15:05It preserved beauty and complexion.
15:07It also contained one ingredient that harmed unborn children.
15:10Every pregnant foxwoman stopped taking it immediately.
15:13Sarah knew this.
15:13I didn't reach for the box.
15:15You've looked exhausted lately.
15:17Has the Elixir stopped agreeing with you?
15:19She tried to watch me take one on the spot.
15:21I showed her the door.
15:22My refusal, of course, looked exactly like guilt.
15:25Within the hour, she was back.
15:26With Aldrich, the dragon king, and a clan priestess, Sarah pointed at me.
15:30The fox clan has a glamour craft that can conceal the truth.
15:34I believe Lyra is using it right now to hide her pregnancy.
15:38The dragon king's scepter tapped the floor.
15:41His eyes settled on me.
15:43Is that so?
15:44I burst into tears and said I had no idea what she was talking about.
15:47Sarah's patience snapped.
15:49Stop performing!
15:50I brought someone who can see through you!
15:53The priestess stepped forward.
15:54I recognized her the moment she entered.
15:56Sarah had gone all the way back to the fox clan and brought Nora,
15:58the most powerful ritual practitioner our people had.
16:01Nora raised her staff toward my face.
16:03My lady, forgive the intrusion.
16:06She was talented, genuinely.
16:08Her craft swept through the room in broad circles.
16:10What Sarah had apparently forgotten.
16:12The most talented practitioner in the fox clan was my mother.
16:15Under my mother's direct instruction, I had reached the highest level of glamour craft.
16:19Nora had not.
16:20She had no chance.
16:21Nora circled me three times.
16:23Then three more.
16:23Her expression shifted from confidence to confusion.
16:27That's impossible.
16:28She used her last resort.
16:30Sacred flame bloomed in her palm.
16:32Pure foxfire.
16:33The kind that burned through all illusion.
16:35Using it costs enormous reserves.
16:37Whatever Sarah had promised her, it had been worth it to Nora.
16:40Nora stood holding the sacred flame.
16:42I quietly brought out my reflecting talisman.
16:45Her expression troubled.
16:46Your majesty, I find nothing irregular about Lady Lyra.
16:50It's possible she has reached the highest level of glamour craft.
16:54That is beyond my ability to penetrate.
16:56The dragon king's gaze moved me.
16:58His frown eased into something calculating.
17:00I underestimated Kaelin.
17:02Something in his tone made my skin tighten.
17:04Before I could respond, his hand moved.
17:07Everything went dark.
17:08I woke in a quiet wing of the palace.
17:10I didn't recognize.
17:11The dragon king sat above me, studying my stomach with calm, unhurried interest.
17:15Awake? I have to say, you and Kaelin managed to hide it longer than I expected.
17:18I pulled my hands over my belly instinctively.
17:20No point in performing anymore.
17:21Is this what we're calling it? Imprisonment?
17:23He smiled the way people smile when they want you to feel stupid for asking.
17:26Imprisonment? I'm concerned for Kaelin's child, that's all.
17:28He's away. Someone should look after things.
17:30When he returns, you'll all be together again.
17:31He knew. He knew Kaelin had gone to the Eastern Sea to call in forces.
17:35I had to do something.
17:37After he left, I lay on the bed and stared at the ceiling.
17:40The chamber was sealed tight.
17:41Warding circles on every surface.
17:43My glamour was useless here.
17:45Nothing living could pass in or out.
17:47Then, the next morning, two servants whispered outside my door and forgot how thin walls were.
17:52Lord Aldric is taking a new consort.
17:54Already? His last one just gave birth.
17:56And didn't she do something for the king?
17:58Doesn't matter anymore.
17:59She's been sent back to the Fox Clan.
18:02Terrible, really.
18:05The child went with her, they say?
18:07Sarah had been sent away.
18:09No.
18:09Aldric didn't send people away.
18:11That wasn't how he operated.
18:12I reached into the lining of my robe and found the feather whistle.
18:15My father had pressed one into each of our hands the day we left home.
18:19One for me, one for Sarah.
18:21So we could always find each other.
18:22I had never expected to need it.
18:24Through the whistle, I learned the truth.
18:26Sarah had been handed to the Phoenix Lord.
18:28Exactly as I had been in my first life.
18:31Her child was missing.
18:32Hearing my voice through the whistle,
18:34Sarah finally understood why I had tried to stop her from taking Aldric's hand that day.
18:38She was frantic.
18:39She begged me to save her.
18:41Save her child!
18:42I told her I couldn't do it alone.
18:43We had to work together.
18:45She went quiet.
18:46I started thinking of other ways to reach Kaelin.
18:48Then her voice came back through the whistle.
18:50Steady this time.
18:51She would help me.
18:52She would get a message out.
18:53Something had changed.
18:55She had found her child's body the night before.
18:57The one-clawed serpent had been too low-ranked for a blood catalyst.
19:00So they used it for something worse.
19:02A test subject.
19:03The body was covered in bruising.
19:04Dark purple from end to end.
19:06Sarah had looked at it, and something in her simply stopped functioning the way it used to.
19:10She would get my message to Kaelin.
19:11And after that, she wanted Aldric.
19:13We made our plan quickly.
19:15My part was simple.
19:16Wait.
19:16Kaelin came back faster than I thought he would.
19:19Lyra, it's me.
19:21He was suddenly there, his hand around my wrist.
19:23No time.
19:24We're leaving.
19:24Then the Dragon King materialized in the doorway like smoke given form.
19:28Kaelin, you return and don't come to greet your brother first?
19:30Kaelin put himself between me and the door.
19:32I reached past his arm and took his hand.
19:34I wanted him to know I wasn't standing behind him.
19:37I was standing with him.
19:38The Dragon King looked at our joined hands, and something crossed his face I hadn't expected.
19:42Something that looked almost like grief.
19:44Kaelin, why has fortune always favored you?
19:47Your father's regard, your mother's love, that face.
19:50And now a wife who would walk into ruin beside you.
19:53His voice went flat.
19:54I refuse to accept it.
19:56He looked at me.
19:58Leave him.
19:59I'll see you safely delivered.
20:00Name you a lady of the court.
20:02Out, comfort for the rest of your life.
20:04What do you say?
20:06I almost laughed.
20:08Aldric had been disgusting.
20:10This old man was somehow worse.
20:11I looked at the lines of his face.
20:15Why would I leave him for someone who looks like you?
20:18The Dragon King's vanity was his deepest wound.
20:21In truth, he wasn't ugly.
20:22No man ruled the dragon court on an ugly face.
20:24But next to Kaelin, he had always known the difference.
20:27My words landed exactly where I meant them to.
20:30You've chosen the hard way.
20:32He gave the order.
20:34Armed guards poured in from every entrance.
20:36Take them both.
20:38Let's see how defiant they are after.
20:40But he didn't know.
20:41The soul-binding relic from the Eastern Sea was already pressed against his spine.
20:45Before his guards could reach us,
20:46Kaelin's forces had taken every one of them.
20:48The Elder Council entered from the outer hall and knelt.
20:51We welcome the return of our true king.
20:53The Dragon King stood very still.
20:55Then he shouted.
20:55Have you all lost your minds?
20:57I am king!
20:58This is treason!
21:00These elders had served the court before the Dragon Nord's time.
21:03They had always belonged to Kaelin's cause.
21:06They had simply been afraid for too long.
21:08The Dragon Nord had made too many enemies,
21:11pushed too many allies toward resentment.
21:13When Kaelin came to them, they did not hesitate.
21:15The Dragon King was forced to his knees.
21:17He kept his chin up.
21:19You're all blind!
21:20His face is damaged!
21:21A scarred king is no king at all!
21:23Release me or I'll have every one of you destroyed!
21:25I looked at him for a moment.
21:26Then I reached up and removed Kaelin's mask myself.
21:29The scar was gone.
21:30His face was unmarked.
21:32Clean.
21:33Because Fox Clan women knew,
21:34above everything else,
21:36how to heal what had been broken.
21:37From the night Kaelin showed me the scar,
21:39I had been treating it.
21:40The mask continued after the healing for one reason only.
21:42To let the Dragon King believe nothing had changed,
21:44right up until everything had.
21:46I looked at the Dragon King.
21:47I should have mentioned,
21:49the Fox Clan's greatest gift isn't glamour.
21:52I let him work out the rest.
21:57Facing the United Elder Council,
21:59Kaelin's forces,
21:59and a husband whose disqualifying flaw no longer existed,
22:03the Dragon King did the only thing left to him.
22:04He picked up the crystal seppler
22:06and drove it into his own throat.
22:08Blood crossed the throne room floor.
22:10Aldric collapsed.
22:10He scrambled to his knees and begged.
22:12Loudly.
22:13Repeatedly.
22:13Technically, his fate was mine to decide.
22:15But Cira's price for helping me
22:16had been simple and non-negotiable.
22:18She wanted Aldric.
22:19A deal was a deal.
22:20I glanced at him on the floor and patted Cira's shoulder.
22:22Don't disappoint me.
22:23Don't disappoint me.
22:26Sarah looked at Aldric with the expression of someone
22:28who had thought about this moment for a very long time.
22:30I won't.
22:31I'll make sure he can't die and can't bear to live.
22:34She meant it.
22:34She kept it.
22:35The day she took him back,
22:37she had his bloodline formally tested.
22:38The results,
22:39which the Dragon King had been falsifying for years,
22:42showed Aldric at the lowest rank the Dragon Court recognized,
22:45barely above the one-clawed serpent he had fathered.
22:47Without Sarah's own strong bloodline,
22:49even that much wouldn't have been possible.
22:51She made the results public.
22:52Every accusation Aldric had leveled at her
22:54inverted in a single afternoon.
22:56When Aldric saw the numbers,
22:58something in him broke.
22:59He kept saying it.
23:00He'd been reborn.
23:02This wasn't supposed to happen.
23:03He wanted to die.
23:04He didn't get to.
23:06Sarah had him placed with the lowest-ranked clan in the territory,
23:08assigned as an alchemical thrall.
23:10He woke up to it every day.
23:11I spent my pregnancy eating well
23:13and watching events unfold from a comfortable distance.
23:16Perhaps it was contentment.
23:18Perhaps it was Kaelin.
23:20Perhaps it was simply this life being different from the last.
23:23When my time came,
23:24I delivered nine dragons young.
23:25Every one of them carried something from my first nine children.
23:28A feature,
23:29a quality,
23:30something I recognized.
23:31But this time those things fit.
23:33What had seemed strange before was beautiful now.
23:36Each one entirely,
23:37completely themselves.
23:39Ugly or lovely,
23:40it would not have mattered.
23:42Kaelin and I had already decided
23:44we would love them exactly as they came.
23:47The nine dragons were named within the week.
23:50Kaelin sat on the floor with all of them crawling over him
23:52and didn't move for an hour.
23:54I watched from the doorway.
23:56You could sit in the throne room,
23:58I told him.
23:59You are king.
24:00I know where I am.
24:01He caught the smallest one before she rolled off his knee.
24:04Come here.
24:04He had spent years making himself invisible,
24:07making himself small,
24:08carving the life out of his own face to survive.
24:11Now he sat in the middle of nine loud,
24:14demanding,
24:15entirely ordinary children
24:16and looked like a man who had forgotten what misery felt like.
24:20The physician knocked and entered.
24:22He had delivered all nine.
24:23He looked at them,
24:24then at me,
24:25then at Kaelin,
24:26and his eyes went wet.
24:27The queen would have been glad.
24:29Kaelin didn't answer immediately.
24:30He looked at the child in his hands for a long moment.
24:32She would have spoiled them rotten.
24:34The physician laughed.
24:35Some debts take a long time to settle.
24:37Some never fully close.
24:39But this felt,
24:39at least,
24:40like a beginning.
24:41Dorian arrived three days after the coronation.
24:44He had been at the northern border when everything collapsed.
24:47No one had told him.
24:49He walked into the throne room expecting his father
24:51and found Kaelin instead.
24:53He stopped in the doorway,
24:54looked around,
24:55looked at me.
25:00Should I kneel?
25:02Only if you want to.
25:03Dorian considered this.
25:05Then he sat down on the steps leading to the throne,
25:08which was neither kneeling nor standing,
25:10and looked like he had thought about this compromise ahead of time.
25:13My father,
25:14dead.
25:16His own hand.
25:17His expression didn't change much,
25:19which was either grief handled quietly,
25:22or the result of a father who had never given him reason to feel it deeply.
25:26And Eldritch?
25:28I told him.
25:29Dorian's mouth pressed flat.
25:32That's worse than death.
25:35Yes.
25:36He was quiet for a while.
25:38I refused a consort.
25:40I thought it was because I wasn't ready.
25:44I think I knew, even then, that something was wrong.
25:47That if I stayed close to all of it, I'd become part of it.
25:51He looked at Kaelin directly.
25:53Tell me what you need from me.
25:54What Kaelin needed from Dorian turned out to be straightforward.
25:58The northern clans.
25:59Dorian had spent three years on the border.
26:01He knew every clan lord by name,
26:03had eaten at their tables,
26:04and learned their grievances.
26:06The dragon court under the old king had taxed them past reason,
26:10and taken their best fighters as conscripts.
26:12Dorian didn't need convincing.
26:13He had already been quietly keeping lists.
26:16The first clan lord arrived within a fortnight.
26:18He came expecting an audience with the new king,
26:20and got one.
26:21But Kaelin had asked me to be present,
26:23and the clan lord kept glancing at me throughout,
26:26uncertain how to read it.
26:27After, Dorian explained,
26:29The northern lords had heard about the Fox clan princess,
26:31who had publicly insulted the dragon king,
26:33healed the new king's scar,
26:35and delivered nine dragonborn children in one night.
26:38They wanted to know if the rumors were true.
26:40The nine children, I said.
26:42That part surprised even me.
26:44You should let them believe you planned all of it.
26:46I thought about it.
26:49They'll find out eventually.
26:51Not if you look confident while telling it.
26:54This was, I was discovering.
26:56How Dorian operated.
26:58I was beginning to understand why Kaelin trusted him.
27:01The phoenix court sent an envoy.
27:03He arrived with gifts,
27:05formal regret for any past misunderstandings,
27:07and a carefully worded letter
27:09that managed to not once acknowledge
27:11that the phoenix lord had received Sarah as a gift,
27:15and held her against her will.
27:17Kaelin read the letter twice,
27:18set it down,
27:19asked me what I thought.
27:20He wants to know how strong your position is,
27:23I said.
27:24He's not apologizing.
27:26He's measuring.
27:27The envoy was watching me,
27:29with the careful blankness
27:30of someone paid to show nothing.
27:32The women currently held in the phoenix court,
27:34all of them,
27:35released and returned within 30 days.
27:37Any clan born among them
27:39escorted home at phoenix court expense.
27:41Begin there,
27:41and we can discuss
27:42what a productive relationship
27:44between our courts might look like.
27:45The envoy's pleasant expression wavered.
27:47My lord,
27:48the phoenix court's internal arrangements
27:49are not traditionally subject
27:51to neighboring review.
27:52They are now 30 days.
27:54I look forward to your lord's response.
27:56The envoy left.
27:59Too direct?
28:00For him, yes.
28:01I folded the letter.
28:03He'll come around.
28:04He doesn't have a choice.
28:06He did come around.
28:07It took 28 days
28:09and a second envoy
28:10and a great deal of formal phrasing
28:12that still avoided the word apology.
28:15But the women came home.
28:16Sarah was not among them.
28:18She had already left.
28:20After Aldrich was settled
28:21in his new situation,
28:22she had walked out of the dragon court
28:24with her hands empty
28:25and gone south.
28:27My father's letter said
28:28she had arrived at the Fox Clan
28:30three weeks ago.
28:31She was eating.
28:32She was sleeping.
28:33She had not spoken much.
28:34My mother wrote separately.
28:36She is here
28:37and she is not leaving.
28:38Do not worry.
28:39I read that letter several times.
28:41We had never been close,
28:42Sarah and I.
28:43She had spent most of our shared lives
28:45resenting me
28:46and I had spent most of them
28:47defending myself from her choices.
28:49There was no clean ending available.
28:52No single moment that undid the other.
28:54But she had gotten my message to Kaylin
28:55when I needed her most.
28:57She had done it with her child
28:58nearly dead
28:59and her own situation desperate.
29:01I sent her a package.
29:03Fox Clan Rejuvenation Tonic.
29:04The refined formula my mother
29:06had been working on for years.
29:08Completely free of the toxic ingredient.
29:10I didn't include a letter.
29:11I didn't know what to say yet.
29:13Perhaps that was alright for now.
29:14The Elder Council had one remaining piece of business.
29:17The formal matter of the old bloodline records?
29:19The Dragon King had been falsifying
29:20lineage documents for decades.
29:22Not just Aldrich's.
29:23His own too.
29:24And several allied clan lines
29:25he had wanted to elevate or suppress
29:27depending on their usefulness.
29:28Restoring the records meant
29:29some clans lost standing.
29:30Others gained it.
29:31A few discovered relatives
29:32they hadn't known existed.
29:33And a few discovered the relatives
29:34they had claimed didn't.
29:36Dorian volunteered to manage the proceedings.
29:37It took months.
29:38He aged visibly.
29:39Late one evening
29:40he appeared at my door
29:41with a very specific question.
29:42The Fox Clan.
29:43He said.
29:44The true ranking.
29:45He knew what he was asking.
29:46The Fox Clan had been registered as low rank
29:48by the old king's deliberate falsification.
29:50A high-ranked fox bloodline
29:51with a full glamour inheritance
29:53was something the old king
29:54had wanted no one paying attention to.
29:55I told Dorian the actual number.
29:57He stared at it for a while.
29:58So when Aldrich called you Low Clan
29:59He was reading a document
30:00your father wrote specifically
30:02so that people would believe it.
30:03Dorian closed his eyes briefly.
30:04I'm so sorry.
30:05Correct the record.
30:07That's enough.
30:08The record correction
30:08created a small problem.
30:10With the Fox Clan properly ranked
30:11my marriage to Kaylin
30:12looked less like a fortunate consolation
30:14and more like the most
30:15politically significant match
30:17in a generation.
30:18Several court officials
30:19reviewing the recalculated
30:20bloodline values
30:21quietly reordered their understanding
30:22of the last two years.
30:24The ones who used to pity me
30:25were suddenly eager to be my friends.
30:26I found this less irritating than funny.
30:28Kaylin found it less funny.
30:29They ignored you for a year and a half.
30:32And now they don't.
30:33That's how courts work.
30:34You deserve better treatment
30:35before you were useful to them.
30:37I looked at him.
30:38He was genuinely angry on my behalf.
30:39The way he had been the day
30:40he stepped out in that selection hall
30:41and chose me before anyone
30:42could stop him.
30:43Same quality.
30:43Same direction.
30:44You didn't know my rank either.
30:46I pointed out.
30:47When you chose me
30:47he looked like he wanted to argue with that.
30:49Then he didn't.
30:49Because it was true and he knew it.
30:51I chose you because he was going
30:52to get you killed.
30:53And then I couldn't stop
30:54being interested in you.
30:55I know.
30:55I leaned into him.
30:56I noticed.
30:57My mother came to court
30:59for the midsummer feast.
31:00She arrived the way she always did
31:01which was with more luggage
31:03than the occasion required
31:04and the calm certainty
31:05that any room she entered
31:06had been waiting for her.
31:07The nine children took one look at her
31:09and immediately tried to climb her.
31:10She let them.
31:11She had always wanted grandchildren.
31:12She had gotten nine at once
31:13and seemed to view this as correct.
31:15Kaylin studied her for a long time
31:16without speaking.
31:17He held her gaze without fidgeting
31:19which was more than most managed.
31:20She finally said in our native tongue
31:21You healed him.
31:23He helped.
31:24I answered in the same.
31:25She made a small sound
31:26then switched back to common speech
31:27and asked him his opinion
31:28on a particular restorative herb formula
31:30she had been developing.
31:31He had one.
31:32A detailed one.
31:33I sat with my wine
31:34and watched my mother
31:34and my husband argue pleasantly
31:36about herbal preparation methods
31:37for the better part of an hour
31:38and felt something unknot in my chest
31:40that I hadn't realized
31:41was still pulled tight.
31:42Before she left
31:42she pressed something into my hand.
31:44My grandmother's glamour signet.
31:46The oldest piece in the family line.
31:47You've earned it
31:48she said.
31:49You earned it a while ago.
31:51That winter
31:52Kaylin built a room
31:53a small room off the eastern wing
31:54with good light and low shelves
31:56sized for small hands
31:57and enough floor space
31:58for nine active children
31:59to make a spectacular mess.
32:01He built it himself
32:02mostly.
32:02The court architects offered.
32:03He thanked them
32:04and kept going.
32:05I came to watch one afternoon
32:06and didn't leave.
32:06You don't have to do all of this
32:08by hand
32:08I told him.
32:09I want there to be something
32:10I built that they can point at.
32:12Something made on purpose
32:14not inherited
32:15not stolen
32:15not survived into.
32:16I understood.
32:17In my first life
32:18I had walked into a flame.
32:19I had believed
32:20it was the only exit left.
32:21I had not been entirely wrong
32:22given what that life was
32:23but this life
32:24had given me exits
32:25I hadn't expected.
32:26A court physician
32:27with a quiet debt.
32:28A cousin who had made
32:28terrible choices
32:29and then
32:30at the worst moment
32:31one good one
32:31a masked man
32:32who stepped forward in a hall
32:33when he had no reason to
32:34and had not stepped back since.
32:36Nine children who were
32:37every one of them
32:37entirely themselves.
32:39I sat on the floor
32:39of the half-finished room
32:40and watched Kaylin work
32:41and thought
32:42this is the thing
32:43I would have missed
32:43if the flame had been
32:44the end of it.
32:45This exact afternoon
32:46ordinary and loud
32:47and nothing like
32:48what I once thought
32:48I was owed.
32:49I was glad
32:49profoundly
32:50and without complication
32:51to be here.
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