Part 3: A reckoning rides from the west

Lilliana suddenly erupts with a bitter laugh at the question. "Well, yes."  She gestures to the empty room and shakes her head. "But it isn't about this. Not specifically at least. When we were at the castle last night, I met with the Queen Mother and while she was condescending about my powers, she seemed very knowed, and had the ability to grant me access to the libraries of the kingdom. That is obviously no longer a possibility, if it ever was now that we know the truth of our invitation."  She sighed bitterly. "Sorry, I'm rambling. You and Marianne seem like you know a lot. I want to try and learn why I am the way I am. I was hoping that perhaps one of you two could help guide me?"

Na'arik looks over toward where Marianne is working. "She's the one that knows a lot," he says. "If you ever come by Fireblade, we've got a pretty extensive library. Your friends know about it. They're sworn to secrecy, but they can let you in on it. Otherwise, ask Marianne when she has a moment. She'd be able to help you figure out what's going on."

Lilliana smiles. "Thank you, I would very much like to speak with her privately after all this has been sorted... if she has the time and inclination. Can I ask how you met them? The Fireblades? "

"Well, their name comes from my tavern. The Fireblade Tavern and Inn," he says. "We hired them to waylay some orcs that had been raiding our grain stores. Became a huge thing, ended up making peace with the orcs and sorting out the famine that's been pretty pervasive in the Heartlands."

"Were they this dysfunctional back then too? Seems like they are so different that they would never have come together in the first place."  She glances over her shoulder. "I have only known them a few days, but it seems they have a lot of issues. You and Marianne probably know them better than I do. Do you think there is any coming back from this point?"

Na'arik frowns, his brow furrowing. "I don't know," he says. "Marianne withheld answers from Ascian because she wanted to protect him." He looks over at where the sorceress sat, still examining the vial. "She won't show it, but she regrets that more than anything else. There were a few others...Callahan and Kou...but Callahan left, and Kou was killed by that one's master." Na'arik points at the prisoner. "They've only been together for a month. A little less. And they've lived whole lives in that time. They've earned their issues."

Lilliana glances down at the bound man. "Yes, the bastard who harmed my friend." She offers the man a cold smile. "I quickly learned that they lead a very hazardous lifestyle."  She leans down to tap her prosthetic leg. "I can understand why she did what she did just as I understand Ascian's frustrations, but... you don't think he would go so far as to let cause him to want to free Vecna, right? Only a fool would seek to free him knowing what we know now."

Na'arik grimaces. "Ascian's stuck because of his brother. I think that if we can reconcile to the point where this group can mount a rescue, we can get Ascian out from under Vecna's thumb. Until then, I don't know."

Lilliana nods. "And Marianne thinks she might be able to do that with whatever Ascian gave her?" She looks around again to make sure no one else was around. "And what if... we cannot do that? If Ascian insists on continuing down this path? What do we do then? He cannot be allowed to release Vecna, no matter his intentions or reasons. I mean him no ill will and would like to see him whole, but one person cannot take precedent over the entire world."

"We'll cross that particular bridge when and if we get to it,"  Na'arik says. "I've got faith that Ascian will come around."

Lilliana nods. “Understood. Let’s hope we never have to cross that bridge. Thank you, for being honest.” She stands quietly shifting her leg when a thought crosses her mind. “Do you know anything about enchanting?”

Na'arik suppresses a snort. "I know that it's magic," he says. "That's where my knowledge begins and ends. Not really my thing. Why do you ask?"

Lilliana looks surprised at his response. “Oh! I guess I just thought with her being a mage that you were as well!” She chuckles nervously. “Well, I have been thinking about this leg of mine. At first I was furious and scared, but I’ve had a few days to get used to it and… this sounds silly saying it aloud. I was thinking about if it could be enchanted with some sort of magic.”

Comic Sans  said: Katrin feels like she's run into a stone wall as she watches Thezra slowly sink to the ground and start....crying? It was a jarring sight. Thezra had always seemed impenetrable. Unstoppable. Stubborn to a fault. But...this? Katrin didn't know what to do. What to say.  Rose would know what to say... "I'm..."  she starts, the wind utterly knocked from her.  "I'm sorry. I didn't..."  Katrin feels something trickle down her face, and she brushes her cheek with her fingers to find.....  I'm crying too? What the fuck--!  Rather than try to explain, to justify, to say things that may end up being even more meaningless, Katrin just lets gravity bring her onto her knees across from Thezra.  "I'm sorry,"  she whispers, utterly lost for words.  Raising a hand up to brush her cheek, Thezra stares at the wetness on her finger, almost unable to recognize what it was at first. She grinds it against her thumb, squeezing her eyes shut to push out the rest and wiping her arm across her face, leaving them red and raw. As the dwarf slides down to the ground across from her, she barely pulls her gaze back into the present to notice, focusing instead on the ragged tugging of each breath in her chest. “Don’t be.”  The words that finally creep out are scarcely above a whisper, a hollow echo of their usual timbre.  “You’ve all helped me see something I tried to blind myself to by joining you: There is no one you can trust. Everyone is on there own.” She sighs, resting her head back against the post behind her. Staring up at the roof above, it almost feels silly, the whole thing.  “Can I tell you something?” Rolling her head back down, she looks out across the space between them, this wide chasm of difference that only ever seemed to grow,  “I actually admire you quite a lot. I told you once the people of Fireblade were weak, and I was not. That that was not an attack on their character but a fact of their physical strength. But I was wrong.”  The thought that came to her forces a laugh from her lips, and she shakes her head. “I am weak. Weaker than I realized. It’s not a physical weakness though, it’s something within me. Something… cracked. Broken. Something that infects almost all of us here I think. But you have led them anyway. Led us. You’ve always seemed resilient, and true.” She takes a long breath in, still shaky, and exhales. ”Don’t let this break you too.”

Matt B. said: Lilliana looks surprised at his response. “Oh! I guess I just thought with her being a mage that you were as well!” She chuckles nervously. “Well, I have been thinking about this leg of mine. At first I was furious and scared, but I’ve had a few days to get used to it and… this sounds silly saying it aloud. I was thinking about if it could be enchanted with some sort of magic.” "I'm sure it can," Na'arik says. "Yeah, I let her tend to all the magic things. I used to hate mages. Always more trouble than they're worth." He looks at Lilliana, notes her lack of weapons and armor, and frowns. "No offense." His gaze goes back to Marianne. "But she helped me find out who I was. I was lied to by the people I called my parents for my entire life. They had kidnapped me. Stolen me away from my father. Taught me to hate him. Marianne helped me figure everything out." He rolls his neck, resulting in a few loud cracks. "I guess that's why I feel so much for Ascian. Kid's been lied to for most of his life, got himself turned around so much he doesn't know which way is up. But he'll figure it out."

Lilliana laughs and shakes her head. "No offense taken, and if you ask the others they'd probably agree that I'm more trouble than I'm worth too!" She purses her lips and taps the lower while she thinks. "I hope so too, hopefully she can help him as well, because where I'm standing it doesn't seem like he is listening to any of us here. Maybe Thrandimir, but... I don't know if that is a good thing."

Don't let this break you too. Katrin can't look away. Thezra.... admired her? Every interaction between them pointed to the contrary, and Katrin was sure that she'd ruined whatever slim chance there might have been for them to reconcile. But... Seconds stretch into minutes. "I don't think you're weak," Katrin says quietly.   Shit, I'm not good at this. Uhhhhh, okay. Relax. Try to...relax. What would Rose say? "Can I tell you something? I never wanted to lead," she brushes the hair from her face, shifting around to draw her knees to her chest. "I don't think I've earned that. Not with...everything that's been happening to us. Between us." Katrin chews on her upper lip, twisting a strand of hair tightly around her finger. "I want to fix this. Fix us. Because I need your help." 

Thezra sits with the words hanging in the hair for a few moments.  I need your help. She laughs. It's short, but it bursts out of her before she can stop it. Then it comes again, and she finds herself shaking her head. "What's there to fix here? No, don't answer that,"  she sets her blade down to the side of her and stretches her legs out across the ground, leaning on her hands to her sides. " Why  should this be fixed? It's over. We've spent less than a month together and spent more of that time at our own throats than our enemy's. No matter which way you spin it I — and I suspect Akiran and Lilliana as well — cannot possibly trust Thrandimir. And while I don't blame Ascian for being manipulated, he is clearly wrapped around Vecna's finger."  She shrugs, a deflated gesture. "Think about it. This monster is so terrible the continent thought it better to send him to the Shadowfell and erase the world's minds  than deal with him properly. And why? Because they couldn't. I can't even... what in the hells are we supposed to do there? Just prevent Ash from breaking more crystals and hope the enchantment holds?" "And as much as I get that you trust them, look at them without your feelings.  Thrandimir is a liar . A deceiver. It's his whole arcane focus. Genuinely, what do you know of him? Has he confided in you his secrets and past the way Ash has? If you asked him to,  would he?" " And you want to protect Ascian so much . Yet you hear his plan? Thrand wants to exploit him. Send him back to Vecna as bait to learn more. It's a great plan honestly, one I'd usually support. But it's a terrible one for Ascian, which is why I can't. And you may not think so, but my only hope for Ash has been to help him."  She sighs. " Would you really support him in that? After they ruined your plan, got you thrown in jail, put all of us at risk?" The questions are not hostile as they roll off her tongue, they simply are , and she doesn't even know if she's asking them for Katrin's sake, or hers.

By the time Thezra is done talking, Katrin's chin is resting on her knees, arms wrapped around her shins, and a look of concern and concentration on her face as she listens. She chews on the inside of her cheek briefly in the silence that follows, giving herself time to let out the frustration before she answers.  "No one will be exploiting Ash. Not Vecna, not even Thrandimir." Katrin's voice is deadly. There's a brief pause, and Katrin's tone falls, relaxing into something less cold. Not warm, but not unfriendly either. "Do you have siblings, Thezra?"

She shakes her head,  “None that I know of. It’s only ever been me and my aunt.”

"I have two older brothers, and a little sister back home. I haven't seen them in three years," she swallows back the tears that begin to spring up as she thinks about her family. "My brothers can handle themselves just fine. But I would kill, without hesitation, to keep my sister safe." She takes a breath, then loosens her grip around her shins, letting her knees drop to the sides so she's cross-legged. "Everything that Ash has done has been for his brother. You saw the way he looked when he said his brother's name. He's desperate. This is the only way forward. And...as much as I hate to admit it, Vecna is the only one who's offered him real help up until now. Were I in his position...I might have made that same choice."  By the end, all coldness is gone from her voice, from her eyes, from her entire body. Just an earnest hope that maybe, they can find a way to make up.       

Thezra lowers her head, her eyes tracing a path along the ground to come to rest staring at a singular, unremarkable point. "I can't... imagine what that's like. To have a family. To have people you can care for — can trust — so easily. My own parents..." she runs her fingers through the dirt, raking a small pile under her nails and palm, and for a moment in her eyes her hand is smaller, warmer, and the dirt is richer, firmer. For a moment she looks up and sees Rata, kneeling down before her tiny form, pulling her in close. For a moment she can hear her words again. I have you, child, I'm here. Shh, save your tears. I'm here. When her eyes adjust, she's staring across once more at Katrin, and her shoulders slump. "I get that he wants his brother. But none of us even know if the thing he's met in the Shadowfell is  his brother. If Vecna promised me something similar... I think I would want someone there to snap me out of it. Not push me further towards him."

Katrin trails a finger through the dirt, her eyes growing fierce and a little sad. "You're right. We don't know for sure." She draws a circle with a dot in the middle, then scrubs it from existence with the side of her uninjured hand and looks at Thezra. "I'm sorry. I wish I hadn't been so....stubborn. I wish I could change the things that I've said. But I can't do that. All I can do is change what I do going forward. Thezra, I don't want to push you away." Katrin drops her eyes to her beaten, scarred, and burned hands. "And...Rose would never forgive me if I didn't try."

Katrin's words reach across the gap between them, reaching her, but feel like wind against her ears. "I'm sorry as well..."  The tears on her cheeks, the ones that had continued to fall, were dried now, staining the skin with their salt, and the fury that had riled her up earlier had long since simmered. "But why would you need me , of all people? Or Akiran and Lilliana. If you trust Ash and Thrand so strongly, then why not let this die." The words bore no malice, simply passing over her tongue numb and toneless. "There is no shame in us going our separate ways. You can go help Ascian as you and the wizard see fit. So long as he breaks no more crystals Vecna will never be a danger, right? Akiran and Lilli seem close already, he can help her with whatever research she'd hoped to do last night, and go back to mercenary work himself."  She pulls her legs in to her chest, resting her hands upon her knees. "I can wander alone. I'm used to that,"  she nods.  "Safer, too. Can't be betrayed if there's no one to betray you." It's a silly sentiment, but a small chuckle escapes her lips nonetheless.

Katrin can feel frustration welling up in her chest. She shifts around back to her knees, leaning forward, shortening the distance between the two of them. "Thezra...." she almost doesn't have the words.  "I don't want to see you go. I need you, because we disagree. And....well," Katrin shrugs awkwardly,  "You have a really big sword that you're really good at using. Thrandimir is good at illusions. But I need more than illusions if I'm going to kill Gesrik. And I can't do that alone." 

Thezra clicks her tongue against the roof of her mouth, leaning her head back against the post behind her to stare up and away once more. “Lot of mercs carry swords. Put a posting up at the guild.”  

Katrin sits back, her lips pressed together in frustration. She's not going to believe anything I say. No matter how true it is or how much I mean it. "I don't know what else you want me to say."  Shit.  A moment goes by. Katrin looks at Thezra again. "I'm sorry. That's...that's not what I...what I wanted to say, or....I'm....." Her voice trails off. Nice going, Kat.

“There’s nothing to say, and if there was I wouldn’t tell you,”  she shrugs,  “I can’t put words in your mouth.”  She locks eyes one more time with Katrin and gives a weak smile.  “You told me that.” Pushing up off the ground, she dusts off her greaves and reaches back down to secure her sword.  “Let’s return and be done with it. I’m sure Thrandimir has wormed his way into Akiran’s ear by now, though, I don’t actually know if dragonkin have ears, come to think of it…” Turning to leave, she gives a last look back,  “Regardless of everything, I hope you never lose that fiery spirit of yours. It’s truer than anything else, and besides,”  Her eyes flit to the burn still cooling on Katrin’s hand. “I don’t think suppressing it works for you.”

Katrin can only watch as Thezra leaves. She feels rooted in place, stuck. Even more than she had just 10 minutes ago inside the barn. Something inside her feels wrong. Her hand is cramping from the burn, and her face feels wet. With her other hand, she wipes the wetness from her eyes. She doesn't want to go back. To face everyone in there. To face Thezra again. To face Ash. After all the mistakes she'd made. Things she wished she'd said, and things she wished she could take back.  She half-falls into a seated position, staring across the yard to where her ax still sits, glinting in the sunlight. But rather than go for the ax, she clutches at the amulet around her neck. Rose. I need to see Rose. I...she'll know what to do. She has to. "Rose, I need help. Everyone's fighting each other, and I'm...I'm just angry, and I don't know how to not be. I need you to--" Katrin can feel the magic cut off before she can finish her sentence. She squeezes the amulet in her burned hand, digging the edges into the damaged skin, feeling a warm trickle of blood run through her fingers.

Matt B. said: Lilliana laughs and shakes her head. "No offense taken, and if you ask the others they'd probably agree that I'm more trouble than I'm worth too!" She purses her lips and taps the lower while she thinks. "I hope so too, hopefully she can help him as well, because where I'm standing it doesn't seem like he is listening to any of us here. Maybe Thrandimir, but... I don't know if that is a good thing." "Yeah, I know," Na'arik says, grimacing. He glances up as Marianne stands. The two share a significant look, and then Marianne intercepts Thrandimir as the wizard reenters the barn with Akiran.  A moment passes as Katrin examines the blood trickling from her hand. Then Rose's voice fills her head. "I don't know why everyone's fighting...but maybe you need to be mad. Maybe you need to apologize. Maybe you just need to be yourself..."

"Worried ya would say that." Wearily uncrossing his arms  "I tried ta be his friend. Reached out my hand, and didn't ask for gold, favors or nothing. Just went an' tried ta help em"   Turning his snout to the side he spits into the ground, the liquid quickly freezing as he resumes speaking  "An' we know how that went." Akiran looks over the city of Crossroads, thinking back to when he first arrived in the city. Exiled from the only home he know, the Dragonborn arrived in the city shamed, friendless, and naïve. Knowing just a few words of the Common tongue and only owning the clothes on his back, a beat up sword and the few smithing tools he could grab as he fled his village. But he made his way up, filled his pockets and built a rep for himself. Made the foreign city his home. And he could do it again, with his new rep he'd have his pick of the companies to contract up with. Find one that could let him try and do a bit of good, and get out of this shit pile. Hell he could see if the kid wanted to come, Lily'd be better off out of this craziness. Two of them without anyone else interfering could easily find the answers she needs.  Akiran hooks his thumbs through his sword belt, and looks back to Thrand  "I guess this is..." Before the Dragonborn can finish the Beast's mark on his shoulder burns and the promise he made echoes like thunder through his mind. A vow that he could never fulfill on his own. The wheels of his mind slowly turning, the Dragonborn's focused on the wizard as he pauses to think. "We need each other, can't get any of our shit done without help. So we're gonna need to make a deal. Ya want me to back your plan for da pale one. Fine, I'll step aside and let da fire spread. But I'm gonna need something from ya, if yer interested?"

Thrandimir nods slowly, new ideas spinning through his head as Akiran makes his counter offer. "I'm listening. Deals make the world go round and in a good partnership all stand to gain. I had hoped that we could find a path to being partners, Akiran,"  the wizard confirms with a rueful smile.

RisenZed said: A moment passes as Katrin examines the blood trickling from her hand. Then Rose's voice fills her head. "I don't know why everyone's fighting...but maybe you need to be mad. Maybe you need to apologize. Maybe you just need to be yourself..." Katrin lets the symbol fall from her hand, the blade of the sword glistening wet with her blood, revealing the ruined flesh on her palm. She could fix it with less than a thought. The pain would go away, and there wouldn't even be a scar. Instead, she tears off a bit of her tunic, wrapping it around her injured hand, tying it off with a quick jerk. "Okay," she whispers to the empty air around her.  "I'll try."

Akiran's mind flashes back to the conversation about trust that he & Lilli shared in the demon's caverns beneath the tavern as the wizard speaks. Twisting his snout into humanoid smile Akiran says "Ya better ta make a deal than carryin' on hacking at each other."  Letting out a deep breath "Da Pale One's shits gonna blow up in our faces, but I'll sing ya song. None of em 'll believe that I had a change ah heart 'bout em, but I'll say it's better ta keep em in the tent pissin out. That he's ta dangerous ta not have eyes on em, an' right now we're da only one's who can watch em." Letting his words hang in the air for a moment  "Ya know before this week, I'd a told ya that I left shame behind years ago. That it's nothing but a scam people use to hold ya down." The Dragonborn methodically removes the ornately forged pauldron covering his shoulder, and slowly rolls up his sleeve to reveal the Beast's mark. "But that's before this shit went down." The scales on Akiran's snout flex shifting between a mix anger, shame & desperation. "Ah been   mocked, branded an' exiled but this here." Gesturing forcefully with a talon towards the monster's mark "I can't live wit this. Knowin' that Beast is out there, just waitin" His voice growing quieter  "My people have tales about how foul those dragons are. They're true fuckin monsters, and we're owned by one. D a rest of ya aren't takin it serious, this isn't a problem ta forget about. "   Roughly pulling his tunic sleeve back down he takes a breath and says " I'll back ya play wit da Pale One Thrand, but ya gotta get da others heads outta their ass and deal with da real threat. We can clean up da mess ya made with Vecna afterwards."  Reaching out his hand, he pauses and adds "Oh an' help da kid find out about her people, Lilli had a good lead going 'fore ya screwed it up." Meeting Thrands eyes he says "Deal?" With his hand hanging in the air.

Thrandimir has half a mind to quip that he had thought that Akiran had said that the Pale One didn't shit, but thinks better of it. "Our goals align on the dragon," Thrandimir agrees, taking the dragonborn's hand and shaking it firmly. "That has to be dealt with one way or another, or we'll live to regret it. We shouldn't forget to consult Marianne on the matter while we have her here. As for Lilliana," the wizard adds, his mouth twisting in distaste. "I will help her, because, like Ascian, I also consider you a friend, Akiran. However, she might find our assistance more forthcoming if she acted like she wants it, instead of walking around with her nose in the air, like everyone else is something unpleasant that she's stepped in. Perhaps a topic for one of your little heart-to-hearts, hm?"

"Good, da sooner we're free from da monster da better." Shaking Thrands hand with a firm yet friendly grip.  Hearing the Wizards piece about Lilli  "She's new ta da life, but I like da kid. We've been through a lot shit da last few days, things most sell swords an' adventurers never come across. An' she held her own through all da craziness. Could ya imagine being pushed into this fire when ya first got started? I know I'd have been a massive pain in da ass back then." Chuckling and giving the Wizard a friendly pat on the shoulder  " We already talked 'bout it.  She said she's gonna tone it down, an' try work with da group. But..." Meeting Thrands eyes "No one likes ta be lied ta or kept in da dark. I like ya & it's good we're friends, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't thinkin' a puttin' a blade in ya last night. Try an' meet her in da middle, if ya can." His empty flask on his mind yet again "Let's go find da others. If's Fortune's kind, Marianne may ah brought some of da Fireblade whiskey wit her."

Thrandimir nods in agreement, accompanying Akiran back towards the barn with absolutely no intention of telling the truth in future.

Marianne intercepts Thrandimir as he attempts to enter the barn. "Outside. We should talk."  Outside, a slight rain had begun to fall from a cloudy sky. Marianne and Thrandimir stand beneath a stone archway in an alley a few meters from the barn. Marianne frowns at her fingernails, then turns her gaze on Thrandimir. "One would think you were smarter than that," she says.

Thrandimir groans wearily. "Could you be more specific?"

"I know that Thezra has been harping on you about it," Marianne says, giving him a stern glance from behind her fingers, which pinch her nose tightly. "But I also know that attempting to get you to admit wrongdoing in public will only make you more stubborn." Her body language suggests that she might want to pace, but her feet remain rooted to the spot. "I understand you wanted to help Ascian, but did you not stop to think for one second? An enchanted crystal, hidden deep within the king's mansion, behind a secret door -- and you didn't stop to think that there might be a very good reason that it was there? You?"

"I thought that there might be a very bad reason why it was there, Marianne," Thrandimir points out. "Why in the world would I trust that a hereditary dictator has the peoples' best interests at heart?"

"But that's just the point," she says. "You didn't know. Thrandimir, I've seen you spend time in my library, doggedly researching the same topic for hours on end. Why did you not even muster a sliver of that diligence last night?" She pinches the bridge of her nose again, then drops her hand to one of her pouches and pulls out the empty vial of Ascian's drug. "It's because you have a blind spot where Ascian is concerned, Thrandimir. Your curiosity gets in the way of your intelligence. I know that you're his friend and I know you want to help him, but surely, you realize that more investigation should have been involved." Her last words are a statement, not a question. She holds up the vial. "How long have you known about this?"

"Ideally, yes, I would have liked to methodically discover the crystal's function," Thrandimir agrees,  "but we didn't have the luxury of time. The chances of us ever getting back into that chamber were low. We had to make a decision on the spot, without further research, and, frankly, it was Ash who made it." The wizard pauses when the sorceress raises the vial. "A couple of days. Were you able to identify it? Marianne, please understand that Ash is very close to not trusting any of us at all. I was barely able to persuade him to open up about the drugs and the crystal. If he isn't handled delicately, then he might clam up and take off, and then we can't help him."

The change in subject does nothing to alleviate the cold stare that Marianne holds on Thrandimir's "aged" face. "It contains powdered resiq," Marianne says. "Which could very well mean that Ascian truly is travelling to the Shadowfell. If his will is strong enough, he could be performing some form of planar shifting."

Thrandimir frowns at Marianne's mention of the exotic ingredient. "Was it charged with any kind of magic?"

Marianne shakes her head. "No, but with this mix of ingredients, it seems to lend itself toward sleep," she says, frowning. "Perhaps that moment between waking and sleeping allows for the purest will. And that's what transports Ascian there." She truly does begin pacing in the alley for a moment, leaving the shelter of the archway and grimacing as the rain begins to fall upon her head. She returns to the archway. "I'll need to analyze more of it."

Thrandimir nods in understanding. "I'll try to talk to Ash about his supplier... that will need to be handled delicately." The wizard pauses, remembering Akiran's concerns. "Have you seen one of these yet?" He asks, adjusting his robes to expose Krutaelis's brand. "None of us are happy about it, but it's eating away at Akiran like nobody else."

Katrin doesn't move as the rain starts to fall, her hands lying limp in her lap, the hand she'd cut on her amulet throbbing slightly. Thezra and Rose's words are sticking in her mind, and she realizes.... they're both right.  Don't let this break you too. I hope you never lose that fiery spirit of yours. It's truer than anything else.... I don't think suppressing it suits you. Maybe you just need to be yourself. Slowly, she tilts her face back, closing her eyes, letting the rain run down her face and soak her hair. I just need to be myself. Moments pass, and Katrin eventually gets to her feet. I just need to be myself.  After another long moment of standing in the rain, looking at her injured hand, she turns back towards the barn to face the rest of the Fireblades.

Marianne grimaces. "That," she says, pointing at the brand, "Is a whole different problem. I'll look into how to destroy the marks and break the link to your dragon friend." Her grimace turns to a small smile and she rolls the sleeve of her blouse up to the elbow, revealing small patches of deep purple scales on her forearms. "Dragons are much more within my expertise."

Thrandimir arches an eyebrow and smiles. "Akiran will be glad to hear that. What comes next?"