Azure Spark
Seventeenth Day of the Ninth Month 293 AC
Daenerys carefully unrolled the
scroll writ in runes of gold and ruby laid down by an archmage's hand. She could read the lines but not truly wield it, for the power within was that of sorcery kin to wishcraft that no art of hers could match. Even Lya and Viserys might struggle to cast it properly, given only their skills, but of course none but the most foolish or ill-prepared mage would simply speak the words, make the gestures, and hope for the best. Oft magic is the key to magic... not to mention a little help from a friend.
Gingerly she handed the scroll into the Glyra's eager hands along with a spark of
insight borrowed by her strange fey magics, allowing her for this one instant to use the scroll with as much surety as its creator. "You know, I could cast other things from scrolls if you make them," the gremlin mused. "I could stop time or blow up mountains or..."
"Let's just get the wyrmling out of their prison, alright?" Dany quickly interjected. As much as Glyra had changed over the years she really did not fancy seeing her with those sorts of powers at her fingertips.
"Spoilsport." Glyra briefly stuck out her tongue between small fangs before turning to the amber table that until two months ago had graced the chambers of the Bey of Beggars and to the dragon hatchling trapped within as though in mid-flight. By foresight and fey skill she uttered the incantation loud and true, every sound like the tolling of some titanic bell fit to shake mountains and shatter the mightiest chains.
The prison faded into an amber halo of light whirling around the diminutive dragon like a swarm of fireflies before fading and leaving the newly awakened dragon to fall onto the floor, wings snapping out just in time to catch her. Her sinuous almost serpentine neck darted around to look at Glyra then Daenerys. Eyes glittering like coins in the night already sharp with a measure of the wisdom of dragonkind weighed them, perhaps judging whether to fight, flee, or talk.
Before the princess could think of a way to reassure her the wyrmling came to her decision. She spoke in a high almost musical voice, unlike the rumbling of elder dragons. "Greetings my deliverers, I am Ysandrix. Tell me, by what strange chance do I owe my freedom to a fey and a mortal child, if child you indeed be to stand bedecked in such treasures."
"A child of humankind I am indeed, though as to the mortality I am less certain," Daenerys replied. "Born of the blood of dragons in an age where there are few true wyrms remaining in the world between sky and stone, and so I and my brother who is lord here thought it well to free you upon discovering the barbarous Efreeti had chained you for their amusement."
"The one in whose possession you found me, he is dead?" Malice sharp as a dagger's edge colored the words.
"Dead and made a fool of before that," Glyra replied. "That was a
fun trick."
Ysandrix gave a satisfied flick of her delicate whip-like tail. "You said that dragons are rare but not gone. Are there perhaps some who opposed you against which you might need my aid?" she asked slyly.
Doesn't sell herself short this one, Daenerys thought, amused though not disapproving. "Alas, many have fallen under the She who birth the first of our lines, whose name I will not speak openly."
Silence fell as the little dragon pondered the words, seeking out their meaning in memories writ in bone and blood. "Wise," she hissed. "Less wise to be her foe."
"I was her servant once, then I betrayed her, for I valued my own glory above hers," the princess replied, careful to use words that would make sense to Ysandrix's instincts. "As with any great foe one must consider the rewards of victory as well as the price of defeat."
"Treasure..." The word was a sigh of longing.
"A goddess' treasure, a fitting prize for a domain so rich and strong as this, one that already holds the oaths of two wyrms centuries old, one of the sea and one of fire as my brother is." Dany walked to the curtains and drew them aside to reveal the vistas of Sorcerer's Deep as seen from above, its neat rows of streets lit by mage-fire, its grand temples and baths, its theaters and stately manses, a city without walls, for no walls could contain it growth and the sea itself its guard.
Just then a pair of Pseudodragons flew past the window, hunting seabirds as many of them still did for the sake of stretching their wings even when they had the funds to simply buy food.
"Ah... the little kindred," Ysandrix said with an air of sweeping superiority. "Are there many of them here?"
"A flight," Dany replied, forbearing from pointing out that the blue wyrmling herself was slightly smaller than the pair that just passed by.
"Do they have a leader of some kind, perhaps..."
"Deadly challenges are illegal," Dany cut her off instantly. Some instincts needed to be stomped on immediately.
"There's the Circle of Battle, though, if you fancy making your way by claw and fang," Glyra pointed out, not altogether helpfully, though Dany's dark look bounced off her smile without a scuff.
All well and good to try to temper draconic pride, but if a bad match were her first experience with the realm Ysandrix might well come to resent her new life.
"It is not only dragons who are scarce in these lands but magic also, though we are working to improve things," Dany continued. "The Scholarum could certainly use a dragon's perspective on some matters, and perhaps you might even learn something yourself."
"Knowledge comes with time and dreams," the little dragon says dubiously.
"True, but that is so very slow, is it not?" Dany asked, or perhaps better to say tempted. "I can only count ten years, yet by the magic I possess I could best a wyrm ten times my age..."
Assuming I could surprise it at least, she did not add aloud. Seeing the spark of interest in the dragon's gaze she added, "Though of course to be part of the Scholarum and reap those privileges you must swear oaths and follow the realm's laws."
Again there was silence, but only for a moment, for in their youth even dragons are quick to judge. "I will swear," Ysandrix said.
OOC: Here we finally are. Dany feels more like an elder than a true peer of Ysandrix right now. She has lived through a lot more.
