Unda found his wits before Vivian, who still stood frozen beneath Aurum's harsh golden stare. He pressed one hand to the oozing cut on his chin and the other to the floor, willing his ice to travel down his arm and out toward her feet. It slithered, a blue line of magic, across the floor and up her legs. She shrieked and took a halting step back, but still the ice swallowed her ankles. It continued creeping up to her knees at a slower pace. It didn't matter how much she struggled; his ice would not give up its prey once captured.

Darkness flickered at the edges of his vision, and a sharp headache began to pound behind his eyes, but he pushed himself upright. "She has more pieces of the scroll."

"You fiend!" she hissed, her pupils narrowing to violent slits. As her hand shot to her sword, his stomach lurched, and he flung an ice shard straight through her palm. She doubled over with a scream, clutching her wounded hand close to her body as it dripped blood. The ice climbed higher up her legs.

"That sword." He swung to face Aurum. Breathless and unsteady, he would have collapsed if not for Aurum's arm against his back. "Don't let the sword touch you. Don't let her draw it at all."

"She won't—"

"Aurum." Unda grabbed a fistful of his brother's cloak, gripping until his arms trembled. Through the blackened edges of his vision, he saw only the concern in Aurum's face—the wide eyes, the gold returning to his scales. The monster was gone, but he lurked somewhere nearby, a hungry and violent thing. Unda could not let him face the sword. "Please."

Aurum's face softened, only a little at the edges, and it didn't last long before he steeled it again and snapped his focus back to the elf. Weapon in hand, he squared his shoulders and crossed to Vivian with all of his usual swagger. "Did you really think we wouldn't find you? Any prey that can injure Ignis the Red is worthy of my blade. Sniveling in the shadows doesn't suit you."

"I thank you for your praise, o great one." Her smile oozed with lies, but there was a quiver of fear to it that was unmistakable. Even her voice shook. "She was weak. If this prize is so important to you, I'd advise you not to let him out of your sight and to never leave him in the care of those weaker than you."

The cut on Unda's chin burned as if it too was ashamed. His memories of the fight came rushing back, of Ignis bleeding out while Vivian spirited him away. Suddenly, the room was spinning, too small for him to even catch his breath. She had been able to defeat Ignis, and she had the means to kill her then and there with the disaster sword. Yet she was more concerned with protecting Unda, an elf, than killing her enemy, knowing doing so might have killed him as well.

Was it by mercy or negligence that Ignis would survive and Vivian would fail? If she was as much a monster as Selini believes, would she not have wielded the sword regardless of who it hurt?

Thunder cracked outside, and the sky lit up. Aurum lifted his free hand and tightened his grip on the gold threads always twined to his fingers—the ones that connected him to all the scroll pieces—and pulled sharply. Several scraps of old paper flew from Vivian's pocket while she cursed and thrashed against the ice which had reached her waist and claimed her sword. Even the touch of Unda's ice on the blade's sheath twisted his insides and flooded his senses with death, enough that he nearly choked on it.

But it couldn't hold the weapon for long. With a crackle of the same ugly power, the ice recoiled and skirted around the scabbard, clinging only to Vivian.

She laughed despite her loss and the growing pool of blood at her feet, clutching her wounded hand close to her chest. Her mismatched eyes bored into him, and her smile was as hungry as they were. Gone was the shaky look of prey in a trap, wounded and waiting for death. "You can't contain this disaster sword. Try, and you'll taste its steel soon enough, traitor."

"Traitor?" Aurum tucked Vivian's scroll pieces away before he grabbed her by the hair and yanked her head back, forcing her to meet his seething glare. The tip of his sword pressed into her neck. "How easy you elves are to fool. Do you believe everything your eyes tell you?"

Vivian's gaze widened as it slid to Unda again. She was unable to tilt her head out of Aurum's grip—not without running his sword through her throat—but she strained to look at him anyway, raking across his face in a way that made him want to shrink out of sight. Then her shoulders shuddered with a raspy laugh. "So it's true. The eyes never lie even if the tongue does."

Something tugged sharply at Unda's chest, deep in the core of his magic. With a snap, the weight of his horns returned; when he touched his cheek, his fingers brushed the round edges of his scales. If he saw his face in a reflection, he was certain the blue at the tips of his hair would have returned too, exposing the tumultuous storm of emotions inside him. Gone was the helpless elf child she had seen. In its place was only a monster. His feeble protest choked him, the same as his lies, and a bitter taste coated his tongue.

"You've seen enough," Aurum growled. His sword dug into Vivian's neck, drawing blood.

"Wait!" Unda cried, and Aurum did with a puzzled look at him, one that was almost as piercing as the goddess's. Frost settled over his heart, his skin, his everything, and his breath fogged with cold when he dared to breathe. He stiffened. "Don't kill her."

"Tenirel, I have a duty to protect you and kill the enemies of the goddess. She kidnapped you, threatened you, wounded Ignis, conspired against the goddess, and now stands in the way of our mission." His golden eyes narrowed, bright and all-consuming. "You cannot afford to be soft."

"But she did save me from the human man. She protected me because she thought I was one of her people. Is that not admirable even to the goddess?"

"If she knew who you were, she would have killed you!"

"Then you can thank whatever curse has given me an elf's form, but I won't let you kill someone who showed me kindness—even out of confusion!" The ice on his hands bit into his skin, mirroring the same that was creeping up Vivian's body, almost to her shoulders. It was more than that. The image on the back of her cloak—the mark of the bear—was burned into his mind, and he still didn't know why it haunted him. There were things she knew that might be able to fill in the gaps in his mind, like why he couldn't remember his time before the temple or why he was more elvish than the other dragonborn or why he knew the House of the Bear.

He couldn't ask in front of Aurum or any of the others, not when it would risk anyone thinking his faith in the goddess has wavered. For if it wavered, she would have no need of him anymore, and it would be his blood that was spilled next.

If Vivian was killed, he would lose his chance to unravel the secrets the goddess kept from him, and there was no reason they couldn't leave her as she was. She couldn't move. Her hands were frozen to her chest now, unable to reach her sword even though the ice had skirted it. But her face had softened, lips pinched and brow furrowed with surprise rather than malice. She was no longer a threat. Killing her would serve only as a violent, monstrous revenge. But Unda wasn't a monster, and neither was she. Like Aurum, like many dragonborn, she sought only to protect her own.

"Take the scroll pieces and go," she said in a hoarse whisper. "I won't pursue you."

When Aurum didn't answer, he gripped his brother's arm. "We have our orders. Leave the goddess's prey to the goddess. Let Selini decide what is to be done."

Aurum clenched his jaw, holding still for a moment longer before he pulled back and slammed his sword back into its sheath where it disappeared with a flash of gold. "I will report her position to the goddess. The generals will see that she is killed."

A shiver raced down Unda's spine, but he straightened as he faced Vivian and lifted his chin to look somewhat imposing. With the wave of his hand, he stopped the spread of the ice just below the nick in her throat. "If you value your life, you will give up your schemes entirely and surrender yourself because the goddess is watching."

"Yes, she is watching very closely." Vivian lowered her head so that she was peering up at him like a beast preparing to pounce. Her lip curled slightly, exposing fangs beneath. "Very close indeed. I thank her Eyes for their mercy."

Her use of his title snatched the breath from his lungs, and he staggered back with a question frozen on his tongue. How do you know? a small part of him screamed. But what if she was only fishing? If he asked, he would give her the information she wanted. Despite himself and the tremor in his hands, he clamped his mouth shut.

"Then we will take this and have it sealed on our return." Aurum extracted her sheathed sword from her belted waist. As soon as it was removed, the ice quickly filled in the gaps, thickening around the place where the sword had been.

Unda shivered. The air was still thick with sickness and blood even with the sword sheathed. If it bothered Aurum, he didn't show it, sheathing the blade at his side and never once taking a second look at the haunting glow emanating from the blue teardrop jewel. He wrapped an arm around Unda's shoulders and ushered him to the hole in the wall before he paused.

"If you follow us," he said, turning to face her one last time. "I shall see that you are killed by your own blade."

She said nothing, but she was seething as they turned. Her glare haunted them until they were long out of her vision.

Wind whipped around them. Rain battered Unda like countless icy knives, but the silence and the death was what made his skin crawl. Bodies littered the streets, and blood pooled in the cracks in the cobblestone, mingling with the rain. Every door they passed now stood open and exposed a ransacked room behind it. Unda's throat constricted, and he covered his mouth to block out the overwhelming stench. No one remained, and only the storm raged.

As they reached the gates, he spotted the two elf guards lying dead with their throats torn out and eyes glassy. Death again had followed him, and now it hovered at Unda's side in black and gold.

"What is this?" he whispered, tucking closer to Aurum's side. His brother wrapped him in his cloak and shielded his eyes.

"Strength," was all he said, and that single word burned with what was unsaid. To make up for your weakness.

They had barely made it to the edge of the forest before Ignis's cry echoed through the still air. Her figure emerged from the woods, graced once again with scales and horns like Aurum, and raced to meet them. She fell over herself to crush Unda in her arms and sobbed into his shoulder. Blood stained her clothes where Vivian had stabbed her, but she was up and moving—healed, no doubt, by Aurum or Foliis.

"Ignis," he whispered, landing a hand gingerly against her back. He felt her fingers curl against him, felt her pull him closer, and knew this time she was real. Tears sprang to his eyes as he folded into her embrace, soaking up her warmth and letting it chase his icy fear away. "I'm glad you're alright."

"Me?" She pulled away sharply and sniffled, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand. "What about you? You've got blood and–and bandages—there's ice all over your hands!" Scrunching her face, she pressed his frost-covered hands between her own until the thick coating turned to water and splashed the grass beneath their feet. "And she took you away, Unda, are you sure you're fine?"

He laughed a little under her scrutiny, managing a weak smile that was probably more of a grimace just so that she would take her pity away. "I'm only tired."

"Don't pester him, Ignis," Aurum chided.

"Did you find him?" Foliis called as she emerged behind her sister. When her green eyes landed on Unda, they turned watery. She also ran out to fall into the embrace, though she did it more carefully and with more grace than Ignis's heavy footfalls.

Aurum stopped her before she could join them, holding the sheathed disaster sword out for her. "Bind that," he said. "It has to come with us. No one is to draw it. Unda, explain it to me in detail later. If it is what I think it is, we've invited inescapable death into our midsts, and I would destroy it if only I could." He marched deeper into the forest.

"What do you mean?" Foliis asked, taking the sword, though her lip curled as soon as it touched her hands and the blue gem began to hum again. "Where are you going?"

"To send a message."

Stellae emerged from the shadows into Aurum's path, stepping out of them like he had become them. His silver-on-black eyes gleamed like he had just come out of a vision and the future had not yet faded from his mind. "Did you kill the elf woman?"

"No." Aurum stepped around him. "She won't be a threat any longer, but she was spared."

"Spared?" Stellae hummed, his black scales glittering in the distant firelight as he swung to face Unda. "By our weak link, no doubt."

Unda shuddered, suddenly cold down to his very core even with Ignis's warm hands gripping his. All three were watching him now, waiting for something that would chase away their doubts, some explanation for the bizarre weakness he had dared to show. His headache returned in full force, beginning at the back of his skull where he had been struck and spreading agonizing vines out and around to his temples. "I've repaid a debt, that's all."

Stellae smiled, but it was empty as the darkness that followed him. "I hope, for your sake, that you do not live to regret your kindness, little blue dragonborn." He retreated back into the dark, following Aurum's lead.

When Ignis and Foliis guided Unda into the forest, whispering promises that everything would be fine, he couldn't help but look at the carnage they had left behind. Countless dead, all because he hadn't been able to protect himself from being hauled off by Vivian. He was lucky she hadn't thought to flee. He couldn't imagine how many more would have died in Aurum's mad attempts to rescue him if she had.

And now, the sick, twisted sword was theirs. It hungered still, glowing blue and whispering in Unda's ear, you should have killed her too.

~<>~