An Deuii, the city below the temple of the goddess, was the same as Unda's last memory of it, a hazy image of the sturdy stone buildings that lined streets hung with colorful sheets of patterned fabric, boasting the colors of the goddess Selini: gold, black, green, red, and blue. A long flight of stairs up the temple mountain descended into a welcoming square where dragonborn and hybrids alike crowded around, staring at the servants of Selini with wide eyes. They dipped into low bows as Aurum stepped from the landing accompanied by awed whispers and gasps from the crowd. Jekall and the other generals were nowhere to be found, but Unda doubted they would share the crowd's respect. Not after Aurum and the others had made themselves out to be fools.

"This way." Aurum breezed through the throngs of dragonborn, which parted for him like water.

Foliis and Stellae filed in behind him, heads high and backs straight; beside them, Ignis's swagger seemed even more out of place, but her grin let everyone know that she didn't care.

They escaped out into the streets, but Unda stood frozen in the square, his heart pounding against his ribs as people began to straighten. Their faces twisted as they turned to him, just the slightest twitch of uncertainty or confusion or even disdain. He touched his elf-like ears and flashed a nervous smile, ice cold despite the warmth in the air. "Please excuse me," he murmured, dipping his head before he wove back through the disappearing path Aurum had taken.

Whispers stirred anew behind him, but they no longer carried the same undertone of respect. His skin crawled—this time not with the restless touch of his icy magic. Quickening his steps, he raced to Aurum's side and wrapped himself in his brother's presence until the storm behind him died down.

Overhead, dragons circled in the clear sky, their shadows passing over the streets like great clouds. Trilling dragon cries echoed through the air and mingled with the shouts of the children dashing past Unda's legs. The buzz of activity was the same as the vision the pool would always give him, only now the gaze of the crowd followed him. One child, a little girl with a splatter of indigo scales across her nose, stared up at him in wonder until a boy with matching scales snatched her away.

Unda shrank closer to Aurum's side. When was the last time he was allowed to visit the city, and had it always felt so suffocating?

In his vision, Vivian had disappeared down a side street in a city much like An Deuii, weaving through the bodies with practiced skill and the eyes of a killer. His pulse quickened. Thrown in the middle of a crowd, his scrying skills were as good as useless. He couldn't watch for her if he couldn't pick her out of the sea of people.

A steady hand settled on his shoulder, one calloused and scarred but no less gentle. Aurum smiled down at him, and the crowd seemed to dissipate as Unda sank into his brother's security. His fingers danced with magic as he ruffled Unda's hair. "It's different to be present in the city, isn't it?"

Unda dragged a faint smile to his lips. "The temple isn't so different when it's busy." There will always be people staring no matter where I go. His hands itched again with the urge to hide his ears, a feature that branded him as something else and gave him the face of the enemy rather than a disciple of the goddess.

Aurum opened his mouth to say something else, but Foliis cut him off with a gasp—quickly stifling it with her hand. Silver flashed at the edge of the street as light glanced off the scales of a tall dragonborn man. He stood waiting, watching, for a heartbeat before he tucked into his cloak and backed into the shadows.

"I'll be back." Foliis dipped her head to Aurum before backing out of the group. She disappeared down the alley without waiting for his answer.

Stellae's lip curled slightly. "Atticus again."

"Who?" Unda asked. He narrowed his eyes at the alley until the dark lifted slightly and the man's face took shape. It was the same silver dragonborn he had seen at the temple with the other generals. The one who stayed long to cast meaningful glances at Foliis. "Is that the friend you mentioned before? He gave her the necklace you broke? I thought she left him behind."

"Now you see the truth about your ahkias." Stellae sniffed, the tiniest hint of a triumphant smile creeping onto his corpse-like face. "What she says does not align with what she does. Aurum, please allow me to separate them. We can't have Foliis's old life distracting her."

"Leave them alone. There's no harm in their meeting. Besides, it's difficult to let go of those who are important to us." Aurum steered Unda away from the alley, and his arm crept around his thin shoulders again. This time, his grip was tight like he was afraid Unda would disappear if he released him. "If the goddess didn't believe in the bonds we create, she wouldn't have given us our family."

"Move on, Stellae," Ignis called over her shoulder, her voice tripping up into a sing-song-like mockery. The grin that split her lips was predatory. "Just like Foliis, you're still clinging to that past while preaching that you chase a greater purpose in wholeheartedly serving the goddess. Grow up." Snickering, she skipped farther ahead, flaming red hair swinging wild behind her.

Stellae's jaw twitched. He stalked ahead, boots clipping the stone path with a heavy crunch as he walked. The sun glanced off his black scales and horns, and they appeared even darker beneath the light.

Unda shivered. He had only gathered bits and pieces about his siblings' pasts, the life they lived before they came to the temple. It wasn't something any of them wanted to remember. He certainly didn't, and yet the emblem of the House of the Bear on Vivian's back kept unearthing something forbidden, quickening his heartbeat as the images flashed across his mind's eye. It was best to forget, but it seemed as if someone wanted him not to.

"The spell is pulling me in that direction." Aurum pointed down the road, past the market streets with colorful banners and wide-eyed crowds and toward the outskirts where the dragons flocked together. "We should get moving. Foliis will catch up soon."

"I hope your magic is right, ahkirel! I want to go back to the temple already," Ignis called back to him before she took off down the road, leaving the rest in the dust.

The dragonborn parted for her the way one might dive out of the path of a raging, wild beast. Whispers drifted up in her absence, and Unda's skin crawled as they twined around him. He broke away from Aurum to walk with his chin high and shoulders back. They could not afford to defile Selini's image again, not when she needed her Head Dragonborn to appear strong and stable, able to overcome anything the elves tried to start.

"Unda." Aurum caught up to his side again, concern swirling in his golden eyes. In the daytime, he glowed with an otherworldly appearance, and it made sense why everyone lowered their heads when he passed. He was the sun to the dragonborn, the bringer of light and warmth and protection. He was the pillar of the city, just like he was the head of Selini's servants. Yet he smiled the same as anyone else, all soft edges. "If this mission is too much, you can go back."

Beside him, Unda was nothing, and the ice crawling up his arms nipped him with bitter disgrace. He had no control, no power, and no authority. Compared to Aurum, he was nothing.

Still, Unda forced a smile, though it wavered under the weight on his mind. "I'm okay."

Aurum's gaze drifted up to the traitorous blue tips of Unda's hair, always shifting when the storm inside him grew too much to bear. "You can't lie to me."

His breath hitched, and Unda covered his curls with a frost-coated hand. "I–I wasn't trying to lie. I don't want you to waste your time worrying about me. This was what I wanted, ahkirel. I need this chance to see the world for myself, to prove that I don't need to be chained up in the temple forever."

"This is a punishment mission for a reason." Aurum lifted his hand, twining a gold thread around his fingers. It pointed down the road, the direction he had pointed Ignis and Stellae in before. They had both shrank into the distance, small and insignificant as they chased the thread. With a sigh, Aurum dropped his hand, and the thread disappeared again. "Don't force yourself to prove a point. You do have worth to the goddess."

"I want to be more than her eyes." Unda tugged his sleeve until the ice cracked free and fell away in a haze of blue sparks. "I want to do more, to see more, to be more than what I am now. You and the others are always being handed outside tasks, but the farthest I'm allowed to go from her side is down to the library and out to the gardens. There's more to the world than the temple and the worshippers. You know that. You've been all over Anticuus."

The scrying pool was once the perfect window, providing him a way to watch over the world from safety and security. But as he grew older, the cage began to feel too small for him to stretch his wings, and it was no longer enough. He yearned for the scent of the open air, for the feeling of being free. He dreamt of the ocean, and the waves lapping at his feet. Of the mountains, and the snow clinging to his skin and hair. Of the forests, painted silver by the moonlight.

He could see anything he wanted through the scrying pool, but all that ever did was make his heart ache more for something he couldn't recall ever experiencing. It didn't matter the danger. He had to experience it all for himself. Away from the goddess's pressing thoughts, his own were so much clearer, and he yearned for the freedom she denied.

How could he be so precious to her if she kept him on a tight leash?

They walked in silence, Aurum's face pinched in contemplation. It wasn't long before they left the whispers and the crowds behind, but they still had a long way to go before they caught the end of the thread.

Something tugged at Unda's chest, and he couldn't help but turn back to his bond with Coae. She had fallen silent since giving him permission to leave. When he reached for her, he found nothing there but an empty void—cold and icy, like his magic that dwelled in his core. Maybe she, too, was waiting for him to prove he could be useful to her.

Jolting Unda out of his reverie, Aurum put his hand against his shoulder again and pulled him to a stop in the empty street. He squeezed gently, warm and sincere. "I'm glad you're here, tenirel. I need you more than you know."

I need you. Those words rang in Unda's ears and curled around his heart until he could have choked on them. The cold beneath his flesh subsided, chasing away the anxious flutter in his veins. Finally, he returned Aurum's smile wholeheartedly. "Then I'll stay by your side."

"Good." Aurum laughed, and the world lit up like the gleam of sunlight across his golden scales. He let go of Unda's shoulder and, with a flick of his wrist, pulled the gold thread taut. It shifted with a mind of its own, but Aurum twisted again and it fell easily into his service once more. Beaming, he shot down the road following the string, each step pulling him closer to where the next piece of the puzzle was hidden.

Unda took off after him, guided by the flecks of gold remains of the string as it shrank. City roads turned into packed dirt and tall grass, an open expanse that stood between the dense forest and the border of An Deuii. Dragons lay sprawled in the field, curled up like puppies in piles with each other or sitting watchfully and eyeing the dragonborn as they dashed into their territory. Ignis and Stellae had arrived first and busied themselves poking around near the scaled creatures as if they knew what to look for without Aurum. One, a huge blue dragon missing his left horn, curled his lip as Ignis lifted his foot to dig at the soft dirt. She ignored him like the sound didn't rattle her bones—or maybe it was just Unda who wanted to shrink away from the beast.

The golden thread guided Unda and Aurum to an empty spot in the clearing several paces away from the pack. It was marked by the swirling aura of Aurum's magic and seemed to call to the ice in Unda's soul.

"Here!" Aurum knelt down in the tall grass, raking aside the soft earth with his fingers. "What did I tell you? My magic never fails."

"No need to shout." Foliis cut in, gliding past Unda and dropping to Aurum's side in a flash of green silk and blond curls. "Everyone in the city can hear you."

Unda's heart tripped up. "You found us?"

"I followed the thread. I said I wouldn't be gone long." Her emerald glare zeroed in on Aurum, and she sniffed. "Throwing your magic around because you can is incredibly foolish. I can't believe the goddess would approve. There's gold all over the place, and you can't sustain a spell like this forever."

"Less talking, more digging." Aurum scraped up more dirt. His sun kissed hands turned black with earth.

Unda knelt in the dirt and began to dig, dimly aware of Ignis and Stellae slowly closing the gap behind him and peering over his shoulder. Eventually, after they scraped for several long seconds without success, Foliis nudged Aurum aside, wrinkling her nose in disgust at the dirt coating his fingers. She shooed him and Unda away before kneeling in his place and resting her hands against the beginnings of a hole he had dug.

"Honestly, what am I to do with the two of you? Such a waste of good looks," she sniffed. "Tell me what you're searching for."

Aurum leaned over her shoulder, retracting the gold thread into his hand. It vanished into his palm, leaving a subtle glow in his golden scales. "A box. It's a little chest, buried a few feet down."

"I see it."

The ground shuddered beneath her hands, widening the hole they had dug. The dirt parted, revealing the corner of a small wooden chest like the one Unda had found in the library before. With a crooked smile, Aurum reached past Foliis's shoulder and pulled the chest from the hole, brushing the dirt away from it with his thumb. Foliis released her hold on the ground and the hole mended itself, replaced with a neat layer of grass. White flowers bloomed in the place where her hands had been.

They all crowded around Aurum as he slowly, painstakingly, unlatched the box and pushed back the lid. Unda leaned in close, holding his breath until his ears were roaring, but he couldn't release. Not until he knew that his finding had been useful and their quest could continue.

Unlike the previous box they had found in the library, it opened silently. Another scrap of ancient parchment lay at the bottom of the box, and Unda sighed as relief crashed over him. It was slightly larger than the first one and bore the fingerprints of the original writer that gave it a more carefree personality than the other.

Ignis groaned in defeat and flopped back against the ground. "I thought you said the rest of the scroll would be here, not another scrap!"

"I never said that." Aurum pulled the paper out and turned the box over, shaking it as though he thought more would fall out. Only a few bits of dirt fell from the open box. He frowned. "I was hoping there would be more though."

Stellae folded his arms. "So the goddess expects us to complete this document first?"

"It really is a punishment worse than death." Ignis raked her hands over her face, crimson eyes brimming with murder. "Why don't we leave this part to Foliis? She's good at keeping up with useless junk. She can take Unda with her, too, then the rest of us will do the important work."

"You don't know when to quit, do you?" Foliis snapped, jewels clinking as she spun to face her sister.

Their bickering began anew, soon joined by Stellae's quiet mocking and Aurum's desperate attempts to quell the flames, but Unda tuned their voices out, a small smile crawling across his lips. Above, the blue sky stretched endlessly, slowly turning red and orange at the horizon as the sun began to sink beyond the trees. The fresh breeze carried the promise of adventure and the scent of the earth, and he drank it all in.

Wild as the chase may have been, it was a blessing that prolonged his time outside. He didn't care how long it took to return to the temple. To him, it was never a punishment. It was a gift, a chance to be something more than the little dragonborn who peered into the scrying pool.

It was a gift of freedom.

~<>~