Foliis borrowed Stellae's purple cloak and draped it over Unda's shoulders, covering his face and elf-like ears in the oversized hood. "Just in case," she said when Stellae gave her a rotten look. "He needs it more than you. You know how humans are about elves—their love for them runs almost as deep as their hatred for us."

"You worry too much," Ignis chided. "This is why Unda's such a baby."

The ice climbed up Unda's knuckles, but he kept silent. Ignis was the worst to argue with, always quick to turn things to a fight if she felt her words were losing.

Luckily, Foliis noticed it too, and brushed her sister's poking off with a heavy sigh this time. Her hand landed against Unda's back and guided him to the front of the group. "Look confident. You belong here, and so do we. They will be especially keen on your reactions, so don't give us away."

He nodded, swallowing against the fear slowly taking root within him. With the hood down, half his vision was obscured, and he kept having to lift it to see more than just his feet as they plodded out of the woods. Foliis kept her steady hand against him, and he leaned into her the closer they got to the guards at the gate. Both were watching them now, steely yet bewildered.

Aurum beamed as he made his way to the front of the group, sweeping his black hair out of his face. Without his gleaming golden scales and horns, his sun kissed skin and dark eyes made him appear plain, as unassuming as the never ending desert he was said to have emerged from. "This weather seems ominous," he said by way of explanation, all charm as he looped a strong arm around Unda and pulled him closer, out of Foliis's grasp. "I hope it doesn't mean the dragonborn are planning another slaughter."

The guards both stiffened. "They won't make it past us. You have our word," one said with the polite dip of his head. "Please rest until the storm passes, sir."

"We plan to," Stellae answered. Unlike Aurum, his smile was like a snake's, and his voice slithered through the grass. The guards inched away from him as he passed through the gate, but there was no suspicion in their eyes as they followed him. Only the wrinkles of confusion.

Unda shuddered, passing the gate with Aurum and Foliis, Ignis trailing behind. If transformation magic could protect even Stellae, it was truly a thing to be feared. Or perhaps the elves were not as watchful as the stories claimed, and were easily fooled.

Maybe that was why they had been conquered alongside the humans. He didn't dare to be comforted by the thought. Instead, it twisted his gut into tight knots. Selini's generals certainly didn't seem as confident that the woman in the pool could be fooled, though they hoped to squash her the way one might crush a pest.

Does the goddess fear that we are being fooled by the elves instead? The frost on his knuckles spread farther up his arm as he cast a nervous glance back. The guards had both returned to their posts without a second look, and the gate soon shut behind them. Overhead, the thunder rolled once more—definitive and ominous, a warning of something that had not yet come.

Due to the lingering threat of rain, the gravel streets were empty as a ghost town. The shops they passed had closed, betraying a carefree life so easily disrupted by a mere change in the weather. Only a few stragglers went by, heads down with their cloaks pulled up as the first few drops of rain began to fall. One hit Unda square in the nose, and he flinched. It was icy, sharp as a needle.

Aurum's string of gold led them away from the center of the town, past houses and markets, toward the place that beckoned travelers and boasted stables, taverns, and inns. It guided them away from the lingering smell of fresh bread and cured meats, bitterly reminding Unda that he hadn't had a satisfactory meal since leaving the temple. He drank in the crisp scent of rain instead.

"Come on, Unda." Aurum tugged him along like a small child. He fixed Unda's hood, pulling it down again. When he squeezed Unda's shoulder, warmth rushed through him and chipped away at the ice gathering on his skin until it was gone, but it couldn't ease the tightness in his chest. Aurum sighed. "Foliis's worrying is rubbing off on you."

Unda chewed his lip. Foliis had gone ahead with the other two, oblivious to Aurum's mocking. When Ignis strayed too close to a street corner that led back to the strong scent of meat, she steered her away, chiding her again. She didn't seem as worried as Aurum believed, though he did catch her eye once. Her smile was strained then. He matched it, equally strained.

"Forgive me," he muttered to Aurum, "but I can't help but think of the vision I saw in the scrying pool."

"The one the generals were all crowded around you for? You have nothing to be concerned about." Aurum withdrew his arm and spun the golden thread again, his magic weaving through the streets toward their target, closer at hand than before as the thread had tightened. He nudged Unda. "See? We have a mission to fulfill, so worry about one thing at a time."

"I suppose." But he couldn't shake the unease, the warnings Selini so carefully whispered to Aurum when she thought Unda wouldn't hear. It was the wrong time for the goddess to send her disciples out on a wild goose chase of a punishment, so why would she?

They came upon a tavern at the end of the thread with warm lights pouring out from the windows and laughter drifting through the door when it swung open to welcome another rain-splattered guest. The downfall of rain remained a soft sprinkling. From the pressure in his head, Unda knew the worst of the storm was yet to come. Humans truly seemed to fear even the tiniest show of rain.

"Is that him?" Foliis whispered, pointing at a man standing outside the tavern with a pipe in hand, his back against the wall. The edge of the roof jutted out above him and shielded him from the rain. It also cast a shadow over him that was almost as thick as the smoke he exhaled.

Foliis wrinkled her nose and turned to Aurum. "Please say it isn't."

Ignis snorted. "Can't a man have his hobbies?"

Foliis ignored her, but the way she covered her nose gave her disgust away. She used to complain she hated the smell of the smoke and had dismissed several of her servants because of it.

Aurum summoned the thread again, twisting it so that it was just visible enough to catch a glimpse before it vanished. It circled the man's pocket, and he stood there unaware of its presence. Aurum shrugged. "Looks like he has a piece. We'll have to get it from him."

As Foliis launched into another complaint, Unda pushed back his hood and scrutinized the man. He had never been particularly skilled at guessing the ages of humans, but from the gray in the man's dark hair and the wrinkles forming around his eyes, he guessed he was middle aged. There was a certain clarity to his face, one that suggested he had not been drinking in the tavern. Troublesome if they intended to steal from him easily. The man's thick cloak concealed most of his body, making it impossible to tell if he was hiding weapons.

With the town being outside dragonborn control, he could have carried a weapon openly. Yet Unda hesitated to assume that because he didn't boast in one that he didn't keep one. Every human carried weapons these days, even those under law that prevented it. They lived their lives in fear, and fear drove every creature to violence.

Aurum cleared his throat and stepped away from the group, moving toward the man. "Foliis and I will negotiate for the scroll. If it goes poorly, Stellae, you know what to do. Ignis, Unda, wait here. Do not move until I tell you to."

"I can help," Unda offered with a hopeful glance at Aurum. "That's why you brought me, right?"

Aurum's face twisted into something like regret. "Yes, but that was when I thought we were going to be digging up another box in the town square or something. I don't like the look of things here. Wait with Ignis."

Unda's fists curled beneath the cloak and he narrowed his eyes, hoping Aurum would look at him. His ahkirel stubbornly refused, which only stirred the anger inside him more. "You'll endanger Foliis and Stellae but not me?"

That struck a nerve. Aurum swung to face him, and his eyes flashed gold. "You will do as you are told," he hissed, pronouncing each syllable carefully. They landed heavily in the air, almost as sharp as the ice cold rain. With a final lingering glance, he turned away and crossed the gravel street with Foliis in tow, who could only spare an apologetic glance.

The ice within Unda shuddered, seizing his lungs and hardening until he almost couldn't breathe. He took a measured step back, breathing in deeply and exhaling slowly.

Stellae smirked out of the corner of his eye. "Nicely done, little dragonborn. What a defiant spirit you've begun to cultivate."

Gritting his teeth, Unda jerked his chin down and stared at the toes of his boots, breathing until his skin cooled again. He touched the tips of his hair, pulling his curls straight so he could see. They had turned a deep, dark midnight—a harsh and angry color. It startled him so that he dropped his hand and sank into Stellae's cloak.

"This mission gets worse by the hour." Ignis folded her arms and dropped to the ground with her legs crossed. She let out a huff that disturbed the stark red hair hanging in her face.

Unda smiled wryly, leaning against the opposite building beside her. It was rare to find himself in agreement with her, yet here he was—though for different reasons. She hated to be still, but the moment they let her run wild, their cover would be blown. Ignis had never known the meaning of subtlety. Her only manner of getting the scroll would be a massacre.

Like her, his usefulness slipped through his fingers, a flimsy thing determined by Aurum and the goddess's needs. While Aurum and Foliis were certainly wise with their words, both charming and cunning enough to convince a man to slit his own throat, Unda couldn't help but imagine being the one who earned this piece of the scroll. Word games were a skill he understood, and humans were a people he had spent countless hours watching. He knew their ways.

The man looked up as Aurum and Foliis approached. He greeted them by removing his pipe from his mouth and exhaling the last of his smoke. Foliis stiffened, but Aurum quickly squeezed her shoulder. A reminder that passed only between the two of them.

Unda settled for watching through narrowed eyes, pushing his hood back farther. The tips of his pointed ears dragged against the inside of the hood as he pricked them, straining to hear the conversation above the growing pitter-patter of the rain. Finally, he gave up and ripped the hood off, lifting a weight from his ears.

"A piece of an old scroll?" the man asked. He followed it with a laugh, one that carried a mocking edge to it. "Sure, I know what you're looking for. What makes you think I'd just hand it to you?"

"We're willing to bargain for it," Foliis answered.

"Oh? A bit desperate for it, are we?"

"Not quite. You would know if we were desperate," Aurum quipped, putting his arm out in front of Foliis.

The man fiddled with his pipe between his fingers. "Coming out in the rain seems desperate to me. You're travelers, aren't you? Best find a place to stay. They say the monsters lurk near the woods when the sky gets dark."

"It's better for all of us if you cooperate here."

Unda pinched the bridge of his nose and let out a sigh as the ever-present frost began to gather on the tips of his fingers again. Your charm is slipping, Aurum.

The man's hand parted his heavy cloak and drifted the hilt of a sword jutting out at his waist. He rested it against the hilt pointedly and tapped. "Are you threatening me?"

Ignis tensed beside Unda, leaning in. Unda half expected her to spring up like a rabid dog and maul the man, but she kept still, waiting for Aurum's order. Even Stellae was watching more intently, his brow furrowed over his plain eyes. However, Aurum kept still and said nothing, letting the threat roll over him. Foliis glanced at him. The hand that had been inching toward one of her daggers froze.

When his question went unanswered for a few measured beats, the man chuckled. He released his sword and sank against the tavern wall again, relaxed and easy once more. "If you want the scroll so badly, I'm willing to make a trade."

Aurum nodded eagerly, though his fingers curled into tight fists at his sides. "Of course, Name your price, and we'll pay it."

A smug smile crawled across the man's wrinkled face. He tilted his head so that his gaze landed on Unda across the road. "Your elf," he said, "I'll buy him from you with this scroll."

Unda's heart leapt to his throat. He flinched, sinking against the wall behind him. The frost on his fingers spread to the growing puddles on the ground. Beneath the man's gaze, he was small, a thing to be traded and caged. He flattened his ears back and jerked the hood over them, lowering his head to avoid locking eyes. A flash of red and Ignis's arm appeared like a shield over him. Aurum had also stepped in the man's line of sight, blocking his view of Unda.

"He's not a thing to be bought and sold," Aurum growled, motioning to Stellae behind his back.

"Not even for this?" the man sneered, patting his pocket where the scroll piece sat hidden.

"No."

While their discussion began anew, heated this time, Stellae stepped back and melted into his shadow on the wall. Overhead, the thunder crashed, together with the lightning this time. Rain fell in sheets, whipped up by the wind. As the darkness closed in, Stellae's power grew. Unda could barely make out the movement as his inky shape slithered across the road and up into the man's shadow. Slowly, silently, he emerged, threads of dark purple clinging to his body like cobwebs.

Oblivious, the man sighed. "That's unfortunate. It might be better for him if he was sold. The dragonborn will come for him if he continues to travel right under their noses." He smoothed back his graying hair, revealing a scar across his forehead. Stellae pressed back into the wall to avoid the movement, yet the man's focus remained pinned on Aurum and Foliis. "I've fought them. They'll come for all the elves eventually. You wouldn't be able to protect him when that happens."

Threads of gold gathered in Aurum's hand. They spun into the shape of a dagger with an ornate hilt and a long, silver blade. He gripped the weapon. "And you can?"

"But of course." The man pushed his cloak aside to reveal the sword again. This time, it also revealed a cord hanging around his neck, dipping low under the weight of the trophies it strung together. Bloodied teeth and multicolored scales, along with the chipped tips of horns. The trophies of a dragon hunter.

Unda's stomach turned. The world shrank to a tiny pinhole, rocking beneath him. He wasn't sure when Ignis's hand seized his arm, or when she hauled him to his feet, or what it was she whispered into his ear. She was far, far away.

Were the humans always this bold? They were supposed to be cowardly and fragile, always hiding behind the power of the elves they adored so much. If they began to rise up as well, even Selini's soldiers wouldn't be able to defeat them all. They would swarm in great numbers, locusts set upon the dragonborn by some greater evil.

"I have to tell the goddess," he murmured. "The goddess has to know that dragon hunters lie in humans as well as elves."

Ignis squeezed tighter. "Don't get ahead of yourself."

Unda shook his head, flooded with a sense of dizzying urgency. That wouldn't be soon enough. The goddess had to know. He was required to tell her. He was useful to her as long as he told her all he knew.

White hot pain flared behind his eyes, and he stifled a groan as he pressed the heel of his hand to his temples. In the back of his mind, he could feel the faint tug of the goddess's blue head in response. She remained in the temple, beside his pool of water at the foot of the throne. Far, far away from the little human village. Gritting his teeth, he squeezed his eyes shut and tried to take a calm breath to stall the ice creeping up his arms.

She sent him to be her Eyes—that was his duty. He had to tell her everything he had seen before their fragile peace was destroyed.

"I have killed many of Selini's creatures—dragons and dragonborn alike," the man continued, voice oozing with pride. He tapped his sword again as he shoved away from the wall. "He would be better off in my care. I would treat him well."

"He stays with us," Foliis snapped.

Whatever the man's answer, it was lost to the roar of the rain, the crash of thunder overhead. Unda kept his head low, his ears flattened back behind the hood of the cloak. He pulled it closer around himself, shrinking into it and drowning beneath the roaring in his ears, the pounding of his heart, until the black at the edges of his vision began to clear. Don't look at me. Don't look at me.

"Come on." Ignis's grip tightened around his arm and tugged him down the street. Rain plastered her wild red hair to her face. With her lip curled and her face scrunched, gaze locked ahead, she almost looked like a drenched stray dog. Her strides were longer, and she raced away from the scene with him struggling to keep up.

"Ignis, we were told to wait," Unda wheezed. Already, his legs began to ache. The cold rain turned to frost where it touched his skin, and the wind ripped Stellae's cloak from his shoulders. He startled and tugged against her in a pitiful attempt to snatch it back. But Ignis took a sharp turn, and the cloak disappeared into the street behind them.

Finally, Ignis jerked him to a stop in a tiny alley. He stumbled into the wall to catch his breath, shaking all over and struggling to fill his lungs. When he finally managed a greedy gulp of crisp air, he stood upright and opened his mouth to argue.

"Quiet." Ignis slapped her hand over his mouth, the fierce red of her eyes returning for a flash as she narrowed her eyes at him. "Someone else was there, watching. I think they might be onto us."

Unda's breath hitched. He hadn't sensed anyone at all, but maybe his urgency to deliver the message to Selini had distorted his senses. Or maybe he had forgotten to pay attention to anything besides the man's hungry stare. He shoved her hand away. "But Aurum—"

"Will get the scroll piece. We can regroup after. Until then, wait here. Besides..." Turning to him, her mischievous grin stretched wider, crinkling her eyes at the corners. "Isn't it fun to go against Aurum's orders?"

At first, when she began to laugh, he could only stare in wonder as a weight slowly lifted from him. Eventually, a smile broke out across his lips and the tightness in his chest loosened. He laughed with her, light, free, and just a little bit contagious. The storm seemed like a distant thing, even as it drenched them and howled through the empty streets. Far behind them was the violence and the threat of a world yet unknown.

This was freedom from his cage.

Somewhere back the way they had come, Aurum's triumphant shout rang out over the next clap of thunder. Footsteps splashed through the rain, racing toward them. In a flash of gold, green, and black, the three sped past the little alley, with Aurum waving the piece of the scroll in the air. They didn't know subtlety either, but perhaps it didn't matter. Not when they were so free.

Despite his weariness, despite the pain pounding in his head, despite the ice slithering up his arm towards his arm, Unda smiled at the sight of them. He hoped they would always be able to laugh that way.

But the moment shattered. Beneath the rain, beneath the hum of elation, a blade scraped its sheath. Unda's ears twitched, latching onto the sound. The scrape of metal, the swish of a blade cutting the air, the twist of a boot's sole against the wet gravel.

Unda shoved Ignis behind himself and spun to face the attacker, throwing his hand up between them. Around him, the rain halted its course and froze, collecting into a thick shield between him and the blade. Its tip stopped inches from his face, lodged deep in the ice.

"My, you're a quick one." Perched on the eaves of one of the buildings lining the alley, a figure stood. It dropped to the ground a few paces away with the flutter of a dark green cloak. Laced boots splashed in the puddles as the hooded figure prowled closer.

With the swipe of his arm, the ice dissipated and the knife clattered to the ground at Unda's feet.

Through the rain, it was difficult to make out the shape of the attacker, but her voice was feminine, woven together with a perfect Elvish accent that lulled her words together. When she ripped her hood aside, her mismatched yellow and green eyes burned in the dark, paired with a catlike grin. Silver earrings gleamed on her ears, long and pointed like Unda's, like the elves'.

She ripped another knife from the folds of her cloak and flung it with the flick of her wrist. Ignis tackled Unda out of the path of the blade, slamming them both against the wall with an impact that rattled Unda's skull. Stars flashed in his vision, and he slumped to the ground with a groan.

"To Selini's jaws with this," Ignis cursed. Her hands burst into flames at her sides and, with a rush of magic that turned the rain to steam, dispelled her disguise. Red horns and scales appeared on her face once more just before she flung herself at the elf. Both went down, and Ignis slammed her fists into the woman's face.

Unda pushed to his feet, but the floor rocked beneath him. Wheezing, he steadied himself against the wall and gingerly touched the back of his head. It was damp, but not with blood. An ache spread from the wound, spider webbing through his skull.

Behind him, Ignis howled. The elf had stabbed her between the ribs, and she ripped the knife out before piercing her side again. And again. And again. Blood poured from the wounds. When Ignis tipped off balance with another shattered scream, the elf kicked her off and drove the knife deep into her shoulder where she left it.

The ice clamped firmly around Unda's heart, freezing every inch of him and the rain that touched him. It swallowed even the scream building up in his throat, and he stared in silent horror at his sister writhing in pain.

The elf was on him before he could react, taking his wrist in her bloodstained hand. "This way," she commanded, jerking him out of the alley and back out into the storm. "We have to get away before she gets up again—or the rest of them come back."

"Let go of me!" Unda jerked against her hold. When it didn't loosen, he dug his heels into the gravel, fighting and wriggling. Nothing loosened her iron grip. Tears blurred his eyes, but nothing could stop the horrific scene from replaying over and over. His fingers turned to frost, to ice, blue with agony and pain and stiff beneath the layers of cold.

"You're feisty for such a sickly little thing." The elf gritted her teeth and, with a tug, pulled him in close. Green markings underlined her mismatched eyes, dissolving in the rain. With Ignis's blood on her fingers, she traced a tiny symbol on his forehead. "Go to sleep," she whispered, but his eyes were already closing.

The harsh patter of the rain against his skin faded, and darkness pulled him under. 

~<>~