⛥

Two weeks after the incident that left the other cadets crowding Vyshena, interrogating her about what happened and what she did to make a green daggertail kneel before her. "I didn't make her do anything," was the only thing she said to a third year who grabbed her by the shoulders. She was quick to remove her hands from the grasp, "You did something!" She shouted and Vyshena debated on picking a fight.

"Leave her alone!" That rough, loud, dark voice echoed through the hall, and everyone scattered except Rhiannon and Violet, who stood by her side. "I want a word with her," Xaden told both the girls, who looked at Vyshena. "Tell me what happened." He said after they refused to move, a heavy, annoyed sigh past his lips.

"We were walking and one of them bowed, I don't know why. She said nothing." Xaden knew it was a lie, one she couldn't share with their audience. He nodded his head once and stood out of the way, where Rhiannon had a hold of her arm and they left.

A week until Threshing where she'd try and bond with another dragon. A dragon that was not hers, was not born with her. Another chance of her dying if they only picked her for her royal blood and stories of her lineage.

She stood in the sparring gym, her name and Barlowe's being called again as she sighed and walked to the mat. Bodhi and Garrick were behind her as she unsheathed her daggers and handed them to Bodhi. "Oh, come on. I can take it." Jack said as he flipped his in his grasp. "Can you?" She asked, voice raising high while she reached for one of hers.

"Don't." Her door was wide open for some reason, and she slammed it shut with such force stone from the wall had broken around it.

Violet noticed how Xaden walked to his friends, crossing his arms over one another to watch the fight. "She's never fought with her weapons." Violet told Rhiannon as Dain stood beside them. "Gods be good." Dain whispered as he said a silent prayer, not knowing why.

"I can do that too!" Vyshena had grown a little out of her shell. Speaking more, engaging more. She flipped the blade in her hand, when the hilt was in her grasp, she threw the blade so hard the entire thing was buried in Jack's thigh and poking out the other end. "No throwing!" Before Jack could scream, and before Emetterio could scold her more, she ripped it from its new found home and she twisted her body. Slashing the dagger behind her, she grazed his side.

Jack hissed, grabbing ahold of Vyshena's waist. His strong arm wrapped around her, "get out of it!" Xaden instructed and Vyshena kept one foot on the ground and swung the other one in front of her. Violet gasped as she flipped her body over Jack's, taking him down with her. During the exchange, Jack had slid two daggers on the outside of her pants, cutting her leathers.

She gasped at the cut, not of her skin but of the fabric and Jack shot up from the floor. She kicked under his legs, pulling him down and throwing the blade to the side of his neck. A centimeter closer it would had embedded into his skin.

Xaden saw her, then saw the relic. Violet saw the flash of purple on the right side of Vyshena's thigh. It covered the entirety of her skin, starting at the top of her ankle and working its way up, but she saw the familiar tail that the riders of the quadrant had and Rhiannon gasped. Then again, after Xaden ripped his shirt from his own body and wrapped it around Vyshena's waist who stumbled backwards at her exposure into his chest. "You're okay." He whispered in her ear as he tied his shirt tight.

"I knew it," Jack laughed from his spot on the ground. "You have a purple dragon." He was in so much laughter he rolled over, as if he knew it all along. Violet watched how Emetterio snapped his head from Jack and Vyshena, wondered who would lose their life quicker. A purple dragon? A breed that died out before the eldest dragon in the Vale was born. And Vyshena was bonded to one.

No one knew what the purple dragons' power was, as everything about them had been lost in the Lenayon's archives the night of the rebellion. But Vyshena had one. She had that power before. A power that was unknown to everyone. And because Vyshena was still alive, it meant that the dragon was still alive.

With Xaden's shirt over Vyshena's waist, Rhiannon pulled her jacket from her shoulders and quickly walked over. With help from Xaden blocking the princess from wandering eyes, Rhiannon tied her jacket around Vyshena's waist and pulled Xaden's shirt from her, handing it back to him. "Take her,"

"No." Vyshena said, stalking to Jack whose blood seethed from the wound she created. "You proud of yourself, Barlowe?" She questioned as he sat up. "I can't wait to hear what they're going to do to you." He said as she ripped her dagger from the mat and spun it in her hands again. "Do to me? When they find out what dragon I have, they'll run scared. Just like you inevitably will."

⛥

October first. The official day of Threshing.

Vyshena had sat under a tree for the past hour, being shielded by the leaves as she watched her fellow classmates either be scorched or fly off with their newly bonded dragons. She turned to her left, seeing Violet climb a tree.

"You find something interesting?" Violet knew to stay away from other cadets during Threshing, but had an odd feeling if she was with Vyshena it would go better for her. Something in her telling Violet to stay with the princess. "Nothing. Absolutely nothing," Violet called from the tree as she scanned her surroundings.

"Hey, the feathertail is over there." Vyshena furrowed her brows tight, "she shouldn't be." Vyshena said as Violet saw Tynan, Jack, and Oren stalk their way toward the golden dragon. Violet jumped from the tree, "Tynan, Jack and Oren are," Vyshena's eyes grew and she took off in a sprint before Violet could finish.

"The feathertail is in danger,"

"We're coming. Get there!"

Violet had tripped, feeling the pop in her ankle as Vyshena stood feet before the baby and noticed how childlike the beast looked. The golden beast tilted her head to the side as she studied Vyshena, then looked past her shoulder to Violet who crashed into Vyshena's back, the two girls stumbling forward. "Why isn't it going?"

"She." Vyshena corrected as she heard the three boys find them. "You need to go." Vyshena told Violet who took offense. "I can fight!" She said, "try and get her out of here. She can't breathe fire, you'll be safe. I don't know why she's here." Violet wanted to know how Vyshena knew this, but she moved to the dragon and begun pleading for it to flee. The same cries that Vyshena told her beasts that night.

"Oh, look what we have here." Vyshena unsheathed her dagger. "Princess!" The voice boomed in her head, Sgaeyl. Xaden was here, with his dragon. She didn't need the backup, she needed witnesses. "You, want to bond the freak?" Jack asked and Vyshena threw her dagger to the left, hitting Oren in his shoulder as he was thrown back with such force the air was knocked from his lungs when he landed on his back.

Vyshena didn't plan on any of them making it out of Threshing, even going so far as asking Sgaeyl to burn their bodies so they were nothing but ash. "I won't do that unless they harm you." Her voice rattled in the back of Vyshena's head and she cursed. Violet couldn't get the dragon to flee. "Been waiting a long time for this. Lenayon and Sorrengail?" Sgaeyl couldn't keep quiet, she growled lowly and Jack and Tynan both turned their heads to where Xaden was leaned against a tree, his beast staring down at the boys as if they were an appetizer.

"Sgaeyl won't burn you." Vyshena said, throwing the other dagger as it hit the middle of Tynan's chest and he screamed. The blade breaking bone. Hand gripping the hilt as he fell to his knees. "But I don't promise that." Violet's eyes were wide as she saw the golden dragon stand to her paws and above both Violet and Vyshena. She barred her teeth, a loud growl seething from her throat and Vyshena tilted her head to the side at Jack.

Before he could react, he felt vomit rise in his throat at the sound of the wings. Thunder. Violet lost her footing as the dragons landed with force, standing above the golden one. The black, standing directly over the feathertail, and the navy-blue, identical to Sgaeyl, next to him.

Jack took a slow step back, and when he turned to run Vyshena threw her other dagger. Hitting him in the back of his shoulder. Violet thought she was seeing things when Jack's body flew forward and against a tree, landing unconscious.

Vyshena turned quickly, inspecting the feathertail and paying no mind to the two beasts at their feet. The navy-blue one's mouth had opened, and Vyshena stepped in front of Violet and ducked them as the fire came with a scorching blast to hit Oren and Tynan. "Enough!" Vyshena shouted, and she stood up.

Xaden was turned to the navy-blue, twins to Sgaeyl. She had purple under-tones, but only those who were close enough to her could notice. And bigger than Sgaeyl, bigger than Tairn. "Your sister." The six-hundred year old dragon who has never bonded to another rider. From what Xaden knows, she is ruthless. Not seeing any human decent enough to care for them. She spent her days in the Vale, as one of the elders who made the sole decisions for the Empyrean. Xaden wanted to drop to his knee's, bow before her.

She was a God amongst Sgaeyl and Tairn, but somehow proved that they were her equal outside of the Vale. And Xaden couldn't respond fast enough until her snout reached out and knocked under Vyshena's bottom, flying her the height of Basgaith and she hit the back of the dragon roughly.

Violet was too mesmerized by the deep voice in her own head, as Tairn told her to kill Jack. "Let's go." The deep, feminine voice echoed in the three human's head. And Tairn urged Violet to get on him, knowing the navy-blue daggertail would not wait.

Xaden got on Sgaeyl, and soared into the air. "Rio came to me and said she would bond the princess." Sgaeyl told Xaden as they flew to the field where the other dragons were with their newly bonded riders. Xaden knew the risk the elder was taking, knew what kind of trouble they could get into.

Rionach had Vyshena in the air as Tairn flew with Violet on his back. A low grumble from the navy-blue beast and Violet slowly turning her head, thighs tight to Tairn and hands clasped hard on his talons as Vyshena had her eyes shut. She looked peaceful, as she sat on the back of a beast Violet thought she'd never see.

She remembers Rio from the lessons. One of the oldest dragons in the Vale, who never bothered to bond a rider but kept her sister, Sgaeyl, safe during battle. She was seen during the night King Matavon and Queen Calanthe were killed, fighting. From reports saying other dragons. But Vyshena had been on her back, with her eyes shut comfortably, trust oozing out of her.

Vyshena opened them, turning to see Violet just as she slipped from Tairn's back at the princess sucked in a sharp breath. "He has her, princess. He won't let her fall." Rio told Vyshena who saw Tairn swoop Vyshena in his claw, throw her into the air, and landed on his back like she was a flea on a dog.

Vyshena couldn't believe it.