Chapter 43 Bonus Chapter: Noore The Terrible, Part 3

The defense of Ksorieka was among her most legendary battles. The city was undermanned, and under-fortified, but Noore managed to hold it for seven brutal months of siege. The Amethyst Eagles were among the forces attempting to capture the city, and had sent many desperate missives to the mouse for her to return to them, but she stood resolute with her new ally.

The lord of Ksorieka had been suspicious of her offering her support. It was well known that she was the commander of the Amethyst Eagles, and a loyal mercenary for the Ordenian Empire. It took Yarterex himself showing his face to convince the lord that she was a changed woman. After that, he happily put her in command of her forces. All she asked for in return was room and board, and the pay of a common foot soldier for her other expenses.

She tried many times to dispel the attacking forces with a duel, but her own reputation was now working against her. No one in her old company was foolish enough to fight their old commander. Even their new one, her old wolf aid, knew better than to face her in single combat. Instead, they were convinced that their numbers would be good enough to overpower the city’s defenses.

Niroxi kept close to her for that time. The woman still clearly loathed Noore, but saw her as the best chance she had to fight back Ordenia. The two formed a tenuous bond of professional respect that allowed them to work in tandem well, and eventually the raven became Noore’s new right hand in matters of command.

Dozens of her old soldiers defected to the Ksorieka defense forces in those seven months. Many of them were positioned in her new command structure, retraining the militia stationed within its walls, bolstering defenses, and some even returning to the opposite side to act as spies. Noore vetted each that entered her own walls for that very reason, and had ended up sending a few back to her old brothers and sisters in arms in caskets if she found they were spies, but managed to keep a tight lid on her operation.

She knew that if she could just make it to that seven month mark, she might have some hope. The Amethyst Eagles would only be paid if they took the city, and they’d already failed to take Nilimir the prior year. Their coffers would be running dry soon, she knew how their finances looked before the winter, after all. They likely wouldn’t survive another winter of sitting around with their thumbs up their asses. If she were in their place now, she’d have to consider alternative contracts, and sources of income, or pay would start having to be cut, and that would shred what little morale those soldiers had left. She simply had to wait.

Finally, the winter hit again, and the mercenaries began to dwindle by the day. She had never seen such rapid desertion under her own command, but fighting against Noore the Terrible, rather than for her likely did little for them. She had taken advantage of this many times, and made herself as visible as possible for the Amethyst Eagles whenever walking along the walls. The occasional arrow had been shot up at her, but she kept on her toes well enough to not be hit while doing her rounds.

After Ksorieka, her work was hardly done. The lord of the city gratefully held a parade in her honor, which she did not attend, and then transferred her services to the king. Under him she spent the next two years retraining the forces of Utsnil, recruiting back many of her old mercenaries who had deserted, and helping Utsnil to find allies in other neighboring territories of Ordenia. Yarterex did not help with the fighting, as he had against her, but was more than happy to deliver messages for her to aid in forging these alliances.

Once she was ready, she personally coordinated the counteroffensive. She took the Utsnil front for herself, after all, she had already captured every city in her path once before. The flags had changed, but she knew the lay of the land, she knew the city’s weaknesses, and the supply lines of the Ordenian Empire through the corridor that had once supported her. Every mile she marched, she wondered if her home village was among those she had liberated.

It took eight years, but she managed to push back to where The Empire’s borders were before she was born. However, she wasn’t done. She wouldn’t be done until she had marched into the capital at its heart and disemboweled The Emperor himself.

Niroxi never left her side for the entire eight year campaign. The two’s professional respect had blossomed into friendship, after time enough had passed. Noore never asked for forgiveness, but at some point she could tell she had earned it from the person in her life who mattered most.

Five years after they’d met, they were wed.

It was a simple, and private ceremony. Yarterex officiated, and a random foot soldier who Noore had picked out from a crowd was their witness. For their honeymoon they took a week to return to Niroxi’s home, and place flowers on her family’s grave, before returning to the fight.

Upon reaching the original borders of Ordenia, a celebration was held. The many allies of the effort came together for the festival of the century. The Empire was crumbling, and broke, and many felt Ordenia was a year or two at most away from utter defeat. Noore, however, didn’t buy it.

The lands beyond would be the most heavily fortified yet. There would be no locals she could bargain with to undermine military supply lines. There would be no loose lips. There would be no underground resistance to coordinate with. The beast itself had mountains on all sides, and had funneled much of the wealth robbed from their holdings back to the homeland for greater, newer, and more advanced military infrastructure than any of what she’d taken so far. The last eight years would look like a cakewalk compared to what would come next.

Despite it all, she was not about to quit here.

She and Niroxi made a brief appearance at the celebration for morale. They gave a speech, they shook hands, had a few drinks, and retired to their quarters as soon as was possible. Noore had no desire for revelry. She just wanted to spend the night with her wife, during the brief window of peace before the march continued.

However, there was someone in their quarters already when they arrive. She was human, russet skinned, in rather plain ministry robes. If Noore had to guess the woman was only a few years older than her. She didn’t assume her to be much of a threat, but instinctively rested her hand on the sword on her hip anyway. “These quarters are private, miss. I’m going to have to ask you to leave.”

“Oh, my apologies. I simply had to meet the famous liberator of the north for myself,” the strange woman stood, and brushed out the wrinkles in the front of her robes. “Congratulations are in order. Though, we all know that only the worst has yet to come.”

“I wish more people realized it,” Noore nodded, hand still not coming off of her weapon. “Is this a Ministry matter?”

“Oh, in a sense. You can think of me as a recruiter,” she bowed. “You may call me Fatima Mattar.”

“We’re not exactly the priestly type, miss Mattar,” Niroxi squinted at the woman before her, also trying to size her up. “I appreciate the… show of support for our cause, but supplies would be more meaningful than words.”

“Oh, no. I wouldn’t take you for priests,” Fatima shook her head and chuckled. “Not even when this whole dreadful affair is over could I see that for you. Tiamat herself has taken note of your efforts, and extended this offer personally. Noore and Niroxi will be entering as her chosen.Should you go through the academy, I believe you both have quite the odds of a rider bond. Yarterex may not want to get involved so directly, but there are no rules against one doing so.”

Noore paused at the mysterious woman’s words. It was true that having a dragon on the battlefield could help sway the tides. Most castles weren’t built with dragons in mind. Some of the more… daring individuals, may install ballista or nets for them, but tussling with a dragon was generally agreed upon as a terrible and deadly idea. She would know from experience. “You really think we would get chosen?”

“Oh, without a doubt,” Fatima smiled knowingly. There were clear secrets behind those lips. “You would both be gone for a year, but Yarterex could continue ferrying messages for you. You have assembled one of the most well oiled military machines in the history of Ti’Aval, Noore. I think it could last for a year without you, don’t you?”

The two women exchanged glances. They both could tell that she was leaving something out, but… an invitation from Tiamat herself was not something to turn down. “When would we leave?” Niroxi broached the question first.

“The sooner the better. The summer academy session begins in only ten days,” Fatima stood, and offered them each a letter with a ministry seal upon it. “These will secure you passage to Fellrock, upon The Ministry transport docked in Rutsberg. The vessel’s name is The Sun on the Horizon. You each will be guaranteed a spot in the upcoming class, regardless of the two hundred and fifty student cap instituted per session. I hope I can see you both there.” And without another word, the woman slipped out of the door, and into the night, seeming to dissipate into nothing as soon as she entered the shadows.

The Academy honestly felt like a joke to Noore, or at least the hand to hand courses were. She had ended up taking over those lessons herself. She knew everything the instructor was presenting better than he did. At first he protested, but Fatima had asked him to relax and enjoy the chance to rest. She had seemed quite entertained by the argument following Noore challenging him on his authority to teach.

Everyone in the academy knew who she was. Some seemed in awe of her presence, others terrified. She could tell there was no shortage of people within these walls who would happily see her dead. After one such attempt on her life, in the middle of the night, Fatima had moved them into Yarterex’s private residence for the remainder of their time at the academy.

The dragon seemed more than happy to have her. His home was truthfully that of her father, Takilnak, but the ancient dragon spent most of his days in the ocean nowadays, and his many children had the run of the place. The building was practically an estate, on the water behind the Grand Ziggurat, with its courtyard open to the lake.

It seemed as if Yarterex didn’t spend that much time at the house. Others of his brothers and sisters seemed much more settled in. Noore couldn’t help but find it curious he was spending so much time here, when he was typically, as he put it, a ‘solo flier’. He seemed like the type to keep on the move. She doubted that he planned to take her as a rider. He’d seemed loathe to get involved as directly as Fatima had implied other dragons may be.

She and Yarterex did have the chance for a few rematches during her stay. She still couldn’t best him, even as she had continued her training and honed herself further in the past eight years, and entered each rematch of clearer mind than their first bout. She landed more hits, certainly, and lasted longer, but the strength and reflexes of a dragon were not so easily challenged. Should she become a rider, she was sure she could manage it, once the boons of her bond had set in.

Magic came as a greater challenge for Noore. Even if she managed to get a reasonable grasp on telepathy, the rest was beyond her. However, Niroxi excelled beyond either of their wildest expectations. The woman truly was made to be a caster, it would seem. They couldn’t help but feel that they complemented each other well. At least Fatima seemed satisfied with their progress.

The woman was never far for any of their lessons, and seemed to always have something to say, as if she was intent on befriending the women. Noore considered her to be something of an enigma. She would sometimes say the most out of hat things, or she would hear the oddest things about her. Apparently she’d been an aid at the academy for longer than anyone remembered. Noore couldn’t get a straight answer as to whether she was a rider with an extended lifespan or a dragon. The teachers all seemed to clam up as soon as she asked, and Yarterex just kept insisting she was some important official in the ministry. No rank, no title, just ‘an important official’. She found it far too suspicious.

On her twentieth day, just as she was finishing up her dragonology class for the day and going to meet with Niroxi for dinner, she was surprised by a visit from Yarterex. He waved her down and pulled her off to the side in one of the many corridors of the campus, and whispered to her, “hey, Noore. How’s things?”

The mouse tilted her head in confusion at the question. She’d spoken to him just that morning over breakfast. He seemed strangely nervous, and giddy. “I was just going to look for Niroxi. We always grab dinner together at the academy’s meal hall, then go study back at your home.”

“Think you can miss today? Fatima’s requesting a meeting with you.” It sounded as if it was some sort of grave matter. Was she in some sort of trouble? She’d never received a demerit even for interrupting her teachers and taking over their classes. What could she have done to warrant this?

“Have I done something worth reprimand?” She crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes at the dragon. The two had become old friends by this point. Him holding things back was odd, but had become a strange norm for the last three weeks of her stay.

He shook his head and pulled her into a more secluded side hall. “You’re not in any trouble. It’s just… I don’t really know how to best explain this to you. I guess I’ll start with one thing that’ll grab your attention. Fatima Mattar is Tiamat.”

The words came down upon her preconceptions of the situation with the force of a hammer, shattering them completely. The woman who had lightly chided her for her behavior in her combat classes, had come all the way out to her quarters on the edge of a war, and been cozying up to her for her stay at the academy had been a goddess this entire time? What could she want with a monster like her? She had done plenty to amend the mistakes of her youth, but in what world could someone with a reputation like hers catch this sort of attention from Tiamat? “Tiamat’s tail. You’re fucking serious. Why drop the deception now?”

“The first leg of your training’s done. She’s going to explain everything else,” he grinned, abashed. “It’s not my place to tell you everything. I’m going to fly you up to the Grand Ziggurat. She’ll tell you the rest there.”

“Is Niroxi coming?” The question felt forbidden, as if she were defying the will of a goddess. Tiamat had some manner of plans for her, that much was obvious. She couldn’t tell what, though, and the thought frightened her. If there was one thing that could pierce her impenetrable armor against fear, it would be an immortal like her or one of her children.

“She… well, I guess there’s no reason not. Tiamat asked for you, but she’s part of this too, as your wife,” he sighed. “We can get her too. At worst, Tiamat will ask her to go into another room for parts of it.”

“We’re both supposed to be her chosen, I thought!” she jabbed a finger into the dragon’s cheek, affronted by the unequal treatment. “She comes with me to this meeting, or I walk away.”

Nothing could have prepared her for flight on dragonback. It only lasted for a minute at most, the academy wasn’t far from the Grand Ziggurat, but the view was stunning. The sun was behind her as she flew, and as the sun began to set it lit up the world in purples and golds. From here the sky seemed so close, she was sure she could reach out a hand and touch it, pulling down a piece of it to hold onto for safe keeping.

She wasn’t sure she’d ever be the same after it. Should it be her last flight, it would devastate her.

Niroxi had seemed just as confused and alarmed as she was at the invitation, but after sharing the news of Fatima’s true identity, she’d quickly agreed. Speaking with a goddess atop the highest point of the City at the Center of the World was not something one turned down.

The two were debating hotly about the nature of the meeting as they flew up, in private through their mental link. So long as the two were in range of one another, they had kept a firm hold of each other’s mind, as if holding hands long distance. Neither seemed entirely sure what to expect. A direct invitation to become riders was one thing, it was another to have a personal audience on the ziggurat. Perhaps she wanted to offer aid? Parade them in front of the dragons looking for riders this year, like some sort of advanced viewing? There were other chosen in their class, brought in by other dragons, would they be there too? Is that how chosen were guaranteed a bond?

Landing atop the Grand Ziggurat, Noore was stunned by the scale of it. It was as if someone had constructed an entire mountain in the center of the city. It seemed so much smaller from a distance. One’s eyes played tricks on them to deny its true grandeur.

It seemed they were enjoying some sort of little party atop the monolith. A table had been set out on the center, beneath a stone pavilion, covered in small cakes, cheeses, dates, and other finger foods. Noore spied ‘Fatima’ in the back, chatting eagerly with a fox and snake. The fox looked as if he was going to pop from anxiety, and the other two seemed to be giving him some sort of reassurance.

Noore dismounted, and helped Niroxi down once Yarterex had settled to a prone position for them to easily climb down. All eyes at the table turned to them as they dismounted, and Fatima waved eagerly, as if she was running into one of her children that she hadn’t seen in too long. “Noore! Welcome, I wasn’t expecting Niroxi to come too, I’d only-”

“You may be a goddess, but I won’t stand for my wife to be treated any differently than me,” the mouse crossed her arms and lifted her nose. It was a daring ploy, but Tiamat clearly wanted her for something important to go through all of this trouble. She doubted she’d be turned away for one out of turn comment. “Whatever this meeting is about, we can both sit in on it.”

Tiamat smiled slyly, and nodded. “Very well. If you would please take the stairwell behind me, and enter the first room on your left, I will be with you shortly.”

Niroxi and Noore exchanged looks, but did as they were told. “This isn’t making any more sense the longer we’re here…” Noore grumbled mentally to her wife as she made the descent. “Who were those other two?”

“Dragons, I think. They’re supposed to be able to shapeshift,” Niroxi pondered with her. “The way she was looking at them was like family. Maybe those are the dragons who want to take us as riders?”

“No, one of them looked far too nervous, and they weren’t paying us enough mind,” the mouse reached the bottom first, and turned into the room she was instructed to. Apparently, the Grand Ziggurat was bigger on the inside, because she was sure that this room alone dwarfed the entire structure. She stepped through and found an entire meadow open to her, with flowers extending thousands of feet in every direction. A magical light shone from the ceiling, apparently the source of the flowers vitality, as she could feel its warmth on her fur.

The domed interior came complete with blue-painted bricks, coming together at the top high enough for the dragon inside to stand comfortably without touching its singular horn to the ceiling.

The dragon itself must have been as large as the ziggurat, and must be the reason for the magical room. Its scales seemed black at first glance, but pinpricks of light reflecting off of it revealed its hidden red hues. Its blue eyes seemed to glow as bright as the sun itself, and they seemed focused entirely on the two women before it. Noore had never felt more insignificant. She was like a speck to the beast before her. Just one of its claws dwarfed her. Its singular horn, protruding from between its eyes, and pointing forwards, was as large as Yarterex.

“Thank you for tolerating my charade. I am afraid that I have brought you here under false pretenses, my loves,” the dragon’s voice boomed in their minds. Noore was sure that without the training she had gone through over the past twenty days, she would have fallen unconscious from the shock of it alone. The both of them flinched and covered their ears, as if that would help, out of pure reflex.

“Y-you must be… Tiamat,” Noore barely gasped out the words. Speaking back with her mind seemed as if it would be a useless effort, like shouting into a howling wind.

“Indeed, I am, my love,” the great beast lowered its head down to be nearly level with the pair, her gaze surprisingly soft. “You have both surpassed my expectations of you. I am confident that I have chosen well.”

“Why pull us- or- Noore that is, out for this meeting? Has something changed?” Niroxi’s voice was softer, less sure.

“Not exactly,” the deity answered, with a slight tilt of her head. “It is tradition for chosen to come here on the evening of their final day.”

“But only some chosen,” Noore’s eyes narrowed. “Why only me? Is Niroxi not your chosen as well?”

The dragon rumbled in thought, and nodded. Noore could feel the vibrations in her very core as it pondered. “No, not exactly. It is you who I desired here, Noore, and I had the inclination that you would want her here for what is to come. I invited your wife as a favor to you. I hope you can forgive me for the deception.”

The pair exchanged another concerned glance, but decided that holding a private conversation right in front of Tiamat was the wrong move. “What is it that you brought me here for, then?” Noore challenged, taking a step forward with determination.

The goddess before them smiled, her eyes narrowing slightly as her cheeks lifted. “In the old days, at the end of the freeze, I created the first twelve dragons. They were my children, my family, my attempt at fixing my legacy, which had been sullied by my inaction against Ninazu. However, these dragons were not created from nothing, nor hatched from egg. Indeed, I found twelve mortal humans who were still loyal to me, and were fierce warriors in their own right. I created a chalice from my horn, and filled it with my blood, and when they each drank of it, their bellies filled with fire, and they grew to new size. This is my most closely guarded secret, that most dragons are made, not born.”

Noore was speechless. It was true that the old myths so often brushed over the creation of the dragons, seemingly hand waving one of the most important moments in post-freeze history, but it had never seemed something worth her attention. “You’re saying…”

“Yes, my love.” Tiamat rumbled again, her eyes closing serenely. “I have watched you from afar for some time, since Yarterex told me of your story. I had been considering taking a mortal on as my latest child for a century, and I believed it finally time that I pick my fifteenth child. Should you accept, you would be a dragon, a first generation dragon no less.”

“But… it’s a secret that dragons are created from people…” Niroxi muttered, and glanced to her wife. “People wouldn’t be allowed to know that she’s Noore, would they?”

A spike of dread shot through the mouse’s heart, followed by… excitement? In all her years of working to undo the damage that she had caused, her name had been washed of its blood in many circles, but to most she was still Noore the Terrible. Her penance would not be enough for most. She had known that she would face hatred for the acts of her youth until the day she died, or at least she thought she knew. “I could be someone new.”

“Indeed, my love.” Tiamat nodded again. “I would not dream of parting you from your wife, which is why she has been permitted to attend this meeting. I had assumed that when her training is complete, she would become YOUR rider.”

“And that’s how you’d guarantee us both a bond,” Niroxi nodded, mouth agape. “But- but would she be able to lead the offensive into Ordenia if no one knew it was her.”

Noore nodded, in thought. Despite it all… she couldn’t stand the idea of walking away now. “But with the help of a dragon… me… we could prevent so many more deaths.”

“But who would lead us, Noore?” Niroxi whirled. “You wouldn’t be able to! And what would I tell them happened to you?”

The dragon-to-be was taken aback at the words. Niroxi hadn’t spoken to her with that sort of anger in years. “Then… take the credit for me. Tell them I was a coward. That I ran. That I abandoned the cause. You’ve been at my side for every battle since I… since we met. They respect you. If you come back a rider, they’ll have to respect you.”

“But Noore, your reputation…”

“My reputation is already that of a killer, and a monster,” the mouse shook her head, with a heavy exhale. “Destroying one empire would never be enough to clear Noore’s name. I would never be able to live a normal life. People have tried to kill me in my sleep at The Academy. People calling me a coward and a traitor would hardly be worse than any of the other things people think of me. Please…” she gently took her wife’s hands in hers, “let me do this. I can lay Noore to rest and… and finally be someone better.” She hadn’t realized that she was crying until the tears splashed down onto her hands, joined with her wife’s. This all seemed far too good to be true.

“I-” Niroxi’s lips quivered, and tears began to stream down her face as well. “You would really let history remember you as a monster?”

“History will already remember Noore the Terrible as a monster,” her voice cracked as she said the epithet. “I’m convinced you and Yarterex will be the only ones who don’t. Maybe I… maybe the world could remember the new me as something better. Maybe they could remember us, the new me, as liberators. Don’t you like the sound of that better?”

“And who… who would the new you even be?” Niroxi’s hands shook, but a small smile began to grace her lips.

“We would get to find out together,” the dragon squeezed her wife’s hands as tight as she could, their old callouses scraping together. “Isn’t that beautiful, dear?”