Chapter 52 42. Locked In

Axe didn’t get visitors often. Every now and then, a guard came in and tossed a bowl of gruel into the cell for it. It wasn’t sure how long it had been down there. No sunlight reached the depths of the earth below the palace to judge how many days passed, and the guards only spoke to it in Stefaian. It assumed they must be saying ‘dinner’, or ‘lunch’, or breakfast’. Hell, they could just be insulting it for all it knew.

Axe ate each bowl slowly, making sure to savor the energy, and not use up what it had too fast. It and Tifse were both used to this hunger, to an extent, but Tifse’s body definitely reacted differently than it was used to. Safraxi’s stomach had always just hurt when she was underfed, Tifse seemed to start feeling ill without enough food. Axe had already coughed up bile in the corner twice.

It had experimented early on with attempting to escape on brute strength alone. If it were in its own body, the escape would have been much easier, but the rider bond only shared maybe a third of Safraxi’s raw strength with Tifse at most. Axe couldn’t quite manage to pull the chains attached to its manacles free from the walls, and if it couldn’t do that, it stood no chance of ripping the bars out.

It couldn’t brute force this, and that fact alone left it spiraling. It was the one who Safraxi needed when tricks or stealth didn’t work. The one who held all their rage. And now rage was all it had, and the cold stone walls and sharp steel wrapped around her didn’t care. It was just like being in the damn pit, with Axe feeling useless again. It didn’t know how to lockpick, even if it did have the tools. That was Fraxi and Raxi’s job. It had watched those girls do it a thousand times, and never thought to learn how itself.

The silence, though, was what got to it the worst. The silence in the cell, and the silence in its mind. How could anyone live with just one line of thought at a time? It had gotten used to the clamor of multiple different voices ringing in her consciousness, the disagreements, the doubts, the arguments, the encouragements. None of them were fully aware before that it wasn’t themselves, but they had all been talking to each other all along. Without the cacophony… without them, Axe felt like an empty shell with nothing left but anger and fear.

Even Tifse’s body felt incredibly wrong to it. The others had taken brief control of the fox, but never lived in her body for so long. It all felt wrong. Axe missed its scales, its sharp senses, its claws. Tifse was beautiful, and Axe loved its rider dearly, but it had no idea how she lived like this: so soft, and squishy, and with so much voluminous fur for filth to stick to.

“Please come back for me… please come back for me… please come back for me… FUCKING COME BACK FOR ME YOU TRAITORS!” It felt guilty as soon as the thought crossed its mind. Safraxi and Tifse weren’t the ones that put it in this position. It couldn’t turn on them. They were all it had.

What was it even thinking in the first place? It had wrenched control from Tifse with no plan, while she was already drugged and barely staying on her feet. Of course it was stuck here now. Tifse knew how to live with just one voice in her head. She’d done it for twenty three years. For Axe, though, it was torture. It spent hours screaming and raging against the chains and the manacles until Tifse’s wrists were bloody from the bite of the metal. No one came. Not even the guards. It was just tearing Tifse’s body apart without any rhyme or reason, but what else could it do? It couldn’t keep sitting here, not like this.

“TIAMAT FUCKING DAMMIT!” It swung its leg and smashed the fecal bucket into a thousand little wooden shards. Such was the force of its kick, that the top metal band holding the bucket together snapped and uncoiled, now mostly free from the wood.

A moment passed as it regarded the mess it had made. The bucket was filled with its waste, and now it was spread all over the cell, but… if used properly, that metal band from the bucket could be used as a tool.

For all of her best attempts, Tifse was unable to give up control of Safraxi’s body back to the others. The weather was fair, at least, but it was a seemingly endless slog getting up the Sulis River.She was about ready to grab an oar and help with the rowing until Magli convinced her to save her energy. However, the winds pulled them into Fellrock just another day after.

The negotiations must have already started. She needed to get to Tiamat or Takilnak or whoever else to get a translation of the recipe, and fly back to Salifir as soon as possible.

A pit of dread formed in her stomach. What if she still couldn’t hand control back to Safraxi after getting the text translated? How would she get back in time? A boat going back would take just as long if not longer, depending on weather. Safraxi could probably fly that distance in a day and a half now, but Tifse couldn’t. Even if the body was capable, she didn’t know how to work the wings.

“If it comes to it, ask Amjazel for help.” Idami cut into her thoughts as they disembarked from the vessel. “I can’t imagine her standing by while you or a part of Safraxi are in danger.”

“Don’t know this Amjazel, personally,” Magli added, “but I think Idami’s right. Let’s just get to… speaking with Tiamat. Fuck me, am I coming with you? Am I meeting her?”

“Yes.” Tifse deadpanned and grabbed the moose by the collar of her shirt, before lifting her up and dropping her into Safraxi’s saddle. No wonder Safraxi did that to her so often. it felt strangely satisfying.

Muscle memory was, fortunately, taking over some for her when on foot, even if she didn’t trust it on the wing. She was figuring out how to walk quicker than Safraxi by its benefits alone. She still didn’t feel quite comfortable in her dragon’s skin, though. Experiencing sensations through the link, as shared senses, was one thing, but controlling the body was something else entirely.

She desperately needed to go back to her old fox self. Hell, she’d take shapeshifting into herself or one of Safraxi’s other forms temporarily if it made it easier on her. However, that secret seemed impossible for her to wrap her head around either. She was stuck as a dragon.

The moment she was off of the gangplank she broke into a sprint. She wasn’t exactly sure where in the city she was, but if she could make it to a large enough open space… Aha! As soon as she made it onto a main street she could make out the top of the Grand Ziggurat in the distance. She turned and continued her mad dash to Tiamat, barely weaving in between pedestrians as she went, rattling Magli in the saddle as she went.

Idami was keeping up, but only barely. The orange dragon lacked the same stamina that Safraxi’s body did, but was a bit more familiar with it at this point. It took nearly thirty minutes to cross the city and into the ministry compound. Every single dragon, priest, or rider she passed stopped what they were doing to stare at her. Some seemed shocked, others seemed suspicious, or even disgusted.

“I’m sorry, Safraxi. I think everyone knows…” Tifse turned her attention inwards, to where her dragons mind resided.

“That’s fine. It’s their fucking problem, not mine. We aren’t staying anyway.” Raxi’s disgust for the rest of them was even stronger. She wanted off this island as soon as possible.

Axe had managed to take the bit of worn down iron and straighten it out some. It was too thick to try and pick the lock to the manacles with, but it spent its endless, tedious hours in the cell rubbing and smashing the band of metal against the stone around the manacles. At first it made the mistake of using her bare hands, but that had resulted in it cutting Tifse’s palms. Instead, it stripped off Tifse’s shirt and used it to construct a makeshift cloth handle for the tool.

The iron was poor quality; in a land where high quality steel was their highest point of pride, they weren’t about to waste it on a shit bucket. The constant rubbing managed to break the stone away and remove one chain from the wall, and to sharpen one end of the long metal strip into a shiv. However, the steel spike driven into the wall made a much better tool and weapon. It was sharper, stiffer, and if Axe could just get the other manacle free, it could start really thinking of a plan out of here.

It was at its limit. Any thoughts of mercy or restraint were long gone. It really would have been better for those shithead nobles if Tifse had been the one stuck down here. Pipsqueak might have hesitated when the time came. Axe, though, would do whatever it fucking had to if it meant getting out of this pit and back to its sisters. The next person to walk through the door to that cell would be fucking dead. It promised itself that.

Its second manacle was almost free when it heard the door to the dungeon open again. It was banging away at the stone with the other manacle, chipping it away bit by bit. Axe might be able to pull that last spike free now if it really tried, but how would it even get out of the cell afterwards?

It could hear two sets of footsteps this time. When the guards came before, there was ever only one at a time. Someone else was coming. Something was different. Axe would need to look as if everything was normal when they came in. They needed to open the doors for it, first. The dragon stuck in a fox’s body curled up into the corner, taking every advantage of the darkness in the cell to conceal that it only had one manacle attached to the wall.

Sel’Ifis, along with a lone camel guard, stepped into view. The guard was holding a torch, and having that small hint of light after days of pitch blackness was absolutely blinding. When Axe’s eyes adjusted again, it finally began to realize how pathetic it looked in the moment. Tifse’s body was covered in splattered feces and blood from Axe’s strains against the chains. Her fur was matted and damp from the ever present moisture trapped in the cell, and bits of bile stained her chin. They would suffer for letting its mate’s body reach this kind of state.

Sel’Ifis clicked her tongue disapprovingly at the sight, before immediately beginning to monologue in Stefaian. Her tone was very mocking, Axe only caught a word here or there like ‘Tifse’, ‘vault’ (a lucky cognate), and ‘stupid’. It wasn’t even sure where it had picked up that last one, maybe Tifse had called Safraxi or someone else that at some point?

“Sorry, lady, I’m not getting a word of that.” It deadpanned back as Sel’Ifis finished her speech and crossed its arms with a smug grin. Axe could at least tell by context clues that it was its turn to speak.

Sel’Ifis’s nose wrinkled up into a scowl, and she said something to the guard. The camel moved up to the bars and began to unlock the cell. Now was its chance.

The moment the door was open, and the keys were back on the camel’s belt, it surged forwards. The chains stopped her for only a moment. The stone around the other spike had been chipped away so much that it almost immediately broke loose, sending shards of stone everywhere as it tackled the guard. He didn’t have time to draw his scimitar before it drove the other wall spike into him over, and over, and over again, until its face was completely coated in bloody spray. “You don’t know how lucky you are that you had him go through the door first.” It growled and bared Tifse’s teeth as its gaze slowly drifted up to the other fox, now paralyzed in fear.

“You wouldn’t.” Sel’Ifis hissed down at her. Apparently she had finally caught on to the fact thatshe needed to speak in Mercani. “Not your own sister.”

“Well it’s a good thing that. I’m. Not. Tifse.” She uttered each word with as much of a growl as her stupid pathetic fox voice could muster, and began approaching the elder fox with slow, threatening steps. “And you’re about to make an excellent hostage.”

It wasn’t easy for Tifse to run straight past Amjazel’s home on the way to the Grand Ziggurat. Whiskers wanted so badly to visit. She had to promise the girl that she’d make sure they went to see Amjazel soon, but they were in a rush. Besides, she was sure Amjazel would find her while she was in the city anyway. It just might be awkward if she was still in control when it happened, though. Tiamat’s Tail, she hoped she wouldn’t run into Rubis like this. What a nightmare.

As she came up on the Grand Ziggurat, there were already a few other dragons lounging around the bottom, but none that she knew by name. One of them, the sandy brown dragon whose rider handled intake for the academy, stood and approached as she entered the vicinity of the front steps. “You’ve got some nerve coming back here after how you left.”

Tifse shrunk back some. The brown dragon was easily even larger than Rubis, if not quite on the same level as Amjazel. “We don’t want any trouble. We’re just here to talk to Tiamat.”

“You attacked family!” The dragon snarled and took a step forward. “I don’t know what you expect to do here, but I’m not letting you through.”

“She’s still family!” Idami stepped between the two of them, with her own teeth bared. “Mom hasn’t excommunicated her! So get the hell out of our way!”

“Being first generation ain’t worth much when you’re young and still got a coldmark, Idami.” The brown dragon flared his wings out to make himself look bigger. “You can go through, but that one needs to get lost.”

“The name’s Safraxi, you dried out turd colored piece of-” Tifse started to step forward, instinctively baring her teeth, but before she could finish two steps all control was suddenly wrenched from her. Her gaze drifted down, and her mouth gaped open absently. “Did- did someone else take over?”

“Nuh uh.”

“Nope.”

“I don’t think so.”

“This is where Axe would normally take over I think.” A mental sigh from Raxi rang through their head. “But she isn’t here.”

“So… now what?” Tifse tried reaching out again and doing anything, but the body was continuing to stare out into space as Idami and the brown dragon continued to argue. It all felt so far away, all she could do was stare through Safraxi’s eyes.

“Um… I don’t know.” Whiskers whimpered. “This has never happened before. This is scary…”

“Hey, hey, it’ll be okay, Whiskers.” Safi did her best to comfort the younger one. “I’m sure we can… snap out of it, or something.”

Someone else was here now, also joining in on the argument. Tifse and the others were struggling to focus long enough to hear the argument. Was that Amjazel? Had she smelled them or heard they were back? Another mental voice, Aquixi? Fuck. Just their luck she would be here. Something nudged her. Idami was staring into her eyes with concern.

Everything seemed to suddenly snap back to clarity at the contact. Safraxi shook her head and looked down over herself to take stock for a moment. “I’m okay, I think.” She shook her head to clear her thoughts again. “Not having Axe is messing us up.” It seemed Fraxi had been sent to the helm somehow.

“You’re in control again!” Idami sighed in relief. “You had me worried when you froze up.”

“Yeah…” Safraxi leaned over to watch the argument between the three dragons in front of her. The brown dragon’s friends had gotten up now too, and it seemed as if the three of them were in a standoff with Aquixi and Amjazel.

“Until the day Tiamat herself sees fit to strike her name from the record and banish her, Safraxi. Is. Family!” Aquixi was growling at the trio as if she were rabid. Between her and Amjazel, she seemed the most ready to draw blood over this argument.

Amjazel was nearly twice as largeas any of the other dragons here, and readily used her size to make herself as imposing as possible. “I know fighting in the family is frowned upon, but I think mother will make an exception now for me. Safraxi is my daughter, and if she needs to get to the top, she needs to get to the top. Now. Step. Aside.”

“You two think that just because you’re first and second generation you get to tell us what to do?” A smaller white dragon snarled up at the two. “She’s a cold one! We tried to fix her, and it didn’t work!”

“She’s not broken!” Amjazel opened her jaws and let loose a stream of fire over the smaller dragon. Even if the white dragon should be immune, he still stumbled back to avoid it. “But you will be if you don’t leave now!”

Safraxi had never actually seen her mother’s fire at full intensity before. During training she’d only ever released small puffs of flame for demonstration. The spray was almost completely pure white. She could feel the heat nearly a hundred feet away. She didn’t feel the need to flinch this time, though.

“What’s going on here?” Another voice called down from above. A lone human man was making his way down the biped sized steps to the ziggurat. He was dressed in a simple robe, an older style that Tifse associated with Dortilians hundreds of years before. His skin was dark, like charcoal, and his hair hung down to his waste in dreadlocks. His stature and general appearance wasn’t anything particularly unusual for someone from the far south below the equator, maybe a bit on the older, more laid back side with some of his pudginess around the stomach and chest. Tifse would even go so far as to call him unassuming. “Mother and I were trying to enjoy lunch, and there is some kind of commotion down here.” His way of speaking was odd. The rhythm of his words was different than you would expect from modern Mercani, but it wasn’t an accent that Tifse or Safraxi could place.

“Grandfather!” All three of the dragons blocking their path bowed to the man as he continued his way down the steps. “We were just-”

“Trying to intimidate my sister out of visiting Tiamat!” Aquixi seethed at the trio, flames leaking from between her lips. “She has every right! Whether or-”

“Thank you, Aquixi. That is enough.” The man put a hand up, but with a subtle smile. “What say you three?”

“She doesn’t have a flame, she isn’t one of-” The brown started, but was similarly cut off.

“So what I am hearing,” The man crossed his arms and glared down at the dragons below him, “Is that my grandchildren are intimidating my niece, and harassing my sister and other niece? Is this right?”

“We didn’t… actually try to intimidate her.” The white dragon muttered, but averted his gaze from the elder dragon’s.

“Oh, so you only used your size and strength to block her way? Has the meaning of ‘intimidate’ changed in the last few centuries, since I last came on land?” The man pondered, finally reaching the bottom. “Or is there another word now for using one’s size and strength to get their way? Has intimidate fallen out of favor in the lexicon? Could you enlighten me to what this word would be now? Any of you?”

When no answer came he shook his head. “Begone, all three of you. If I hear about anyone causing my nieces or sisters trouble again I will show you the true meaning of intimidation. Do you understand me?”

The three dragons muttered their assent back to him and stalked out of the courtyard. The white dragon bared his teeth one more time and mentally whispered a “Cold one” at her as he made it back out to the street.

Aquixi leapt forward and smashed a claw down onto his tail, pinning him, before snapping her teeth in his ear. The force of her jaws shutting was so great it sounded like a thunderclap. The dragon shot up and tried to escape, but found his tail still stuck in place, and instead collapsed face first into the bricks.

“Aquixi, that is enough. Let the poor boy go.” The man chuckled and approached Idami and Safraxi with arms open. “Idami! Welcome back! Safraxi! It’s wonderful to finally meet you!”

Idami trotted right up to the man and pushed her head into his arms for the offered hug. “Takilnak! I wasn’t sure if you’d still be here!”

“Oh, Mother asked me to stay longer to assist inher management of… recent events.” The man patted the dragon and rested his head on the back of her neck with a smile.

“Uh… yeah. I guess that’s my fault.” Safraxi scratched at the stone at her feet idly before glancing up at Amjazel and Aquixi. “Um. Hi. I know you didn’t expect to see me but-”

“We’re both so happy we did though.” Amjazel sounded as if she were on the verge of tears of joy.

“And… it’s not solely your fault.” Aquixi hung her head. “I apologize for how I pushed you in our first meeting... If you are willing, I would like a chance to start over fresh with you.”

“Uh… I don’t- I’ll get back to you. Today’s been a lot.” She groaned. Between being stuck in her own head for days, the concern for Axe, and now that entire scene, she was at her limit.

“I should also say, good job with the eel. You really are your mother’s daughter, killing that thing” Aquixi huffed a small flame and grinned down at her. “Thanks for finishing that off for me. I was in too much of a rush to do things properly.”

“You don’t say. It’s… good to see everyone, though.” She crept up to Amjazel and gently bumped her head against her mom’s leg. A hug still seemed like too much right now. “I wish I could hang around a bit and catch up, but we’re kind of on a time limit. Takilnak, we need either you or Tiamat’s help. Can you translate pre-Freeze writing?”

Takilnak tilted his head in surprise at the question. “Only one language, yes. Harukuli, from ancient pre-freeze Stefaial and Dortil.”

“Magli, can you pull them out for me and show him?” She turned to check on her sister finally. The moose was lying down flush against her saddle, trying to look as small as possible in front of all of the strange dragons and to avoid notice.

“R-right. Yeah.” She climbed down from the saddle, but had to lean against Safraxi to dig through the bag, as her legs wouldn’t stop shaking.

“Who is this, Safraxi?” Amjazel brought her head down to examine the moose.

“Oh, right.” Safraxi grinned sheepishly up at her mom. “This is Magli. She’s my sister. She helped keep me alive on the streets back in the day. Emren told you about her, right?”

“She mentioned an old friend was the one tracking you.” Amjazel seemed unbelievably happy hearing the moose addressed as such. “I’m relieved to see you have more family with you. Welcome to the family, Magli.”

“Aheh, yeah. Th-thanks.”The moose was obviously terrified by the house-sized dragon right up in her face. She pulled the scroll cases and tomes from the saddlebag and held them out to Takilnak. “One of these is hopefully an old formula for steel forging. We can’t read them, so we aren’t sure.”

The man took a look at them and shook his head. “We should do this at the top. If you are in a hurry then mother can help as well. Come. There is plenty of food left for everyone.”

“Y'all have fun with that, I think I’m-” Magli started to back up from the steps, but was caught by Safraxi’s tail wrapping around her waist.

“Nah, you’re family too.” She smirked back at her sister. “Mom said so. Climb on.”

Amjazel seemed overjoyed to hear herself called ‘Mom’, but tried not to draw too much attention to it. “Yes, dear. If Safraxi trusts you then so do I.” She nosed the moose toward the steps before beginning the ascent herself.

Magli froze up at the touch. The titans around her were being kind, but she still clearly felt out of place among them. After a moment she grabbed onto the saddle and climbed on again. “Tiamat’s Tail I didn’t realize how big they could actually get. I’d never seen one her size up close before now.”

“Yeah, guess that’s to be expected, but you’re way more freaked out than I was when I first met Amjazel.” She snorted and started her way up the steps.

“Oh, I wouldn’t be so sure of that.” Another familiar voice joined the throng. Emren had finally caught up. “You really seemed to think she was going to eat you when she picked you up at first.” She giggled and patted Safraxi’s head. “Sorry to keep you waiting. I was in the middle of making food when Amjazel and Aquixi had to rush over here to you. She really scared the whiskers off of me when she took off without me. Good to see you again too, Magli, but where’s Tifse?”

“No sudden moves now.” Axe guided Sel’Ifis up the stairs one by one, with the sharpened bucket piece held to her throat. It was an awkward affair, guiding the taller fox up the stairs. Axe didn’t know how Tifse could stand to be so small. Her sister had a foot and a half on her, and it was not ideal to be shorter than one’s hostage. Holding a blade to her throat wasn’t easy like this.

Luckily, the guard had keys, and it wasn’t so hard to transfer the manacles to the taller bitch. Axe took great pleasure in putting the manacle over the wrist with the heatmark, almost completely covering it. That would keep her from going anywhere without Axe’s say so. “Once I open that door, you are not going to say a word unless I tell you to. You are going to walk me to the nearest exit, and will not resist if I try to put you between myself and a guard. Got it?”

Sel’Ifis only whimpered and nodded. She wasn’t getting anywhere like this and she knew it.

Axe nudged the door open and checked the hallway outside. When it could see no one was waiting for them at the ready, it pushed the other fox out into the open, hugging tight behind her. There were two guards for Magli, there would probably be two for her as well, the question was just if one of them was the camel it had already taken care of. As it stepped back out into the world of light again, its eyes burned, but it fought to keep them open. Axe couldn’t afford a single moment without absolute awareness of its surroundings.

There was only one guard here, a human. Good, less to worry about going wrong. “Yell and I cut her throat.”

The guard startled and reached for his weapon, but stopped as the chieftain’s eldest daughter vigorously shook her head.

“Put it down, and go back down into the dungeon. Slowly.” Axe pressed the makeshift blade up closer to its hostage’s neck.

The guard complied, tossing his scimitar away from him, and then stepping onto the stairs. Axe quickly slammed the door shut and locked it again. Sel’Ifis strained against the chain for a moment as the blade was removed from her neck, but had little luck. “You’re not going to get away! Our father will-”

“Your father will be lucky to be alive by the time we’re all done with you.” It yanked the fox back and continued their walk out. “Is there another exit that’s closer?” It jammed the shiv up into Sel’Ifis’s neck until a trickle of blood stained her exquisitely soft and tan fur.

“The-the windows. If you smash one of the windows you can leap down to the rooftops below!” She gasped as the cold metal dug into her neck.

“How far is the drop?” It began dragging the fox into a side hall, toward some of the large glass windows they had passed on another day.

“Shortest is twenty feet. But you still won’t get away!” She pulled against the chain again. “You’re not thinking of taking me with you, are you? They’ll track you down for me if you do!”

“As if I want to hear more of your miserable, shrill, little shrieks.” It found a window that it liked the look of and smashed it.

“You can’t jump here! It’s too high! You’ll break every-” Sel’Ifis was interrupted as Axe shoved her out the window. Sel’Ifis hadn’t noticed the shorter fox affixing the chain to the brazier below. Axe could hear a satisfying snap as the chain went taught. That was probably at least a broken or dislocated arm. It would have to tell Tifse about that later.

For now, it pushed on toward another window, with a roof closer to it.