Chapter 565: Crashing Down

For Arc, the next week passed in a happy haze.

She dreamed of her dragon, feeling her grow from across the city. She’d been excused from her patrol duties, and every afternoon she ran from class to visit Ascala, a spring in her step and a smile on her face even as she trained and mucked and learned about the particulars of her dragon’s species and how she was to render medical attention in the field.

She felt complete.

She had a boyfriend, a girlfriend, and a dragon. What more could a girl ask for?

Well... she did have between two and eleven parents on any given day, but Arc didn’t have something like the end of the world to facilitate that sort of relationship growth.

Today, as she almost-skipped downhill towards the Skyway, Owyn followed her for the first of their dates without Raven. He was looking a bit wan, but he insisted he was fine as he happily agreed to stop by and see Ascala.

Arc was going to surprise him, because today, just a week after her birth, was to be Ascala’s first flight! It was a marvel of the spells used to hatch dragons, and for once the thought of her father’s role in developing it didn’t bother her one bit...

Because Arc was small and light enough that in another week, or two at most, she would be able to ride for the first time!

Now that she was a Candidate rider, she was allowed to bring a friend to visit the "baby" dragons, provided she got approval first and didn’t let them wander. Owyn promised to be good with a bit of a smile that made him look like he had indigestion, but Arc didn’t want to ruin his mood when he had been so excited during the week to finally see Arc’s dragon.

Today, they were allowed to take one of the external cargo elevators, which made the trip up much less exhausting for Owyn as Arc tried to spare him the exercise. Normally, she had to take the stairs, but today was not a training day for her. It was a day for rites.

They arrived to find the hatchling pens well attended by future riders and their guests. Those with species that were already flying, the smaller ones, laughed and gestured as their dragons glided about, some daring to approach the edge of the tower before turning back to the safety of it as they saw how far the world below was.

Most of the larger dragons, including Ascala, had their wings tied so they wouldn’t try to fly with all the small ones, but also so their future riders could let them experience their first flight by their own hands.

Ascala was excited to see Arc, and she felt her dragon’s mind fill with pure love at the sight of the first being it ever saw. She was its mother and the only one it cared about, for now. Arc knew that nightshadows would grow up to be smart. She’d teach Ascala to like Raven and Owyn, even if Raven was a bit ambivalent towards dragons.

Snow was with her dragon, Ise, and she was already leading her mistwing out with a hand on her jaw as she loomed above the small pangolkin. Arc and Snow were excited to take their first flight together when the time came.

Food, later, of course, and for young dragons that meant mana-enriched meat, would go a long way towards that. But for now, Arc handled Ascala’s feeding as Owyn watched. Smiling at her from the side of Ascala’s pen, where he wasn’t allowed to enter.

"Alright, middleweights, call back your dragons and wrap their wings. It’s time for the big boys," the Dragon Knight in attendance shouted out the warning, and there were many disappointed but good-natured groans. Once the last of the soon-to-be mid-sized dragons was safely in their pen, which most shared with at least one or two other dragons, it was time.

Arc could feel Ascala’s excitement. Their bond was further along than it should have been, but that wasn’t a bad thing because it made Arc realize that her particular magic, useless as it felt most of the time, could help her deepen the connection with her dragon. A couple of her instructors on draconic anatomy even speculated Ascala would be able to heal without a hoard! Which meant they wouldn’t be as tethered to piles of gold that dragons normally circulated their magic through to recover faster.

Not that she wouldn’t give Ascala all the gold her dragon could ever want. The best dragon in the world because Ascala and Arc belonged together.

Arc was leading Ascala out when another dragon bumped into her. It was a heavensred, and Arc recognized its mind as the one that had offered itself to her in exchange for a life of violence, only for her to refuse. And on the other side of it...

"Watch where you’re going," Margaret spat.

Arc sensed frustration and anger in her, an intent to make Arc suffer.

"What the fuck is your problem?" Arc shouted.

"You are you privileged c-"

"Girls!" the Dragon Knight on duty walked up to them. "No fighting. This is a special day." In a lower voice, he said, "Don’t make it awkward." Arc and Margaret had already drawn quite a crowd, and Owyn was right behind the Knight as they left, opening their eyes wider to let Arc and Margaret know they’d be watching them.

"Is everything alright?" Owyn grimaced a bit.

"Are you alright? I know you’re not well, but... this seems like something you should go to the hospital for."

"I promised I’d watch Ascala fly." He reached out, allowing the dragon to sniff him, like a dog. Ascala let out a small, hot breath on his hand and pushed her nose into it. "She’s a good dragon."

"The best." Arc grinned, hearing a scoff from behind that sounded like Margaret.

They took opposite sides of the tower, and almost every rider was giving their dragon little encouragements as they let them see the edge. Arc felt a bit of vertigo, but she knew the height was important for larger breeds. In the wild, their parents tended to lair high in mountains and on cliffsides, and Arc sensed no fear from Ascala as she peered out over what she felt would be her domain.

The instinct made Arc a little nervous, because there were other dragons more aggressive than her nightshadow, and she wanted Ascala to grow up healthy and scar-free... her birthmark aside. One source of her fear was directly behind her, and Arc turned sideways enough to see Margaret talking to her dragon before she looked up at Arc.

Arc had thought time would calm the leader of the Student Council over the whole contract incident, but apparently, Margaret was the type to hold a grudge.

Whatever... this is our day.

Arc petted Ascala, who was wiggling in anticipation as Arc pulled the leather binds from her wing. The dragon stretched her wings vertically before bringing them down, her right one clipping Owyn in the hair as he laughed, the smile banishing his look of illness while it lasted.

Ascala gave Arc one last look, and Arc projected all her love and hope for her dragon through their bond before she leaped forward and spread her wings. For a moment, Arc felt terror, but then Ascala stabilized and let out a victorious, adorably high-pitched roar.

Other dragons followed suit, some who had yet to leave the tower jumping right after. Arc felt Ascala’s thrill, her sense of rightness that this, the sky, was her domain... Soon, it would also belong to Arc. Her freedom had never been-

A flash of red was all Arc saw before her world filled with pain.

She felt like she was falling, and she felt when she hit the floor of the tower, but still the falling feeling pulled on her mind, not ending. Not until she felt her wings snap and her torso strike the pavement, the screams of strangers who were not Her, not Arc, not Mother... Not...

A crush from above.

Fangs tearing.

Throat leaking.

Mother...

Mother...

"Ascala..."

Arc cried. She cried because of the silence.

The space he heart and mind where her dragon, her child, her Ascala had once been had been brutally emptied, leaving only pain and loneliness and the chains of gravity that held her to the ground.

She felt the shouting more than she heard it.

The Dragon Rider called others to muster, to go to the city. To find and heal her fallen dragon...

Snow touched Arc, forcing magic into her, but there was nothing to heal, and magic could not fix a breaking heart.

Owyn picked Arc up, and suddenly they were running, the elevator lowering Arc from the heights she’d climbed to with her determination, knowledge, and an Oath.

And Oath, whose magic drained from her in silent strings that led towards her dragon.

Her dragon that could not be healed.

Owyn placed Arc beside the broken, bleeding body of her dragon in the street.

His hands guided hers to Ascala’s face, which bled and covered his arm and hers, but there was nothing. Nothing left.

It had happened so fast...

Her Ascala.

Dead.

It was a blessing when Arc’s consciousness came crashing down.