Chapter 1
When the three sons of Keigat arrived before Nidus Ryslen, it was under the hush of darkest night, on the wings of a beast both blood-touched and two-headed. "Be swift," the beast's rider told them. "You remember the story you were given?"
"Of course," Keshon said. Though once he was indistinguishable from his brother, Keung, now he was by far the fairest. He wore his robe with the confidence of a prince. "We arrived by orders from the Court of Shadows, ordained by the High Lord.
"...Must we call him that?"
"If we are to keep our deal," the rider said, "then yes."
"Perhaps we should spin our own tale," Kenzou, the last and the least of the brothers, muttered. Thankfully, his voice was always a lower growl, and either his brothers chose to ignore him, or else they didn't hear him.
"Well, we'll certainly make a splash," Keshon said. "Nobody has heard of the Shadow Court. It doesn't exist."
"And then we'll be saddled with hatchlings," Keung added. He was as foul and Keshon was fair, his pale skin marred with angry red scars that showed hints and flecks of glimmering green. One foot was obviously false, and he leaned upon his staff to carry his weight. His face was sallow and haunted-looking, one eye permanently bloodshot, baletouched. If his lips were thinned in a grimace, it was hard to tell if it was due to pain or to distaste. In this case, distaste was the flavour.
The rider shook his head, one hand immediately going to rest on his bond's forelimb to forestall the deep rumble from the nearest draconic head. "You'll understand when it happens. And... trust me. Though the Houses do not usually see eye to eye, the bond of a man and his beast diminishes all feuds so drastically as to be nothing. It will be a glorious rebirth: you and your bond, and Ford Aigan over Aleph."
Keshon gave a genial bow to their courier after offering a formal salute. Keung and Kenzou seemed less enthusiastic. Nevertheless, they retrieved their packs and swords and walking staffs and wished their courier farewell. And then, on foot, they made their way to the lower caverns to introduce themselves and their suspicious cover story.
The Nidus' lower caverns weren't all too different from the Hol Onbekendoos, Keshon had decided, except that it seemed more lived in, more run-down, less revered. Where people gathered here for meals and prepared for the day ahead, the Hol Onbekendoos was a place for Aigard Houses to vie for control, for the honour of observing the once active portal that had been restored and embellished with perfect detail, canonized as the origin of how Kaarden Desius had come to be.
Ryslen's lower caverns were the beating heart of the Nidus. Hol Onbekendoos was the heart of the Aigard, preserved in precious amber.
He found that he didn't much like the idea of living here, of eating alongside the flat-footed and blunt-eared and mostly squat humans that he'd heard of but rarely seen. To be presented to an elder for lack of the proper welcome at this time of the night, a retired headwoman at that... it all rubbed him a bit wrong, but he was wearing a simple cloak after all, so how could they know? He pressed his glasses up his nose when the old woman greeted them, forestalling any disdain he felt with a weary smile.
"Mistress Ikara," he said, speaking for his brothers, "we have traveled long, and we are very tired. Is there any way we might find a suite in which to rest, so that we can speak in the morning?" He bit his tongue before adding 'to the proper authority,', smiling genuinely and ducking his head just a little, on the verge of a bow. "We've come to stand on Ryslen's famed sands, when the eggs of dragons hatch."
She gave him a discerning look, or perhaps it was only that her vision was waning, but she nodded soon enough, and the brothers were given instructions.
Instructions to a barracks of all places.
In the middle of the night, very few other novos were present in the common area, but there was no mistaking that this was a staging ground, a reserve for an action that was soon to come. Tucked away were cots and supplies for a much larger force, and Keshon couldn't help but think, after quick calculations, how many could be stashed away here.
He deeply wanted a room of his own, but he didn't trust his brothers, and it didn't take much to learn that Keung nor Kenzou were likely to think differently.
In the end, they took a four-person space, Kenzou to his own much-too-small bunk, Keshon atop the other, Keung on ground-level with his back to the wall. They didn't say all too much to one another. There was not much to be said at this point, and besides, the gulf between them was such that anything they did say was likely to endanger the peace, let alone their orders.
Keshon rested on his side, propped up on one elbow. He was out of his beautifully gilded leather armor, but he kept every last golden ring, necklace and earring on. He didn't trust humans not to rifle through his belongings, though he would certainly take the first opportunity were his role reversed. "Who's first watch, then?"
An affirmative grunt came from the bunk below. "That's me," Keung said. His voice had once sounded all too similar to Keshon's, but the gruff tension in it ever since he'd been marred had aged him.
Keshon had learned to suppress the shudder that damaged voice brought up in him, barely. "Fine, though are you sure you want to charge right into a sleepless night?"
Kenzou gave a weary snort, and Keung didn't react to the bait. Keshon shrugged to himself, settling down. "You know if we wake up with our throats slit, dear brother, that it won't just be our father who would never forgive you."
That got him. Keung said, "why do you think I don't dare sleep soundly, brother? You're the expert with the bladed edge."
Keshon's smile had an edge to it that he never showed to the rest of the world. "And yet we're all one another has against the rest of the world. I'd never wish to see you harmed, Keung. You've suffered so incredibly much already."
Silence, from the bunk below. Kenzou had, as was his wont, said nothing at all. Quiet descended on the bunk room and, whether or not any of them did get any sleep, Keung kept his back to the wall and gritted his teeth.
It wasn't the squat, trusting, alien humans he worried about as the minutes and hours slipped by.
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