“Such a wound is not to be taken lightly, and it speaks to the resilience of her spirit that she yet clings to the threads of life.” Sen’s words bit deep into Addie.

“She had good caretakers,” Auntie replied.

Opening his eyes and focusing in on Auntie, he paused for a moment then said, “So it is.” Then, he closed his eyes to focus on Nettal again. He rotated her body a few more times as if the different perspectives would give him new insights. “Now that I have inspected her closely, I am certain my Piglings could not have caused this damage.”

If it wasn’t the Pigling, then who? Maybe the man in the black cloak wasn’t a Pigling. If that was the case, how did Nettal get hurt? Everyone sat in silence for a bit, even Auntie’s viollow stopped her incessant chattering.

Finally, Sen spoke, “To mine eyes, Nettal has no magic to speak of, and therefore little ways to heal herself. Had she magic, I could have grabbed it and guided it to help her heal. As it is, Nettal is crippled with nothing to be done.”

“She can’t be crippled!” Addie yelled. Her heart was falling and there was no net to catch it. “She just can’t... Sen you Promised!” she pleaded.

Addie looked right into Sen’s massive glassy eyeball. Even from this far away, she knew that single eye was larger than she was tall. How much of the world could he see with that eye; how much of Nettal’s soul could he see?

She let her legs go limp, and Addie clattered onto the ground, her knees painfully smacking into the hard Realmstone below. She didn’t even care about the pain. She preferred it to the pain she felt on the inside.

Sen watched a tear trickle down Addie’s face, “You! Are a... bad dragon.” Addie said in between hiccups.

Auntie ran over to Addie, and pushed her into her chest, causing Addie’s face to be muffled in the fabric of her tunic for a moment. She held onto Addie tight, and Addie soon realized Auntie was crying, too.

Maybe losing a light in your life really did make the darkness that much harder to bear.

“Initialize her,” Sen’s deep thrum reverberated throughout the cavern. “Give her the only chance left at life. Give her magic.”

After he finished speaking, Addie moved her gaze away from Sen and looked over to Auntie. Auntie’s face was conflicted, but Addie wasn’t sure why. Sen’s idea gave Addie hope.

“Trying to initialize her now will doom her just the same as doing nothing at all will.” Auntie rebutted.

“What is better? To take a risk and live or die in glory, or to slowly waste away into oblivion?”

“It is my duty as an Area Lord to hunt down errant cascades. To end the danger they pose to others with their madness. Would you have me kill my own daughter if she turns into a monster?”

“She is dead in either case,” Sen spoke bluntly, “Give her the option with a chance at recovery.”

Auntie just scoffed.

Before she could say anything more, Sen spoke again. “Find a source of magic for Nettal, then bring her to me. I will monitor the bonding process.”

“And that will save her soul from cascading?” Addie questioned, with brightness in her tone.

“Perhaps it may succeed, or it may not. Mighty though I am, Nettal is but frail, and the might of a dragon is a vast tempest. With all the powers at my command, I shall strive to safeguard her essence, yet the crux of her healing lies within her own will to cling to life.”

Sen’s voice changed, taking on a lilting cadence as he spoke, “Should you dare try, to my sanctum return her, While strength yet flows and in her veins does stir. Anon she'll fade, as hourglass sands do fall, Till naught but shadows cross her chamber's wall.”

At the end of his poem, the cave rumbled as Sen stood up on his back legs while displaying his wings. She felt and heard Sen’s powerful wings beat once, nearly knocking Addie down and forcing her to grab onto Auntie for stability. Auntie gasped as she dug her heels into the floor, and moved her arms out for balance.

Then, some of the gold coins around Sen’s hoard melted, creating a radiant heat that touched upon Addie’s skin. Within moments, the liquid metal shone brightly all across the room, forcing Addie to squint as she watched the molten gold soar through the air. The massive quantity of gold formed into a ring, and a harmonic resonance whispered through the cavern, a sound between a bell’s chime and a choir’s hum. The ring moved above Sen rivaling him in size. The ring spun and undulated in waves. After a moment, it wobbled precariously, then forcefully shrunk into itself. The ring of molten gold started to repeatedly expand and then collapse inward, pulsing, and reminding Addie of a beating heart. This process of expansion and compression sped up, and within seconds the ring began to shrink insanely fast. When the ring had reached half of its original size, a fundamental change occurred and the entire ring abruptly collapsed inward, shining so brightly Addie had to close her eyes. The brightness slowly diminished, until Addie felt comfortable opening her eyes again.

Above Sen’s head shone a beautifully golden ring sized for a human. The ring effortlessly glided down until it stopped just above Nettal’s floating body. Nettal’s arm splayed out, and the ring slowly moved onto Nettal’s right ring finger. After it finished placing itself, Nettal and the ring simultaneously lit up one last time, then faded.

As Addie watched the golden ring settle upon Nettal’s finger, Addie stared on in wonder, allowing the moment to fill her up with hope. Surely, if anyone could help Nettal, it would be a dragon.

She glanced at Auntie, her eyes, normally so steady, flickered in the golden light, betraying a storm of emotion. “This magic, why does it carry the weight of a mountain?” she murmured, her voice barely rising above the ethereal hum that filled the cavern.

Sen allowed Nettal’s body to start slowly floating back down. Quickly, Auntie separated herself from Addie and sprinted to her daughter with the might of an Area Lord. She moved so fast that Addie was surprised she didn’t crack the ground.

Once she reached Nettal, Auntie tenderly, with more care than one person should be capable of, brushed some of Nettal’s hair out of her face. She bent over and took a moment to pick up Nettal’s hand and inspect the ring. After a moment, she put both hands under Nettal, and then she lifted her up.

Auntie walked back to Addie’s position in the cave, and Addie looked curiously upon the new adornment on Nettal’s finger. Geometric shapes and runic patterns adorned the ring, reminding Addie of the gateways Sen used to enter his hoard.

“I was there when Servus first tore into Aggan, as mighty and infinite as I may be. Be grateful then, fleeting mortals, that I part with my hoarded treasure freely,” Sen proclaimed. With a much lighter flap, Sen gently landed his front legs back onto the ground and looked through Addie into her heart.

“Let Nettal take this Aurocondite jewelry, made of compressed gold, and named the Heartgold Ring. I shall ensure the weight of a dragon watches upon her soul such that no more harm may come to her. Leave now, and return her to me with magic bonded to her soul. Should she be strong, I can save her.”

Some of the gold piles began to shift, and Addie braced herself for something dangerous to happen again, but instead, a blue ribbon displaced itself from Sen’s hoard and floated over to Addie. It stopped just in front of her, and Addie gently tugged it out of the air.

“Go now, little mortals. Addie, should you wish to return to my domain, simply whisper a thought of magic into this ribbon, and so long as you be in Realmspace, I shall hear you. Be warned, I shall not interfere in squabbles between mortals, but if you need a place for rest, be afraid not to call upon mine hospitality.”

She looked down at the blue ribbon in her hands and smiled. He must have made it just for Addie, she realized, since the color matched her eyes perfectly. It wasn’t a protective Heartgold ring, but the ribbon gave Addie a reason to smile anyway.

Soon after, Sen teleported them back to their starting location in Realmspace, such that the mansion was still in view when they re-entered into reality.

Addie’s boots sloshed in the mud as she and Auntie walked back to the mansion together. Addie noticed she was being extra careful to not splash any stray mud onto Nettal while carrying her.

After a few steps, Addie had to ask, “We are going to try, right? Sen said we need to give her magic to help her.”

Auntie’s silence lingered heavily in the swampy air. Her gaze was distant, lost in some unseen labyrinth of thought, her brow creased with weight. When she finally spoke, her voice was a whisper, carried away by the wind as if she was speaking more to herself than to Addie. “Perhaps, Addie. Give me time... to think.” Her words trailed off, leaving a silence that spoke volumes.

As they reached the steps to the door, Addie hurried up and opened the door. Auntie just walked through the doorway without a word, refusing to make eye contact with Addie. She watched Auntie go, and instead of following them up to Nettal’s room, Addie dejectedly walked back to her own room.

They had been in Realmspace for about an hour, Addie guessed, and the sun hadn’t risen yet. Addie was exhausted, so she hoped that maybe she could still get a little bit of sleep.

---

---

A little bit of sleep turned into a lot, and Addie didn’t get out of bed until it was late morning. Normally, Christena would have woken her up for their morning lessons, but she must have learned from Auntie about their adventure last night since Addie had been allowed to sleep undisturbed.

She sat up in bed and leaned against the backboard. Squishy tilted his eye up at Addie watching her move. Maybe Sen was right, and the Piglings weren’t responsible for hurting Nettal.

Flashes of ghostly white-purple flames intruded into Addie’s consciousness, as she abruptly remembered the night she got soul damage. Her soul had been singed after she woke up from that nightmare. Singed in just the same way the fawn’s soul had been, too. Singed in the same way the fawn had been after the person with the black cloak fled from the area.

Addie shook her head, now thinking that she had been pursuing the wrong leads the whole time. If the Piglings weren’t responsible, then who was the person in the black cloak? And how was she supposed to find them? She hadn’t seen a face, and she didn’t even know if it was a man or a woman.

Addie poked Squishy in the side, “Squishy, do you remember the person with the black cloak who hurt the fawn?”

“I remember.” He stated simply. He looked slightly offended at her poke, but apparently not enough to complain.

“Good. We are going to track them down.” Addie began to throw the sheets off of her lap when she paused halfway off the bed and spoke again, “You didn’t happen to see a face beneath the cloak, did you?”

“I did not.”

Addie sighed, then flopped back onto the bed laying across it at an angle. She bounced once, and then the bed stilled. “Ugh, how are we supposed to find them!” she kicked her legs up and down and the bed shook, causing Squishy to nearly slide off the end of the bed.

Squishy stood up, walked over to Addie, and gently laid his right forepaw upon her stomach. “I remember his scent.”

The bed creaked and swayed as Addie jumped out of it, and landed with both feet on the hardwood floor.

Addie spun around and rushed over to Squishy’s place on the bed. She scooped him up into her arms, and then spun them both around in place, causing Squishy’s body to arc from the force. She stopped just as suddenly as she started, and then swayed on her feet for a moment. A moment of nausea hit her as her head swam. She tried to put Squishy back down on the ground and nearly fell over from the effort. She watched Squishy walk unsteadily for a moment and had to giggle.

“You are a good kitty!” Addie declared, “We are gonna track black cloak down!”

“First, allow me a moment to recover from this ceaseless spinning.”

AN: If you are enjoying the story, please consider leaving a review or five-star rating. It really helps get visibility for the story so others can enjoy it, too.

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