We squinted at the endless white expanse around us, the bastard sun now as bright as it had been in Xindelle but with none of the warmth.

Xenna: “It’s beautiful!”

Maeve and I exchanged glances. It was?

Xenna: “The aether here is pristine - almost entirely untouched! Oh, it’s taking everything I have not to pull as much into me as possible!”

Wolfgang was overjoyed by Xenna’s reaction, pulling her up into a spinning hug as the two laughed giddily.

Seth: “Wow, couple goals much? Good thing they usually keep this stuff far away from us, eh Maeve?”

She sighed happily, her breath visible as she clung to me. 

Maeve: “I’d say, ‘If only someone would look at me the way Xenna looks at aether’, but someone’s been looking at me that way since the first Yrethdamned day we met.”

Seth: “Whoever it is, they have excellent taste.”

Laughing, she pushed me into the snow. I dragged her down with me.

Zyturak, who was drowning in husky kisses, spoke up. 

Zyturak: “Not to ruin two tender moments, but would we by any chance be close to your tribe, Wolfgang?”

Wolfgang placed Xenna back down and stroked his beard.

Wolfgang: “What gave it away, my unusually perceptive friend?”

Zyturak put a gloved finger to his mouth. We all stood quietly until we could hear the sound of music being carried on the cold breeze. Wolfgang beamed. 

Wolfgang: “Ah, how I’ve longed for my home! Come, this way!”

We waddled after him in our enormous snowshoes, but every one of his steps was worth ten of ours. Luckily the tribe’s encampment was much closer than we thought - it had just been hard to spot as most of the camp was furnished with white furs and fabrics. 

We caught up to Wolfgang, who had stopped suddenly just outside the ring of ice-crafted shelters. Xenna walked over to him with as much dignity as was possible in her snowshoes and grabbed his glove reassuringly. Wolfgang took a deep breath, and they walked into the middle of the camp, hand in hand.

The music stopped. Maeve, Zyturak and I hung back, unsure of what we should do. An oddly familiar sound suddenly cut through the tension.

???: “Ha ha ha!! Is that you, my boy!? Come, let me have a look at you.”

An older man beckoned Wolfgang over. He was shorter than Wolfgang, but his greying hair and beard were much longer. 

Wolfgang: “Father, how I have missed you! What have you been up to, you old devil?”

Wolfgang’s Father: “Whatever it is your mother tells me I am!”

Wolfgang and Father: “Ha ha ha!!”

They could almost be twins. 

Wolfgang’s Father: “And who is this?”

He gestured to Xenna, who was practically hiding behind Wolfgang.

Wolfgang: “Father, I’d like you to meet Xenna! She is… she is to be my-”

???: ”Exactly what is the meaning of this, Wolfgang? We asked you to scout the conflicted world, not to bring the stench of it back with you.”

The voice carried for miles. It sounded as harsh as a voice devoid of emotion possibly could. An incredibly tall, powerfully built woman walked through the crowd, and the other Ptarmigans were desperate to get out of her way.

Wolfgang: “Elder, I-”

Elder: “This won’t do, Wolfgang. Not at all.”

She looked at the four of us like we were maggots writhing in her dinner.

Elder: “What were you thinking, you great oaf, leading them right to us?”

Her voice betrayed nothing, the entirety of her intent in the words she spoke. She inspected every one of us, but when she paused by Maeve and I, she practically fell over in revulsion.

Elder: “These two smell of that fetid corruption! Just what reason could you have possibly had to bring them here?”

Hold on, we smelled like what?! …and if we did, had Wolfgang thought the same thing this entire time? 

When Wolfgang answered her, it was in barely more than a whisper.

Wolfgang: “...Ikterwal.”

Elder: “Speak up, boy!”

Wolfgang: “We are here to slay Ikterwal!”

The entire tribe gasped. I thought I saw an older man faint. The elder’s eyes drilled into Wolfgang.

Elder: “I should cull you where you stand for this blasphemy. You’ve been in the conflicted world too long, and they have warped your soul into something wicked and bloodthirsty.”

Wolfgang’s Father: “Koa, please! You’re always too hard on the boy.”

Wolfgang’s Mother, Koa: “Stay out of this, Rhy. I’m hard on him because he’s my boy.

Wolfgang: “Elder, please listen. We can stop the corruption! Reverse it, cleanse it completely! We need only reach Ikterwal’s den-”

Koa: “And who planted these ideas in your head? Them!?”

She thrust a shaking finger toward Maeve and I. 

Koa: “Surely you’ve noticed, Wolfgang. They bear that very same corruption! And now they want you to kill our sacred guardian...?”

Wolfgang narrowed his eyes at me. It didn’t help my anxiety that, aside from this whole corruption bearing thing (which was still news to me), I was guilty as charged. I felt like I had no idea which way was up. Maeve held my back, which kept me from collapsing.

Wolfgang finally looked back to his mother, defiant.

Wolfgang: “I cannot abide by your tired traditions any longer, Elder. We will find Ikterwal’s den. We will slay him. And we will stop the corruption at its source whether you support us or not.”

At those words Koa buckled and fell to her knees, shocking everyone present into complete silence as her son turned his back on her. Rhy knelt down, putting his arm over her shoulder. He looked at us with a wide range of emotions. Deep, regretful sorrow finally surged into Koa’s words.

Koa: “What have they done to you, my son? They have emptied your gentle heart and filled it with brutal violence... I should have never sent you to the conflicted world, I should have kept you safe! I’m so sorry, my little Wolfgang…! I’m so sorry...”

Wolfgang took Xenna’s hesitant hand and we followed him back to our sleds. He never once looked back.

//Time Skip//

We didn’t speak much about the confrontation - Wolfgang was all business. Together, he and I determined the most likely places we could find the dragon’s den. We then travelled from potential lair to potential lair in determined silence.  

The breeze from before had become a full blown blizzard, and even Wolfgang was struggling to serve as our guide in conditions like these. We found a sizable cave laid into the side of a mountain and decided to rest for the night. The dogs were unleashed, and they ran off to play in the snow. Wolfgang and Xenna were having a private discussion, leaving Zyturak, Maeve and I to talk while we ate our rations, thankful for our shelter. 

Maeve: “Okay, so for real, what is the plan? We’re practically beating down our dragon’s front door now.”

Zyturak: “Yes, let’s hear it, Seth. How do we slay a dragon?”

Seth: “Come on, did you guys really think I would lead you all this way without a winning strategy? In every legend of old, a dragon has some flaw in their armour, usually around the chest. We need to immobilize it, then hit that spot with everything we’ve got.”

My companions considered.

Zyturak: “Xenna might have some aetheric tricks up her sleeve to keep our quarry in place. Wolfgang may be able to petition his homeland for some favours, but the dragon may very well prove instead to be Ptarmigan’s favoured. I will be all but useless, myself.”

Maeve: “You’re always of use, Zy. I bet you’re half the reason we were brave enough to come all this way in the first place.”

He gave her a small bow in appreciation.

Maeve: “Depending on Bedlam’s mood, I might be able to wrestle a dragon as well as I wrestled the last behemoth, but I really don’t want that to be Plan A.”

Zyturak: “Then, let’s talk firepower. Xenna can easily strike the dragon wherever she likes with her aether orb, but I fear it will resist all but the most violent blast... It would likely take another dragon to bring Ikterwal down that way.”

Maeve: “Wolfgang’s got those claws, and I’m pretty sure he told me once when he was real drunk that they were crafted from dragon bones ages ago, but getting him up to that one little spot might be a tough ask. Taking his tavern story for true is even tougher...”

I didn’t respond. I had my ace in the hole, but it was definitely to be used only at the very end, when no other options remained.

Xenna eventually led Wolfgang to our side, helping him sit down. He looked so tired. This was clearly not the trip to Ptarmigan he had been hoping for.

Seth: “Hey, Wolfgang-”

He held his hand up.

Wolfgang: “No need, friend. I just need some time to sit here with you all. Rest assured I will be ready to face Ikterwal to-”

Wolfgang was interrupted by a deafening sound that I almost didn’t register as a voice.

???: “How disgusting. It seems I have an infestation to take care of!”

How does a dragon sneak up on you? By being very, very old and very, very experienced, apparently. We could only see half of him, the other half still outside the entrance. His silver scales were worn here and there along his massive body, his claws dyed red from dried blood he hadn’t bothered to clean off. I reflexively read his aura - it was shockingly similar to the animal’s souls I’d read in Xindelle. But there was something deep in his core, something difficult to look directly at, and I knew whatever it was had been altering his very essence.

I didn’t have time to scan for his flaw, however, because the next moment Ikterwal breathed the very essence of Ptarmigan’s coldest winter into the room. Xenna’s flaming orb pushed forth a multicoloured wall of fire - which I recognized as the very same fire that had once made up the rogue elemental - and it was just barely hot enough to keep us alive, if nearly frostbitten.

Ikterwal: “You live? Persistent pests. Your kind have always been so difficult to stamp out completely…”

Wolfgang: “Ikterwal, I implore you, there need be no conflict between us! We have come here only in hopes of cleansing the corruption of the Ardenscar. There is a Cenotaph artifact here that-”

Ikterwal made a terrible noise that might have been laughter.

Ikterwal: “No conflict between us! Ha ha! Tell that to my brethren, slaughtered by the hundreds!”

Wolfgang faltered, knowing the dragon spoke true.

Ikterwal: “I only allow you to live another second, vermin, because your words amuse me. Why would insects like you seek to destroy the very rot which you and that filthy ‘god’ of yours originally crawled out from?”

Everyone but Maeve and I exchanged confused glances.

Maeve: “So it’s true? Yreth really was a Denizen of Bedlam!?”

Ikterwal huffed, freezing vapour rushing from his nostrils.

Ikterwal: “You are less ignorant than most of your kind, but no less revolting... Yes, my kin and I watched the Ardenscar cut its way into our idyllic world, millenia ago. Even mercifully thoughtless as we were then, we knew we hated it. Then the unspeakable horror that you call your ‘god’ dropped out of the Scar, wailing in terrifying, infantlike screams that haunt me to this very day. It finally stopped Its mewling when your kind suddenly formed out of that tainted rift energy you call ‘aether’. “

Ikterwal shuddered at the memory. A glance at the others, especially Xenna, suggested they were barely coping with this influx of information. Maeve merely stood in front of me protectively as the dragon spoke.

Ikterwal: “And that would have been terrible enough! But then even more of those nightmares poured from the rift and lunged at us, as if mindless destruction were breathing for them! We fought valiantly, but we were quickly overwhelmed. Then, you vermin somehow empowered your ‘god’ with the aether as it fought to protect you. The last thing I saw before my retreat was that the first ‘Denizen’ to fall was reshaped into a dozen bodies like yours, all of which were exiled far away. And these horrid ‘Cenotaph’ would of course go on to plague our world as well…”

The ancient dragon sighed, the weight of the things he had seen bearing down on him now all at once. I had a million questions, but Ikterwal’s nostalgia was turning into malice in a hurry.

Ikterwal: “We accepted that we were no longer the apex predators. We found new territory, and we continued to live on proud instinct. But then your vile god warped the very fabric of our minds! The ‘gift’ of sentience was forced upon us, not all at once, but gradually, so that we never even knew what we had gained until it was too late!”

So it was Yreth’s influence I saw that had been altering his aura. All of this was a lot for me just to take in... but it must have been even more difficult to have lived through it, and to only then have understood it all retroactively.

Ikterwal: “I was meant to rule the skies and devour all that stands in my way. I was never meant to think. This divine ‘gift’ has driven me entirely mad! I should not have been forced to keep these terrible memories of a world I no longer recognize! I should not have to remember my brothers and sisters being ripped apart for human trinkets and Denizen bloodlust! You want that Cenotaph junk? If you can step over my corpse, it’s yours... but know that I will bring every ounce of my resentment to bear against you!!”

Seth: “Keep him locked in here!”

The others nodded their understanding. Zyturak was trying his hypnotism trick again, and considering the dragon hadn’t already killed us, I assumed it was working. Useless, he says. 

Xenna and Wolfgang stood side by side. The mage used her orb to freeze the dragon against the cave’s mouth, while the primalist called upon Ptarmigan to accelerate how quickly the ice hardened around him. I ran to my bags and withdrew my ace in the hole - the Cenotaph weapon - and set it at my side in the holster Maeve had bought for it. She had already sprinted over to the dragon’s chest and was climbing it with her tendrils, searching desperately for a flaw. 

It was my plan that would prove to have the flaw, however. The dragon could still breathe, and Xenna was all out of elementals. 

Ikterwal opened his mouth, frigid air pushed its way up his throat… and Maeve jumped into his mouth to take the blast point-blank, freezing solid on the spot. With a gruesome laugh, the dragon licked his lips… and swallowed her whole.