The Duke’s Reborn Daughter Sometimes Chooses Violence.

I could not sit still. It was late enough that most of the inn had gone quiet.

A handful of expeditioners had been given rooms in the lower level of the inn. The most trusted, Count Vance had said. A way to give me guards without the appearance of me needing them. It was shrewd, though with Estovan’s presence, likely unnecessary. The tome was heavy in my hands. I had been pacing for the better part of an hour.

I had sent the request through the arch that morning, and it had arrived within the hour. One of the advantages of being a Veyne -my family’s resources was extensive, and the archivists knew better than to ask questions when the request bore my seal. Getting things was easy, when it was I asking for them. If it had been any of the villagers….I banished the thought. It wasn’t important right now.

The Songs of the Ten.

It was a recounting of the Second Great Demon War. Of the Ten Gods who had stood together to drive back the horde, and the shattering of the Western Provinces that had come with it. I turned the page as I walked. My path took me between empty chairs and abandoned tables, around the central hearth where the Magical Implement hummed and gave off a warmth that I barely registered. Most of the tome was dense -almost theological. It was not so much a historical account as it was a thinly veiled sermon.

All of the Gods had their own sects. Their own believers. The fact that some of these Gods still walked the land seemed not to matter in the slightest. I had been skimming for one name among ten.

And She who was called Eira, the Frozen Breath,

Did not walk upon the earth as her brothers did.

She rode upon Vyranthos, the Undying,

Whose scales were the color of deep winter sky

And whose flame burned not with heat

But with the silence that precedes all snow.

I stopped walking and read the passage again. Then a third time, slower. A blue dragon, one that had belonged to a God. I knew what color the beast at the top of the Everfrost Peak was. Nobody who had seen it had thought to mention that particular detail at first, but my questioning had revealed that it was, in fact, a blue dragon. It could be coincidence. If not for the Godblade.

It stirred now. I felt the weight of it shift in the back of my mind. It was present, and more aware than it normally was. Vaelin. Is that what’s on the mountain?

There was only silence. The presence seemed to retreat, but not fully. You’ve known since we entered the Wastes, haven’t you? I pressed. Eira. You kept saying her name.

Vaelin said nothing, and the silence held. It did not speak. In some ways, that was as good an answer as any the blade might have given me itself. I closed the tome and held it against my chest. The cover was cold against my skin through the fabric of my shirt. Did it matter, if it was not just any dragon, but a beast of legend? The job was the same. And yet, the task at hand did feel heavier now all the same too.

I opened the book again and resumed my pacing. I rounded a corner, took three steps and walked directly into someone. The tome slipped. I caught it before it hit the floor, barely, and looked up. Violet stood in front of me, one hand raised.

“Watch where you’re going,” she said.

“You were standing in a doorway.”

“Yeah, because I was about to walk through it. That’s what doors are for.”

It seemed I had been rubbing off on her. I tucked the tome under my arm and stepped back. Violet’s eyes dropped to the book, then back to me.

“Where’s the kid?” She meant Sere.

“With Dorothy. I think she’s currently being bribed with chocolate.”

Violet snorted. “Smart. What about the rockhead?”

She meant Damian. “In his room.” I kept my voice even. “He’s been keeping to himself for the most part.”

Something flickered across Violet’s face but she didn’t push. I was grateful for that. Damian was doubtless still deciding whether to uphold his oath or not, after what he had seen. I could not force his decision. All I could do was wait, and hope. At least he had done the drainage work properly. That was something.

“You done with your fancy reading then? Can’t believe all you asked for is a book.”

“It was three books. And I suppose I am.” Apparently, I had just given her permission. Violet grabbed my wrist and pulled. “Violet-”

“Shut up. I’m bored. Don’t tell me you aren’t too.”

I could have resisted. I chose not to. The tome was tucked under my arm, and Violet’s grip on my wrist was firm, and I let myself be pulled toward the front door and the cold beyond it.

The cold hit the moment we stepped outside. I had forgotten to grab my fur cloak. I regretted that immediately. Violet shoved something heavy over my shoulders. “You’re hopeless,” she muttered. She had just given me her own cloak, leaving her in little more than leather.

“You…are you sure?”

“Uh huh.” Violet nodded, not looking at me. “I’m better at reinforcing. It’s fine.”

I didn’t know what to say to that. The cloak smelled like her. It had an earthy scent to it that was hard to place, but it felt right. “Thank you.”

“Yeah, yeah.” She led me through the village without explanation. I did not ask for one. Violet did not seem to care that some of the villagers gave us odd looks. She glared at any person who would look at us, making them reconsider very quickly. I could have stopped her, probably should have, honestly. I didn’t.

The streets were largely empty. The blue glow of the walls pulsed faintly, casting long shadows between the low buildings. Our boots crunched through the snow. She brought me to the far corner of the village, to a spot near the wall where two buildings formed a small alcove, sheltered from the wind.

I set the tome on a ledge where the snow couldn’t reach it. From here, the mountain was right in front of us. Everfrost Peak filled the sky. It was as daunting as ever, made more daunting now in the dark. Tomorrow, we would climb it. Count Vance had said it would take less than a day to reach the peak -where the dragon lay.

Violet stood beside me with her arms folded, staring up. Her breath came out in small white clouds. I joined her. The silence between us stretched and it was not an uncomfortable thing. Violet, despite how loud she could be, was often quite a surprising amount of the time around me these days.

“Are you anxious?” I asked. Violet’s arm moved. Something caught me square on the side of the head. I staggered as cold exploded against my ear, slid down my neck, and nestled itself beneath the collar of my cloak. An attack? Here? My mental fingers reached for the Godblade. I had to protect-

“What-” Violet was already crouching, packing a snowball She had the audacity to grin. “What the hell Violet!”

“You were moping.”

“I was not moping!”

The second snowball hit my shoulder before I could move. I stumbled back and dove for the snow. I had never made a snowball before. Not in this life, not in the last one either. The snow didn’t want to hold together. Violet’s third did not miss.

“You’re terrible at this!” she yelled, already packing a fourth. The real question was why was she so bloody good at it?!

I channeled the barest thread of mana into my hands. Just enough to compress the snow faster, pack it tighter. The resulting snowball was dense. I threw it hard.

It caught Violet in the chest. She staggered back a full step, looked down at herself, and then looked up at me with an expression of pure, delighted outrage.“That’s cheating!”

“You started it.” I said.

“You used mana!”

“You hit me before I could even move. We’re even!”

We both dove for the snow, racing to make our snowballs first. Violet was faster than I, but only just. For every one of my snowballs that hit her, two of hers found me instead. I did not care about the score.

Violet’s laugh was loud and graceless. It carried. I was certain at least one person would wake up and curse us for it. I found that I didn’t care about that either. My own laughter surprised me. It came out in short, breathless bursts.

At some point, Violet gave up throwing things entirely. She tackled me into the snow. I went down. She went down with me. We lay in a heap, gasping. “I win,” Violet panted.

“You tackled me. That’s clearly cheating.” I said breathlessly.

“You cheated first.”

I shoved her off me. She rolled onto her back beside me, arms spread wide. Her red braid was a mess, half undone, plastered with ice. Her face was red, each breath coming out in white smoke. The snow did not feel cold at all, and she looked lovely.

We lay there. Above us, the sky was vast and clear and full of stars. For a long time, the only sound was our breathing pluming into the freezing air.

It was the most stars I had ever seen -more than in Aelheim, where the walls and Magical Implements washed out the sky, and far more than in my past life, where I had only ever glimpsed them a handful of times.

“Hey,” Violet said. Her voice was quieter now. “What were you reading? In that book.”

I considered not answering. It was an old habit. “The dragon,” I said. “It might not just be what we think it is.”

Violet turned her head. I could feel her eyes on me even though I kept mine on the stars. “What do you mean?”

“There’s a passage in the book about the Goddess Eira. She rode a dragon. A blue one.” I paused. “I think it’s that dragon.”

Violet didn’t speak for a long time. “Does it change anything?” She finally asked.

I thought about that. It hadn’t been long, and yet I found myself liking the people here. The honesty with which they lived their lives. The fact that they chose to live at all, even as the world pressed down around them. “No.”

“Then why are you moping?”

I did not know how to answer that, not when I wasn’t sure myself. “I’m always moping.” That got a laugh from her followed by a small jab at my side.

“I’m afraid,” I said. The words came before even I realized it. Once they were out, it was hard to stop them. “I’m not afraid of the dragon,” I continued quickly. “I’m afraid of what happens if I make another mistake. If- if maybe I’ve made a mistake in coming here at all.”

“You’re thinking about those three, right?” She didn’t need to say which three. I simply nodded. “Not your damn fault.” She said.

“It was at least partly-”

“It wasn’t.” Her voice was firm. “That dumbass didn’t listen and that’s on him. You’ll do fine. Hell, you’ll do fucking better than fine.” That got a smile out of me. There was no great reasoning behind it. No logic I could sink my teeth into. It didn’t matter. The belief there did.

“I’m scared too, you know,” Violet said.

I turned my head. She was staring at the sky, jaw set. “You?”

“Don’t sound so surprised. It’s insulting.” She tugged at her braid. It was a mess of ice and loose strands. “I’m not scared of the damn dragon. I’m not scared of dying, either.” Her eyes flicked to me, before they pointedly stared up at the sky. “I’m scared of you getting hurt.”

It was, perhaps, the first time anyone had ever said something like that to me. It felt foreign. I did not dislike it. Not…not at all.

“Nothing is going to happen to you while I’m here,” Violet said. “You hear me?”

My eyes stung. I blamed the cold. “Violet.”

“What.”

“If you put yourself in danger to protect me,” I said, very carefully, “I am going to beat you senseless. I will use Vaelin if I have to.”

There was silence. Then a snort. Then a giggle, followed then by a laugh. “You?” Violet turned to look at me. Her eyes were bright, and maybe a little wet. Her face was the faintest red. “Y-you can barely throw a snowball.”

“I’m better at throwing a sword.”

She punched my shoulder. I punched her back. We lay there for a long time. I might have felt warm, even without her cloak.