The Bird and The Dragon

Kvenrei left the winter garden. The light outside was yellowed by the desert dust flowing high in the air. Esrau was still outside, he took out his helmet as Kvenrei approached, the visor was as black as his eyes. Kvenrei explained what had been discussed.

“The production system for the bioships was intentionally destroyed during the retreat. We can’t let the dragon inside the ecosystem. The humanity would never forgive us.” Esrau said.

“You mean the humanity, which flew to Watergate after the end of the world to save the survivors and helped rebuild the planet?”

“Um, yes.”

“Do you believe your humans will once return?” Kvenrei looked into the black eyes. He wanted to hear the answer and knew many things depended on Esrau. He had grown to trust the nocturna, even like him, but his deeply set beliefs and aspirations still eluded Kvenrei.

It was clear Esrau was thinking. He was quiet for a long time before answering. “We were left for dead. Watergate has been signed off as an uninhabitable death world. There will be no rescue parties, no one is waiting for us to report and return,” the nocturna said slowly.

“Is that what the nocturna believe?”

“As a detachment, we still follow the original mission, but the old ways are disappearing as our bodies weaken from generation to generation and our numbers dwindle.”

“I think your mission was over some three hundred years ago,” Kvenrei said.

Esrau exhaled slowly. “We still need the technology from the orbit, but it means this will become a dragon-infested planet.”

“Does it matter? If the alternative is a dead planet.”

“It will prevent us from ever leaving Watergate.”

“There is no reason to spread the dragon’s touch to the other parts of humanity. They are not coming here. If you ever leave the planet you can go in any other direction. There is a star for everyone, as Bladewater said.”

Esrau returned the gaze and Kvenrei saw how the idea took root in him.

“You may be right. I claimed you to be slaves to the dragons and their laws, but I have been the one to be shackled and blinded by the old ways.” A smile spread to Esrau’s lips, and his eyes sparkled. Esrau’s stature seemed to lose some tension and he breathed more freely. “I never foresaw myself agreeing with those who believe in the end of the world. But in a way our world truly ended; we are dead to humanity. The old laws and missions don’t bind us.”

“Will you talk to the dragon?” Kvenrei asked.

“Yes, my friend. I will.” The nocturna smoothened his black hair backwards and stepped inside the winter garden making a gesture Kvenrei recognized as the old Leipzig’s blessing.

Esrau walked the carved path his posture very straight and stopped two steps away from the dragon. This was the first time since the end of the world when a nocturna met a dragon face to face. The sworn enemies, an artificial and a creature engineered to fight the artificials stared at each other for a long while. Neither of them moved.

“I have been told you are willing to surrender, goddess,” Esrau said using his command voice.

“I have heard your kind have finally understood that there are other solutions than death,” Agiisha’s voice was melodic.

“I offer you a truce.”

“I accept your offer. A truce, captain, for you and me.”

“You don’t mention the ainadu,” Esrau said.

“And you don’t name the nocturna. The dragons will fight and kill us both. The ainadu will follow me, but are the nocturna under your command?”

“They will be.”

The dragon smiled her predatory smile and offered her hand. “Agiisha. I was the sixth of the fourth generation, but Watergate rebuilt me as the first of my kind.”

Esrau removed his combat glove and touched the dragon’s hand. “Captain Esrau Frenk, I used to serve the seventeenth company of the dropship forces, but from now on it will be Watergate’s Strike Force.”

Three days later they sat in the estate’s southern wing, which had survived the dragon’s wrath with only minimal destruction. It was night and the coldness of the dark time was creeping in from the broken windows. Agiisha held her unmoving stance in the winter garden; the dragon had turned her mind inwards and drawn the aura around herself like the petals of a closed flower.

“The majority of the nocturna will see this as a rebellion. Getting them to understand and believe the truth will take time.” Esrau leaned backward in his chair, holding a glass of heated wine.

“Welcome to the club,” Patrik said dryly. He was unwilling to accept the change in Agiisha, as the bitterness still burned him. The two soldiers talked about the plans and the actions needed to be performed to unify the planet to meet the dragons, should they return. They had used the past days to discuss matters from all angles.

Marci was asleep or at least lying silent in the room Liida had used, one of Liida’s old dolls with her. Khiandri was sitting on the sofa without shoes, her feet dragged under her and Kvenrei was next to her, holding her hand.

“I believed I wanted peace. I already survived one rebellion and now I’ll have another. It is more than enough for one lifetime,” Khiandri said her voice carrying a silent amusement.

“You may not say it aloud, but you like it. You have never seemed like a person who is content in a peaceful life spent at home, tending a garden,” Kvenrei said.

“A true evaluation. I have spent most of my life like this, working to change the world for the better. I have always done my part in those changes. Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate peace before anything else and I tried to find stability, to refrain from it all, but I just…could not. I am as bad as Ikanji used to be, I enjoy having my hand in the nation’s steering wheel.”

Kvenrei had never heard the details of what made Khiandri leave Ikanji and seek the dragon. For her, it had been only a year ago, but for everyone else, it was distant history. “You must be honest to your heart, Khiandri. It is a warrior’s heart, and I don’t want you to change. I would be proud to accompany you.” He gave a small kiss on her cheek making Khiandri smile.

“You are not a stay-at-home dad. The Bird was a fragile construction, but he was not created only by your imagination. There is strength in you, something you are just accepting you possess.”

“I have more of my dad in me than I used to be willing to admit. I’ll make sure the kids are safe. But after that, I am ready to reap a bloody path to the direction the hand holding my collar points me to go.” Kvenrei’s words were spoken lightly and Khiandri laughed.

“This is a serious matter Bird, and we must engage the discussion before those two masterminds design something too complex.”

Kvenrei nodded and spoke to Patrik: “Do you already have the next world war planned? Whom I need to kill?”

“No one, Dad,” Ayu said from the doorway. She dropped her saddlebags to the floor and rushed to hug Kvenrei.

Patrik raised his eyebrow to Ayu, who just waved at him. “Good evening, uncle. You have a small army here,” she said and went to greet Esrau.

“Indeed. I was tasked to minimize the harm, should the dragon do something unexpected. Charming to meet you, young lady,” Esrau said.

Kvenrei introduced Ayu to Khiandri.

“I saw almost everything on the terrace when you met Agiisha. Astrida took me away when the fight began,” Ayu said. Kvenrei didn’t like the idea of Ayu being in Astrida’s company but agreed it had probably been the safest option and it explained why Pakhui’s men had not found the girl.

“Did you ride alone? Where is Anhava?” Kvenrei asked.

“Anhava is not able to ride yet,” Ayu said sharply and Kvenrei was not sure if he would ever ride again. The beating from Ikanji had looked serious. “Agiisha sent me a word to come alone. I think she guarded my way.”

”Quite a guardian angel,” Kvenrei chuckled.

“Agiisha wouldn’t leave her commander out of this without a pressing reason,” Khiandri said.

“She thinks her commander is here,” Patrik answered.

“Have you gotten a promotion?” Kvenrei asked his brother.

“I haven’t promised anything. But it is either me or Astrida until Anhava is nursed back to health if he ever is. Me taking that position would allow us to easily control the north.” In truth, the Patrik heard the lure of power, but he had lost his trust in Agiisha. The dragon in the orbit, Ikanji, was a different matter.

A man modeled after his dead father had been an abomination, but the said abomination had sacrificed himself gladly. This one action changed Patrik’s view of the creature called Ikanji. Bladewater had trusted Ikanji and Patrik valued her evaluation and at least the thing occupying the dragon body was not Agiisha. Patrik felt he might be able to fight alongside this new dragon.

Kvenrei took a pose and saluted his brother. “Commander Patrik. I’ll gladly follow you if it saves us from Astrida.”

“We’ll see about that,” Patrik said, considering how Astrida had taken this. Probably she was very professional about the political aspects and extremely angry with him.

“I had difficulties understanding why you attacked the dragon. I was furious at you Dad, but Agiisha explained it all,” Ayu said.

“What did the worm say?” Khiandri asked.

“She told about you and Ikanji and the rebellion. About how she missed her dragon body. But mostly she talked about the rebellion and Kvenrei.”

“About me?” Kvenrei was surprised.

“Yes. Agiisha said opposing the authorities is your natural way of operation. You rebelled against your father and Anhava. Agiisha was not surprised when you rebelled against her. She said it’s your most valuable characteristic, the ability to break the routines and increase the probability of unlikely incidents by your stubbornness. Or that is how she put it.”

“She calculated this all?” Kvenrei asked.

“I don’t believe so. She didn’t know about the navigator,” Patrik said.

“Agiisha could have killed us all or just taken over my mind or body,” Khiandri said.

“But she didn’t. Agiisha said she would never harm Kvenrei,” Ayu said.

“I told you she likes me.”

Khiandri kissed Kvenrei. ”Who wouldn’t like you, Bird?”

“He has his good sides.” Ayu agreed, looking away from the kiss. “I never guessed I would one day discuss with a rebellion leader.”

“We are all rebels here. I am the rebel champion, Agiisha rebelled against her siblings, Kven rebelled against his father, Patrik rebelled against the dragon, Esrau against his people, and you Ayu, I heard you rebelled against both your dad and uncle,” Khiandri said.

“You are all in the kitchen swift if that side meeting is not soon over,” Esrau pointed out: “We have a planet-wide plan in the making and you can either be quiet or give your input to the topic.”

Khiandri stood and smiled. “Very well. Captain and Commander may now sit down and listen to how this items ere arranged in the past. I’ll tell you these things from my personal experience.”

“Please, do continue, lady Taan,” Esrau said politely.

“At first we’ll need a song about the dragon.”

“Excuse me?” Patrik said.

“A song. A poem will also suffice. It doesn’t have to be a good one, but it must stick into people’s minds. That will serve as the first fixed point into which we anchor our idea of the new world, whatever it is.”

Kvenrei grinned: “Trust me. The way from pretending to be a poet to starting a world war is surprisingly short.”

And Kvenrei wrote one more poem about the dragon:

You were dropped from the space / without wings

You raised your voice / it didn’t carry over the void

You rode the waves of the rebellion / but they drowned you

Peeling away all the lies

You are the starless night / a terrible relic

A nightmare, from which / we wake to a new morning