“By the Mother, I found it!” Vimal pushed rubble aside, casting rays of scattered light through a glass-like substance and inside the citadel. “Kanti! Kanti, come quick!” It was a strangely hushed call. They were both like scavengers - the thin atmosphere of their home supported little. This? This was like a jackpot. A brotherhood citadel, buried under dust - a wealth of information, and, far more important for the hungry stomach, magic.

The brotherhood dragons were long gone, of course, to fight their wars elsewhere. What they had left behind, the survivors sought to scavenge from. But a citadel? Talons curled to a fist, Vimal's eyes light up as he swings his hand against the glass. The sound of shattering - a passageway into the dark citadel. “Kanti! Come on!” Enthusiasm made him forget to look up to check where his sister was in the first place, amongst this dried up hill of fewest shrubs.

Kanti looked up from where she had been digging as her brother called. She stood up straight then and peered around a large boulder. She rubbed at one side of her face then before bounding towards her brother, skidding a little on the stones.“What did you find…?” she asked, lowly as she reached his side.

Pushing gingerly through the hole, Vimal flops onto the fine layer of dust covering the Citadel floor. The only light in here is filtering in from the very hole he just created, and he shifts to a sit to wait for his eyes to adjust, calling up to answer Kanti: “The citadel!” And adding, uninformatively: “Over here!”

Kanti blinked and peered down at her brother before carefully jumping down to land beside him. Grinning, she looked around. “At last…” she breathed, quietly. Almost awed she moved a little away from him, her bronze hide rippling as she moved.

Slowly, slitted eyes widened and became round to capture most of the sparse light. Vaguely, contours became visible. A room. A doorway. “Let's go,” Vimal gestures in the dark to the doorway, before beginning a stride on all fours towards the opening, excitement causing his heart to hammer in his chest. He didn't mind - he was elated.

Kanti nodded then and moved to follow after him, the pupils of her green eyes widening. She doesn't say anything, excitement rippling through her, making her tremble soundlessly. She continued to move, lowering her head and shoulders slightly, eying the roof almost uncertainly.

The citadel was vaster than expected. Sure, there had been tales that hundreds of a brotherhood had lived in each of the citadels, but still, what their imagination had woven seemed tiny. Turning another corner, the darkness almost all-consuming by now, Vimal's expression wrinkled to irritation. They would have to come back with a torch, in hopes they would find something of use- abruptly, his thought process halted. Eyes wide, he focussed on the shred of glowing blue, like a strand in the inky blackness.

“Kanti…” It was a breathy whisper, so soft it probably didn't carry across to her. Something glowed at a distance, further into the darkness of the citadel. There was a bend in this corridor - or hallway, whichever it was - and so his advancing revealed more of what was obviously hidden by the corner. And then it clicked. “By the Mother,” Vimal's voice was drained by horror. A moment later, he was lunging forward, hurtling himself into a rushed gallop towards the network of blue, radiating strings… in its midst hung a dragon, illuminated to a deep royal blue by the magical threads, frozen.

It was hard to tell in the darkness and the alien light emanating from the strings of the spiderweb structure, but there was no immediate clash of colour. As he approached in haste to free the dragon, he saw black strands were laced cross its hide, a slightly different blue lashed across the same - wait, no… silver. Reflective scales. A half-breed, blue and silver. And from what he could tell, without the black blotches of the brotherhood dragons. A fellow scavenger? All thoughts of competition fell away from him, instinct to help stronger. He skids to a halt beside the web, raising his forepaws to cushion what would otherwise have been an impact with the wall.

Kanti didn't hear her brother but as she heard him moving away she turned and gasped, lowly running after him, horrified. Shivers of fear ran through her then before she skidded to a stop beside him, her forepaws resting against the wall, or almost as she eyed the trapped dragon.

The halting is abrupt, and once his speed has been cushioned to a stop, Vimal reaches out for the web, a paw passing through some of the strands. He knew trap webs. They were, fortunately, easy to deactivate - as he just had done. The blue flickers erratically and extinguishes, leaving only the faintest outline of the captured dragon to collapse on the ground, no longer supported.

Kemeneth gasped very softly, so soft that it was unlikely it be have been heard. She shifted a bit from paw to paw, eying the crumpled shape before flicking a look to Vimal. Dragging a forepaw across her face she edged closer to the dragon, her head lowering.

Almost instantly after its release, the dragon utters a soft groan. Foreclaws stretching in brief disorientation, its snout swivels around, slowly at first, then, as though thawing out of the forced paralysis only slowly, whipping up and to the side to inspect the darkness around him.

Suddenly, forepaws shove sideways, then down, the entire body shifting and pushing away from the two others, a cry escaping his throat, and wings lash at air to gain distance as he scrambles to rise. Astonishingly swift to gain distance, the dragon stands erect at a rough twenty metres from the scavengers - foreclaws twirl, and without warning, white fire pops into existence, twirling into a bright, blinding sphere, the room illuminated, rushing to fill with colours. And now, they can see the azure skin, a fine texture of breathtaking flawlessness, laced with pure silver in labyrinthine patterns, bizarre. And lashing across those opened eyes is a threading blackness, closing around the last white of the eye, turning the eyes by appearance into oily pits.

Something sags softly and quietly to the ground beside Kanti. The previously trapped dragon's tail lashes. And then, the remaining picture fades into the brightness, forming contours and lines. Without comment, crimson liquid stains a transformed tailtip, having lashed out like a spear, now at distance, moving with the unease of disorientation. And that black stare, glistening in the light.

…the light. The dragon had twirled its claws and summoned light. Realisation upon realisation clicked into place. A brotherhood dragon. A flawless brotherhood dragon, without the deformations, without the physical weakness. A Hzataalar Kaea. Kanti would lose her life like Vimal had just done - with the swift efficiency of a knife cutting through butter. Everything was going wrong simultaneously. Shock and horror forcibly froze her to the spot. A million thoughts.

Kanti reared backwards, backing away as the formerly dragon moved. She had been fairly worried about them but currently she was more worried for her brother and herself. She half closed her eyes against the light, backing further. The dragoness cringed as then as what could only be her brother fell to the ground. She stared across at the other dragon, whimpering deep in her throat and unable to move.

The black eyes narrow. “You are no Davir Sria,” the blue lips move subtly, forming hissed words, tone carrying a hint of confusion. Without warning, the creature is upon her, and her spine rattles against a hard surface, strong grip at the nape of her neck, clasped around a fold of skin, effortlessly heaving her weight from the ground. Antennae curl, and the delicate blue-silver snout wrinkles into silent snarl. “Where are they?” Scales bristle, and the air seems to be filled with the tang of electricity, uncomfortably prickling against Kanti's scales.

Kanti whined raggedly as she was grabbed but she didn't struggle before she cringes.“They're all dead… gone…” she shuddered then, sobbing raggedly and letting her shape go limp. “I don't know anything else…” She coughed a little then before adding, “Please…” An antennae twitched before the dragoness became still and silent.

Something shoves against her mind, intruding, scraping across her mental landscape like sandpaper, if only for the briefest moment, even as the silent snarl ever so gradually dissipates. Content at least that Kanti's not lied to him, the azure abruptly lets go of her. In the same instant, the white light extinguishes. Visibly, the black uncurls from those eyes, receding, revealing clear blue eyes streaked with silver highlights, befitting for a dragon of his colouring. “Then I've done you wrong,” the dragon huffs out, discontent with the realisation, and the implications of Kanti's words. His rage is almost tangible, a frightening energy crackling in silence through the air. But despite its overwhelming presence, it's not directed at Kanti.

Paws raise to the azure's skull, wrapping around it as though to crush it. “I'm… confused…” the dragon utters, tailtip lashing the air nervously. A breath like a gasp. Halfmoon shaped eyes as he squints at nothingness. Wings fold only reluctantly and with a twitch, gaze drifting through the nearly impenetrable darkness. A ripple through his hide - the labyrinthine patterns seem to shift and realign to reflect the disorientation.

Kanti sobbed softly then flinched, crumpling in a heap next to her brother's body, silent tears streaming down her nose. She looked up then and swallowed hard, pushing herself to her feet. Almost nervously she approached him, before stopping and looking up into his face. “How can I help you…?” she whispered. In theory she should want to hurt this dragon who slaughtered her brother but she just can't find the energy, shocked to the core - plus, she wasn't suicidal.

“I must apologise,” the azure speaks, though its tone breaks from the concentration it takes to form words past the turbulence in his mind. “I thought I was still in battle.” He glances towards the fallen dragon, eyes narrowed. Remorse? No amount of imagination could mistake the glance for such an emotion. A regret about the mere act of having made a mistake, however, was well present. No shred of it was empathic, though.

“I am Shahrivrath.” His tone, though friendly, is laced with the hint of a hiss, obvious, but - strangely - alluring, as though it had its opposite semantic implication… not resentment and the will and wish to backstab, but reverence. Yet, clearly, rationally, this was not the case. An empathic paradox.

“Tell me, Animal-That-Speaks, what is your name?” he asks. The words? An insult. But the tone spoke such a vastly different language… this dragon was confusing.

Kanti looked away, angrily swiping at her still falling tears. She trembled a little, shifting uneasily. She narrowed her eyes at the almost insult before she sighed heavily. “I'm Kanti…” she said, finally. “And that was my brother, Vimal…” her voice shook and she swallowed hard. She flicked a look up to the taller dragon, feeling and likely looking a bit confused.

Stepping towards her, he reaches out a paw and strokes the palm of his left hand across her slender forehead, the gesture a touch too powerful in pressure to be perfectly soothing. “Worry not, you shall be spared.” Pompous arse. “You cannot help what you are, after all.” If he wasn't sounding so genuinely friendly all of a sudden, it would be far easier to hiss, spit and claw at him for the implied insults. “And you're certain the vermin are dead?” he asks, free hand still rubbing quietly at the side of his skull as though to do away with the confusion still tugging at his mind. Confusion, disorientation, and a deep loneliness.

The others. Interrupting any possibly started answer, he inquires: “Where are my brothers?” meaning the other Hzataalar Kaea.

Kanti flinched at first, then became still, the power encouraging her to be so before she flicked her tongue across her lips. A forepaw flexed before she was still again, listening to the dragon who was looming over her crouched shape. “Yes, I'm sure…” she shuddered a little more. “I don't know where they are.” She raised her head to look up at him.

Scrutiny, a strange rainbow effect travelling across his eyes so briefly it might have just been an illusion. “Can you fight?” he asks, head tilting slightly. It was highly irritating that his aura, now that he wasn't fighting, seemed almost warm. Like a light attracting flies, perhaps.

Kanti flinched a little then lowered her gaze, her scales tingling slightly. Hearing him she shakes her head. “Not really…” She drug both forepaws across her face then, shaking slightly, shock making her cold as it starts to take effect.

A growl rumbles from the azure, before he waves a paw dismissively. “If you can't be my weapon, then you'll have to be my shield,” he says, matter-of-factly, and - oddly enough - still without insult in his tone of voice. Then it clicks. Clearly, he thinks nothing of his words - he doesn't think them to be insulting. Maybe telling him kindly of his effect - but then… this is one of the Chosen. He could snap her spine without second thought, and without even physically touching her.

Kemeneth cringed, the small dragoness hudding a little before she licked at her lips. Raising her head, she looked him straight in the face before tearing her gaze away, a wordless sob of pained grief slipping from her as she rested on forepaw on the then cold shoulder of her dead brother. She shook then in fear, her eyes drifting closed and her bronze hide seeming slightly duller in colour.

“Oh, don't be silly,” Shahrivrath's brows furrow, and his left hand extends across her skull again, giving it an approving pat. “Consider - you're making yourself useful.” He smiles down at her, gaze warm, the blue in his eyes swirling with a hint of red softening their coldness. “And if the vermin are truly gone, you have no combat to fear.”

Kanti shivers, but doesn't say a word, her head lowering; her neck arching because her head is held so low. “I hope that they are, then…” she whispers. She doesn't add to that though, for fear she would be killed if she were of no further use to him… not that she liked the thought of her protecting him, the thought made an angry roar start at the back of her mind but she quickly subdued it.

Shahrivrath, meanwhile, has turned his attention back to the darkened citadel. He seems to have less of an issue with the dark than Kanti is having. Silently, barely making a sound in his movements, the Hzataalar Kaea moves away from Kanti, and down the corridor, his outlines quickly becoming nearly indistinguishable in the dark, Kanti's eyes having trouble tracking them. But he seems to be looking for something.

Kanti looks up and round, rising almost silently to her paws, blinking slowly as she tried to peer through the darkness. Stretching stffened joints she whined a note before she falls silent again. “What are you… hunting for…?” she asked softly.

“The library,” Shahrivrath says, simply, halting abruptly after he completes his sentence fragment. “You wouldn't happen to know where it is, would you?” he asks the dragoness.

Kanti shivers some before forcing herself into stillness. “No I… don't…” She looks away then, scuffling a bit as she moved away from where she had been. “I… I'm sorry…” she finally added.

“No worries.” Barely audible, the sound of Shahrivrath's claws touching the citadel's ground can be heard, softening. Maybe Kanti should ask for a light. After all, Shahrivrath had no problems creating one before.

Kanti licks at her lips, swallowing almost dryly. “Uhm… could we… have some light… please… milord…?” The last was almost inaudible, the lithe dragoness trembling a bit.

Again, Shahrivrath pauses, this time so abruptly that the momentum from his walk knocks the tip of his tail against the wall in a soft, audible thud. He glances back at Kanti, thoughtful. Then, his left hand raises, and he twirls his fingers. Light floods into the bent corridor. “Come along,” he coaxes moments later, his snout tilted sideways, and a soft smile tugging at his lips.

Kanti flinches a little as she edges forwards on all four paws, purring very softly as the Hzataalar Kaea made light. Blushing a bit, she bounded after him. “Yes milord,” she whispered.

Of course, the light had also cast light on the sagged and folded shape of Vimal, red pooling under him, and a round, red and white speckled wound near his spine. Shahrivrath turns and continues to walk down the corridor. Oddly, there seems to be a slight sway to his walk, as though he were, perhaps, not entirely awake.

Kanti passes the body, shivering now and bounding a little faster after the larger dragon. Apart from Shahrivrath, Kanti was alone; she had no-one else. Very slow tears wound down her face though she didn't make a sound. “Are you… okay, milord…?” she questioned.

Huffing a breath, Shahrivrath glances back at Kanti. “This place doesn't like me,” he explains, clearly keeping said explanation as simple as possible. “It shuffles my thoughts - it tries to confuse me. So I have a headache.”

Kanti twitches a little then nods a bit. “I see…” she trails off and looks around, chewing on her lower lip, almost nervously. She seems to cringe as she passes him, her shape lower to the floor. “May I have a try, milord… I… it migth not confuse me…” she shivers a little.

Shahrivrath's gaze seems to ask 'A try at what?', but the words do not form. Instead, he inclines his head. “Just because I have a headache does not mean I can't look for the library, Kanti.” He smiles. “Nonetheless, you're considerate to ask. You're invited to help, of course.”

Kanti blushes then nods, looking around a bit, seeming uncertain as to which way to go. She paused then, rising slightly off her front paws her nostrils flaring, inwardly wondering if she could smell the library.

They walk for a while longer, the strange tension between the two dragons not ebbing any. Fortunately, Kanti's mind is soon confronted by something else to focus on, as Shahrivrath discovers the library - light scattering from the dust on corridors and books, diffuse, the area looks almost alien. Softest pawprints left in the dust, Shahrivrath enters the library - a vast hall full of books, though without cupboard rows. The books are set into cupboards by the wall - the rest of the room is open space. It's thin and long by design. “Excellent,” Shahrivrath whispers, his eyes narrowing slightly as be begins to inspect book titles. To Kanti, the books seem to be written without sense - the words just seem to be a random string of letters. They're none she recognises.

Kanti pauses by the door, crouched in the dust, awed by the amount of books. She is a little bothered that they seem to be in jargon but that soon passes, her feeling smaller than she ever had before and like she was trespassing… which in a way she was. “What… are you…” she pauses, cowering as her low voice seems to echo. “May I ask what you are looking for milord…?” she whispers, softly.

“Signs,” he dismisses her question with the cryptic answer. Tailtip swaying near Kanti's muzzle, he progresses along the corridor of books without haste. His clear blue eyes have stopped inspecting every book they're passing. “This is the Citadel of Life,” he says aloud, feeling generous with his thoughts. “The Davir Sria are creatures of order. Fortunately for us, this means their library is neatly sorted.”

Kanti ducks then and quite literally scoots along the dusty floor after him, listening intently. “I see.” she whispers, almost reverently. “And you will find any and… destroy them…” she pauses then, inwardly hoping that the 'vermin' as the taller dragon called them were either far away or dead. Or maybe even both.

“Quite,” Shahrivrath acknowledges, without any change of tone. A few steps further, he stops gradually, and turns to scrutinise the books to his right. The tip of his snout moves close to the row of books he's seemingly taken interest in. Gaze drifting upwards to the ceiling as not to distract, he smells the books, nostrils twitching.

Kanti crouches beside him, close enough to almost touch, her muzzle buried in her forepaws. Inwardly she was glad that she was alive but her inner turmoil stemmed from how long or rather how much longer would she live for. The thougth made her tremble and she edged a little away from the taller and male dragon, her head tilting as she peered at the books, seemingly interested even though she couldn't understand them.

A sudden growl surfaces from Shahrivrath, and his eyes narrow. A moment later, his right paw snaps up to a book - it's ever so slightly out of line of the others, half a centimeter pulled out of its resting position… he yanks it out. “They've fled,” he observes, eyes turning to half-moon shapes as his lower eyelid pulled up in glare.

Kanti cringes, a good distance away by now. “I… see…” she trails off, shivering, backing away slightly. “I am not to know milord… but maybe they have all died in whatever place they fled to…?” She peered around the edge of a bookcase, her head tilted.

Shahrivrath lets the book fall to the floor, cover opening. The first page of the book shimmers in strange colours. Removing his paws from the cupboard in slow motion, he turns to look at Kanti. “Only one way to find out,” he gestures.

Kanti cowers a little then whimpers, shifting forwards towards him in a swift flurry of feet and feathers. It seems like she just remembered how powerful he was, and abandoned any ideas she had… at least for now. She stares down at the book then, wordlessly and very softly cheeping in wariness.

Shahrivrath watches Kanti, before smiling teethily. “Just touch the page, Kanti,” he explains, thinking she's never heard of the linking books of the brotherhoods. A moment later, he adds: “Though you can wait a moment if you like, I'd rather not leave without some of the knowledge in these halls…” he trails off, before closing his eyes and falling silent, frozen like some statue, concentrating, the slight pulse of his neck the only thing showing that he's alive.

Kanti blinks then whispers: “Where will it take us…?” she asks. She shudders a bit then, a forepaw reaching for the page. She was shaking a little though, daunted - and not only by his teeth.

But Shahrivrath does not respond. At least, not immediately. When he finally opens his eyes, his gaze only slowly drifts back down to Kanti - the appearance he'd had since earlier, that she'd noticed from the point her head started to clear, seems to have intensified. He looks worn, struggling against some invisible force. Still, he tries to smile, and with a gesture of his left paw flicks the book shut again. “Tel'kael,” he observes the hand-written scrawl across the cover. A note of a low chuckle, barely audible, escapes him as a smirk tugs at his lips.

Kanti cringes, her forepaw brushing across the cover of the book. She shivered then, her eyes closing a whimper slipping from her mouth. “Will we ever return here…?” she asks.

As Kanti brushes the cover, Shahrivrath's paw, still resting on the same, extends in motions like seeking tendrils to her paw. “Fate will decide,” he says, simply, seizing her hand in a strange grip between gentleness and firmness, raising it off the page, sliding his right hand under the cover, palm up, and nudging it open slowly. “There's nothing to fear,” he assures, though his grin is still teethy. And in a breathy whisper, leant forward, he adds: “Just let go.” Finishing the three words, he pushes her paw down, spreading it out on the page.

Kanti whines as her hand is gripped then spread before she ducks a little. “Let go of what…?” she does obey though, or to the best she can.

Without warning, warmth seeps through Kanti, at first almost pleasant, like a mother's embrace, then increasingly uncomfortable, invasive, though never hot. It's as though her mind is being rearranged slowly but surely, warped away from what she used to be. And as she next finds the courage to perceive, the world has vanished, and she has vanished, instead bodiless, like a gas, nowhere and everywhere… before a whirlpool effect tugs at her, and she feels like she's falling, tumbling, twirling with no shape to enable her to grip anything to stop it, further, spiralling, dizzying, terrifying, as though being consumed - and then, suddenly, the ground does meet up with her side, a soft impact, but the hardness of the ice-cold floor is a shock to her system. A physical object.

Kanti shuddered and half sobbed, falling quiet, unable to make any sound, as she fell and tumbled. Finally, she hit the ground, it eliciting a soft squeal, then a blink. She looks rather bemusedly up at the sky.

It takes only the slightest crane of the neck to see the sun in the sky, even less brilliant than that of dying Avishraa's, that sun that Shahrivrath never got to see, that he assumed still shone in its former glory. And the chilly wind is quick to gnaw at the outer layers of Kanti's skin, but the warmth in her takes its time to dissipate, giving her the impression of a cool world, not yet fully registering the absolute cold of this inhospitable world.

Without a sound, Shahrivrath comes into existence beside her, in an odd lack of effect, as though he had always been there.

Kanti stares at the taller dragon then before she cringes, her claws scraping the ground, trying to sink into it. The little dragoness trembles then, shuddering hard at the chill.

For a moment, he regards the world with similar disorientation. Then, Shahrivrath's eyes widen, just as the cold begins to break through Kanti's defences… snarling, he curls his left hand into a fist and slams it into the ground. Without warning, a hot wave ripples through Kanti, making her cry out reflexively - but in the same instant, it's passed through her and out of her, and the sky seems to shift dangerously in colour…

Finally, Kanti's mind catches up, watching the purple ripples travel across the half-sphere of the sky. A shield. Shahrivrath's snout is distorted in now-silent snarl as he retrieves his left paw from the ground, uncurling the fingers. The light he had carried in the citadel was now extinguished. His anger, meanwhile, was at himself. Had he read the book, he would have come more prepared than this.

Kanti relaxes as the heat burns through her. She sags a little before she cowers, not looking up now and closing her green eyes. She blinks then as Sharivrath removes his paw before she looks up at the sky, awed.

A quiet, hissed murmur of incomprehensible swearwords passes Shahrivrath's lips, before he begins to stalk across the smooth landscape in his make-shift climate bubble. A ripple runs through him, and his eyes distort in an emotion not befitting of a Hzataalar Kaea - fear. What if they left this world since, and he would never find the book they used to flee? He had brought no pen and paper with him. Linking back to Avishraa without a book to channel the magic would be nearly impossible, even for a Hzataalar Kaea. Perhaps he had been too absorbed in the fight. For Kanti, the fight lay months or years back - for Shahrivrath, it had been minutes ago. The adrenalin still laced his veins, now almost aching.

Kanti trembles a little, bounding after the Hzataalar Kaea, a good bit slower than him before she stopped, sitting back on her haunches and eying the sky. She looked over at the taller dragon and carefully took off, gliding slowly after him. “I need him… or he needs me… or something…” she murmured, not aware she spoke aloud although very lowly.

If Shahrivrath heard her, he makes no indication thereof. And so they continue walking, with Shahrivrath's expression of doubt twitching every once in a while, himself displeased with his impulsive move that had seemed like such a good idea not long ago. Death was no trivial subject to muse over, and it was one thing he was not going to speak about aloud.