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The Walls We Raise

Tian Yue watched as the boy slept, curled at the edge of the Dragon's own large bed, as if he was afraid to mark too much of it with his human presence. Small, curled, afraid - that was all he'd ever seen out of Evin.

The boy shifted in his sleep, and Tian Yue abruptly felt like a voyeur. Shaking his head, he backed out of the room and tried to do something else, but his thoughts kept returning to their original pattern. When would the boy wake up? Sleep was all very well and good, but... there wasn't very much he could do while Evin was asleep!

I want to know what's wrong so I can fix it... and to do that, he has to talk to me. His tail lashed back and forth, rustling his robes. And once I know - then what? How much can I do?

Tian Yue paced, then made himself sit down on the couch. Toki would never forgive him if he wore a rut in the floor. There was simply too much to do and too much to avoid doing and thinking - no sign of his brothers or his sister anywhere, and yet he'd busied his life with mortals and lovers and Aoide such that he felt unable to leave in search of them. And here he'd taken on yet another burden... why? To make himself feel better?

I need grounding. I need to be myself - I may know who I am, now, but what good is knowing when I never get a chance to be? Where the hell are you, Morgan? For a moment there was a surge of selfishness - how could she leave, when he needed her to remind him of so many things?

A soft noise cut into his thoughts, and Tian Yue looked up quickly to see Evin standing in the doorway, his eyes wide. The boy slid down into an awkward bow almost immediately. "Lord."

"Oh, enough with that nonsense - yes, I am a god, yes - I know that I am, and I know you know. Let that be enough for now." Tian Yue nodded towards the nearest armchair. "Come, sit down."

Evin edged his way nervously across the room and sat down, shifting awkwardly every few seconds. "W-what do you want?" he said, after a moment.

"To apologize," Tian Yue began, and Evin looked startled. "Shartha is one of my court, and she's treated you shamefully - I feel responsible. I should have stepped in sooner, realized how deep her feelings ran before now. I'm sorry, Evin."

"L-lord, I..." The boy looked down at his hands. "In my village, we were taught that to be taken by a dragon was death. We mourned all those taken as if they had died, even if we saw them from a distance later - it was only their shell that remained... and I believed it. I felt like a shell from the moment..." His voice trailed off, and he pressed one hand to his chest. "But when you did your magic, I felt like... like myself again."

"Good. I hope you can feel like yourself all the time. Everyone... everyone should be able to have that, even if it is all they have." Tian Yue smiled, softly. "Can you tell me?"

"Tell you what?" Evin tilted his head to one side.

"Everything. About your world, about dragons... about Shartha. Everything."

Evin looked confused for a moment, then nodded and began to speak. He spoke of villages clinging to life high in the mountains, barely eking a living - but it was worth it for the freedom, the love of high stone and sky, the wealth of metal in buried in the rock. He spoke of dragons, wild and wingless, and their quest for flight. He spoke of the raids, of the distant sight of those he once knew now bound to dragons, and how the elders would never respond to his young pleas to go after them and save them.

"... and when the dragon - Shartha - grabbed Isera, I..." Evin looked down. "You're not supposed to fight, but I couldn't let it happen... I hadn't saved anyone, hadn't been able to... I had to try, so I drew my bow and shot an arrow into the dragon's flank." He sighed. "She dropped Isera, but she came for me." The boy shifted and tugged at his tunic, lifting it up so Tian Yue could see the five angry red scars around his heart. "She bound me, and then brought me here..."

His voice trailed off, and Tian Yue made a soft, sympathetic sound. "This place is very different from the one you knew, isn't it? Are there many gods in your world?"

"Yeah. Too many, the elder thought - we didn't see many priests or anything up as high as we were..." Evin gave Tian Yue a strange look. "At first I thought you were a Reborn - that's when a human and dragon get so close that they literally merge into one being." He looked uncomfortable.

Tian Yue chuckled, but there was a trace of irony in the sound. More right than you know. "I am a Dragon King. All my brothers and my sister have two shapes as well. It is simply how we are."

"I know that now... it's going to take a while for me to get used to it..." Evin looked startled, suddenly, then bowed his head. "I'm sorry. I overstep myself."

"No you don't," Tian Yue said, firmly. He could practically see the boy remembering his 'place', shrinking away, trying to turn back into the trembling thing he'd become - what Shartha had made him. "I wouldn't try speaking candidly to any deity you should meet, but Evin - you're Shartha's, and therefore mine as well. You are part of the court of Tien Lung."

"I... I see," Evin said, but his tone was withdrawn, and Tian Yue sighed inwardly. He'd lost it now, but the boy had remembered how to be himself, how to not be crushed by the weight of Shartha and this world and this Age... even if only for a moment.

It's something. I did something. Only for a moment, but I did.

Through Alien Eyes

Little Girl Found

Underworld and Worldshield

The Memory Stone

Too much to do. Too much to worry about. too much, too much. Tian Yue had a strong sense of deja vu as he sat down at his desk and attempted to collect his thoughts by pinning them to paper. Shaiming had dealt with this, he knew... stuck in the whirl and swirl of the Pantheon's Court politics and the duties of the Worldshield until it parched him dry.

And then he had fallen in love with the stars...

Tian Yue shook his head. So the trap was a familiar one to Tien Lung, one he was prone to fall into. Well and good, but he knew the enemy, and that should give him the ability to recognize what was happening and maneuver his way out of it. He looked at the piece of paper before him, where he'd began writing a list of the things on his mind.

Morgan. Well, that was... as taken care of as it could be. She was home, and he had spoken with Tien and found her much, much more... more sane than Phaedra was, not that that was difficult. There was reassurance on that front.

Lucius, another care of the heart... but Tian Yue sighed and moved down to the next item on the list. Seek the Dragons. There were other things below it, bits and bobs about Nebula and his Stars and such, but... while they did need to be dealt with, his Lord had instructed him to find his brothers and sister, array them around His throne in a panorama of scales.

How kind of Him to give me dispensation to ignore that other problem, he thought, with a sigh. He knew he was willfully ignoring Nebula and Phaedra, and that he needed to give thought to why Nebula had felt familiar, had the touch of old so like that of his Stars... but it was so hard to deal with her, let alone the goddess she bore. And a treacherous part of him whispered that putting it off would really solve the problem. She'd be gone... and then it wouldn't matter at all, would it? Wouldn't matter what she was.

No. He gave that particular idea a hard mental stomp. He would deal with the problem and face it; Tien Lung did not flee from anything, especially not something as patently petty as the Goddess of Greed. But the orders of his Lord had to come first. He had been disorganized long enough.

"Toki," he called, and the Aoide was at his side in a moment, bowing low enough that the tips of his bunny ears brushed the floor.

"My Lord? What is it you require?" Toki gave him an eager look equaled only by particularly bright canines waiting for a command.

"Your skills in research, Toki." Tian Yue took off his glasses and carefully wiped them with the sleeves of his robes, then put them back on and smiled at the waiting Aoide. "I need to find the rest of the Dragon Kings - the Fangbridle dwells here, that much I know. And Futs Lung was, last I heard, not embodied."

Toki bowed again. "So you said, my Lord. I do hope a host of suitable strength can be found for that noble King." He looked distraught.

"I am certain one will be found - perhaps already has been," Tian Yue said soothingly. "What I need is your help in locating the rest of my siblings. Can you have a look around the Pantheon and do what you can? Don't be nosy and put yourself where you aren't wanted, but..."

Toki drew himself up to his full height and actually saluted. "Yes, my Lord! I will carry out the task! You can trust me!"

Tian Yue laughed. "I know I can, and I do, Toki. Thank you." He watched, amused, as the Aoide bowed one last time and scurried out of the room.

Well. That was that bit taken care of, for now... best to do now what he could. Tian Yue rose from his chair and went into the other room to put on a newer set of robes and collect what he had brought home for Zhijian. It was time to pay the Fangbridle a visit.

Further Discoveries

Books, books... books were all well and good, but everything Tian Yue had in his possession had one serious flaw. "These are all too damn old to be any use," he grumbled, closing a volume with a bit more force than was really necessary. Having one's information be several millennial - or more - out of date was good for some things, but for his current needs it was all extremely inconvenient.

Best to not take my frustrations out on the books - Gianfar would have my hide for it. Tian Yue stood up and stretched, his tail curling up at the end too before relaxing. A bit of tea would calm him down. Strange how he'd inherited that from Shaiming, of all things.

He turned to the doorway, and nearly collided with Toki. The Aoide's eyes were bright, and his face was flushed. "Oh! My Lord!"

"Whoa! Careful!" Tian Yue winced and steadied himself on the doorframe. "Slow down. What's wrong?"

Toki shook his head hard, making his bunny ears flap about wildly. "Nothing! Nothing is wrong! On the contrary!" He leaned in conspiratorially to whisper in Tian Yue's ear. "I believe I have found two of the Dragon Kings, my Lord!"

That got Tian Yue's attention. "You have?! Where?"

Toki beamed. "Why, in this very place!"

"What?!" Under his nose, this whole time...?

The Aoide looked smug for a moment. "Yes, yes! Qian Lung the Black dwells now with Lady Insanity, and after some searching I found another door bearing the signs of Ti Lung. You will find them within, yes, I'm sure of it!"

"Well, then..." That certainly made his job easier, even if it didn't make him feel any smarter. "Well done, Toki. Well done!" Toki beamed and wriggled like a puppy at his master's praise. "I should go and seek audience posthaste-"

"There is something else, my Lord," Toki said, quickly, and fiddled with his own fingers. "Nebula is gone."

"Gone?" Tian Yue blinked. "She's not in her room?"

Toki shook his head again. "No, and more than that. The treasures she brought and her things are all gone too."

"Hm." The Dragon's eyes narrowed. Could Phaedra have urged the fragile feline away somewhere? She was still under his protection, as much as he could hope to protect her from the deity curling through her body and mind. "I will sniff her out - we'll find where she's gone. I won't have her lost again." I've done that once, and look what happened - best to avoid it from now on. Tian Yue quickly shrugged out of his robes and handed them to Toki, then shifted into his dragon shape. Toki opened the doors for him as he twined down into the hallway of the Aoidei quarters, then into Nebula's room, where he pressed his nose to the ground and breathed in her scent.

Yes... she was here last... two, maybe three days ago? Nebula's scent was mingled with an odd spicy tang that had begun to permeate through her usual aroma - Phaedra, he assumed, or something related to the goddess. He turned, and followed the scent out the door, with Toki following him.

It led down the hall, but not, to Tian Yue's surprise, down the stairs. Instead, it went past, and around a corner, then another, then -

Then it stopped, in front of a door of rutilated quartz, flecked with gold and rubies. Her scent and the tang of spice mingled all over the place there. He did not need a sign to see whose rooms these were.

"So... she has found her own home." The dragon sighed. It was a relief, in a way, but he was a bit bothered that she hadn't bothered to tell him she was leaving.

Toki hesitantly put one hand on his scaled side. "My Lord?"

Tian Yue shook his head. "She is in her Lady's chambers now, Toki. We need not worry." About that, at least. About what Phaedra may be doing in there... no, if I go down that path, I'll never stop. "Come. I have Dragon Kings to meet, and plans to make."

"Yes, my Lord." Toki bowed, and Tian Yue turned to twine back down the hall, heading for his rooms.

Ancient History

Enough procrastinating.

Tian Yue stood in the doorway of his treasury, a frown on his face. Nebula, and the goddess she bore, may have been highly unpleasant topics to think about - but there were questions that had to be answered. It was true that procrastinating further would solve the problem, in a sense, as Nebula would inevitably fall under Phaedra's growing influence and more than likely cease to exist, yet the Dragon felt that he owed the Aoide some sort of... explanation.

Her life will be short, and has not been pleasant. I can't see her lot improving under Greed's dominion, either. Tian Yue shook his head. I couldn't seem to give her what she wanted most, and I certainly can't rescue her... but I can do this, surely...

Surely. But where to begin? Though Nebula had a strange feeling about her, akin to the familiarity that Shartha and Lao Shu carried as his Stars, none of the other names in Tian Yue's memory seemed to fit properly. The only one that seemed at all likely was the Tiger, but somehow that refused to work, as if the name itself knew it was wrong and stubbornly refused to stick to the Aoide.

Tian Yue gave his hoard a grumpy look. There was a great deal of empty space, naturally - adding treasures to his collection was nowhere near a priority, no matter what Phaedra said. But what he really regretted was the lack of books. He remembered many volumes of lore had once been ready at hand, but that had been long ago. Perhaps the knowledge was lost to the ravages of time and memory now.

Knowledge. Hadn't Gianfar mentioned a library? "Toki," he called, turning and peering out into the rest of his chambers, one hand resting on the doorframe.

The Aoide popped up almost immediately, his bunny ears bobbing. "My Lord?"

"Is there a library here, in the Pantheon?" Tian Yue couldn't imagine any other libraries nearby still remaining whole. Books weren't valuable per se, but they did burn.

Toki nodded, so enthusiastically that his bunny ears tilted forward alarmingly, and the Aoide clapped his hands over them to keep them from falling. "Yes, my Lord! Only turn corners and you will surely find it."

"Turn corners, huh. Very well... thank you, Toki." The Aoide hovered for a moment more, then shook his head and darted off when no further orders came. Tian Yue padded out into the outer chamber, then opened the door and went out into the long hallway, each door glorious, marking the chambers of the gods.

It was empty, as it always seemed to be. Divine beings, race of hermits, he thought, sourly. Being alone with one's thoughts in this Age of Destruction was dangerous; he could feel his Lord's influence gnawing even at the edges of his own mind, subtly pushing emotion into channels befitting the Twin Crown's current element. Doubt, worry, inadequacy-

Tian Yue gave that thought a hard mental stomp. I wonder if the rest of the Pantheon is as prone to angsting as I seem to be? That idea was almost amusing, and as he paced down the corridor, 'turning corners' as Toki had suggested, he smiled wryly at the thought of all the gods stuck in their rooms, writing emo poetry in red glitter pen on black paper.

Another turn, and then there was a door Tian Yue hadn't seen before. This wasn't a new thing, since the layout of the Pantheon seemed to merrily shift around with no regard for order, sense, or the laws of physics, but this door bore the markings of scholars. There was a faint shimmer of silver on the floor in front of the door, and the Dragon smiled. I think a certain enthusiastic dragon has been here with his master... either Gianfar's chambers proper or the library. Either would do.

When a knock elicited no response, Tian Yue turned the knob and found the door open. The scent of dust, old wood and ancient paper met his nostrils as he stepped inside, and his tail wagged a bit under his robes as he took in the sight. The library was massive, a veritable labyrinth. Here and there were trails in the dust, footsteps and other marks of passage.

Well. If this doesn't have what I'm looking for, it probably doesn't exist. Tian Yue felt almost giddy as he walked in amongst the shelves, quickly moving beyond where others had been. His robes swished up dust from the floor with every step, but he didn't much care; dust was better than ash, at any rate.

The problem had changed - he still didn't know where to begin, but in a far different sense now that the shelves loomed around him. It was probably too much to hope for a card catalog or the Dewey Decimal System. Tian Yue paused and looked at the spines of the books nearest to him. Several of them weren't in an alphabet he recognized, but as he watched the letters subtly shifted until they made sense. Sea Slugs of Viratha... A Young Qibal's Guide to Shells... Exploring the Acid Seas... hm. Not helpful.

Well, it seemed to be a magical library. He cleared his throat. "Er... I am Tian Yue, Dragon King Tien Lung. I seek information on my own past and history - ancient, well before the Fading - regarding the Court of Tien Lung Shaiming and the Stars of the Zodiac."

His words echoed among the shelves, and he frowned. Nothing seemed to have happened - but when he turned around the next corner, he heard an odd, distant grating noise, as if something was moving. The strange sounds continued as he kept walking, and once he thought he saw a shelf ahead of him move.

At last the path through the dust dead-ended at a bookshelf stocked with a wide manner of objects - not only books, but also crumble-edged scrolls, stone tablets, and crystals. He reached out one hand and touched the spine of a book at random, thoughtfully, then picked it up. It fell open in his hands with a soft crackle and a puff of dust; he had to work hard to avoid sneezing all over the delicate pages.

The hand, he realized as he looked at the book, was familiar - delicate spidery letters, but much firmer, less shaky... Toki's writing... For a moment, Tian Yue had a new appreciation for his quirky Aoide's sheer age. He had been faithful for a very, very long time indeed, and part of that time was reflected on the page in front of him. The handwriting and the wording all spoke of a mind much more confident, clear, and stable than Toki's current state.

... hid when the Empress told him to, and listened to the words they spoke together, mother to firstborn son. A gift, as my Lord said, of indescribable worth. He has now some greater confidence in his pursuit...

For a moment, Tian Yue's eyes lost focus and the words blurred. The memory was extremely faint even with the summons of the writing, but it carried a thread of giddy joy - and wasn't that an odd thought, the idea of Shaiming being giddy?

Then the Dragon shook his head, and he closed the book with only a little twinge of regret. He wasn't here to serve his own needs, tempting though it might have been. There were several other volumes like the one he carried on the shelf, and he gathered all seven into his arms, wrinkling his nose hard against the dust his movements stirred up.

Surely the answer lay somewhere in Toki's ancient accounting of Tien Lung's days.

The Myth in the Mirror


Thunk.

"Ow!" Tian Yue winced and sat upright, rubbing his chin; he'd nearly dozed off again, his head slipping from where he'd rested it in one hand. The desk surface was most unforgiving, but the jolt did work to wake him up. Someone had taught Crispin that trick for studying back in college; he didn't remember who it was, now. So many ancient names, places, and jumbled fragments of memory were competing for attention in his mind that he counted it fortunate he remembered even that much.

No wonder Shaiming had Toki write things down. Even the memory of a god isn't infinite. It seemed Tien Lung had turned at one point to external memory backups, short summaries of less-important events and greater detail for more vital moments in the Dragon King's long life. The task of reading it all, though, was difficult for several reasons. It stirred up his own memory in unpredictable ways, which was highly distracting, and a great deal of it was... well... stupefyingly boring. He'd been reading the minutes of some council or something when he'd fallen asleep.

Again.

And no wonder Shaiming took such joy in courting Universe, if this was what he had to look forward to otherwise. Tian Yue made a face; would such things come to plague him as well? Right now his 'court' couldn't even be called such, but it seemed in the past Tien Lung had done a great deal of management, intervention and even herding of the gods and godlings of the Pantheon.

I don't think I have that kind of... presence now, to be able to manage that. He could see Shaiming doing it, but he didn't have the same kind of innate authority that the ancient Dragon King had held. Not yet, anyway. Perhaps, in time...

Tian Yue shook his head. Enough dawdling! He forced himself to look down at the book, though he did start skimming the pages a bit, looking for something besides meetings and court scenes and the like.

At last, there was something new; Toki's handwriting shifted a bit, less cramped and blocky, and Tian Yue peered more closely at the text.

They are the Kings and Queens of their races, noble beings unmatched among animals, an honor to their Lord and Lady. It is my Lord's hope that their influence and fair presence will serve to anchor Divine to Mortal, Heavens to Earth - to remind great Universe of the lands below his infinite lights, and exalted Tien Lung of what it is he protects. A fine idea, truly.

A banquet shall be held for those Thirteen worthy creatures, to welcome them into the court and stars of Tien Lung. The preparations, alas, must tear me from this narrative; there is much to be done.

Tian Yue's heart leapt. This was it! He shifted in his seat and leaned in to focus on the page. The next part was a list of supplies... boring. He turned the page impatiently, scanning until he found another pertinent section.

Perhaps the whims and whimsies of the Court made the banquet more grandiose and gaudy than we had intended - what was planned to be a gracious but simple affair grew into a raucous event. The worthy Animals did well to not spook and quail beneath the curious gazes of the gathered gods; well were they chosen as representatives, the finest of their kingdoms! Yet only Twelve seats at the high table filled; the Cat did not attend, and sorrowfully my Lord Shaiming broke that refused throne to pieces with his mighty tail.

Cat...

Thirteen...

Tian Yue sat back, very slowly and deliberately, his mind flicking quickly through everything he could remember about his Stars. Nowhere, nowhere in his memory was there anything about a Cat. With so much, such a vast span of time to capture in one mind... no doubt things had fallen by the wayside. Things dubbed unimportant.

Forgotten.

He turned the page, then another, then another, until something else caught his eye.

Lao Shu came before the throne of Tien Lung, begging aid for his people - it seems that Below a war is waged between the kingdoms of Cat and Rat. Yet it is not the duty nor place of the Worldshield to intervene in such mortal matters, and Lao Shu was advised to plead before Animals or (should he be so daring) the Hunt.

There was a sinking feeling in Tian Yue's stomach. I know this legend - not from dragon memory, but from human. The August Personage of Jade and the animals of the Chinese Zodiac... the story changes and shifts, but...

How odd, to find myth and memory coming together. It was a very strange feeling, nearly unreal, dreamlike. He felt foolish for not seeing the correlation before, but that mythology class had been a long time ago, and Crispin had been much more interested in Thor and Loki than the myths and legends of Asia.

Perhaps Shaiming had forgotten, but one thing Crispin remembered (if only for the purpose of passing the final exam): the failure of the Cat to make it into the Chinese Zodiac was blamed on the Rat.

I think it's time to pay Lao Shu another visit.