"Are you real?" the woman asks for the third time.
Our heads snap to her and we stare in disbelief. Vespera reforms her armor quicker than I have ever seen her do it, while Elyra scrambles to put her clothes back on.
"How long have you been there?!" the demon shrieks. She looks ready to pounce on the poor girl.
I feel the adrenaline and realize that our minds are still at the highest connection. We are still sharing. We could back off, return to the normal bond, but the events of the hauler make us not want to. Besides, we still retain our individuality, just with the added benefit of being able to share.
"I…" the woman begins. "I have been here since you touched that thing… you called it a computer? I tried to get your attention but it was like you weren't even there!"
"Wait, you mean you saw everything?" Vespera asks. She blushes cutely, before her eyes narrow in apparent rage. "Why did you watch and do noth—"
That's when she notices the chains holding the woman immobile. She gets up, walking cautiously towards the strange woman, cycling her magic without manifesting it. She circles around her like a cat stalking potential prey or danger, looking at her sideways.
Elyra and I take positions too, but we don't think the woman is dangerous at all. Right now, she is in a rather… awkward situation to say the least. If anything, we feel bad for her.
"Why are you chained?" Vespera asks. Without waiting for a reply, she begins to ask more questions in rapid succession. "Why are you naked? What did you see? Are you a dragon? Why did you appear all of a sudden? Where were you before—"
"Vespera," I say before she can keep going. She shoots a glare at me, but she is pretty much gasping for breath at this moment. "Take a deep breath, okay?"
She glares for a moment longer before relenting, taking big gulps of air.
"Good girl," I say. "Don't work yourself into a rage like this."
She blushes at being called that name, all vulnerable, before she glares at the woman again. Her glare shifts from her to me. "Sol mine, why is there a naked dragon woman here with us?"
I chuckle. "Maybe we should ask her?"
"Sure. Dragon woman?" the demon says.
The woman in question looks at us with confusion. She is kneeling on the floor with her wrists held above her head by thick metal manacles connected to chains, but still she is so tall that her face is level with us. Her eyes are similar to Vespera's—black, but instead of being red her irises are bright gold. Her scales are… what's the name of the color? Aquamarine? She has big, leathery wings ending in sharp spikes and toned, defined abs with—
"Ehm," Elyra interrupts my thoughts by coughing into her hand. "I think she might be uncomfortable with the two of you staring at her naked body like that."
My eyes widen as I realize I have indeed been ogling.
"N-no, not at all," the woman begins. She is blushing.
I scramble for my backpack and find some spare clothes. "I don't think they'll fit her, Sol mine," Vespera says.
I look at her, then at the clothes, then at the dragon woman. Right. She is twice as big as us. Instead of the spare clothes, I take out our blanket and cover her with it. She thanks me profusely, leaning into my touch for a moment even though I try not to touch her bare skin at all. I feel vibrations come from her body, like some sort of labored breathing, and her face is flushed with emotion.
"You are real," she says softly. "You are real!"
She starts crying, and Vespera's stern mask slowly slips to reveal a rather worried demon. I know she can't help but empathize with the poor dragon woman.
"I'll help with the bindings," Elyra says.
We create some space, and from her halo she shoots a beam of energy towards the ceiling, trying to melt the chains far enough away from the woman's body as not to hurt her. Unfortunately, the chains don't even heat up.
Vespera decides to try, but neither her manifested claws nor her tail coated with magic find any purchase. It's like they are slipping on indestructible metal.
"Makes no sense," she complains. "My tail was able to bisect a whole ass skitterpede with ease! And it was level a million!"
We decide I should try with my sword. I summon the weightless, yet enormous blade made of dark scales and the dragon woman shrinks away from it.
"He is not going to hurt you," Elyra tells her in her best comforting voice.
The dragon relaxes somewhat. Meanwhile, Vespera and I pull the chains taut so that when I hit them, the dragon won't feel too much strain on her wrists. Sure, her skin is thick and covered in scales, but I can see the chafing where the flesh rubbed with the metal and I don't want her to hurt.
The girls react to my thought as if to ask hey Sol, very cute that you are being all considerate and careful with her. But, we wonder. Could it be that you are doing it because she's a tall, gorgeous, hot, naked dragon woman and all that?
Of course not.
They give me the equivalent of a side eye.
Hey! It's same as when I met Elyra and Vespera for the first time. I want to be a good person in this new life of mine. I really do. And I don't even have to pretend.
"It's okay, Sol," Elyra tells me through the bond. "We know. We were just teasing you."
Right. They want to help her too, don't they? Perhaps even more so than I do. I am just the convenient target of their teasing. And they are, of course, a teeny tiny bit jealous. At least the woman's body is hidden by the blanket I draped across her, even though it slid down a little. I step forward and adjust it, covering her modesty. She pouts, confusing me, and Vespera snickers. The demon is having fun, at least.
But when the dragon looks at us with big, sad eyes on the verge of tears, we realize it's not the time to have fun at each other's expense. This woman is… she's just waiting for us to do something. Hoping. Perhaps even not daring to hope. She hasn't been moving much at all, just letting us do our thing.
I swing the sword. It hits the chains, but for the first time I meet something that it cannot overpower. A draw on our shared mana pool tells me that there is a clash of magics for a moment, but the sword loses. The chain rattles and moves about, and Vespera grunts while trying to absorb the shock of the sudden yanking.
"Shit," I curse, very demon-like. "Hey, are you okay?"
The dragoness nods. "Yes."
I try the concrete next. It won't be an elegant solution, but at least it will set her free. We can figure out the rest afterward. Aaand—nope. The sword shoots sparks everywhere and bounces off the concrete.
"It's no use," the woman says. "I have been trying and failing for a long time. I have resigned myself to my fate."
"How long have you been here?" I ask.
"A long time," she says. She is sharp, and notices the look on Vespera's face. "I know I must have been elsewhere when you entered this room. Sometimes, it's like time jumps forward for me. It was hard to tell at first, but I learned to read the subtle changes in the panes of glass with the letters."
"I see," I say, pacing around. "Well, we know a thing or two about prisons. Time to get you out."
She actually smiled at me, then at the girls. Her features were soft and gentle, although the tears still flowed. "Don't waste precious resources for me," she says. "As I said, I have long resigned myself to my fate."
I shake my head, but it is Elyra who voices what all three of us are thinking. "We do not accept this," she says. "You heard Sol. We each know a thing or two about being stuck in a prison. Be it a real prison or a shitty life, a prison of our own making or forced upon us by others. It does not matter—it is a prison nonetheless. We will find a way to free you."
"Thank you," she says meekly. She doesn't look like she believes us, but she accepts the angel's words.
We decide to look around the room in search of clues. Elyra and I are particularly interested in the screens: all of them are displaying text. Code. And it's eerily similar to what we saw in the vision-memory.
Meanwhile, Vespera stands in front of the humanoid dragon woman with her arms crossed. She sighs audibly, and lets her hands fall to her sides.
"I'm sorry," she tells her.
The dragon cocks her head. "What for?"
"We treated you like shit, that's what."
"It's okay."
"It's not. We'll make it up to you. What's your name?"
"Zerynthia," she says. Then, still with her head held sideways, she nods towards us before looking at Vespera again. "Are you really real?"
Vespera frowns. "Didn't you feel the yank on the chains?"
"I felt and saw many things over the centuries, none of which were ever real."
"Feel this," the demon says. She pokes the dragon with her nail.
"Ow," Zerynthia says, scowling at her.
"Feels real enough? I'm Vespera, by the way. She's Elyra and the big boy over there is Sol."
"Sol…" she echoes.
"Don't fall in love," the demon warns her. "He's ours."
"Is he your mate, then?"
"Didn't you say you saw everything?"
The demon and dragon both blush. Elyra chooses that moment to look up from the screen and tease the demon. "Why are you blushing, little troublemaker?"
The reply comes automatic. "Shut up, cat-angel! ANYWAY! Next question! Why are you here, all chained up, Zerynthia? Heavens, that's a mouthful. Can I call you some other way?"
The dragon looks at her and blinks.
"You know," Vespera says, tapping her chin. "Something shorter."
The way the dragon just stares at her puts her off balance. She's used to getting a reaction. How do I know all this? We are still sharing minds and let me tell you, it's so fun I kinda don't want to stop.
Elyra agrees.
Vespera sends some mild annoyance and the promise of retribution.
"How about Zery," Vespera says.
The dragon nods. "I like it. Thank you for giving me a cute nickname."
The demon smiles, showing her fangs. The dragon really has no idea who she's talking to. She's too pure!
"Vespera, stop teasing Zery," Elyra warns her.
"What does it mean?" the dragon asks.
"Nothing," the demon says dangerously, looking back at us.
"I see," Zery says. "To answer your questions. I believe I am this place's the backup power source."
We all stop. "The what?" I ask in disbelief.
"I…" she starts, wincing. "I am not sure. There was a great fight, and I lost. My race… they were all captured or slain, and their cores taken. Not just my race. Others too. The core behind me… it belonged to one of them."
Her eyes well up with tears.
"I was captured. The next thing I remember, I was here. There were strange beings around me, made of leaves and bark? I never saw them before. They were all talking among themselves, pretending I wasn't even there. I was chained and immobilized. I couldn't escape. My power was sealed."
"Did they tell you anything?" I ask.
She shakes her head. "No, but I could hear their hushed conversations. The core behind me is this place's main source of magic and power, to create a field or something. They chose it because it could also act as a battery."
"It's…" Vespera begins. I feel a sudden rush of memories. "It's from an Avenger of Evil!"
"What is it?" I ask.
"A very powerful demon," she says.
The dragon's eyes widen in recognition. "Yes! I remember now! I was also among the most powerful dragons before…" She looks down, and this time she can't hold back the tears. She breaks down sobbing.
"I am the backup power for whatever this is…" she says between halting breaths and hiccups. "And… many times… the main power went out… the core couldn't keep up, so this room extracted my magic… there is almost nothing left. Nothing. My power. My identity. All gone…"
Vespera hugs her. Elyra abandons her futile attempts at decoding the code on the screen and also joins in.
"Shh," she tells her while stroking her silken white hair. "It's all going to be alright. We are here now. We will help you."
"Will you?" Zery asks. She is still crying but the hope shines from deep inside her eyes like a beacon.
"Yes," I say. I was the only one standing, but I was letting them have a moment.
"Why?" the dragon asks. She doesn't understand. Can't understand. Why would someone do all this for her? Why not slay her and take what little power she has left and be done with it?
"We are all people who lost almost everything," Vespera explains. "All of us. Sol there lost his whole civilization. Five trillion people, dead while he was sleeping. Elyra and I… we are the last of our races, we think. We have been imprisoned for fifteen thousand years, Zery. That's a long ass time. And our powers? Also gone. Makes me wonder if they did something similar to us as they did to you. All this to say… We understand."
"But you look…" the dragon begins.
"Happy?" the demon says.
Elyra smiles. "We are. And you could be too."
The implications trickle through from them and permeate the bond. There is space for another, if she is like us, that's what the girls are thinking. And damn, I am thinking it too.
"As soon as we find a way to free you, that is," Vespera says. "Sol, come on. Let's find a way to set her free."
"I think I have an idea," I say.
Being linked, the girls immediately catch on. I can feel them think. Merging magics again? We did it only twice, and both times it was pretty much by mistake. How do we do that on purpose?
Determination fills us. We will find a way, obviously. What else can we do?
I want to try immediately, but Vespera suddenly perks up. "Wait a fucking minute. We are here on a quest, aren't we?"
"Job," Elyra corrects her.
I check the guild token, and look at the time. The demon tenses up. "They are coming, Sol. The guild is coming. We can't let them find her."
I sigh. "We need to find a way to hide her."
"Or barricade the door," Vespera says. "We are sorry, Zery. We must ask you to wait a bit more before we can free you."
The dragon tears up but nods. "Is this guild really that bad?"
"Very bad," Elyra says simply. "Fortunately, Vespera is very reasonable when she needs to be. We cannot experiment with something that might take hours to do. The skitterpedes outside might buy us time, but who knows how much?"
"What do we do?" I ask.
Vespera thinks about it. "She was hidden before, wasn't she? We comb the room. You two smartheads figure out them computers and find a way to hide her again."
"What about that huge ass core being fed Green by the tubes from the wall?" I ask. "We can't hide that. And if the guild finds it, they will try to take it. No doubt that will trigger some sort of fail-safe mechanism. What if it extracts more energy from Zery?"
"Shit," she curses. "We can't have that."
Elyra has already gone to the computers again. She has been there since we checked the time, tapping away furiously. We all ignore the beeps and alarms from the room, even though they sound very familiar. Like the code, they remind me of the memory-vision where we all died and the machine's kill code.
We ignore all that. Fuck it. It's been going on for centuries or something like that, it's not an imminent threat.
"There!" Elyra exclaims. "Found it!"