#iburel

Acrux frowned. “Telyn said I would probably survive. She said some of us were definitely going to make it, but half … lost.”

“This is our lord’s punishment for suffering a filthy beast-lover to live,” Barholme said, quietly, almost to himself. Perhaps Aridatha was only projecting smug satisfaction onto his monotone voice.

Geras whirled abruptly to face the silver fae and roared, a savage sound that Aridatha had never heard from her -- or any dragon -- outside of battle; the force of her breath blew Barholme back a bit. He picked himself up with an offended air, the pink light of his magic beginning to form around his talons as if he anticipated a fight, but with her piece said, more or less, Geras curled back into herself, head hidden under a wing.

“Barholme, unless you have some truly helpful insight to offer, please leave,” Aridatha said. “It’s probably unwise to have any unnecessary dragons near the site of this … contagion.”

“I did offer helpful insight,” Barholme said, unblinking pink eyes fixed on Aridatha. “Kill the shape-shifter and we may beg our lord’s forgiveness.”

“This … phenomenon … does not bear the signature of Arcane magic,” Bartos said, distaste in his voice as he side-eyed Barholme. While they shared an interest in complex, theoretical magic, Barholme’s fanatical, apparently senseless devotion did not endear him to Bartos. “I find it unlikely to be a divine punishment.”

“Barholme, why don’t you go pray to the Arcanist for insight,” Aridatha suggested. Under her breath, she added, “I think we’ll need all the help we can get.”

“Do not mock me, spark-stealer,” Barholme said, fins pinned back; but he left, and Aridatha forced herself not to wonder what she’d just been called, as there were more important questions at hand.

“Right,” Aridatha said instead, refocusing. “Bartos, you stay here and study this thing. Try to figure out how to stop it, would you? Nesita, check on Talva, from a distance.” They’d placed the snapper in a quarantine of sorts, sending her to wait outside the lair and avoid contact with other dragons. “Acrux, can you make sure no one else has it, and that everyone knows to stay away from here and Talva? Rope in Cypress, and Isildur, and anyone else -- ”

“Now, you would not deprive a dame of her darling, would you?” the deep voice came from behind Aridatha, inside the impacted area, and Aridatha felt ice run down her spine as she turned to see the shining eyes of the ridgeback standing right in the center of the web of rainbow light.

“Iburel … ”

How many dragons had Talva encountered, spoken to, before her eyes had started glowing -- before anyone had known that there might be something wrong with her? At least one, apparently, her own mate … Or perhaps there was another means of transmission …

“Iburel, you need to go join Talva in quarantine.” Aridatha looked around, thinking of the lair’s layout, trying to calculate the quickest way to isolate Iburel, how to minimize exposure …

A toothy grin spread across the ridgeback’s snout. “No.”

“No?” Acrux stepped forward, putting himself bodily between Iburel and the smaller dragons. “Iburel, you’re sick. You’re contagious.”

“Perhaps.” Iburel shrugged. “But I’m afraid I feel acutely alive, and I reject restraint.”

Iburel reached out and picked up a cauldron, one of those he typically used for his brewing -- the cold iron of which, Aridatha noticed distantly, had not been infected with the terrible light, despite its proximity to the site of Kelsus’ disappearance. Then Iburel lifted the cauldron to his face and spat into it, and the glow starting to trace its way across his skin from his eyes filled the cauldron. He held it out to his clanmates, grinning, his teeth shining like cruel stars.

“Won’t you experience my elixir? It animates, I assure.”

“We don’t want what you have,” Acrux said curtly. Then, under his breath: “Aridatha, Nesita, you should go. Bartos too, and Geras. I’ll deal with him.”

“Don’t curtail our company!” Iburel’s laughter was too loud and bright, and Aridatha saw Nesita and Bartos slip away, but she hesitated, unwilling to leave Acrux to deal with this.

“Go! If I’m busy here, you’ll have to warn the others,” Acrux said, pushing Aridatha slightly. When Aridatha didn’t move -- simply wondered if by “busy” he meant “potentially dying” -- Acrux turned to Geras, whose presence Aridatha had almost forgotten, she’d been so quiet. “Geras, get Aridatha out of here. We can’t let this happen to anyone else.”

Acrux seemed to have hit on the key phrase to wake Geras up; in a single, quick motion, the guardian snatched up Aridatha, who could manage no more than an offended squawk, magic and combat never having been among her skills, and crested the treetops with great heaves of her wings.