Everyone in this world has powers

“What's wrong?” asked Tatsuya as the memory ended.

He was a couple of steps ahead, clearly having turned back to look at me, but the latest revealed stole my voice for a few seconds.

Shizuka was a shape-shifter? I thought she was a psychic-warrior or something that sounded similar to it. Was it possible to be both or had she lost her healing ability before that particular memory.

“Did you remember something else?” He walked back towards me, one hand outstretched as if he expected me to pass out.

The question danced on the tip of my tongue but another voice inside my head seemed to freeze it in place, warning me that those words were a confession too. One that was too dangerous to share. I wasn't sure whether that voice was mine or Shizuka's, but I didn't challenge its intentions and changed my enquiry either way.

“I just realised again how much I can't remember about you all, and this place,” I said, falling into step with him so he wouldn't realise I'd ignored his hand. “I know I'm a psychic-warrior who can heal people and you're a shape-shifter who can turn into a dragon. I know Ko is an elemental-wielder who uses metal, I think? And Toshi can run really fast but I don't know what category that falls under. Or if everyone in this world has powers.”

“Most of us do,” he replied. “Very few are born without any at all, and sometimes we have those who suffer from power-related problems, usually from birth.”

“You mean like shifted ones?” I asked.

“Yes, that can happen when someone's shape-shifting abilities manifest too early.” His eyes narrowed in pain as if he were face to face with someone suffering from it. “Sometimes they stay stuck in a semi-shifted state and sometimes they become unable to control it, no matter how much they train.”

“Is that what happened to Kohaku's friend?”

He nodded and his empathy was so strong I could almost see her too.

“Her powers bloomed as soon as she was born,” he said. “She said her parents have never seen her real face.”

“That must be difficult for her,” I murmured.

“She's manages it a lot better now,” he said. “Probably because Aoto convinced her that her current face is her real one.”

“Aoto?” Now there's a name I hadn't expected to hear in this conversation.

“He's known Kohaku and some of her friends since they were all children,” he replied. “I think he told her that since she was born with that face, it was hers. Or something of the sort.”

“That's nice of him. I think.”

I remembered the other humans with animal features I had seen on my way past the village and wondered if all of them where shifted ones or if some of them had half transformed on purpose. Now I knew why he had seemed so ticked off when I called them animals in front of him.

“Ready to go?” asked Kohaku as we reached her.

The drion scraped at the earth with its claws and tossed its semi-feathered head, occasionally looking back at us over its shoulder as if wondering why we were just standing around. The setting sun reflected off its sparse scales, almost making it seem like it had been wounded in a explosion except the blood stains were beautiful instead of painful to look at. It didn't seem restless or hungry but I stuck close to the other two just in case it decided it wanted a human twig for dinner.

“As soon as Washi brings Yua out,” said Tatsuya as she took the bundle from him and placed it into the wagon.

His brother popped out from behind the other end of the wagon as if to confirmed whether or not he has been summoned before heading towards the house, dusting off his clothes as he passed us.

“We'll be out in a moment then,” he said. “Is Uchi coming with us?”

“No,” replied Tatsuya. “She has to stay and look after her plants.”

Washi nodded and jogged back up the path towards the front the door, moving as easily as his brother did. Was he a shape-shifter too? Did people from the same family have completely different types of power? Or could he change into a dragon as well?

“I was thinking,” said Kohaku.

“Please don't,” said Tatsuya. “Sometimes it's better to stick to what you know.”

“You think I won't hit you just because Shizuka's here?” she growled.

“Why are you saying that like it ever made a difference to you?” He rubbed a phantom bruise on his left upper arm.

“Because you seem to have forgotten just that.” She smirked, turning to me so suddenly that I wanted to cover my face in case my expression wasn't decent. “Anyway, I was just thinking that it'd be a good idea for the wagon to carry less weight on the way back.”

“I thought you said it was good to go?” asked Tatsuya.

“It is but the less pressure we can put on its frame, the better it'll be when we have to repair it later,” she explained. “So why don't you and Shizuka fly on ahead, and let Aoto know what's going on. It will save us time and we can discuss everything as soon as we catch up with you.”

Fly? Did she know Shizuka could turn into a phoenix? My heartbeat seemed to originate from the centre of my palms. Did they all know? Was it safe to bring up that memory now?

“Wouldn't it make more sense for me to fly back with Tatsu?” asked Washi. He walked past us with Yua in his arms, pausing only to smile apologetically at me and then climbing into the wagon to help her sit down.

“Why would it?” asked Kohaku with a faint frown.

“It's not like Shizuka can shape-shift into something with wings, can she?” he said, leaning out of the front once Yua was seated. “Tatsu would have to carry her all the way back –”

“I don't mind,” said his brother instantly.

“Um – I might mind,” I said just as fast, holding up a hand.

As much as I was afraid of being assassinated by the wagon, it seemed much better than the thought of being pressed up against a dragon the whole way back. Especially one that already had a thing for me.

“It won't be like before,” he said, pressing a fist to his chest. “You can ride on my back this time and you can wear this so you won't get cold.”

He took off his haori and held it out to me, a sweet and hopeful offer.

“Okay,” I said. “But if I slip off, don't bother saving me this time.”

“Please don't joke about that,” He fought a grimace and lost, but the expression was soon replaced by a smile as I wrapped his clothing around my shoulders. “It is warm enough?”

“I guess I'll find out once I'm up in the clouds,” I said, watching a clearly disappointed Washi climb back into the wagon.

It wouldn't have been appropriate to tell him that it smelt good enough, for sure. I couldn't stand people who gave off mixed signals like that.

“Make sure you talk to her so she doesn't fall asleep, okay?” said Kohaku as she pulled herself up onto the drivers seat. “She's had a long day, we all have, but she's the only one that's died and come back to life today.”

“I appreciate you saying that,” I said as Tatsuya's shoulders rose abruptly. “Wait, you can talk when you're a dragon?”

His cheeks matched the deep pink skies across the horizon and he transformed on the spot, moving back so as not to squash anything or anyone.

“I didn't want to scare you even more,” he said, his voice slightly more gravelly than usual. “Some people say I sound like a beast.”

“You really thought I'd be less scared if I got caught by a creature I can't talk to?” I demanded.

His big mouth opened but he faltered before speaking. “I'm sorry.”

“It's okay,” I replied, circling to his right and examining his scaly shoulder for an inbuilt ladder. “At least now you can tell me how to get up there yourself.”

“Race you back home,” said Kohaku. She snapped the reins against the drion's rump and it started trotting around the periphery of Uchi's hill. “Feel free to let me win.”

“Never,” rumbled Tatsuya, lowering his head until it lay flat on the ground at my feet. “It's easiest if you climb up this way.”

The ridges on his long neck formed a stairway of sorts leading to his great back and I tried not to think about the fact that I was stepping on his face as I climbed them, holding onto his curved horns and the armour-like plates that lined either side his neck.

Kohaku drove the wagon around the hill one more time and then took off, waving down at us as the drion flapped its wings hard. I waved back and sat down in the safest-looking spot I could find amongst the mostly symmetrical protrusions on his back, patting one of them as soon as I had slipped my arms into the sleeves of his haori. I felt ten times cooler already and made a note to ask him where he had gotten his from.

“We can go now,” I said.

He grunted and stood up, waiting until I was holding onto him tightly before running off the edge of the hill. A single beat of his wings took us higher than I imaged and I braced my foot against his scales until his body levelled out again in mid air. Uchi stood just outside her house, the way she had when I arrived. Only this time she raised a hand in farewell and a brief glimpse of her face revealed features that were surprisingly soft as I raised my own in return.

Maybe she hadn't been the one to attack the wagon after all.

“So how long have we known Aoto for?” I drew Tatsuya's haori tighter around my neck and watched the world roll beneath us on either side of his long dragon neck.

“Aoto?” His head tilted sideways for a moment. “We met him a little while after we met Toshi.”

“Where?”

“In your – in Uchi's shop. You met him first,” he said. Painful uncertainty radiated through his back, strong enough to make my bones vibrate. “He bought your shop for you.”

“My shop?”

Why would Shizuka have agreed to use a shop bought by someone else? And how soon had she let that happen? Was it because she trusted Aoto? Or had she been planning something else? I didn't know enough yet to form any kind of solid conclusion.

“The one in Inner Town,” he explained. “He hired Kohaku and her friends too so they wouldn't have to worry about getting new jobs.”

“But I thought Ko said you didn't have money here?” Even as I asked, I was sure money had been mentioned in a previous memory.

The rushing wind made my eyes water. I flattened myself against his scaly back until it could no longer hit my eyeballs.

“Money?” I wasn't sure why he sounded confused.

“Yeah, to pay the people who do jobs.” A new thought horrified me. “Do people not get paid for their work here?”

“In Outer Town, they work to survive,” he replied. “They have to build their own shelters, hunt or grow their own food, or trade with other people to get what they need. They have to do everything by themselves. Things are … different.”

“People in Inner Town have all the money, don't they?” I guessed.

The sun had almost completely fallen behind the line of the horizon, a washed out red ruby in the centre of a black band. The skies were less cloudy than they had been that afternoon and the air pressure induced tears in my eyes added an extra shine to the stars.

“They can ask other people to do things for them and give them money, food, shelter, information, or other things they need in return,” he grunted. “Connections and favours go a very long way in Inner Town, sometimes even further than money. Most can span entire generations if they're maintained well enough.”

“Aoto's from Inner Town, isn't he?” I asked. “That's why he bought the shop and employed Kohaku.”

“His family has always lived in Inner Town, just like Yua and Yor's,” he said. “He's added a lot to his family's library and he knows how to get the most out of everything. He's – a good person.”

I couldn't help wondering why he seemed displeased by that. Did he want him to be a bad person? Surely it was better to have someone so skilled on our side, wasn't it?

“Was I close to him too?” I asked, choosing my words with extra care. “He seemed really angry when he thought I was someone else wearing Shizuka's face. Is that why?”

“You – certainly seemed to enjoy each other's company.” Even the rough dragon growl lining his voice couldn't disguise the edge of Tatsuya's tone.

“Wait a sec.” I crawled forward with a grin and knocked the base of his neck. “Are you jealous of him?”

Tatsuya's body dipped sideways as if he too had suffered the same problem as the wagon had earlier. My entire body simultaneously lost all feeling like a weightless feather and coiled up tighter than an anaconda around its prey. But he levelled himself out quickly with an extra beat of his left wing and my insides settled down again slightly slower.

“I admire him,” he said stiffly. “He can do a lot of things I can't and has the ability to go further than most of us can even see. Just like you. Calling it jealousy is insulting.”

“I didn't mean to be rude,” I said breathlessly as soon as my tongue stopped sticking to the roof of my mouth. “Sorry about that.”

“You don't have to apologise,” he said swiftly, his voice heavy with regret. “I just didn't want you to doubt my sincerity towards both of you. You've both taught me a lot.”

“I imagine Toshi feels the same way about you,” I recognised the edge in my own voice and coughed several times. “You're the one who brought her to me, weren't you?”

“I was but you were the one who showed her what she could become,” he replied.

“What do you mean?”

He looked back at me briefly and I was glad that there were no trees to bump into this high up.

“You're the one who taught Toshi how to control her speed and manage its side effects.” Moonlight illuminated his slit-like pupils and rippled across his scales with every flap of his wings.

The sight was strangely familiar, enough to induce yet another flashback.

The dragon sat upon a sturdy branch of the Spiritless Tree, its head lowered as if contemplating a careless drop into the canyon below it. His distinct colours filled my chest with a warm glow and I angled my wings, gliding downwards until I could land beside him. He looked sharply at me, his wings half unfurling in anticipation and staying that way when I didn't move.

“What kind of bird are you?” he asked, the words seeming to crack against the walls of his throat. “I haven't seen one with such long feathers before.”

I didn't answer, shaking my silvery elongated tail feathers.

“Oh, animals don't talk like us,” he murmured. “You looked so different I thought you were a shape-shifter like me.”

I shuffled on the branch but kept up the silent act, wishing I could ask him why he was upset.

“You're lucky you're not one, to be honest,” he said as if he had heard my silent question. “Lots of people thing being a shifter makes its easier for you to belong in two worlds when really it just stops you from belong in any of them properly. Not that there are many dragons anyway.”

So he was feeling left out? Lonely? I knew of a perfect way to fix that, if only for a short while. I stretched out my wings and leapt off the branch, heading straight into the Jaw.

“Huh – wait!” he exclaimed.

I waited until I was sure a thick enough layer of fog had concealed me before twisting in mid air and shooting back up towards him. He leaned forward on the branch, mere seconds away from leaping into the canyon after me, concern in his moonlit eyes.

I waited until the last second and spread my wings out wide as soon as I popped back into his sight, so he could appreciate the shape of my feathers and how the ghostly light reflected off the silvery one at the edge of my wingspan. His mouth opened as he sighed in wonder and I rolled over backwards, flapping occasionally until I reached his eye level, then circling above him.

“Are you waiting for me?” he asked, hesitant delight lightening his tone.

I flew closer until my wings and tail brushed his head and the top of his wings. He growled but extended the latter, springing off the branch like a cat and flying skyward like a silent, colourless firework. I followed him, catching up and overtaking him quickly. His breath warmed feet and tail feathers until I doubled back, wordlessly encouraging him to push his limits as we danced around each other mid-air.

Our continuous movements warded off the chill in the air and I struggled to avoid the mesmerising effect of light upon his silver-black scales and his distracting outline against the bright circle of the moon.

“I should be happy I can fly here with you like that, shouldn't I?” he said once we both settled back on the tree branch. “Not everyone has the chance to do that, even if they are a shapeshifter.”

I hadn't said a word the whole time we had been together but I also saw no reason to correct his line of thinking.

“Instead of thinking about how much I don't belong somewhere, I should focus on all the places I am able to go to,” he said, blinking slowly up at the moon. “Do you think I'll be happier if I do that?”

I was tempted to nod but that would have only encouraged him to ask more questions. So I flapped my wings and took off before he could say anything else. He didn't say anything or call out after me as I left, which only made me feel guilty about deciding the meeting was over on my own. A glance back over my shoulder showed him watching but not chasing me and he dipped his head as I our found each other in the semi-darkness.

I kept looking back, just in case he decided to follow me all the way to Nippo, and found a good spot to transform back into a human without anyone in Outer Town watching. The last thing I wanted was for them to find out I had more than one power. The council had become stricter over the years and too many people with a secondary power had gone missing over the past few months.

I adjusted my clothes and checked them for feathers but fortunately phoenixes didn't shed their feathers the same way dogs or cats shed fur. I had barely rounded a corner, heading towards Uchi's shop, when a voice I had definitely heard before came from a small drinking establishment.

“We can do it tomorrow night,” said Toshi's father to his intoxicated companions. “I heard the old witch is going to be away for the next few days. We won't even need all of us to pick up two little girls.”

“Oh I thought we were bringing the boy too,” asked a man with cold brown eyes. “He looks like he could bring in just as much as the other two.”

“If you can find a buyer, I'll see if I can catch that big girl too.” Toshi's father laughed. “Those fancy folk of Inner Town will think twice about trusting a smart man when they find out. Why settle for less money when I can get more than double the amount I was paid?”

A ice-cold sensation rippled through me from head to toes. My palms heated up and I burned between the two.

“So tomorrow night then?” asked the brown eyed man.

They all nodded and grunted in agreement.

And I knew I couldn't let that plan go ahead, no matter what.

A loud voice inside my head ripped me free of the memory.

“Be careful! The Inquisitors are waiting for you!”

 I clutched my head with groan and looked up, just in time to see a wave of flaming arrows about to crash into us.