A Dragon's Oath

Hazel, Robert, and Dora stared at Balerifon as he finished his story. While the former princess and the peasant did so in silence, Dora gave voice to what they thought.

“You gave her your blood. Do you have any idea what that does to a person?”

“More than you.” Balerifon pointed a finger to Robert. “I know you’re about to say that you don’t. So, I’ll explain.” He took another sip from his wine before casting a yearning spell to create a new cup and filling it halfway with water.

“Mixing bloods of two different mana densities causes all of the mana in the blood to activate. It resets the body and, in a pinch, it can bring a person back from the brink of death. But there are consequences to doing it. The ones you’re familiar with?” Balerifon gestured to his head. “Unusual behavior.”

“It breaks them,” hissed Dora. “It breaks their brain and makes them act crazy.”

Balerifon shook his head. “No. It does not create mental instability. It only highlights what was already there. A man’s ambition grows unchecked, his lust is harder to slake, his greed impossible to satisfy. It reveals who they always were.”

Hazel blinked. Her sister had never been this… extra. Not as far as she could remember. But the pressures of growing up in a royal court might have forced her parents and tutors to hide a few things…

“The part you don’t know. People used to think blood transfusions were a way to add to their natural mana. But because the mana density is similar, the new mana enters the body without any additive effect. The mana blends together without issue.”

Dora knew that. Blood transfusions didn’t add blood on top of your own. The body could only hold so much. They were replacing blood you’d lost.

“After the body resets from mixing mana densities, the two mana densities do not blend. The denser mana remains separate in the body until someone tries to use it. And then…” Balerifon picked up a wine bottle and held it over his new cup of water. “Tell me, if I mix water and wine, what will I get?”

Hazel answered, “Wine. It’s diluted wine.”

Balerifon poured the half-filled cup up to the brim and showed it to Robert. “But it becomes wine nonetheless.”

Robert stared at the cup. “I don’t get it. Are you sayin’ that ‘cause Lavender took your blood… she’s gonna be…”

“A dragon.” Balerifon took the cup of diluted water and dispelled it with a wave of his hand. “Her training has made her very efficient at using her natural mana. But if the day ever came where she fully tapped into the mana I gave her… That’s why I insist on bringing her back. She has too much left to learn to be loosed into the world.”

The only response he could hear was the crackling of the fire.

“…I know this is difficult to hear,” he continued. “If you’re worried about being separated from her, you could come with us. I can keep you safe.”

----

Hazel stood up and stared Balerifon down from across the fire. “I’m tired of being satisfied with being safe. I want to live! And it took Lavender coming back into my life to realize that.”

“You would have me defy the Oath I swore to her,” asked Balerifon, “and leave her alone in your care?”

“I would have you stay with us,” said Hazel. “You want to teach her, then teach her. But as the living head of the House of Wea’Vor, I forbid you to take either of us back to your lair without our permission.”

Balerifon sucked on his teeth but said nothing else to object to her command.

“I have felt more alive in the short time Lavender has been back in my life than I did at any point in the past eight years. I don’t care how insane it sounds to want to unite the realm again. She makes me want to believe in it. And the world needs people like that, damn it!”

Robert stood up as well. “That… is exactly how I felt. I thought I would die never seein’ the world beyond my village ‘til she showed up. Maybe I won’t have a long life. But I’ll get to die without a regret in my body.”

Hazel turned to the stranger in their midst. Dora was the wildcard. If what her sister had told her was right, Dora was obligated to marry Lavender as the winner of the Princess Knight Brawl. But then Lavender had seemingly turned her down...

“Prove it.” Hazel’s head snapped back to Balerifon, who had circled around the fire with a now-empty cup. “The word of a human holds as much water to me as this cup does now. But swear to me an Oath and bind yourselves as I have. And you will have my undying trust.”

---

Dora watched Hazel and Robert approach Balerifon, who had tossed his cup to the ground and held out his hand. Robert and Hazel placed their hands on his, everyone’s outlines visible in the flickering of the fire.

The three of them hesitated for a moment and Dora felt three pairs of eyes gaze upon her. But they quickly turned back to each other with lights of every color and hue poured over the trio of stacked hands.

Dora had seen oaths sworn before. But never an Oath for a dragon.

“Do you swear upon your lives to help Lavender reach her full potential?”

“I do.” “Yeah.” Upon their agreement, a stream of pure light wrapped itself around their hands. Dora could see the serious looks on everyone’s face in the new light.

“Do you swear to stand by her side, even if it means travelling into the Nine Hells?”

“I do. “Of course.” Another stream layered itself over the light display.

She kept watching them proclaim loyalty to Lavender, and with each affirmation the lights grew brighter and more vivid.

Lavender was occupying too much of her thoughts. Yes, she was free. The Black Rose was free. And Dora refused to be held down again by some idiot who refused to hold onto her when they had the chance. She knew her worth. How dare Lavender turn her down?!

I will never be enough.

That was the other thing that kept playing on repeat in her mind. All that power, all those childish ideas, and she was a cynic about the one thing that one shouldn’t.

On the subject of love, Dora was an expert in playing people for fools. But even she had her limits. Even she allowed herself to believe that she could find love. Just not with anyone her parents would arrange her with.

She had a begrudging respect for the hoops the sister and the peasant were going through for Lavender. The woman had this bizarre charisma to her. And then there was the fact that she could back up her insane ramblings with action. The ending of the Princess Knight Brawl was proof enough.

But for all the good intentions of these three idiots, Dora knew they were doomed to fail. Because none of them could offer the thing that Lavender clearly needed most.