Default

 

That promise, in the end, was never fulfilled.

 

"Who… are you?"

The white dragon's voice rang clear and cold as ice.

"It's me… it's me, Ai!"

I was a fool. An utter fool.

My emotions surged into a torrent, mingling with my breath and melting the surrounding snow in an instant.

There was no controlling it.

"I'm… not called that. I don't… know you."

Slowly, the white dragon shook her head. But that was—

"You're lying."

I declared it without hesitation.

"You know me. That's why you didn't run. Isn't that right?"

Why?

Why had I ever thought I might not recognize her when we met?

Why had I thought Aisha might be Ai?

Ai and the white dragon before me were nothing alike.

She'd had black hair. The white dragon's was white.

She'd had black eyes. The white dragon's were red.

She'd had a human body. The white dragon, needless to say, did not.

But so what?

Every fiber of my being screamed that the one before me was the woman I had once loved.

I knew it without a shred of doubt.

There was no way I could ever mistake her. Not Ai.

No matter what form she had taken.

"I don't… understand…"

The white dragon spread her wings, turned from me, and took flight.

"Your Highness, I'm sorry, but would you mind waiting here? That white dragon is the one I've been searching for. I'll make sure to convince her."

"Yes. Please do."

Bewilderment flickered in Aisha's eyes, but her nod was resolute.

"Nina, sorry, but please look after Her Highness."

"… Y-yeah."

Nina had known Ai. She was perhaps even more shaken than Aisha, and it showed in her voice.

I had the two of them dismount, then hurried after Ai.

I had a rough sense of the direction she'd gone, but spotting a white dragon against pristine white snow was nearly impossible. No, judging by how she'd appeared before, she might even know camouflage magic.

"Ai… no, white dragon of these mountains. Please, at least let me talk to you!"

As I flew through the frigid wind, a measure of calm began to return.

Rationally speaking, a strange dragon calling out an unfamiliar name and pressing in close would be, well, terrifying.

And I was a fire dragon, the natural enemy of white dragons.

"I don't mean you any harm. I just… want to talk!"

I landed and folded my wings. Fighting to rein in the urgency pounding in my chest, I drew a long, slow breath.

The snow didn't melt this time.

Whether that reassured her, I couldn't say.

But from behind a snowdrift, the white dragon slowly poked her face out.

"Call me Mentor."

"Men… tor…?"

At last, I answered the question she had first posed to me.

As I'd feared, Ai didn't seem to remember me at all.

"I've come as an envoy from the nation of Mashiro. Do you know it? The country of humans."

"I… understand. The people… in the big… stone houses… yes?"

Setting aside the matter of her being Ai, I turned to our original purpose.

"I've heard you have a pact with that nation. You protect them, and in return, they offer you a princess after five hundred years."

"A princess…? No. I only… said I wanted them to send someone… to visit me, from time to time."

"Why?"

"Being alone… is lonely."

The words slipped from her, barely more than a murmur. Dragons don't mind solitude. The desire for company is a human instinct. That's why dragons never seek their own kind except to mate, and never feel lonely.

Unless, like me, they were once human.

"And the part about protecting them?"

"I don't know… I was told… not to eat people, but…"

Ai shook her head slowly.

Perhaps the terms had shifted as they were passed down through the centuries.

Still, as long as she held territory here, no other dragon could enter. She presumably had the strength to maintain it for five hundred years. And if she wasn't attacking humans, one could argue that counted as protection.

"Has anyone ever come to visit you before now?"

"You're the first… since the promise was made."

Ai blinked, guileless. She didn't seem to be lying.

In that case, the royal family were the dishonest ones.

If they'd kept stretching the definition of "from time to time" further and further, five hundred years suddenly made sense.

Either the current generation had been especially conscientious, or they'd simply decided they couldn't put it off any longer.

"If you don't like being alone… would you come to my village?"

"Your… village?"

Ai blinked, curiosity flickering in her eyes.

A dragon with a village would be hard to picture, I supposed.

"In my village, humans and dragons live side by side. I think you'd enjoy it there."

If she did come to live with us, there would be the territorial issue with Gilta. I could suppress my own dragon aura easily enough, but the two of them couldn't do the same. At worst, I could produce a large batch of dragon-ward cloth and have Gilta wear clothes sewn from it.

There was a snow-capped mountain near Scarlet that would suit a white dragon perfectly, too. As real estate went, it wasn't a bad offer.

"… I'm sorry."

After a long, agonizing pause, Ai answered.

"There's something… I have to do. So I… can't go."

Her eyes met mine, but her gaze reached past me, fixed on something far away.

"What is it you have to do?"

Ai simply shook her head.

The meaning was plain: don't ask.

"… All right."

I pried a single scale loose from my body, snapped it cleanly in half, and set the pieces before her.

"… What is this?"

"With this scale, you'll be able to talk to me anytime. If whatever you have to do is ever resolved… get in touch."

I'd split it in two to address a flaw in the communication magic. When I initiated contact from my end, the spell connected to every scale I'd ever shed. But by keeping one half of a matched pair, I could direct the link to that specific scale alone.

I gave Ai a brief explanation of how to use it and spread my wings. I couldn't leave Nina and the others waiting long in this deep snow.

"I'll come again."

With those parting words, I left the snow-capped mountain behind.

 

＊　＊　＊

 

Not a single member of the royal family had ever intended to honor the pact. They had reneged on their promise, safe in the knowledge that no harm had come of it. Hearing this, Aisha was indignant, though she also seemed relieved to learn the dragon posed no real threat to the kingdom.

She promised that going forward, they would visit Ai for dialogue.

When I asked whether she should really take my word so readily, she laughed.

"Lies are the weapon of the weak. You have no need of them. Besides, you seem to be rather poor at lying, Lord Fire Dragon."

I knew nothing of Mashiro's succession, but if she were the one to inherit the throne, she would make a fine queen.

"Nina."

After returning to the inn, we warmed ourselves in a long, hot bath, then sat down to discuss what came next.

"You said you had a way to restore Ai's memories, right? How does it work?"

"Oh, that…"

I still didn't know what Ai felt compelled to do.

But if her memories returned, she might be willing to tell us. We might even be able to help. And even if we couldn't, recovering her memories alone might be enough to convince her to come with us.

"That's… well. It might not… work."

"What do you mean?"

Nina's gaze slid away, and she faltered.

"It's just… things didn't turn out the way I expected. It might not be… effective."

"Mom…?"

Suspicion crept into Chryse's voice.

I didn't need her to point it out. I could tell.

Nina was lying.

"Chryse. Sorry, but would you step out for a bit?"

"… Okay."

There were surely things hard to say in front of our daughter, especially when that daughter could see through every lie and evasion. Chryse must have sensed it too. She nodded obediently and left the room.

"Nina. What's wrong?"

I sat beside her on the bed and searched her face.

"So, um…"

Then, in a strained and artificially bright voice, she said it.

"Can't we just… give up?"