A blue Mirror sat floating in the water column, his dark wings folded to his sides. Watching the reef, his four blue eyes searching for his next kill, he was unaware of how the sun dappled his hexagonal markings and how he looked like a living representation of a sea floor patterned with the sun's rays.
Lymphon, for that was the Mirror's name, was alone, as he had set out from his clan to find his own pack. Though he was still quite young, not quite having reached full maturity, this desire to find new hunting grounds drew him onwards and away from the safety of his birth-clan. He'd been living in their recently created outpost in Fishspine Reef, and so still had regular contact with them, even though he was no longer an official member of the clan.
Spotting a large brightly coloured parrotfish he shifted into hunting mode, shifting in the water to point towards it and flaring his wings slightly. Slowly, carefully, with sinewy legs and tail he swam towards the coral spires, intending to hide among them until he was close enough to spring on his prey. His odd markings, with the darker patches separated by pale lines, broke up his outline enough that he was all but undetectable as he slowly descended to the reef bed. Trailing bubbles as he moved, once he reached the sea floor he shifted his swimming style to make travelling through the coral easier. Using his forelegs to pull himself through the stone forest, occasionally flicking his tail to add extra propulsion, he stalked towards his prey, eyes solely focused on the fish he hoped to make his meal. Once he was in position, hidden under an overhang of blue fan coral and directly beneath where the beaked fish was swimming, he let himself float. Twisting his body, he coiled his hind legs for the pounce that would propel himself through the water and after the fish, his wings raised but closed in case he missed and needed to chase it. Having sunk all four of his taloned feet into the sand, he gave his tail a slight wiggle before bursting upwards towards the fish, his slamming kick against the sea floor giving him enough momentum to surge through the water and reach his prey.
As he flew through the water there was something at the corner of his vision-purple?-then he was slammed sideways. He spun in the water as he tried to slow down his movement by flaring his wings, and could only watch in helpless frustration as his brightly coloured meal escaped his reach. Something else hit him, and he could do nothing as his vision burst with bubbling black before every sense faded away.
The Mirror's limp body floated in the water filled cave, his eyes closed and limbs drawn close. The first sign of his return to consciousness was the highly visible twitching of his gills as he took a large breath of water. His main eyes flickered open, and his blue tongue flicked out between his teeth, reflexively tasting the air. Having tentatively looked around he realised that he was floating within a small stone-walled cave, the floor covered with fine white sand. It took some paddling flapping of his wings to right himself, and he looked around warily. Sitting in the entrance of the cave was a purple Guardian, crystal bright with streaked wings and darker swirls flowing over his scales. The larger dragon said nothing as Lymphon swam closer, and the blue Mirror hesitated before speaking.
"Who are you? Wh-where am I?" His shaking voice travelled through the water with ease, and he unconsciously flexed his dark blue head fins to indicate his nervousness.
The intimidating dragon just regarded the Mirror with small blue eyes, before opening his mouth to ask, "What do you remember?"
"Nothing. I remember nothing, except my name. Lymphon is what they called me, my name's Lymphon." He tried to cast his mind back to before the cave, but there seemed to be something blocking the memories, a darkness where he knew something should be. He trembled in fear and confusion, and he reached down and sunk his claws into the sand to stabilise himself. The Guardian smiled at him, and then a second Guardian stepped out from behind him, the lack of a beard indicating it was female. She looked like the ocean depths brought to life, with dark blue stripes and swirls on her scales, lighter streaks on her wings and her belly plates glittered in the dim light.
"My name is Quin, and you are in my home."
Lymphon latched on to them like a lifeline, desperate to find something that could trigger his memories. "Can I stay here then? 'Till I figure everything out?"
The male simply said, "Yes."
He did not spend long in that cave, with the two Guardians, Quin and Ops, soon inviting him out into the main part of their den. Their daughter, a Guardian called Streamheart that looked like her mother but had darker trails of blue rippling over her like her father, immediately tried to befriend him. The adolescent female still had the disproportionately long limbs of a dragon just grown out of hatchling-hood, but she spoke with the maturity of her parents. Lymphon, try as he might, never regained his memories, his time before waking in the cave shrouded in shadow. Part of him desired to leave the small family, but his need for companionship drove him to stay.
In time he too became part of their family, and followed their customs. For them the Tidelord was everything, the father to all dragons, and as his children they must serve him to bring about the true face of the world, a face of blue ocean. They trained so they could fight beside him, and every day they went to the small shrine Ops had set up and sent him their prayers. As time passed it became more and more obvious that Quin and Ops wanted him and Streamheart to become mates, to produce children that could bolster the Tidelord's ranks. Once she reached adulthood Lymphon was happy to have a nest with her, for he found her pleasant to be around and really did like her. In no time at all they had two eggs, the precious lives within them all he thought about.
Life was blissful, except for the nightmares that sometimes woke him, a mix of colours and shapes and danger, of images he couldn't place. He never told anyone about the dreams, a part of him warning against anyone knowing though he didn't know why.
Lymphon watched the nest, his blue eyes sparkling with excitement as the pair of floating eggs shivered in the water. Small bubbles escaped their barnacled shells as the hatchlings inside pushed against them. Streamheart lay beside him, calmly watching and waiting. The two eggs dropped to the bottom of the nest, their shells laced with cracks, then a foot burst out of one. That egg gave one last, huge, shake and split down the middle, a small blue and purple Mirror tumbling out and onto the sandy nest flood. Lymphon swam forward and gathered the child in his claws, looking it over. He realised that this was a daughter, and he clutched her close to his chest in joy. Mum and dad would be so happy to see their granddaughter. The thought stopped him mid nuzzle, and he looked up sharply when the second egg broke apart to reveal a Guardian child. The shape of her head, something about the fins, reminded him of another blue Guardian. Elwart, the name that flashed through his mind. Again he looked at his daughter curled against his chest, her pale blue patterning so like his own, and two other Mirrors appeared him his mind's eye. He knew that these dragons were his parents, though their names escaped him, and he let out a sharp cry of joy. Streamheart, who was inspecting the Guardian carefully, looked at him with concern but all he did was swim up to her and bump her much larger muzzle with his own.
"I remember my parents! I remember something." He finished the sentence with an overjoyed trill, scooping up his other daughter with his other arm. The Guardian was larger than her sister, but the buoyant water didn't make her seem any heavier.
"Parents?" Streamheart's question caught him off guard. The tone of her voice was wrong, not asking about who his parents were, but rather seeming confused by the word.
"You know, the dragons that laid your egg, your mother and father. Quin and Ops?" Lymphon guessed that maybe she had been taught a different word for parents, it was the only explanation for her confusion.
"The Tidelord creates all eggs, we are all his children. Quin and Ops are simply teachers, telling me the truth about the world." Streamheart looked at him with concern, her head tipped to the side. Lymphon swam back to the nest, depositing the dragonets onto the sand. Something about what Streamheart was saying set off alarms in his head, but he couldn't think why. There it was again, calling her parents by their names. When she had first done that, he assumed it was an adolescent dragon thing, trying to seem like an adult, but now a new thought crept into his mind. Maybe they didn't raise her like parents, so what will happen to our daughters?
Giving his children one last quick nuzzle, he told her quickly, "I'm going to tell them about the hatching." With a flick of his tail, he was racing into the main cave, looking for any of the older Guardians. He spotted Ops sitting beside three Guardian hatchlings, the children from his and Quin’s most recent nest. A striped tail disappeared into a smaller side cave, alerting him to Quin's location. He followed it, and was soon swimming beside the much larger dragoness.
"I-we-have two daughters. I also remember bits of my past, my parents.” He paused, the said,
“Why doesn't Streamheart understand the concept of parents?" The question slipped out of his mouth before he could catch it.
"Interesting, most interesting. Parents are an inaccurate concept, for the dragons you were born of aren't your true creator. The Tidelord creates all, and he should be the only one seen as a parent." Quin stopped and looked down at him, and for the first time he felt wary of her. There was something off about the way she looked at him, the glint in her eyes. He floated backwards slightly, and felt himself bump into something. Turning sharply, he saw Ops standing behind him, wearing the same weird look. Moving slowly, he propelled himself forwards so he was no longer trapped between them.
"The Tidelord creates all, just like you taught, but surely you would let us raise our daughters like a parent? They're my children-" Lymphon began to protest before they could say anything else, looking between their impassive faces. He was starting to panic, but couldn't figure out why. They'd never hurt him, never done anything wrong, so he didn't know why he feared.
Ops tipped his head to one side, and said in a gravelly voice, "What do you remember?"
"I remember faces, my parents, and other clanmates. I remember flashes of my life before here, I remember things…" he trailed off as another image flashed across his mind's eye, a parrotfish, and he remembered hunting it, moving carefully until something hit him.
"That's not good," Quin's rumble to Ops set Lymphon's wings tingling, as the final image of that hunt crystallised in his mind. A bright purple shape, crystal bright, was surging towards him through the water.
"What happened to me? Why don't you want me to remember?" He sunk his claws into the sand to stabilise himself, and couldn't help but slightly flare his wings as he saw Ops move to block off the entrance.
Quin looked at him, dark blue eyes filled with cold malice, then cast a casual look back towards the entrance. "Because that would interfere with our teachings. We can't have you remember anything that could make you doubt the truth, anything that could impair you, so we blocked your past so you could see the future. Ops, you said the wall would never break. Why has it?"
The other Guardian dropped his head, looking shamed, and said quietly, "I've never blocked the memories of a dragon so old, one with so many. I didn't think it would break, but emotions from the hatching must have damaged the block, allowed memories to leak through. I'll rectify it immediately, to make sending him off to Tidepapa easier." As Ops moved towards him, reaching out to grab him, Lymphon arched his back, tail lashing, and flared his wings and fins to make himself look larger and more intimidating. He snapped his toothed jaws at the outstretched talons, his head snaking, and hissed furiously, all in an attempt to make the Guardians back down. It didn't work, the much larger dragon looking at him with emotionless eyes.
He tried a different tact, to talk to them and hoping it would distract them. "Why me? Why did you chose me to take, to steal my memories and set me up with your daughter?"
Quin paused in her movements, and said in an oddly high-pitched voice, "Because you were Tidepapa's gift, sun-dappled water given dragon form. You were a perfect child of the Tidelord, you embodied what dragons were meant to be. I knew, the moment I saw you, the children you would have with Streamheart would be favoured, that your essence, and that of your descendants, would give Tidepapa much power. Once you join him, we'll be one step closer to drowning the world, to help rule over it as was intended when it first was created. None of the other Gods, certainly not the Flamecaller, can stand in our way. We'll rule it all!" Her sing-song voice and the faraway look in her eyes made it quite clear to Lymphon she was mad, that at some point she came to so completely believe the importance of the Tidelord above all else she now planned to destroy the rest of the flights, one exaltee at a time. Lymphon knew it would be impossible for the Tidelord to drown the world, the balance between the Gods too powerful for it to tip into the Tidelord's favour, and that if it ever did it could only lead to the destruction of everything. They needed all the Gods to survive, to stop the world's magical energies from tearing it apart.
He let out a slight growl, then bunched his muscles for a leap. Before that could happen Ops moved towards him with surprising speed for his bulk. Lymphon ducked down, drawing himself inward to make himself a smaller target, but it was to no avail. The larger dragon’s claws struck him on the shoulder, and his grip of the floor was dislodged and he was sent spinning. Even as the cave and his attackers spun around him, he felt his hind legs brush against something hard and so he pushed against it with all his strength. This sent him gliding towards Ops, and as he collided with the surprised Guardian he wrapped his forelegs around his neck and snapped his jaws up towards his face. Sharp teeth biting into horn, he brought his hind legs up and raked them against Ops’ side. This did no damage to the purple dragon’s crystalline scales, but did cause him to thrash to try and dislodge the smaller Mirror. Lymphon took this chance and released his grip, flapping his wings to go over the Guardian and get to the cave entrance. Claws touching sand, he took a moment to glance behind and saw that Quin was just watching him with an expressionless face while her mate tried to reorient himself. I need get to the hatchlings, get my children away from here and back to home, he thought, even though he didn’t know where home was. He just knew it wasn’t here. Seeing his chance, he started to furiously swim towards the exit of the main tunnel, but then felt something heavy hit him from behind. He was sent into a lazy roll, his vision pulsing with black, before he felt sharp talons grip his shoulders and his forelegs were pinned against something hard. Vision clearing, he stared into the dark visage of Quin as she held him close to her face. Immediately he started to wriggle, wings flaring and maw trying to bite her face, but all he did was feel bursts of pain as her claws bit into his hide.
“No, no,” Quin said, her voice still sing-song, “You’re not going away just yet. We still need you. Tidepapa needs you.” She then pulled her head back and slammed her chin on the top of Lymphon’s head, causing him to lose his grip on consciousness.
The first thing Lymphon was aware of was a deep, bone-numbing cold. The next thing was a single panicked though. I need get to my daughters. He pulled a deep breath of water through his gills, then opened his eyes. All he saw was black, and his heat sensing eyes weren’t picking anything up either. He tried to raise a hand to see if anything was covering his eyes, but his legs wouldn’t move. He tried again, but felt something holding them against his chest, forcing them to resist any movement. He then tried his hind-legs and wings, and found they too were bound. But he couldn’t feel anything, either the pain from where Quin had dug her talons in or where exactly his limbs were. He felt ice course through him, even colder than the deep water around him as his fear began to rise. He was drifting through opaque water, unable to move, just going where the currents dragged him. He could only image he’ll become a meal of some creature, most likely a thresher, or a Maren’s first kill. But what really scared him was the idea he’ll never get back to his daughters and Streamheart, will never be able to save them from whatever Quin and Ops had done to Streamheart’s brother. He felt the water pull at him, and assumed his was getting deeper as breathing became more difficult due to the pressure.
When he first saw the bright spark of heat he assumed it was a hallucination, but as it drew closer and formed the shape of a dragon he tensed his muscles and drew his head back. Even though he couldn’t use his claws, he could still use his jaws to protect himself. But as the dragon moved closer and a pale white light cut through the water in front of him, he felt his muscles relax slightly. Now able to see them with all four eyes, he could tell it was a Mirror, who was holding a bioluminescent lamp to light the way.
“What are you doing here?” Lymphon heard the stranger mutter as it got closer to him.
“Where is here?” Lymphon croaked out.
The purple Mirror looked surprised, then said, “The Leviathan Trench.” Lymphon felt his insides clench and thanked the deities that some eldritch monster hadn’t swum out of the depths and eaten him. He watched the stranger as it scanned him, and noticed how his head fins seemed to wilt slightly.
“What?” Lymphon’s voice was sharp as he felt another surge of fear.
The purple Mirror shook his head and whispered, “You’ll see,” before swimming closer and pulling a blade from his belt. Lymphon watched him, but as he turned his head to see the stranger approach his back, pain flooded his mind. He couldn’t breath as his gills and throat spasm, and tasted blood as his mouth locked shut. For the first time he’d seen his wings, or what was left of them. Even though they were bound tight to his sides the fingers were pointing in all the wrong angles, and the small amount of wing membrane still attached to the musculature was in tiny, ragged ribbons. Dark red blood curled lazily from them, flowing up into the black water above. He had no idea why the pain only hit him now, once he’d seen the damage the Guardians had done to his wings, and he couldn’t think. “I’m sorry,” the stranger murmured, then reached out one hand, his talons sheathed in a soft blue light. When he touched between Lymphon’s shoulder blades, he felt the pain recede to manageable levels. His gills unclenched and he took in panting breaths, only half-aware of the Mirror cutting his bonds.
When he was finished cutting the ropes the Mirror moved to float in front of Lymphon and waited for him to catch his breath before asking, “What’s your name? I’m Honos.”
Lymphon’s voice was a strangled whisper. “Lymphon.”
“Well I think, Lymphon, we’re related. Who are your parents?” Lymphon could do nothing but shake his head, unable to explain he didn’t know the names of his parents. “Amnesia, eh?” Honos asked, seemingly able to read his thoughts, “Don’t worry, we’ll figure it out. It’s just we look kind of the same, with similar patterning on our hide, and you smell of the Guards of Violetah, though the scent is faint. More than that you smell like my parents, so I think you’re my brother.”
Lymphon didn’t know how to respond to that, so he whispered, “What happens how?”
“I take you back to the Spiral Keep.” Lymphon’s fins flared, and Honos seemed to notice it, hastily adding, “I’m an Honoured of the Tidelord, it’s where I live. We have healers there, they can fix your wings up and help with your memories. It’s better than being left in the Trench to be eaten.” Lymphon sagged, his vision starting to fade away. No, this is exactly what they wanted to have happen to me. My wings are gone, so I can’t escape, and I’m going to become an exaltee of the Tidelord. They’ve gotten what they wanted. He felt a wing gently, comfortingly, brush over his back, then warmth suffuse him as Honos bound them together with magic. As the Mirror swam deeper into the ocean, Lymphon being pulled helplessly behind him, his thoughts focused on one thing, one hope. He hoped that he’d see Streamheart and their chicks at the Spiral Keep, if not now then at some time in the future. Focusing on the image of the four of them swimming together around the giant shell that made the Tidelord’s home, he felt a little hope trickle into his heart and strength start to return to his limbs.
Lymphon, for that was the Mirror's name, was alone, as he had set out from his clan to find his own pack. Though he was still quite young, not quite having reached full maturity, this desire to find new hunting grounds drew him onwards and away from the safety of his birth-clan. He'd been living in their recently created outpost in Fishspine Reef, and so still had regular contact with them, even though he was no longer an official member of the clan.
Spotting a large brightly coloured parrotfish he shifted into hunting mode, shifting in the water to point towards it and flaring his wings slightly. Slowly, carefully, with sinewy legs and tail he swam towards the coral spires, intending to hide among them until he was close enough to spring on his prey. His odd markings, with the darker patches separated by pale lines, broke up his outline enough that he was all but undetectable as he slowly descended to the reef bed. Trailing bubbles as he moved, once he reached the sea floor he shifted his swimming style to make travelling through the coral easier. Using his forelegs to pull himself through the stone forest, occasionally flicking his tail to add extra propulsion, he stalked towards his prey, eyes solely focused on the fish he hoped to make his meal. Once he was in position, hidden under an overhang of blue fan coral and directly beneath where the beaked fish was swimming, he let himself float. Twisting his body, he coiled his hind legs for the pounce that would propel himself through the water and after the fish, his wings raised but closed in case he missed and needed to chase it. Having sunk all four of his taloned feet into the sand, he gave his tail a slight wiggle before bursting upwards towards the fish, his slamming kick against the sea floor giving him enough momentum to surge through the water and reach his prey.
As he flew through the water there was something at the corner of his vision-purple?-then he was slammed sideways. He spun in the water as he tried to slow down his movement by flaring his wings, and could only watch in helpless frustration as his brightly coloured meal escaped his reach. Something else hit him, and he could do nothing as his vision burst with bubbling black before every sense faded away.
***
The Mirror's limp body floated in the water filled cave, his eyes closed and limbs drawn close. The first sign of his return to consciousness was the highly visible twitching of his gills as he took a large breath of water. His main eyes flickered open, and his blue tongue flicked out between his teeth, reflexively tasting the air. Having tentatively looked around he realised that he was floating within a small stone-walled cave, the floor covered with fine white sand. It took some paddling flapping of his wings to right himself, and he looked around warily. Sitting in the entrance of the cave was a purple Guardian, crystal bright with streaked wings and darker swirls flowing over his scales. The larger dragon said nothing as Lymphon swam closer, and the blue Mirror hesitated before speaking.
"Who are you? Wh-where am I?" His shaking voice travelled through the water with ease, and he unconsciously flexed his dark blue head fins to indicate his nervousness.
The intimidating dragon just regarded the Mirror with small blue eyes, before opening his mouth to ask, "What do you remember?"
"Nothing. I remember nothing, except my name. Lymphon is what they called me, my name's Lymphon." He tried to cast his mind back to before the cave, but there seemed to be something blocking the memories, a darkness where he knew something should be. He trembled in fear and confusion, and he reached down and sunk his claws into the sand to stabilise himself. The Guardian smiled at him, and then a second Guardian stepped out from behind him, the lack of a beard indicating it was female. She looked like the ocean depths brought to life, with dark blue stripes and swirls on her scales, lighter streaks on her wings and her belly plates glittered in the dim light.
"My name is Quin, and you are in my home."
Lymphon latched on to them like a lifeline, desperate to find something that could trigger his memories. "Can I stay here then? 'Till I figure everything out?"
The male simply said, "Yes."
***
He did not spend long in that cave, with the two Guardians, Quin and Ops, soon inviting him out into the main part of their den. Their daughter, a Guardian called Streamheart that looked like her mother but had darker trails of blue rippling over her like her father, immediately tried to befriend him. The adolescent female still had the disproportionately long limbs of a dragon just grown out of hatchling-hood, but she spoke with the maturity of her parents. Lymphon, try as he might, never regained his memories, his time before waking in the cave shrouded in shadow. Part of him desired to leave the small family, but his need for companionship drove him to stay.
In time he too became part of their family, and followed their customs. For them the Tidelord was everything, the father to all dragons, and as his children they must serve him to bring about the true face of the world, a face of blue ocean. They trained so they could fight beside him, and every day they went to the small shrine Ops had set up and sent him their prayers. As time passed it became more and more obvious that Quin and Ops wanted him and Streamheart to become mates, to produce children that could bolster the Tidelord's ranks. Once she reached adulthood Lymphon was happy to have a nest with her, for he found her pleasant to be around and really did like her. In no time at all they had two eggs, the precious lives within them all he thought about.
Life was blissful, except for the nightmares that sometimes woke him, a mix of colours and shapes and danger, of images he couldn't place. He never told anyone about the dreams, a part of him warning against anyone knowing though he didn't know why.
***
Lymphon watched the nest, his blue eyes sparkling with excitement as the pair of floating eggs shivered in the water. Small bubbles escaped their barnacled shells as the hatchlings inside pushed against them. Streamheart lay beside him, calmly watching and waiting. The two eggs dropped to the bottom of the nest, their shells laced with cracks, then a foot burst out of one. That egg gave one last, huge, shake and split down the middle, a small blue and purple Mirror tumbling out and onto the sandy nest flood. Lymphon swam forward and gathered the child in his claws, looking it over. He realised that this was a daughter, and he clutched her close to his chest in joy. Mum and dad would be so happy to see their granddaughter. The thought stopped him mid nuzzle, and he looked up sharply when the second egg broke apart to reveal a Guardian child. The shape of her head, something about the fins, reminded him of another blue Guardian. Elwart, the name that flashed through his mind. Again he looked at his daughter curled against his chest, her pale blue patterning so like his own, and two other Mirrors appeared him his mind's eye. He knew that these dragons were his parents, though their names escaped him, and he let out a sharp cry of joy. Streamheart, who was inspecting the Guardian carefully, looked at him with concern but all he did was swim up to her and bump her much larger muzzle with his own.
"I remember my parents! I remember something." He finished the sentence with an overjoyed trill, scooping up his other daughter with his other arm. The Guardian was larger than her sister, but the buoyant water didn't make her seem any heavier.
"Parents?" Streamheart's question caught him off guard. The tone of her voice was wrong, not asking about who his parents were, but rather seeming confused by the word.
"You know, the dragons that laid your egg, your mother and father. Quin and Ops?" Lymphon guessed that maybe she had been taught a different word for parents, it was the only explanation for her confusion.
"The Tidelord creates all eggs, we are all his children. Quin and Ops are simply teachers, telling me the truth about the world." Streamheart looked at him with concern, her head tipped to the side. Lymphon swam back to the nest, depositing the dragonets onto the sand. Something about what Streamheart was saying set off alarms in his head, but he couldn't think why. There it was again, calling her parents by their names. When she had first done that, he assumed it was an adolescent dragon thing, trying to seem like an adult, but now a new thought crept into his mind. Maybe they didn't raise her like parents, so what will happen to our daughters?
Giving his children one last quick nuzzle, he told her quickly, "I'm going to tell them about the hatching." With a flick of his tail, he was racing into the main cave, looking for any of the older Guardians. He spotted Ops sitting beside three Guardian hatchlings, the children from his and Quin’s most recent nest. A striped tail disappeared into a smaller side cave, alerting him to Quin's location. He followed it, and was soon swimming beside the much larger dragoness.
"I-we-have two daughters. I also remember bits of my past, my parents.” He paused, the said,
“Why doesn't Streamheart understand the concept of parents?" The question slipped out of his mouth before he could catch it.
"Interesting, most interesting. Parents are an inaccurate concept, for the dragons you were born of aren't your true creator. The Tidelord creates all, and he should be the only one seen as a parent." Quin stopped and looked down at him, and for the first time he felt wary of her. There was something off about the way she looked at him, the glint in her eyes. He floated backwards slightly, and felt himself bump into something. Turning sharply, he saw Ops standing behind him, wearing the same weird look. Moving slowly, he propelled himself forwards so he was no longer trapped between them.
"The Tidelord creates all, just like you taught, but surely you would let us raise our daughters like a parent? They're my children-" Lymphon began to protest before they could say anything else, looking between their impassive faces. He was starting to panic, but couldn't figure out why. They'd never hurt him, never done anything wrong, so he didn't know why he feared.
Ops tipped his head to one side, and said in a gravelly voice, "What do you remember?"
"I remember faces, my parents, and other clanmates. I remember flashes of my life before here, I remember things…" he trailed off as another image flashed across his mind's eye, a parrotfish, and he remembered hunting it, moving carefully until something hit him.
"That's not good," Quin's rumble to Ops set Lymphon's wings tingling, as the final image of that hunt crystallised in his mind. A bright purple shape, crystal bright, was surging towards him through the water.
"What happened to me? Why don't you want me to remember?" He sunk his claws into the sand to stabilise himself, and couldn't help but slightly flare his wings as he saw Ops move to block off the entrance.
Quin looked at him, dark blue eyes filled with cold malice, then cast a casual look back towards the entrance. "Because that would interfere with our teachings. We can't have you remember anything that could make you doubt the truth, anything that could impair you, so we blocked your past so you could see the future. Ops, you said the wall would never break. Why has it?"
The other Guardian dropped his head, looking shamed, and said quietly, "I've never blocked the memories of a dragon so old, one with so many. I didn't think it would break, but emotions from the hatching must have damaged the block, allowed memories to leak through. I'll rectify it immediately, to make sending him off to Tidepapa easier." As Ops moved towards him, reaching out to grab him, Lymphon arched his back, tail lashing, and flared his wings and fins to make himself look larger and more intimidating. He snapped his toothed jaws at the outstretched talons, his head snaking, and hissed furiously, all in an attempt to make the Guardians back down. It didn't work, the much larger dragon looking at him with emotionless eyes.
He tried a different tact, to talk to them and hoping it would distract them. "Why me? Why did you chose me to take, to steal my memories and set me up with your daughter?"
Quin paused in her movements, and said in an oddly high-pitched voice, "Because you were Tidepapa's gift, sun-dappled water given dragon form. You were a perfect child of the Tidelord, you embodied what dragons were meant to be. I knew, the moment I saw you, the children you would have with Streamheart would be favoured, that your essence, and that of your descendants, would give Tidepapa much power. Once you join him, we'll be one step closer to drowning the world, to help rule over it as was intended when it first was created. None of the other Gods, certainly not the Flamecaller, can stand in our way. We'll rule it all!" Her sing-song voice and the faraway look in her eyes made it quite clear to Lymphon she was mad, that at some point she came to so completely believe the importance of the Tidelord above all else she now planned to destroy the rest of the flights, one exaltee at a time. Lymphon knew it would be impossible for the Tidelord to drown the world, the balance between the Gods too powerful for it to tip into the Tidelord's favour, and that if it ever did it could only lead to the destruction of everything. They needed all the Gods to survive, to stop the world's magical energies from tearing it apart.
He let out a slight growl, then bunched his muscles for a leap. Before that could happen Ops moved towards him with surprising speed for his bulk. Lymphon ducked down, drawing himself inward to make himself a smaller target, but it was to no avail. The larger dragon’s claws struck him on the shoulder, and his grip of the floor was dislodged and he was sent spinning. Even as the cave and his attackers spun around him, he felt his hind legs brush against something hard and so he pushed against it with all his strength. This sent him gliding towards Ops, and as he collided with the surprised Guardian he wrapped his forelegs around his neck and snapped his jaws up towards his face. Sharp teeth biting into horn, he brought his hind legs up and raked them against Ops’ side. This did no damage to the purple dragon’s crystalline scales, but did cause him to thrash to try and dislodge the smaller Mirror. Lymphon took this chance and released his grip, flapping his wings to go over the Guardian and get to the cave entrance. Claws touching sand, he took a moment to glance behind and saw that Quin was just watching him with an expressionless face while her mate tried to reorient himself. I need get to the hatchlings, get my children away from here and back to home, he thought, even though he didn’t know where home was. He just knew it wasn’t here. Seeing his chance, he started to furiously swim towards the exit of the main tunnel, but then felt something heavy hit him from behind. He was sent into a lazy roll, his vision pulsing with black, before he felt sharp talons grip his shoulders and his forelegs were pinned against something hard. Vision clearing, he stared into the dark visage of Quin as she held him close to her face. Immediately he started to wriggle, wings flaring and maw trying to bite her face, but all he did was feel bursts of pain as her claws bit into his hide.
“No, no,” Quin said, her voice still sing-song, “You’re not going away just yet. We still need you. Tidepapa needs you.” She then pulled her head back and slammed her chin on the top of Lymphon’s head, causing him to lose his grip on consciousness.
***
The first thing Lymphon was aware of was a deep, bone-numbing cold. The next thing was a single panicked though. I need get to my daughters. He pulled a deep breath of water through his gills, then opened his eyes. All he saw was black, and his heat sensing eyes weren’t picking anything up either. He tried to raise a hand to see if anything was covering his eyes, but his legs wouldn’t move. He tried again, but felt something holding them against his chest, forcing them to resist any movement. He then tried his hind-legs and wings, and found they too were bound. But he couldn’t feel anything, either the pain from where Quin had dug her talons in or where exactly his limbs were. He felt ice course through him, even colder than the deep water around him as his fear began to rise. He was drifting through opaque water, unable to move, just going where the currents dragged him. He could only image he’ll become a meal of some creature, most likely a thresher, or a Maren’s first kill. But what really scared him was the idea he’ll never get back to his daughters and Streamheart, will never be able to save them from whatever Quin and Ops had done to Streamheart’s brother. He felt the water pull at him, and assumed his was getting deeper as breathing became more difficult due to the pressure.
When he first saw the bright spark of heat he assumed it was a hallucination, but as it drew closer and formed the shape of a dragon he tensed his muscles and drew his head back. Even though he couldn’t use his claws, he could still use his jaws to protect himself. But as the dragon moved closer and a pale white light cut through the water in front of him, he felt his muscles relax slightly. Now able to see them with all four eyes, he could tell it was a Mirror, who was holding a bioluminescent lamp to light the way.
“What are you doing here?” Lymphon heard the stranger mutter as it got closer to him.
“Where is here?” Lymphon croaked out.
The purple Mirror looked surprised, then said, “The Leviathan Trench.” Lymphon felt his insides clench and thanked the deities that some eldritch monster hadn’t swum out of the depths and eaten him. He watched the stranger as it scanned him, and noticed how his head fins seemed to wilt slightly.
“What?” Lymphon’s voice was sharp as he felt another surge of fear.
The purple Mirror shook his head and whispered, “You’ll see,” before swimming closer and pulling a blade from his belt. Lymphon watched him, but as he turned his head to see the stranger approach his back, pain flooded his mind. He couldn’t breath as his gills and throat spasm, and tasted blood as his mouth locked shut. For the first time he’d seen his wings, or what was left of them. Even though they were bound tight to his sides the fingers were pointing in all the wrong angles, and the small amount of wing membrane still attached to the musculature was in tiny, ragged ribbons. Dark red blood curled lazily from them, flowing up into the black water above. He had no idea why the pain only hit him now, once he’d seen the damage the Guardians had done to his wings, and he couldn’t think. “I’m sorry,” the stranger murmured, then reached out one hand, his talons sheathed in a soft blue light. When he touched between Lymphon’s shoulder blades, he felt the pain recede to manageable levels. His gills unclenched and he took in panting breaths, only half-aware of the Mirror cutting his bonds.
When he was finished cutting the ropes the Mirror moved to float in front of Lymphon and waited for him to catch his breath before asking, “What’s your name? I’m Honos.”
Lymphon’s voice was a strangled whisper. “Lymphon.”
“Well I think, Lymphon, we’re related. Who are your parents?” Lymphon could do nothing but shake his head, unable to explain he didn’t know the names of his parents. “Amnesia, eh?” Honos asked, seemingly able to read his thoughts, “Don’t worry, we’ll figure it out. It’s just we look kind of the same, with similar patterning on our hide, and you smell of the Guards of Violetah, though the scent is faint. More than that you smell like my parents, so I think you’re my brother.”
Lymphon didn’t know how to respond to that, so he whispered, “What happens how?”
“I take you back to the Spiral Keep.” Lymphon’s fins flared, and Honos seemed to notice it, hastily adding, “I’m an Honoured of the Tidelord, it’s where I live. We have healers there, they can fix your wings up and help with your memories. It’s better than being left in the Trench to be eaten.” Lymphon sagged, his vision starting to fade away. No, this is exactly what they wanted to have happen to me. My wings are gone, so I can’t escape, and I’m going to become an exaltee of the Tidelord. They’ve gotten what they wanted. He felt a wing gently, comfortingly, brush over his back, then warmth suffuse him as Honos bound them together with magic. As the Mirror swam deeper into the ocean, Lymphon being pulled helplessly behind him, his thoughts focused on one thing, one hope. He hoped that he’d see Streamheart and their chicks at the Spiral Keep, if not now then at some time in the future. Focusing on the image of the four of them swimming together around the giant shell that made the Tidelord’s home, he felt a little hope trickle into his heart and strength start to return to his limbs.
