Lightbringer

Daily prayers were said, offerings were refreshed, candles were lit.... Lightbringer surveyed her domain with a quiet satisfaction, stretching with a soft jingle and moving to exit the sanctuary.

The sunlight touched her scales with a pleasant warmth, and she took a small moment to admire how her jewels shone.

Then she set off for the den of her intended. Ailen was a beautiful Light dragon, a bit shoddy around the edges of his scales, and not the most devoted dragon in the lair, but certainly the best gened, and she was absolutely set on mating with him. He’d never expressed any objection to the pairing, and the Lightweaver shone on their twining. She could feel it.

-

“Ailen? Are you in?”

She poked her head in the den, looking for the shimmer of yellow somewhere in the darkness, as he wasn’t in the light of the center hole, decorated with gems she’d collected as a courting gift. The facets were simply amazing, and she couldn’t understand why he didn’t move his nest there immediately.

“Hello?”

A shadow stirred, and her eyes dilated to see better, blinking at the set of light purple eyes that met her. Immediately, the Light dragon flared her wings, bellowing a challenge at the Shadow intruder, raising a claw to strike-

“Lightbringer! Wait!” Ailen galloped to the front of the den, skidding to a halt between the acolyte and her cowering prey. “She’s okay, she’s one of us!”

Lightbringer hissed, and the little Nocturne shrunk back further, behind Ailen’s protective wingspan. “She is Shadow. She is not one of us.”

“She was brought here as a hatchling, Lightbringer, she’s as much one of us as any light-eyed dragon!” He took a step forward, rattling his scales lightly in a gesture of peace. “Her name is Apophis.”

The Ridgeback snorted. “A dreary name.” She barely noticed the dragon’s flinch.

“Just... it’s okay. She’s been accepted by the Lightweaver, she’s one of us.”

“I see.” She didn’t see anything, but turned to leave regardless, wings folding reluctantly.

This Shadow intruder must have worked magic on Ailen. She had to go. Just... how....

-

“I... I don’t understand...” Lightbringer faltered, hesitating with her wings tucked close to her side.

“You have killed one of our own. Is that not clear?” The lair patriarch towered over her, a vast Imperial who crossed his claws and rumbled a low hiss of smoke.

“She was not ours! She was Shadow, our enemy, she had some magic-” Her pleas fell on deaf ears, the Imperial’s eyes narrowing.

“So you are unrepentant, and admit to this horror.”

“I have committed no horror in the eyes of the Lightweaver. It is my sacred duty to protect this lair and these lands from those who would wish the Light harm.” She puffed out her chest and tried not to look scared. Had the Nocturne gotten to all of her clan?

“Then get you to the auction. You are disgraced, and you are banned from the Light’s lands forever. The Lightweaver will never smile on you again for this atrocity.” The Imperial nodded once, and turned to leave, trail glimmering in his wake.

-

Lightbringer sees no atrocity in what she’s done. She sees no horror in freeing her lair from an evil Shadow spy.

But Ailen.... After his betrayal, her heart shall never be won again.