Carmine out of solitude, strength Carmine was another wanderer with an unknown past, isolating himself from the other Clans. His somewhat aloof attitude and temper did not earn him any friends, and he mostly kept to himself. However, one day he happened to meet a small fae who informed him that he was to help her start a Clan; after laughing in her face, he turned to leave but was stopped by a sudden feeling of longing. He had been alone for a very long time. He stayed, becoming the brawn to Muse's brains. The two of them became mates and founded a new Clan in the Crystalspine reaches. Carmine is far less easily angered now, his mood tempered by a newfound pride in their Clan. Muse would discover, or perhaps she had sensed from the beginning, that despite his fierce temper, he could also be unwaveringly loyal and honest. Now Carmine is eager to see their fledgling Clan grow. Breaks things a lot.

In the far-off reaches of the Crystalspine Mountains, or so they say, once lived a dragon with hide as hard as iron and wings that, when unfurled, seemed to blot out the sky. He was fierce and quick to anger, and his claws were seldom idle; he roamed as he pleased from peak to valley and did as he cared, for there was no dragon that dared to stop him. This dragon's name was Carmine, and he was hated by all the dragons he had fought and feared by all those he had yet to fight; for no dragon could hope to match his size or his strength, or his anger that melted all before it like a flame.

Now one day Carmine was alone in front of his cave at the heart of the Crystalspine, sharpening his claws and sunning himself in the light, when he perceived that another dragon was approaching his lair. A small fae, scales as blue as the open sky and wings as pink as the crystalline rock around them, hovered in front of him, watching him carefully. Up sprang Carmine like a horrible serpent, his deep pink eyes flashing and his long fangs bared, and he shouted: "Go away!"

The fae simply looked at him. "Carmine of the Crystalspine," she said, in a solemn and sure voice. "You know me, do you not?"

"I think not," Carmine snarled, running his long red tongue in between his teeth and gouging the very rock with his long claws. "It is true that I do not remember many of the dragons I have faced and bested; however, I think I would remember a small thing like you. Go away, and leave me be."

"A shame," said the fae without any expression. "But I cannot leave you be. You have been chosen, just as I was chosen in the days when the Pillar was new; you and I shall start a Clan, here amongst the rocks of the Crystalspine, and we had better get to work right away."

Carmine laughed, rolling his tongue out in the way that mirror dragons laugh. "I think not," he said again. "Small thing, you have confused me for someone else. No dragon chose me for anything, and I do not heed the calls of others. My place is here, alone between the mountains and the sky, and I have gotten pretty comfortable in it. So I should thank you to leave me be, else I be forced to chase you down the mountainside." he bared his teeth as he spoke and lashed his long tail.

"I have not confused you for anything or anyone," said the fae. "You are Carmine of the Crystalspine, and it is a pity you did not hear the Call. But this is your destiny, and I shan't leave you alone, so you had better get used to me."

Carmine breathed a bolt of fire, so close it singed the edge of the fae's pale pink wings. The fae did not move, so still she was like one dead. "You had better get used to me," she said.

And so he did. As the seasons passed and the fae grew to be a familiar sight to Carmine, his idle threats and baring of teeth began to grow less and less frequent, although he was still not quite pleasant to her; he had been alone for so long that he had forgotten how. And he did not invite her to live in his lair, though for her part she did not ask. But there came a day when the fae did not appear.

Strange, Carmine thought. And he pretended that this did not bother him. But as the day grew into the afternoon and the fae still had not made her appearance he grew unsettled, then sick with worry—his mind conjured up all the ways a small dragon could come to harm in the treacherous mountains, and his claws gouged the rock as he thought. The sunset found Carmine still sitting in front of his lair, staring out into the mountains and searching for a fae with scales the color of the sky.

And then she was there. Carmine sprang up as the fae hauled herself over the ridge, looking quite out of breath. Although he could detect no physical wound on her body he rushed over to her, his tail thrashing in agitation. "What happened?"

The small fae heaved a sigh, but did not speak. Carefully, Carmine drew her close with one claw, trying desperately not to hurt her, and it occurred to him that he had to work very hard to be gentle. "What happened?" he said again, and she told him.

The sun set and the moon rose in the sky as Muse spoke to Carmine, and throughout her long tale the Mirror did not speak a word. But when she was finished he still said nothing, and she looked at him for the first time with worry. What would he think? What would he say?

"I don't know how to lead," said Carmine eventually.

"That can be learned."

"Then I'll learn," said Carmine, looking down at the fae nestled close to him. For a second he could see past the glamour of blue and beheld the pink crystalline scales that marked her as an accomplice of the Arcanist. "We'll do it."

"Together," agreed Muse.

Then Carmine and Muse went together into their lair, and it was from that moment on that Carmine accepted the path set out for him and became the father of a Clan that would spring out of the Crystalspine to reach for the stars.