Arden

Arden

---

Arden's life swung in a radically different direction the moment he leapt at that shade fragment.

He didn't really think about it at the time: his siblings and the Mire trainers all walking home through the Hewn City, exhausted and wounded; the creeping pulse of darkness that blinded them swiftly; the trainers herding the young dragons between them, but clearly weary. He will never forget the eyeless shadowy maw that coalesced out of the growing darkness, needle teeth in a mouth that rivaled even Abbadon's large jaws. Looking back at his brother and sister, the determined but fatalistic gaze of his trainers, Arden thought briefly that he'd been training for this anyway; he could serve the Lightweaver now or never at all. He surrounded himself in Light, roared and leapt at the monstrosity.

---

He doesn't actually remember what happened after that, but he's been told about it. Mirinae escaped to bring the Lightweaver's emissaries back to her partner with half the clan's defenders in tow to find a collapsed but still shimmering Arden, Abbadon standing over the young drake covered in blood and reeking of rot. While the clan guard and Lux Solaris burned the fragment to smoke, Lux Aurum rushed him back to Thomas and the healers. He was dangerously low on magic, light leaking from bite marks and drooling from his mouth. But worse, Lux Aurum found, he had swallowed a piece of the Shade and was using the magic that kept him alive to keep it from destroying him. Conventional healing was eaten by the Shade, and even the Lightweaver's grace channeled by the Lux pair would not burn it away in time to save his life.

That was when Himura pushed his way into the room. If there were no other options at hand, he offered, then a curse might be the last best option. And with nothing else at hand, they all agreed. The elder Shadow drake wrought the spell, cursing it to feed off of its own energy rather than his: "May you forever eat your own tail". The emissaries devised ribbon bindings to keep the Shade essence contained within him as well as a veil to cover his eyes, which had become Shade-black in the aftermath; that piece was more to protect him against Shadehunters than anything else, from having a courageous mistake cost him his life a second time.

---

There was one thing Himura pulled him aside later to tell. The curse was started by the ancient drake's lifeforce, but run on his own, and had likely taken years off of his life given its required strength. And while he didn't know what to say at the time, he's come to terms with it. He would have died against the monstrosity without it and an Imperial's life is so unpredictable anyway, he'd never know how much he lost. For now, he's recovering from the Light-weeping wounds he sustained and adjusting to the bindings he'll spend the rest of his life in.

---

Then one afternoon as he basked in the courtyard, enjoying the Lightweaver's rays, something charged from the brush, speeding across the grounds towards him. And despite his training he still flinched, frozen half standing where he was, instinctively reaching for magic that had been greatly diminished. The silver and black streak halts sharply in front of him and... he's pretty sure that's a dragon? But a kind he's only seen maybe once before, stout with horns almost as long as an Imperial's.
"Arden," He shook his head in confusion, he didn't know who this was, how did they know his name? "I am Therima, your new Keeper."
"Uhhh... excuse me?"
"You are Shadetouched Arden, yes? I was sent from the Fortress of Ends to be your guard." Any questions he had were suddenly drowned by the crashing of the borderguard bursting through the brush after her and at that point, the clanguard surrounded them.

The clanguard and matriarch took control of questioning her there on the terrace, Abbadon staunchly guarding him only after it was clear Therima wouldn't let her separate them. The guardian was particularly snappy with her; she'd developed a soft spot for him as one of her trainees. When the gaoler's patience wears down into grumpy 'ask me later's and they decide she's not a danger to him or the clan, he finally gets a chance to ask his own questions.

"So the Fortress is sending out scouts Shadehunting now? And that's what that other gaoler who visited was here for?"
She's been sniffing nonstop since she parked herself beside him, like Thomas whenever a new cadre of exaltees arrives. The look she gives him is impatient and tired, laying in the setting sunlight, but it seems he has more leeway than the rest of the clan.
"Yes. I'm to guard you for the rest of your life, or until you deserve imprisonment." Her cold words send a little shiver down his spine.
"...I'm not a danger. There have to be more dangerous shadetouched than myself, right?"
"All shadetouched are dangerous. For most, it is simply a manner of when."

---

For all her bravado and seriousness, Arden finds it confusing and almost comical how unprepared Therima is. Not to say she's not capable, but things he takes for granted she finds confounding. Talking with breeds that don't speak draconic, understanding flight dynamics, day to day clan business don't make sense to her. So he steps in whenever he can to explain. Not hard when she won't go more than her length away from him at any given time, and he doesn't want to see her struggle. This often leads to spirited discussions out on the terrace and once, she even admitted she thought him brave.
"To leap at a Shade fragment without training- Shade fighting training..." Therima adds hastily, sharpening a quill-tip. "You would have made a good Keeper."
And that was no plain compliment. He'd seen her fight now, shrugging off blows to her armored hide, sinking those huge fangs into a Pohip hide and holding on despite being flung around by the giant.

She writes a letter back to the fortress that day, which she says is to help new Keepers adjust to their duties faster than she did hers. He's proud of her too. Admitting she wasn't ready for her post was brave for a dragon whose entire culture thrived on preparedness. He's glad to call her a friend, even if she doesn't use the same word, but he knows she feels the same. He's the only prisoner she's had that she can actually talk to.