One day, Dragonfly asked to be exalted.

Her service was purchased later that evening and she was sent to the Starfall Isles. She left her mate without a word. His face was something she didn't bother to remember at the time, a fact that follows her to the present day. But in the moment Dragonfly's mind was filled with new opportunities. All Dragonfly's suffering from the monotony, all the sleepless nights wondering if she could've found happiness sooner if only she had went to the deities like the rest of them, all those hatchlings' faces, all was about to change.

Or at least she hoped. But as she stared blankly at the strange pink cliffs and the brilliant night sky, Dragonfly knew from the deep void inside her that exaltation, too, would never make her happy.

That night was the first in years she'd gone somewhere new. The land was magical, the cosmos magnificent. It was strange and beautiful and a chance to start anew. But Dragonfly still could not feel happy. She couldn't find a shred of hope she yearned for so dearly.

So that is why, when a stranger approached the remorseful Dragonfly that night, his first instinct was to try and make her smile. "Too bad they didn't teach us to be smart," he huffed. "We'll have to carry the Arcanist's scrolls for the rest of our lives without ever being able to understand them."

Dragonfly, no longer fazed by much, simply turned to other with a sad sigh. "You're fodder, too?"

The stranger, a white-blue Ice skydancer, sat down next to Dragonfly in response. Despite him speaking no words, the action was confirmation enough. The two skydancers knew next to nothing about each other yet much could be told from their energies, picked up by the orbs on both their foreheads. Two strangers each drawn to the other's sensed dispositions, they bonded over their shared worries as they talked through the night, slowly yet surely bringing a smile to their faces.