Claudia

Most Beastclans and dragons have been able to co-exist peacefully. Or at least been able to agree to leave each other alone. Yet peace in Sornieth has always been tenuous, and some see working with the dragons as inviting fire-breathing death to visit their people. When conflict inevitably breaks out, they'd prefer to have every advantage they can get.

Claudia (real name incomprehensible bird screeching), is one such harpy. Loyal servant of Talona, but too small and weak to fight. So instead of being sent to the front lines, she was sent behind the enemy's. Her mission: to spy on a certain dragon clan that was rudely occupying a fortress which would be better off under Talona's control. Her goal: find weaknesses that can be exploited so that the clan can be destroyed.

Parts of her infiltration were easily decided. She'd have to pretend to be a fae, as being small for a harpy made her much too small to pretend to be any other sort of dragon. Her alias was a bit more involved, as she wanted to use what she felt was the draconic equivalent of Talona, Clawdia. After much begging and pleading, she agreed to at least spell it Claudia instead.

Of course, there was still the issue that even if Claudia was about the size of a fae, she clearly wasn't a fae. But there was a way to hide all her feathery bits, and explain away her lack of frills. Somewhere in that fortress, there was a dragon who was researching invisibility and its applications. All she'd have to do was steal their findings and use them on herself, and then nobody would be able to see anything awry with her. Well, she'd have to do that and help that dragon achieve their dream of disappearing. Permanently.

Surprisingly, doing that wasn't particularly difficult. Arcane dragons are prone to both living dangerously and literally living in dangerous situations. Not only that, but some of these dragons kept very dangerous pets. It wasn't too difficult to set up an "accident", and conveniently it was the kind of accident that hides the evidence all by itself! That left her with full access to the invisibility research, which apparently came in the form of some weird goop. Not knowing what else to do, she covered herself with it and hoped that that was how the magic worked.

And presumably it was, for within minutes she was completely invisible. Well, except for her mask, which she hadn't been willing to risk damaging with unknown magic. But there was no way she was taking that off, not even if all eleven of the dragons' dreadful gods tried to take it from her at once. And she couldn't just show up, invisible, right after that researcher disappeared. So all she could do was wait, and spy on any dragons who looked unobservant enough to not notice a floating mask lurking around.

By the time Claudia figured suspicion had passed, she was beginning to have doubts about this assignment. At times these dragons seemed totally incompetent, such that Talona would be able to steamroll them by herself without trying. But at other times they seemed incredibly dangerous, not only to the Beastclans as a whole but anyone remotely near them. It was clear that she was not only going to have to stay undercover and spy on these dragons for much longer, but actually interact with them too!

She was still invisible as well, which was slightly worrying. Yet being invisible was still undeniably useful, so she couldn't be too upset. Even if she did really miss being able to see her body.

So, Claudia found a compromise – the next best thing to having a visible body, that would also make her something less eerie than a floating mask. Clothes! The dragon who called himself Kushiel was known for impractical outfits, so all she had to was come up with some sob story about an invisibility curse and she'd have her ticket in. That she didn't naturally speak draconic or in a monotone might be noticed, but she'd have to risk it. But considering the absurd accents of the dragons known as Jacques and Marmorata, Claudia thought she'd be fine.

If Claudia has one regret, it's not this plan. No, that went off without a hitch. It was mentioning that she liked feathers to Kushiel. She missed being able to see her own feathers, so having a few on her new outfit would be nice. But there were just so many feathers. Another two harpies' worth, at least! And in blue? There was even worse to come. Kushiel said he'd make some more outfits to fill out her wardrobe, as an invisible dragon was exciting and brought new vistas to the world of fashion. These would be in new colours, some of which he promised would even be the forbidden colours of true passion, never meant to be seen by mortal eyes.

Claudia has never been more afraid – and before this she thought the accursedly strong warrior called Levant was the most terrifying a dragon could be. Even Talona had nothing on what horrors this fae promised.

But she would soldier on. It wasn't like she had any choice until this blasted invisibility wore off anyways. If these Arcane dragons could make one invisible, her superiors figured they could make themselves look like a harpy, and maybe even take on the form of one temporarily. So Claudia had been given an amulet, which she'd present upon returning home to prove her identity. However, while she'd remembered to take off her mask before making herself invisible, she'd forgotten about the amulet. So now it's as invisible as the rest of her, and thus while nobody can prove she isn't a dragon, she can't prove she's a harpy either.

So Claudia is stuck, in more ways than one. While the clan's mages could probably reverse her predicament, that would obviously involve revealing herself. And reporting back will more than likely just cause her to be suspected as a spy and executed. Thus Claudia remains, collecting information and trying to enjoy the benefits of life as a floating mass of feathers.

Amazingly, there actually are some. Her new cover is that of a janitor, a living feather duster who crawls into the fortress's tight spaces to clean. After all, using cleaning duty to gather information is basically the front cover of any spy handbook. Kushiel would be appalled if he knew what she was doing with his clothes, but there's no way she'd let him know. Not even if the rest of her mission was on the line.

---

After so long living as a dragon, Claudia's beginning to have doubts about her mission. The evidence is irrefutable – not all of these dragons are creatures of destruction and chaos... wait no. That's not true, they all are. But they're not all vicious and hateful! That was the point. Most of them don't have any strong opinions on the Beastclans one way or another, and those that do have friends or acquaintances among the beasts. Perhaps instead of being exterminated, they could be swayed over to Talona's side?

After all, the clan's leader doesn't seem to have any hatred towards the Beastclans. Claudia took the risk to ask him about them, and he actually responded with a few stories of how he and the Beastclans had worked together during his journey to this clan. A number of the other dragons have similar stories as well! And then there's that skydancer.

He calls himself Primacy, and in Claudia's opinion he's a complete idiot. However, Claudia also once encountered a couple of Talonok bringing gifts to the fortress. They seemed oddly cheerful for birds giving away all their shiny things, and even the relief of not being burnt to a crisp by dragonfire couldn't be the explanation. Those lesser birdfolk are normally useless, but in this case when Claudia interrogated them they had quite an interesting story to tell. Apparently, that skydancer is the son of two dragon defectors, who became legendary heroes of the Talonok in their own right. Claudia would have been skeptical, but even she'd heard a similar story before. If this clan was harbouring someone like that, they must be sympathizers at the very least, or maybe even hiding a cell of defectors!

To that end, she's being trying to get along with the dragon called Riku, hoping that the suspected draconic spy is linked to such a cell. While he does send out quite a lot of messages, Claudia has yet to intercept one, the other spy outwitting her at every turn. Or is he just lucky? Does handing said letters over to a courier in broad daylight such that Claudia didn't think they were important count as a mistake that Riku got away with, or a master stroke in an epic game of double-bluffing? Regardless, the two have struck up the kind of friendship that can only exist between two opposing spies who don't trust each other in the slightest. While neither admits being a spy to the other, both are very empathetic to the other's hardships from working for a dangerous and cruel master.

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There have been a few times where Claudia's cover was almost broken. Most of them involved her inability to use magic, which she later learned is something that outright causes death in dragons. Perhaps she shouldn't have claimed to be an Arcane dragon? The pink-eyes are the most common type around here though... Regardless, she's since stolen a jar of pink glitter from Romerio, which she sometimes tosses around while doing mundane tasks to make it look like she's using magic to do them. It doubles as something to throw in an angry dragon's eyes before making a quick getaway too!