Ayseor

They need some form of sustenance (for Ayseor at least, Dawn apparently only eats when she wants to), so Ayseor started a garden and a farm, and tends the crops.
- helps Pen with the crops
- otherwise spends her day in the library
- tries to avoid Prometheus as much as possible
- has mostly reformed
- is adept at all forms of weaponry, having been trained by a variety of tutors. this includes Dawn (an competent fencer), Crystalline (staves and unarmed combat), etcetera. the sole exception is bows.
- has heard the "eye sore" joke many, many times
- once she got back to Sornieth, apparently started a relationship with Anglica, nothing confirmed yet though

---

UNDER REWRITE
“Thief!” Someone (likely Autumnwind, she did have a grudge against Ayseor after all) roared at the top of her lungs. Guards emerged from their houses and started chasing after her.

Ayseor just laughed under her breath as she maneuvered through the trees. She had spent weeks planning her escape. The guards’ houses were well-planned, yes, but they forgot to watch over the twin rocks shaped like a gate that jutted out from the side of the cliff. She now traced her path through the trees, clutching onto Autumnwind’s symbol of power: the talisman that contained the essence of autumn. She glanced behind. At least the talisman didn’t cause all the leaves to turn brown and wither.

Ayseor shot through the rocks glowing with strange runes, plunging down with the waterfall at the end of the river that acted as the barrier between Light and Nature. She considered keeping the talisman (what power it would bring to her), but eventually plucked it from her neck as she finally spread her wings ten centimeters above the roaring waters that met the sea. She flung it and it smashed onto the rocks, leaving it in shining gold and bronze smithereens that gleamed in the morning light.

She whooped. She hadn't felt this free in such a long time. She used her momentum to rise higher, and turned her head backwards to see her pursuers gathering around the broken pendant. Then, she felt a tingling sensation across her whole body, and belatedly, she thought of the rocks she had passed. There had to be a really good reason no one went there-

Her vision went black.

She woke up to a crash on a strange surface (marble, she guessed, judging by the sound of the crack and the feel of the material). Forcing her eyes open, she noticed a frigid ball of light at the corner of her vision glowing closer to her.

“So."

The temperature plummeted drastically as Dawn Sr (gulp) stepped into her vision.

“Welcome to my personal hell.”

---

It had been quite a while since she had first come here. The days and weeks blurred together, and Dawn was of no help either, just shrugging her off and saying she didn’t know the date. Ayseor had resorted to keeping track of it by counting the days, but even then the sunrises and sunsets seemed to be highly inconsistent. If a thousand years had passed outside, she wouldn't be surprised.

Unsurprisingly, Ayseor decided to try and find a way back to Sornieth, sneaking into the library of books Dawn had somehow amassed to see if they contained anything about portals between worlds or dimensions.

Tonight was one such night. She was no stranger to staying up late, and being a Shadow dragon helped with that, she guessed. She was poring through a book on ancient magic, but much of it was jargon, and the bits she could glean were essentially useless. She sighed, shutting it carefully and resting her head on a front paw.

Maybe if she forged a sword that could make cuts in between worlds-

She couldn’t forge a single blade. What was she thinking? Maybe, she could practice making simple weapons without Dawn noticing, and then try to find enchantments? But the loud hammering would definitely-

“It’s impossible,” a voice said wearily behind her, causing her to shriek and drop the book onto her claws while her tail swiped the candle to make sure none of the books caught on fire. Whipping around, she realised that it was just Dawn with a blob of light floating around her. “Believe me, I’ve tried.”

“Everything?” Ayseor asked suspiciously. Since when could Dawn read minds? Anyway, maybe Dawn was withholding information from her, and she could pry-

“Not a chance,” Dawn warned. “And yes, everything. From summoning circles to spells to enchanted weapons. I’ve done it all. And I’m still here.”

Ayseor thought, There has to be a way, right? Theoretically, if she could-

“If that worked, I would’ve done it,” Dawn muttered. “The nature of this realm is that it’s a magical prison, no matter how much it wants to fool me into thinking it’s my new home. You can only go in, but that’s it. There’s no escape. For me, at least. I can contact dragons in Sornieth telepathically, I can send holograms, but I can't go there physically."

Ayseor closed her eyes, and reopened them. “So I’m stuck here for eternity?”

Dawn didn’t meet her gaze. “Yes,” she whispered, staring off into the distance where the new moon was supposed to be. “You are.”

---

“...what,” Ayseor did a double take, before turning to her aunt. “... was that you?”

A single, terse shake of the latter’s head shut that suspicion down.

The tremor that both of them had felt was definitely not natural. Ayseor sighed, rather unsure to do in this situation, but by silent agreement they went to check it out.

---

They found a sparkling lump at the end of the abandoned ruins, the same place where Ayseor herself and Eliana had fallen down long ago.

Dawn checked that the orange flowers blooming along the clearing were fine (Ayseor had never really learnt the story behind them), before the ball of light that whizzed near the glowing Skydancer’s head faded out of existence.

Ayseor looked up, but all she saw was blackness and a tiny pinprick of white at the top that immediately blinked out of existence.

“Go hide yourself,” Dawn’s voice was deliberately pitched low.

Her niece didn’t need to ask why.

Having strong Shadow magic had its advantages, and she intended to make full use of it. Ayseor sunk into the shadows as Dawn sat on a ruined pillar that used to be an archway.

---

Dawn let out a quiet, yet bitter, laugh.

“So. Dusk’s hidden herself away in the Hewn City. I suppose that does count as a victory, then."

Crystalline inclined his head silently.

The pale Skydancer waited as the morning sun bathed the three of them in a warm orange-gold.

“Ignatius?”

Dawn stiffened noticeably, and her voice was dangerously icy.

“Dead.”

“My condolences,” the Imperial winced, looking thoroughly regretful that he had asked in the first place.

"...you didn't know. I can't fault you."

"...still."

There was a pause.

“My life is a mess,” Dawn stated flatly. “First I get abducted and kicked out from my own kingdom right after my coronation-”

“You what?!”

“Then, I take my kingdom back, get overthrown over a supposed scandal, and then end up here thanks to Ignatius and his most loyal followers imprisoning me here with their own magic. Okay, but then Eliana falls down here, I take care of her for a while, then she leaves without warning and the next place I find her is over Ignatius’ dying figure. You know the rest, but at least I don’t have any more annoying sisters trying to steal the throne from me. The… ah... only downside is that I can’t get out of this dimension, not that I want to. I hear Sornieth is a right royal mess these days. Forbidden Portals here, the Zodiac constellation spirits falling from the sky there, and Runescar Lynxes have decided to mob every single dragon they come across.”

“Runescar Lynxes are a pain to deal with,” Ayseor agreed. “...Zodiac constellation spirits?”

Dawn then reminded everyone present that she grew up navigating the deadly decadent courts of nobility by keeping her face perfectly neutral and giving nothing away.

“I am interested in keeping my descendants alive and well as possible to the best of my ability, but I am not mollycoddling them,” Dawn returned her questioning look with a cool gaze, then looked down. “Anyway, does anyone know how I’m suddenly wearing this new necklace with the Light emblem on it?”

“...no,” Ayseor admitted, while Crystalline simply tried to take up less space.

“...let me fix that,” Dawn glanced in his direction as he suddenly became much smaller.

“...what.”

“It’s my dimension,” was the response. “I’m allowed to break the laws of physics.”

---

“...really?” Dawn looked down at the four eggs she was suddenly holding. “Everyone knows I’ve failed as a mother…”

Ayseor motioned for her to go on.

“Dawn Jr is okay, even if she acts eccentric to throw everyone off the trail that she’s a highly manipulative chessmaster,” Dawn Sr glanced at Crystalline as she kept her face perfectly neutral. “Elio…?”

“Current king, decent, but slightly rash. He’s alright, so no harm done there?”

“His four siblings died because on an error on my part…” Dawn just sighed and started at the ground.

“Look at it this way, at least he’s still alive and well, his kids are too,” Crystalline ventured. “Vicky’s doing fine too; her descendants are thriving.”

“...then there’s Golden and the whole reason why I’m in this mess.”

“Well… Golden’s the Light Representative now, so…”

The golden Skydancer let out yet another hollow laugh, and the way her antennae drooped involuntarily was highly telling. Ayseor thus surprised her by giving her a hug. Dawn stiffened, but she accepted it anyway.

---

The eggs hatched as Ayseor sucked in a breath.

Dawn scooped up the youngest hatchling (a male, younger carbon copy of herself) and cuddled him before doing the same with the rest. While the Skydancer allowed herself to at least show a bit of her true feelings and relax, Crystalline was busy thinking of names.

“How does Zeus sound?” he asked Ayseor as the latter shrugged.

“Your hatchlings, your choice.”

The magically-shrunk Imperial just sighed and went over.

Five minutes later, they had decided on names after using Ayseor (who had been very reluctant) as a sounding board.

“Right, they’re now your problem,” Ayseor declared. “I’m going to go retrieve the McGuffin you made me stick at the top of that mountain over there. Bye.”

The older dragons gave her a Death Glare.

---

“You’re afraid,” Ayseor said bluntly.

Dawn stiffened. Briefly. Then she maintained her composure, perfected from years surviving in the royal court. “Oh?” the equivalent of an eyebrow arched high as the now-suffocating divine aura pressed down on Ayseor.

Ayseor swallowed down the bile, and continued, “You’re afraid of what your children will think of you. You could’ve easily forced a portal open when the Forbidden Portal opened. If you truly wanted revenge on your sister, you would’ve sent me because I’ve already proven myself to be strong enough. But you didn’t. Crystalline opened a portal the other day, and successfully threw a live mouse through. It survived. Which leads me to think that-”

Faster than she could blink, Dawn’s gleaming mechanical arm shot out and grabbed her throat. The only indication Ayseor gave in response was to look down with slightly widened eyes as her throat visibly constricted.

“Do not test my patience,” her aunt practically hissed before she released the hold on her. Ayseor staggered back slightly and collided into the bookshelf behind her. Backing down wouldn’t do any good (plus there was no room to back down). So she forced herself to remain calm, and look her aunt in the eyes.

“You’re in denial,” she guessed with a slight rasp after thinking through these facts. “Or you just don’t want to admit it. It’s unhealthy for your mental health, you know.”

“You presume too much,” Dawn seethed, a ball of light already growing in her dominant claw as the glowing aura around her intensified even further. “Your unfounded accusations-”

“I’ll say they’re pretty full of evidence,” Ayseor dug into the well of magic that she had taken from Autumnwind's talisman, and blocked the bolt of light with a shaky earthen spire. Oh, gods, she hadn’t thought this through, had she? Dawn was stronger than she had expected - clearly, her aunt had been going easy on her before this.

She was starting to doubt her own judgement.

There was a window behind her, so she used a tendril of earth to open it, and she went crashing through to avoid the steady stream of instant death fire, straight into where Penthesilea was watering the marigolds, hydrangeas and eglantines. She landed in the ferns and rolled onto where the dills and daffodils were growing.

“Did you get defenestrated by Mother?”

Ayseor didn’t respond as a thick book flew out of the window and landed in the rhododendrons.

That immediately answered her question, so she didn’t answer, dodged the book and briefly read the title before crashing into the hyacinths. OW.

The next barrage of white fire nearly scorched Ayseor’s tail, but she quickly erected a clay wall behind her and it quickly hardened into a much better defensive barrier.

A scarily livid Dawn charged out of the front door, holding an oversized sword and tried to ram her through with it. Ayseor didn't know whether to be more afraid of the fact that Dawn's eyes were glowing a harsh flaxen, or the fact that she was wielding said sword with one claw.

“OI! NO STEPPING ON THE FLOWERS!” Pen hollered, but Dawn paid her no mind, and with a single swing of the sword, the entire garden got set on fire.

“My flowers,” Pen moaned as Ayseor yelled an apology. “I spent ages growing these flowers!”

Everything else was drowned out by the roaring flames, before Ayseor crashed, yet again, mouth-open and straight into some bitter-tasting plant.

She spat the taste out, and Pen quickly joined her.

“...my wormwood, you uprooted it.”

“Sorry!”

“It’s fine, there’s more growing on the other side.”

“...why do you even grow poppies together with wormwood?!”

“There’s frangipani, too.”

“...why?”

“I didn’t, Dawn planted them- no, my aloe veras, I was growing those to make a healing salve-”
As they quickly flew off, they could see that part (plus the entire section dedicated to white flowers) get engulfed in flames too.

“...my asphodels! I needed those for their leaves!”

“Too late, let’s run!”

---

The last gout of flame shot out between the cracks of the rock while Pen checked that her scarf was intact and Ayseor thickened the makeshift wall, before the embers faded as quickly as they had come.

“...is she still there?”

There was no response.

Ayseor quickly spent the next few precious seconds fortifying her defensive wall, before peeking out with Pen.

Dawn was gone without a trace.

“...I think you broke her,” Pen remarked faintly.

“...whoops.”

---

“Where’s Dawn?”

Ayseor feigned casual ignorance. “Out. Don’t know.”

Crystalline looked like he wanted to argue, but kept quiet anyway and didn’t prod further.

“I see the garden’s a right royal mess,” Crystalline prodded the burnt remains of what looked like a cypress stump. Judging by the angle of the top, it was likely that Dawn had also felled this cypress tree in one swing and used it as more kindling. “...did Dawn set everything on fire again?”

“...maybe? How did you- oh, right.”

Ayseor remembered that literally only Dawn and Prometheus could magically set things on fire, but Prometheus was busy with Zeus. In addition, the entire garden had turned into a smoking mess, and Ayseor was still fanning the thick smog out of her face.

“Pen told me,” the Imperial turned to look at her with an unreadable expression on his face. “...I’ve known Dawn since she was a hatchling. Used to be her father’s best warrior, but I took an arrow to the knee and I trained dragons instead.”

Ayseor couldn’t tell if he was joking or not.

“So… you’re old enough to be her father? That’s…”

“You’re not exactly the best judge of that.”

Ayseor paused. Considering her own heritage... the Imperial was right.

“...I think I broke her, and I don’t know where she went.”

Silence for a bit.

“...ah, did you talk about her constant tendency to run away from problems?”

“...that’s always been a thing? Huh.”

“She... has a tendency to repress her emotions, because emotions are linked to control of the fire, but that means that when she does feel any strong emotion, it almost always emerges as an outburst - either emotional and/or magical,” Crystalline spread his claws. “Her paranoia coupled with her experiences with confronting problems head-on… I'm not surprised. She probably fled to her usual spot for some alone time to calm down, and she's probably beating herself up over it again.”

An awkward pause, during which Ayseor shifted to make herself more comfortable.

“Still…,” he cleared his throat, “she does still have her own problems to sort through, and being alone isn’t going to cut it.”

“So… you’re going to talk to her.”

“Actually, I was hoping you’d volunteer.”

“Eh? Why?”

“Like you said, I’m old enough to be her father. She... doesn’t exactly fare the best with the older generation, or with most of her peers,” Crystalline involuntarily touched a scar on his lower neck. “But you… you've been around for long enough and you've seen her at her worst without condemning her for it. She'll react much more positively to you.”

“I’m the one that made her snap, though… Can you… hide behind a rock or something?”

“That, I can do.”

---

She found Dawn staring at the scenery.

Ayseor couldn’t exactly fault her; the mountainous valley below them genuinely was breathtaking, especially with the crystal clear river sparkling from below and the evergreens dotting the sides of the banks. She could see the appeal in the location.

A slight breeze momentarily rustled the fur on her back, and turned into a stronger gale below, where the watery reflections of the sky above became muddied by ripples. This also had the effect of Dawn stiffening slightly and freezing.

...whoops.

Should she have the first word? What would happen if Dawn was still enraged? Should she chance it and run? Choices, choices, choices. Ayseor tried to carefully weight each one, but the sheer proximity to her aunt made her hesitate ever so slightly.

And ever so slightly turned out to be too late indeed.

“Good evening.”

Ayseor blinked in mild surprise. She had expected… well… incoherent screaming, arguments, fire being thrown, the works, but... a relaxed greeting?

No, not relaxed. Calm, yes, but with a steely edge. The kind that told people that she wasn’t happy, but wasn’t going to throw a hissy fit over it. Phew.

“...good evening?”

Dawn silently indicated the empty space next to her with a shift of her tail. Gulping silently, she sat down next to where her aunt proffered a pair of tinted sunglasses.

Guess she didn’t have a choice then.

She put the sunglasses on, and yeah, she could immediately see why. The sun chose that exact moment to peek out of the clouds, and she knew that if she hadn’t been wearing them she would most likely have been blinded because ow, it was bright even with them on. She still winced slightly at the shaft of light that pierced her eyes, though.

“Enjoying the view?”

Ayseor nearly sputtered at the implications, then caught the ghost of a smile on Dawn’s muzzle. Oh, yes, she had definitely planned that.

She decided to play it cool. “It’s pretty, sure, but I thought there would be more… flowers or something.”

“They’re evergreens, they don’t flower,” Dawn dryly responded, but from this distance Ayseor could see flowers and specks of colours now starting to dot the valley. “Still, you’re right, it is a bit bland. Hmm...”

Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Crystalline doing his level best to hide behind the now-mossy boulder. He was doing a terrible job, but she really didn't have the heart to tell him that.

A pause.

“...do tell Pen I’m sorry about her plants,” Dawn continued flatly, “I’ll help her regrow them.”

“...about that,” Ayseor glanced back in the general direction of their house, “...you burnt down almost the entirety of the garden. Knowing her… protective tendencies…”

Dawn silently winced. “...I’ll... find a way to make it up to her.”

It wasn’t much, but it was still something, at least. Ayseor glanced down at the valley now in full bloom, then concluded that maybe Dawn could just regrow the entire garden, but the sincerity was… questionable.

Belatedly, she remembered that Dawn could read minds within this realm. Oh. Uh… Ayseor started internally panicking.

"No, you're right," Dawn quietly kept her gaze focused on the horizon. "Just regrowing it with a snap of my claws would be shallow and Pen might be offended by the lack of sincerity. I..."

There was a pause.

"I will admit that I tend to run from my problems far too often and I don't try to fix them, or I go for the easy way out. The last time I did try to solve them, everything became worse, so..." She spread her claws when she couldn't find the words to continue. "I... no matter how much I want to face them, I... simply can’t bring myself to do so. People have told me to try, and I have. Tried, I mean, but nothing I do changes anything, or it just becomes worse. So... running became a habit, then a tendency, and now... it's an instinctive reaction, I suppose." Dawn sighed and grimaced. "...I've failed in all respects - as a mother, as a queen, and as a person. I don't deserve to-"

"You're at least trying, though," Ayseor gently pointed out, fully aware she was treading a verbal minefield now. "You're trying to make things better, even though it doesn't look that way. You're trying to atone by fixing your perceived mistakes, even though you're still afraid of failure. I... should apologise as well, I was too harsh earlier, and..."

"Don't apologise."

"Sorry?"

"I needed to hear harsh criticism. I was too focused on wallowing in self-pity trying to fix my earlier errors to notice what I was doing and snap out of it. Still, it was my fault for not fully explaining my rationale. When I meant ‘I can only teleport non-living things to Sornieth’, I meant that living things with magic naturally inside will have that magic interfere with the anti-teleportation spells on this place. So… familiars are hard, dragons are downright impossible, but mice contain so little magic it’s practically negligible. As for Crystalline… I suspect it’s because his magic’s the least similar to mine, bar yours. This place was meant to contain me, so naturally it’ll stop any teleportation spells involving my magic - even with the Forbidden Portal opening - and it’s why I have to resort to loopholes. I... That does not excuse my earlier behaviour, and-"

Ayseor glanced at Crystalline, who made a motion towards her.

"I... probably should return, but I think Crystalline wants to tell you something?"

Dawn glanced at her warily, then at the Imperial trying and failing miserably to hide behind the boulder. Silently, she gave him a look, which he return with a helpless shrug.

"Ah. Then... I won't stop you."

---

"Dawn."

"Crystalline."

"Take your time. Nobody's expecting you to magically recover from your scars overnight. I know it's difficult, and I know you may feel lost at times, but we're here for you. If you need anything, just reach out. I'm still here."

"I- I... I don't deserve this, I-"

"Come here."

"..."

"..."

"...it's been far too long since I was embraced like this, I think."

"I know. That's why I'm doing it."

"I... can we... stay here first? I..."

"Sure. Take as long as you need."

"I- ...sorry."

"Don't be. You..."

"..."

"...Dawn?"

"..."

"...ah. ...sleep well, then."