Heart

Valerian speaks to a daydreamer; someone who spends their time attracting what they want so desperately, imitating it in all they do. Valerian releases the rigidity of life and identity, and relaxes into something more fluid, yet also still pining for something wanted under the surface.

If Valerian is imitating what you want, St. John's Wort is taking it - it steals the sun and the warmth of the summer and traps it until it's needed in the dead dark depths of winter. But St. John's Wort doesn't warm itself. The piece of the sun it's got is given out freely to others instead.

Vervain is the mark of significant magic. If that magic is real or simply an imagined effect, it's up to you to decide - but whatever it is, it's powerful. Powerful enough that no one is intent on getting too close, lest they get sick from its magic overwhelming them.

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Heart is the kind of dragon you hear about in generations-old whispers and songs that no one knows the writer of. It's the kind of dragon that only inhabits fairytales and folklore.

And yet, you can see him yourself if you know where to look - somewhere in wilds of the Ice flight is a pink tent that's never in the same place twice and stays warmer than any dragon in these lands are used to. If you decide to poke your head inside, you'll see a pink dragon with fluttering wings and an irresistibly charming smile.

Spend a day with him and you'll find the love of your life, goes the old song. Spend a week and you'll find the secret of happiness. Spend a month and you'll find out why no one ever stays longer.

Another dragon wanders in lonely and leaves the tent, a gem pulsing with light clutched in their claws, giddy and excited and fearful of the miracle they think they witnessed inside. The curtains close and Heart's enigmatic grin falls. The strange warmth disappears. There's no point in smiling for an empty tent - there is no point in magic without an audience.

Heart reaches for the gem that he gives to no one - hidden behind all the draped silks and jewels. He turns it in his claws. One day, he supposes, he hopes - it will start shining like the rest of them do, showing him the way to the one thing he can give others and yet can't seem to capture himself.

Footsteps crunch on the snow outside. He stows the gem away, puts on the smile like a mask - and prepares to perform another miracle.