Roleplay

"Quite alright." Brudigan assured as he fluttered over, eyeing Val's wounds critically. "My assistant and Ozzie's mate,-" here he motioned to the Tundra in question, "-are just filling them in on recent developments regarding this clan. They weren't inclined to listen to myself or any other male for that matter. Quite understandable, I suppose, but rather grating for an old scholar like me. Now..." He trailed off as he made some motions with his claws and presently, Val was wreathed in the green of a healing spell.
"Have you seen Nighte around?" Azrael asked, with a touch of concern. Having found Val was wonderful, but Nighte was still a friend and there was always the chance that not every male had gone out to fight and had decided to do what Aspen had done.

Val sighed in relief as the green washed over her broken scales. She nodded to Ozzie when Azrael mentioned him, and nodded again as Brudigan explained what was going on. "I won't blame them for not trusting males." She said with a small shrug. "I can't imagine they'll be very eager to speak to any fire dragons any time soon."
"And you're an exception to this rule?" Ozzie asked, shaking himself again. The air down here was oppressive, and he didn't like it.
"I was never as affected as some of them." Val said, stretching herself out to full length now that she didn't hurt. "In some ways, at least." She fell quiet as Annian poked her head out and looks around at the gathering.
"They've agreed that starting somewhere new would be the best plan. Some want to go home to their birth clans. If there are any of the Storm that could come down and help escort, that'd be great." She drew back inside before anyone could answer, blocking most of the door neatly with her back and half-spread wings.
Ozzie sighed heavily. "She's gone protective. Maybe some of them would like to come south with us, and swear vows." He perked up a little at that idea. "I'll go get some of the female members of the Wrathful Storm."

----
Nighte had made it down to the deeper levels of the lair, where actual cells and prisoners were kept. It had taken her a while (she hadn't come straight here) but she didn't expect anyone to be down here. All Smoke's males would have rushed to the fighting, and any prisoners they kept would have escaped the shoddily crafted cages given half a chance.
The imperial skulking in a corner caught her by surprise. He didn't move to attack, even though the most visible part of her was her ice-white eyes.
He lifted his head to watch her, streaks of shadow still clinging to his face and neck. The corrosive spell had eaten away at his scales, but for the most part he looked unhurt. And just like with Issiran, Nighte knew deep in her chest that this dragon was hers.
Either he didn't feel the same bond, or he ignored it. "Haven't you done enough?" He rasped. "Either kill me or leave me to someone who will."
"Why would I kill you?" Nighte asked, and added another, more painful sentence after that. "I don't even know you."
"You've done a pretty good job killing of the rest of my clan." Lantern retorted. "So why stop now?"
"This clan has done wrong to many, many dragons." Nighte started, but Lantern snarled at her. It was the first sign of emotion she'd seen from him.
"Every dragon carries the sins of his father." He said. "There's no use pretending we can all start clean. In one way or another, dragons ended up here. And I was one of them. So where does that leave me? I'm not a victim. I am not the wronged one here." He stared at her, hot orange eyes daring her to disagree. "I am one of them." He finished finally. "So kill me, and have done with it."
Nighte stared at him, stricken, unable to agree or disagree.

"No, I haven't seen her. Likely she's got something on her mind she wants to see to but I wouldn't know where to start looking." Brudigan replied, settling on Azrael's head. "It might be best to let her do whatever she went to do."
"Or, maybe you should go and find her. Garm informs me he has seen her while watching over some of the hatchlings here. It may be best for her if someone found her before she finds trouble that'll cut her to the soul." Opined Gulmour.
Azrael glanced at Val half guiltily.
"Do you mind...?" He begun awkwardly as Gulmour detached himself from the shadows on the wall and into the tunnel proper.

Val flinched a little at Gulmor's sudden appearance. She pretended she hadn't, but knew it had been visible. "I'll come with you." She said, unwilling to let him out of her sight. "I wouldn't mind meeting this dragoness. And besides, I'm the one who's been living here for the past few years."
"Where would she go?" Val asked, stopping at the juncture of two tunnels and peering both ways. "That way's the exit. This leads to the deeper layers."

----

"I can't." Nighte whispered.
"Can't? Or won't?" Lantern snarled. "Kill me. Or I'll kill you." He moved more quickly than she ever could have imagined, claws flashing up and stopping under her jaw.

"Deeper. Smoke might be dead, but she had hatchlings here she wants to find. Issiran was one of hers, but she had others; She wants to find them and try and reconnect with them." Azrael explained. "Gulmour, do you mind showing us the way?" He asked.
"But of course." The Pearlcatcher said, sidling past Val close to the wall and rubbing past her in a seemingly innocent maneuver that nonetheless made Azrael growl low at the edge of hearing as he perceived it.

Val tried very very hard not to flinch away from the unexpected contact. She didn't bother to stifle the growl that rumbled deep through her bones, and the glare she shot at Gulmor. "Sorry." She said pointedly. "I haven't had a lot of pleasant dragons touching me lately." She glanced back apologetically at Azrael, flicking her tail around his foot in an attempt to keep him from overreacting. She could handle everything just fine.

---

Nighte felt the cold magic draw around her like a shroud, though she hadn't summoned it. She couldn't hurt him. She couldn't. "Please." She said instead. "I know you. I know who you are."
Lantern hissed and dug his claws a little into the side of her neck. "You don't know anything." At first she thought he was done with speaking, that she was dead then and there. But... "You left." He said, his voice breaking. The utter rage was gone, replaced by something all too close to despair. "And we were here."
"I'm sorry." Nighte whispered back, each word digging his claws a little further down her throat. "I'm so sorry."

Gulmour cocked his head to the side.
"You may want to hurry, it seems the trouble isn't over yet." He said to Azrael, referring to the not-so-quiet, distorted growling coming from up ahead.
"Then let's hurry up then." Azrael stated.
A few twists and turns later and Gulmour skidded to a stop.
"Oh-" Without further elaboration, he dived into the shadows again, leaving Azrael face to face with an Imperial that currently had Nighte by the throat and oddly, it didn't appear as though Nighte had fought back.
"Let her go. It's over. Your clan is broken. You can leave and try and start anew elsewhere and leave this place and your actions behind or I'll finish you and leave you to decay with the others." Azrael stated. "So let her go, or it'll be the worse for you."

Val came to an abrupt halt next to Azrael. She recognized the male imperial, and not vaguely. He was one of Smoke's lieutenants. And if he had not lingered over her pain, he hadn't done anything to stop it either.
"Oh good, more of your 'liberators'." Lantern snarled. "There is no choice for me, wind dragon. Why would I choose a life in another clan? When everyone would know what I was? What I did? Why would I choose that, over death?"
"Coward." Nighte hisses from underneath his claws. Lantern dug his claws a little deeper, and the first drops of her blood touched the warm stone floor. "Dying when you should be fighting for your own redemption."
"Shut up." Lantern shook his head as if to clear her words out of his ears. His glance falls over to Val, and fixes on her. "Why don't you say anything? You know. You do it then. Kill me."
Val unconsciously bared her teeth, and her shoulders tensed up. "I know you." She responded tautly. Lantern had always been punctilious in carrying out his duties. He had broken her bones without a qualm, without a second thought. Just because he didn't take the same sick pleasure from it that Smoke did didn't mean he was innocent. "But I won't kill you. I don't need to."

"You know, if you're simply too lazy and too stupid to think of ways to make up for what you've done here, maybe I'd better do dragonkind a favour and kill you." Azrael stated coolly, coiling subtly.
He was still charged with magic to the extent he could probably blow this dragon straight through the walls and out into the open if he put his mind to it.
His patience was wearing thin and he'd already made good on his promise to try and talk this dragon out of fighting. This last chance was more for Nighte's sake than this other Imperial's.
"It's not that difficult: join the exalted go hunt Reavers in the Scarred Wasteland or just hunt bandits wherever they can be found. Forget this place. Don't even try and earn the forgiveness of those who you wronged because it's a lost cause. You probably already hate me. Frankly, I don't care one way or the other. This isn't even the first clan I've broken in this manner. All you need do is change and move on." He continued, pacing forward subtly, looking for a better angle to make his move from. "Walk away now. For your sake if not your mother's, because I'm only talking now out of obligation to her."

"You make it sound so simple." Lantern said with a bitter laugh. He twisted his neck to bare it to the green dragon. It was a broken mockery of the gesture Azrael had given to Nighte in the caves of Junchiro. "Take it then. Whatever obligation you have is done."
Nighte closed her eyes. "I don't know your name." She spoke in mourning, as if he was already dead.
Lantern shook his head, just the tiniest bit. "It isn't the one you would have given me." He said. "It's done."

Val found she couldn't look away from the spectacle, though she was feeling more than a little voyeuristic watching it. She could only tear her eyes away to Azrael.