Oh, how I hated the faeries then. I loathed them all, bitterly cursing them in my mind, venomous thoughts circling around like skeletal wings. I followed the light faerie back down into the dungeons and my cell, where I was once again securely fastened to the floor. But she did not leave then, as I expected she would. Instead she was joined by an earth faerie bearing a gold ring of sort. I backed away as far as I could with the chains.
"Stay away from me!" I cried, twisting desperately.
"Hush little zafara," the faerie replied mockingly, kneeling before me, "I will not hurt you if you hold still."
"I hate you! I hate you all!"
She laughed and grabbed both my ears, pulling them sharply back and forcing my chin up. I gasped and struggled, the bonds on my wrist cutting in sharply on my skin. I felt that cold metal being lifted around my head to rest upon my neck. It fit tight, somehow. She let go of my ears and I raised a paw to my neck, feeling the thin loop of gold that rested snugly in my fur.
"You'd better hope your owner behaves herself," the earth faerie said in a snigger, "Lest something bad happen."
"Why are you doing this!" I cried, "What have I done? Nothing!"
"You are a thief," she retorted, "You should be glad you are getting through this with your freedom."
Then they left me, alone in the cold. I sat on the floor and stared at the stone bottom of the cell, feeling the gold around my neck. The world had gone mad around me. There was no good and evil anymore; everywhere I turned I saw bitter hatred and malice. Even my owner, the person I had trusted through everything, was not what she seemed. An assassin. I remembered Taffin's feint to preserve Angel's life when we were allied with Malkus Vile. I remembered MiracleStar's stony silence after her bid for Jaix's freedom in the Lost Desert. I remembered Diganis and Zarrel warning me to let her tell the story on her own time.
It was a long time before they came for me again. The light faerie took the chains off of me and unbound my wings.
"Don't try anything," she warned, "That collar will choke you with a word from us."
"Are you the ones that destroyed Diganis's wings?" I growled.
"Yes, that would be us. We obey only Fyora."
She smiled coldly at me and gestured for me to follow. I trailed in her wake and was soon joined by a couple other faeries leading Jaix, Taffin and Skyil. They all wore collars identical to mine. We grouped close together and the three whispered questions to me. I ignored them, even when Skyil turned tear-filled eyes towards mine.
We were thrust into the antechamber again and left there. MiracleStar alone was there, her back turned to us and hands folded across her chest. I glanced at my siblings and stepped forwards, my claws ticking loudly against the marble floor. I stopped behind her.
"I don't care what you were," I said, emphasizing the use of past tense, "because that doesn't matter. I did some horrible things before I was sent to the pound..."
And here my voice cracked. I saw my owner, heard his last words to me. "And I always loved you, Tif495."
I gathered myself together and continued.
"We've all done things we aren't proud of. But we're the Dragon Thieves; we're a family. I don't care how many people you can name that died by your dagger. I don't care at all. It doesn't matter because you're MiracleStar and I would follow you to the ends of Neopia."
"Do you know why I carry a stiletto?" she whispered, "It's because it's easy to kill with. A clean kill. If you get them right at the neck, where the skull joins the spine, they die instantly. No mess, no sound. Just death."
"You're trying to send us away," I retorted, "Better to just hurt us all right now and never have to hurt us again or be hurt. It's not going to work. We're tough, remember? You made us that way. We'll just sit here and take it and sooner or later you'll have to realize that we're not going away."
She shuddered and turned to face us, gracefully dropping into a cross-legged position on the floor. We gathered around her. She started to speak a couple times, then stopped herself each time. Finally she dropped her gaze, unable to meet our eyes.
"I don't want to involve you any more than you already are," she murmured, "so I'll give you what you need to know and nothing more."
We remained quiet and somehow I suspected she was surprised at no resistance.
"I'm an assassin. I've been one for Fyora since I was old enough to successfully carry out a mission. I was sixteen when I first killed. Now I have you and I'm being asked to do this again."
She sighed and a space of silence interposed in her monologue.
"There's a rebellion brewing in Neopia against Fyora. It's gaining quite a bit of power and is using Jhudora as a figurehead. She allows this but contributes nothing more. Success or fail she still wins. She is not our target. Rather, it is the rebellion itself. There are factions of disgruntled faeries and no one knows exactly who is the ringleader of each faction. They have allied themselves with this rebellion for the first time in the history of Neopia. Faeries, humans, and pets. Fyora fears what they can do and has elected to have us take them out."
"So we wade in there, knock them all over the head, and leave the cleanup to Fyora's cronies? Doesn't sound too bad to me," Taffin said nonchalantly.
MiracleStar smiled grimly at him.
"Taffin. I'm an assassin. This is not a - knock them over the head - mission. We'll be using the blade of the dagger instead of the hilt."
He reeled back, looking quite ill. Skyil suppressed a sob.
"Will she leave us alone if we do this?" Jaix asked.
"Yes. Fyora will be unchallenged after this."
"Then we'll do it and add another thing to the memories we want to forget," he said, "and go back to being Dragon Thieves and nothing more."
Slowly, she nodded. I nodded also, and soon the rest were joining in agreement. Assassins now, Dragon Thieves after.
We had little to work off of. Jhudora was a potential lead but no one felt comfortable in taking that route. Skyil expressed serious doubts about being able to read her mind. It was then that Taffin came up with his brilliant, albeit painful, idea.
I was elected to be the one to carry it out. I was the one who adjusted the quickest and besides, I had my capricious talent if all else failed. I believed it would fail without a doubt. But it was the best we had.
Thus I found myself doomed to actually be refined for once. And thus I was forced to act on my own. Fyora quickly acquiesced to our requests and I was given a guestroom in the east wing of the palace, commonly used for visitors. I was a representative of some obscure little island that didn't really exist but sounded believable enough to pass. Fyora's cronies were in on the deception, a fact I resented deeply. One of them was assigned as my personal 'servant' but in reality she was there to make sure I didn't botch anything.
"This is going to be bad, isn't it?" I murmured as she tried to match up jewelry to a dress.
"Perhaps. But I think it is a fine idea," the fire faerie replied, eyeing critically the green against my blue fur.
She shook her head and put it back.
"So go over why this is going to work again."
"You're a visiting representative, ambassador, noble, whatever you want. A couple rumors have already been spread, namely that you're going to cement an alliance with Fyora that makes her influence on Neopia proper much stronger. That's rumor number one. Rumor number two is that you might be inclined to change your mind."
"So the rebellion is going to try to get me to change my mind. As long as it's not by a dagger in the back I'm happy."
"Your brother was quite clever in thinking this up. Here, put this on."
She handed me a slinky black dress and matching gold bracelets and earrings. I reluctantly slipped it on, reflecting that clothing really was not made for zafaras, especially not those with wings. The jewelry came next and I reluctantly set aside the earrings MiracleStar had given me for the ones the faerie had dug up.
"One last thing: whatever you do, if it becomes public we're denying any connections with your actions. Botch it and you're on your own," the fire faerie warned.
"Great. I love being the one putting my tail on the line, let me tell you."
She didn't reply but merely glided out of the room.
"Dinner is in half an hour," she instructed.
And I was alone. My siblings were hanging about the palace, staying out of sight and out of mind. For all intents and purposes they did not exist. It was up to me. I took one last look at myself in the mirror. Black dress covering my blue and yellow-starred fur, jewelry gleaming, the collar at my throat a horrible reminder. And arcing above my head the fragile wings of a dragon. Dragon Thief turned assassin. With one last lingering look I reluctantly headed for the door to see what else fate had in store for me.