Children skate on frozen rivers with pet dogs, between roads where carts carry in war rations. A woman hauls a basket of fish while her daughter tumbles in the snow ahead of her. I draw my fur skin around me, trying to cover gaps through which the chilly air can penetrate my skin. I wonder how Gale's mother, Ilya, is faring her hometown on the Etruria-Ilia border.

'Could it be...?' A man's gasp catches my ear. Before I can check behind, a hand grabs my wrist and draws me to his chest. He cries, 'Lady Priscilla! I'm truly—!'

'Get off me!' I shove him away. He is a man in his 40s or 50s with shark-like eyes and a mercenary's build.

'M-My apologies!' He shouts at a heightened pitch, 'I mistook your flaming red hair for my love's.'

'I'm not Lady Priscilla, whoever that is,' I dust myself off, 'also, I'm promised to another.'

'I never had those intentions towards you,' the man grumbles, whistling for a wyvern to keep up with him, 'your features are far too fierce to be the Lady Priscilla. Plus, you're too young for me.'

I step towards his wyvern. Its scales are scarred from harsh weather and age, 'were you a knight of the Bern army?'

'Heath,' the man places his hand on the wyvern's neck, 'this is Hyperion.'

'Heath?!' That was the name of Gale's first mentor in wyvern-back combat. Heath, a deserter from Bern who had resigned himself to being a contracted mercenary in Ilia, 'then you must know Gale!'

'Ah! That young boy!' Heath snaps his fingers, 'I knew from our first meeting that he was made to soar the skies on a wyvern. It sounds like he earned a place in the Bern army. You must be his comrade.'

'Well, yes, I'm Miledy- actually, he and I were meant to be engaged but I was sent on an urgent mission.'

'I'm sorry for prying,' Heath walks alongside me with his hands in his pockets, watching the ground. His strong but measured stride reminds me of Gale.

'It's fine,' I grip onto Trifinne's reins, drawing her closer to me, 'once I find Princess Guinevere, I'll return us to Bern and fight alongside Gale again.'

'The princess has been kidnapped?' Heath's eyes widen.

'No, she ran away with her other lady-in-waiting, a cleric named Ellen.' Did they manage to find General Roy? What are those two up to? 'Princess Guinevere wanted to speak with General Roy from the Lycian army. I don't know why.'

'Miledy,' Heath invites me to sit along the wall of a frozen fountain, 'do you think they've sided with Etruria and the Lycian Allance?'

'The princess is loyal to Bern! She could never—!' My voice breaks in the cold, dry air.

'But what if it is King Zephiel's collaborators who are the ones inflicting harm on the world?' Heath concentrates on cracking his knuckles, 'in which case, the princess may be deviating from her brother's orders to bring justice. Have you not noticed the people who flee upon seeing your wyvern and Bern insignia?'

Heath looks up at the snowflakes glittering in the sky. They dissolve into a white blanket that covers the ground, 'sometimes, the only way to save your country from tyrants is to turn against it, at least for a while. I had high hopes after Prince Zephiel assumed the throne. But I hoped too soon.'

'But Lord Murdock taught us that...' He had given lectures about Bern's duty to protect the continent from Etrurian domination. Only if Bern succeeded could people of all backgrounds hope to flourish, a condition that Etrurian classism would forbid. Were those seminars part of an elaborate lie? 'Heath… Why did you desert?'

'I deserted after my leader ordered me to spare no one, even women and children,' Heath takes a dried fish out of his satchel and throws it to Hyperion, 'I wish I could return to my home. But there's still a bounty on my head and I have no illusions about the heinous acts that the Bern army has justified.'

'Heath,' I recall the cowering children and their parents who glared when I landed in neighbouring territories, the destroyed villages that Bern had seized from Etruria by force. Prior to the war, people either greeted Trifinne and me with curiosity or admiration, 'what if I'm on the wrong side?'

'You should get the story from Princess Guinevere,' Heath places a heavy hand on my shoulder, 'I've been away from my country for too long to know.'

'If my loyalty is to Princess Guinevere- and she sides with Etruria, then I would need to follow,' my lungs are vacuum-packed sacks, 'Gale and I will be forced to... To...'

'You mustn't despair,' Heath's eyes water in the snow's glare, 'we still don't know-.'

'What if I lose Gale?! He'll never betray Bern, the country that saved him from poverty under Etrurian rule.' How can I think of raising my weapon against Gale? I remember the dawns he and I trained together before royal staff assemblies, his support for me in the King's Court when Narcian almost had me expelled, the Ilian mission we undertook so he could fulfil the requirements to be considered a Dragon Lord and I be reinstated as Princess Guinevere's bodyguard. Most vividly, I picture the marriage proposal he made on the Bern capital's outskirts with a handwritten note and ruby circlet. That note is still in my satchel.

'Miledy, you didn't fall in love to the beat of an anthem!' Heath grabs both my shoulders and tries to shake sense into me, 'when you're an exile like me, you realise that love is about the connection of souls, not the flags people fight under!'

'Flags...' The Bern flag hanging in Mother's study flashes before me. What would she think if she knew of my wavering loyalty to the country she built? Mother, I'm sorry for being an ungrateful daughter!

'Lu, please,' Miledy's father, Ari, touches his wife's sallow cheek, 'Lu, my love...'

Lurja's vision of Ari's rectangular face and crewcut black hair is dim. Her fingers hook around his sturdy hand. She whispers, 'Ari... Has Miledy... Where is she? Is she... Comfortable?'

Miledy's grandpa pushes the door, using his foot to hold it open while carrying a dinner tray in both hands. The tray holds a steaming bowl of watery goat stew and two mint leaves, 'Lu-lu, you gave your old man quite a fright. Ari said you fainted in the stables. Maybe this soup will help.'

'Thank you, Father,' Lurja's face crinkles when she tries to haul herself into a sitting position. Her husband pulls her up like a mannequin, 'thank you, Ari...' She spoons the stew into her mouth. Her hand trembles, causing the cloudy broth to dribble down her chin. Ari uses a handkerchief to clean her face.

'That big goat I was saving for Milly and Sir Gale's wedding had an infection in its legs and rump,' Grandpa slumps beside his daughter. Her skin is a fibrous casing around her bony arms, 'all I could make from the remaining parts was this watery stew.'

'It's delicious, Father,' Lurja leans right over the bowl like a dog to stop the fallout staining the sheets. Her spine protrudes out the base of her neck. With the soup level barely down the length of a pinkie fingernail, Lurja wipes her mouth and places the tray to one side. Ari and Grandpa reposition the pillow to catch her head as it lolls back against the bed head.

'Miledy...' A film of saliva forms between Lurja's lips. It pops when she whispers again, '... Love your country... And... Don't…'

'Come on, Lu-lu!' Grandpa exchanges a panicked look with Ari, 'Milly's a big girl and killer wyvern rider. I'm sure she could take down Ari and me combined! She'll come back, safe with the princess and Miss Elli! Just hang on, Lu-lu!'

Lurja's head tilts towards her husband. Her fair eyelashes flitter like moth wings, 'I'd like to take a nap...'

'As you wish, my love,' Ari kisses her forehead before ushering Grandpa out of the bedroom.

Upon closing the door, Grandpa sobs into the bottom of his oil-splattered apron, 'it's not natural, son... An old man is meant to go before his child. What did Lu-lu ever do wrong?'

'I've asked Lord Murdock to urgently send a palace doctor,' Ari pushes Grandpa along the corridor, trying to keep their conversation from reaching his wife's ears, 'she might have just dislocated or broken something during the fall.'

'You don't understand, Ari!' Grandpa points with a bleeding fingernail to Lurja and Ari's bedroom, 'didn't you see her? It's like she's lost the will to live! Does she have so little faith in Milly's ability to rescue the princess?!'

'I don't know...' Ari gazes at the closed door, 'according to Lord Murdock, Sir Gale will be joining Miledy's search for the princess in the Western Isles. Perhaps that will be a chance to inform Miledy about her mother's ill health so she will return as soon as possible. I will discuss it with Zeiss first.'