The idea that Kisara is alone, that she is the only BEWD left, is one that struck me as important. I'm not sure what made me decide that, but I think it's partly that whenever I see artwork of the BEWD in general, I think . . . that's Kisara. So I just worked my own neurosis into the world-building or something.

Who knows? Maybe I'll play with the idea of her having a family one of these days.

That would be fun.


.


By the time the adults were ready to move again, Sotaro was just barely stirring from sleep. When it became clear just how much more fatigued he was compared to the others, Kohaku quickly plucked the boy up and settled him on his shoulders; this he did without request or prompting. "There we go, little man," he said. "You keep an eye out, okay? You see any new weird shadow monsters, you go ahead and zap them for us."

Sotaro nodded blearily, too tired for words.

As they stepped out of the cave and onto the snowscape of the mountain, Yuki drew her blade from its scabbard. The knights both noticed just how easily she carried it, and obviously knew what it implied about her history; they did not comment on this. Rather, they quickly roped everyone and took up their position as guides, gesturing when needed to keep the outsiders on track; where to step, what to avoid, how to keep their balance.

"Do you know what that magic was?" Kohaku called back to Yugi. "That you summoned, I mean."

Yugi, who had regained control of his body and was now acquainting himself with the mountain and its chill, took time to answer. Eventually he called back: "All I know is, Mahad saved us. I don't know what those things were, but without his help, they would have killed us. I don't know how we would have gotten away."

Yuki had a sudden thought that the knights would have held them off and told the rest of them to run, probably back to the foot of the mountain for help, and that they would have been the only casualties. She didn't say this; it wouldn't pay to be presumptuous, for one thing, and for another it didn't make a difference.

The important thing was that they'd made it.

They were still alive.

"Maybe the queen will know what they are," Yuki said. It was difficult to speak loudly enough for everyone to hear; the wind at this height was strong, relentless, and roared in their ears. She had to be careful with her words. "If anyone's seen things like that before, she has."

"Shadows and light are fixed together," was Anri's contribution. "Without light, a shadow cannot form. Our Lady will know this threat, and how to thwart it. She has faced the Boundless Dark for thousands of years."

It didn't take long before Sotaro slumped against his father and went back to sleep. Kohaku smiled, and sent a wink Yuki's way. "Don't think he's cut out for the long march just yet," he said. Yuki grinned; Yugi gave a satisfied little nod.

Sieglinde and Anri turned back, saw the boy, and offered salutes.

For all the energy it took to keep themselves on task against the winds, Yuki and Kohaku both found themselves distracted, quite often, by the scenery below them. As they climbed, their view of the wider fields beyond Kyanna became all the wider. They saw forests, and a crystalline river; they saw the lake where the river rested. They saw wild beasts and traveling pilgrims, wagons, folks on horseback, tents, cookfires, defensive outposts.

Eventually, they saw the ruins.

Closer to the foot of the mountain than the rest, were broken walls, old stone staircases leading to nothing, strips of old wood and piles of thatching from ancient roofs. Some of the outposts seemed to have been salvaged from what had once been fortresses.

That night, when they found another little cave to take shelter in, Kohaku was the first to talk about them. "They feel haunted," he said, warming his hands at the fire.

"Huh?" Yugi looked flummoxed but interested. "What do you mean? What feels haunted?"

"The ruins," Kohaku said. He gestured outside. "All around the mountain. They must be from the old city, when it was a ring." He turned to the knights for confirmation. "The ruins all around. Are they part of Kyanna?"

Sieglinde gave a curt nod. "Aye," she said. "You speak truth. The old ring yet remains. In pieces. Are the ruins haunted? I know not. Surely, I have felt spirits come upon me before. One might make the argument that the shadow creatures we have already faced were just such spirits. But I know not their identities, if identities they have."

"The weight of what has happened here," Anri said, "is great. To carry any of it on one's shoulders is to kneel at the altar of history." He went through the motions of putting together a meal, spearing meat and vegetables on skewers to roast. "Spirits, though, rarely come this far up the mountain." He glanced at his sister.

Sieglinde hummed. "Our Fair Lady reigns o'er this land entire, as far as her sovereign eye can touch, and all know to risk her ire is to court death."

"How well known?" Kohaku asked. "What creatures or peoples would be daring enough to send those shadow things after us?"

"No sapient being would dare make this mountain a battlefield without dire need," Anri said. "If the foes we have faced are, indeed, possessed of intelligence? Then they have been ordered here by some force much more powerful than they. Else they would not be here. Dragons are fiercely territorial, and Our Lady casts a long shadow. Long and long."

"During the war which broke Kyanna," Sieglinde said, "when Our Lady was with her clutch, 'twas said that any one could fell a kingdom in a night's flight. Scores upon scores of soldiers, demons, beasts, all borne here by cunning leadership and iron discipline, were needed just to shed their holy blood. The greatest army of darkness e'er collected was set upon the Barrier in time long forgotten, and 'twas the noble sacrifice of the Great White Wyrms which broke their ranks and won us our territory."

"And now she's alone," Yuki whispered, staring at the flickering flames.

"Aye," said Anri.

"As each of her noble siblings fell," Sieglinde went on, "Our Lady inherited their strength. Took it into herself."

"She has taken on their collective will," Anri said, "and in this way they live within her. Our Lady's bloodline shines on through her, even as she became the very last of her brood."

"You know she's the last?" Kohaku wondered. "Is there no way to . . . you know. Keep the bloodline going? What happens if she . . . well, goes?"

Anri and Sieglinde looked at each other. "I know not," Anri admitted. "Such is her business, and not for us to reckon with."

"If indeed her line ends with her," Sieglinde said, "then it will have been a noble one."

"How long has she been alone?" Yuki dared to ask.

"Some millennia now," said Sieglinde.

"Has she tried to seek out other dragons? Like herself, I mean?"

"If she has," Anri said, "she has been unsuccessful."

Yuki's face fell. "That's . . . so sad."