Dart dreamed of fire and darkness. He was back in Neet, watching his younger self have dinner with his family. They laughed at something he could not quite hear. He turned and walked outside. He heard screams and saw people staring at him in horror. Looking down, he saw himself wreathed in flame, pulsing with a fiery power that caught the nearby buildings on fire. A moment later, he was above the little village, watching his family carry him to safety beyond the flames. Growing angry, he punched at one of the buildings before him, which then exploded, spreading the fire and engulfing the entire town. He heard screams as tears began to run down his face.

Then he was walking through a forest. Behind him rang out distant voices, but they seemed to be drawing nearer. He tried to turn, but something kept him from it. He felt reality pulling at him, but his eyes would not yet open.

Slowly, Dart became aware of the bed he was lying on. He could feel cotton sheets draped over him, and he felt superiorly comfortable except for a dull throbbing in his head. He fancied that he was back in Bale, resting in Lavitz's home, about to get up to a deliciously prepared meal. He lazily opened his eyes.

Sunlight flooded in from somewhere above his head, illuminating his bed and the white sheets covering him. His head was propped up by a soft feather pillow, and he noticed that someone had removed his armor and put him in clean clothes. Turning his head to the left, he saw Lavitz, also in fresh clothes, sitting in a chair near his bed, head leaned back against the wall, fast asleep. Looking the other direction, Dart surveyed the room. There were at least nine other beds, seven of which had people lying in them. Most of them seemed asleep, but one or two of them sat up in their beds, reading or speaking softly with someone sitting near them. Dart did not have to guess that these were all men who were wounded in the battle last night. He was surprised at how few of them there were, given the carnage he had seen only a few hours earlier. Perhaps there was another room, or… perhaps there had been more killed than wounded.

Slowly, he pushed against the bed to bring himself to a sitting position, feeling a dull ache in his left shoulder as he did so. Wincing, he remembered the fight with the elite soldier from the night before. Sitting up, he tried to position his pillow to better support his back. As he leaned forward, his sternum cried in protest, bringing the memory of his fight with the giganto flooding into his mind. He reached up and gently touched the back of his head and felt a large bump where he had hit the wall. His chest ached as he breathed, evidence of Kongol's great strength. He was surprised to be alive at all.

He thought back to the strange turn of events. The woman had appeared again, and done something to him. He had changed, if that was the right word for it. He remembered what it was like to feel all that power coursing through him, and the warm fiery feeling that had joined it. The sounds and feel of the battle returned to him, and for a moment he could see himself again, hovering in the air, dumbfounded. What did that woman do to me? he thought.

He marveled that she would have shown up exactly when she did, just in time to save him from another sure defeat. Did she simply make a habit of saving people from certain death? How had she known where to find him? So many thoughts raced through his head, and he burned to have them answered. He regretted not having time to speak with her before passing out the night before.

Just then the nearby door opened, and Shana walked in, carrying clean bandages and crushed herbs. She grinned widely when she saw him sitting up and rushed over to him.

Quietly, she said, "Dart, I'm so glad you're awake! I was beginning to get worried."

"How long was I out?" he asked, keeping a whisper so as not to wake Lavitz.

"About fourteen hours."

Wow, he thought. He was surprised at how long it had been. Even so, he felt that he could sleep another two days with no problem. He rubbed his face with his hands, breathing a heavy sigh. A slight twinge in his chest reminded him not to do that anymore.

Lavitz began to stir and opened his eyes. Looking around, he saw Dart awake and turned to him, clearly still confused by his sharp recall from sleep. "It's good to see you up." His words slurred slightly, and he reached out to rub the sleep out of his eyes. Dart could see a scratch above his left eye, still healing and barely scabbed over.

While Lavitz struggled to come to full awareness, Shana stepped in, asking Dart how he was feeling. He felt the blood pulsing through his brain, the fatigue within his muscles, and the dull ache of his shoulder and chest, but he did not want to worry her.

"Fine, all things considered," he said.

"Good. And your shoulder? Does it hurt?" she asked.

He shook his head slightly. "A little, but it's not bad."

"Let me check it anyway." Shana leaned him forward slightly and stepped in front of Lavitz, who was still a little groggy, and pulled back the loose shirt to expose his shoulder. "It's looking good, but still bleeding just a bit. I need to switch out the bandage." She then worked deftly to remove the old and place a new, fresh bandage on his shoulder. He felt a soothing feeling as the dried herbs touched his skin. After replacing the shirt atop his shoulder, she smiled and said, "All done."

"Thank you," he said.

"My pleasure," she returned, before adding, "I need to go check on some other people. I'll be back in a few minutes."

Dart nodded as she walked away, then turned to Lavitz, who looked much more alert.

"So how are you really?" inquired Lavitz.

"I could sure use some rock fireflies right about now," replied Dart, earning a small chuckle from Lavitz. Then he added, "It's not the worst I've ever been, but I've definitely been better."

"What in the world happened last night?" asked Lavitz eagerly. It was obvious that he had been waiting for a long time to have this question answered.

"Honestly, I don't know," he answered, causing Lavitz to look slightly disappointed. "I was hoping to talk to that woman about it, actually… But that seems kind of impossible. I'm sure she's gone by now."

"No, she's still here," said Lavitz. "She stayed, but wouldn't explain anything to us. I think she wanted to talk to you first. She said that you know her. Rose?"

"I've met her before, but I don't know her. Remember how I was attacked by the dragon south of Seles?" Lavitz nodded. "She was the one who saved me. But I didn't even learn her name back then."

"Well, last I heard, she was sitting downstairs waiting for you to wake up. If you're feeling up to it, we could go talk to her." Although he was attempting to veil it, Lavitz's enthusiasm was painfully obvious.

With a small smile, Dart said, "That sounds good. Just give me a few more minutes to get my bearings." He looked around the room and spotted Shana tending to another patient several beds down. Her brown hair was tied back, but as she leaned forward, some of the shorter strands fell into her face, and she reached up to place them behind her ear. She carefully cleaned a painful-looking burn wound on a soldier's arm before wrapping it in bandages while the soldier watched her every move. The man looked to be the same age as Dart, and he softly said something that made Shana smile. Dart felt his heart flutter for just a second while the smile adorned her face. He studied her, noticing every smooth curve, the roundness of her eyes, the dimples in her cheeks, and… dark circles under her eyes. Furrowing his brow in concern, he looked more closely at this last feature, noting how tired it made her look. Then he turned back to Lavitz.

"Is Shana okay? She looks a little tired."

Lavitz looked over at Shana and said, "She's… struggling a bit, I think. She is a little tired, after the stress of last night combined with her working endlessly to help these wounded soldiers. But I think it's more than that, if I had to guess."

"What do you mean?"

"I think she's worried about you. She wants to know that you're okay. But more than that, she struggles because she feels that she is out of place with us, that perhaps she should have stayed behind in Bale. And she is still plagued by memories of her capture and imprisonment."

Shocked at this news, Dart asked, "Why wouldn't she tell me any of that? Doesn't she trust me?"

"Of course she trusts you," said Lavitz. "The issue is that she wants to be strong for you. I think she feels that you've always been there to save her, and this time she wants to be able to handle these feelings on her own."

"Then why would she tell you?" asked Dart indignantly. The thought that Shana would confide in Lavitz before himself was painful for him to consider.

Lavitz laughed softly and said, "She didn't." Dart looked at him quizzically. "I just pay attention, Dart. It's something that you may want to work on. You've gone through a lot, and because of that you tend to be constantly wrapped up in your own head. Take a moment sometime and try to spend some time out of it. Maybe consider asking Shana how she's feeling."

Dart turned away and studied his hands thoughtfully. Had he really been so callous with Shana? He had thought all this time that he was putting Shana first and doing whatever he could to protect her. Was that not enough?

Moments later, she approached again, having done her rounds. Dart scoured her face for any hints of what Lavitz had mentioned. Meeting his gaze, she stopped in her tracks and asked, alarmed, "Why are you looking at me like that?"

"Oh," said Dart. Then quickly, "Nothing. No reason." He glanced over at Lavitz as a subtle cry for help, which Lavitz provided.

Standing, he said, "Dart thinks that he wants to go downstairs and talk to Rose about last night. He thought you would want to come with us."

"Yeah, that should be fine. I don't think I'll be needed here for a while now." She set down what was left of the fresh bandages and turned back to Dart. "Are you ready? Feel like you can make it down there?"

Dart nodded and pulled back the covers, preparing to get up. As he placed his weight on his feet, he felt pain shoot through his muscles, but he ignored it. After successfully standing, he found that he was able to walk almost normally, though every step was painful, and he made his way toward the door. Shana opened it for him, and he hobbled down the stairs.

There in the dining room, which now served as the war meeting room, sat one lonely figure. Dart was surprised to find Rose still clad in her armor, despite the inn's tranquility. He saw again her rapier hanging at her left hip, and her hands were wrapped around a steaming cup of tea. She did not move as they approached her, and Dart had to stand awkwardly next to her before she acknowledged him.

"Dart," she said plainly. "It's good to see you again." Despite her words, there was little cheer in her voice.

He sat at an angle to her, and Shana sat at his left and Lavitz across the table. "Yes, and you," said Dart awkwardly. He was not sure how to go about this conversation and dearly hoped that Rose would bring up the topic on her own.

"I'm surprised to see you awake and moving so soon," said Rose.

"What do you mean?"

"Most people would have been unconscious for days after an event like that. Bursting with so much raw power. It was a unique transformation, to be sure." Rose spoke so matter-of-factly, as if none of this were remotely strange.

The questions began to spill out of Dart before he could stop them. "What do you mean 'transformation'? What happened exactly? What did you do to me? How did I defeat Kongol?"

Rose raised an eyebrow at the barrage of questions. "So much you want to know…" She looked down at her tea and paused. While he waited impatiently, he observed her features. Her smooth, pale skin was darkly contrasted by her black hair. There was no sign of wrinkles or age on her face, but she was far from childish. Despite her youthful complexion, she showed no sign of naiveté, making her feel older than both Dart and Shana combined. Her dark eyes carried burdens that stretched far beyond her years. This woman was a paradox.

Finally she spoke again. "You have something, don't you? A small gem, a trinket you carry, that is important to you. Important enough to wear into a battle." At this last phrase she looked directly at him, and he felt himself wanting to shrink from her stern gaze. Something about her was simultaneously attractive and repellant. He felt both safe and uneasy in her presence.

Her question caught him off guard, and he instinctively reached up to his neck, where he found the leather strap. He hadn't even really noticed that it was still there until now. Pulling it out from under his tunic, he paused and looked at Rose. "My father's memento," he said. "How could you know about it?"

Looking away, she said, "Pull it out."

Doing so, Dart gasped when the small gem fell into his hand. Shana and Lavitz both leaned in to get a better look as Dart turned the gem over. Last night, while Dart had studied the gem by the wall, it had been colorless. Now, it burned a fiery red. More than this, it seemed to glow. He could feel a kind heat emanating from the gem, bringing him a strange comfort. He looked questioningly at Rose, but his eyes snapped instead to the jewel set into her armor, for it was now glowing as well. The dark purple gem, which he now realized was almost identical to his own in shape and size, was giving off a strange energy. While it gave off light, it also seemed to draw light into itself. It was as paradoxical as the woman it belonged to.

"You and I are special, Dart. We have been chosen by these small gems, these dragoon spirits. When you are chosen by a dragoon spirit, you are gifted with its power. You can use it to fight with the strength of a dragon. Yours is the dragoon spirit of the red-eyed dragon, and you have now become the red-eyed dragoon, the master of fire."

"What...?" asked Dart, confused. These were all new words to him. He glanced over at Lavitz, who seemed to be sifting through memories, trying to find some that may help define the situation. After a moment, he said, "What if I don't want to be a… dragoon?"

"You don't have a choice," said Rose, narrowing her eyes at him. "The only option you have is to accept your fate as a dragoon. Just like me."

"I'm sorry..." interrupted Shana quietly. "What exactly is a dragoon?"

Dropping her eyes to her tea, Rose responded, "A dragoon is a human that has been gifted with immense power. They are great warriors, users of magic, masters of the elements, changers of fate. It is no small responsibility."

At this point, Lavitz interrupted. "So what did you do to Dart to trigger this transformation? I mean, he's had that thing since he was five and it didn't happen until now. What changed?"

Rose turned to him and answered, "I simply told it to wake up. The dragoon spirit was lying dormant, not having been used for years, or who knows how many millennia, and I called it to wake. When it did so, it virtually exploded with power that it had not released for all that time. That's why Dart's transformation was so dramatic and powerful."

"What did I actually do?" interjected Dart. "I… couldn't really tell what was going on."

"It was actually really amazing," said Lavitz, suddenly animated and gesturing wildly. "All that red light came, and it was almost like you caught on fire. Then you flew up into the air and then straight down into the giganto, throwing him at least ten feet."

For a moment, Dart was silent as he tried to process. He remembered the might of the giganto and how difficult it had been to even lay a scratch on him. He winced as he remembered the pain of his powerful strike. To think that Dart now held within him the power to so easily defeat such an enemy was almost too much for him to handle. He placed his head in his hands, trying to fathom the amount of responsibility that had just been placed on his shoulders.

"What will you do now?" Rose's voice brought him back to the present, and he looked up at her, then to Lavitz and Shana. All three were waiting expectantly.

Shaking his head, he said, "I need time to think about this." He placed the gem - the dragoon spirit - back into its pouch, causing both spirits to cease glowing, and tucked it under his shirt. There was another awkward pause, and Dart looked at Rose. She seemed disdainful, but the emotion was suppressed, veiled behind her eyes.

Breaking the silence, Shana asked, "How did you know that he had the dragoon spirit? How did you know that intervening would save his life?"

"Actually, I didn't know," replied Rose. Shana looked shocked, even offended. "When I first met Dart in the forest that day, he rushed off to the village almost immediately after the dragon left. But as he ran away, my own dragoon spirit began to shine, resonating with his. I'm sure the delayed reaction was because his was hidden and dormant. But, that resonance told me that there was a dragoon spirit. I followed him since then, sort of, waiting to see any kind of transformation. I expected to see it during the battle with the giganto, but when it became clear that it wasn't going to happen, I intervened. Honestly, Dart," she said to him, "you're lucky that you had a dragoon spirit. Otherwise, you would be dead now."

"So you just bargained with his life?" asked Shana angrily. "And you've been following him for weeks? What is he to you, exactly?"

Rose addressed the question calmly. "I've been following all three of you, not just Dart. At first it was because of the dragoon spirit, but then I realized how much you guys... remind me of my old friends. They, too, were strong and wise, selfless, giving to others before themselves." Rose's voice grew quiet and thoughtful. "They knew who to fight and who to protect. They lived in the middle of a turbulent generation, yet they were strong enough to take hold of their own fate. I guess you could say... I was drawn to you because I see them in all of you." Toward the end of this monologue, Rose's countenance changed. She almost seemed tender, less cold and distant.

Shana looked down in shame. After a moment, she asked carefully, "Where are they now?"

At this question, Rose returned to her previous aloof self and said, "They're all gone. It's all in the past."

"I'm so sorry…" said Shana quietly. "I… I think I misjudged you, Rose. I'm sorry."

"Don't worry about it," she responded, eyes fixed on the window before her. "I'm used to being hated."

There was a long pause that made Dart feel uneasy. Rose continued to stare out the window while Shana studied the surface of the table, following the dark lines of the wood with her fingernail. Dart fidgeted with the leather pouch and then looked up at Lavitz, asking for a way out of this situation. He was tired and wanted to take some time to process all that he had learned. Lavitz caught his eye and seemed to understand, for he instantly spoke up.

"Rose, I just have one more question for you," he said. She turned to him finally, eyebrow raised in curiosity. "How do you know all this? You know so much… too much, about things that nobody else could possibly know about. How did you come by this information?"

"It's better than ignorance, isn't it?" said Rose simply.

"Well… yes," admitted Lavitz. "But this is not that simple. You can't learn all this in books, because the information doesn't exist. All this talk of dragoons and dragoon spirits… It's all part of an old legend, of which we have virtually no written history. Most people don't even believe it. Not even Minister Noish, probably the greatest historian in Serdio, knows all the details, and yet you do. Legend says that the dragoons vanished after the Dragon Campaign. Nobody knows what happened to them, and their secrets were lost. How did you find them?"

Rather than responding, Rose simply stared at Lavitz. Dart did not envy being the subject of that gaze, and he waited to see who would break away first, or if Rose would choose to answer. Perhaps she was thinking of a response. However, she did not, and Dart now found that it was he who needed to save Lavitz from an awkward situation.

"I think I'm going to go back upstairs and rest a bit longer," he said. To his relief, Rose turned from Lavitz and acknowledged his comment with a curt nod. Lavitz shot him a quick thankful look as Dart stood. Shana and Lavitz followed suit, the three of them making their way back upstairs, leaving Rose alone in the dining room.

Walking up the stairs, Dart again felt acute pain in both his head and his legs. He was frustrated that he was not already well, and he trudged through the door and fell into his bed.

"Whoa," said Shana, reaching out to help him. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," he said gruffly. In all honesty, trying to make it up the steps so fast had made him feel slightly dizzy. He leaned back on the pillow and closed his eyes for a moment. He felt Shana's soft hand press against his forehead, and he exhaled. Her hand was cool, seeming to draw the pain away, and a moment later he opened his eyes. Shana was leaned over him, her eyes dark with worry. "I'll be alright," he promised.

She gave a small smile before removing her hand and saying, "You're really warm, but you have been since last night. I'm starting to think that it's not because of your injuries."

"What do you mean?" asked Dart, reaching up a hand to his forehead. It didn't seem any warmer than normal to him.

Shana sighed and pulled up a chair to sit next to him. "After what Rose said, about you being this legendary hero, it would make sense that you're different now."

Dart hadn't even considered that possibility, and he looked over at Lavitz, silently asking for his opinion.

"Makes sense to me," he said. "And if you really are a 'master of fire,' maybe that heat is just always sitting inside you."

Remembering his dream from the night before, Dart shuddered. He reached up and ran his hands through his hair. "How is this even happening?" he wondered aloud. "This seems completely impossible, like the battle happened in a dream or something. …What am I going to do?"

"I think that's up to you, Dart," said Lavitz somberly. "But, you would be a fool to have such a gift of power and not use it. To let it go to waste would be an insult to the men who have already died in this war."

"Shana?" Dart turned to her, waiting to hear her thoughts.

She paused before looking at him and saying, "I agree with Lavitz. This is no different from what I said in Bale. Having the power that you do, and not using it to help others, is too selfish."

Dart leaned his head back and stared at the ceiling. If he were honest with himself, he was afraid of this power. It was wholly unknown, wildly unpredictable, and ironically the embodiment of the power that had stolen both his homes from him. He remembered his dream with vivid acuity and thought about the implications. What if something were to happen and he could not control it?

"You don't have to decide anything now," said Lavitz gently. "You shouldn't be going anywhere for the next couple days anyway."

"Lavitz is right," added Shana.

Frustrated and scared, Dart vowed to himself that as soon as he was able, he would ask Rose to help him learn to control this power before it hurt anyone close to him.