Page 3 of To Fight and To Fold

Distantly, through the mind fog and her vision, now bleary from agony, the doors of the cathedral opened, and a man in dark robes gasped.

“I-I’ve found her, sir! The Tethered is here!”

The pain stopped, and she went limp, afraid it might return if she moved a single muscle.

Her own pulse was loudest in her head, and she blinked, unsure if she’d heard him right, unable to gather the strength to ask.

Healers were called as she was bundled up and whisked away to the castle.

Not just past the large gates, but inside. Marble steps and great doors and hushed voices whispering about the event.

In her memory, Aaryn could not recall a ritual for finding the next Tethered—the lottery—concluding in such a dramatic fashion.

It wasn’t until she was lying in the infirmary that it began to dawn on her. A kind healer with spectacles and gray hair and a proper doctor's uniform checked over her with tools their own village healer could only dream of. A more casually armed guard stood just inside the door, Evergale's royal insignia emblazoned on his chest plate, signifying him as a member of the First Guard.

“I’m truly Tethered?” she asked. Her voice was weak.

He smiled kindly at her. “That’s what the ritual proclaimed, isn’t it?”

Her lips twitched. Her mother would be so thrilled.

“There it is, a smile,” the doctor interjected. “That’s a good sign. Do you have any questions?”

“Just one,” she answered, though ten more spawned in its wake.

“And what’s that?” he asked as he took her temperature.

“When do I get to meet my dragon?”

1

DATE NIGHT

Three years later

“Wait, that was you?” Thea asked her, mouth hanging agape as Aaryn finished her story.

Heat rushed to Aaryn’s cheeks as Thea turned her full attention in her direction. “I heard about that, of course, even when I was in the Sixth Guard. But I didn't know…” She leaned back against the wall of the castle nearby and shook her head ruefully. “It's a much smaller world than I think any of us realize,” she said.

“I swear, most days, it seems that’s all anyone remembers about me,” Aaryn said, the strokes of her large brush faltering.

Her dragon snuffled, nudging her with his nose in protest, and she chuckled before resuming her task.

“Except you, of course,” she told him affectionately, rubbing the middle of his snout with her hand before moving on to his neck.

Starspark—her dragon—was laying flat on the ground, feet and claws tucked politely beneath his body, barely visible. She teased that he’d look like a loaf of sprinkled bread if it wasn't for the tail swaying happily behind him. His neck was extended so he could lay his head down, patient and purring as she brushed him.

The bristles of the brush hissed softly as she cleaned his scales, removing the dust and debris from places it didn’t belong. He deserved it, because after all, he and one of Evergale’s knights had just returned from their travels.

The sun was warm and her dragon was soaking up every ray into his dark scales, lids lowered in comfort and still cracked in order to keep her in his sights. When she moved, the sun caught him just right, revealing dashes of pale green and rich blush and gleaming deep purple, and little specks of pink winking to life.

Thea’s light armor clinked as she stepped into Aaryn's vision, on the other side of Starspark’s snout.

“You know, hearing about that—you—is what made me want to return to Evergale.”

Aaryn glanced up, hoping her cheeks weren’t as pink as she thought.

“Really?”