Resplendent Feather stared at Su like she was a particularly unpleasant ghost from a past he'd tried very hard to forget.

  "This is impossible," he sent, his mental voice strained. "You were... you were human. In a place with cages and... and strange smells. This is a different world. You cannot be—"

  "But I am," Su cut him off. "You cursed me. I hit my head. And I woke up here. In this body. In this world. Living with YOUR curse for three fucking lifetimes."

  The guards at the door shifted uncomfortably. Fernando was making a sound like a tea kettle about to explode.

  Resplendent Feather's plumage dimmed slightly. "I... I was not in my right mind. Four years in captivity. The humans, they..." He stopped, shook himself. "But that does not matter now. You cannot simply appear and make claims about—"

  "About you being cursed humans? Yeah. I can. Because it's true."

  "You have no proof," Resplendent Feather said, his voice hardening. "Only wild accusations and—"

  "I have a dragon coming to testify."

  "A dragon." His tone was flat with disbelief.

  "Yes. A three-thousand-year-old dragon who remembers when the Sky-Dancers were human. He's on his way. Should be here any minute now." Su glanced toward the crystal walls, trying to project confidence she absolutely did not feel.

  "I see." Resplendent Feather settled into a sitting position, his magnificent train arranged perfectly. "Then we wait."

  "Then we wait," Su agreed.

  They waited.

  And waited.

  And waited.

  The silence grew increasingly uncomfortable. Su kept checking the locket—it was still warm, still connected, but no new messages came through. Outside the crystal chamber, she could hear the psychic murmur of gathering Sky-Dancers. Word was spreading. The intruder who claimed they were cursed humans. The dragon that was supposedly coming to testify.

  An hour passed.

  Two hours.

  Resplendent Feather's expression shifted from confusion to skepticism to something that might have been pity.

  "Your dragon," he said quietly, "appears to be delayed."

  "He's coming," Su insisted, but her voice lacked conviction. "He said he would. Dragons don't lie."

  "Dragons," Resplendent Feather replied, "are also notoriously unreliable about time. Three thousand years of existence tends to blur the difference between 'immediately' and 'next century.'"

  Su clutched the locket tighter. Yvan. YVAN. Where the fuck are you?

  No response.

  The door opened. Storm-Plume entered, his expression thunderous.

  "Well?" he demanded. "Where is this dragon? Your 'proof'? The guards report no draconic presence within a hundred leagues of the mountain."

  "He's... coming," Su said, but even she could hear how weak it sounded. "He said he would. He promised."

  "Promised." Storm-Plume's lightning crackled dangerously. "You disrupted our peace. Breached our security. Made extraordinary claims about our very nature. And your only evidence is a dragon who apparently cannot be bothered to appear."

  "He's three thousand years old!" Su protested. "Maybe he's just slow! Or he got distracted! Or—"

  "Or," Storm-Plume interrupted, his voice cold, "you are exactly what you appear to be. A desperate creature who invented an elaborate fiction to gain access to our home. Perhaps seeking shelter. Perhaps seeking to steal. Perhaps simply mad."

  "I'm not lying! I'm not mad! The dragon is—"

  Fernando's quiet mental voice cut through her panic: "Su. I don't think he's coming."

  "He has to come. He SAID he would—"

  "Su." Fernando's tone was gentle, pitying. "Dragons are ancient. Powerful. And completely unreliable. He probably forgot about you the moment you stopped projecting. Or decided it wasn't worth the effort. Or just... didn't care."

  The locket was still warm, still connected, but Yvan's presence felt distant. Like he was watching her scramble from far away and finding it entertaining but not worth intervening in. We'll discuss terms later, he'd said. And she'd just tried to cash a check she couldn't cover.

  "No," Su whispered. "No, he wouldn't just... he KNEW this was important..."

  "He knew," Resplendent Feather said, not unkindly, "that you were a creature in over your head. Making claims you could not support. Reaching desperately for anyone who might validate your delusions."

  "They're not delusions! You WERE human! All of you! Three hundred years ago, cursed—"

  "ENOUGH." Storm-Plume's voice was a psychic thunderclap that made Su's skull ring. "You have wasted enough of our time with your fantasies."

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  He gestured to the guards. "Remove her from the mountain. And ensure she does not return."

  The guards stepped forward, their plumage flaring with barely-contained violence.

  "Wait!" Su backed up. "Wait, just give me more time! The dragon will come! He HAS to come! I'm telling the truth!"

  "The truth," Storm-Plume said coldly, "is that you are a liar. Or mad. Or both. Either way, you are not welcome here."

  "Resplendent Feather!" Su turned to him desperately. "Tell them! Tell them you cursed me! That I was human! That proves I'm telling the truth about—"

  "About what?" Resplendent Feather's voice was quiet, almost sad. "That I cursed one human? That proves nothing about our origins. Even if I believed you were once human—and I am not certain I do—that does not mean WE were."

  He stood, his magnificent form towering over her drab, speckled body.

  "You came here with a story. And when pressed for proof, you had nothing but promises of a witness who never arrived. I almost feel sorry for you."

  "No," Su's voice cracked. "No, you don't understand. The Forgotten Architect told me. He was there. He saw the curse happen. He—"

  "The Forgotten Architect?" Storm-Plume's expression shifted to something like horrified recognition. "You claim to have spoken with that abomination?"

  "He's not an abomination! He's—"

  "He is a creature sealed away for crimes against reality itself!" Storm-Plume's lightning was crackling in earnest now. "Three hundred years ago, he nearly destroyed the kingdom with his mad experiments! He was imprisoned in the deepest vaults of the Chancellor's tower, sealed by magic so powerful that—"

  He stopped. Stared at Su.

  "You freed him. You actually freed that thing."

  "I didn't FREE him, I just... there was a door... and I might have... accidentally..."

  "You unleashed one of the most dangerous entities in recorded history." Storm-Plume's voice was very, very quiet. "And then you came HERE. To OUR home. Possibly leading him—"

  "He's not following me! He went to the city to 'collect back rent' or something! He's not—"

  A distant sound. Like thunder, but wrong. Psychic alarm calls began echoing through the Aerie.

  "PERIMETER BREACH!" a guard's voice screamed through the collective consciousness. "SOMETHING IS APPROACHING! MULTIPLE SOMETHINGS! SHADOW-TAINTED! THEY'RE—"

  The message cut off abruptly.

  Storm-Plume's head snapped toward the entrance. Every Sky-Dancer in the chamber went rigid with sudden, primal fear.

  "No," Resplendent Feather whispered. "No, it cannot be..."

  "What?" Su demanded. "What's happening?"

  "Your arrival," Storm-Plume said, his voice hollow, "has been noticed. By something that should not know we exist. By something that has hunted us for generations."

  The temperature in the chamber dropped. Shadows began seeping under the door—not natural shadows, but thick, oily darkness that moved with purpose.

  And through the spreading darkness, a familiar, hated voice echoed:

  "Brother. Little brother. Did you really think I would not sense your disturbance? Your little... reunion?"

  Resplendent Feather's plumage lost all color. "Vermilion."

  The door exploded inward in a shower of crystal shards.

  Standing in the shattered doorway was a peacock, but wrong. His feathers were charcoal and bruised violet, drinking light instead of reflecting it. His eyes were pools of absolute darkness. And around him, reality itself seemed to blur and corrupt.

  Vermilion Plume. The fallen Sky-Dancer. The Chancellor's agent. And he wasn't alone.

  Behind him, Su could see them—dozens of shadow-corrupted creatures pouring into the Aerie. Sky-Dancers who'd been twisted, their celestial beauty warped into nightmare. And among them, directing the assault, was a figure in expensive robes she recognized from wanted posters.

  A merchant. Alistair Vane. "Oh fuck," Fernando whispered.

  Vermilion's dead eyes fixed on Su. Then on Resplendent Feather. Then he smiled, an expression that belonged on nothing living.

  "How convenient," he purred. "The prodigal brother. And his little... pet. All in one place. The Chancellor will be SO pleased."

  Guards rushed to form a defensive line, but Vermilion's shadow-magic swept through them like they were made of paper. Sky-Dancers screamed—psychic cries of pain and terror that made Su's head feel like it was splitting.

  Storm-Plume's lightning erupted, slamming into Vermilion with enough force to crack mountains.

  The shadow-peacock didn't even flinch. "You should have stayed hidden, Elder," Vermilion said, almost gently. "But no. You let an outsider climb your mountain. Make her accusations. Draw attention. And now..."

  He gestured, and more shadow-creatures poured in.

  "Now the Chancellor knows where you are. And he's decided your three-hundred-year isolation is over. You will serve. Or you will be harvested."

  Resplendent Feather's voice was barely a whisper: "This is... this is YOUR fault. You brought them here. You led them to us."

  Su looked at the invasion. At the Sky-Dancers falling to shadow-corruption. At the ancient, hidden civilization being torn apart because she'd climbed a mountain and made a scene.

  "I..." she started. "I didn't... I didn't know..."

  "You didn't know," Resplendent Feather repeated, his voice flat. "You didn't know that breaching our security would alert our enemies. You didn't know that your 'dragon' wouldn't come. You didn't know anything. You just charged forward with your righteous anger and your desperate need to be RIGHT. And now..."

  He looked at the carnage spreading through his home.

  "Now we all pay for your ignorance."

  A shadow-tendril lashed out, wrapping around Su's legs. She tried to Shadow Step, but her energy was depleted. She was out of tricks. Out of plans.

  Out of dragon witnesses who didn't show up.

  "I'm sorry," she whispered, as the darkness pulled her down. "I'm so sorry. I thought... I thought I was helping..."

  "You thought wrong," Storm-Plume said, even as he fought desperately against the tide of corruption. "And we will all die for your arrogance."

  The last thing Su saw before the shadows swallowed her was Vermilion's smile.

  And the last thing she heard was Yvan's voice, distant and amused, finally responding to her desperate calls:

  Ah. I see you've started without me. How unfortunate. Well, I suppose we'll have to renegotiate those terms. IF you survive, of course. Good luck, little Wrench.

  Then darkness. Complete and absolute.

  SYSTEM UPDATE:

  HOST STATUS: CAPTURED

  AERIE STATUS: UNDER ATTACK

  DRAGON WITNESS: DIDN'T SHOW UP

  RESPLENDENT FEATHER: HATES YOU

  STORM-PLUME: HATES YOU

  ENTIRE SKY-DANCER CIVILIZATION: HATES YOU

  CONSEQUENCES OF ACTIONS: CATASTROPHIC

  SURVIVAL PROBABILITY: 3%

  NEW DEBUFF ACQUIRED: "OVERWHELMING GUILT"

  You have caused the downfall of an entire civilization through a combination of poor timing, worse planning, and placing faith in unreliable dragons.

  ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED: "WORST CASE SCENARIO"

  You have achieved the absolute worst possible outcome of your diplomatic mission.

  CURRENT STATUS: FUCKED