Events of Arrival

Episode 3: Remaining Ally

Fay shifted in her seat on the tram, moving to lean her elbow against the windowsill. Her index finger tapped incessantly as the car clacked over the hastily-built rails. She didn't not-trust them. She just didn't like thinking about it.

However, she was very aware that the railcar system had been put in place almost instantaneously because of one determined dragon lady. For the first couple weeks, Calder's scorched front porch had been ground zero for a serious investigation. Personnel traveled back and forth between Aegis and Zebulon across those weeks, and apparently it was a comparatively small task to set aside enough metal to create a two-way tram system between the towns. It had, as a bonus, created a much-needed line between Zebulon and its secluded neighbor. People moved between the two towns on a daily basis now. This current car was mostly full.

Calder had a curious effect on things.

Anyway, Nemesis had since recovered and puzzled out the two big unanswered questions of the attack in March: what stabbed Calder, and what creme-bruleed the road. The first of those things had been the bounty hunter's weird knife. The second had been Storm.

Ah, crap. Storm. Fay pulled her arm away from the window and ran that hand through her hair, combing her bangs back and letting them fall back in her face at their own pace. She felt awful, knowing the fate of both mother and child could have been prevented, maybe, if she'd picked up the phone just a little bit earlier. Calder, strangely, had been far less angry than Fay had expected. She'd seen Calder angry over the years, really angry. But when it came to the dragons...

Maybe that was the first real grief she'd ever felt. The only other person Fay remembered Calder being sad over was her grandmother Anna, who died all the way back in 2001. Calder--who was still Eileen, an eight-year-old, was probably too young still to understand. Anna was the only K-D aligned person who was at all supportive of Eileen's grand dream.

And then she died, and had no choice but to hand leadership of the clan off to Rita. At the very least, Fay could shudder at the certainty that things would have been much worse in Ibis McKaye's hands.

Well...

Maybe that could be included in today's discussion. With the list so far, they'd be talking all afternoon.

The tram car slowed and came to a gentle stop at the makeshift station. Really, it was just a concrete pad around the rails, but it was good enough to keep passengers from taking a two-foot step to get down. Fay gathered up her purse and rose, allowing most of the other passengers to exit before she followed suit. The end of Aegis Town's main street was only a hundred feet ahead, but Fay had another destination. She turned to the right, facing the grand stone coliseum where her oldest friend claimed to be.

***

Past a set of large wood double doors was a lobby of sorts and a hallway. Closed kiosks stood along the walls, while the hallway turned into a staircase straight ahead, allowing sunlight to bounce down and illuminate a rectangle on the floor. Going far enough down to the left or right would likely bring Fay to the stands another way.

She just went straight forward and up. From where the staircase deposited her, the ring of stone looked even larger than its outer wall had promised. She spent a good few moments gawking, an amazed smile settling on her face. It was only when she blinked that she realized there was an ongoing duel in the dusty center of the floor. The scoreboard proudly presented the two names: Highland Larson versus Nola Mesh. Fay strode up to the front row of seats and leaned on the railing, watching the two young men--one with large metal gauntlets and the other with a short scythe--swipe at each other and roll around in the dust.

And then all her attention was broken again when a fluffy blue portal opened up in her face and deposited a royal blue scale baby.

"Hi, Saffire!" Fay chirped after reeling backwards, child safely cradled in her arms. "Where's your mom?" Saffire yawned and crawled up Fay's arm, sniffing her ear and pointing to an upper section of the stands.