Master of None: A Wings of Fire fanfiction

8.

Epiphany

Sometimes, when I can't think clearly, I like to pace around through the tunnels. The air is stuffy and hot, and dragons blend into the shadows just a bit too easy. It makes my heart race, and makes me want to turn and run the other way. I don't.

I am not the dragon I used to be. I'm not sure that's true, but if I repeat it enough times, I like to think it will be.

The exit wouldn't just close off by chance. Something is happening out there that Sharp-eyes doesn't want us to see–of course it looks like the cave fell in. Of course no one has been able to swim under without running out of air. That's how he wants it to look.

I freeze at the flash of light, the sound of scrabbling talons on dirt.

"Hello?" a soft, quiet voice calls. It sounds like a dragonet, maybe a few years old, light and feeble.

"Is–is anyone there?" the dragonet asks. Doesn't sound like any of ours.

Did Prophecy run off again? No, I had someone watching her when I left—this is someone who snuck in.

And it couldn't be Pavo. He's made friends with a few of the other dragonets, and I know someone was watching them play when I left.

"Who's there?" the voice says, trembling and small. He rounds the corner, eyes meeting mine, and a sudden horror seems to dawn on him.

"Hey, what's wrong?" I try to sound calm and collected. "How did you find us? Where are your pa–"

I can see his star-speckled scales glinting off the faint light like Princess Star brought back from the dead.

"No," I whisper, covering my mouth. "I'm–I'm dreaming. I'm going crazy. You can't be–"

"Vigilance," he interrupts, seeming to shrink into himself. "No, no, no. You're dead! You're supposed to be dead! This is all just a game, isn't it? This is some way of punishing me, oh, I knew it was too good to be true!"

A chill sinks over my whole body.

Prince Nebula.

"No!" I cry. "No, no, no, big misunderstanding–I get it all the time. I'm–I'm not Vigilance, I'm really not—"

Nebula starts to hyperventilate, cowering behind his wings. "I'm sorry, Grandmother. I'm sorry! I'm sorry I betrayed you, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry—"

He knows.

Everyone else in this city has forgotten, be he remembers.

He leans against the side of the tunnel wall, and his breath keeps getting faster, and he starts to cry, and then he stops.

I step closer. "Nebula?"

He doesn't respond.

***

When the city started to melt, Gaze and I were sitting by the window of an apartment we now shared alone. Without her parents in it, I felt like I could breathe for the first time in months.

As soon as the walls started to shake, she froze. Curled up into herself. I tried to snap her out of it, but nothing was working, and I didn't have the time.

I carried her on my back toward the highest ground I could find. The industrial sector still seemed stable, at least for now. She whimpered and cried, a thousand miles away, and I tried not to think about what she might be seeing. Tried to guard her with my wings and told myself that I'd be able to protect her, no matter what–but I had no idea if that was true. We stayed like that for hours.