Emrys sent word of the completion of the mission that night. I wasn't entirely sure how—I was already in bed by the time he finished writing his report—but the response came early the next morning. There was a rapping at the window, and I glanced up out of the fog of sleep to see a small creature, what must have been some sort of air spirit. It looked significantly friendlier than the not-cat from yesterday, with a tiny muscular humanoid torso that trailed off into white smoke at the neck and waist. In its arms, it carried a sealed envelope and a brown sack that clinked with the telltale sound of coins.

I jumped to my feet, startling Grace awake in the process, as I rushed to open the window. The spirit didn't have any words for us; it just dropped its parcel on the floor at my feet and twirled in place, dissolving into the air. I blinked, unsure if it was still around or if it had truly disappeared.

«Uh…thanks?» I said, just in case it could hear, before kneeling down to open up the sack. Grace picked up the letter, using the spear that she kept by her bedside as a gigantic letter-opener.

"'Ninth Flight,'" she read. "'The corps congratulates you on the completion of your first true mission as our representatives. There are no new urgent missions in your area to alert you of at this time; until we receive such a report, you may search for and complete missions within your domain on your own time. Continue to inform us whenever you take on these tasks to receive compensation for your work. Enclosed is your payment for your first mission, one—'"

She stopped mid-sentence, furrowing her brow and holding the paper closer. "Uh, it says 'one hundred castles'."

I blinked. «One hundred?» I repeated in disbelief.

"One hundred," she confirmed, turning the letter around to show me. It was written clearly and deliberately, there wasn't any doubt that's what they meant to say.

The bag was decently heavy for one filled with only coins. I had been expecting perhaps a hundred shillings, but the letter said we were getting sixteen times that. And yet, now that it had been said, I could smell it. It wasn't the sweet scent of silver, but the intoxicating one of gold. And sure enough, when I pulled the string on the sack and poured the contents into my hands, one hundred gold coins came tumbling out.

They glinted in the light of the morning sun, and I felt the Fiend in my head immediately roused to alertness. Just holding onto all this gold was a profoundly powerful feeling. I clenched the money in my fist and shoved it back into the bag, tying the string tight once again.

"What are we going to spend it on?" Grace wondered aloud.

I glanced around at the barren room, devoid of most of the old rotten wood furniture and now little more than dingy walls and Grace's bed. «Well, we've got a whole castle to repair,» I said. «It's going to take a lot more than one hundred gold coins to get this place completely fixed up, but we can at least get started. Maybe make our sleeping area a little nicer.» I stood, wobbling a little on my feet as I suddenly became aware of the headache that the smell of gold had distracted me from. «…But I think before all that, we could use a bit of relaxation. Go somewhere we can breathe for a moment.»

Grace rubbed her chest where Latighern's cleaver had sliced her open. "Yeah, I wouldn't mind that," she concurred. "Hey! I know where we could go! There's another ward at the bottom of the cliff, up the river from the Old Quarter. They've got this wonderful place called the Mist Gardens, it's one of the best bath houses I've ever seen. I never got the chance to go before, but a hundred castles is more than enough for all of us to go and still have a year's wages left over."

I glanced down at myself. It had been a while since I'd had a decent wash, and the days of adventuring had taken their toll. I was more than used to being dirty, but if we had the opportunity, I would prefer to clean the mud and blood out from between my scales if only to keep myself from getting sick.

«That sounds like a great idea,» I said. «We can even go today. It would be a good place to talk about everything that went on last night.»

Grace smiled. I had been her sister long enough to know that smile; it meant she was getting her way, like she'd tricked someone into doing what she wanted. I narrowed my eyes.

I went ahead to put the coins in the vault while the others started on breakfast. I took the nine castles we'd need for the gardens, and resisted the urge to just dump the rest on the floor. As much as it would have made a nice pile to lay on, I set the remaining ninety-one coins on one of the shelves. I thought about using the privacy of the vault to turn "human" again, but quickly brushed that thought aside. I couldn't keep that form in town, and anyway, Grace and Emrys would need someone to fly them to town. And besides, it had only been what…six days?

Six days…. Six days since I'd walked on two legs, worn proper clothes, brushed my hair, been able to look my sister in the eye without kneeling down to her level. I scratched at the stone floor, anxiety hammering on my nerves. Maybe it'd be best to just forget about being human again until we got the cure. It'd at least mean I wouldn't have to worry about wearing this thick robe all the time, or see my face becoming unrecognisable before my eyes.

I huffed. I'd have time to think about that idea later. Maybe I could talk with Grace about it. For now, I needed to clear my head; this was supposed to be a relaxing day.

I found the others already out on the courtyard getting ready for the flight. I snagged a ration from Grace and quickly wolfed it down before donning the saddle and checking once to make sure we were ready before we took off, heading east. It wasn't rainy today, and there was enough heat from the morning sun for us to be easily borne aloft by rising thermals from the fields below. Lazily gliding along, letting the air keep us up, was a good way to start an easy day.

Once I saw it, I wasn't surprised that I hadn't noticed the "Cascade Ward" was even a part of the city in our previous flights into town. It was separated from the Old Quarter by a natural cliff from which descended many waterfalls. The cliffs were lined with high stone walls, which had blended in with the dense buildings of the Old Quarter when viewing them from a distance.

Moreover, the ward was absolutely covered in greenery. There were some rows of fruit trees along the northern edge of the river, but most of the verdure seemed decorative. Ivy covered every square inch of wall space on the few standing buildings, flowers bloomed on the sides of the streets, and there were a lot of low, broad trees that provided shade to the walking spaces. Very few of the structures seemed at all residential, most of them incorporating wide stretches of glass that allowed us to see the denser, more vibrant plots of plant life inside, perhaps species that couldn't easily stand the cold of Rimewater Vale. Artificial waterways broke off from the main river all along its length, syphoning some of the flow into small, decorative rocky ponds, as well as large metal pipes that disappeared underground, probably to feed the rest of the city.

Grace guided us down to a broad street just north of a surprisingly vast stretch of natural-looking pools, fenced off from the rest of the ward by tall, ivy-covered wooden planks. Every part of the complex was outdoors, with only a small cylindrical structure sitting by the front gate. Even then, the hut didn't seem to have anyone operating it as we walked up. A window at the front was shuttered, leaving only a small shelf of a counter in front of it visible. The shelf was covered in blood-red sigils, interlinked with curved and circular lines that tied them to more sigils covering the gate.

«It doesn't seem like they're open this early,» I said, a little disappointed.

"Oh, they are," said Grace. She rifled through my bags for the coins, much to my annoyance, before walking up and placing them on the sigils. The stained blood reacted, glowing dark red as the light travelled away from the hut and up the gates. There was the click of a lock disengaging. "Nine coins means nine entrances," said Grace. "It's a spin on warding magic. They use it some in big cities to cut down on having to pay people to count money and unlock doors for visitors."

"Fascinating," said Emrys. "I imagine this is a local development? I haven't heard of such a technique in Laimnâch."

"It is," confirmed Grace. "There's a rich family of occultists in Kirkwall, the val Hosks, I believe, that have made a career out of making systems like this to sell to those companies that have been springing up since the empire fell apart."

Val Hosks. That named sounded familiar. It was…something that minister had said to the vicar in hushed whispers, something about us, or maybe about me. The claw of anxiety ran down my nerves again for a moment, before I could get my mind to return to the day at hand.

The temperature seemed to instantly rise once we passed the gate. The mist gardens were just that: gardens full of mist. More of those wooden fences blocked off areas presumably for bathing from open view, while other, smaller pools interspersed an open space covered in willow trees and broad maples, each draped with moss that collected the moisture filling the air of the ward, before dispersing that moisture as dense steam that shrouded the tiled pathways and fed the flowers that sprang up from the damp soil. I could hear a couple people here, but it seemed that this early in the morning, our flight was the majority of guests.

"There's pools that'll be big enough for you four," Grace said, tilting her head at the four of us dragons. "Come on, let's pick one."

We ended up splitting into two groups as we walked around the gardens looking for a suitably large pool, with Griffin, Ingo, and Emrys coming along with Grace and I. I took some time to focus on the beautiful plant life as we meandered around the winding paths. The air was laden with so many scents, far more than I had smelled anywhere else but the forests in the Lake Lands. It was a collage of various earthy, woody, wet, and floral scents, but unlike the wild forests, there wasn't any rot mixed into the collection. The mist itself even seemed to have its own distinct notes, more than the verdant smell it extracted when it evaporated off the leaves of ferns and vines. Perhaps the waters of the pools contained perfume that combined with the mist when it rose from the water's surface, giving the air hints of citrus and sweet nectar.

We soon found a pool that suited our needs, behind another wooden gate. The pool took up most of the room inside the fence, with its irregular shape that funnelled water from a tiny falls that ran over piled moss-covered stones before landing in the pond. The falls was fed by a wooden channel, which was cleverly hidden from view by the plants as it ran through tree branches and over the wooden fences back towards the river. The pool had a small, dry wooden platform on the side to set clothes on, but it was not large enough to accommodate Griffin's and my saddles, so we had to pick a corner to drop them in before getting in the water.

Just like the air inside the gardens, the water was pleasingly warm, probably heated through pyromancy given the magic on the front gate. I settled on the flat rocky bottom, letting myself sink up to my shoulders and folding my wings beneath the surface. I could feel the water's heat and movement alone beginning to clean the grit out from between my scales. Griffin nervously followed me in, wincing a little as they touched a toe to the water, followed shortly after by Emrys and Grace once they had disrobed.

"Oh, this is wonderful," said Emrys. "It has been too long without an experience like this."

Grace smiled. "I only saw this place from the outside last time I came through Yorving," she said. "One castle always seemed like far too steep a price."

«It is,» I said. «We only got in because we were paid a year's wages for a single job. I can't imagine how much we'll get by the year's end.»

The others nodded, and thoughts of indescribable wealth ran through my head for a few moments before I noticed that Ingo had yet to enter. He stood strategically behind one of the drapes of moss that hung from the trees shading the pool, hiding as much of his body as possible. In my experience, people of the Vale didn't have much issue with disrobing in situations like this, but maybe the culture was different where Ingo was from. I politely turned my eyes away until he finished and carefully slipped into the pool.

When the small splashes ceased, I turned back. Ingo had sat so his shoulders were just above the surface of the water, but even then, I could see small sections of scars that sliced all across his chest and back. They seemed like sword strokes, but too regular and close together to look like those left by combat.

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"Hey, Ingo," Grace said curiously. "What are those scars—"

"Training," he snapped, suddenly going even lower so the water came up to his chin, the mist rolling off its surface hiding everything but his face. "Griffin, I've been meaning to ask, are those things on your neck gills?"

It was an obvious redirection, but none of us were willing to contest it. Griffin shrugged. «I don't know,» they said. «I haven't thought to test it. That seems…dangerous.»

"What, do you think you're going to drown in a little pool?" said Grace. "I think even if you laid on your belly at the bottom, you could still stick your head up out of the water."

Griffin glanced nervously at Grace, then closed their eyes.

«You don't have to—» I started.

"We should know," said Ingo. "If they can, it might be relevant. We are next to a lake, after all."

I rolled my eyes, but Griffin was already sinking into the water. They let it come up over their head, then there was a moment of tense silence before they burst up, splashing water everywhere and hacking up spittle onto the rocks at the edge of the pool.

«No!» they said in between gasps for air. «No, they're not.»

«Right,» I said. «I've never heard of a dragon with gills before. They've always seemed like they're supposed to help you with your fire breath or something. They spit out hot air when you do it. They spit out sparks last night when you were breathing lightning.»

Griffin rarely looked anything other than slightly worried at all times, but at the mention of last night, deep terror took over their face, and they scooted along the bottom of the pool away from the rest of us.

«Sorry…» they muttered.

"For what?" asked Grace.

«I should have apologised more before,» Griffin continued. «For…letting the Fiend in like that last night. It was irresponsible. Being desperate and panicked isn't a good excuse.»

Ingo's eye twitched. "This is the same thing that made Belfry almost kill me a couple weeks ago, right?"

Griffin nodded sullenly.

Ingo sighed. "Mhm. As much as I want you to get better at fighting, I don't want you getting drunk off your rage."

Griffin lowered themself down again until their nose was just poking out above the water. I could literally smell the shame on them, cutting through the pleasant perfume of the bath.

"And yet you didn't seem to lose control," Emrys pointed out. He lazily traced his finger through the air, like he was trying to solve some invisible calculation. "Which doesn't match with what the others have said about these inner demons."

I coughed. All eyes turned to me expectantly. «Um, I've…let the Fiend in like that a couple times, too. Both times I broke a Lock.»

Ingo glowered at me. "What made you think that was a good idea?"

«They were life-and-death situations,» I said in defense of myself. «The first time, I almost got killed by those svarnuli, and the second, I needed to heal Grace and get the poison out of my blood. It never took full control, it was…it was like what Griffin said last night. Like we had the same goal in mind, and acted together.»

Emrys put his hand to his chin in thought. "That means that all three times an ersatz dragon has broken one of these 'Locks', it has been with the aid of their 'Fiend'," he pointed out.

"What does that mean?" asked Grace.

"No idea!" answered Emrys. "It does seem odd to me, though. There's certainly something we're missing about this inner voice. I'm interested in looking further into it, for the power it seems to hold is…certainly more than what is at our disposal now. And perhaps, we might find a way for our friends to conquer it."

"I'm not sure it's something that needs to be 'conquered'," Grace said with a shrug. "I mean, it apparently wanted to keep me safe. Griffin's wanted to keep Brand safe. That's good, right?"

«I think it only wanted those things because losing you would hurt us,» I said. «I'm not sure it actually cared about your life, just the pain that I'd feel if I lost you.»

"That's close enough for it to not really be 'evil', right?" said Grace. "I know there's a lot of people out there who do good things because it makes them feel good. And that's okay. If you give food to a starving man because you'd hate to see someone starve to death, rather than because it's just 'the right thing to do', you still gave them food, right?"

«I guess?» I had to agree. «But I'm not sure I want to hand control over to that instinct.»

"It's too unreliable," Ingo agreed. "I'll remind you that she almost killed me because of it."

"Right, but maybe it can be, I don't know, trained?" Grace kept pushing. "If it only does things out of selfish desire to make you feel better, maybe you can convince it to only come out when you need to act selfish, or where acting like that would help someone else."

«I don't think I ever want to act selfish,» I mumbled.

"You need to, sometimes," said Grace. "That's why you used to steal, right? Sometimes you need to be a little selfish to take care of yourself."

My heart almost stopped when she brought up stealing, and it took a second for me to start it beating again. She was just talking about years ago, before we met, right? She didn't know about the banditry, she couldn't have.

Right?

She was staring at me expectantly, but Griffin saved me from having to respond. «Selfishness isn't good,» they grumbled. «You lose a lot that way. When you only look out for yourself.»

"I'm not suggesting you let the Fiend take over full time," said Grace. "You seemed best when you were working together."

I saw a tiny trail of blood leak from the corner of Griffin's mouth, hidden amongst the nearly same-coloured scales. «Can we talk about something else?» they whispered. «Last night is done. I regret it, and I'm sorry. I'll work on it.»

"Griffin, we need to figure this out," said Ingo

Grace flicked a tiny splash of water at him, catching him by surprise enough that he immediately brought his fists up like he was about to get into a brawl in the pool. "They said they're done," she said. "Leave it."

Ingo's face snarled up for a moment before he abruptly let all his tension go, sinking down in the water with an uncharacteristically soft look on his face. "Okay," he said under his breath.

"We do have other things to discuss!" said Emrys. "We now have over ninety castles with which to begin repairing the castle, and there's so many places we could start! I can only imagine what sorts of furniture they make here in Yorving, and how it will look in the solar once we've gathered it all…. We'll need to choose where to start, but there's so much that needs love, it'll be difficult to decide on a single—"

"Kitchen," the rest of us all said at once.

"I'm sick of eating dry rations on a broken table," said Grace.

«We could at least repair the oven,» said Griffin. «Then we can bake our own bread.»

«Oh!» I jumped in. «There are some mills on the south side of the city we could get the flour from. I wonder if they make any special kinds here?»

"Don't get ahead of yourselves," said Grace. "We're still working with limited funds until we get our next mission. I'll settle for regular fresh bread for now."

«You know what I'd love?» I said. «Some seeds. That barren garden is just asking to be regrown. Plus, some of the plants could be ingredients for potions.»

"I'm so interested to try some of those potions," said Grace. "I've only ever used blood tonic before, and that one's already a rush. I wonder what Linus's will do."

«I'm sure we'll find out soon,» I said. I glanced up, looking at the plants that the gardens had chosen to place here. «But we don't have to just have an ingredient garden. I'd like to have some of the cedar from back home. Might make the place feel a little…more familiar, I guess. I kind of miss the mountains.»

Grace sighed, looking up to mirror me. "Me, too," she agreed. "Remember when you thought those blue seeds on cedars were berries?"

I groaned. «Oh, don't remind me. Took over a day to get the taste out of my mouth.» I glared at her. «But that was the same week as the festival, so luckily I got to watch you "compete" at the strength games while I recovered.»

Grace rubbed the spot on her temple where she'd accidentally bruised herself with a toy hammer years ago. "Hey!" she protested. "I was fourteen! You didn't even try!" She sniffed, holding up her arm to flex her impressive muscles. "And anyway, I've gotten better these days."

I rolled my eyes. "Still not as strong as me," I said with a toothy grin.

Grace flicked another splash of water at me, and I retaliated with a lazy wave of my tail that sent an unexpectedly big wave over her. She spluttered for a moment before we both dissolved into laughter and went back to talking about plants. Griffin and Emrys had a lot to add to that conversation, talking all about the herbs, berries, and poisonous roots that grew where they were from, and we whiled away the day.

────────────────────────────────────────

An hour later, I walked out the front gate of the gardens carrying everyone else's clothes in my bags. We'd figured now would be a good time to get our clothes laundered, and as one of the people who didn't need any clothes to walk around the city, I volunteered to go ahead and take them all while the others finished up at the baths. I was glad to stretch my legs and see more of the beautiful ward. It really was an oddity to me that a district this breathtaking could sit right next to the miserable, dank Old Quarter that we'd spent the last two days visiting. It must have felt confining to the people who lived in the old town at the bottom of the gorge, with the only easily accessible way out of the district being the docks.

I wondered whether we had the right or duty to change things here, along with our duty to protect people from the Scourge and other threats. Cruel city government surely counted as a threat to many of the people here, right? Enough that it was something we should protect them from. Though how we would go about doing it, I didn't know.

The laundry that Grace had directed me towards was a humble little two-storey shack by the side of one of the artificial canals that flowed off the main river. A long covered hall straddled the canal, and I could hear quiet splashing from within, the sound of people washing clothes. I gave a soft knock and headed in the front door.

The entire ground floor seemed to be dedicated to the laundry business, which probably meant the upstairs was living quarters. The large room was composed half of a waiting area, with a scattering of chairs and some potted plants in between them, and half of what appeared to be a display of various soaps, towels, handmade brushes, and other hygiene-related products. The room was quiet, with only a couple people waiting on the chairs, presumably on small bundles of laundry that would only take a few minutes for the workers to wash, and an elderly woman sitting behind a corner desk in the display area.

She couldn't be more than a decade from the grave, with deep wrinkles on her face, but she held herself with a straight back and had strong arms that clearly hadn't been hit too hard by age. Her hair was styled in a tight bun, and she pushed up a pair of spectacles when she saw me enter, a look of muted surprise on her face.

"Well!" she said in an assertive, but slightly crackly voice as I approached the desk. "Been some time since we've had a dragon in our laundry." She held her hand out. "I'm Ms. Malvina, welcome, welcome."

I gingerly shook her hand. «Sir Belfry,» I said. «I'm, uh, new in town. I'm with the dragoons.»

"Oh, I'd heard that some knights had taken up the old castle," Malvina said, clapping her hands together excitedly. I could already tell that she was the type to gossip incessantly, and given how ubiquitous a laundry would be in a city like this, I mentally took note of this place for the next time we needed to do an investigation.

"I never guessed that they would be dragon-knights, though," she continued. "You must have been the ones that killed that old butcher in the old town!"

I shrugged, feeling the eyes on my back. «Mhm, we did,» I confirmed.

"So impressive. And heroic!" Malvina chuckled as I started taking the clothes out of my bags. "Oh, I imagine you're here for business, though. Happy to serve our new knights, happy to serve. Out of curiosity, do you need these done for a special event? We can make sure they're pressed extra neat and given a few drops of our most popular perfumes if you're perhaps planning on attending the Equinox Ball."

I tilted my head. A ball? Like one of those fancy dances? I didn't know they still did those, I always thought it was something that pompous rich people did back before the war, decades and decades ago.

"Oh, perhaps you haven't been here long enough for the burgomaster to know to send an invitation," Malvina said, clearly scanning the confusion on my face. "He and His Holiness always have these balls on the solstices and equinoxes, and autumn is coming in only a week. I'm certain if he knew of your arrival and your eminence that he'd be sure to send you an invitation."

She rang a bell and a plainly-dressed man came in from the back door that I could see opened into that washing hall, taking our clothes before disappearing out the back. "Tell you what," Malvina continued. "I know some of the burgomaster's people, they come here for their washing sometimes. I can get a hold of them for you, make sure old Lionel knows who he's got on his doorstep."

«I'd…appreciate that,» I said, trying to process this. A ball, hmm. If the power movers in the city were going to be there…as much as I wasn't terribly interested in a party thrown by nobles and that bastard of a vicar, it would be wise for us to make ourselves known. If we were going to be important figures in this city, we had to make some moves that were political in nature, and going to an event like this would hopefully reflect well on us.

Plus, if the vicar was there, I'd get a chance to ask him what the hell Latighern meant when she said he "lied" to her.

«Yeah, I would,» I reiterated. «I imagine this is going to cost us.»

Malvina waved a dismissive hand with a smile. "Oh, dear, don't worry about that. It's really my honour. Worst case, we'll call it a favour, and you can pay me back later." She glanced up to the ceiling in thought. "In fact, if you're interested in repayment, why don't you take this?"

She bent down for a moment, shuffling through papers behind the desk until she retrieved an envelope. It was simple and unadorned, with the only bit that stood out being the wax seal that bore a symbol unfamiliar to me:

"A client of mine left this here on accident, but I believe it's intended to go to House val Lunedor," said Malvina. "I'd wager they'd send one of their own to the ball. If you could bring this and give it to whoever their representative is, I'd really appreciate it."

I felt a small prickle on the back of my neck, and my finned spines unconsciously flexed, like how my hair used to stand on end. Malvina seemed nice, so I wasn't sure why I was getting that anxious feeling. She was just a launderer. But still, I didn't like the idea of owing her a favour into the indefinite future. I'd much rather make sure we were even as soon as I could.

«I think I can do that,» I said.

"Oh, that's just wonderful," said Malvina. "Now, since you're getting the special treatment, I've got to go and make sure the boys and girls are working with the right soaps. Why don't you just take a seat down there, hmm? Shouldn't be more than half an hour before your things are ready for you."

She smiled and walked out the back with a small chuckle. Feeling like I just signed a contract, I picked an unoccupied area on the floor and laid down to wait on the laundry.

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