Chapter 45: Longing & Loss

Chapter 45: Longing & Loss Bran lay on his bed with his eyes open, staring up at the ceiling. He was tired, dead tired, but he couldn’t sleep - his mind was filled with the sensation of touching Misha’s bare skin with his hand. Outside, he heard the front door click. He sighed. He wasn’t sure how to face Misha right now, so he was glad for this interlude, yet being apart made him feel listless. Was love always this fickle? Bran sighed and sat up and pulled out the messenger bird messages Amethyst had given him earlier. He folded out the one from Malcolm first then folded it back up when he confirmed it was just the usual nagging to get his health looked after, to go see his aunt, and all that, no mention of the matter Bran had asked him about. Slightly annoyed, Bran sighed and opened Tuesday’s next. Based on the decay of the delivery spell this should have been sent ages ago, probably soon after Bran and Misha had holed up in this flat, and was as short as it was befuddling. No record of a Misha Long being born in Pearl City and no record of a dragon hatching within timeframe. Bran reread that short message but could glean nothing more from it. No record? That couldn’t be right. Misha had been born here, he’d said so himself, and his ID card said so as well. In the past it might have been possible to fake these kinds of things, but that time was over now. Besides, Misha had come through immigration just fine, so that proved there had to be some kind of entry for him, right? Then there was the thing about no dragon hatching in the place. That one was probably easier to explain, the dragons were highly respected and if they wanted to conceal a birth, then there wasn’t too much a human government could do about it, but it was so out of character. Normally, the birth of a dragon was a highly celebrated event, the most auspicious of auspicious events that drew visitors from all around just to get a whiff of that good luck. Bran folded up Tuesday’s note and put it and Malcolm’s back into his pocket. He didn’t want Misha seeing them, not before he’d figured out what was going on. Suddenly feeling awake and energised, Bran crawled to his feet and went to his bedroom door. Then everything went black. -- Back when things were in Walled City mode, there hadn’t been any lifts or anything like that, just stairs, so all this lift taking in our estate was quite novel. Back in Scotland, I’d lived on a low floor so I had usually just used the stairs. I can be quite impatient like that. Anyway, while I was waiting I came across a familiar face, or rather, a familiar face came across me. "You’re up early," I said as Helen entered the lift lobby from the front entrance. "Too early by my book, but," Helen sighed, "such is life." Helen did not seem to be a morning type of person. The lift arrived and we both stepped in. "Are you here to see us, or...?" I asked. "To see you two," replied Helen. An old woman with two large bags of fresh produce got in the lift after us and hit the button for the second floor. We all waited in silence until we reached it and the woman got out. I sighed as the door slid closed. "Bran was sleeping when I left," I told Helen. "We were up all night, so I’m not sure if he’ll be awake to speak to you." Helen grinned. "Up all night you say..." I blushed furiously. "We were dealing with the Coil," I said forcefully. Helen laughed. "I know," she said. "I just like teasing you." I bit my tongue and looked away, still red. "I’d say pretty much all of the jianghu knows about what you two did," Helen went on. "Caused quite the stir when the Coil finally fell." "Huh? How’d you mean?" "You remember the Gratitude currency inflation issue? Turns out, it was the Coil that was causing it." The lift dinged and we got out. "What...? How, how does that work?" I asked as we walked to the flat. "I thought... Aren’t the two things completely unrelated?" Had you known? "I’m as shocked as you," said Helen. "But it turns out that the Coil was producing enormous amounts of Nostalgia and, if you use certain techniques, Nostalgia can be converted into Gratitude." A switch flicked on in my head. "Someone was using the Coil to print money." "Bingo." We had arrived at our flat and I fished in my pocket for the key. "So all this fuss about the Coil was all just because of some petty thief?" I asked as I got the door open. "Thief, yes, but nothing about what they were doing was petty," said Helen, following me in. "Bran said you know something about finance, right? So you have to know that the sums we’re talking about here had to be massive." "True..." I couldn’t help feel it was a little anticlimactic though. I looked over at your bedroom and saw that the door was closed. "Look’s like Bran’s still asleep," I said. "Would you like something to eat?" "I won’t say no to a meal!" Helen said excitedly as she followed me to the kitchen. I waited until I had gotten things cooking on the stove before I asked my next question. "So... will you be moving onto my father’s case then?" I asked breezily. "You need to work on your casual manner," replied Helen. "Learn from Bran. He has the best poker face." I had to agree to that. "But as for your father’s case..." Helen sighed. "Has it hit a roadblock?" I asked. "Not exactly..." I made a sympathetic sound and flipped the pancakes, but didn’t say anything. I felt it best to practice my casual manner and acted like everything was normal. It only took a minute or two before Helen finally broke. "I... really shouldn’t be telling you this, one, because you’re not involved as an investigator on the case, and two, because you’re related to the victim in the case, but..." the woman glanced around, then leaned closer to me. "It’s been decided to merge your father’s case with another high profile ongoing case." "Is that... bad?" "It’s not good or bad," she replied. "It’s just... weird. You know what the other case is about?" I shook my head. "Missing dragons." Other than the basic premise of the case (the fact that a number of dragons had gone missing in the last year) Helen didn’t know much about what was going on. Apparently her team was getting a briefing that afternoon. "I probably won’t be able to keep you up to date," said Helen as she put her shoes back on. "You’ve already told me a lot. I’m really grateful," I said completely truthfully. Helen smiled then pinched my cheek. "For that, I’ll put extra effort into digging up what I can. Say ’hi’ for Bran for me." After Helen left, I washed up then thought I should see if you were okay. It was normal for you to be tired after spending all night up running around but I couldn’t help worrying. At the time, I put it up to me just being overly attached to you, but a nagging feeling is a nagging feeling and in the end I just had to go check. Even now I kick myself for not going sooner. "Bran!" You were lying face down on the ground having clearly tried to go to the door. How long had you been there? Were you okay? With shaking hands I carefully lifted you up and turned you over. Immediately I saw that your chest was moving up and down, so I knew you were alive at least. Pushing down my terror, I carried you slowly to your bed and put you in it. Or at least, that was what I tried to do. About halfway to the bed, your eyes suddenly blinked wide open. Your pupils were completely dilated and there was a furious madness in them. "Bran?!" Your mouth moved, like you meant to say something and I felt relief flood through me only to be killed when you rose in my arms and bit my throat. "Ah!" Your teeth were sharp and pierced my skin almost instantly, drawing blood. I felt your mouth and tongue latch to the wound and suck. Maybe it was the shock, but feeling my blood be suddenly drained from me, made me go weak at the knees and I dropped you as my body transformed. My dragon instincts ruled supreme in those first few moments and I snarled and pinned you roughly to the ground. I saw the fear in your eyes as you looked up at me and I immediately pulled back though not quite enough to let you escape my claws. A trickle of blood ran down my neck, over my scales, and down the leg that pinned you to the ground. When you saw it, your eyes latched to it and you strained to lick it. The sensation was too intense and I roared in my throat, which sent you shivering and trying to escape again. What the hell was going on?! And then came the knock on the door.