ORIGIN - The Messenger (Is Already Hurt)

[Backdated: Takes place during either the first or second week of this past January]

It had been a long, stressful flight, but now Cadenza was at their beloved dragon-dad's home, the same place where they had hatched. Distantly, their mind wondered if the Raspite had hatched here, too. This was a potentially very painful conversation, and it hurt their heart to think of how it might go.

They had already been visiting their dragon-dad periodically, telling them about the eldest children who had grown up, originally moved due to the concern about the war with Order. About the two fish-children, Alek and Gaheris, and their kooru-child, Kaizer. They had even in tears told him of the attack on Gaheris once, and how Cadenza had needed to defy their pacifistic nature in order to protect their child, killing another gembound through horrible means of boiling alive.

Cadenza had mentioned how Alek was prone to mischief and antagonizing but also had another kind side, Gaheris's incurable fascination with the magic the parent and child shared, and Kaizer's quieter way of expressing himself.

They also spoke of Sprig, the lion who had become their children's dad, who they had realized they loved so very much. They told of Sprig's desire to be near the garden, and his wondrous abilities to create and grow with magic. Cadenza apologized that it seemed they were in Orion more, that they missed Leo and him, but it was odd, having lived somewhere and than elsewhere, and both placed were their homes, really, because their family lived in both caves.

They spoke of the two currently three-cycles old children they and Sprig had decided to create, with much less impulsiveness than last time. They had worriedly mentioned when Asira, at two cycles old, had chrysalized due to a dangerous incident with the magic inherited from their own magic. They voiced fears when their child had reawoken into the world just as interested in said dangerous magic as before.

And they did not expect Dread to remember everything, but they liked to speak to their dragon-dad, it was simply how it was. While Pride felt more distant, perhaps due to not having been there when they hatched, their dragon-dad had taught them, and more than that, he had been the first one to love them.

So Cadenza was much grieved to be a bearer of this news, that could potentially have been the death of one of their own siblings, one of Dread's children.

A part of them hoped for coincidence, but they doubted it.

And so Cadenza awaited Dread with... dread, perhaps for the first time in their existence. Not of him, though. But rather, for him.

@Dread

Those past conversations, for Dread, existed in that vague space of 'the past.' They tended to turn vague and run together, after awhile, though a few points still stood out in his memory.

Like when Cadenza had told him of boiling someone alive to protect a child. He'd shrugged that off, told them not to feel bad about it. A dragon did what was necessary to protect their family and their lair, and letting an enemy walk free would have been far worse, he'd said.

Or when Cadenza had mentioned the child with deadly magic. He had suggested Pride for helping, in a surprising turn of intelligence, and then reassured them that all magic could be dangerous. That he had burned himself far too many times.

Right now, though, Cadenza was far from Dread's mind. He was basking, sunning himself at the top of his sea stack, moving only to adjust as the simulated sunlight shifted position overhead. Wings were spread, head lying contentedly on the ridge, though his eyes were open to slits and always watching Leo.

Like a feral beast, he simply existed, day-to-day. The greater machinations of the cave, the battles between Chaos and Order, the demands of Astraea--these things only bothered him insofar as they touched his own freedoms and his claims. Then, he fought, ferociously. But other than that, his life was one of hunting, fishing, patrolling, collecting treasures, and sleeping.

@Cadenza

Their dragon-dad's desires and therefore life tended towards simplicity, Cadenza had thought in the past in a pleasantly amused way. Sometimes Cadenza wished they could be more like this dad, simply feeling content with existing. But, their anxieties would not let them be such. Usually, their anxieties were lessened around their dragon-dad, though.

Not today. As Cadenza landed on the sea stack, and saw how content their dad looked, they had to resist the urge to fly off immediately. "Dad...?" they voiced, voice hesitant but clear and musical as they waited until they had their dad's attention.

Perhaps, they hoped, it was a coincidence. "...Did one of my siblings have a Raspite stone?" they asked, belatedly realizing their tense was past, but Dread likely wouldn't notice.

They wondered if they should say more yet. They did not think so, not yet. Maybe it was a coincidence, they prayed, though to what, they did not know.

@Dread

Dread heard the approaching wingbeats and lifted himself, peering out at the pale silhouette. He shuffled to make room for Cadenza's landing as soon as he'd recognized them, the rise of spines and fins in instinctive defense lowering once 'potential threat' became 'oh, it's them' in his mind.

"HELLO," he boomed, and then--they'd gone straight into a question. Urgent-? Was something wrong? He studied them briefly, trying to puzzle out both the question and their demeanor, blinking after a moment and shaking his head. It wasn't a "no," but rather the sort of head-shake a creature might make when baffled.

"WHAT IS A RASPITE?" he asked, bewildered.

@Cadenza

For a moment, Cadenza did hope that headshake was a no, but they were not surprised by their dad's question. Luckily, they knew the names of many gemstones and what they looked like, and they had seen Raspite before. "It's a gemstone, it looks orange-ish, kind of crystal-like," they explained, patient.

Maybe it was a no, if their dad was unaware of the answer automatically. But maybe not, since their dad tended to think of gemstones as varying kinds of shinies rather than by name.

They felt the tension in their form, and they repeated the question. "Did one of my siblings have a gemstone like that? As their own gemstone, I mean, the source of their magic and life." they asked, heart in their throat.

@Dread

Dread considered.

He then pushed up and turned, wing-walking to the northern edge of the sea stack. A few stray gemstone shards lay there, piled up as if they'd been swept out of the way. Some were flint, some obsidian; some were raspite, and Dread gently, carefully picked a glimmering orange piece up with the beak of his jaws and carred it over. He deposited this in front of Cadenza. "LIKE THIS?" he asked, peering with bright eyes. He wasn't sure why they asked, but the fins on the back of his neck had raised a little, as though he suspected something might be wrong. There was nothing of in it in his tone, though.

"IF YES, CALLUM HAD A STONE LIKE THAT. -THIS WAS HIS! HE HATCHED HERE. FROM A ROCK A WOLF GAVE ME. I TAUGHT HIM A LITTLE BUT HE DID NOT STAY HERE! HE IS OUR FAMILY, THOUGH. YES." He paused, gaze distant, for a moment. "I WONDER WHERE HE LIVES NOW."

@Cadenza

Cadenza mutely nodded in agreement as their dad presented the shards of Raspite, leftover from a chrysalis hatching, it seemed. Then he spoke proudly of a son, Callum, confirming it. Their heart felt like it twisted inside them, at Dread's wonderings. Was it not better to leave Dread wondering?

They would want to know if something had happened to one of their children, though, wouldn't they? ...Even if, there was nothing to be done to help the child...? Would they truly wish to know if one of their children died, instead of simply stopped visiting? They were not sure, and they felt sick.

And so they hesitated, on the verge of tears. This was their brother, and he was dead, and while their son had done something very kind, they still felt the loss of a family member even having never known him.

"...Would you... If you had a choice of knowing something bad or not, but there is nothing that can be done to change the bad thing, would you prefer to know the bad thing or not?" Cadenza finally spoke up, as the silence stretched a bit.

@Dread

It took him a minute, head tilting back and forth, to parse what Cadenza was saying. Faint misgiving began to rise in him, though he didn't fully understand why.

"I WOULD WANT TO KNOW THINGS?" he half-asked, at last. Unsure, because he didn't quite understand the question, or why Cadenza was asking it.

@Cadenza