RED

The crystal pool evaporated in a cloud of steam as I hit the sizzling paving stones of my dreams. The gates of the opal castle were wide open, but the atmosphere was far less inviting; it felt like a boot was planted on the back of my neck, forcing me to kiss the scalding ground.

I rolled myself up in my silver cloak, curling into a ball. It was the only thing durable enough to block out the light, the heat; the inside wasn't cool, but it was bearable. Sweat poured down the column of my throat as I focused on my breathing, recalling the slow, methodical drum of Sebastian's heartbeat as I inhaled and exhaled. I had to conserve what little air was left in my makeshift tent as I worked on a plan, because brute force wasn't working. There had to be another way inside, to get the Sun Goddess's attention.

Light streamed through the walls of fabric, bringing out the lace on the inner lining. It was easy to forget about the pictures stitched into it, telling the pitiful story of my life so far. I'd avoided looking at it out of quiet self-loathing, eager to leave the past behind, but I was pleasantly surprised to see my latest adventures stitched into the panels as well.

The Orchid Mantis. The Queen Weaver. The River Nymph. I'd bested all of those smart, beautiful and powerful women with nothing but my cunning and my bare hands. I wondered if I'd looked as confident and imposing to them as I looked in the tapestry of my cloak, marvelling at the blend of contradictions in my likeness. Calm and compassionate, and yet fierce and ruthless; a hand that lifted up the weak and struck down the feared. Beautiful, I realised, almost startled by the fact. I look beautiful.

And all the more so for the changes I'd undergone and the effort I'd invested in bettering myself. I travelled back in time along the threads, not surprised to find them snarled around the time I joined the Blood Moon Pack. There had been pictures before that, but somebody or something had tampered with them, infiltrating my mind and tangling my memories beyond comprehension.

"You jealous wretch," I muttered, quietly seething at Nya's audacity. To be so desperate for power that she'd tried to steal it from another Goddess! "I'll show you what it feels like."

The silver cloak cooled in response to my resolve, turning blissfully icy. Spun from the threads that once tethered my soul to Hunter's, it was pure power ripped straight from the Night Goddess's hands, mine to fashion as I pleased. I conjured an image of mighty wings and impenetrable scales, pouring into the spell my desperate longing for a body that could plunge into a volcano and find the heat ticklish. I recalled how right it had felt to be airborne with Sol, the wind under our wing; every living thing beneath me, where it rightfully belonged!

Cool relief trickled down the back of my neck, washing over my arms. The cloak moulded to my skin and I watched in awe as it hardened into gleaming scales, silver as the Grace that lit up Hunter's eyes whenever he cast a spell. The opal gates shrank as I rose, muscle rippling through my legs. My arms unfurled into silver sails, utterly dazzling in the sunlight.

It wasn't my body, and it wasn't perfect, but I trumpeted with joy nonetheless. To my surprise, the sound was accompanied by a burst of flame that streamed through my fangs, followed by an adorable puff of smoke through my nostrils. I could just see them if I focused on my snout, though it was easier to look left and right than straight ahead with my new eyes, both set into the sides of my skull.

I turned my head to admire myself, marvelling at the reach and sinuous strength of my new neck. Each silver scale reflected the light, robbing it of most of its heat. The pressure of the atmosphere was bearable now, too, if not exactly comfortable.

Flapping my wings in test, I came to the conclusion that it would be difficult to take off from the ground. However, my claws could push into the paving stones like pins if I applied the right pressure, and my wings were tipped with silver talons that could do the same. The doors were made for a giant, but I decided that climbing up the side of the tower was the quickest and easiest way in. I didn't want to get lost inside, or stuck if the doors gradually became smaller, and if there were traps...

There was no time to waste. Somewhere, deep in the heart of the Grey Fist Mountains, my lungs were burning as I sank to the bottom of a crystal pool. Even without the threat of suffocating to death, I was eager to press forward and demand the answers I'd been searching for my whole life. Nya might have scourged my memory, but Rya saw everything from Her golden perch. I was determined to find out what had happened to my parents. What had happened to me.

I tucked in my wings and waddled through the gates, still not quite sure how to move my new legs in tandem. When I came to the opal turret, it took some fumbling to hook my wing-tips into the mortar. Once I had a good grip it was surprisingly easy to move along the wall, like I was crawling horizontally instead of vertically. A wyvern's muscular legs were designed to hunt and hoist herding animals over long distances, so my own weight was laughably easy to bear. I wondered briefly if a wyvern's bones were hollow, like a bird's; then I was crawling over the ramparts and into an atrium that seized all of my attention. 

The pressure hit me like a wave, dragging my wings to the ground. It was an effort to pin them against my back as I shuffled forward, eyes widening at the unusual garden on display.

It was not a greenhouse in the typical sense; there were no bays for seedlings, nor trellises for tomato vines. No pumpkins or potatoes stretched their leaves across the path, daring to be trodden into the dirt in a desperate attempt to reach the light. Instead all the plants were housed in perfectly spherical orbs of varying sizes, hovering at different intervals from the floor to the ceiling. Some could fit in the palm of a human hand, while others were larger than my wingspan. All of them wended a slow and leisurely circle through the room, orbiting a buttery yellow light in the centre.

They had no openings as far as I could tell, but each one housed a little ecosystem of plants and bugs, thriving and decomposing in turn, so that death could feed life in an endless cycle. Some even had tiny bodies of water that mimicked the ocean, only they were all the colours of the rainbow.

Self-sustaining little worlds, I realised, struggling to keep my inner and outer eyelids open. They sank under the weight of the air, even as my feet were being dragged through the golden sand towards the heart of the atrium. Something invisible was drawing me in, like a moth to an open flame, and I was afraid of getting burnt. It was the only source of light in the room; shadows cringed from it, seeking relief in the farthest corners of the space. Even so, I couldn't resist the pull as the light waxed brighter and brighter, making my draconic eyes smart as they slowly roasted in my skull.

The pain and pressure peaked when I laid eyes on a woman curled in a foetal position with her knees tucked up against her chest. She wasn't quite sleeping, and Her eyelids were slightly cracked, but there was a heaviness to her limbs that suggested she hadn't moved in some time. As I watched, a single tear of molten gold slipped between Her midnight lashes, staining them gold as the sand underfoot.

Rya, I realised, sensing the rightness of the name, even though it couldn't fully encompass all that She was. She emanated so much light that I could only catch glimpses of her grandeur and add them together in my mind, one tiny detail at a time. Can you hear my thoughts?

"Little One?" She mumbled, stirring as if from a dream.

The Goddess's voice was an earthquake that rattled the glass orbs, reducing the inner circle to translucent dust. My jaw fell open when it fell to the floor with a whisper, slowly taking on the golden cast of the sand. If those little gardens were what I thought...

Hissing from the effort, I stretched out my wings, shielding as many of the little worlds on display as possible. My scales rippled with discomfort, trying to vent some steam.

I need to know why you chose me, I sent, straight to the point. I need to know how to wield your Blessing so that I can defeat your ancient foe.

"Oh. For a moment I thought you were..." Rya sighed, resting her head in the crook of her arm again. The golden spires of her diadem dimmed, but the pressure in the atmosphere intensified along with her sadness. "Never mind. It does not matter."

I got the sense that nothing really mattered to the Goddess anymore. Her despair was the kind that filled every corner of a room, making the air heavy and stale. I felt like a bug trapped under a cup, suffocated and alone.

Why are you so sad? I asked, struggling to even form the thoughts. You have everything you could ever want right at your fingertips.

The Goddess laughed, a low, dark sound that almost ripped the membrane from my wings. "Do I?" She asked, reaching out blindly.

She was surprisingly swift for a giant and grabbed me before I could even flinch. I was but a sugar glider to the palm of Her lovely hand; Her long, elegant fingers were the rich brown of alpine loam, while Her nails were the same iridescent white as the castle, polished to a fiery shine. She felt out the shape of my body, my snout, scrunching Her eyes shut all the while, presumably to keep the deadly light from leaking through and incinerating me on the spot.

"A wyvern," Rya said, sounding surprised. "I am impressed that you have been able to look upon me for so long."

It wasn't without cost. Her touch was burning holes in the silvery magic I'd wrapped around myself. She seemed to sense my hesitation and slowly crawled to Her feet, clutching Her chest with one hand as She reached up with the other, depositing me on a swinging perch.

I almost forgot to grip onto it with my talons, for the sight of Her chest was enough to make all three of my stomachs turn; it had been cracked open like a chestnut and scooped clean of whatever treasure had lain at its heart. The jagged edges of Her opal ribs thrust out like rocks by the sea, and the fraying flaps of Her lovely dress — colourless and yet every colour to have ever existed, all at the same time — were gold, as the cavity oozed divine blood as viscous and sickly sweet as the sap of a maple tree. The smell reminded me vaguely of burning sugar, and my nostrils flared as it gathered, dropped and splattered on the sand below, trapped between pity and horror.

Who did this to you? I asked, my whole body vibrating with anger — or was that exhaustion? It was getting harder and harder to hold onto my new body, and I hadn't even learned anything yet!

"I did it to myself," She said simply, turning Her exquisite face up. "Won't you sing for me, little bird? It has been quiet for so long."

I don't have time for this, I replied, frustration spilling over caution. Countless lives are at stake, and I need to know how to wield your Blessing so I can protect them. The fate of the world hangs in the balance!

"Which one?" She asked, waving a hand towards the floating orbs. Thousands upon thousands, as far as the eye could see. "Entire galaxies lie at my feet, and all of them revolve around me. Your world is but a speck of dust to my eye, and will be reduced to such should I dare to look upon it. It is safer to leave it to its own devices."

Don't you have a heart? I cried, my wings flaring along with my temper.

"Not anymore," Rya said despondently, another tear rolling down Her cheek. "It betrayed me long ago."

I felt a flicker of alarm as the enamel on my talons started flaking away, my scales quick to follow. My new skin was shedding, and once it was gone...

All lives have worth, I insisted, panic leaking into my tone. Help me save the people I love. I'll beg if I have to.

Rya's pretty face turned cruel. "No. If I give you what you want, you won't come back."

I was absolutely floored by Her answer. Shock rooted me in place as my body flaked away, turning to ash as the perch swung nauseatingly beneath me. The Sun Goddess resumed Her position on the floor, smiling with closed lips as the remnants of my body flurried down and settled on Her cheek.