Father had been harsh: Yadigar was to be taught how to be cruel. If Asphyxea was being honest (with herself and her father), she would roll to her back and expose that soft, soft underbelly. She would take her brother to her side and frown hesitantly up at their tyrant father.

But Phyx doesn't know honesty. She knows it in that her father will not stand dishonesty, but she does not understand real, raw truth. Which is precisely why she only sees the good, fierce things about Ghaul. Why she only shows mercy to her siblings when their father is not around.

It is Ghaul that finally solidifies her decision to ask for the gift she has thought on for so long. Phyx admires her father's dragon ferocity so intensely that she often envies his flames and his teeth and his grasping talons. When they spar, she will occasionally lose control, infuriated by her lack of protection against his magic's encompassing rage.

"Craft and Anatomy, beloved entities," the girl calls, remembering how her father had taught her to fear and respect the gods that make their land a home. "I have come to request a gift. Teeth as sharp and as mighty as my father's."