CASIMIRA

dragon-shifting daughter of ashhal and ryatah

Though Casimira made somewhat frequent trips to Hyaline, she did not always see Mazikeen, and if she did it was often only in passing. They were mostly informal visits to see her mother and Atrox, though they had increased since the return of Ryatah—as if seeing her will ensure nothing again happens to her. As time went on, though, that knot of anxiety began to loosen, and slowly she returned to the usual rhythm of her life, and her focus once again returned to Tephra.

She still was not sure if she was doing any of this right; if she was doing the kingdom justice. Every day she sat with a worried weight in her chest that she was not doing enough, and the echo of what Atrox had said to her still in her head—that the quiet over the lands was not the sign of peace it could be mistaken as, and that Tephra should be prepared. Did she even have what it took to prepare them? She isn’t entirely sure. The last war Tephra was in she had not even lived through it, but she had been young and held no control in her shifted form.

If war ever found them again, it would go differently, she tells herself. She has battle experience under her now, minor though it may be, but the proof of it still showed in the red marking on her front leg. She knew how to keep her dragon form in check, and she knew how badly a war could go.

She is lost in her thoughts when she catches sight of Mazikeen out of the corner of her eye, and immediately a smile brightens her face. “Maze,” she greets the familiar queen once she is close enough. “It’s good to see you,” she begins, but notices with a flicker of concern how tightly she is holding her wings to her sides, and she tries to will away the nervous flutter in her chest, because immediately her mind rushes to her mother. “Is everything alright?”

CASIMIRA

dragon-shifting daughter of ashhal and ryatah

There is a relief that washes over her when Mazikeen reassures her that everything in Hyaline is fine. The tightly coiled muscles under her skin loosen, and the frown that had shadowed her face clears. For a moment she almost feels ashamed that she had only assumed that the Hyaline queen was here to deliver bad news; she hated immediately jumping to such a negative conclusion, but given the recent circumstances, she supposes it is not all that surprising. “Oh,” she breathes out on a soft exhale, forcing a smile once again to her face. “That’s a relief,” she tells her honestly, because she knows she does not have to explain anything to her. Mazikeen knew better than most all the things she had been through—had been through even worse things than her, in fact. Casimira’s family had only been caught in the crossfire.

“It sounds like congratulations are in order,” she continues, the glacial blue of her eyes seeming to warm slightly, grateful to move on. “I’m glad that it sounds like things are going well for you, and that Hyaline appears to be on the path back to normalcy.” She tries to ignore the twinge in her chest when she thinks of the mountain kingdom. She had never thought there would be a day that her heart was split between two kingdoms when for so long nowhere at all had felt like home, but now, she felt such a strong pull towards both Hyaline and Tephra that it sometimes felt as if she was being cleaved in two.

“Things are going well here,” she answers thoughtfully, casting her gaze around the jungle that surrounds them. “It’s strange, being a queen. I feel like I have no idea what I’m doing.” It was one of the many reasons she is grateful for the return of her mother. Even though she knows she can — and has — ask Atrox for advice, it is comforting knowing that she had Ryatah to go to. No one understood the political games that Beqanna liked to play quite like her mother did.

“I promise I don’t intend on challenging you for anything,” she says with a quiet laugh. “I like to think that Tephra and Hyaline are allies.” It is spoken as a statement, but there is no mistaking the questioning lilt when she says it—looking at Mazikeen expectantly, hoping for confirmation.

CASIMIRA

dragon-shifting daughter of ashhal and ryatah

“They do sound exhausting, I’ve heard enough stories to tell me that I think I much prefer the direction the kingdoms have gone recently.” The stories that her mother told made the kingdoms sound like a chore—a place you worked rather than lived. While perhaps the idea of rising through ranks might sound grander than simply living and being happy, Casimira easily knows which she would choose if given the choice.

She would rather Tephra be seen as somewhere safe, would rather she be seen as a keeper of peace than one who wears a crown.

She wonders if perhaps the lack of magic back then played a part in the old kingdoms’ need to feel ‘prepared’ in case of an attack. While it was still good practice, being prepared for an attack was certainly much different now. It took more than just visiting other kingdoms to flesh them out, and more than friendly mock battles. It was impossible to predict that kind of magic their opponent might be harboring, and difficult, too, to help others prepare with powers that you might not be familiar with.

It was why she had finally allowed Breach to help her practice using her shifted form, so that she might utilize her skill should it ever be needed rather than hide it away.

“And likewise, Tephra will always be there for Hyaline.” The promise is returned with just as much ease, because Hyaline was as much her home as Tephra. In Tephra she had been born, had first discovered that she could shift into a dragon—had died and been reborn on this soil. But Hyaline is where she had learned to live, had learned to be comfortable in her own skin, and had learned that broken hearts don’t last forever.

She lets her blue eyes drift from her friend’s face, looking past her and into the distance, where the new shoreline that the flooding of the south had created. “I’m still not used to Tephra being an island. I’m glad Hyaline was spared damage from the flooding that the earthquake caused, though.” That would have been just her mother’s luck, it seemed, to escape death and return to a destroyed home, she can’t help but to think ruefully. “Have you met anyone from the sea kingdom? It’s almost unsettling to think another kingdom has existed all this time and none of us knew.”