Sega marched down the dark cobbled street, void of life in the cold winter air. A heavy mist swirled around her, her steps echoed against the looming buildings. She pulled her hood up, her breath swirled in a cloud behind her. Without having to look back, she knew the men were there. Two men followed her at a distance, melting in the shadows. The men themselves didn’t frighten her. She was more interested in finding out why they were there. But she needed to find Vigo. Her steps lengthened and she turned a corner. 

A hand shot out from a dark threshold and covered her mouth, and another wrapping around her and yanking her into shadows. She collided with the chest of her attacker, and instinctively drove her elbow hard into their gut. He stifled a grunt, but his grip remained firm around her. The gloved hand over her mouth nearly blocked her breathing, and smelled strongly of antiseptic. 

Is he trying to knock me out?

Sega thrashed, trying to break his hold but the grip tightened around her. She could feel hot breath against her cheek as the man hissed in annoyance. 

“If you don’t quit, they’ll find us.” A voice whispered into her hair. She shuddered, but stopped struggling. Slowly, she realized that the hand over her mouth wasn’t gloved, but bandaged. She breathed out of her nose, the adrenaline still coursing through her. Slowly, she relaxed.

Lux loosened his grip on her tentatively. 

The two men who had been following Sega stepped out into the empty street before them. They glanced around. One shrugged to the other and then they wandered off. Sega stayed rooted until the footsteps faded into silence. The hand dropped away from her mouth. She jammed her elbow into his ribs one final time before stepping out from the shadows.

Lux coughed, the breath knocked out of him. “What’s wrong with you?!” He wheezed, holding his stomach.

Sega scanned the streets surrounding them. “Serves you right. Come on.”

“Thank you Lux, you saved me from those evil men.” He mumbled, mockingly as she shot him a murderous look. He smirked, raising his hands in defeat. 

“Did you recognize them?” He finally straightened to his full height. 

Sega shook her head. “I don’t think so, but I didn’t get a good look.” She turned and started back down the street. Lux followed slightly behind. “Let’s start with Vigo — “

A dense shadow hurtled from an alley and knocked Sega clean off her feet. She hit the ground hard, her head smacking on the cobbles. Lights flashed behind her eyes and the world spun as hands grabbed her by her armor and lifted her back upright.

Another man flung himself at Lux, the bright flash of a knife cutting through the darkness. Lux leapt back with lightning speed. Sega kicked out at the man gripping her, but he held her just out of reach. Something struck the side of her leg and she cursed savagely. A third man whirled in her dazed vision, his bald head tattooed with strange patterns. He cut off her slurs with a punch to the stomach, and drew a knife from his belt. 

The man holding Sega struggled to contain her as she thrashed, she kicked out and landed a shot to the tattooed man’s crotch. He doubled over with a wheeze. Sega planted both of her feet on his shoulders with enough force to launch herself and her captor backwards off their feet, and landed hard on top of him. She rolled, breaking his hold. 

Lux easily dodged the knife in his attacker’s hand with an uppercut to the man’s chin. The knife flung out of the man’s hand, and Lux shook his bandaged hand with a painful grimace. His attacker glanced over at Sega and gawked in horror.

“Wait! Only the man!” He reached towards Sega as Lux slammed an elbow into his temple. The tattooed man didn’t hear as he surged forward and drove the knife into Sega’s shoulder. She cried out, staggering back. She looked up at the tattooed man, her eyes wild like a cornered animal. The man ducked, ready to go in for a tackle. Sega leapt over him and in one swift swing, wrapped her hands around his head and snapped his neck. Before he even hit the ground, she yanked the blade from her shoulder and spun to the man who had first grabbed her. He was staggering away down the road as the blade sung through the air and sunk into the back of his skull. He hit the ground with a heavy slap. 

Lux grabbed the remaining attacker by his hair, yanking his head back. Sega turned towards him, her eyes burning in the darkness. Surprise froze Lux's face as he looked at her, but all she could see was the terror on the man’s face in his grip. 

He sputtered, gasping for breath. “We…We were only paid to take him.” His eyes bulged as Sega closed in. 

Lux tightened his hold “By who?”

“You…You weren’t supposed to be here.” 

“Who paid you?” Sega stepped closer. The man curled in on himself and whimpered. Her eyes caught movement just as his hand whipped out from his cloak. 

She jerked to the side and caught the long throwing dagger. She spun it and drove it into the man’s neck. The man sputtered, clamping his hands over his wound. He sunk to his knees, coughing blood before going limp. Lux let him fall onto the ground. 

He looked curiously up at Sega as she panted. She looked down at the two other throwing knives that had lodged deep into her chest. She teetered, her vision faded as Lux scrambled towards her. 

“Shit.” He caught her before she hit the groun, and glanced around at the empty streets, dense with fog. “Shit.”

He swung her into his arms and started walking. There had to be somewhere, someone that could help. He could take her back to the inn, but it was more than likely he’d be gutted on the spot by that damned captain. His walk evolved into a jog. Lux glanced down at Sega, her eyes rolling. 

He jostled her gently “Come on, don’t fall asleep on me.” 

She sagged against him, blood seeped from the corner of her lips. He stopped and looked around in the heavy mist, his breath mixing with the clouded air. A faint flickering across a courtyard caught his eye. He stomped forward, squinting until he could see the sign swinging on squeaky hinges over the door. A blacksmith. 

“Okay... I can make that work.” He jogged forward and shouldered open the door without a knock. Not that it mattered, no one was inside. Coals in the hearth cast a faint orange glow over the tight, cluttered room. Tools hung from the beams of the ceiling, the walls lined with hammers and picks and all sorts of metal strips and spikes. 

He swept Sega onto a massive wooden table, scattering tools and bowls to the floor. She grunted and coughed, but her eyes remained closed. 

“Don't give me that,” He patted her paled cheek in a vain attempt to wake her up, or maybe just to aggravate her. Either would work. Blood pooled down her leather armor and started to spread over the table. She groaned, but rolled her head to the side. Lux stared at knife that stuck precariously close to her heart. 

“You’re lucky he had bad aim.” It was hard to tell through the armor, with a grimace he grabbed hold of the knife and yanked it. Sega cried out, and sat bolt upright, nearly colliding with Lux as he leapt back. Not fast enough, she snatched the collar of his shirt. 

“Do you want to get your eyes gouged out?!” She panted at him. He scoffed, unfolding her fingers from his robes. He then folded the knife into her fingers with a pat to her hand. 

“I’d like to see you try,” as he watched her grip weaken around the blade. Her eyes closed with a wince and Lux caught her as she fell like a downed tree. He lowered her carefully back down and looked to the other blade, then pulled it out with more care. He peeled the soaked leather of her armor back. The silk shirt beneath glistened with blood, he pulled that back as well. Beneath was the stark contrast of pearl white skin and the deep scarlet blood pooling from the wounds, one on her shoulder, one just below the collarbone and one just to the left of her heart. 

He frowned  and turned swiftly away. His eyes scanned the room for anything that could be of use. A musty rag, a wooden bowl, water from a bucket that looked relatively clean. He set them down on the table beside Sega, soaked the rag in water and bent over her, gently cleaning around the wounds. 

Her hand snapped closed around his wrist and he looked up to see her eyes locked on him, wide with warning. A smile played at his lips. He could feel how weak her grip was. 

“I have everything I need to strap you down if that’s how it has to happen…” He bobbed his eyebrows at her. Sega loosened her grip slightly. “If you keep thrashing around, you’ll bleed out faster.” 

Lux dipped the rag back into the bowl and squeezed out the blood. Out of the corner of his eye he noticed a shiver run over Sega’s body. He pressed the rag back over the wound and grabbed her hand, pressing it down over the rag. 

“Hold this for a moment,” He went to the fire and began to stoke the flames back to life. Sega watched his shape against the orange light as her eyes drifted shut. She could hear her heart thumping in her ears, faltering and slowing its tempo. She couldn't get the air to fill her lungs. Her hand slid way from the wound. 

She dreamt of the tunnels, the ones her village used to guard. She crept along the dim passage, faintly lit with frigid light. She could almost feel the cold, damp air along her skin. Something moved in the darkness just ahead of her, sneaking around corners just beyond the light. It was massive, filling the cavern that stood at least three men high. She could hear it dragging something along the slick passage floor. She couldn't quite place the sound. She turned a corner and found herself standing at the entrance of a vast cavern. Most of the cavern floor was filled by a deep volcanic spring. It smelled like sulfur, its surface bubbled and steamed. Stalactites and stalagmites joined floor to ceiling with slick white columns. Here, the air was thick and hot. She glanced around, the thing she had been following was nowhere to be found. Her eyes snapped back to the spring. Something swirled in the deep purple abyss at its center. It seemed to glow, the same cold light that led her through the passages. 

She stared into the boiling water. The swirling thing seemed to be closing in on her, small bioluminescent strips pulsed along its body, nearing the surface as it twisted around. It slowed for a moment, then surged towards her. Her eyes widened in terror and she fell back against the rough stone wall. Its head broke the surface, a jaw full of sharp teeth opening wide was it twisted its neck to look down at her. 

"Sega." A voice filled her head, and for a moment she though the thing was speaking to her. 

"Wake up." In the faint blue light, she could make out the shape of it as the blue and green lights streamed along its head and neck, a dragon head with long whiskers that swirled and twisted as it edged closer. Purple light flared from its throat, luminous vapor tumbled from its mouth. 

"Wake up!" The voice screamed in her head and she winced. The dragon dove for her, she cried out.

She snapped back into her body, a gasp ripping from her throat. It felt like she was filled with fire. She glanced down at the wound on her chest. Lux pressed his bare hands down on the wounds, pouring an immense amount of energy into her. The veins beneath her skin pulsed and glowed, a familiar purple light. The veins along Lux's arms pulsed with the same light. 

"Welcome back," Lux gritted his teeth as he held her thrashing shoulders down. She muffled her cry, glaring into his gold eyes as he stared apologetically back. She drew in a long breath as he released her from his grip.

"What happened?" her voice came out hoarse, and she cleared her dry throat.

"I supposed you were dead." Lux looked down at his hands, his fists clenching and spreading. "I need to close these wounds." He glanced around the room again. "I could sew them shut..."

"I don't think your hands could manage that." Sega whispered from the table, staring at the fire in the hearth.

Lux nodded, hiding his hands behind his back. "What do you suggest?"

Sega stared at the fire in silence. He followed her gaze, landing on the red hot iron poker in the flames.

"It'll be quick." Sega's voice was barely audible now. 

Lux nods, looking back at her on the table. At the wound still seeping blood from her chest. The one on her shoulder and collarbone had stopped bleeding from his healing while she was passed out. He frowed. 

"As you wish." He stomped over to the hearth and snatched the poker from the flames in a swirl of embers. He circled back around the table, grabbing a strap of leather from a workbench on her way to her side. 

He stared at the white hot tip of the poker, blowing gently on it as it brightened. He smirked.  

"They say that dragons life in fire. They surround themselves with it, not so much to stay warm. They're hot-blooded. They do it to protect themselves." 

"Believing in fairytales now?" Sega attempted a weak sneer. "Didn't take you for that type."

"To think, that dragons endure the pain of burning, that they adapt to it. Just to stay alive while they sleep." 

Sega's sneer faded. Lux's eyes shift from the poker down to her. "But you know all about that, don't you?" 

A stillness filled the shop. 

"I can't say I do." Sega kept her voice steady. Lux handed her the strip of leather.

"Bite this." He pressed one hand down on her uninjured shoulder. "I won't tell anyone if you look away." 

He offered a genuine smile this time, tinged with sadness. She held his gaze. With a sigh, he laid the hot iron over the wound, his weight pinned her down as she thrashed involuntarily.

They both gritted their teeth. Sega grabbed onto his arm, her nails digging into the skin. He grimaced, letting her tear at him.