"What is this wish of yours, then?" The harbinger asked, its eye tilted at an angle. "Wealth? Power? Is your will to realize your dreams strong enough to strike a bargain with me?" Ekaitz's deep and low voice raised in fervent passion, so booming that the earth around them trembled. "Are you a naive and skittish hen, or are you a scaled fledgling?"

"I'm not a hen or a fledgling. I'm somewhere in between," she admitted, her own determination rising with the dragon's. "I want to be more than the daughter of a criminal. If that means wealth and power, I'll welcome it gladly. But most of all, I need to have freedom, and I want to see the world. I want independence from my mother and the society that bores me. If that means extending the same gift to you, I promise that I'll hunt the means to the end of the world." Melusine's heart swelled with hope, even skipping a few beats from the mere thought of her desire coming true.

"So many reckless words from one so small," the Old One maundered, its tone softening. The cavern was silent for several moments, then the glowing eye disappeared. It took a second for the girl to realize that it was because the creature had closed its eyes. "Watching you scramble and wander about my prison might be mildly annoying. What is your name, human?"

"My name?" She wondered if it was safe to give a dragon her name, but her pondering didn't last long. Not when there were things to be done and changes to be made. "Melusine Tepes."

"Very well, Melusine Tepes..." Melusine felt more than saw a claw extend to her and the tip gingerly press against her forehead. Something seared beneath her skin, spread out from the talon, and covered her eyes in crimson red. She couldn't maintain her composure as she fell forward, covering her eyes with her hands as if that would soothe the pain. Her screams echoed in the cave and merged with Ekaitz's voice like a morbid symphony. "You have my aid. Use it wisely."

It felt like hours before the pain stopped. It could've been minutes, seconds even. But that didn't matter. It hurt. The agony only faded when it spread out to the rest of her and seeped into the marrow of her bones. A dull ache and a feverish body was left behind.

The warmth of sunlight only made her fever grow worse, and stung behind her eyelids. She turned her head to one side, and her ear rang from her mother's voice. It was like she was shouting directly into it.

"Melly! Melly, what happened?! Wake up and speak to me!"

She cracked open her eyes to find herself in the forest. Long shadows blurred and spun together, with winter's gray overcast sky as a backdrop. It was a dizzying halo around her hovering mother's worried face. Her concerned expression quickly shifted to confusion. Her mother's grip on Melusine's shoulders tightened. It was so bright, too bright. She squinted. Her mother cried out in horror.

Her once hazel eyes were now the shade of fresh blood.