The voice that called out to Sayo was loud. The kind of loudness that didn't understand how anyone wouldn't want to hear it. It was loud like Hina, having been warned off making a ruckus that could trigger an avalanche down the glacier, assembled an percussion instrument ensemble to trigger an avalanche on the next valley over. Sayo was minding her own business, Beret's lead rope loosely wound around one hand as they walked toward the town exit. His ears twitched and flattened, head turned slightly as though recognizing the voice was calling out to his rider. It was the only reason Sayo heeded the frankly ridiculous request. For one, no one used such an ancient address for Ilian pegasus knights anymore.

"Rider of Ilia! You who soars the frozen skies on borrowed wings! You will come with me at once!"

"I am not currently accepting contracts — "

"But are you not a rider of Ilia? You are bound to answer to the oath of Oedethea. So my father told me."

The girl imperiously lifted her chin. She seemed vaguely disconcerted Sayo was still a full head taller. She couldn't be older than Sayo, perhaps even some years younger. Hair the color of twilight billowed in a non-existent wind, and eyes of a nocturnal predator stared her down, languidly peeved at being awakened in daylight. She was dressed unusually for these parts, and for Ilia for that matter. Though something about her reminded Sayo of her homeland. An exotic would-be employer, then, or simply difficult. Uncommon, but not outside of her experience. Even so, Sayo had never heard her hometown's ancient name spoken outside of their spring equinox festival.

"It's Edessa now, and I've never known or taken such oaths. Nevertheless, may I know who your father is?"

A frown marred the girl's perfect forehead. My father, she mumbled, mouth moving soundlessly. She looked apprehensive and lost all of a sudden, like a child separated from her parents. It was Beret who made the decision for Sayo. He nosed on the top of the girl's head, nickered, and nudged Sayo's shoulder.

Suppressing a sigh, Sayo said, "May I at least know your name?"

For a moment clarity returned to the girl's eye, and a sharpness that pierced through her soul. It was gone as she said, "Yukina. My name is Yukina. I know that best."

More than a hundred years ago, dragons had once walked the land and lived side by side with humans. Perhaps they had been cordial once, or perhaps it had always been a tenuous co-existence. At present there were no dragons left on earth, and so: history recorded that it had been the dragons who had started waging war of extermination, a war that the humans only won after much blood had been spilled, and at the cost of magic.

As a child of Ilia, it was one of the first few facts of the world Sayo had to learn. That the mountains of Ilia would not thaw long enough for more than subsistence farming; that girls must venture to the springs of Pyrene and bond with a pegasus, and leave Ilia and fight as a mercenary to become women (boys would have to make do with flightless horses); that the ice dragons once lived with them as kindly neighbors, even to the end of the war. Out of compassion for humanity and the few dragons remaining, the ice dragons had voluntarily exiled themselves to another world. And that was the oath of Edessa, such that it bound Ilia, and therefore Sayo, to no obligation. It was a wonder Sayo had known it at all.

Her name was the only thing Yukina knew. Questions of her origins, her father's whereabouts, even the help she'd needed from Sayo were met with a vacant stare. They were standing in the middle of the street and people were starting to give them the evil eye. Beret was listless. Her normally disciplined steed kept bumping his nose into her shoulder.

Sayo was a pegasus knight of Ilia. Theirs was an oath in gold, the fealty of a knight in exchange for a short lease of life in their frigid homeland. No money had exchanged hands, not even so much of a promise of it, but as far as Sayo was concerned she had signed the contract. At the very least she ought to hear Yukina's distress, even if it might turn out to be something as simple as finding a lost cat. Sayo took both of them to the inn she'd just left. There she lodged Beret in the barn, where he was an object of curiosity for the other, mundane horses. As for Yukina, to the inn's dining hall they went. Sayo thought food might have helped mend her memories — the girl looked malnourished. The inn was mostly empty, and the few patrons also taking their mid-afternoon sup were new faces.

Yukina stared at her gruel, then the spoon, and lifted the bowl and poured the content into her gaping mouth. As far as quirky clients went, this was a first.

Sayo waited until she had emptied everything and pointedly ignored the gruel dripping off her chin. Once again she implored her client to please make her case. As usual it seemed to take her great effort to comprehend Sayo's request, much less form a response. As Sayo was about to give up, she said, haltingly, "They took something from me."

Right, Sayo thought. Small words, one detail after another. "What did they take from you?"

"My soul."

"Excuse me," the inkeeper said. He was a small man with small eyes that seemed constantly assaulted by dust. Blinking, he said, "Sorry, lass, but there might be a problem with your li'l horsie. He's gone."

Her disciplined, noble steed who nevertheless hated having a roof over his head and being surrounded by non-flying horses, half of which treated him as a threat. Her stalwart partner, the only ally she had outside of Ilia. Sayo grabbed her spear and made to the stable, barely remembering to tell Yukina to stay put.

There had only been one other horse when Sayo had gone in to tie Beret. They were both gone. The sun shone through the hole in the roof — the pegasus-shaped hole in the roof.

Her danger sense kicked in, and Sayo twisted away from a knife that had been meant for her back. And again, sweeping the leg out of her assailant. The fine point of her spear sliced through his wrist. The knife, dropped with much yelling, she drove into his other hand. Then, spear point grazing his jugular, she demanded, "What did you do to my pegasus?"

But as the goon writhed in pain, she realized there was something wrong. A thief wouldn't have waited here for her after setting off her pegasus. But a grunt with a knife could've tied her up long enough for another to —

Sayo ran out of the barn just in time to see a horse ran off, see the wriggling sack on its rider's shoulder. Her blood ran cold. Sayo barged into the inn, and one look confirmed what she had been afraid of. Yukina was missing. The innkeeper stared at her in surprise, and trembled.

She smacked the butt of her spear to the floor. "Where are they taking her?"

But even under threat he didn't seem to know anything, only involved as far as accepting payment to distract Sayo. She swallowed bile and left before she did something she'd regret. Because the truth of the matter was, it was all her fault. No competent pegasus knight would have allowed their client to be kidnapped under her nose. No competent pegasus knight would have simply lost her pegasus.

Deep in her self-pity, she almost didn't notice the shadow descending on her until it landed within arms reach with an indignant, feathery huff. But it was Beret in the flesh, unharmed and only mildly annoyed, butting his head into her shoulder impatiently, get on, silly. She took his reins and Beret's wings beated them off the ground before her boots bit into the stirrups. Sayo lived for this moment. The town and all its people shrinking, the instance when gravity relinquished its hold and weighlessness became flight, the rush of the chase narrowing her vision like an eagle's. Hiding behind clouds while her landbound preys never even thought to look up. The hunt was on.

The tiny black dot headed toward a camp not too far from the town, in the middle of the plains. How strange, even audacious for bandits to camp so openly near a settlement. She counted at least a dozen horses, and more people. It seemed to her an overkill for the sake of kidnapping one defenseless and witless girl, yet she couldn't see what else they would do. Sayo nudged Beret to slip lower, as low as they could manage while still hiding behind clouds. Yukina had been released from the sack. She seemed unharmed, and also unbound as the apparent leader spoke to her. He showed her something that glimmered in the sun — something that had Yukina suddenly leap at him like a cat pouncing on a mouse. He only had but raise his arm to keep the trinket out of her reach. In his other hand was a sword which was now bared at Yukina's throat.

Deep down Sayo knew she should've hated battles. Years of training and field experience could be undone by a greenhorn's sheer dumb luck. But occasionally she was the greenhorn. Sayo didn't see the arrow coming. Her negligence, the price of her recklessness that Beret would have to pay. By sheer dumb luck, it wouldn't be today. Seeing her erstwhile client threatened with a sword, her heels dug into Beret's flank without thinking. And so Beret folded his wings and dove, and the arrow safely whistled past Sayo's head.

The element of surprise gone, there was nothing to it but to charge in. With the camp fast approaching Sayo threw a javelin in the direction of the archer. She didn't wait to see if it'd landed. Buckler in one hand and lance in another, letting go of Beret's reins, Sayo lunged at the leader. For such a big man he was nimble, shifting, sword halfway out of its scabbard. Blade met shield, and Sayo bounced off the impact, twisting, striking out with her lance. It hit something, but there was no time to see as the others had come back to their senses.

"Who the hell even are you?" roared one, brandishing her axe. It looked very sharp.

Sayo edged closer to Yukina. She seemed unharmed — so unharmed she was more interested in staring at something on the ground like Beret eyeing a wild carrot. Sayo couldn't spare more attention on her — she was surrounded, and these lot didn't seem to have any compunctions on using their seasoned weapons. Though battered, their armors seemed standardized — no ordinary bandits, then. Six of them against Sayo in her lonesome.

Even so, the leader merely raised his hand, stopping the others on their tracks. Said to Sayo, "I hate stepping on miserable children. Tell us who sent you, Ilian merc, and we might just let you go."

"She's with me," Yukina said. She sounded lucid for once. Sayo felt her shift, and in turn she changed her position to better cover her. Yukina continued, "What's in doubt is you brigands and your intentions."

He frowned, crushing an already unpleasing face. "I don't like hurting little girls, but make no mistake, you will come with us to meet Lord Minato."

Yukina stepped in, the sharp outline of her shadowing the right edge of Sayo's vision. Goosefeathers raised on her right arm. Her instinct was screaming danger. In contrast Yukina seemed calm. "Minato, eh? Is that what he called himself? And I suppose he told you to keep my dragonstone away from my person." She held up a trinket in her hand. It shone in the sun, livid and brilliant. My soul.

A man of the battlefield ought to know when he was well and truly screwed. His body would know, even if his waking self persisted in his stupidity. Sayo watched the man before her blanch, heard the collective gasps around her. Her own muscles seemed to freeze, cramped with a primal sort of fear that crawled right beneath her skin.

Yukina smiled. Suddenly there were too many teeth, too long and too sharp, and the chill inside Sayo's bones turned outward, as bitter as the first gust of Ilian winter. Gone was the feeble girl Yukina, in her place stood a mass of sinews forged of ancient rage tempered and folded on itself. But the keening wrath coming out of its throat was raw. The forlorn note arrested Sayo. For a moment she was thrown back, to the mountains of Ilia, playing with Hina among its eternal snow, of frantically racing her twin to bind the first and best pegasus…

A different cry, weak and trembling with fear cut into her reminiscence. When Sayo came back to herself an axe was only an arm's length from her face. Then the axe, and its wielder, was crushed into a heap on the ground with a single flick of the dragon's wrist. It seemed to have awakened the others; this time two of the brigands charged at once, flanking the dragon. Sayo moved to intercept one, but tail the size of a tree simply wrapped around the fool and flailed the other with the body. That left only the leader and the archer running up from behind. Beret must've gotten bored of flying rings around him.

"Leave it alone," barked the leader, sheathing his sword. He lifted his palms. Empty. Truce. To the dragon, he said, "Please, we mean you no harm."

Winter wind puffed through the dragon's nostrils. Its voice when it spoke — somehow Sayo hadn't expected it to be able to speak — was Yukina's voice, as if echoing among crystals. "I find that hard to believe. Fortunately for you, I have yet to lose myself. Begone from my sight. Take your comrades with you. Tell this… Lord Minato… I will come for him on my terms. And when the day comes, I will make him rue trifling with ice dragons."

Brigands were many and varied, but in Sayo's experience they all had one thing in common: they had self-preservation down to an art. Soon only Sayo was left alone with the dragon. It tilted its head, one golden eye observing Sayo. Her mouth had gone dry at some point. Sayo had never doubted the history passed down the generations were true. Dragons existed — in the past, where they ought to belong. And not just any dragon, but an ice dragon.

"Rider of Ilia," the dragon said. It sounded amused. "Are you afraid?"

Sayo could only shook her head, staring at the now bared fangs. Was that a smile? "Nevertheless, you have done service to me, as requested. And I am not an uncouth beast who doesn't know of gratitude. Name your price."

Sayo shook her head again. "I did nothing but fulfill the oath Ilia must have made with the ice dragons."

"Nothing except to jump in to my rescue alone, though it would have resulted in a certain death. Ah, I see." Sayo blinked, and now the girl Yukina stood before her, looking up at Sayo. The slant of her lips was familiar, however. "This form is more comfortable for both of us, I think."

"The stone," Sayo said, finally connecting the dots. "You said they took your soul."

Yukina touched her breast, where the stone must have been hidden under her robes. "For my sake and yours, it's best that I keep my dragon form sealed in this stone. Yet it isn't the only thing they have taken from me. Tell me, Rider of Ilia — "

She was interrupted by Beret this time. Sayo could only feel immense relief at the sound of his whinny, his presence by her side. Beret seemed to keep a respectful distance away from Yukina, but having him there helped Sayo keep her head. The awe of the dragon had abated, now she could almost believe she was talking to a precocious youth. She said, "Sayo. That's my name."

Yukina seemed taken aback at first. "Sayo. I see that your people still speak of us ice dragons, though not entirely accurately. Perhaps I should start there. At the end of the war, though we had not lost our way, in order that such tragedy would never come to pass we decided to sequester ourselves. Never again shall humans and dragons intertwine — that is the oath of Oedethea.

"However, recently that oath has been broken. My father has gone missing." Yukina frowned. Even troubled she was a far cry from the addle-pated girl Sayo had first met. The dragonstone, Sayo thought, tucking the important note away. "I know not where, nor why. He might have been taken, or gone of his own initiative. It remains that I haven't heard back from him in some time. And as you can see, though we are powerful, we are not invulnerable to human manipulations. I cannot say with certainty — no, I'm certain he's run afoul of some nefarious humans."

Her voice hitched. Perhaps she was imagining the worst — death. Even so, Sayo wondered if it was wise to tell Sayo, a complete stranger, the weakness of her kind. Especially since Yukina herself had lost her dragonstone once. Sayo prodded. "But you're certain he's still alive."

Yukina didn't immediately answer. "I'm certain this… Lord Minato will have the answer. I must find him. But I cannot do it alone. Which brings me to you, Sayo. Rider of Ilia." Golden eyes stared at her as though seeing her soul. "Will you aid me in my quest to find my father and keep the peace between the ice dragons and humans, as our ancestors have wrought in the days of old?"

Beret nudged her shoulder. Sayo didn't need his prompting at all, this time. In harvest season pegasus knights went fallow. Her remuneration she'd given to Kanon to be passed back to her family back in Ilia. Sayo herself hadn't particularly planned to return before Yukina had accosted her. It went like this: she was a pegasus knight; an ice dragon had required her assistance. There was only one answer she could give.

Note:

Title is taken from Opera of the wasteland.

Based on FE6&7's Elibe, though only vaguely. For example I'm not sure Myrrh's losing her dragonstone actually made her lose her head. I might continue this when the inspiration strikes - I have one more chapter very roughly sketched out at least.