Story originally on Iva-Solo on zekiran_immortal page; read Aevan-Iva page first; Aevan's Page

** updated below for 2024 **

Iva's practice with her stone had left her a bit woozy that morning, when she arrived at the Isle. She wasn't sure if it was just that, or really hearing an argument nearby.

No, it really was that. She got up, tied her hair back and made sure that she'd put all her clothing on right. Sometimes, addled, she would just forget to dress - that, she blamed her father Vanya, because she knew perfectly well he would sometimes do the same thing. Then she cautiously opened the door to her dorm a crack. The argument got louder.

"And I said it was to be finished yesterday! You're such a dolt!" One angry older man's voice came to her ears. She heard a whimper, and then a younger boy's.

"There weren't any supplies then! I couldn't do it until now!" Iva heard a swish, then skin slapping skin - hard.

That would be it, she thought. Enough.

"What's going on out here?" She demanded, striding up to the pair. They were obviously unrelated, as one was a elf and the other human. The boy's long ears bore small scars, probably pinch-marks from where his master had used them to control his behavior. Iva knew that was no way to get anyone to do anything.

"None of your business, woman," the elder human man said, stepping between his servant and the tall Zekiran woman.

"When you're striking a boy just outside my dorm, it's my business. It's very unpleasant business I might add." She said with a low tone. "So - what is it about? What hasn't been finished that can't wait until now?"

She didn't actually have to ask, either. Her power to absorb information had already done some work, discovering that there were small stones missing from the floor and walls around the hallways, and the boy's job was meant to be replacing them. However - and this she gleaned from his words earlier as well as the emphatic tone to his mind - there was no finely ground mortar to be found until it came in on the supply wagon.

"He's not done his job, that's what the matter is, and that is all needs to be said about it, woman. Keep your nose in your own business." The human turned, and was about to push the boy into his bucket when Iva held her arm up between them. She could move as fast as her father, sometimes.

"If you just let him finish, I'm sure you will be pleased with the results. What he said is true, I know," she tapped her forehead, "I know. You're just angry at something else. Don't take it out on the boy. It's not becoming of a Master or Lord." He didn't know what she meant was an Owner or Membayar, but the thought counted.

"Perhaps you're right," he sighed. Then he turned and growled an angry instruction at the elfin boy, who looked relieved when his master left the hall.

"Thank you miss," he said, and immediately got back to his work fixing the grout and stonework.

Iva couldn't sleep after that, so she went out to see what she could see, at this dragon haven. Perhaps soon, she'd have a dragon to tend. Aevan was going to be better at it than she, but by now, with all the excitement of travel and meeting people - and dragons - she was thoroughly caught up in it.

***

It was after a while of waiting, and noticing that she was being observed, that Iva finally stopped in at one of the main offices. The young creature behind the desk asked, "is there something I can help you with?"

"Yes," Iva said, somewhat curt. "I'd like to know what is going on here? Where exactly are the eggs, when are we meant to know their choices?"

The girl raised her eyebrows, and then smiled a little. "It's all right. We've been watching you all. It takes a lot of work to determine who is right for one of our dragons' precious eggs."

Standing, she indicated Iva follow her out to a grotto. "Here are the eggs, there are only three. We've had to be very very picky."

"I can see that," Iva replied. She was picking up all kinds of strange vibrations from the eggs, and from dragons all around. Like she'd been feeling for the last few weeks - as though eyes were upon her, not just human eyes.

"They've decided to give you this one," the attendant said, "... it's quite special, you know." Her voice dropped to a whisper. "They must have been really taken with you."

The girl displayed a great silvery-shimmering kind of egg. It was different than the others, by far, not creamy and shell-colored... Iva sensed a kind of tingling when she looked at it. Whatever was within was quite strong, and...

"This is mine?" She asked, finally a bit more humble. Bending to her knees, sitting on the warm sand before her egg, Iva whispered to it, "thank you for choosing me..."

Eventually the eyes left her - she felt alone, with her egg. Iva smiled broadly, knowing now what it must be like for those others who bond off-world or non-Zekiran breeds of dragons. The sense of amazing pride, the fulfillment... When this egg hatches, she thought, I might be the proudest Breeder ever born...

***

Iva was allowed to take this big beautiful shiny egg home with her. She decided to roost at the Emer estate, where every Sengihr had a little invested in the Inheritance of Snow. When one of the local Dragon Masters noticed that she'd been making preparations for a hungry dragonet he followed her around until she showed him the egg.

"That's ... not a normal egg, is it?" He asked, his yellowy-orange skin sort of sweating. "But it's going to be a large dragon." He glanced at her, "you are going to need a little more space than this."

Iva looked around them. The Emer housing situation was all right for people, but she realized that the cliffs above and surrounding the Inheritance would make a great place for a dragon. "How about up there?" She asked, and pointed to a spot with a roughly scoop shaped nook.

"We can take a look," the man said. "I have a couple stone-manipulators. Perhaps there is a way to make a shelter up there."

So he and his people got to work, paid up front. While they were out there, making some kind of sheltered hole, Iva kept watch over the egg.

Hunger dominated Iva's thoughts for days. The egg was hard, close to hatching. How she knew this? Occasionally she could see it bulge, the dragonet inside eager to get out. Eventually, the work above was done, and she carried the egg up by herself.

She could tell easily that the Dragon Master and his pair of Slaves were really interested in this egg, but she was hardly going to entertain them. A fierce sense of jealousy came over her, no one would be around her dragon until it and she were ready!

So up she went into the hills. It was a nice overlook to the Inheritance, where you could see all the little birthing-pair huts, along the artificial stream and under the trees. The house itself was blocked from view by the shelter, a stone wave that let in a lot of light, but would keep out most of the elements. Apparently they did find a way to open up a natural area behind the surface, it was dark but somewhat pleasantly warm in there.

"I think this will do for you," Iva said. "Now, I know you're interested in hatching, but you've got to wait until I come back with some food for you. Okay? Okay." She nodded to the egg, to herself, and bolted back down.

She wasn't used to all that running and hiking. By the time she got back up to the shelter with a couple pounds of fresh meat and water, the egg was almost hatching. She gasped for breath, leaned against the smooth wall of the wave-portion, and watched. The stitch in her side from running was gone when a pale nose poked its way out of the shell. Webbing of broken egg fell away, as dark claws pushed against the inside of the shell.

"You can do it," Iva whispered. What sort of dragon was this? When it was more than halfway out, pulling a long wing out and spilling down onto the stone, Iva could see that the color was almost as pale as the marbled rocks that the cavern consisted of. But...

It shone, she shone, almost with a glittery light. Iva knew immediately that this was a female, when she staggered to her feet and creeled for food. This crystal-colored dragonet was going to be a lovely addition to Iva's life.

"Menaksir," Iva pronounced, "you'll oversee this place while you're here. Do you think you can do that?"

The dragonet gazed silently into Iva's eyes, and then began to eat.

"Not much for talking are you?" Iva chuckled. She wanted to remain there forever, smoothing out the dragonet's stubby wing sails, and picking up the shell's fragments. But she had work to do, now that she was home...

***

Menaksir seemed to like her home in the hill, perhaps it was chilly or maybe just right. But the crystal-colored dragonet would lay for hours on end just watching the stream below, or peeking out to observe the people walking around.

"You like it here?" Iva asked, and the dragonet merely sighed. "It'd be nice if you would talk," the Breeder said. "I suppose you're getting to that part." Iva watched, sitting with her feet dangling off the ledge, as a couple - happily pregnant - discussed things with one of Iva's distant cousins. Most of her family were Breeders, and many of them had a stake in the Inheritance.

Now it was the Inheritance and the Dragonry... Iva smiled to herself.

I think that they should move over a bit, came a voice in Iva's mind. Chilled, but slick and friendly. Iva blinked, and swallowed.

"Do you?" She said. That was the first time that Menaksir had spoken at all. She loved the feeling of that voice, and it was strong enough to have broken through the barrier of blackstone she wore...

Yes. Soon. Now. MOVE!

The dragonet stood at attention, almost pushing Iva off the ledge. In doing so, though, her mind blasted out to the trio of Zekirans down by the trees. They perked up, looked around, saw the dragonet. The husband was a bit slow to move, but the woman? Pregnant out to here? She bolted straight back to the cabins. The Breeder consulting with them hustled the husband after his wife, and then...

And then an airship - small and fast - came overhead. The mountains were not the Alien's territory - they were flying around inhabited areas and testing the wits of the locals. Iva pushed herself back into the cavern, and had to tug on Menaksir's tail to get the dragonet to hide too. From above they could surely see that there was a road, a number of buildings scattered here and there. But the ship did not slow down.

It was followed quickly by five huge local dragons, one being ridden by a terribly powerful Dragon Master.

They will catch it, Menaksir said with confidence.

"How do you know that?" Iva asked, her heart pounding. That was perhaps the closest she'd ever come to an attack, even in the seaside they'd been pretty far out....

I just know. It is all right, they've caught it now.

"Yes," Iva said, wincing with some discomfort when she removed her blackstone pendant, she could feel far away that the ship had been forced into a quick dive that landed it crashing into a rocky unZoned area.

Iva abruptly hugged Menaksir. The dragonet was almost three times her hatchling size, and would grow into her cavern here. For now though, she was just small enough to put arms around.

***

When Aevan came to visit, with his adorable Syyle, Menaksir was curious. "That is not the same kind as me, and it is not the same as the local dragons." She tilted her head. "What is that?"

Aevan laughed, even as the young sand-electric dragonet gave an indignant growl. "He, Syyle, he's from Xidaver." He looked up at the larger Menaksir. "You've done well for yourself, Iva," he said.

"I think we both have. And Menaksir can tell when an attack is coming, she's clever that way." Iva said proudly. Menaksir had sniffed at Syyle a bit, and then retired to the upper level of her cavern. It had been hollowed out more officially by stone-shapers to give her room. She was needing more and more, as she grew into an adolescent. The upper part of the cave had an opening that allowed her to see the sky, but most of the floor was protected by the overhangs just below that opening.

It let Iva walk around without bothering her dragoness too. She liked it quiet, and if any place on Zekira was quiet, it was this place. When Aevan and his dragonet departed for their own little cavernous homestead, Menaksir shifted her head around to look at Iva.

As usual, the Breeder was standing with her eyes latched onto the crystal dragoness. There was a deep, pervading love in her eyes, but also the spark of something more.

"I would like to decorate your cave, Menaksir, would you like something on the walls?" Iva asked. That got the dragon thinking.

"Yes, yes I believe I would. You know what I would like best." She said. Her voice was quiet, like a brook in a secluded forest. Though she could bellow quite loudly (and had, that one time when a worker accidentally stepped on the end of her tail!) Menaksir would remain calm and quiet most of the time.

Whenever an alien would come by, though, she knew it was time to come to life. Without hesitation, she would announce the arrival, and try to give people a bit of warning. Iva had been tapping into the Dragonmaster's network to make sure that there would be other dragons nearby, since her range seemed to be just about the same as the borders of the Emer city zone.

"Okay, I'll come back with the right people and supplies. Why don't you fly around a bit, Menaksir? You don't want your wings to atrophy!"

"They could hardly do that," Menaksir said, flexing her strong wingsails. "I am becoming a Mistress of the air, you know..."

***

Menaksir was out flying while the workers fixed dozens of small pretty crystals to the interior of the cavern. Some appeared naturally, others could be coaxed out by Zekiran psionic powers, while still others were brought in from far away and placed by hand. When the crystal colored air dragoness arrived at her doorway, then, she looked in and appraised the location.

"I like it," she said, "it has exactly what I was looking for in a home." She glanced at the half dozen workers, "except for all the strange people."

"Frankly I'm surprised you even came back while they were still here, Menaksir," Iva chuckled. Some of the crystals glowed faintly, while others caught the light from the entrance and made splashes of colors across the walls.

Menaksir then lay down in the middle, in a sunken pit which was filled with soft leaves and shredded cloth. Who wanted to remain on stone all night? She could hardly be seen among the dancing lights, though to Iva she would always be the most beautiful item within sight.

** 2024 addition

10453

Iva and her family enjoyed watching the Steeds fly in their races, but more so the dragons in their demonstrations of power and prowess. The Forest and Sky dragons were particularly of note in this area, with the strong winds and lush forests of Emer's area dominating the landscape. It would hardly do to bring one of those desert types or even a Stone dragon up here. No, this was a place where the strongest were the only survivors.

Where Menaksir thrived!

But there were other eyes on the dragons flying in today's event, turquoise eyes which glowed with a certain gleam. Iva knew there were strongly gifted psionics present, but something made the hair on her neck stand just a little bit when the owner of those eyes appeared directly behind her in a strange poof of power.

"Your dragon is hardly going to find a good... partner, at this event, is she?" He asked, strangely confident. And Iva wasn't misunderstanding him - he meant 'to breed with'. Or perhaps more.

"She has been getting a little lonely what with me being busy with my grandson..." Iva said, almost in a daze. But she wasn't being manipulated, she was testing this man's mind. Stronger than expected, subtle, amused?

"You might be interested in another... stone? Perhaps, for both your own collection," he'd come around to actually stand beside her, rather than lurking. Tran and Islen were down by the main platform for the Emer Steed race, with their son Taeren gleefully reaching his arms up while sitting on his father's furry shoulders. She didn't feel it appropriate to be talking so intimately with someone she didn't even know Status or Name.

Vahh let his name slip into her mind, a quiet but formal introduction that no other mind could possibly have noticed - save Menaksir's, and she both noticed and gave a warble of approval, Iva happy particularly with the 'Atasan' attached. He looked up to the ledge where the dragon had landed following a lightning-fast sweep with four Sky dragons in tow.

Vahh added, "Or for your lovely dragon's chambers?"

He held a pale blue crystal, not small but not bigger than a finger, a stiff lifted little finger perhaps. But there was something about it that Menaksir immediately latched on to.

I like that thing, it has power, not like that black one you always wear!

You don't even know him, why are you so trusting?

I do not have to know him, to know his motivation, my friend... The dragoness was finished with her cleaning up after the flight demonstration, waiting eagerly like everyone else to see which fine flying Steed would win this race between the mountain cliffs. She'd definitely come out more often once Islen was born, but would never be what one might call 'social'.

But Iva slowly nodded, and indicated the trail up to the dragon's den. It was all private land up here, hers, so there were no people to get in the way. When they reached the ledge, Vahh bowed deeply, somewhat stiffly, toward Menaksir. "A delightful display. And," he looked around into the darker portion of the cavern where she made her home, "one which I suspect you will enjoy having this added to..." He held up another of those stones, and two more: one was brilliantly green, the other an amber shade, each slightly bigger and rounder than the blue one that Iva had now in her own dark hands.

"Her crystal chamber is in need of some new bits, she complains that all the sparkles are from the same ones..." Iva sighed. "But what are these, where did they come from? I'm not crystal Tuned, and you seem to know that already."

"Do you know that your... father, renounced his ties with Alabaster, yet you continued to utilize their services?"

Iva turned her glance sharply away, "I... have heard he did, and why... But I was helping with Taeren and I couldn't be there. I would have tried to work something out."

"He is better off without their ... interference, Iva Chanay," he ... purposefully left off the Sengihr part? Oddly? "And so would you be. I can offer... an alternative."

The Steeds below were now reaching into the sky in a flurry of feathers and a few leathery wings. There was a brief moment of noise, which faded quickly as the Steeds also went down the long valley. The sound of Menaksir's rustling wings, and her expressive sigh, brought both people into her chamber with the crystals set in the walls.

"But why? And who exactly... I have only the faintest..." Iva wasn't sure but she did feel that she'd met this man before. Or - perhaps had heard the name?

"I keep my business to myself," he explained, "and Alabaster ... has on occasion been rather... Up in it. While I cannot fault them for redesigning certain things to suit the continued invasion efforts," here he looked at the dragon carefully, "those items had been intended for other uses."

"Well that sounds ominous," Iva admitted. "But again, why should I believe you?"

It was when Aevan appeared dangling from the upper shell edge of the open cavern, possibly having jumped from a steed or his dragon, that Iva stood stiffly and balked.

"What is going on here?" She said, hard. Aevan didn't hesitate to walk toward her and placed both hands on her shoulders.

"Progress," he said, "I have investments with the Vahh group that, well. I know you usually like to keep up on that kind of thing but it's been important to separate them from the rest."

"Don't worry," Vahh quietly muttered, "I haven't even attempted to rip him off or cheat him, he's quite capable of doing that on his own."

It was only a second before Iva burst out with a nervous but relieved laugh. "Fine. Fine, keep your secrets."

"Mysteries," Vahh corrected. "Your work here and in your breeding centers is quite important, but has yet to yield any good results for your Glenn dragoness."

"How did you--"

"We have a dragonry in Le'ret. It... did not used to be a dragonry, but it is one now."

"I don't really want to invest in the desert," Iva groaned.

"Oh no, no, that is why I've brought you these things." Vahh indicated the crystals. "They will be of use to either of you, should you require assistance. But I will ask, I won't demand, that you ... sever your ties with the Alabaster company if you can. Their continued ... support of certain individuals has become problematic lately, and I need them to be as distant as possible."

She didn't know who he meant, and wasn't going to ask. But she could tell from her half-brother's urgent mind that he had a world of information ready to show her if only she'd look. She did. What she saw was impressive, almost unbelievable.

But she had, too, been off-world. She knew that other planets, other dimensions, and even other versions of her homeworld existed. All of them available at that Le'ret installation in the middle of the desert.

"It's not in the middle of the desert," Vahh rolled his eyes, "there are dangerous things in the middle."

**

Sometimes, connections to worlds grow stronger even as some grew weak. Though both locations that the half-siblings had found their dragons at had closed long, long before, there were others appearing in their place. One such location, Iva was stunned: was a school!

But it had colorful dragons and people everywhere! A particularly strange young man, who had more than faint similarities to Kallah Vahh somehow, presented her and Menaksir with a small, extremely colorful dragonet.

"Yup you're the one." That was all he said before ducking out in a very strange psionic cloud. Iva was about to ask, too, because she felt him coming up from half a mile away! The dragonet however sat quite precisely in front of the dragon and her caretaker. Tail delicately wrapping over his paws, dark wings covering what looked like bright and colorful sides.

"I want to go with you, I heard there are also alien invaders. My sire's rider has been fighting his own," the dragon took a moment to glance up at Vahh who had brought them to this school, "they all seem to find you, don't they?"

"I only wish that wasn't true," Vahh sighed. "I can take you back if you wish?"

"I'd... like to look around a little?" Iva replied, "have you been here long?"

"I was hatched here!" the dragonet replied. He seemed to be pondering, then nodded, "I can show you around."

It felt like Vahh was a touch relieved, but then it was obvious he was looking for a kiosk that had something that smelled a lot like zpara at it...