The Lady Lillith passed through the halls, quiet in her steps as she looked over the windows outside, overlooking the forest. It was a beautiful night. Should she have had nothing more to do, perhaps she would have stood to admire them a bit longer. But, there was no time to dwell on them; little was she made for idling.

Lillith approached the study of one Christoff Drakken-Volkairn. With a knock, she pushed the door open ever so slightly, peering in to see if he was present.

Stepping into his chambers, she found Christoff had already turned to face her, seated at his desk. There were a couple of open books and the beginnings of a letter. "Is something the matter, Lady Lillith?"

She stood, still as a statue, next to the door as she glanced to his letter. She would not be able to tell in the slightest what correspondences he was having, but she was still so curious. She shushed that curiosity.

"Nothing the matter, dear husband. I merely wish to see you, and ask how you are faring? The house has been in much a state of chaos with such audiences of aliens."

"As well as one ought to be." Her eyes would find his, only for them to drift and wander again, as though he avoided her gaze.

To settle his gaze somewhere he turns back to his desk, gesturing to the letter. "The matter of Dorothy, the aliens brought from beyond the stars, and all the pressure from the Federation. There is much at play here, and it is creating quite the unrest."

He pauses for a moment, then asks. "How do you fare, Lillith?"

"...As well as a lady might be in such times of unrest, dearest. Much as you say. Doing as much as I might. With so much at play, is there anything you need assistance with? I am not much for letters, but I may be dispatched as you need."

She idly rests her hand on instinct to her saber, looking into the eyes of her husband. Turned still to the letters upon the desk.

"No," he answers squarely. "We have maids for such a reason."

"Perhaps you had better concern yourself with someone who needs you."

"Our fair child is under much stress lately. Perhaps a mother's guidance would do him some good."

"...Of course, dearest. I would be remiss to ignore your advice. You already have much on your plate."

"I had thought to seek him today as well." She regains her composure, nodding to her husband. "Surely the presence of his family in such times might aid our progeny in his worries."

"I shall be off, then."

She walks to the door, holding it open before turning back to Christoff. Waiting, hoping even, that he might join her in seeking out their son.

His back was now turned to her, flipping a page in one of his books as he set about writing again. Without turning back he responds, uncertain if she still lingered by the door. "Your presence will be much to his benefit dear, I'm sure."

"Of course, dear."

With the swift rejection of an unsaid offer, she leaves out the way she came, now roaming the halls in search of another.

She looks ill fit for the world of knights and their squires running about. She's pointed to the farthest edges, where the "ill-fitting" nichtendrakks slumber, far away from the others. Those like Gretel and the kin slayer's beast. As she approaches the poorly kept stables, she hears the voice of a lone stable boy call. "Oi, is that you pink one? Took you long to come back from the village. Dawn has already fallen."

But when Timothy sees it's a lady of the castle he quiets down. "Oh. Sorry misses. I didn't mean to say anythin' rude to ye."

She looks down at the previous dawn knight turned stable boy. "I am far from what any would assume a pink one of some kind, but clearly you were expecting other company. If you are truly sorry, perhaps you may assist me." She casts a glance around the stables. It is not often she is asked to be, or voluntarily, out among the steeds.

"I seek the castellan, my son. Maids have spoken about his presence out here. Do you know where he might be?"

"Oh, well he's with Gretel right now. I don't know if you want to see him in such a state." Timothy starts to hobble towards Gretel's stall, knowing that the upper class would want nothing to do with his recommendations.

"I tried to clean up as best as I could, but no matter how much I wash her, Gretel never smells any better." He is quick to offer excuses for what might appear as poor work on his part.

Edger freezes in the stable. "Timothy, I told you to bring no one here."

Timothy pulls the stall door open, unphased. "Yeah, but it's your mum. Nothing you can do when a mum wants to see her pup."

Lady Lillith steps from behind Timothy, walking closer to Edger as she looks over Gretel, holding back any display of how the stench of something rotten dissuades her.

"...You described her as close to death, Edger. I had not assumed it to be this grave."

"Whatever has happened?"

With a little more urgency than when she left Leaping Star runs back to the stables, a small paper bag filled with hematogen clutched in her dainty hands. "Oh- Oh-"

She spots the two upperclassmen and instantly lowers her voice, shuffling closer to Timmy to whisper. "I'm so sorry, I lost track of the time! There were so many nice things in town and..."

"Spending money is really fun."

"You give people useless little metals and they give you yummy foods!"

Timothy takes the bag from Leaping Star, chastising her in the process. "It took you all of dawn to get back. Nearly starved me, you did. You better have not spent all of your money, because if you start to starve you'll be eating blood goat feed instead of the porridge till you get paid again. Now pipe down."

She nods to Timothy, assuming a more respectful and dutiful stance outside the stable. Her ears can't help but quirk themselves to listen in.

Edger couldn't tell if the stench from Gretel had grown stronger, or if the small crowd, including his mother, had made him acutely aware of smell. "Mother, I do not believe I can lie any longer. I have committed a sin I do not believe I can recover from."

"On my expedition to space, Gretel, the blind and deaf, had died. I worried that if I came back with a dead nichtendrakk, that I would be killed, or locked away like a bird. In my fear, I had used the artifact of the sea, and brought her back to life, but I instantly felt regret, I promise you mother."

Lillith is staggered for a moment, but immediately turns to swivel her ears to sense if unwelcome or unknown company is within the stables, any aside from present company of servants and stableboys, who might hear such a confession from her son.

"Now she speaks! Her stench of sin fills the stable, and had it not been for Timothy moving her, I would have been found out weeks ago, and even Timothy betrayed me and told James Drakken the secret!"

"I'm a poor lad, Castellan Edger. I had moved her cause I thought I'd be paid handsomely for hiding her."

"But you ain't offer me much, and a higher bidder came. Hard to get the scent of death off me, you know? I gotta pay for the fancy Elzenstein perfumes you know?"

("I can't smell anything...")

A low growl fills the air as Lillith looks down at Timothy, before quelling it and turning back to Edger. She hesitates, looking between her progeny, symbol of her duty fufilled, and the beast rotting in the stables.

"...I wish that such a thing would not have occurred. But, I cannot deny your fears were not unfounded, for one as burdened of a life as you, my son. Is this why James visited you in your study? To persuade you using the state of Gretel?"

"Yes, mother. James had learned of my secret, and wished to use it against me."

Gretel spoke up finally. "I do not see what is wrong with me. I am alive."

"That is exactly what is wrong with you! You live, when you should be dead. You speak when all other nichtendrakks only growl. You are an ABOMINATION of the Gretel I once knew!"

"That doesn't seem fair."

The lady turns her head to Leaping Star, glaring.

"Have you any idea what the state of a nichtendrakk means for the Drakken who it is bound to? You speak of fair? On Transylvaar? Please, do go on. Explain."

Timothy jabs Leaping Star with the stick he holds steady on. "Don't listen to this one, Lady. She's all rotten in the head. More animal than person. She cannot even play fetch correctly."

She starts to speak, then quickly swallows her words, flinching a little at Timothy's jab.

"S-Sorry my Lady."

"It's just that... Gretel didn't choose this... How can it be right to blame her for something she had no choice in?"

"This is a world, where birth matters! It is what separates me and Boris, and you and me! Gretel is an abomination, a sin against all that lives! A moment of weakness has cause this. It is better to grieve than to do...this! Does this look normal to you? A talking nichtendrakk?"

Gretel lays down calmly. "I feel quiet fine. I feel better than I have ever been before."

"That is what you say, but you're not the real Gretel! My beloved nichtendrakk, deaf and blind, who still loved to have her head held all the same."

"I look like Gretel. You call me Gretel. I have memories of Gretel. I believe I am Gretel."

"Edger." Lillith places her hand on her son's shoulder.

"...I do not wish you to bear the burden of whatever Gretel is now alone. Especially should James use this against you. Now is a tumultuous time. I ... confess, I know so little of what process she has undergone, and what remains of the original in truth. But, she was yours. If she believes herself the same, she is still yours to command. She has stayed hidden for this long. Mayhaps until the celebrations, we can continue to keep her hidden, if this is what you wish."

"I wish I had more to offer you than my promise to help in your endeavours, whichever path you pursue. I feel myself a sword without direction, but you have grown smart and thoughtful from a pup. I hold this pride in you."

"Thank you mother. I believe you the only person I can trust, every other I fear would abandon me, or worse, use the knowledge for their own needs." He shoots a glance at Timothy. "But I have a fear. James promised me that he would free her, but I have asked her where she would go, and she says that if her stable doors were to be left open, that she would not fly away, because this is her place."

"But it is NOT, and if she stays, then she DOOMS ME, mother!"

"Unless we find suitable public way for you to relinquish her, be it a new Nichtendrakk appointed in your honor, or find one willing to house her and convince what Gretel has become away from her station."

"...If she truly were the same Gretel, surely she must know what being found in such a state would spell for you, should she be as loyal as what she was before."

She asks Gretel directly, "Why choose to stay here when you are unwanted? Your duty now makes you a burden to the ones who cared for you."

Gretel raises her ears towards Leaping Star. "Because the world I see around me is so grand and amazing. When I was moves from the other stables to here, it felt like an adventure that lasted a lifetime. Why would I leave such a wonderful place with food, water, and no screaming?"

"I am loyal to Edger Drakken. He brought me back to life. I wish to stay here with him, even if he tries to release me. I will be a better steed than all others."

Her ears raise as Gretel's question strikes her.

"I suppose... There'd be no reason. Only..."

Tentatively she takes a step towards the nichtendrakk, reaching a hand out to touch one of her ears. "What if they have to kill you? They have secrets they must keep, duties to uphold. You'd only be getting in the way of that."

Gretel shakes her head. "They cannot kill me. I died, and now I am alive. I lived through the worse, and I will come back again and again to follow Edger Drakken. It is my perpose."

Leaping Stars nods at Gretel with grim understanding. She runs her hand along the dragon's head, like you would a rabbit before its final moments.

Timothy points accusingly at Gretel. "This is why you need to honor the dead, and not commit such sins! My steed, Dullahan, should have been buried with honor, but because I wasn't a knight anymore, they tossed his body near the fey woods to get rid of him, because by the time they decided he shall not be buried with the honor he deserves, he had rotted too much to be eaten!"

"A body needs to be either honored or eaten. Nothing else. Must be buried deep in the soil, or burned to ashes. If you do not do those, it may rise again."

"Dullahan caused chaos once he raised, all because of his loyalty, but even he had the sense to return to death when I, his owner, demanded him to do so! Don't you see, you ugly thing!? Your owner doesn't want you, and he should have buried you with your honor, but he failed to out of greed. Now die like you should!"

"You shall only bring harm to my son should you be so devoted to something that will suffer in your presence. Can't you see he doesn't–"

The words sting to say. But again, she shushes it. She begins anew.

"Must you be so visible in your duty to him? Will you not abide by his wishes, if only to hide when he needs, so he might live? You must understand, whatever you are of Gretel, I cannot allow something that will point to the death sentence of my progeny."

Gretel listens calmly to those around her. When there is finally a moment of quiet she perks up with a smile. "You may be his mother and believe you know what is best for him, but I am his steed, and also believe the same. What will you do to me? If you kill me, a thing that cannot be killed, you will be punished by the other Drakkens." Gretel lowers her head and frowns. "And I would like for my master's mother to not face such a punishment, because I know he loves you only second to his wife."

"Gretel, you are being greedy! Don't imply that my mother would kill you for me, when you could simply fly away!"

Her hand grips the hilt of her saber once more, before returning it to her side in a moment.

"...I would, if it were what would keep you alive, Edger. "

"But I would prefer to keep things which wish you well alive... I fear they grow fewer as people grow angry and scared."

"...If you do truly love your master as much as you proclaim, are you willing not to hide away until we might see the outcome of James's plans? Where my son would not face such pains, should you be brought to light? There are places only Edger might go, the maze-like dungeons are not comfortable, but they are easy to lose others within."

Lillith pauses, finally looking Gretel in the eye. "I would not like to die nor be punished either, but the choices begin to seem only of who bears the weight of sins."

Edger places a hand on his mother's shoulder. "Mother, please. You are already burdened by a son who choices have likely brought you so much grief, even if you do not tell me so. Here I have made another foolish choice, instead of accepting my fate as I should have. I cannot bare to have you once again be punished because of me."

"No matter how large you grow, you are still my pup. The lone symbol of my duty fulfilled. You will have to sooner kill me than allow me to see you die, humiliated and scorned. I will not allow it."

"So, may we seek solutions where neither of us might need to be so beaten or broken. Gretel can speak, and I understand in ways the devotion she carries. But it is much different from that of an animal."

She looks to the tailed, which has settles awfully close to the Nichtendrakk.

"You. Pink one, Timothy called you. Your fixation on my child's steed, in the state it is in. As witness, you are bound to this issue. Have you any ideas to offer?"

She scratches just beneath her face plate, looking to Timothy with a hint of nervousness. It wasn't the danger of the vampwelves, but something else.

"Neither of you truly wish to kill her, despite what a burden she's become..."

"Not out of love, or affection, but because her death by my hands will have me put into the tower guarded by a dragon! She would be dead otherwise to correct my error!"

She winces, petting Gretel with two short brushes of the hand. "Then what of the man who's trapped you?"

"It seems you wouldn't feel so caught if he hadn't hung Gretel over your heads..."

"What does he want? Do you trust he'll let you go, even if you comply?"

"I outta beat the stupid out of your head you bloody pink blort! James is the only honest man in this house! How DARE you imply that something terrible happen to him." Timothy jabs Leaping Star, wishing he still had a lance to his name.

"Unlike the rest of you lot, the man always pays his debts!"

"You're all cryin' about nothin'! James Drakken told you he'd solve your issue, and he will. Who cares if she's sayin' she ain't goin' to fly away, she WILL."

Gretel shakes her head. "I will not leave the wonderful sights and sounds of this world, or Edger."

"Don't listen to her idiotic words. She's a beast. She will do as ordered when the time comes. Trust in James Drakken."

"On the day of the weddin', there will be many amazin' thin's you hear? James will all be givin' those who are loyal to him many gifts."

She rubs at her side where Timothy had poked her, shrinking into silence for a moment.

"You are indeed spirited about James, Timothy. Knowing you are the one who told him of Gretel, and placed my son in such predicaments, leaves a mother quite anxious."

"But I am not inclined to do any such thing to spur James to action before his ... special day."

"I ain't place your son in this, he did that by himself! Thin's were all jolly when I moved Gretel for him. Edger Drakken has never beaten me, or told me I was worthless for being lame in the legs. I ain't have a reason to put him in any danger."

"And you'll see soon enough. James ain't puttin' Edger in any danger."

"If anythin', Edger is goin' to be a happy whatever he is, when James is wed!"

"James will be makin' use of thise awful smellin' beast."

"... Edger, has James told you about any such plan using your steed?"

"He has only told me that she will fly away the night that he is wed, and that Timothy will be blamed."

"Sniff......well, I'm but a poor lame stable boy. Can't even use two hands at once. I tried my best...honest...but she's a whole beast, I couldn't stop her...." Timothy for a moment breaks into tears.

"Oh, oh, don't cry! Don't cry!" She dances in place, almost afraid to console the child.

His expression suddenly changes to laughter. "Haha! Been workin' on a speech and all that shite for the grand day!"

"You'd best practice with an audience. Maybe the pink one will give you some tips, she appears to be quite apt at pitiful looks."

She almost isn't sure what just happened, and looks to the other Drakkens.

Edger looks solemnly at the situation. He doesn't wish to have his mother risk her life to kill Gretel. The whole house would have her hung up for such a crime. It is in this moment that he can only blurt out an apologize for a guilt that haunted him for years. "Mother. I am sorry I am your only....." Edger pauses, as if questioning even himself in this moment. "...son. I wish you had more. Many more. Then you would not have to worry as much. The death of one, two, even three child is common in these lands, but everyday I know I plague your thoughts. I shouldn't have tried to prove myself out there. I should have stayed in the castle, where I knew my fur color would keep me safe."

"What a horrible son I am, to put worry on your mind. To commit such sins as this! Most mothers would have heard my request so long ago.....to be your son....and tossed it away. Demand I stick to duties of a daughter. You have always held strong by my wants, and look what I have done!"

"A second child would have made you less lenient against such a rebellious child."

She is quiet for a moment, listening to her child's outburst for her sake. She breaks the silence with a small laugh.

"You act so mature at times, but even now, you still prove you can whine like a pup. I admit, I wish for more children. I wish you had siblings to hold you in regard, I wish I had sons and daughters alike to roam the halls and find their own ways in what duties they undertook. But it..."

She pauses, hand clenching the fabric of her skirt.

"...it is not your fault of being an only child. It is simply what I have been given. Your father is so busy, but you have inherited that same sensibility he carries. I will not leave you behind, as much as you may carry a guilt for it. I have been happier seeing you with that wife of yours, Lucetta. To prove my children may find a love to drive them to do more. I may not fully understand you ... But I know we will weather this coming storm as family, hm?"

The smile leaves her face as quickly as it appeared.

"For now, dwell not on what could have been. It does your mother no good to hear you speak ill of the child she so treasures."

"We will figure out a way through this. If it must be through relying on the plans James has in motion, so be it. Should it require taking punishment, we shall figure out how to bear it."

Edger holds his tongue. He wishes to speak ill of his father. To tell his mother that it is all his fault she had not had the large family she wished to have. It is said the fool of the house held many truths, and the Mad Knight often jokes about his father finding other women on his trips to fond over.

But he does slander the man. Not for the sake of the father he had grown to hate despite their blood connection, but because his mother still stood by his side, loyal to a fault. "Mother, you deserve so much more in this world, and I hope you will one day get those things."

"I promise to uphold myself more, in your honor. The honor you deserve. I will ensure that no matter what happens, no harm will come to you. You have given me so much honor, even when others did not even allow me the most basics of dignities, I will repay you one day." Edger preaches as he holds his mother's hand. "Let us go. Though the sun beats down on us, I do believe James is a man of his word, and if he is not, I will be a man of mine."

She takes his hand softly, minding her long nails as she is led away from the stables by her son.

"You already bring me such pride in your words, Edger. I already trust you will hold them true."

"I will be worth well to Edger one day. It is what I must be. We have been together for so long. I wish to be of use, but I seem to be a troublesome beast. Maybe it is the OTHER ONE who entered into my mind that is offensive to him? The one who allows me speech?" Gretel scratches at her head, as if trying to remove a flea. "But it does not leave me. It is home here as well. It has not seen other worlds."

She casts a glance over to Timothy, smoothing her robes against her legs as she kneels down in the hay beside Gretel. "It's not your fault. Even with your rabbit ears you weren't foolish like I was."

"It wasn't your choice to come back. You didn't turn from the Neo, you ran bravely towards her."

Her breath catches for a moment, resting a hand atop Gretel's head. "And it was my fault then, too."

Timothy Drakken isn't surprised by this at all. He has known the whole time. He knows the stench of the undead. He smelled it on Gretel, and he has smelled it on his beloved Dullahan that horrible night. He stays quiet for now.

She slumps fully, resting her head on Gretel's, between her rabbit ears. "...What 'other one'?"

"There was another dragon. She told me that there were too many dragons in this universe, and that if I wish to live again, I would need to share with her. As such, I allowed it, because when I remembered the way Edger loved me, I knew I must return. She gave me my sight and my hearing back. I have not had them in so long, it is like the world has changed."

"I am sad Edger wishes me dead, but he is scared. When I was scared, I would lash out and bite, unsure of who was around me, until Edger held my head until I calmed down. Now it is time for me to be patient as well, so I am not angry at him."

"Was it..." The Radical? That was her thought. Such miraculous healing was surely the work of a God, but to expect Gretel to know of such things?

"You're so beautiful, Gretel." She takes a moment, playing with the tufts of fur around the dragon's ears.

"So you hear her still? What does she say to you?"

Gretel is soothed by the physical touch. While she could see and hear now, she had lived life so long being led and communicated with through touch alone that it was more a language to her than the one being imposed in her mind by the Other Being within it. She lamented in her mind that Edger had not run his hand through her fur once. Had he, she was sure that by the communication they had built up over so many years that he would recognize her once again. "It is quiet. I think it is allowing me to exist as I am. Though it is telling me how to speak. Maybe it is in as much awe as I am that it wishes to be as it is. It told me that where it came from, there were many brothers and sisters, so much noise. The quiet is a welcome embrace."

"Hmmp. You both done speakin' crazy talk? Honestly you lot owe me for keepin' you away from men who would have you, and anyone related to you hanged."

"The pink one spent all her money on knicknacks. What are you goin' to eat? Cause with the stench on you I need to make sure you're eatin' well. All the children book says evil little thin's love to eat children when they get hungry."

She bumps her face to the top of Gretel's head, an affectionate gesture...

Then turns shocked to Timothy, surprised by his words. "I- I'm just a rabbit! I wouldn't eat you, I wouldn't- " As if on cue, her stomach rumbles.

"Ohhhmm... But I am hungry, maybe that's what's got me all worked up."

"Can I please have one of your hema-togis?"

"No! That's people food, not whatever you are food!"

"A rabbit..."

"Rabbits suppose to be eatin' grass and salads, innit? Least that's what I have to feed them when tailed visitors come by and they stable up their bunnies."

"Either way, you don't have the coin to be buyin' food. One of my older brothers came by when you were gone, told me Bela Elzenstein is in town, and that if I got rare lookin' alien, that he'd pay a pretty penny to have one."

"I got rightfully mad at my brother when he told me that. Dawn knights, even Drakken ones ain't slavers! We got a morale code to uphold. Maybe we are underhanded, and bask in the light, but that's not the Dawn Knight way."

"But, turns out he just wants you to escort him, or such, and hold on to his shoulder? That you'll be returned by dawn as unless you want to stay with him. So like a knight, you'd be!"

"A knight that messages shoulders?" It's clear Timothy didn't understand fully what his brother told him.

"The amount he's payin' for even a single day is worth a year of wage for a servant! So you give me 50%, give my brother 25%, and you can keep the rest. You can go to town and shop all you want, as if you were a visitin' noble!"

"I'll even let you use the Elzenstein perfume I had to buy to cover up the stench that clings to me after workin' with Gretel. He'll feel very pleased about that I figure."

"You've been too kind to me Timothy." She gives Gretel a couple parting pets and stands herself up, brushing all the loose hay out of her robe.

"Just a single day and we'll have all the silly metal scraps to get all the treats we want!"

"We could even get you some of that rich blood pudding with a deal like that."

She wasn't as clueless as Timothy on what his words meant. It was a... meet cute, of sorts. But for a chance at a proper meal and a bed to sleep in?

"Let's go find us one 'Bello Elzastein'!"

"Don't be too hasty! You look like a mess."

"Let me give you and same combing and grooming I give to the unicorns, make sure you're all fancy and clean like. Wouldn't want any tangles in your hair!"

"Ah....there is one thing I forgot to say though...."