Page 44 of The Dragon With A Girl Tattoo
A slight commotion emerged from the tablet, where a woman was now sitting next to Constantine, arguing with him.
“It’s not your fault, so stop martyring yourself.Becket?Hello, I’m Bee, and I’m Constantine’s mate.Just so you know, he feels absolutely horrible that he couldn’t get the light sword away from Bael, but since he only just managed to save me from almost certain destruction, he needs to cut himself some slack.Besides, it’s not like Bael can use the sword.Not while he’s in the Duat.”
“The weyr must pull together to face Xavier,” another blond dragon on the tablet said.This one had an Italian accent.Next to me, Charity wrote something on her notepad, and then surprised me by sliding it toward me.
His name is Bastian.He used to be wyvern of the blue sept, but he left the sept to save his mate, Phyllida.
I mouthed a “thank you” to her.
“The tribes—those who are friendly—have been talking about setting up our own version of a weyr,” Archer said slowly, but his expression was troubled.“I don’t like the idea of having two entities overseeing dragonkin, but I suppose it can’t be helped.”
“Why?”I asked before I realized I’d spoken.Hastily, I added, “Sorry, I know I’m just a guest here.Ignore me.”
“You are more than a guest, and you will not be ignored,” Yrian said, taking my hand again.
“Why do we not want two groups?”Archer glanced around the table.“It defeats the purpose of the weyr, which is to make the dragonkin collectively stronger.”
“That is part of the reasoning behind the weyr,” Yrian said, now looking thoughtful.A little shiver of pleasure rippled down my back when his fingers absently stroked mine.“Keeping the weyr safe from any dragons who wanted to rule over all the kin was another reason.”
“So, fundamentally, your weyr is a collection of dragons who agreed to work together for the betterment of the dragonkin?”I asked, the problem solver in me wanting to work out a solution.“That doesn’t explain why some of you guys would make your own weyr.”
Tribes,Charity noted on her pad,are groups of what are sometimes lawless dragons, but some are sept-adjacent.Tribes aren’t all one type of dragon, like the septs.Archer and Hunter each lead a tribe.
“Tribes are only granted membership in the weyr if they hold a relic with suitable provenance to verify it had been in their possession for a reasonable amount of time,” Drake explained.“We recently reformed the rules regarding admittance to the weyr in order to safeguard it from an influx of tribes who would wreak havoc.”
“We were going to approach the First Dragon about changing the articles founding the weyr to allow us to include those tribes who agree to our tenets, but evidently, we should be asking you, instead,” Gabriel said, looking at Yrian.
“It’s your weyr,” I said, confused as I looked amongst the dragons in the room.“Why can’t you guys make that a rule?”
“We can change only minor aspects, not those impacted by the magic woven into the creation of the weyr itself,” Drake answered.Now all the dragons were eyeing Yrian.“We—the dragonkin—are bound to the articles of creation.The most we can do is reform it within the bounds of the articles.”
“Did you do that on purpose?”I asked Yrian, intrigued by just how intricate were dragon politics.
“Bind the kin to the articles?”he asked, then answered before I nodded.“It was the only way to keep them from warring.They had to be bound to the articles, or they would not be a part of the weyr.In the end, all agreed.”
“Smart,” I said, admiring how he’d obviously worked so hard to get his family to pull together instead of going their own way.
Yrian looked surprised for a moment, then pleased.
“As the creator of the weyr, you could break the articles without repercussion.Would you break them so they can be reformed to reflect our current reality?”Archer asked him.I had a feeling he just asked a question that everyone had wanted to ask but hesitated to do so.
It drove home how much respect Yrian commanded ...that or they acknowledged just how powerful he was in his own right.
Yrian said nothing for a few minutes, frowning at the table as he evidently worked his way through the suggestion.
“I hesitate to do so,” he finally said, his voice almost as measured as that of his father.“Not because I wish to deprive your tribes of the support provided by the weyr, but because the articles themselves carry immense power.To break them is to release that power, and I have no idea how it would affect both the mortal and immortal worlds.Even if breaking the articles did no harm, it would attract the notice of Kashi and this Xavier who is warring with you ...and both would use it to destroy kin.”
“Baltic said the articles couldn’t be broken just for that reason,” Ysolde said, her expression somber.“But surely, there must be a way that a codicil or something like that can be added to them?The articles, that is.Something that would let the tribes without relics join us.”
“Perhaps the answer is to locate the relics, rather than trying to change the weyr itself,” Gabriel suggested.
“There are none that aren’t already being held,” Bastian said.I noticed he’d been joined by a dark-haired woman with watchful eyes.“But Phyllida had a question I could not answer—would it be possible for the First Dragon to create relics for our tribes in order to join the weyr?”
Yrian was shaking his head even before Bastian finished.“That is not how it works.”
“The relics were formed in the act of creating the dragonkin,” Baltic added, his expression matching my suddenly glum spirits.“Once those were created, all others were lesser, not as potent or powerful, and having little to no importance.”
“My youngest brother speaks the truth,” Yrian said, leaning back in his chair.“Only the dragon heart, Firstborn talismans, and Iceni’s ringsels are true relics.All others are related, but not powerful enough to bind them to the weyr.”
