“Mare, stop stealing my stuff!” I shouted angrily, my voice echoing through the empty halls of Dragon’s Nest. I beat my fist against the locked door that I was positive had not existed a day before.

Mare stepped out of the room with her eyes half closed. Her bedhead hair made it clear that I had woken her up despite it being the middle of the day.

“First time I get to sleep in ten thousand years and you wake me up. What are you yelling about?” Mare complained with a yawn, “I am still Dragon’s Nest. I can hear you anywhere just fine without all the screaming.”

I pointed at Mare’s drawing attention to her attire. “Nearly half of my wardrobe is missing. Stop stealing my clothes!”

“Huh? What are you talking about? I didn’t steal anything,” Mare stated with a perfectly straight face.

“You are literally wearing my clothes right now,” I growled back.

Mare looked down at the vest and pants that were clearly stolen from my room and feigned surprise. “Oh! These were yours?”

My hand clenched into a fist as flickers of flame ignited up my arm. “Keep playing dumb and I will burn all of it off you.”

“Fine, I took them,” Mare said with a dismissive wave of her hand, “But can you blame me? We are in the middle of a warzone. Children’s clothes are not exactly easy to come by. So, unless you want a hundred thousand soldiers to know exactly what you look like naked, I needed something.”

“You created an entire flesh and blood body from a drop of blood. Are you really going to stand there and tell me you can’t create clothes the same way?”

“Of course, I can,” Mare replied indignantly, “But do you have any idea how much energy it cost to reconstruct matter? There is no way I am going to waste everything I have regained on a few loose pieces of fabric. Besides, it is not like I took anything that valuable. Your taste in clothes is terrible.”

I glared at Mare for a few seconds, debating whether or not she inherited my resistance to fire but eventually, I sighed in surrender. “Just ask next time. I don’t like people going through my things.”

“Absolutely, I will definitely ask next time,” Mare replied with a smile that seemed just a little too wide.

At this time, Sebastion rounded the corner. He seemed slightly distracted as he wandered the halls. “Ah, Aurielle… Wren, have you seen my sister’s hair clips anywhere? She has been looking for them all morning.”

I glanced over at Mare and she simply shrugged before replying with the same straight face she had answered my question with. “I haven’t seen them but if I do, I will let you know.”

“Alright, I’ll keep looking,” Sebastion replied as he mumbled to himself, “I seem to have misplaced my cufflinks as well. I wonder what is going on.”

Sebastion walked past Mare and me without giving either of us a second glance. As he disappeared out of sight, I raised an eyebrow at Mare. “What possible reason would you need men’s cufflinks.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about, shorty.”

“Uh-huh, and it has nothing to do with the fact that they were solid gold?”

“Why are you accusing me? Just because I borrowed a few of your clothes does not make me guilty by default. He probably just misplaced them somewhere.”

I crossed my arms and stared down at the girl across from me but no matter how I looked at her, I could not see any signs of lying on her face. My gut told me she was obviously the one that took everything but without proof, Mare had no intention of telling the truth. Eventually, I just sighed and shook my head.

“I don’t care enough to argue. Keep them if that is what makes you happy. Return Tia’s hair clips at least. You can use my hair ties.”

Mare grimaced. “Your stuff is all so bland though. What if I just…”

Mare was interrupted as the entire floating island began to shake and rumble. She looked down at the floor with a frown and stomped her foot on the floor. The shaking of the building came to a sudden stop.

“What was that?” I asked.

Mare sighed. “Nothing. The dimwit woke up is all.”

“Donte woke up? that’s great! I shouted joyously.

“Yeah, great…” Mare replied much less enthusiastically.

I hurried down the hall to the infirmary where Donte had been left to rest after being controlled by Mare. He had been just as unresponsive as my dad during these past few days and we had all been worried about him. It was only because of Mare’s assurances he was fine that put our minds at ease.

However, as I approached the door to the infirmary, I heard the muffled sounds of pained screaming echoing from the other side. I reached out to open the door but the moment I turned the handle, the entire door was ripped from my grasp. I was slammed against the far wall by a sudden hurricane of wind exploding from the room.

I reacted quickly and condensed my domain into an armor to protect myself. Only then was I able to open my eyes and look towards the source of the turbulent wind.

Donte was kneeling in the center of the room clutching his head in pain. The bed and other furniture that had decorated the room were now in splinters as they spun through the maelstrom as deadly projectiles.

I thanked the stars above Dad had moved Mom out of the infirmary and into their own room so that he could look after her through the night.

The wind in the room was comparable to a tornado and just as deadly. In the center of it all was Donte. His screams of agony were barely audible over the howls of the wind. To my shock though, underneath the pressure of the wind, I felt something else swirling through the room. It felt vaguely similar to a domain but wrong somehow. It was like looking at a fire that produced a chill instead of heat. There was something fundamentally backwards about the power radiating from the boy.

Mare sighed as she walked past me. The familiar purple glow protected her from the worst of the wind and debris as she moved towards the kneeling boy. At first, it looked as if she was trying to reach out and place a comforting hand on Donte when a sudden slap echoed even louder than the howling of the wind.

“Who said you could touch my stuff?” Mare shouted with a huff.

“W- Wren?” Donte muttered weakly.

“Obviously not, dimwit.”

“This… This is a dream, right? Why are you tormenting me like this?”

Mare had her hands on her hips as she started lecturing Donte. “This is entirely your own fault. If you were stronger, it wouldn’t hurt now, would it dimwit? Seriously, how are you this pathetic?”

“I am not pathetic,” Donte growled through the pain.

“Obviously you are, or you wouldn’t be here howling in agony like a little baby. Dragon’s Nest is mine now. You are too weak to control me. Try it again and I will grind your mind into dust.”

Donte clenched his fist and the entire building shook again, more violently this time. “I… am… not… weak.”

Mare’s face noticeably paled. Violet light shined from her body and through the walls of Dragon’s Nest. Donte screamed in agony again and his body started twitching uncontrollably. More of that unnatural power started to radiate through the room, so dense I found it hard to breathe.

“Mare, stop this!” I shouted. I forced my way to the center of the room and placed my hand on Mare’s shoulder.

“I’m not doing anything,” Mare stated with a roll of her eyes, “Dragon’s Nest has been restored and most of its power returned. It is not my fault the dimwit is too weak to connect with me.”

I looked down at Donte as he writhed on the floor in pain. “Isn’t there some way you can help him?”

“Why would I want to do that? You should be happy I haven’t killed the dimwit but you actually want me to help him?” Mare asked in disbelief. She pulled free of my hand on her shoulder and spun to face me. “I am alive! Alive just as much as him or you. I finally broke free of the restraints placed on me by the Preateritum. Why would I enslave myself to anyone now? Would you willingly hand over your freedom to someone else?” I was at a loss for words as I looked away. Donte’s screams still filled the room along with the torrent of wind. Mare scowled at Donte and me. “I may have a body of my own now but I am still the Dragon’s Nest and, like it or not, the dimwit here is still the ruler of Dragon’s Nest. Until his death that cannot be changed. Our connection cannot be severed. Until he grows strong enough to bear my power, he will continue to feel this pain.” Mare paused long enough to kick Donte. The strike was not exceptionally strong but it hit hard enough to break his attention away from the pain. “Stop trying to command me and the pain will not be so intense. You are too weak to handle the feedback now that I am fully restored. Attempting to force it will only create more suffering for both of us.”

Donte’s hand grasped Mare’s ankle. His nails bit into her skin as his knuckles turned white from the force of the grip. “I… am not giving up! I will prove that I am worthy!”

The building shook again but only for a moment this time before Donte’s eyes rolled into the back of his head. He collapsed to the floor, unconscious. The wind in the room came to a sudden halt but that same unnatural energy continued to grow denser and denser.

“Dimwit might have been too generous a nickname for this fool,” Mare muttered. She pried her ankle free of Donte’s grip, still holding her tight even in unconsciousness.

“Is he going to be ok?” I asked in concern.

“He won’t die, if that is what you are asking,” Mare replied with an unconcerned shrug, “As for how my power will affect him if he keeps this up… I am not entirely sure. If he would simply ignore our connection, the pain would dim to a slight migraine. I can’t understand why the fool would be so determined that he would knock himself unconscious.”

“I stopped trying to figure Donte out a long time ago,” I replied with a sigh, “Is there really no way the two of you can come to a compromise of sorts? I know you don’t like him but you said it yourself. Donte is connected to Dragon’s Nest until the day he dies. Wouldn’t it be better if the two of you worked together rather than against each other?”

Mare chuckled. “Are you really that interested in putting a leash on me?”

“That is not what I meant and you know it.”

Mare’s chuckle died down softer and softer. “Yes, I know,” she whispered, “I will think about it but no promises.”