Page 67 of Eluvonia
He taps the parchment. “First things first. Let’s see what you already know. Write down the alphabet.”
I furrow my brows, staring at him like he’s grown a second head. “What’s an alphabet?”
Kaida stares at me blankly, blinking once, twice. Then he groans, dragging a hand down his face. “Do you know how to read at all?”
“I can read maps,” I offer, folding my arms across my chest.
He nods, hopeful. “Okay. Can you read the words on thosemaps?”
I shake my head, watching as his brief hope fizzles out.
“Great,” he mutters, leaning back in his chair with a heavy sigh. “You’re no better than a youngling.”
Kaida stands abruptly and strides to one of the towering shelves. He runs his fingers along the spines of the books, muttering to himself as he searches for something. Finally, he pulls one free and returns to the table, dropping it in front of me.
“Copy these letters,” he instructs, flipping the book open to a page filled with neatly printed symbols. “We’ll go from there.”
I glance at the book, then back at him. “Is this really necessary? I get by just fine.”
Kaida grunts, crossing his arms. “Yes, it’s necessary. You ‘got by’ because you lived in a cave in a forest where reading wasn’t a necessity. But you’re mine now, and I want you to be able to read and write. Just humor me, Aeris.”
There’s that word again. There’s something softer in his tone now, something that makes my argument wither before it even escapes my lips. I hold his gaze for a moment longer, then sigh, picking up the quill.
“Fine,” I mutter, dipping the quill into the ink.
The letters on the page are foreign to me, their shapes strange and intricate. My hand wavers as I try to replicate them on the parchment, each line and curve more awkward than the last.
Kaida watches in silence for a while, then leans forward, resting his arms on the table. “Not bad for a first attempt,” he says, his voice laced with mock encouragement. “But let’s work on making them legible, shall we?”
I shoot him a glare, but his smirk only deepens.
The minutes stretch on as I struggle through the letters, Kaida correcting me every few lines. Despite the frustration bubbling under my skin, I can’t help but notice the faint flicker of pride in his eyes when I finally get one right.
“See?” he says, tapping the parchment with his finger. “You’re not entirely hopeless.”
“Gee, thanks,” I mutter, rolling my eyes.
He chuckles, leaning back in his chair. “Don’t mention it.”
The world outside the library fades away, leaving only the two of us and the quiet scratch of the quill on parchment.
Weeks bleed together in a blur of routines, a rhythm so consistent.
It’s almost comforting.
Breakfast in Kaida’s room, training in the sparring hall, lessons in the library, and then dinner. Both the Dragon males have become an almost permanent fixture in my life, tagging along to teach me everything from history to the most mind-numbing palace etiquette. The etiquette part I hate, but at least Declan makes it tolerable with his constant teasing. Kaida, meanwhile, has been relentless in teaching me to read and write.
I can’t deny I’m improving. I can now read full books, although the occasional overly long word still trips me up. Yesterday, Kaida caught me trying to sound outphilosophyand spent a good five minutes trying not to laugh. I threw the quill at him. It missed. Declan said I should try aiming better—cue another thrown quill.
Despite the fact that I’msupposedto hate them, they’ve somehow become the people I trust most. Even Shura, who still looks at me like she’d rather gut me than train me, hasgrudgingly stopped going for lethal blows during sparring. Progress.
But outside the castle? Things are far from peaceful. The Fae have grown bolder, burning Dragon villages and ambushing traveling traders. Resources in Iryndel are running dangerously thin. Retaliation has been swift and brutal, with Dragon fire scorching forests and decimating known Fae outposts.
Declan keeps me updated on everything, usually over dinner or during our library lessons—what he jokingly calls ourWar Council. I try to remind him that I’m Fae and shouldn’t be privy to this kind of information, but he insists, saying that regardless of my race, I belong at Kaida’s side. One day, he says, I might have to choose where my loyalty lies.
Kaida, for the most part, stays quiet about it, but I can see the tension in his jaw whenever Declan mentions the latest attack. I understand what Declan is saying, but my heart doesn’t agree. I know both sides of the story now, and both feel justified in their anger. Both feel wronged.
The Dragons see the Fae’s assassination of their king as the ultimate betrayal—he was only trying to protect the realm, after all. Meanwhile, the Fae believe the Dragons are power-hungry tyrants, willing to destroy everything in their path to get what they want. They claim the Dragons betrayed them during a time of peace, cutting off their access to magic in order to weaken and ultimately conquer them.
