36.
2.5 YEARS BEFORE THE WAR

Two men with a van came to collect Lotte's boxes from the flat. Poe's things were left untouched.

"Now, dear, if you could wait in the car," Mrs. Herbert said, looking at her watch. "His...er...acquaintances should be here in ten minutes."

Mrs. Herbert looked so flustered when she said the word 'acquaintances' that Lotte instantly decided that she did not wish to be obedient. She went into Mrs. Herbert's red car where she left her messenger bag and dug out a wooden crocodile hair clip, pinching back the front of her long brown hair.

It was one of many hair clips which she enchanted, designed to divert attention from her. She put two smaller clips on either side of her forehead. One would make her steps noiseless and the other would help her hear and see better.

Then she snuck out of the car and down the street, up a side alley, and down the parallel street, where she unlocked the back door to the building, treading silently across the courtyard and up the back stairwell to the fourth floor.

With the door to the flat in sight, she stood there in the shadows of the stairway and waited.

Eventually, she heard footsteps on the main stairs. Three elves accompanied Mrs. Herbert. Lotte couldn't see their faces clearly, but the two loitering behind were conversing in elvish. They mainly made comments about the human architectures, laughing at the narrow steps and low passageways.
They disappeared into the flat, and Lotte strained her ears, trying to make out the words being said.

There was a lot of busy shuffling and moving, and not much talk.

"I knew it," said one of the elves inside. "He was living with a human."

"Don't tell me that, I'd lose my appetite."

"He did it for revenge, I'm sure of it."

"How could he? With a human."

"Some humans aren't that bad," said the third elf, the one Lotte hadn't heard speaking. This one had a woman's voice. "The women. They smell nice and are so...soft."

"Speaking from experience, Xan?"

"Why? Are you jealous that I don't run the risk of ending up with a Lotte?"

Nothing important was being said, but oddly enough, elves weren't as different from humans as Lotte thought.

"Well, now," Mrs. Herbert said in a high pitched voice. "I can leave you to it then?"

"We will notify...after completed," said one of the men causing one of his colleagues to snort.

"What? Did I say it wrong?"

"Why don't you leave handling the humans to Xan..."

"Very well," Mrs. Hebert said in a high pitched voice, oblivious to their banter in elvish. "I'll await your telephone."

Lotte didn't hear the rest of what was being said because she was already dashing down the stairs, across the courtyard and back to the front of the building where the car was parked.

Mrs. Herbert was already waiting for her there. Lotte pulled out the clips from her hair, making it fall in long heavy locks all about her shoulders.

"He's never coming back again," she whispered, startling Mrs. Herbert.

"I don't know, love," she said, recovering quite quickly from her surprise. "Come, we deserve a nice lunch." She shot a glance towards the building they just left. Lotte thought that expression meant that she didn't want to be there when the elves came out.

A short time later, they were sitting across from each other by a table with a white tablecloth in a restaurant like the kind Mr. Henri favoured. There were crystal goblets for wine on the table, and the menu was a single sheet of pricey food.
"Order whatever you like," Mrs. Herbert said, but Lotte wasn't hungry.

The food arrived regardless, fish on rice with some lemony sauce and herbs. Poe never ate things like rice. Despite being sensitive to iron, he ate like a carnivore. Only the meat was always cooked until it was as hard as leather—which wasn't a problem for his sharp teeth.

"The first time I saw him, I was nine," Mrs. Herbert said, digging into her food without commenting about how quiet and still Lotte was. "I was in my thirties when he appeared in our lives again, carrying you in his arms."

"What do you mean...carrying me?"

"You were an infant...well, barely."

"Barely?"

Mrs. Herbert cupped her hand. "You would've fitted in there. That's how small you were. A little bag of sugar. He kept you in a bubble of golden light which he said he borrowed from a friend. I told you that he's very old, but at the time he looked as frightened as a young mother and had so many questions for me."

"Questions? About what?"

"Well, since I had already had three of my own, he wanted to know everything there is to know about child-rearing. I don't know how he fed you but I think..." She leaned in, looking left and right and spoke in a whisper. "If his questions were any indication, I think he did magic or something on himself to feed you."

Lotte's face was suddenly very hot. Was Mrs. Herbert saying what she thought she was saying? Did Poe do...did he enchant himself to... "His magic can't do that," she said. "He can't enchant himself to..." It was too embarrassing to even think it.

Mrs. Herbert lifted up her palms. "Like I said, I only have my theories. He's always been extremely secretive. He never told me where you came from, only that no one can know you're alive."

Lotte looked down. Poe had once told her that she was a creature that shouldn't exist. The contradiction of magic and iron existed within Yomi Lotte too, but the nature of Yomi magic—growth, and harmony—protected the life of mother and baby.

Leilan magic was destruction, violence and chaos. The baby would not only kill itself as it grew, but destroy the mother carrying it as well.

"I suppose my mother died before she reached full term," Lotte said, mostly to herself. "That's why I was so small."

"He did always sound surprised to find that you were still alive every time we spoke. But he was adamant about keeping you a secret. That's why he left you at that place."

Lotte blinked. "What?"

"The orphanage. He told me that he had to go back. I wanted to take you in then and there. You were nearly four at the time and he became confident that you'd live. But he said that they were looking for you, that the elves knew about his connection with my family and would look for you there."

"They were looking for me? The elves? Why?"

"I don't know," was the reply. "But three years after that, they stopped looking and I came to get you. You know the rest."

Lotte sighed, poking at her fish with a feeling of heavy frustration. "I don't know anything."

Mrs. Herbert put down her own knife and fork and reach across the table and touch Lotte's hand. "Shall we go there?"

"There?"

"Let's go visit the orphanage, Lotte. What do you say?"

***
PRESENT DAY

While the Dragon King was dying, Lotte went to sleep in the large, soft bed. Soon, she found herself lying in another bed, a round one, and watched the Dragon's Heir, with his long blue-white hair falling down his back, pacing his room nervously.

She sat up, tucking her legs underneath her.

He turned and froze in place when he noticed her. His face stampeded through a series of expressions—alarm, anger, confusion...longing—before he sighed. "I forgot again," he said at last.

"What did you forget?"

"A great many things. But...did something happen last night?"

"You don't remember barging into my room last night and stealing me away?" she asked.

"I...I remember being very angry with you," he said. "And that you wouldn't answer my questions."

"Do you remember that you kissed me?"

His face turned red and he looked away, haughty but embarrassed. "Yes. That's why I didn't come find you again today. I..." He trailed off and sat at the foot of the bed with his back to her. "I heard the sound of your magic today. Did you know that sky dragons can hear all the magic in the world? It's like music."

"I already know," she said, gently. "You told me before."

"Did I?" He turned to look at her. She thought, behind the mask of cool control he was trying to wear, he looked very frightened. "Were you enchanting things today? It was small magic, but very beautiful. A unique sound. Very unlike everything else..."

He hesitated. "It felt...familiar."

Lotte nodded. "Because you heard it before."

He sighed, waves of melancholy wafting off him. At that moment, he was Blue again and Lotte was sorry she had ever doubted it was him.
"Do you know you're..." She tried to say it, as violet lightening sizzled over her skin, tying her throat shut. "C...c...." She had to get the word out. She grabbed handfuls of the duvet underneath her, curling her fingers into fists.

"Cursed," he said, eyes wide when he looked at her. "They cursed you? Already?"

He rushed up to her, grabbing her shoulders. "They did it to you?" he cried in outrage. "They used Vanshu? Or your friend? The human one? Or the elf?"

Lotte shook her head. "No. They didn't curse me. This is something else. But, what do you mean?"

"We virata are masters of curses. They say we're dragon-kin, but in fact, we're snakes." His voice oozed bitterness. "Broken hearts are cursed hearts, so the easiest way to curse someone is to kill someone they love."

"Are you saying—"

He nodded his head. "Now, more than ever, they'll want to control you, just like..."

"You," she said. "Just like you."

"Your friends..."

"Rowan," Lotte cried, clutching his arm, suddenly desperate. "She's missing. Please. They're going to hurt her."

"Rowan?" He shook his head. "She's the human?"

Lotte nodded.

"Why would they use her when they have Vanshu?"

"Because I don't know who this Vanshu is."

He blinked at her. "Of course you do."

Lotte shook her head from side to side.

"He's the one who arranged for you to come here. It wasn't easy for them to capture him. It was annoying and hard and he killed three of our best agents. That's why I remember him. I remember only the worst."

Lotte was shaking, she couldn't speak. No, she knew no one named Vanshu.

"Vanshu...he's an elf. I thought he was your father? That's who he was, I'm sure?"

Lotte shook her head. No, he wasn't her father.

Unless he was lying when she asked him if he was.

"Poe..." she said in a tiny voice. "They have Poe?"

"There's an elf named Vanshu," he said darkly. "Who will be used to curse you."

"Why?" Lotte cried. "Why curse me?"

"Because you...you will be perfect. The perfect weapon." He walked away from the bed, swaying slightly. "I will be the exalted Dragon King whose power reaches to the ends of the world. I will be revered from the south-most point of Uglina, to the peaks of the Harvador mountains. And they—Akeaf, Sunthes, Briaad and Monthes—will rule me, as they do now. And my heir, and my heir's heir. This war between Agathara and Lasuran is only the beginning. We will take everything with enchanted iron weapons, our armies unparalleled in this world."
He turned to her, his face cold and empty. "You are the key they never anticipated. You will be the one to make all their twisted dreams come true."

Lotte stood, legs quaking. Why had Poe let her come here? She should've run further. She should never have come here. "Where are they keeping him?"