With an amused smile, Cessilia wrapped her arms around her grandmother, hugging her. She had been a bit embarrassed the previous day, but now, she was happy to have some time alone with Kareen. The older lady hugged her back, but soon she frowned, and looked at Cessilia’s hair with an upset expression.
“What in the world is this?” she exclaimed.
She was holding some of Cessilia’s sharply cut hair, the strands she had to cut the previous day, during the fight... Cessilia grimaced.
“Collateral damage,” she muttered.
“Ha! As if I was going to leave you like this. Come over here.”
Cessilia didn’t even think about asking or protesting, she trusted her grandmother wholly. Lady Kareen made her sit on the beach, and began rinsing her hair with sea water, clearly determined to clean it and cut it herself. She had taken out a small dagger too. Because she was turning her back to the sea, Cessilia had Jinn in her direct line of vision. The Red Dragon had woken up but, intimidated by the two others present on the beach, it didn’t dare make a sound, staying still with a sad expression.
“...Grandmother. You said dragons without owners can... survive, right?”
“Yes. I’ve raised a few myself. When your uncles were murdered, I had to raise their dragons on my own. The last one passed away just a couple of years after you were born, you wouldn’t remember it.”
“This dragon... It belonged to a boy that died a long time ago. It survived by staying with his sister, but now, that woman... she is gone too.”
Cessilia glanced to the side. She wasn’t surprised that Jisel’s body was gone. It had been taken away by the tide... probably.
“Well, it probably won’t live much longer,” Kareen said, still busy cleaning and combing her hair. “That brat looks quite big already for one that lost its owner.”
“...I feel sorry for him,” Cessilia muttered. “I wish I didn’t have to... make it so he was alone again.”
“Was the woman good to that dragon?”
“I’m not sure. She wasn’t a good person, but... in my heart, I know she wasn’t completely bad either.”
She felt that dread in her heart, as if she couldn’t find real closure about this. In fact, she was almost grateful that Jisel’s body was gone. She was almost sure that the woman was dead, but... she wasn’t mad about thinking there was a very, very slim possibility she had survived too.
“No one is either completely good or bad, Cessilia. Humans are too complex for that. Even the kindest soul can feel resentment, and even the worst can feel remorse.”
“That woman went through a lot. Things that made her... make terrible choices. I can’t help but think...”
“Her circumstances made her the evil woman she became?” her grandmother guessed.
Cessilia nodded slightly.
A few seconds passed, and her eyes went back to the Red Dragon stuck in ice. Jinn’s eyes were on the seashore, as if they were looking for something, or someone. She could almost read the dragon’s heartache, the questions in those big, sad eyes. Kareen began cutting her hair, carefully using her blade to even it out.
“To each person their own choices, Cessilia,” she said. “If the woman refused to be saved or changed, that was her own decision. Long before you were born, the Imperial Palace was cut-throat, the most dangerous place in the Empire, yet many people still lived there. They chose power over security, and often paid for it with their lives. I had to make choices too, some I might regret at the end of my days. However, I won’t blame it on anybody else, they are my own. Your father chose to go to war and killed many soldiers. Those deaths aren’t his responsibility, though. They were foolish to partake in a war they were bound to lose. If you carry other people’s burdens on top of your own, a day will come when you won’t be able to step forward anymore, my darling.”
She put the blade aside, gently combing the freshly cut hair, done and satisfied. Kareen moved to help her granddaughter stand up again. Now facing each other, they held hands. Cessilia found incredible comfort in simply facing her grandmother like this. Kareen had always been one of the women she looked up to the most, and even now that she had caught up to her height, she still felt as small as she was as a child when facing her. The older woman smiled, and caressed her granddaughter’s cheek.
“You have your mother’s gentle nature,” she said. “That’s why you still have way too much empathy for others. Did you offer the woman a chance to redeem herself?”
“...I believe I did.”
“Then her demise was her choice and her fate,” nodded Kareen. “You cannot save everyone, Cessilia. If you offer someone a choice, and they take the wrong one, no matter how sorry you feel for them, you have to let go. Their burden won’t get any lighter because you chose to carry it too. There is no point.”
Cessilia slowly nodded. She understood her grandmother’s words, but in her heart, she knew there would still be a bit of that guilt she would carry for a little while longer. Still, Kareen smiling at her made her feel as if everything would be alright. She nodded, and as her grandmother opened her arms, she happily indulged in hugging her.
“Oh well, I’ve done what I could with your hair, but you could use a proper bath!”
“I will,” Cessilia chuckled, stepping back.
As they separated, her eyes fell on Jinn once again. This time, the Red Dragon was staring at the rowdy duo playing not far from the ice rock it was still trapped in. When Cece inadvertently ran too close, Jinn suddenly growled, but Krai immediately growled back, even louder, scaring the Red Dragon into submission.
“...What should we do with him?” Cessilia asked her grandmother. “I feel bad, we can’t just leave him in the ice until he dies...”
Kareen sighed and crossed her arms. She walked up to the Red Dragon, now circled by Cece and Krai who seemed to be ganging up and growling back at it. For a while, it was a concert of dragon growls until the two women walked into the midst of it.
“Enough!”
One word from Kareen, and all three of them stopped. Krai tilted its head, while Cece’s snout shyly nudged Lady Kareen’s elbow. The older lady gently caressed the silver scales, but her dark eyes were riveted on Jinn. Funny enough, the Red Dragon seemed even more intimidated by that woman than it was by the other two dragons. Its eyes kept trying to look away, as if pretending to ignore her intense stare.
“...I suppose I could take this brat with me,” she finally said. “It’s not the first time I’d raise a dragon that isn’t of my own blood...”
Cessilia nodded, happy with this resolution. Indeed, Lady Kareen was incredibly good at taming dragons, for someone that didn’t have her own... Cessilia had seen her with her uncles’ dragons, and all of them were as good as obedient puppies in front of her.
“Krai, baby, free this one for me,” she said, “and you.”
She suddenly pointed her long index finger at Jinn, the Red Dragon immediately freezing up.
“You better behave,” she simply said.
Then, she just turned around and walked away very calmly. Cessilia exchanged a glance with Cece.
“I know,” she chuckled. “Grandmother is the best, isn’t she?”
