The Right Questions

"I didn't tell you I would answer any question you asked because I like fucking with you, Violence." Xaden's tone was harsher than he meant it to be, or maybe it just felt like his thoughts were echoing off the stone hallway around them, Either way he needed to make the point.

"You did it knowing damn well I wouldn't know what questions to ask!"

"And I said you were smart enough to figure out the right questions."

Violet groaned. "Gods, why can't you just tell me what I need to know?"

"Because you *need* to ask."

Something in the way he said it made Violet pause. They'd had this argument before, so why did it feel like she was missing something? Something more than just 'the right questions'?

"I need to ask," she repeated out loud, slowly. "You're not the only one who tells me I need to figure things out for myself, either. You keep secrets like a dragon."

"Silver One, I'm not sure this is the time for compliments," Tairn interjected, but Violet frowned and ignored his distraction.

"If it was just you, I'd just decide you were an asshole and get on with it," she told Xaden, "but it's not. And okay, sure, Tairn is… Tairn. But Andarna…" Violet shook her head. "What keeps you from telling me?"

"Some things are not mine to share." Xaden said it carefully.

She walked quietly beside him as they climbed to the flight field. Instead of getting frustrated, she tried to pull together what all of them had said to her at different points. "Are they… the dragons' to share? Like feathertails?"

"Some of them." There was excitement in Xaden's voice now, just a small note of it. He rarely seemed to let even that much show outside of the bedroom.

"Keep going," Andarna's voice rang through. "I knew you were the right one."

"Do dragons just agree to keep secrets? Or are they actually bound somehow, so they cannot share unless we ask the right questions?"

"Technically that's also not mine to answer." Xaden didn't have to, though, because Andarna's energy felt like the young dragon was bouncing on her heels.

Violet had started to pick up the rhythm of his answers now, slotting in the things he wasn't saying around the things he was. "Are you bound somehow, Xaden? You're not telling me because you can't*?"*

He visibly sagged in relief. "That's exactly it, Vi. You can ask me anything and I'll answer to the best of my ability within the confines of what I'm able to say."

Out on the flight field, Violet couldn't help noticing the way Sgaeyl was looking at her and then at Tairn- there was some unspoken conversation going on there. Sgaeyl didn't look happy, but they were shielding the conversation from her- and from Xaden, judging by the way he was looking at both of them.

"Mom and Dad are fighting again?" Violet offered.

"Something like that."

"So is there a… a vow all of the Empyrean is under?" There was a term Violet was reaching for but it was an old one and it took her a minute to find it. "A geas?" She was sure Andarna was still listening, and sure enough the younger dragon answered.

"I knew you'd figure it out," Andarna's pride was evident.

"But Xaden, why do you have the same geas?"

"Sgaeyl had her reasons when she Chose me, things she needed a rider to help with. A rider who she could bring into certain confidences, but that meant binding me to the same magic."

"It must be ancient magic." There was a sharp wind all of a sudden.

"Older than Navarre."