Faith in Fire

“There weren’t always dragons in the valley.” Pesh points out in hushed tones with a giddy smirk that makes Dren roll his eyes and turn away from her large wooden desk with a groan.

Pesh is a full twenty-two years older than Dren but you wouldn’t know from looking at the both of them and spending any time with the two wouldn’t help you point Pesh out as the elder either. She had remained as lithe and young looking as a twelve year old boy but she was slightly taller than most women in the Draskian Valley. Her long brown hair was always kept in a modest out-of-the-way updo and she rarely wore anything beside the plain uniforms of the Order. But her eyes would always get people's attention; bright crystalline blue and slightly dollish. And she had watched Dren grow from an uncertain little boy to a young man with facial hair he religiously shaved away, enough nervous energy for twenty fully grown people, and more admiration and respect for Pesh than she thought she deserved from anyone let alone a boy who could see the top of her head.

Still the fact remained that Pesh had been Dren’s mentor since he was ten years old. He'd spent seven years thus far with Pesh’s undying enthusiasm for the Order and her role with in it. Moreover, his cynicism had grown tragically comfortable with her profound optimism. He now couldn’t bear to entertain the idea of her cheerfulness not being a thorn in his side. It was undoubtedly a thorn however and today it felt especially prickly.

“Are you going to teach me something I haven’t known since I was a child toddling around?!” He snaps. Her warmth didn’t waver but her smirking face fell into a soft gaze.

“This is your nerves overtaking you.” She places her hands on his shoulders and gives them a gentle squeeze. “This isn’t your first and it won’t be your last review in the Order.”

Dren grumbles and turns away from her, beginning a panicked pacing. What she says is true but it does nothing to undo the knots in his stomach getting tighter and tighter as he thinks of all the possible things he doesn’t know and how that will be exactly the contents of his review.

“They will only ask you things you should have learned up until this age and nothing more.” Pesh offers.

“And what if I don’t know what I ought to know?” Dren’s deepening voice cracks and he clears his throat.

“Do you think I’m a bad teacher who hasn’t prepared you?” Pesh’s left eyebrow shoots up and she tilts her head slightly.

Dren stares dumbfoundedly at her, offended that she would suggest something of the sort. Sure she had been a joyful pain in his rear end but the best damned pain by far. It was known through the whole Draskian Valley that Pesh Vyndel of the Order of Dragons was the best there was. She had ridden all five of the high dragons at each of the New Year festivals for the five years after she was welcomed into the Order from her apprenticeship. Not a single elder in the 149 years since the dragons returned to the valley could say the same. Pesh Vyndel had living myths about her. One said that she was created by dragons to truly translate their higher power to mere human kind. Or another theorizing that she's a dragon in human form. But Pesh Vyndel was humble and dismissive of her greatness and she smiled in some way at all times. For her to suggest that she might have failed as a mentor was a thought that not even Dren could fathom.

“A-a-absolutely not!” He finally stammers, flustery pink rising to the surface of his cheeks. “I would never– You are the– Pesh! How could you ever say–” And of course Pesh smiles knowingly, dimples so deep you had to smile too; except for poor Dren.

“You’ll be fine.” She chuckles lightly and walks up to him, straightens his shoulders and holds his face to look at her. “You’re one of the brightest students I’ve encountered and more importantly your heart is for the Order; for our purpose. We are the ultimate communicators between dragons and men. We, each of us, have been chosen to some degree for a purpose in this world.”

“What if I get something wrong?” His jaw sets hard and Pesh gives it a motherly pat.

“There weren’t always dragons in the valley, Dren.”

“Again!? I know that!” He clenches his fists and almost glares at his passive mentor.

“If you remember that there was a time before dragons and the Order, and you remember what the world had been before, then you can appreciate your role in the order of this life.” Pesh turns away toward her desk and sits on the stool behind it. “If your heart knows that truth there is nothing the Elder Council can interrogate you about that you can’t answer. And they will interrogate you thoroughly. You are my student after all.” She says the last bit with a mischievous grin, watching the panic spread itself thick back onto Dren’s face.

"Pesh!" He fidgets wildly and then tries to smooth the front of his tunic to calm himself. "Why would you say such a thing?!"

"Have I ever lied to you?" She furrows her brow and then shakes her head. "No, never, and I won't ever lie to you Dren. I may be unconnected from many things but I'm not blind or dumb. I see and hear everything. I know more intimately than anyone how others treat those around me and how they might treat you worst of all; expecting more from you than is fair. These facts aren't new for you though and I stand by what I said; you'll be fine." Pesh smiles warmly again.

This time Pesh lets Dren pace tracks into the rug in front of the study desk she had set up for him in her office. She glances at him occasionally and smirks when she’s not watching him, only listening to him recite epics and ask himself questions. She meant what she said. Dren was the smartest student she had ever come across and it wasn’t her bias that spoke it.

Pesh had taught two students before Dren came into her tutelage who she had sorrowfully dismissed into someone else’s care. They had been too concerned with riding dragons and commanding power and not at all interested in learning anything else. She was also required to sit in on reviews for other apprentices. Some were too haughty for her taste. Others, too concerned with impressing her. At some point she felt that her standards were unjustly high until she met Dren who, even at ten years old, had so much heart radiating from him. The respect he had for dragons and the care he demonstrated had been a sudden beacon for her.

“Do they care much for wording?” Dren asks Pesh and then very quickly shakes his head, “Of course they do” he answers himself and then goes back to muttering.

Just then a loud knocking sounds from Pesh’s office door. She stands, calling for them to enter and smiles welcomingly when they do. Elder Kethryn had come to collect Dren for his review and Pesh was grateful for it. The older woman had a calming nature about her and it was just what her apprentice would need on the daunting walk to the Elder Council’s great hall. Unfortunately, Pesh had chosen quarters on the opposite end of the castle grounds from the hall when she was initiated. Her past decision was a torturous reality for Dren now.

Elder Kethyrn guides Dren with a hand on his upper back and returns Pesh’s kind smile. “Fires be with you Master Pesh.” Pesh tries not to crinkle her nose at the title but nods her head and watches the two leave her office, the heavy wooden door seeming to close louder than it ever had.

Pesh sucks in a breath so hard it sends a stabbing pain through her chest and when she looks down at her hands they’re shaking. She has to shuffle to the nearest armchair so that she can collapse. It felt like a hundred years of worry was breaking through a locked door and flooding every inch of her. This is Pesh the great and wonderful when no one is around depending on her. She believes in Dren with every fiber of her mortal existence but the council - Oh fires, the Council!

She wanted to believe that the Council was merely drifting but their moves had been looking more and more deliberate. More power hungry and less righteous.

The only hope she had left was the authority of the High Dragons and the Elders had been trying to cut her off from them as much as possible in the last few years.

She spoke softly into the universe with all the training she had and begged the High Dragons for answers. For them to be with Dren. For them to guide her through a darkness she felt too afraid to approach.