Triiiiim.

  Triiiiiiiiiiiiim.

  Triiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiim.

  'Ugh. Already?'

  Seralyth laid sprawled upon the bed in a most unceremonious fashion, as though sleep itself had cast her there and meant to keep her. With a groan that scarcely rose above the pillow, she was compelled to stretch one arm from beneath the covers and strike, with weary determination, at the offending alarm, hoping by that small effort to silence its relentless cry. Many would have doubted it, for she carried herself with earnest composure when awake, but in truth the princess was a heavy sleeper, and rising from rest was ever a trial to her.

  The burden of jet lag only deepened the trouble, settling on her limbs and thoughts like an ill-timed fog.

  Five more minutes surely wouldn't hurt.

  '… ah, yes. Good morning.'

  Alas, there was no mercy to be had. Even as Seralyth lingered between sleep and waking, her groggy mind was stirred by Saeryn’s plain and unmistakable enthusiasm. The presence within her thoughts seemed scarcely able to wait for her eyes to open, and its alertness rang clearer than the alarm had done.

  'I guess you don’t need to rest?'

  Seralyth asked the question idly, more to fill the space of waking than from true curiosity. With effort that showed in the stiffness of her movements, she drew herself up from the bed and made her way towards the bathroom to prepare for the day. A cold shower, she reasoned, would surely chase away what sleep still clung to her. As she moved, Saeryn answered through the resonance, its meaning settling into her awareness with calm certainty. It required hibernation only when injured, and so it had spent the ‘night’ roaming the moon’s exosphere, wandering where thin gases brushed against the dark.

  'I wish I didn’t need sleep either. Anything interesting out there?'

  Rather than forming a reply, Saeryn chose another course. Memories were gently pressed into Seralyth’s mind, unfolding like a vision unbidden. It was a curious sensation, for she found herself watching a moving tale within her thoughts while her body carried on with the simple rituals of morning, hands and feet acting while her mind drifted elsewhere.

  'It’s a barren moon. Hard to expect any wonders.'

  Indeed, there was little to behold upon that astral body. Craters lay scattered across its face, and low hills rose and fell without grace or ornament, all stark beneath the distant light. Yet what truly caught Seralyth unawares wasn't the land, but the behaviour of the dragons themselves. She hadn't known what she expected, yet they did, to her surprise, mingle together in a manner that she could only describe as social, exchanging presence and motion in ways that hinted at fellowship.

  With a cup of hot coffee warming her hands and a slice of toast spread with butter set before her, she spent the next minutes attempting to translate the dragons’ exchanges. Try as she might, understanding didn't come. It was too strange and distant for her grasp at present. Saeryn, for its part, showed no desire to explain. Was it concealing something from her?

  'Hmm.'

  The suspicion flowed faintly through the link between them, like a ripple across still water. It was fortunate for the newborn dragon that the morning allowed little time for questioning, for there were obligations waiting. It was nearly time to meet with Rynna.

  When Seralyth stepped beyond her designated room, which yielded only to her biometric mark, she found herself facing a corridor filled with people. This was new to her, for she had been told that her arrival came deep into the night by system hours, when such halls lay quiet.

  It wasn't the case that every bonded cadet sensed her presence and turned to stare, but some did notice a face unknown to them. Whispers passed softly, and glances were cast in Seralyth’s direction, measured and restrained.

  None troubled her, however.

  "How odd. There shouldn’t be any new arrivals till the next cycle."

  So spoke a voice nearby, and perhaps one person would indeed take note. Standing before Seralyth was a woman much like her in height and seeming age, with vivid carmine hair falling to her shoulders. Her expression was calm, yet touched with inquiry, as though she weighed Seralyth silently.

  "I'm a minor exception," Seralyth replied, lifting her shoulders in a small shrug.

  The woman didn't answer at once, choosing instead to observe her closely. Finding no wish to linger, Seralyth stepped aside and moved on, intent on passing beyond the exchange.

  As she did, she caught a murmured remark, barely more than breath.

  When Seralyth glanced back over her shoulder, the woman was already gone, her steps carrying her away down the corridor. The brief and puzzling encounter drew a frown from the princess, yet she dismissed it just as swiftly. The opinion of a random cadet held little weight with her.

  She continued on her way, still aware of the occasional glance until she stepped outside the building at last. There, as she had expected, Rynna waited beside her ever reliable, or perhaps not entirely reliable, jeep.

  "Bonded pilot!" Rynna called out, whether or not she knew Seralyth’s name. "Come, come. It's time!"

  Seralyth let out a sigh and climbed onto the vehicle with reluctance that didn't reach her heart. For beneath her weary manner, anticipation stirred and bubbled within her. Far above, Saeryn was drawing near through the reaches of space, ready to follow them onwards to the assessment facilities, and the day’s path lay clearly before them.

  ???

  The examination chamber, white and bare as a winter hall newly swept, was divided cleanly into two ordered portions. One was a compact enclosure, fashioned for the pilot alone, narrow and exact in its measure. The other opened out into a broad atrium, lofty and spacious, with more than enough room for a newborn dragon to descend and unfurl itself without brushing wall or array. In both chambers stood stacked banks of instruments and ordered arcane frames, each ceaselessly observing and measuring the human and the dragon alike, their task being the full and unbroken evaluation of both.

  Beside the bonded pair, yet set apart behind clear partitions of warded glass and fieldwork, stood the researchers, instructors, and technicians. They watched in disciplined silence, hands set to consoles or clasped behind their backs, every movement deliberate. A quiet air of practiced professionalism lay over them, like a mantle, as they prepared themselves for the assessment that was to unfold.

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  Meanwhile, Seralyth felt a faint discomfort stirring deep within her, a quiet wrongness that didn't belong. It wasn't born of the scrutiny upon her, for she had long grown accustomed to the weight of attention in her life as a princess. Rather, the unease came from the very walls and divisions of the chamber, for the separation dampened and fractured the empathic waves that usually flowed so freely.

  She could no longer sense Saeryn.

  "Bonded pilot, are you ready?" came a familiar voice, carried clearly through the speakers set high along the walls.

  As ever, her emotional state was mirrored faithfully across the many screens, translated into lines, pulses, and shifting sigils. If Rynna noticed the irregularities dancing there, she gave no sign of it in her tone.

  "Of course," Seralyth replied, her voice steady and composed.

  "More enthusiasm!" came the reply, half protest and half jest. "We'll disable the quarantine now. Just let the bond resonate normally, all right?"

  Seralyth didn't know the reason for this insistence, yet she nodded all the same. For all her eccentricities, Rynna was a successful researcher. At least, that was what Seralyth told herself, and what she chose to believe.

  The seconds lengthened and stretched, each one heavy with anticipation, until at last a familiar and comforting presence brushed against Seralyth's mind. She smiled without meaning to, as Saeryn's faintly irritated sentiments flowed back into her awareness like a long-delayed tide.

  'Yes, yes. I found it troublesome as well. Hopefully it’ll only be this once.'

  Across the sterile divide, Rynna stared at the central screen with a grin so wide it seemed hardly contained by her face. The torrent of data pouring across the display would have been enough to give even a seasoned technician a splitting headache, yet she read it swiftly, as one might read a familiar map.

  "Yes, nice. It truly is an inverted bond."

  Only then did the other researchers grasp the weight of what they were seeing.

  "The synchronization value was established by the pilot?"

  "That's correct. Her neural patterns are structuring the resonance, and the hatchling has adapted itself accordingly."

  "Hm. The bond stability is remarkable."

  If Rynna cared at all for their judgement, she didn't show it. Without adjusting the test or repeating it for comparison, she struck the control for the speakers, her voice bright with unrestrained delight.

  "Bonded pilot. Saeryn. Excellent work. Now we move on to the next part."

  Seralyth let out a short snort of disbelief. She hadn't been mistaken before. This mad scientist truly did place more emphasis on the hatchling's name than on her own.

  'Oi. I can sense the smugness.'

  When it had learned to be smug, she could not say. An urge rose within her to question Saeryn relentlessly, to pry at this sudden development, but she forced it down. The tests weren't yet done. Perhaps there were ill influences among the dragons kept within the facility.

  "What now?" she asked curtly, directing her voice towards the walls, certain Rynna would hear.

  "Biological expression evaluation," came the shouted reply, echoing through the chamber. "In other words, we need to assess Saeryn's innate organs and their functions."

  "... and how will we do that?"

  Her question carried a note of caution. The princess was prepared to protest, perhaps even violently, should Rynna suggest anything so unthinkable as vivisection.

  "That part is up to you two," Rynna said, giggling with eager anticipation. "Dragons should know how to use them unconsciously, but with your guidance it’ll be far easier. Feel it through the bond."

  Uncertain, Seralyth turned towards the smooth wall that divided the chambers. Though she couldn't see through it, she knew the dragon waited just beyond.

  'Is that true? Do you think you can do it?'

  Naturally.

  The response came at once, confident and unhesitating. Then doubt followed close behind. Saeryn knew that it could do something, though what that something truly was remained unclear. To Seralyth, it seemed much like a child's instinct to speak before knowing any words.

  'I’ll try to guide you. Do whatever feels as though it’ll work.'

  One by one, Seralyth withdrew from her outward senses, letting sound, light, and presence fall away. She focused wholly upon Saeryn. Through this imperfect connection, she sensed the dragon's nearness, the length of its serpentine form, the stir and flare of its organs, and the vast metabolic furnace working within it.

  This time, she didn't speak her thoughts. Instead, she let her intention flow through the empathic bond, shaping it gently.

  Saeryn focused in turn. It felt its own biological structure and, guided by instinct, allowed it to snap into activity. Biochemical energy and ion density gathered within its cells, millions upon millions arranged in series and parallel. The sheer volume threatened tissue damage, but Seralyth's steady intent helped to stabilise the charge. It was unstable, inefficient, and crude, yet it held.

  Within the sterile chamber, the arrays detected a localised ionisation field blooming around the dragon. Warning sigils flared across every screen in the observers' section, but there was no halting the process now. To limit the damage, the arrays began at once to weave the incantation of「 Protect.」

  Saeryn opened its maw. Within, a nebula of starlight formed, swirling and swelling, ready to burst forth.

  Its ethereal wings expanded, and faint distortions rippled through the space around their movement.

  Seralyth guided the dragon to tilt upward, towards the heavens.

  Ion corridors formed along its path, and the air itself grew sharply polarised.

  Saeryn felt the urge rise, the desire to exhale, to cast the gathered power outward.

  Seralyth allowed it.

  For a brief moment, the entire institute was flooded with blinding light.

  A great arc of plasma surged upward from Saeryn's maw, a continuous discharge that shattered chaotically against the vast expanse above. Again and again the arrays strained to restrain the torrent of raw, ionised energy, yet the struggle settled into an uneasy stalemate.

  The influx lacked refinement. Much of the power was wasted simply to maintain its flow.

  Even so, Saeryn was not finished.

  Giving itself wholly to instinct, the dragon swept its wings wide. Through those incorporeal membranes, compressed and pre-ionised packets of energy gathered and intensified.

  Then they burst forth, a swarm of missiles wrought of ionised plasma. These directed weapons streaked skyward in wild and irregular paths, like an unrestrained bombardment flung against the heavens.

  The output began to overwhelm the security barriers. At last, the observers panicked. All save one.

  But before further harm could come to the facility.

  「 Stabilize 」

  'Saeryn, stop.'

  「 Stabilize 」

  'Now.'

  Seralyth drove the incantation through the bond, reaching across the divide to the dragon. The six implants along her back flared with bright orange light as they overcharged. The implant at her neck burned deeper still, flashing crimson with extreme overdrive.

  She had no other choice. With no external system to mediate between magitech and draconology, she latched directly onto the empathic waves to influence the dragon.

  It was enough. Saeryn ceased the discharge. Whether it was due to its own perception or Seralyth's effort was unclear, but the result stood.

  In the observers' section, the unexpected display had turned order into chaos. Technicians and instructors leapt to their feet, disbelief plain in their wide eyes. Researchers pressed close to their screens, analysing and re-analysing the data as though convinced it must be a hallucination.

  Naturally, there was one exception. A lone figure muttered to herself, caught between delight and confusion.

  "How do I even classify them."

  Rynna groaned, dragging her fingers through her hair again and again. It was plain the bond was suited for combat, yet the demonstration had shattered her estimates entirely.

  "This is insane."

  The data was unmistakable. Saeryn's biology was that of a hatchling. Its organs were neither larger nor more developed than expected. And yet.

  "What are these values? It could rival some adult dragons."

  As though that weren't enough, she snapped her attention to the screens monitoring Seralyth's vitals and resonance. In some respects, that information was even more absurd.

  "She really managed to sway a dragon with implants alone."

  Ordinarily, an entire system would be required to bind a pilot's magitech incantations to a dragon's body. To affect a dragon without such support was, by Rynna's reckoning, akin to empowering thousands of humans at once.

  "Not even vanguard pilots can do this, yet her mana channelisation is still that of a neophyte."

  Rynna thumped her forehead lightly against the screen, not in frustration, but because her thoughts outpaced her ability to grasp them.

  If neither pilot nor dragon alone explained this madness, only one possibility remained.

  "Professor Rynna." A technician spoke at last, voice timid.

  "What," Rynna replied flatly.

  "She has fainted."

  Rynna blinked.

  She turned to the camera feed and saw Seralyth lying sprawled upon the pristine floor.

  "Oh. Damn."

  It seemed there was a cost to such an absurd accomplishment after all.