"Maramia." He said gently, starting off.

"NO." more forceful this time, she snapped a large oatmeal cookie to emphasize her words, and chewed furiously. "I'm not going to have you prostitute my Lollaseth."

There would have been something awfully silly about arguing with the small woman. Dressed in a fluffy white robe and with a large plate of cookies on her lap, she hardly looked to be in her mid twenties. The defiant gleam in her eyes seemed to speak of a childish view on reality, until you looked into them. Really into them, past that shallow anger and into the pain that never seemed to fade away. She had lost her loved one five, six years agoÉ but it felt as if it was still a recent blow.

"I won't be using Lollaseth." He paused, checking himself. Maramia, the old ruler of the light court didn't know that her dragon was barren, that she had been ever since her first clutch. "Just one of her children." He muttered. In fact, he didn't know why he had bothered to come here. With the beautiful Nikitya, his drakkin and the rest of his lab portfolios to deal with, he was busy enoughÉ

Except, he had seen the haunting look of exhaustion in Naeodin's eyes, had seen the lack of life and had wanted to cheer the senior woman up. She was getting oldÑhe criticized her for holding onto mortality with such fierce hands when he could make her into something else, when he could give her life and youth. But he loved her, in his own little way and he knew that if he solved this, maybe the silver woman would smile for him again.

"No." Nibbling on her cookie with sanity fighting for control, Maramia frowned. "Besides, didn't Lollaseth's babies all impress?"

'Leave her alone, Shy.' The voice held the full authority of a Queen. 'We can deal with this alone.' It was unusual, but Shy was witnessing a gradual separation of bonds. Lollaseth, a fully Pernese dragon was withdrawing from the mind link with her rider, on purpose. Shy sighed, graceful and still as odd as ever, but surrenderedÑthis time.

"Very well, Maramia." He said smoothly. "I will leave you to your rest."

"What is it, Lollaseth?" his pale ivory cheongsam set off the sharp structure of his face, and with one lingering look he placed one hand over one egg, feeling the life. "These are yours." He said sharply. He alone knew the full number of her eggs hiding in the ground, and only he knew just how much it had cost her. He had helped, sealing some of the eggs off for an unnatural sleep, but theseÉ "You never told me." His tone was so silky, it hurt. "Why you wanted my cooperation."

'One day you will need all the help of the Vella Crean dragons, Shy.' Lollaseth said simply. 'I'm here to help you.' Shy tilted his head, pale green eyes narrowing. He did not like having things kept from himÑunless it was part of some game. But he didn't play games with dragons. "But Star City?" he objected lightly. The last time he had been there, he had been unceremoniously kicked out for collecting genetic material from some of the ridersÉ he had not been molesting them. (So he said.)

'Are you going to help me, or do I have to do this myself?' Lollaseth asked, irritated now, and Shy smiled, a graceful curve of the lips as he nodded. Seven eggs had been unearthed, and with their pale sheen he knew instinctively what they held. Gold, bronze, brown, red, purple, blue and green. The seven colors of the Vella Crean.

"I will age them, and hatch them so that they are born knowing their names and their duties." He said quietly. He was a scientist, and he played god often enough it did not bother him. "But you will have to get in touch with Star City." He frowned. "They will misinterpret my own words, I think."

Lollaseth snickered. 'It's your own fault for getting caught sneaking samples.' The queen objected. 'I told you to just go for hair, or skin cells. Not forÉ'

Shy smiled, an oddly serene, slightly feline smile. "But it was worth it." He purred.

"What is he doing here?" instantly suspicious, not because he was a scientist but because he was soÉ well, ick, Siche Four hurried forewords. "Shy" she started.

Shy paused, tilting his head, the pale tangerine colored cheongsam somehow setting off the odd luminosity of his eyes. "I've bought her here to rise." He said simply.

She should have known, from the beginning. The large golden light court dragon was glowing as if someone had applied her insides with a bright torch, and her hide was near bursting to keep the light within her. Even in darkness she would not have been hard to find, and her hide seemed to pulse, as if the light was a heart beat dancing in time to some odd, eccentric music. The light court gold, seeing the look smiled back- as much as a dragon could smile.

'We will notÉinconvenience you.' All Light Court dragons had the ability to speak out loud, but she kept to herself, Pernese instincts from her ancestors kicking in at this moment.

Ah, she remembered now. The request from the Vella Crean to have a couple of flights held here. What had the note said? She frowned. It had been something extremely ambiguous, about hatchings, candidates, stuff like that. She shrugged, and noted the others. Last time she had checked, greens and purples from that world were females.

"And them?" she asked, nodding her head in their direction and the queen turned, watching the others with a near human air.

"Humans rarely travel by themselves, unless they are solitary creatures." She said quietly. "Why should we do the same? They are my companions." She decided not to voice that they were here in case something went wrong.

Shy had been hard pressed to use only his genetic gifts to age them so quickly. While magic would have worked, or even taking them back in time and allowing them to grow, it had been more convenient to do it this way. Besides, the odd scientist Ðwhen he wasn't busy following dark haired men around- was busy, and he couldn't divert his attention to just one of his projects. The dragons had aged mentally as well, and Shy had used Lollaseth's own memories to create a foundation, giving them that odd, slightly detached view the aging queen had developed for herself.

"Very well then." Making note to keep an eye on the weird one, Siche nodded. "You know the drill, with flights, clutches. I don't want to see you people make a nuisance out of yourselves." She said this rather bluntly, her mind already moving onto other things. She didn't think she would have to worry, though. The Light Court dragons seemed to show an oddly É noble view of the world.

She was here to perform her duty to the Light Court, and that was what she would do.

There was something uniquely glorious about watching a single queen twist and turn in the air, battling the half breed mutts that had decided to join for her. There was no one there on the deck who was meant to be her mate, except for the bronze who stood, watching, waiting. They took to the air with a stunning, vicious hunger that brooked no arguments from the watchers.

And above, sipping on something close to tea but a mutated version of milked sugar, Shy watched with a placid sense of interest. Flights did not affect him in the way they affected most humans, and besidesÑhe was already planning the outcome. A green blue and violet watched from the floor of the flight-deck proper, keeping an wary eye out for their siblings. It had been a fixed flight from the start, but they were protective, all of them.

'How are things?' even though the span of worlds Lollaseth touched his mind deeply, and when she saw the final conclusion of the flight, the silver queen seemed to sigh with satisfaction. 'It is good, then.'

'Of course.' His tone was slightly playful. 'I promised you things would work out, didn't I? It was a short flight, Lollaseth.'

'I do not worry about how many will hatch from this clutch, Shy.' Her tone was a gentle reprimand. 'But that my line continues. When things go wrongÉ who else will you turn to, you old man?'

Shy smiled, and it was the kind of smile that had people circle him, unwilling to come too close. 'I will stay then, make sure the eggs are okay. They aged too quickly, Lollaseth.'

'But you will keep them alive.' Lollaseth said gently, and seemed to gently pull away. 'Bring one back, with you.'

Shy smiled. He had intended to do so from the beginning. 'I promise.'

In the skies, a spinning circle of bright gold and flashing bronze seemed to fall, but they never hit the ground. Instead, they hid behind the view of the rest of the world, and allowed nature to take its course.