- A slight confrontation, just a slight one. I think I might have actually enjoyed it a little bit.

We arrived back in the last city and were dropped off at one of the sergeants with her disappearing right after - I am trying to place what kind of memory that was.

I expected those creatures to be the Sun-touched that they were talking about but they were just pyro knights? More like an undead army controlled by a lich I think. Did something like this exist in our history? Or is it a possibility of what could have been?

I can't shake the thought.

Currently heading to the residential area, all of us received rooms to stay in till we can afford housing for ourselves - it has all the necessities that we need to live with a personal storage area fixed with a magical lock that needs both our room passes and biometrics.

The room passes are a once-off thing and after we get in it is locked to our biometrics.

The sun has long disappeared, despite it being pitch black, and the street lights appear to be reactive crystals that all are activated after a certain time has passed. Emitting a soft blue glow on the streets giving you that rather homely and soft feel.

It is not as cold in Lost City because there is a barrier in place that maintains the heat levels inside to never fall into a deathly cold state. The nights have always been so hostile towards life… getting as cold that even creatures with thick pelts need to hide underground so as to not die from the freezing cold.

I turn the corner into a path that leads to the number of buildings that I fall under.

Though the moment I turn I see her standing in the opening with a serious expression. I approach her slowly - is she here for me? Maybe she remembers back then just as much?

The thought sets off my heart, beating rapidly as I conjure more thoughts up in my head for why she would be waiting here - wait! What am I even hoping for to happen?

She glances at me through the corner of her eye, pushing herself off the wall and locking eyes with me.

"Uhm-"

"[Bind]," my eyes widen as my wrists as energy shackles appear around my wrists and then forcing them behind my back, she grabs me by my vest pulling me to her and then against the walls.

"Wait-"

"Say anything more and I will burn your lips shut."

She is so strong! Out of all my thoughts, I didn't expect to ever be in a situation where I am pressed up against a wall… wait this is seriously looking terrible and could end in so many ways. She then mutters something underneath her breath as she creates a translucent screen in the air beside her.

Her face is incredibly close to mine but her yellow eyes are locked onto the screen just hovering beside me, it is impossible at this point to not smell her being this close to me and whatever perfume she is wearing is faint but it smells nice.

An even closer look at her face, she is definitely gorgeous. Her hair despite appearing mostly platinum has a feint blue glow to them.

"You remembered me?" I ask.

"Hard not to," she breathes out, "A little kid that just couldn't stop staring at me thirteen years ago, one that followed me into the cold of the night only to almost kill himself and force me to pay attention to him in a dramatic manner and save him."

"You… had to save me?" she doesn't answer, "Your name is… Sah… Sarah, right?"

"Lilliath," she answers, "Sarah was a throwaway name because I didn't want to be remembered back then," she then locks eyes with me, "But here you are, still not able to keep your eyes off of me. I'd take it as a threat but you are as harmless as they come. Why stare at me?"

"Uhm… back then or now?" I can feel my face heat up with her being so close to me, but I manage not to stutter and trip over my own words.

"Why are you blood red?" she then snorts before laughing, "That's cute. Little boys like staring at pretty things, no?" she crooks her head in a coy manner, "[Dispel]."

The shackles disappear and she creates space between the two of us, she then shows me my stats screen which is locked onto the perks section, and I can finally read what is standing there.

Dragon's Taint.

Dragon's Heart.

??????

The last one is still unknown? Why?

She then asks me, "Do you know why this is like this?"

I shake my head, "No?"

"Good. You are a victim of your own demise but lucky for you, for a brief moment you borrowed the luck of the gods and something that would have killed you changed you instead," then pointing to Dragon's Heart, "This is what I used to try and save you from following me into the cold."

"Are you a-"

She stops me, "I am not a dragon, no. Please erase that thought from your head - the reason to why I can use it matters little as only the two of us are capable of withstanding it as of now."

"The perk?"

"Are you daft?" she groans, then with a sigh, "Listen. When you use something that originates from a Dragon, you will then be affected by Dragon's Taint. Which is a slow debuff that will either permanently disable you, or kill you depending on how high it is stacked. You have it as a perk."

"So… why is it a perk?"

"You lucked out," she states.

Wait… then why is my luck stat so god damn low!

"Right now, you are both infected and blessed by the taint. It can not kill you but needs you to stack it," she then chuckles, "You aren't a mage so good luck with ever getting around to it."

"Why would I stack it?"

"To improve other Dragonborn perks-" she then narrows her eyes at me, then in a whisper she steps closer to make sure I can hear her, completely ignoring my personal space, "If another soul learns about these perks while you are this low levelled there will be an outburst."

"What do you want me to do?" I ask in a whisper.

She glances to the side, I follow her gaze to see two people walk past where it could easily be mistaken that this woman might be having my way with her.

"I will cast a draconic spell that will hide these stats," then with a serious expression, "This will add another stack to the taint which will unlock one of the perks that are currently hidden. I am going to warn you right now it will hurt very much."

With a confident stare, "I can handle it-"

"[Ophidion's stride}."

My heart feels like it has suddenly squeezed itself, my breath escapes me as it feels like I am breathing into a vacuum - my vision grows blurry and for a brief moment, I feel like the inside of my chest has exploded. Then in the next moment, it all fades away but the burning sensation is still in my chest.

I gasp loudly, "Fuck!"

"It hurts, I know," she chuckles, "It will go away tomorrow."

My vision returns to me, she has been holding me to my feet, "What…"

"Not now," she states, "If you are worth putting any time into nurturing then I will teach you. You will have a new perk at your disposal tomorrow and only you will be able to see it from now on."

I nod slowly, "Alright," I say in a raspy tone, "Thanks for saving me back then."

She looks at me through the corner of her eye, "Forget about it, you don't owe me anything. Just do me a favour and stop staring at me every time you see me."

"Can't help it," I chuckle with a pained expression.

"Cute," she leaves before I could get a chance at saying anything further.