The Mark Answers

4E 201 | Late Sun's Dusk | Eighty-Six Days Since Arrival

The wounded dragon nested inside ruined Reachmen towers blackened by fire.

Noctis took the cliff above. Katana and Tsukihana approached through a destroyed shrine. The plan was simple by his standards: draw the dragon's attention, break the ballista shaft lodged in its wing, keep it grounded, survive.

Noctis stepped from the cliff.

The dragon breathed fire at the falling man. He twisted through the flame, landed on its neck, and drove the creature's skull into the courtyard with the force of his strike.

Tsukihana and Katana moved.

Katana reached the wounded wing and shattered the ballista head with an enchanted knife. Tsukihana protected her from claws and tail, cutting only where necessary.

A horn sounded from the mountain.

Forsworn appeared on every ridge.

More than twenty ringed the ruins. Warriors shielded robed mages who linked their spells together. Flames spiraled above them, growing into a single fireball large enough to consume the courtyard.

Noctis was trapped beneath the dragon's assault. Katana searched for a path to the casters and found none.

"Run," she said.

There was nowhere to go.

Tsukihana inhaled.

The world sharpened. Eight sources. One spell. One center.

Cold breath left her lips.

The black marks surfaced beneath her right eye and spread down her arm. Crimson energy lifted her hair.

Katana seized her shoulder. "Promise me you can stop."

Tsukihana could not.

The fireball descended.

She stepped forward and thrust the katana into empty air.

A crimson line crossed the courtyard and pierced the spell's center. The burning mass compressed, split, and scattered across the sky like molten snow.

Tsukihana vanished.

She appeared within the Forsworn formation and shattered the first mage's staff before the man understood the spell had failed.

Noctis's Voice struck the ruins behind her.

"Joor Zah Frul!"

The dragon was hurled through a wall.

The truth of the stranger beside the fire rang through the mountain.

Noctis Arontis.

The Dragonborn.