Zodiac Dragons: Gemini

The keeper of Dragon Tongue Bridge couldn't remember starting his shift. He looked at the people ready to cross, shook himself, smiled, and began his tale:

The twins, Adriel and Samara, stood upon the deck of the airship Fallwise. It was amidst the clouds, the lights of cities and stars lost to them. Curled around and above the twins as a gleaming river of living mercury was the dragon Menigi. They were the only dragon known to either Adriel or Samara.

They spoke telepathically. Brother and sister looked at each other, clasped hands, and nodded to the swirling wyrm.

Menigi began: "Horoscopes are about judgement; assessing what’s before you and interpreting nebulous patterns. I can convey this one, but on you lies the onus of its fruition.

"As the moon waxes, you are nearing the peak of communication. The exchange of ideas meets with active listening and the change brought on by reflection. Pivotal moments bring out who you are. Harness that for best effect. Strike not for harm but with passion, especially love.

“Birds are as much at the mercy of the wind as they are its master. In the same way, it is your responsibility to learn the strengths and limits of acceptance. The clouds of Saturn are your greatest resource in this troubling time. Their influence cools inner carnage and buoys sunken hopes.

“Trust in change; your role is complex, and you are the sum of your charms. Discipline is your guardian, your value, and your tool. Its friction between self and other is the seed of wisdom.

“The lance is heavy, but it is free. Your house is united in the spirits of Mars and Venus, but what drives you is not the love of war. It is the war for love. Under the auspices of Mercury, independence lies in movement and the satisfaction of wit. Trust not the roads built by others; the path you walk has its own truth, and needs no signs or labels.

"In work, you are powered most by purpose. You shall not come into wealth, but find that it is a state of mind. To make a living, you live to make.

“Romantic love did not bring you to where you are and is not a reward, though you may find it rewarding. Just as the moon has many phases, so does love have many forms; you abandon none by focusing on one. A dragon’s weakness is its heart, and the moulded clay is weak until hardened with fire. A star shines even if you cannot see it, and the clouds do no malice by blocking its light.

“Learning and understanding give you the greatest joy, but do not forget the people behind the books. Teach through life and choice.”

As Menigi finished, they became a river of metal in the air and wound themself about in a circle on the deck of the airship. They had no wings or limbs. Waves of scales cascaded like wind upon the sea over the otherwise smooth surface of their body. Menigi’s eyes were mismatched: one was red slitted yellow, the other yellow slitted red. A seething yet soothing mind and heart gleamed behind the eyes so that these colours carried no clash. Now that they’d finished the horoscope for the twins, they presided over the deck of the airship like still grey skies over a dark ocean.

The twins released each other’s hands. Samara, a trans woman, opted for a winter warrior outfit. A tweed skirt matched a tweed cape and leather made up her jacket, gloves, belt, and knee-high boots. The style was inspired by a queen from a tumultuous time in the history of the country of Sajess. That queen had had her throne wrested from her, and she’d taken it back. Ever after, the queen had held court with a sword lain upon her lap.

Samara bore no weapon.

Her twin brother, a trans man named Adriel, had chosen a (for the time) futuristic and artistically experimental outfit from the latest folios of imperial Beswin. Intended for nobles, diplomats, or scholars, he’d had custom work done to make it practical for their current flight. The robe was brought up to mid-calf and slitted for ease of movement, with canvas pants underneath that cinched at the knee. The wide-hemmed sleeves were replaced with a similar elbow cinch that ended in fingerless gloves. The triangular, collar-mounted hat was replaced with a hood.

Like his sister, Adriel was unarmed.

“D’ye reckon yer conclave be done?” the captain asked.

The twins turned to regard the stocky, bearded pilot. Menigi watched the clouds, or possibly the stars beyond. They gave the captain the willies. “You seem nervous,” Adriel remarked.

“Flyin’ bline trew clouds o’er clashin’ armies on the border of warrin’ c’ntries in a ship that should be at sea? Why w’ld that be makin’ me anerved?”

Adriel rubbed the back of his red hair with one hand and shuffled his feet. Samara rolled her eyes, but though her lips were a firm line, the other lines of her face were gentler. Her hair was blonde, shoulder-length, and tied into a ponytail. “I know, Beswin’s star magic is unnerving. But it is no different than the money, politics, or designs out of Sajess. It’s a tool, or a way of life. Either way, it’s what you do with it that makes the difference.”

“Beggin’ pardon, but I don’t be much fer ‘phosophy,” the captain remarked. He was still eyeing Menigi, and only cast glances at Adriel or Samara as one or the other spoke. “Anyhoo, crew’s ready.”

Adriel blinked in surprise. “We’re that close?”

“Math be math, dear boy,” the captain said. His hazel eyes gleamed. “An’ all spooky aside, this be a majestic vessel, no mistake! Yer sure the ‘Swins be pumpin’ these out?”

“That’s a long story,” Samara answered. “Yes, they have magic and blood money.” She rolled one hand with the list, the other resting on her hip as she spoke. “You knew what this mission would be, though.”

“True enough, milady,” the captain replied.

"Attention," called the dragon at all three of the humans. “I will do what I can to keep your efforts from being interrupted. Though a dragon’s voice is the song of power, there are other songs and other powers.”

The captain screwed up his face as he tried to put the dragon’s words into some practical use or meaning. Then he shrugged and ran to the helm.

Menigi turned their attention to the twins. “Draw upon the horoscope I’ve given you. It is the greatest my power can do.” With that, Menigi soared from the deck. Adriel and Samara ran to the railings and allowed some of the limned cloud cover to envelop them. It was the star magic of this vapor blanket that kept the airship aloft. Though it kept the twins safe as the airship dove, it also obscured sight to and from them.

Menigi’s draconic eyes took things in differently. They saw the clouds above, but also the stars beyond. In the distance, they felt the diaphanous light of the waxing gibbous moon the way a human might feel the warmth of the sun. Instead of warmth, though, the sensation was more like a glistening dream.

The Fallwise, named for autumn, was a wooden hulk beside the Dragon. It would be little more than a billowing of clouds to anyone below. Not that many would be gazing skyward in the midst of battle. The ship itself was unmasted, but otherwise seaworthy. Menigi undulated alongside it like a liquid metal ribbon.

Since the group had gotten the vessel from Beswinoss territory, most assumed an inevitably ungraceful landing on the Beswin bank of the river. Instead, the Fallwise was aligned with the river itself, between both fronts.

Menigi inwardly praised the bravery of the humans they were aiding. This operation was perilous, but important to many beyond Samara and Adriel. The twins were info brokers, born to a Sajessi mother and Beswinoss father, and rejected by both countries as tensions rose early in their childhood.

Menigi's voice conferred guidance, power, and protection.

Now the dragon was a flying twin of the flowing river, and they scoured the strife with their gaze. Much was lost to the smoke, flankers, cinders, and debris. The river was a faint sheen splitting a black canvas painted with the red and orange of flame, black-powder gunfire, and puffs of star magic weakened by the cloud-dimmed starlight. Menigi roared in a language of sheering gales.

This oration of force commanded a better view for the dragon; such was the power of Menigi’s voice. They ordered darkness and will to be to them as light. They saw war machines, spell conduits, and battlements, yes. More than that, they saw the people. They saw not just the battle, nor something so primitive as tactics; they saw beyond. They saw fire-forged bonds, siblings in arms, the chaos and silence for which each of the people fought.

Putting the pivotal steps of the operation into motion, Menigi began extending their form. They swirled about the Fallwise in a columnal tendril, working their draconic power into the starlit cloudveil of the airship. Inside, the captain and the twins operated the ship’s star magic engineworks: glittering gas and whirring gyroscopic stained-glass spheres.

Then the ship began dipping downward.

Adriel wondered if the horoscope was happening to his forces yet.

Samara was putting all her thought and effort into making real the promises, hints, and protections of the Dragon’s proclamations.

The captain was saddened as he and the others neared the final moments; even in such short time, he’d come to love this vessel.

Adriel and Samara had planned well, and the captain put his whole career into this. Though flight was not the same as sailing the seas, the ship still spoke to him. More than the manipulations of these semi-magical controls, he got feedback from every plank and pulley. He could count the moments and calculate the speed, air resistance, weight, and trajectories required.

“Now!” he shouted, and everyone forced through their most pivotal instants: dragon song, whirling starlight, control gasses, ropes, levers, and gyroscope alignments.

Of the few on the battlefield who got a good look at the Fallwise’s descent, fewer still realized what was happening. No one was prepared for it, no one had the time or tools to mount counter-measures. Almost none of them realized later that this vessel had been the cause of the events to follow.

Once the ship swooped upon the surface of the river, there came a great disintegration. Absorbed in the will of the twins, the call of the dragon, the magic of starlight, and the perseverance of the crew, it all came apart and blended the limned cloudveil with the river to form a scintillating silver mist which flooded both sides of the battlefield. Menigi emerged with a roar and swept above the river.

Adriel led one party from the landing site and through the elemental mists to commandeer the battlements and siege weapons of the Sajess side. He subdued the infantry who opposed him and turned the armaments against Sajess fortifications, weapons, and equipment. Samara did the same with her team on the Beswin side, infiltrating the magical structures and auras in order to turn the tide against the empire. Like her twin brother, she avoided loss of life -- capturing soldiers and warriors while targeting tools and resources so that she would neutralize and demoralize rather than kill, maim, or cripple.

Each side thought they’d been overwhelmed by the other. Communications were shut down either by Menigi’s powers or the more mundane efforts of the humans below. Both sides had surrendered, casting down arms and falling to knees, before the air cleared. Before anyone had understood what had transpired. After anyone could have done anything to reverse the surrender or order a resurged attack.

All the dragon had to do from here was maintain a flight pattern above the river. They would swerve, twirl, spin, scintillate, or roar to reinforce the words or actions of Adriel and Samara. Each took command on their side of the river and brought the disparate forces together. Most were too stunned to even put words to an objection. Those who bent to pick up weapons were disarmed by their comrades. There was no magic in this beyond the compelling speeches of the twins; both sides were tired.

Tired of feeling out of control of their lives, of taking orders, of following along with circumstances they did not understand. Tired of fighting to maintain a social order they didn’t want because they were told change would be worse. Just...tired.

Sajessi and Beswinoss alike soon stood side-by-side, repurposing any materials to hand in order to build a broad bridge across the water. The temporary siege-bridges were withdrawn and dismantled for shelters. The new bridge was intended to be permanent, despite being made of multiple combined materials: stone, crystal, glass, wood, metal. Catapults and trebuchets were retrofitted as suspension cables or lever-and-pulley systems, four of them mounted as improvised gate-pillars on either end of the bridge. In effect, war machines had been converted into a path for crossing between lands, peoples, and cultures.

Menigi flew above it and alternated between speech, song, humming, and other powers of voice. It was their will that cemented the remaining magical powers and mismatched materials into a functional structure. Ever after, a person standing upon the bridge could see a constellation in the sky. Always their own star sign, and even in daylight. Some say they can hear, to this day, the word of Menigi when they traverse the bridge.

That’s how this bridge came to be known as the Dragon Tongue, and how a new movement began here. Considered at first to be renegades from both countries, the united armies began a wartime double-sided cabal. Diplomacy and armistice were reached in short order.

After the war officially ended, the twins and the dragon disappeared. Myriad tales are told about their actions, histories, decisions, and whereabouts. Most of them likely hold a grain of truth, though none are the real story. Countless efforts have been made to study the words of that horoscope and to create new horoscopes with such influential magic. They say there’s been some success there. We’ll see.

Thank you for listening and for choosing the Dragon's Tongue Bridge. Gratuities gratefully accepted.

The Bridgekeeper looked at his booth and his hands and felt déja vu.