Chapter 45: Longing & Loss
Bran lay on his bed with his eyes open, staring up at the ceiling. He was tired, dead tired, but he couldn’t sleep - his mind was filled with the sensation of touching Misha’s bare skin with his hand.
Outside, he heard the front door click. He sighed. He wasn’t sure how to face Misha right now, so he was glad for this interlude, yet being apart made him feel listless. Was love always this fickle?
Bran sighed and sat up and pulled out the messenger bird messages Amethyst had given him earlier.
He folded out the one from Malcolm first then folded it back up when he confirmed it was just the usual nagging to get his health looked after, to go see his aunt, and all that, no mention of the matter Bran had asked him about. Slightly annoyed, Bran sighed and opened Tuesday’s next.
Based on the decay of the delivery spell this should have been sent ages ago, probably soon after Bran and Misha had holed up in this flat, and was as short as it was befuddling.
No record of a Misha Long being born in Pearl City and no record of a dragon hatching within timeframe.
Bran reread that short message but could glean nothing more from it.
No record? That couldn’t be right. Misha had been born here, he’d said so himself, and his ID card said so as well. In the past it might have been possible to fake these kinds of things, but that time was over now. Besides, Misha had come through immigration just fine, so that proved there had to be some kind of entry for him, right?
Then there was the thing about no dragon hatching in the place. That one was probably easier to explain, the dragons were highly respected and if they wanted to conceal a birth, then there wasn’t too much a human government could do about it, but it was so out of character. Normally, the birth of a dragon was a highly celebrated event, the most auspicious of auspicious events that drew visitors from all around just to get a whiff of that good luck.
Bran folded up Tuesday’s note and put it and Malcolm’s back into his pocket. He didn’t want Misha seeing them, not before he’d figured out what was going on.
Suddenly feeling awake and energised, Bran crawled to his feet and went to his bedroom door.