Crucible by Ash Adler

Author:Ash Adler [Adler, Ash]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2017-11-28T22:00:00+00:00

Trust

Searching for the centre,

The point of stillness at the heart

Where we can enter

The silence where all celebrations start.

(Songs of the White Raven, Volume II)

The pale orb was as high as Aiden was tall, the dark pupil a narrow slit in a faded grey iris. The rest of the dragon blended in perfectly with his mountain home, his scales the exact same dull grey as the rock around him.

With a voice like a distant avalanche, the ancient dragon asked, ‘Who are you?’

‘Well, the answer to that keeps changing – which is as it should be.’ Aiden plonked himself down on the stone floor and craned his neck to look up at the dragon. He felt an instinctive sense of peace in the presence of this huge and presumably ancient being. ‘I am an alchemist – but what that means keeps changing too. I used to think it was a way of finding myself, but now I see it is more about creating myself, and all of life is a tool to do that.’

A corner of the dragon’s mouth turned up in a smile, revealing teeth as long as Aiden’s arm. ‘Ah, you are a philosopher, I see. And here was I just asking you for your name.’

Aiden laughed, embarrassed. ‘My name is Aiden Bran.’

‘And I am Zaharrenaren,’ he replied.

‘Pleased to meet you, um, Zaraha…’ Aiden began, but the dragon cut him off with a snort which sent a cloud of warm steam wafting pleasantly into his face. ‘Just call me Zah,’ he commanded, ‘all my friends do so – and I can see no reason why we should not be friends.’

Aiden blinked at him. ‘There are any number of reasons, not least of which is that our peoples seem to be on the brink of war. Why would you trust me?’

‘What is trust?’ The dragon took his turn to philosophise. ‘I cannot trust you never to let me down, for no-one can promise that. I cannot say I trust you will never hurt me, for many people hurt us even without the intention to do so. Maybe all I can say is that I trust I am strong enough not to be hurt, and so I have nothing to fear in trusting you. That trust is mine to give.’

‘And my honour to receive it,’ Aiden replied, deeply moved by the dragon’s words. They resonated with him, forcing him to acknowledge how he had pushed the world away when that sense of trust had been broken. That had been his choice, he could not blame others for it; could not blame Kiaran, or fate, or the Gods. He had made a choice, and it had been a bad one. What would it take to learn to fully trust again?

Zah continued, ‘I am trusting you to be the best that you can be, and maybe it will be that trust itself that enables you to be that person. It is a paradox, is it not? If I choose not to trust you, you prove to be unworthy of my trust; but by trusting first, you become trustworthy.

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