This eye is the single-most disgusting thing I have ever eaten, Rieven thought. After the first bite made him fight his gag reflex to maintain an outer visage of unconcern, Rieven had given serious thought to stopping then and there. It tasted sweet. Bloody eyes shouldn’t taste sweet. The texture, however, was vomit-inducing. His eyes had shifted over to greenie and he saw that the dragon was staring at him in numb shock, so he had time. I need the time to recover my breath anyway, he thought. It’s not like I’ll gain nothing from this, and I can purge toxins from my body later with axiom so it should be plenty safe for me to eat, and it sends a message. Plus he should be in such a rage that he’ll make a mistake and I can kill him then.

  Decision made, he took his second bite. Quickly it became obvious that the eye was larger than his stomach, so he threaded some axiom there to help speed up the digestion process. He felt strength quickly return to his limbs and his thoughts firmed and no longer flew around in his mind. He actually had to condense the excess into his bass vault. There he could process it over time and move it up to the tenor vault once his threads recognised it as his own. It could then go further or be threaded through his body as a strengthening and reinforcement agent. There was more energy in this one organ than in the entire body of a newly minted private. For such a large thing the eye was devoured quickly, it took Rieven only twenty-two seconds to consume.

  When he was done, he looked at greenie and said, “If the eye tasted that good, imagine what the heart would taste of? I will let you know.” His head flared with pain for a single instant, and he glared harder at greenie as an act of counterpoint. The dragon took a single step back, then straightened its spine as a look of unadulterated hatred crossed the ruin of its face.

  Before he could do anything more, Big Red called out, “As Arbiter of this rite I declare an end. Death’s Wing Rieven, welcome to the recognition of the stars. He has consumed the axiomatic pattern of Rising Sun Ahknahten’s left eye, eternally removing it from his axiom pattern, and adding it into his own. This act is one of such symbolic nature that the sympathetic ties between the physical eye and the pattern of Rising Sun Ahknahten’s axiomatic body are eternally severed. His pattern no longer includes a left eye, only a gaping bloody wound; and so shall it be for the remainder of his life. Additionally, I proclaim cybernetics forbidden to him. No hand can now heal you with axiom, nor can any tool give you sight again. Such are the consequences of braving the rite of ritual combat without first taking the measure of your enemy.”

  Gasps of horror and hurried whisperings sounded throughout the arena and the gallery. Rieven breathed a small sigh of relief that he was not expected to slay greenie, as much as he wanted to. It was a tall order. He had known he could win but was not sure he could kill him. His shoulders finally relaxed. He looked at greenie and saw that the look of hatred had turned to horror. Going through life with a bloody hole in your face was an overwhelming prospect, thought Rieven. Stupid dragon, he really didn’t think these things through very well. At least I won’t have to do that again, no more eating eyes. He walked over to Ono, who passed his kinetics to him over the stoneworked rail. Ono’s faceplate was up and he was smiling like a little boy, excited to see the amazing.

  He didn’t say anything, just sent a message to Rieven’s HUD. Boss, I have never earned so much street cred in one go. You ATE that thing’s eye! The whole thing! Not just 1 bite, but 22 seconds of bites! Oh man, boss, my boys on the Hidden Dagger are gonna listen to me unquestioningly for the rest of my life! Everyone thought you didn’t have it in you. I knew! I Knew! You did good here today boss. Don’t forget it. Also: I made more money than your ship is worth, the marine companies of the entire Fourth Navy bet against me!

  Rieven smiled to himself. That was going to be his new normal now; he’d officially entered the realm of marine legend. There was no going back. On the other hand, he’d never have to buy himself another drink again. He smiled again. Life was not all bad.

  He was just about to drop his void spectre working when Big Red continued, “In slaying the Lord Admiral of the Operatic Empire without first explaining the Life Spiral in plain language to those with no knowledge of it, and in insisting on the rite of ritual combat against one who at the time was not a dragon, and in attempting to subvert that very rite of ritual combat and slay that same dragon, in spite, without warning, he has acted against his den, against his honour, and against the glory of the Celestial Skies Empire. His very nature abhors his actions, every dragon in this room can feel the same.”

  Surprisingly, Rieven did feel it. It was a quiet and uneasy feeling of revulsion whenever he thought of greenie, not dissimilar to what he felt when he considered taking a swim through the ship’s latrine tank. It caused him to shiver in disgust. For such a quiet feeling it was powerful. He could feel it subtly urging him to action against greenie, in any way his ability and station would permit. He could see greenie begin to look around at the assembled dragons quickly in short jerky movements, his words hissed between his teeth, “False! Untrue! Baseless! I am defamed! This is not”

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  Heat Death Virabdhara ruthlessly interrupted him, “Coward! With the authority the Throne above the Clouds has granted me for favour, to be used in this province, I do strip your nature of its name. Henceforth you shall no longer be Rising Sun, that name shall be given to another claimant, one whose nature has been tended and cared for, not famished by grief and spite.”

  A green dragon in the crowd, one that had some yellow and gold worked into the pattern of its scales here and there called out to greenie, “You are no sun of mine anylonger, Blind-eye, for your now cold flesh is instead warmed by the rays of a new sun rising.” Greenie actually paled at this. I didn’t know reptiles could do that, murmured Rieven, how odd.

  Big Red’s raspy intonation followed, “A new claimant has been found in Seranaphtra, for she has named her nature in the presence of a dragon, and she has named it well. Welcome, Rising Sun Seranaphtra, to the recognition of the stars.” He turned then to greenie, “Furthermore, by the same authority by which I stripped your nature’s name do I strip you of your familial designation. The dragon Ahknahten is no more. By that same authority I designate you Blind-eye, as witnessed by the stars.” He turned to Rieven, “All which belonged to Ahknahten, and Akhenaten only – not the Rising Sun, that now belongs to Rising Sun Sernaphtra – all which belonged to Ahknahten alone, now belongs to you, as payment of weregeld for the death of your lord admiral.” He stared at Bline-eye with narrow eyes, “Be you gone from this place forevermore, Blind-eye. I give for your temporary use Escape Environment B121A. Have it flown back on autopilot within an imperial week, or you shall be entered into the registry of Honourless Bounties.”

  All the tension Blind-eye’s body was holding drained out, shoulders and wings slumping in defeat. He had just lost everything. Rieven smirked. After losing his name, his designation, and his possessions, Blind-eye was a legal bastard. It was fitting. Rieven turned to Big Red and asked, “Is there a list of holdings, possessions, and chattels I can use to know what is included in the weregeld?”

  Blind-eye growled. Hearing Rieven claim what was his marked the end of his emotional control. All that stood before him and release was Rieven. Before Rieven knew there was danger, the dragon was upon him. Rieven reflexively fired his lasgun from the hip, there wasn’t enough time to brace it against his shoulder. He was aiming for the empty eye socket, but could see the blue line of the lasgun hit the snout instead. He rapidly shifted his aim and it sliced a scar across the scales towards the empty orbital ridge. Half a second later, Rieven’s name went down in the history of the Fourth Imperial Navy for achieving what even Ono hadn’t done.

  The dragon caught fire. It shot out explosively from every orifice in the dragon’s face. Some liquid in the brain must have been flammable and combustible under pressure. Fun.

  Blind-eye’s body collapsed instantly, his momentum carried him forward to Rieven’s feet. He looked for a long moment at the corpse then turned to Big Red. The dragon looked at him, a mild question in his eye. Rieven stated formally, “This corpse I claim as prize for enmity ended.”

  Big Red was silent for a moment, then with amusement clear on his face said, “Indeed it is yours. I seem to recall you saying you would eat his heart to see how its taste compared to his eye. Indeed, there is no time like the present.”

  Rieven’s eyes shot to Ono, who looked like a kid who just learned he would get two slices of cake after already having eaten one, but only if father agreed. I wonder how much money he put on me eating the heart when I made that comment? Doesn’t matter, I refuse to eat another raw organ. Scratch that, I refuse to eat another dragon organ.

  He was opening his mouth to refuse when Big Red shifted his eyes to the other dragons. Rieven looked and saw the dragons were watching either him or the corpse with unreasonably high expectation. He looked back to Big Red and asked quietly, “Why do you wish for me to eat the heart now?”

  Big Red rasped, “They wish to see the first Black Drake in millennia keep his promise of gruesome death. It is a thing missing from the Imperial Court, death does not have the representation it should according to the Life Cycle. Your coming would bring that balance. They hope for this.”

  Rieven complained in his head. This was the stuff of fools. Why did I ever listen to Ono? The emperor would be severely disappointed if I failed to suitably awe this new culture. He looked at Ono once more and realised he now had the Legend of the Black Drake of the Fourth Imperial Navy to contend with as well. His fate was sealed. He nodded once and walked to the chest of the corpse, threading axiom through his kukri all the while. Before he made his first cut he asked, “Is the heart located two-thirds of the way up the thoracic cavity on the left side?”

  “Aye, that is the location.”

  Rieven slowly pushed his blade into the dragon and then dragged it laterally towards the outside. The flesh parted a little easier now that he was dead. It took several minutes but he soon had the ribs visible. He pulled the knife from his back and used its serrated blade to cut through several of the ribs. By the time he had them pulled back and the heart visible, almost thirty minutes had passed. It had passed in absolute, unnerving silence.

  He gently cut the heart away and threaded axiom through his body to brace as he lifted the heart out of the carcase. It was large. It made the eye he had eaten earlier seem small. The heart weighed upwards of one hundred kilograms and was a little of a metre long. It was still very warm. The heat of a dragon’s body dissipated slowly it seemed.

  He steeled his mind and took a bite. His axiom laced teeth were more than able to process the heart. It tasted of beef. I’ve had beef heart plenty. This is ok. He dug into the heart with gusto. I figure if I have to eat this, I’m going to do it right and finish it off. By the time his axiom was done processing the meat in his stomach his vaults were so full. He was going to be desperate for some meditation soon to deal with it. He looked at the corpse and said, “Your eye was sweet, but your heart tasted of the most tender beef. Truly delicious.” He had to honour the letter of his promise and not just the spirit of the thing.

  Big Red looked at him and asked, “Are you going to eat the entire body? Is that why you want it?”

  “No,” Rieven said as he looked at the corpse. It was ossifying and turning into something not flesh. “I am going to coil up his remnant and mount it on my wall. This thing was worthless in life, but will serve well in death as decoration.

  “I will enjoy looking at him for years.”

  The dragons in the gallery began to look concerned. They were realising they had not invited prey into their den.

  They had invited a dragon, and he now saw them as prey.