OC SPOTLIGHT: Iskandar // sfw

iskandar and renza are basically the main protagonists of our desert empire setting. there’s many other characters and stories that are also really important, but it all began in earnest with iskandar and renza, and they’re very involved in many of the political and social ‘world events’ that take place in that setting. their story is pretty epic and never fails to get me emotional. moreover, they’re the first proper pairing kubi and i created together about five years ago, shortly after we had just met. we developed our world, our stories, and our own budding relationship alongside renza and iskandar. they mean a lot to me emotionally and we have poured so much heart and soul into them. they have a long and complex storyline, so writing this spotlight was a task™; i can only hope i managed to do it justice. 

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Some time after Khuthlya had created the rhaajim--the dragon folk--the sun god Shamassah put him through a test of character. When Khuthlya passed, Shamassah rewarded him by dipping some of his draconic children in the sun, turning their scales to gold. These were the first golden dragons. They were always rare, and once centuries turned to millennia, there were ever fewer of them. In the end, the only known golden dragon was Semiha of the Setting Sun, the leader of a nomadic clan. But then she disappeared, with her husband and firstborn son, and her clan dissolved. With time, some people started saying the golden dragons had been extinct, while others argued they had never been real to begin with. 

And perhaps it was for the better. In this underground empire, darkness and shadow is what’s safe and familiar, while different kinds of light are at the root of many dangers. Ever since the sun god went mad during the Gatekeeper war, many of the spirits of his realm also lost their minds, becoming malevolent and unpredictable. Similarly, some of the most dangerous monsters of the desert wilds are creatures of light. The gatekeeper themself is imprisoned inside the very sun, and that’s where immoral and unjust people go after death, to suffer in the same hell. Liquid sunlight and moonlight are valuable sources of light and powerful magical ingredients--but also potent, dangerous, and addictive drugs that have ruined many lives. People wielding light magic are usually met with suspicion or wariness, as are sun and light spirits, even when they seem in their right senses.  And then there’s the mysterious light plague, an incurable disease where people are consumed from within by what seems like particles of pure light. In short, different kinds of light-related beings and phenomena are often viewed as frightening and malevolent, associated with madness and danger.

But there’s those who have learned to fight fire with fire--or, in this case, light with light. Members of the order of sun knights are experts at dealing with any dangers related to light, whether a rampaging sun spirit, fire beasts, or malevolent wielders of light-related magic. They’re elite warriors who use weapons coated in liquid sunlight, but among them there’s also healers who try to help people afflicted with the light disease. The rest of the world has forgotten that Hel’wusah, the mad god of trickery and illusion, was once the god of the sun, but these knights remember and honour Shamassah’s true self. And they may not know what happened to the golden dragons, but they know there was at least one--Roshan, the first of them all. 

The image of a golden dragon eventually became a symbol of hope. People thought that if ever they returned, it would usher in a new age of balance and change for the better.

*

When Iskandar first joined the sun knights, as a teenage recruit, he was a force of pure chaos. He had grown up in the desert, his mother the (now retired) leader of a nomadic clan, and wasn’t adjusting all that well to life in the city. His mom was a soot-coloured rhaajim and his dad an andarah, but it seemed the only thing Iskandar had inherited from his draconic mother was his golden eyes. Honestly, his teachers were relieved--the kid was wild and uncontrollable enough as andarahn. Imagine the trouble he might have caused if he had been a dragon.

Lttle by little, however, training to become a knight seemed to teach him responsibility and discipline. Iskandar had a ton of little siblings and being the ideal big brother had always come naturally to him--he was caring, protective, reliable, and helpful. Once he started realising he could do good things not only for his family members but for society in general, that he could protect people from danger and help those in need, he started shaping up. It helps that the general of the imperial triad--Imran--decides to unofficially mentor him, since he saw much promise in Iskandar. Imran earns the unruly kid’s respect and admiration, and with his help, Iskandar begins to figure out what’s really important in life.

It didn’t happen overnight, of course, but the wild boy eventually grew into a reliable man, known equally for his sense of duty, his skill in combat, and his good heart. Not only was he capable and hard-working, he was also good-natured and honest, with a kind personality and a contagious smile.

But he had one secret that few people knew about.

Andarahns are a people visually similar to humans but much more hardy, tough, and long-lived, with a genetic resistance to magic. Therefore, andarahn hybrids are exceptionally rare, because whenever they have children with someone of a magical ilk, the andarahn blood seems to cancel the magic out and the kids are usually born ‘fully’ andarahn. None of Iskandar’s little siblings seemed to have even a whisper of rhaajim in them.

But Iskandar himself had in fact been born half andarahn, half rhaajim, and had once looked the part. He had hatched from an egg, like a rhaajim, covered with golden scales. Since they moved to the city his mother’s scales had been black, like the soot of her smithy, but once they had been the colour of the sun and they had called her Semiha of the Setting Sun.

Shapeshifting should come naturally to a rhaajim, and as a kid, this held true in Iskandar’s case. He’d slip back and forth between his humanoid and draconic forms, as easy as any full-blooded rhaajim. But nearing his tenth birthday, he had started having issues with changing forms. It was as if the draconic parts of him were becoming more difficult to grasp and control. Before long it was only when overcome by strong emotion that shapeshifting had still felt easy, whether it was from the joy of running free across the dunes, the anger of a childlike fight, or the fear that had gripped him that one night when raiders had attacked the clan. He had turned into his dragon form then, protecting his siblings from the bandits, and that had been the first time he killed someone.

As he aged and puberty hit, the andarahn blood seemed to grow ever stronger in his veins, until all his scales had faded into tough andarahn skin. His nubby horns shrunk back into his head and the snout-like shape of his face flattened into human proportions. In short, his draconic features melted away,  and at the same time shifting forms became even more difficult, until he was no longer able to do it at will. When his mother retired and they moved to the city, everyone simply assumed he was an andarahn, because that’s what he looked like. He became a fully-fledged sun knight around the age of twenty, and still nobody had any reason to think otherwise.

It was shame, at first, that kept him from telling them otherwise. He was supposed to be a golden dragon--a living myth. He was supposed to shine bright like the sun, like Shamassah the warrior. People might expect miracles of him, given the prowess of legendary sun dragons of yore. But he couldn’t even shift forms at will. He wouldn’t be able to live up to their expectations and rather than filling people with hope they’d end up disappointed and disillusioned.

And then he noticed how people in the city generally seemed to fear rhaajim. In the desert, in their clan, rhaajim had been as common as andarah and orcs and elves and all the other kinds of people living in the vast empire. But here in the capital there were few of the dragon folk, and opinions ranged from respecting their inherent might to fearing their “destructive bloodthirst,” as if the cannibalistic “eating wars” had happened only decades ago rather than millennia.

Iskandar never wanted anyone to fear him. He didn’t want anyone to shy away thinking he’d devour them, or to avoid him when he only wanted to help. He wanted to protect others from danger, not be treated as the danger they needed to be protected from. Would they still trust him if they knew he was half dragon? His worry was confirmed when he told his first boyfriend the truth. It made his affection turn to fear and he ended their relationship because “... i don’t feel safe with you anymore.”

Iskandar decided to keep his secret. It weighed on his conscience, but all things considered it seemed better that way.

You see, he never thinks of himself first. Being there for other people in whatever way he can is always his first priority, to the point of often overlooking his own needs. If he can help you, he will, whether it’s about dealing with the bandits that raiding your village or repairing your granary after a storm. He’s forever the big brother to everyone who needs one, with a heart of gold. But this mindset comes at the cost of subconsciously having very high expectations of himself to never falter or fail when others need him to be solid, reliable, and resourceful. If he’s the constant rock, always ready to offer shelter and support, he can never allow himself to crack or crumble. As you can imagine, asking that much of yourself is not healthy in the long run. 

When Iskandar first met Renza, he had progressed to the rank of knight captain. Since he grew up in the desert many of his missions involved venturing into the dunes, but the sun knight barracks were in the capital and with his higher rank came more duties in the city, too. Catching thieves is generally up to the city sentinels rather than to any knights, but when Iskandar saw a masked elf pickpocket a passer-by, he couldn’t just stand by and do nothing.

Renza slipped out of his grasp, but they kept bumping into each other. Years later, none of them would be able to explain what happened. It was as if fate kept having them cross each other’s paths, and despite being on opposite sides of the law, and despite Iskandar trying to arrest Renza a number of times, they eventually end up making out in an abandoned belltower.

Iskandar felt so bad about it, but also so good. Such a liaison was against all the rules he’d been taught and counter to his personal view of morality, but he just couldn’t resist this clever, witty, skilled, gorgeous elven thief. They kept meeting up, in secret. One night Iskandar and some other sun knights go out for drinks to a local establishment and who’s dancing on the stage, if not Renza? Needless to say, he drags Iskandar backstage after the show.

To complicate matters, Renza has a secret of his own. He’s not just any pickpocket--he’s a royal (that is, a leader) of the criminal organisation loosely known as the scoundrels. In fact he’s the actual prince of thieves, and he really shouldn’t have anything to do with a sun knight. But he can’t resist, either. He tries, though, having enough trust issues and fear of commitment to last a few elven lifetimes. When Renza catches himself having real feelings about Iskandar, he tries to cut it off, tries to avoid him, tries to abandon the thought of love. 

He doesn’t succeed. They keep drifting back together, and as Iskandar proves himself as honest, loyal, and wholesome as Renza could only dream of, he lets him closer and closer. 

That said, both of them have this uncomfortable, unspoken feeling that it can never last. A sun knight can’t date a thief. Iskandar worries about Renza finding out he’s part rhaajim, and Renza can’t imagine telling Iskandar of his actual status in the underbelly of the empire. But no secret can be kept forever, and we all have to wake up from our dreams sooner or later.

Things take a turn when Renza suddenly disappears. A ghost from his past spirits him away, and when Iskandar realises something’s seriously wrong he follows the trail like a bloodhound. It leads into the desert and by then the fire in his heart turns into dragon’s breath, the golden armour into scales; for the first time in a long while he shifts form, aflame with the determination to find Renza before it’s too late.

The elf becomes witness to a golden rhaajim descending on his kidnappers, but after burning them to cinders it doesn’t turn its rage on him. It merely nudges its huge snout against his forehead, practically purring, and then the massive creature shrinks into Iskandar’s familiar form.

Renza doesn’t fear him for it. It doesn’t make him shy away, or look at him with unease. In fact, it reminds him of the golden dragon in his favourite folktale, about the hero Renza from which the elf had borrowed his name. He’s not ready to tell Iskandar his real name yet, but a few mornings later he murmurs that he loves him. In elvish, sure, but Iskandar understands anyway. 

They get a few peaceful weeks to try to get used to the bond that’s weaving itself stronger and stronger between them, until it’s Iskandar’s turn to get into trouble. It’s not by any fault of his own, but one of the high priests in the capital is deeply corrupt and trying to undermine the order of sun knights, since the knight commander is a personal enemy of theirs. Iskandar is framed for some really nasty crimes, and basically has to go underground while working to clear his own name. Renza--with his many connections among the empire’s criminals--is hard at work to help, and eventually convinces Iskandar to hide out in a “safe place” in the desert.

Iskandar follows his instructions on how to get there, but Renza is woefully unable to show up in time and the sun knight gets jumped by a gang of bandits. The safe place in question is in fact the secret headquarters of the scoundrel organisation and they’re not happy that an imperial warrior has stumbled into their midst.

They’re about to promptly execute him, right then and there, when Renza suddenly appears and orders them to stop. It’s just a second too late, though--with his head literally on the chopping block Iskandar’s instincts takes over. When the intruding knight shifts into a massive monster, half the scoundrels scatter in panic while the other half prepares for a fight against a mythical golden dragon.

The elf manages to calm both parties down, but by now Iskandar has realised that Renza is a scoundrel royal. He feels deeply betrayed and hurt, and flies off to the top of the rock spire that marks the hideout. Renza’s heart sinks. He had wanted to tell him, somehow, but… not like this.

Iskandar is more or less forced to remain in hiding there, because he can’t return to the city without risking arrest. The mood is tense, to say the least. Despite their personal tragedy Renza and his right hand people are still working to root out the schemer and prove Iskandar’s innocence. In fact, Renza keeps himself occupied to the point of overworked, in order to distract his breaking heart.

The feeling of betrayal is eating away at Iskandar, and he and Renza barely interact for the next week or so. But in a series of curious scenarios he ends up talking to various other scoundrels, and bit by bit his perspective starts to change. They tell him that the prince of thieves never lets anyone too close, because that makes it too easy for people to hurt you. And now look what you’ve done. It dawns on him that Renza’s secret wasn’t so different from his own, and that he didn’t tell him for very similar reasons. Instead of blaming Renza for hiding things from him, Iskandar ends up blaming himself for not being more understanding and empathetic.

Eventually,  he goes to the prince’s office. Renza looks fine at first glance, but internally he’s a wreck. By now Iskandar knows him well enough to be able to tell, and it hurts his heart. Renza thinks the knight has come to break up with him, and tries to tell himself he’s ready for it. Instead, Iskandar asks for Renza’s forgiveness. He sinks to his knees, as if he’s taking an oath, and holds the elf’s hand, apologising for being too unfair, too quick to judge, and too selfish. He swears that from then on he’ll love and trust him as completely as he deserves, “if you’ll still have me.”

They ease back into it, slowly rebuilding what had crumbled as their secrets had been unveiled in such unfortunate ways. Iskandar knows he shouldn’t love a criminal, but there’s no way he can’t. It’s not just that he’s in too deep--he wouldn’t want to turn back, even if he could. What he feels for Renza is more than simple love. It’s utmost loyalty, devotion, and--at the other end of this crisis--an unshakeable kind of trust. They agree to keep no more secrets from each other, and no matter the trouble they might end up in for daring to love each other, they’ll face it together. 

Renza’s hard work comes to fruition when he unearths evidence that proves the machinations of the corrupt priest, clearing his partner’s name and bringing the scheming clergyman to justice. Iskandar returns to his regular life… except of course there’s nothing truly regular about secretly being a sun dragon who’s secretly dating the prince of thieves.

While the other scoundrels eventually learn to at least tolerate Iskandar and accept the fact that the prince of knives is dating an imperial knight, Iskandar’s superiors probably wouldn’t be as forgiving. But for all they know the elf Iskandar’s seeing is just a dancer at Yawende’s, and their only problem with him is that he’ll sometimes sneak into the barracks and steal Iskandar away from his duties for an hour or two. After the scoundrels had seen him transform, rumours start to spread about sightings of a golden dragon, but nobody in the imperial capital connects them to Iskandar per se. Not yet, anyway. 

The two of them keep embarking on a number of adventures and get involved in various plots, ranging from dealing with personal quests, helping other characters on theirs, or facing threats to the empire, whether mortal or supernatural. But it’s all mixed with mundane joys and sorrows and countless lovely slice of life-y moments.

For example they both join the combined effort of the scoundrels and clan Zahradam in a decisive battle against clan Galtai (which is when Qaragan finally regains his freedom). Back home, our dear sun knight ends up adopting an equally dear street puppy whom he names Bacon, and also gains the hard-earned approval of Renza’s cat. One the one hand, Iskandar -- with his sun knight expertise in combating light related dangers -- aids the scoundrels when one of their royals is discovered to have infected people with the light disease. On the other hand, Iskandar’s huge family meets Renza for the first time and welcomes him with open arms, and in turn some of the scoundrels even start really warming up to him (“he’s okay--for an imperial knight”). Renza commonly sneaks along with him on knightly missions into the desert, providing rougeish support to Iskandar’s more warriorlike ways. Similarly, Iskandar often joins Renza in his fight against slavery.

The latter is a personal matter, because slavers killed Renza’s parents and captured him when he was just a kid. He was sold to the cruel Adan the Collector, who you may remember from Weshau’s and Zaray’s stories. Renza escaped but Adan was in fact the aforementioned ghost from his past, who had tried hiring sellswords to abduct him back into captivity. 

As it turns out, Adan doesn’t give up easily. He actually manages to capture Renza again, but once he hears a strange rumour that the elf is somehow closely associated with a golden dragon, he gets obsessed with “adding the mythical beast to his collection.” He uses Renza as bait, and sure enough, Iskandar comes rushing to his rescue--only to be lured into a trap and captured. Adan is working with a sorceress who puts magical chains on Iskandar, forcing him to remain in his draconic form, trapped inside an unbreakable cage of pure energy. 

In the end, Renza has to rescue Iskandar rather than the other way around. The crafty elf escapes his own bonds, and hunts down the mage that’s controlling Iskandar. With her death the chains and cage shatter apart, and it’s not long before Adan’s mansion is consumed by dragon’s fire. Renza climbs onto Iskandar’s back and they fly off, finally having rid the world of Adan the Collector. (if you have read Weshau’s story, you know exactly how he met his end.)

Being constrained by magic is draining, though, and the endeavour leaves Iskandar exhausted. He eventually slips out of his draconic form, so they have to go on foot from then on. They start making their way back through the desert, but it’s slow going and they start to run short on supplies. Iskandar secretly curses himself for not being able to shapeshift at will.

Luckily, they cross paths with clan Zahradam, who welcome them to tag along back to civilisation. Travelling with the nomadic clan turns into a much needed period of rest and a chance to reconnect with their roots, since they both were born as nomads. The desert is home to a special kind of magic, and they spend many a night in front of the campfire, opening up their hearts to one another. After all they have been through together, it fully sinks in how deep their love for each other runs.

It’s during this journey through the dunes that Renza proposes to Iskandar. Naturally, he says yes.

As fate would have it, however, they don’t get the opportunity to actually marry before a violent disaster hits the capital.

A few years prior, the old sun knight commander had died. They were succedeed by a rhaajim named Muna, whose leadership seemed without flaw--at first. Renza instinctually disliked her from the start, but due to Iskandar’s knightly respect for authority it took a while before he started noticing how something about her was just … off. She was so subtle, so cunning, so meticulous in laying her plans--and before anyone had figured out exactly what she was up to, it’s too late.

Muna turns out to be a rhaajim supremacist. She believes that the dragon folk should rule all other peoples, since she thinks none are more powerful than them--that it is their birthright to be on the top of the proverbial food chain. Somehow, she has found out that Iskandar is a rhaajim, and so she tries to recruit him for her plot. Naturally, he refuses, but before he can warn anyone she attempts a coup on the  empresses, besieges the palace, and brings civil war upon the capital.

What follows is a dark chapter in the city’s history. Muna has more followers than anyone had dreamed of, and the streets and plazas that used to be full of life and joy turn into battlefields. Iskandar, Renza, and many other scoundrels and sun knights fight against her oppression, and it is during one of many skirmishes that someone hits Iskandar across the head with a bottle of liquid sunlight.

Luckily, he has a thick skull. But if you remember, liquid sunlight can be ingested as a drug, and large amounts can easily kill a person. Iskandar accidentally swallows a mouthful--but as it turns out, sunlight has an unusual effect on golden dragons.

All of a sudden, his veins are burning with fire, a potent strength pumping through his heart--and in that moment he knows exactly how to shapeshift, with no issue whatsoever. As a dragon he is able to promptly end that fight, and the effects of the sunlight haunts him for days after they actually wore off. For years he had struggled to shift forms, but the sunlight had made it so easy, and thanks to that he had been able to save lives. 

As the civil war keeps ravaging the empire and the tides start turning against the freedom fighters, Iskandar can’t avoid thinking about it. Since he’s a sun knight he knows full well of the expected dangers of ingesting sunlight, but he’d never before heard of it having such an effect as it had had on him. Was it because of his golden heritage? Perhaps he would be able to use it to his advantage? If it allowed him to shift with such ease, maybe it could turn him into the legendary golden dragon people wanted him to be--that the city need him to be right now, during this crisis.

He prepares a pocket flask for the next fight, and drinks of it at the cusp of battle. The same thing happens--it lets him change form as easy as when he’d been a kid. The inhabitants of the capital watch a golden goddamn dragon fight back the rhaajim supremacists who wants to more or less enslave them all. As he rips them apart, a spark of hope is lit in their hearts.

With that, his secret is out. News of the living legend spread throughout the streets like wildfire. But he doesn’t mind. As long as he has liquid sunlight on hand, he will be able to shift form when needed and fight for what’s right, to protect and defend the empire and its people. They will always be able to rely on him. He won’t fail anyone. Right? Right.

When Iskandar tells Renza of how he finally found a solution to his shapeshifting problem, Renza is … skeptical, to say the least. He warns the knight of the dangers of drinking sunlight--surely it can’t be a good idea, even for a golden dragon. Iskandar doesn’t take it lightly and assures him that under normal circumstances he wouldn’t experiment with it--but their home is being torn apart by warfare. People are being hurt, and enslaved, and killed. If sunlight makes him stronger in the fight against the enemy, he wants to take the risk. And as soon as the war is won, he promises to stop using the sunlight.

Truly, he’s doing what he thinks is best. He has only good intentions. But there’s more effects of sunlight than the way it reconnects him with his draconic soul when he most needs a boost of strength. It’s subtle, at first, so subtle that Iskandar himself doesn’t notice--but Renza does. He takes note of how his usually so kind and gentle Iskandar is sometimes irritable for no good reason, how he sleeps less and fidgets more. As the fighting in the streets get worse, Iskandar drinks sunlight more and more often. Little by little, it changes him. Perhaps deep down he knows that he’s starting to lose control of his use of the substance, but he still thinks it’s necessary--that it makes him better capable of protecting and defend the people of the wartorn empire. 

If he realises that he’s become more hot-blooded, impatient, and cranky, he refuses to admit it. For all he knows, he’s still himself--the same old reliable, selfless, solid Iskandar who is prepared to sacrifice so much to help others. Sure, he regularly wakes up in the morning after only a few hours of restless sleep, veins on fire and skin crawling with unease, but after taking a few drops of sunlight he’s all good again. And sure, his determination to root out every enemy in the capital has started becoming an obsession, a focus so single-minded that it makes him neglect many other things, aside from the fights and the sunlight. But… it’s only temporary. He’ll stop as soon as the war is over.

One day Renza catches him taking a dose in the morning, with no battle in sight. Of course the elf confronts him about it, calling him out on relying too much on the sunlight and the awful effect it’s having on him. Iskandar insists that it’s necessary, for the greater good. They have a fight about it.

They never fight.

Iskandar’s mood just gets worse and worse, and he starts snapping at people for the littlest things, in the most uncharacteristic way. He had once worried about people fearing him if they found out he was a rhaajim, but as long as he gets a few drops of sunlight every now and then it doesn’t seem to bother him how people walk circles around him now. But it’s not because he looks more like a dragon by now, with speckles of golden scales scattered across his skin, claw-like nails, and a long feathered tail--it’s because his very aura seems to sizzle with unpredictable irritability.

Even as his wholesome knight slowly changes into something worse, Renza loves him too much to give up on him. But Iskandar doesn’t listen to his pleas to stop using the sunlight, and they regularly argue about it. The elf starts researching golden dragons, rhaajim shapeshifting, and liquid sunlight, hoping to uncovers something useful. But it all comes to a head before he finds anything conclusive. One evening, the elfs discovers Iskandar’s hidden stash--rows after rows of little bottles of liquid sunlight, more than he’d ever need to give himself the occasional boost in battle.

In that moment, Renza has had enough of it. He smashes ever single bottle against the floor, demanding that Iskandar never touches another drop of the stuff.

In a fit of addicted desperation, seeing the sunlight seep into the ground, the knight almost lashes out at his beloved. But before he can do anything unforgiveable, Iskandar finally realises what’s happening. What he’s allowed himself to become.

He sinks to his knees, hands shaking. In a sudden burst of awful clarity, he breaks apart and starts to drown in regret and guilt. With all his heart, he begs Renza to “... help me.”

In his research, the thief had learned of a dragon sage in a distant temple at the edge of the empire, who allegedly knows all the secrets of the rhaajim. If anyone could salvage Iskandar’s sanity, it would be her. 

That means they have to leave and journey into the desert once again, even though the civil war still has the capital in its grip, and even though Muna is still besieging the imperial palace. Iskandar hates having to abandon it all, but it’s nothing to how his heart broke from belatedly understanding what he’s been putting Renza through. He lays his fate in Renza’s hands, trusting that the elf knows the best course of action.

Even as the pains of withdrawal seems to turn his bones to embers, he follows Renza into the wilds. His body screams for more liquid sunlight, and he fluctuates between desperate guilt and desperate agitation. But he silently vows to never disappoint Renza again. Ever. Even when his very marrow feels like it’s melting, when every bite of food taste like ash, and his joints hurt and itch and burn, Iskandar will not betray him again. 

Their quest to reach the temple becomes even more urgent when Iskandar starts uncontrollably shifting forms. Now that the liquid sunlight had awoken the rhaajim blood inside him, it seemed to be taking over. Every day, he looks more and more like a dragon, until he’s stuck in his draconic form. In the past, he hadn’t been able to shift from humanoid to dragon--now it’s the other way around. In the end Renza is dealing with a full-size golden dragon suffering the awful pains of withdrawal--the only thing that seems to soothe him a bit is when Renza hums the lullaby his mother used to sing.

They arrive at the temple, and not a day too soon. The shortest, wrinkliest grandma rhaajim that either of them has ever seen scurries down the staircase, poking at Iskandar and humming to herself. Somehow she seems to know exactly what’s happened without Renza having to say a word, and she ushers them inside the walls of the complex.

Her name is Yaya and according to all the acolytes and priests in the temple, she’s as old as the ancient building itself. She’s eccentric and strange, that’s true, but wise as no other. She’ll be able to solve the knight’s, for sure.

First of all, she helps Iskandar turn back into his more indoor-friendly humanoid form, and performs a series of cleansing rituals. It’s not easy, and it’s not pretty. He’s put through meditation sessions, and ritual baths, and periods of fasting, and endless training sessions so tough and straining that they leave even a fit sun knight breathlessly exhausted. But it’s working. With every passing day, Iskandar feels more … clean. More like his usual self.

And while the sunlight is driven out of his system in every way imaginable, Renza finally gets some well-deserved rest. He gets a much needed break, with no duties to tend to, no obligations to fulfill--only soft robes to wrap himself in, books to read, sweet fruit to eat, and fresh spring water to drink.

Sometimes, inbetween cleansing sessions, Iskandar would catch a glimpse of him among the trees and flowers of the garden. But he hesitates to disturb the elf’s peace. He doesn’t feel like he has the right. In fact he can’t imagine that Renza will want to stay with him after what he did, and has no delusions about being forgiven for it. He merely asks one of the monks to paint Renza’s portrait where he sits in the garden, reading. If their love has to end, at least that way he’ll have a memory of it.

He puts off addressing his worries, trying to focus instead on learning everything the rhaajim priestess has to teach him. You see,  Yaya won’t stop at simply cleansing Iskandar of the remnants of the drug. More importantly she wants to help him with the root issue: his shapeshifting problems.

For the next few weeks, Iskandar is put through what’s basically rhaajim bootcamp. Through a combination of mental, physical, and spiritual exercises and rituals, the ancient dragon priestess is able to knit the draconic and the andarahn halves of his soul together. Little by little, she teaches him all the intricacies of changing form, like he once could do, without having to think about it, or struggle with it, or doubt that he can do it. Now that he knows it’s possible, Iskandar is determined to master shapeshifting, without ever needing a single drop of liquid sunlight. Being so stubborn about it only goes so far in helping him deal with the guilt, though, and he finally brings himself to have a talk with Renza.

Iskandar outright tells him that he doesn’t expect the elf to forgive him, or that he still deserves his love, or that there’s any way he can make up for what he allowed himself to become--but Renza interrupts him by cupping his face, and kissing his forehead. “Do you really think I’d drag your ass all the way across the desert if I didn’t still love you?”

The relief that floods him doesn’t quite manage to wash away the weight of regret, but knowing that Renza wants to be with him despite everything makes it easier to bear. Just like the god of mercy had forgiven Khuthlya for his sins, so Renza forgives Iskandar, long before the knight ever forgives himself. 

When he’s not training with the priestess, Iskandar doesn’t waver from Renza’s side. After watching him almost turn into a true monster, the elf couldn’t be more happy that his kind, caring, gentle dragon knight is back to normal. Well, aside from the fact that the golden scales and long tail has become a permanent part of his appearance now. But nobody’s complaining--it’s a good look.

At long last, Yaya puts him through one final test. It involves flying high into the sky as a dragon, shifting back to his humanoid self, falling towards the ground, and last-minute changing back to his draconic form. If he can’t do it, he’ll die. Everyone in the temple gathers to watch, holding their breath as the golden dragon takes to the air.

A couple of days later, Yaya and all the temple folk bid them goodbye, with plenty of supplies for the trip and best of wishes in dealing with that there civil war they heard such nasty rumours about. Thankfully, the journey back is much faster than the trek there, because Renza can ride on his dragon boyfriend’s back as they soar through the sky. 

Back home, the sun knights and shadow warriors and the regiments of the army that had been stationed in the city has held fast against Muna’s forces, but with the enemy closing a tighter and tighter ring around the palace and supplies running short. If the appearance of a sun-coloured dragon had ever seemed like a ray of hope it hardly mattered anymore, because weeks ago he had disappeared without a trace and since then, morale had been ever lower.

The fighting eventually reaches the very footstep of the imperial palace, painting the courtyard in front of it red with blood. Muna herself is there, in her draconic form, leading the charge from the front. When first the defenders hears a roar in the distance, they assume it’s another of her followers come to join the battle--then a massive golden creature slams into Muna from above. People scatter as the two dragons face one another in the courtyard.

Iskandar defeats her, but refuses to pass judgement and kill her without a trial. She needs to be judged not by him but by the people, and sentenced to a punishment fit the magnitude of her crime. With Muna in chains, her forces are left without a leader, and the tides turn in the imperial forces’ favour. Turns out the return of a legendary golden dragon did signal hope, after all. Just like the old myths. The soldiers sweep through the streets with renewed vigour, determined to reclaim their city.

Watching her dreams of a rhaajim supremacy shatter before her eyes, Muna’s normally cold and collected self crumbles into resentful rage. Before anyone can react she snatches a crossbow from a soldier and fires at Iskandar.

Renza takes the bolt for him. 

*

It would be months, even years, before the capital has fully recovered from the civil war. Thankfully, it doesn’t take that long for Renza’s wound to heal. Before long he’s back on his feet, despite Iskandar fussing over him and begging him to rest up a few days more. Renza brushes his worry aside, saying that they have no more time to waste--they have a wedding to think of, remember? 

There’s several possible marriage ceremonies available to inhabitants of this empire, entailing various levels of commitment. Most intense of all is the so-called soul bonding ritual, where people tie their spirits together for all eternity. It’s a bond that goes far beyond death, so that lovers can stay with each other in the afterlife too. Few couples ever choose such an intense arrangement--but Iskandar and Renza do. 

They live a long life together. Elves, rhaajim, and andarah all have long lifespans, and the two of them still have much to do before they’re done in this world. Iskandar becomes the new knight commander of the sun knight order, and Renza remains the prince of knives (although he eventually resigns and unofficially becomes Iskandar’s right hand). The knight grows into his status as “the last golden dragon,” a living legend, and the elf goes down in the history books as the driving force behind finally abolishing slavery once and for all. Iskandar and Renza both play a part in the next great war that befalls the empire, too, as a mad king rises from the dead to reclaim his kingdom. Their lives were never normal, but they face every challenge together, and never forget to savour that they get to wake up next to each other, morning after morning.

And even though their lives eventually come to an end, as lives tend to do, it only marks the beginning of their legend. They pass away mere weeks apart from each other, with Renza closely following Iskandar into the afterlife. When he closes his eyes for the last time and opens them to eternity, Iskandar is waiting for him, with a smile and open arms. 

They are buried together in a lover’s tomb, their bodies placed in an embrace, hands on each others’ hearts. The memory of the thief and the knight turns into a story, which turns into history, which turns into myth. Their tomb becomes a sacred place, a temple to trust, devotion, loyalty, and unwavering love. Millennia after their death, people still tell tales of Renza and his golden dragon.

-----

yes, i’m crying. i’m crying real fucking bitch tears. iskandar is such a good-hearted, unselfish, goddamn legend of a lad and it HURTS me to write about the shit he goes through, even though i came up with that shit. but it’s okay, because the rest of it is wholesome and centered on this intense, more-than-mortal bond of love between him and renza. it’s a love that gets so strong that not even the untimely revelations of secrets, a stint of drug abuse, and two wars can make it falter. they’re the personifications of trust, acceptance, getting through shit together, and letting love be your light. now i’m crying again. UGH.

if you have any questions about iskandar, comment below and i will do my best to respond without crying even more.

<3

// art + iskandar © me; renza © kubi.