Mateja

Entry from the personal journal of Jakub of the Expanse,
dated Day 72 of Second Turn of the Fourth Age

As I wrote yesterday, it was impressed upon me very quickly after having made acquaintance with the dragons of the Icefield that none among them suffer fools. This is a place that requires you know thyself: you are or you are not, you will or you will not.

I met their leader today. Mateja, she calls herself. She is a commanding drakaina, a Mirror with a long whipping tail and gnashing teeth. What struck me most about her, however, was the sense I was dealing with something more than a warrior -- I was met with someone who knew some intrinsic truth about herself with more conviction and depth of understanding than the philosophers of the Beacon could dream of. Looking at her begged the beholder to feel meek, or perhaps to ask themselves where they stood and who they were. It was a powerful presence to face.

It didn't help that she had decorated herself with ornaments I would normally find in the depths of the Abiding Boneyard. I had noticed many of the dragons here had necklaces and small crowns made of bone, but she had a headdress made from what looked like a Skydancer skull, beak intact and sharpened. Smaller animal bones, mostly from birds, were strung together in long leather-bound strands of body jewelry. Where some dragons would jingle, she clacked. It sounded like small jaws snapping together as she walked.

What's sketched here is what I can recall from our brief meeting earlier today. I am not used to seeing such "blank" eyes on dragons. On a Mirror, the effect is unsettling. Pale white and pupil-less eyes peered out at me from the dark holes of a skull. The feathers bouncing around the crests seemed out of place, initially. They were almost festive, a playful fashion statement, until the size and shape of them clciked my understanding into place. They are draconic flightfeathers. The headdress is meant to intimidate. It is working on me, I fear.

I am told she is the "First." What that means is oddly difficult to ascertain. All members of the clan I have talked to seem dumbfounded that I do not understand what being "first" entails, and struggle to explain to me what her title implies without a cultural touchstone that I clearly lack. As far as I can tell through my translator, she is a "child" that is "made of keeping." Whatever that means. It ties into her status as clan leader, and her pairing with the "Second," her mate Kolya, sounds relevant to its importance.

In coming here I feel as if I have flown into a Sornieth trapped in time and space. Somehow, this Mateja is central to that feeling. There is more to be written, I am sure.

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