Revaramek the Resplendent - Chapter One Hundred Sixteen (Patreon)

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Revaramek’s sleep was fitful. He dreamt of sand, and stars, memories looping back on memories till everything corrupted. And he dreamt of a female urd’thin, her fur the golden-beige of sun painted sands. She danced amidst the infinitely spiraling cosmos. He was never himself, in the dream, but neither was he sure who he was, or what he was. At times, he was there among them, watching, wandering the sands, gazing at the stars. Other times it was as if he was but a star, gazing down upon creation, filled with sorrow as it slowly crumbled. With no way left to renew it, all he could do was start it over and watch it grow only to crumble once more.

The dragon awoken, and the dreams dissipated like morning mist beneath the sun. It was still dark out, and the air was surprisingly chilly. At night the sands looked silver, rather than gold. Uncountable stars littered the infinite sky. The little pond reflected them, glittering points of light upon a black mirror. Above the eastern dunes, a faint purple bruise stretched across the horizon, foretelling the coming dawn.

“Are you alright?” Nyramyn nosed at his neck, her copper-bronze eyes narrowed to bleary slits. Her worse was a worried whisper. “You’ve been thrashing in your sleep. Bad dreams?”

“I’m not sure.” Revaramek glanced around. Mirelle still asleep and curled in her bedroll, near the embers of a tiny fire. He kept his voice soft. “They weren’t…bad…exactly.” He shifted against his mate, stretching his limbs one at a time. Ice clung to the tips of his fingers and toes, his pads felt tingly. “Just…unsettling. I’m not even sure why.”

Nyramyn licked the back of his neck a few times. Her affection brought comfort, and the chill in his blood gradually warmed. “What were you dreaming about?”

“I can’t hardly remember now.” Revaramek snuggled up under Nyramyn’s wing when she stretched it across him. “Something about…sand, and stars, and urd’thin, I think.”

“That doesn’t sound bad.” Nyramyn stroked his scales with a forepaw.

“It wasn’t. Not in the usual, nightmare sense.” Revaramek gazed out across the darkened desert. At night it seemed even more featureless, when it was too dark to see the silhouettes of distance trees clustered around tiny oases. They were too far from the village to see it from the ground. Only the dunes to the east provided any sort of landmark, and at night even they were hard to spot. “It just left me feeling like…no, nevermind.”

“Tell me.”

“It’s nothing you need worry about, Nyra.”

Nyra nipped at his scales, sharpening her tone. “Tellme.”

Revaramek took a deep breath, and let it out in a long sigh. “I’m not sure why we’re out here. I think…I think there’s going to be more to it than just…finding something that can cure your poisoning. I believe that Asterbury genuinely wants to help, but I also believe he’s going to expect something from me in return. Or…that there’s something out here he wants me to see, or know, and the closer we to it, the more it worries me. And now I’m having dreams about…” He searched his mind for the images from the dream, but they had already faded to little more than shapeless concepts. “Broken memories about…dancing among the stars.”

“Sometimes dreams are just dreams.” Nyramyn set her forepaw across his, and gave it a little squeeze. “But…maybe not this time.”

“That’s not as comforting as I hoped.” Revaramek chuckled, and rubbed her foreleg with his other paw.

“It’s just as well. I’ve been thinking about waking you for a little while, now.”

“Oh.” Revaramek nuzzled her neck, and gave her an apologetic lick. “Was I keeping you awake? Sorry.”

“Your wriggling woke me, but that’s not what kept me awake.” A hint of cold uncertainty crept into Nyramyn’s voice, and sent a shiver down the dragon’s spine. “Look to the east.”

Revaramek slowly turned his gaze eastward. The horizon continued to lighten, the purple bruise spread further across the sky, with a brighter lilac blush creeping across its center. Before long, the sun itself would emerge and paint the sand with red-gold dawn fire. Though Revaramek knew the dunes would look beautiful while lit by the sunrise, he also knew that no sooner would the sun chase off morning’s chill than it would replace it with oppressive heat. All at once, something snapped together in Revaramek’s head.

“The dunes?”

Nyramyn gave a single nod. “They weren’t there when we went to sleep, were they?”

“No.” Revaramek shivered, his scales clicking. “They weren’t.”

“There were dunes, but…”

“They weren’t half that close, I’m sure of it.”

Revaramek curled his neck, glancing at Mirelle. Her breathing remained slow and steady, and he didn’t want to wake he unless it was an emergency. “How long have they been there?”

“Since I woke. Took me a few moments to realize it, too. There’s more, too.”

“More dunes?”

“There’s an urd’thin watching us.”

The dragon froze. Even his heart refused to beat for a moment. It couldn’t be. Revaramek forced himself to breath, told himself it wasn’t him, it wasn’t his style. He’d already be here, taunting me with cryptic riddles. He swallowed a few times till he managed to force out a single word. “Where?”

“Third dune from the right. He’s been sitting atop it as long as I’ve been awake. Do you think we should wake Mirelle?”

“Not unless you want her to charge out there with her maul.”

Revaramek scanned the sand dunes until he found the one Nyramyn indicated her. Only when he was specifically looking for an urd’thin did he spot him. In the distance, and in the starlight, everything looked the same shade of silvery gray. Only the distinctive outline of large, pointed ears above the rounded curves of the dune gave the watcher away. It was too far away to tell size, or gender, and too dark to tell colorations, but Revaramek already had a few nervous inklings.

“I see him. At least, I think it’s a him.” Revaramek kept his eyes on the urd’thin, afraid if he glanced at his mate, he’d never be able to spot the furry sentinel again. “How’d you notice him?”

“I just saw movement, atop the dune.”

“Please tell me he wasn’t dancing.”

“No, it was just his tail twitching, I think.” Nyramyn scrunched her muzzle. “Why would he be dancing?”

“It’s a long story.”

“And why would it be bad if he was?” Nyramyn leaned her head against his neck.

“I’m…not sure, actually. It might even have been a good thing, if he was.”

“He’s probably from that village.” She waved a forepaw at the dunes. “They probably spotted us in the sky, and he’s come to investigate.”

“It’s possible.” Revaramek kneaded his forepaws against the sand, belly twisting up. “If there’s…some line they don’t want us to cross, some territory we’re trespassing on, we could have a problem.”

“They have magic, right? Like you have it?”

“Shaping.” Revaramek licked his nose, then chuckled. “And I have no idea. But the dunes say at least one of them does.”

“Maybe he’s just curious.”

“Maybe.” Revaramek finally tore his gaze away from the urd’thin to gaze into his mate’s eyes. “But Nyra, when you lived in the swamp, when you had to defend your water. If you saw strange creatures you’d only heard of in legends, and you feared they may have come for your water, would you only be curious? Or would you be ready to fight them for it?”

Nyramyn sighed, flattening her ears. “Fight them for it.”

“And if you were hoping to turn them away? You’d let them know you were there, first. You’d send them a warning.”

“Is that…what you think he’s doing?”

“Building a wall of sand dunes while we’re all asleep sends a pretty big message, doesn’t it?” Revaramek turned his eyes back to the dunes. He counted them, but the urd’thin was gone from the hilltop. “Shit! He’s gone…did you see him move?”

“No!” Nyramyn nudged Revaramek. “But I see him. He’s on the dune closest to us, the only one that far forward.”

Revaramek hissed through grit teeth. “That dune wasn’t even there a moment ago, was it?”

“I don’t think so.” Nyramyn unsheathed her claws against the sand. “You might be right about that warning. Does…your power work that fast?”

“I dunno.” Revaramek focused on the tell-tale outline of the urd’thin. He was standing now, tail swishing behind him. “Mine’s…different.” He took a deep breath, then let it out in a long, slow exhalation. “I’m going to go see him.”

“Not without me, you aren’t.”

“Nyra…” Revaramek pushed himself up to his paws, and laid his muzzle across hers when she rose up next to him. “Wait here. Please.” Before she could protest, he waved a paw at Mirelle. “If I get in trouble, I’m going to need both of you to come rescue me.”

Nyramyn took a shaking breath, pulling her muzzle away from his. “I suppose that’s a nicer way of putting it than, you’re dealing with forces I don’t understand, and that you’re afraid for me.” She set her paw over his, nosing him. “But I’m afraid for you, too.”

“I know, Nyra.” Revaramek pressed his muzzle to hers in a gentle kiss. “I know. And if that was another dragon threatening us, I would want you by my side to bring him down. But it isn’t. These urd’thin, they’re…different. And it might even be one of them, it might be…” He pulled his muzzle back, bowing his head to her. “I can’t force you to stay here, nor would I ever consider trying. But I can ask you, please. Let me do this on my own.”

“Alright, Water Ally Revaramek.” Nyra cupped his cheek in a paw. “This time. Though I fear the further into this desert we go, the more often you’re going to start asking that of me. So you’re just going to have to teach me this…shaping…so that I can be by your side more often.”

“If I could share my spark with you, I’d do so in an instant.” He kissed her once more, then eased away, tail lashing. “Wake Mirelle if things go badly, but try not to let her charge out there and get herself blasted into sand.”

“I’d rather none of us get blasted further out into the sand.”

That wasn’t what Revaramek meant, but he decided not to tell her as much. “I’ll be back soon.”

“You better be.” Nyramyn tilted her head towards the dunes. “Now go see him before I change my mind and decide to beat you there.”

“I’d outfly you anyway.”

“Liar.”

Revaramek smiled at her for a moment, tracing the beautiful lines of her muzzle and her face in his mind. Then he hurried out into the desert beyond the oasis, wanting to put enough distance between himself and their meager camp so as not to wake Mirelle with his ascent. Once he was far enough away, Revaramek leapt into the air, and beat his wings. Sand swirled beneath him. With a few more wing beats, the tiny oasis disappeared into the pre-dawn gloom.

As Revaramek flew towards the dunes, they loomed larger and larger in his vision. Soon they seemed not hills, but entire mountains built of shifting sand. At first Revaramek wondered if they were further away then he and Nary thought. Soon he realized it was not that at all. The dunes were getting bigger. As he neared them, sand flowed over itself, pouring upwards, sculpting slopes.

The dragon flared his wings, slowing his approach. When the dunes stopped growing, he alighted nearby, trotting a few steps across the loose sands. At least they were cool against his paw pads, now. From his new vantage, he could no longer see if the urd’thin still stood atop the towering dune, yet he had no reason to believe he was not. Revaramek took a breath, and began to climb to the dune.

It was strenuous work. With every step, the sands shifted beneath his paws. He had never scaled a dune before. Even when he used to climb up the hills around Enora’s home, more often than not he’d just use his wings and fly to the top. The way the footing moved and sunk beneath his weight every step kept him tense, struggling for traction and balance. By the time he was halfway up the dune, the dragon’s legs were aching. The further he climbed, the more the ache transitioned into a steady, burning throb. Every step hurt a little more. Soon even the dragon’s lungs burned and heaved. His heart thundered against his sternum.

Just when Revaramek was starting to wonder if the dune was just going to keep growing so that he could never reach the top, he crested the summit. There was a flat space atop the dune, but he saw no sign of the urd’thin he came to meet with, not even footprints in the sand. Revaramek hissed, wondering if he was just being toyed with. He glanced back towards his mate and Mirelle. Nyramyn stretched a wing, a signal that she could still see him. He did the same, and then gaze around from the top of the dune.

Revaramek could see deep into the vast desert. By then, the faintest sliver of light glowed upon the eastern horizon, casting red-orange fire across the rest of the sky. Its light transmuted the silver-gray color of nighttime sands into startlingly vivid gold. The village they observed from the air the day before was just waking for the moment. A few urd’thin were out tending the morning cooking fires, and a few more were venturing out into the desert to hunt, or gathering up nets to take into the water. Revaramek wondered if they had spotted the gargantuan dune, yet, or if it was hidden from their sight.

Considering the possibility that the urd’thin might have alighted to another dune, Revaramek turned in place, looking them over. They were lower than he was now, and it was easy to see their summits. There was no sign of the urd’thin of their watcher on any of them, either. Revaramek hissed. These sorts of games were a little familiar, at least, if unusually simplistic compared to what he expected.

Revaramek turned around again, and Asterbury stood inches away from him. The dragon yelped, startled, and scrambled back. His claws unsheathed and all his spines flew to full extension. He snarled, fire glands tingling in instinctual demand to incinerate the thing that frightened him, even as he knew the flames would never touch Asterbury.

As his hind paws brushed the edge of the slope, and a little sand gave way beneath them, Revaramek forced himself to stop retreating. Instead, he took a few steps back towards the urd’thin, snarling at him. “That isn’t funny, you know!” He tossed his head, gritting his teeth. “Go on then. Laugh it up. Cackle, or make some kind of witty remark, or talk about how it’s just a prank between old friends, or whatever other nonsense you’ve got bubbling around in your head! I’m sure you’ve been waiting ages for some, good, funny times, with your old pal Revaramek, right?”

The urd’thin stared at him, silent.

“Well? Go on!” Revaramek took another step towards Asterbury, waving his paw. “Whatever it is, just get it all out of your system so we can have a reasonable conversation, and I can go back to hoping I never see you again. …Er…again.”

The urd’thin tilted his head.

Something tingled at the back of Revaramek’s skull and dripped down his spine in icy, fearful drops. Something wasn’t right. He looked the urd’thin over. He was tall, by urd’thin standards, and lean, tautly muscled. He wore simple clothing, made of animal hides and woven fibers. A raindrop broach, composed of smaller silver raindrops, marked his vest. Silvery bands encircled his wrists. A runic emblem of black stone was woven into the fur of his throat. Revaramek jerked his gaze back up to the urd’thin’s face. Something was off about it. The muzzle was too narrow. And the eyes…No madness swirled in their inky depths, only blue-black anger.

“You’re…you’re not him!”

It wasn’t Asterbury.

“But you look…almost…” Realization hit Revaramek like a physical blow, and he stumbled back, gasping. Cold talons gripped his heart. “You’re the Father!”

“This place?” The urd’thin held a hand out, indicating the desert. “It isn’t for you.”

Revaramek’s head swam. He could not tell if the urd’thin was speaking perfect swamp dragon, or if he was simply shaping the understanding directly into Revaramek’s mind. “I…I don’t want your desert. I…I don’t mean you, or your people any harm.”

“Then go home. Go home, and do not return.”

“I…I can’t. I…need…”

“Go.” The sands rippled around the urd’thins feet, and spun themselves strange beasts all around him. Each creature flashed fangs, and claws at the dragon. “Home.”

“I can’t.” Revaramek lifted his head, refusing to back down. “I have to help my mate. That’s all I came here for. I don’t want to hurt you, or your-” He almost said, ‘your son’. Somehow, Revaramek suspected mentioning Vakaal would only put himself and his family in greater danger. “Your people. I just need-” In an instant, the urd’thin was before him, a hand upon Revaramek’s chest. The dragon gagged, fingers of shaping encircling his heart. “S-stop!”

“You have it in you.” The urd’thin tilted his head, staring up at him. “Our stolen shaping. Like Those Who Came Before did. I felt it, felt it cross into our desert. But this desert, is not for you. Not for them, and not for those like you. This story?” The unseen grip tightened. “Is only for urd’thin.”

“No! You don’t understand…” Revaramek struggled to breathe. “My mate…surely, you’ve seen her. She’s…dying! All I want to do is…save her. I promise you. You…you understand that, don’t you? What…would we not do…for our families?”

The urd’thin’s power slackened its hold on Revaramek’s heart. When the urd’thin spoke again, his voice was softer, and a haunted sorrow drifted through his eyes, as if he was fighting back some pain he’d give anything to forget again. “What’s wrong with her?”

“She has a poison, in her blood. It…it’s toll is slow, but absolute. Please…” Revaramek sniffled, his voice breaking. “We have a son…I don’t want him to lose her, like I lost my mother. I was…I was told, by someone like you. That…that we could find help, here. Please…all I want is to help her…then we’ll go…Please! Please, we have a son…You…you have a son too, don’t you?”

The urd’thin’s ears twitched, and something new flickered in his eyes, like a battle between joy and sorrow, pain and hope. “I did…I…do.” He shook his head, as if to clear his thoughts, and stepped back. “I’m sorry. I cannot help you, for this is not your story.”

All at once, the power gripping his heart released him, and Revaramek crumpled to the ground. Sand billowed around him. He took a few wheezing breaths, trying to collect himself, the pushed back up onto his feet. “No! I…I can’t accept that. I didn’t come out here to be turned away, I can’t…I can’t just let her die!”

“No one ever does.” The urd’thin waved his hand at the village. “You may visit the village, if you wish. They may be able to help, for a time. They may give you extra years. But they will not change her story’s ending. Sometimes stories are meant to end. Cherish your time with her while you can. That’sthe lesson.”

“That’s not good enough!” Anger whirled around inside Revaramek’s heart, slamming up against a growing fear that maybe, maybe it was hopeless. No, he told himself. No. “I refuse to just let her die!”

“We always do.” The urd’thin’s voice was a broken, aching whisper. And then it changed, thickened, echoing back on itself, as if it was many voices, all at once. “And we never learn. And then…” Then the voice was different again, and for a heartbeat, Revaramek thought he heard a familiar, angry sneer in it. “You’re making this difficult. Do not disrupt this place.” The urd’thin turned away, walking across the dune. “When you’re done in the village. Go home. Cherish your time with your mate, and your son. Do not return here. I will not ask nicely next time.”

“Wait!” Revaramek shook off his unnerved confusion, and hurried after the urd’thin. “Star’s Blessing! That’s what we were told to seek. This village, do they have it?”

The urd’thin froze. His ears shot up. He took a breath, and let out a long, slow sigh. “Star’s Blessing isn’t meant for you.”

“I…I don’t understand.” Revaramek gently set his paw on the urd’thins’s arm. “I was told that…Star’s Blessing could save her.” It wasn’t entirely the truth, but he doubted this urd’thin was looking for a long explanation.

“It isn’t meant for you.”

Revaramek took a breath, tugging on the urd’thin to turn him around, wanting to look into his eyes. “That isn’t what I asked. You didn’t say it couldn’t save her. So, can it?”

The urd’thin only stared back at him. “When you visit the village, don’t say his name.”

A shudder wracked Revaramek. “Whose name?”

There was no reply. The urd’thin only stared at him, and in a blink, he was nothing more than sand, as if Revaramek had been talking to a sculpture all along. Wind kicked up, and the urd’thin’s ears disintegrated, swirling away on the breeze. Then from the head down, the rest of his dissolved just as quickly. Some of the sand was swept away with the wind, and the rest cascaded across the top of the dune. Revaramek scrambled, half afraid to touch the shaper’s remains.

The ground lurched beneath him, and then dune collapsed just like its creator had. Revaramek gave a clipped yell as the world gave way beneath him. He flared his wings to arrest his sudden fall, gliding back to the ground. All the dunes melted away under him, and by the time he settled back to the desert, it was as if the hills of sand had never been there at all. Revaramek took a few moments to catch his breath, his heart hammering. He turned a slow circle, gazing around. Only wind-sculpted piles of sand remained, and even those were soon drifting away.

Revaramek spent part of the journey back on sore legs and shaking paws. He wasn’t so sure he trusted the wind as long as it was carrying that shaper’s remains around. Or…whatever he was. The dragon half-expected to wake any moment, and find himself curled around Nyra. The whole encounter would have fit in well with the rest of his crazy dreams. Whoever that urd’thin was, he made about as much sense as Asterbury, only with Asterbury, at least it seemed like he wanted his riddles to be solved.

Only when the wind had died down, did Revaramek take to his wings to fly the rest of the way back to their camp. It was a short flight, but by the time he was touching down again, morning light kissed the desert sands. Mirelle was awake and dressed, and Nyra was pacing around the tiny oasis. When his mate saw him coming, she bound out away from the water to greet him.

“Revaramek! Revaramek, what happened?” Nyra skidded to a halt, breathless. She threw herself against him, hugging him with wing forelegs alike. “Are you alright? Are you hurt?”

“I’m fine, Nyra, I’m fine.” Revaramek returned her affectionate greeting, nuzzling her. “Walk with me back to camp. We’re going to the village, and if I’m going to have to explain things to you, and then translate for Mirelle, I would like to do so at the same time.”

“Alright.” She released him from her hug, and then walked so close to his side that her folded wings kept brushing his. “What happened up there? I saw you reach the top, and then I saw you look around, and that dust storm came and I couldn’t see you any more until you were walking back! And now the dunes are gone!”

“What dust storm?” Revaramek cocked his head.

“The big dust storm! You…” She faltered, flattening her spines. “You didn’t see it.”

“No. Everything looked clear, from up there. I suppose we each saw what he wanted us to see.”

“Who?” Nyramyn nipped his neck scales, fear mingling with curiosity in her voice. “That urd’thin? Was he a shaper?”

“Something like that. I honestly…” Revaramek scrunched his muzzle as they neared the camp. “I don’t even know where to begin. I think…I think he was the father, but he seemed different.”

“What father?”

“Asterbury’s father.” He splayed out his frills in thought. “He looked a lot like Asterbury. Close enough to confuse them. I thought it wasAsterbury, at first. I’m still not totally sure who-”

“Rev!” Mirelle called out to him, her maul in her hands. “What happened? Are you alright?”

“I’m fine, I’m fine. Get some food in you. I wanna get going to that village.”

“What happened?” Mirelle thumped her maul into the sand as Revaramek reached her, then threw her arms around him, hugging his head. “I was worried about you. When I woke, Nyra said there was an urd’thin spying on us, and you went to confront him!”

“That’s not exactly how I’d-”

“And then a sandstorm came, and we couldn’t see what was happening!”

“I don’t think he wanted you to see him.” Revaramek nudged Mirelle with his nose till she eased back.

“So you met him? Who…who was he? Some shaper?” Mirelle wrung her hands. “Or…?”

As the unspoken question hung in the air, Revaramek glanced at Nyra. “See, this is why I wanted to talk you both at once. She’s asking the same questions you are.” Revaramek took a breath, switching back into Mirelle’s language. “Yes, I met him. And…I’m not sure exactly, who or what he was. But…I think it was the father.”

Mirelle furrowed her brow. “What father?”

Revaramek groaned in frustration. “Which father do you think?”

“You don’t mean…” Mirelle clapped a hand over her mouth, eyes wide.

“Yes. Vakaal’s father. From those books.”

“But that’s…I mean…” Mirelle stared at the dragon, her hazel eyes searching his, as if for some shred of anything that made the least bit of sense. “Even if he was here, which…I don’t see how he could be. Wouldn’t he be…gods, he’d be older than Jekk!”

“Would he?” Revaramek cocked his head, flexing his wings. “Asterbury isn’t. Not physically, anyway. If Asterbury doesn’t age anymore, why should his father?”

“What’s she saying?” Nyra nipped at his neck. “Translate, Rev!”

“We’re just talking how old they are.”

Nyra splayed her ears, her tail tip flicking. “How old whois?”

“Asterbury and his father.”

Mirelle glanced back and forth between them a few times. “What’s Nyra saying?”

“She’s asking what you were saying.” Revaramek grit his teeth. “You’re both just going to have to be patient.” He held up a paw to Mirelle. “Did you ever read those stories, about the desert urd’thin?”

Mirelle scowled, glancing away. “Parts of them. Most of one of them. Honestly? They were too sad. It wasn’t him, Rev.” Mirelle rubbed her arm, sighing. “I mean…it is, but…Vakaal’s nothing like Asterbury…”

“I know, Mirelle. Vakaal’s everything he isn’t. Asterbury’s…like the embodiment of all that cruelty they heaped upon him.”

“Anyway, I couldn’t finish them. I felt too sorry for him, and then I started realizing I was pitying Asterbury, in a way, and…I skimmed them, though.” She scrunched her face, murmuring in thought. “Even the one he lives in, he ends up just…wandering. Alone.”

Revaramek pulled his head back, neck curling. “What?”

“You didn’t know?” Mirelle glanced up at him. “Rev, Vakaal dies in those books.”

The dragon’s stomach dropped away. “No, that doesn’t…”

“At least in the one I tried to finish. He died, saving his father, and his father…” She lifted her head, gazing out into the desert, as the sun rose beyond them. “Tried…to start everything over.” Mirelle sucked in a breath, sunlight glinting off her hazel eyes. “Rev, you don’t think…”

“I told him…I told him I can’t let her die…” Revaramek tilted his head back, gazing up at the sky. “He said…he said, no one ever does.” The dragon padded past Mirelle, suddenly in need of parching his dry throat. He took a few gulps of water. He lifted his head, glanced at the surface, and saw Vakaal staring back at him from his reflection. “AH!” Revaramek stumbled back, panting. “I…that’s not…” He shook his head, snarling. “Mirelle, do me a favor.”

“What’s the matter, Rev?” Mirelle hurried over and put her hand on his neck.

“If I start slipping…” He tapped a claw to his head, near a broken horn. “Up here. Just…keep me anchored, alright?”

“Rev.” Mirelle took his took his muzzle in her hands, while Nyra came up and nuzzled him, whimpering. “Rev, what’s wrong?”

Revaramek stared into her eyes a moment. “I’m having…weird dreams, and…I just saw Vakaal, in the water. Something out here is messing with my head. And even when I talked to him…to the father, for a moment, it was like…I wasn’t just talking to one of them, I was talking to…all of them. Now I don’t know if that was me, or him.”

Mirelle pointed at Nyra. “Tell your mate. We’ll both do whatever we can to make sure you’re alright. But if things get bad, we can turn back.”

“No.” Revaramek sharpened his tone. “Not till Nyra’s safe.” Revaramek translated, and Nyra put a wing over him, cooing. He licked her, and then turned his attention to Mirelle again. “I asked him if he had a son, and he gave me two answers.”

“What do you mean?”

“He said, I did, and I do. As though he…he couldn’t remember which was true, anymore. And then he said…something about, me disrupting things.” Revaramek leaned against his mate, sighing. “You should get things packed, Mirelle. We’re going to the village.”

“Alright, Rev.” Mirelle reached up and rubbed his nose. “What was he talking about, disrupting what?”

“I’m not sure. This…story, I suppose. He said this place isn’t meant for us, that…Star’s Blessing isn’t meant for us. And he knew I had the spark. Called it, stolen shaping.”

“That’s an odd thing to call it.” Mirelle walked to her bedroll and packed it up.

“I agree. It was as if he knew why the storytellers had the spark, but not…not why I have it. It was like he was…a remnant, a ghost…just…memories, and anger. But maybe that’s we’re here. Maybe…that’s why Asterbury lead us here. To…put the last of his cycle to an end, or…put his ghosts to rest.”

“I think you’re stretching a little far, now.”

“Maybe…maybe not.” Revaramek nosed up under Nyramyn’s chin, relishing the way her soft purr helped ease his mind. “But now I’m certain of it. Asterbury led us here for a reason, and we’d better figure out what it is as quickly as possible.”

“Why?” Mirelle glanced back at the dragon, eyes narrowed. “What else did he say?”

“Told me we could see the village, but then we had to go home. And that he wouldn’t ask nicely, next time.”

Mirelle scowled. “So scaring the hell out of us was him asking nicely?”

“This time, he came as sand. Next time, I think he’ll come as the storm.”