Keeping her right hand upon the wall.
The canyon twisted and turned as she walked. Coiling and undulating like a serpent, her way already had Layla turned around fifteen times as she maintained her hand upon the wall, following wherever it went. She didn’t know if it was a single passage that twisted and coiled, sometimes moving up, other times descending deep, or a warrened labyrinth of a thousand ways that she traversed – but she wasn’t about to remove her hand from the wall. No matter how long the labyrinth was, if she kept her hand on one side, she would find her way either back to the beginning or out.
Or to the center of the sacred space – and find what secrets lay there.
As Layla walked through the mist, picking her steps with care, she felt whispers of power brush her. The clear shimmer of a Crystal Dragon’s magic gave way to the seething fire of a Desert Dragon, followed by a riot of Phoenix birdsong that whirled all around Layla as her fingertips grazed their skeletons. Like she’d experienced in the catacombs below the Crystal Palace in Prague, Layla found she could hear the Dragons whose bones these were as their powers touched her. Whispers of language, snippets of thought; they brushed her over and over. Though Layla’s powers hardly rose in response and thus she couldn’t understand what they were trying to tell her, the effect produced a moving sea in her mind as she walked through the galleries of bones.
Listening to the call of the dead.
As that immense power moved her, Layla found herself sinking into a trance. She suddenly found she couldn’t remember the texture of the wall from her last few paces or the feel of the ground beneath her last few steps. Time ceased to have meaning as she traversed the bone canyon, drifting again and again. But the vast whispers of power all around her were impossible to fight; and drifting for the hundredth time or more, Layla suddenly found herself falling into trance again.
Feeling a vast call to surrender to it.
Understanding somehow that this was what she’d come here to find, Layla surrendered to that call now, listing to the roar and whirl of the Dragons. As she fell into it far deeper than before, she felt the sensation of their hundreds of thousands of coils moving all around her; millions of coils heaving in endless waves to embrace her. Layla’s breath was very slow now in the mist; her heartbeat so low she could hardly feel it. Feeling her ancestors call her, she moved on instinct – and with a sudden shock realized she’d been walking through the mists without touching any wall for minutes. Part of her panicked, knowing that if she tried to find a wall now, she would be hopelessly lost. But another part of her was soothed, moving with confidence, both hands palm-out at her sides.
As her dead ancestors guided her through the mist.
Layla could feel her ancestors’ power writhing all around her. Like unseen coils, they wrapped around her wrist and ankles, pulling her forward. At last, she came to a place where it ended, and as the pull of the Dragons came to stillness, she realized she’d arrived at a clearing where the mists thinned. Gazing around, she realized the light of dawn was in the air. Though it was still thin, the edges of the mists were haloed white.
And in the broad desert clearing, she could see a massive emblem carved into the canyon floor.
Moving forward, the mists thinned further as she arrived at the emblem. Enormous as half a basketball court, the emblem depicted snarling Dragons of every Lineage coiling and braiding through one another in an enormous circle. Embedded in the rock, Layla saw the emblem was made of Dragon bones inset into the stone and worn as smooth as the rock they were set in. The entire surface looked petrified; and as Layla stepped up to the circle and knelt to touch it, the thrilling harmonic of a million voices roared into her.
Vibrating her to her core.
Layla’s head fell back in ecstasy as that unending song poured into her – calling her Dragon to rise. Without pause, her drakaina was suddenly surging all the way up for the first time since her battle with Hunter, as molten heat filled Layla like a brimming cup, passion racing through her veins so hard she cried out. Every nerve was on fire with eros as Layla collapsed to her hands and knees inside the circle. As she rolled over upon the stone, her mind spiraled out to the stars as her drakaina sang all the way through her.
Along with the chorus of ancestors.
They braided together as Layla gasped upon the petrified stone and bone, clawing her hands into her hair and arching with the glorious passion of it all. It was better than meditating her way into the etheric universe; it was the calm of the ether and all the passions of every Dragon Lineage roaring through her all at once. And where the peace of the ether met the overwhelming passion of her Dragon-magic, there was an explosion.
An explosion that catapulted Layla far out into the cosmos – and straight to her quarry.
Layla felt the long arms of the Ascendant wrap around her as she found him. She smelled his clear scent in her nose as he wrapped his body around hers. Gasping in the vast universe, Layla could feel every inch of his amazingly tall body pressed to hers upon the stone; and as she moved, he moved with her, singing a gentle power in her ear. He was there even though he wasn’t; his presence flooding her with brightness.
Suddenly, that brightness took all the power of the ether and Layla’s Dragon-ancestors and her own magic, and wove them together into one massive coil of light. Spiraling up, Layla felt it smite the sky; piercing the cosmos even as she herself was absorbed. As the Ascendant held her steady, Layla felt that amazing sensation come to completion inside her like a blazing star; bright white and luminous with gold. Surrendering to it, she felt herself become one with the vast universe.
And as she did, she felt the Ascendant smile.
“Behold, the Golden Dragon Bind.” The Ascendant murmured as his fingertips stroked the diamond tears that fell from Layla’s eyes. “For that is what you are, Layla Price, when you touch the universe of your birth. We are nothing but love in the universe; and now you have found the way of Binding yourself to the All That Is. It is love, you are love, we are all love – and this golden sensation rushing through your veins is where it begins. Among my people, we call this sensation the Star Bind – the fulfillment of Binding ourselves to the entire universe, and realizing we are truly one with the stars.”
“My Dragon… I feel her!” Layla gasped in the Ascendant’s arms, still devoured by that vast sensation of being one with the entire universe, even as she was aware of her own drakaina roaring in her veins once more.
“Yes, she comes to the call of love in the universe.” The Ascendant spoke quietly as he nuzzled Layla’s nose. “She comes when there is a need for love, and the wanting to mend a broken heart. She comes when someone calls for completion… just as she comes to you now.”
“She wants to complete those who are broken – who are broken-hearted in some way.” Layla gasped, understanding.
“Yes.” The Ascendant spoke, smiling at her. “Just as she wants to complete you now, she wants to complete those who have a heart-wish unfulfilled. She gives that to them;giftsthat to them, by the vast glory of her love and the Bind it creates. She draws from this place, Layla – the Star Bind you feel now. For this is the basis of loving connections throughout the universe, and she does naught but draw those loving connections in from the heavens to the earth. Why do you feel like you reach the sky with all your Bound lovers? Because each and every time you are with them in deep moments of completion, you come to this place – the Star Bind.”
“But why does she rise like this for Hunter?” Layla gasped, feeling something inside her twist as she found herself suddenly facing off with her drakaina, deeply at odds.
“Because he is broken-hearted, and she wishes to complete him.” The Ascendant murmured, brushing a hand sweetly over Layla’s curls as his unseen body cradled her close. “She does not understand that he is mad. She has only learned that he is hurting… and once her fear of him gave way, her desire to heal him roared up. To take him – and heal his broken heart.”
“But that would mean Binding him… taking him as a lover!” Layla gasped, feeling more tears squeeze out of her eyes now and fall like diamonds over her cheeks. “I don’t want to do that!”
“Love finds a way…” The Ascendant crooned now, sober and sweet. “Think you that way must only happen via sex? It is a joining act, but only one of innumerable actions you might take, Layla Price. Dig deep into your heart – do you not wish Hunter healed?”
“I do.” Layla spoke, pressing a hand to her heart now and sobbing freely to have the conflict between herself and her drakaina so fully exposed. She felt raw; so raw as she rubbed her heart and her drakaina keened inside her – loving Layla and Hunter both, wanting to heal this impossible rift between them. As if the Ascendant felt it, he curled Layla closer in his arms, and she felt his stalwart support flood her. It suddenly made her feel like it was ok to have this tremendous hurt inside her, this conflicting anguish between herself and her drakaina. Layla found herself curling her drakaina into her arms as her Dragon coiled around her.
