“Do you remember anything about the vanir and æsir?”
The vanir were our enemies.The æsir are the blessed—without the vanir to oppose, we took a new name for ourselves.
Liz blinks.“So—you really were the æsir, fighting the vanir.Why were you enemies?”
Euphrasia shrugs.I’m not sure.It justwas, but I know that we strongly objected to the way they treated their bonded.
Liz freezes.“Did all the blessed have bonded humans?Before, I mean?”
We did.As children of the sky, we couldn’t consume anything of earth without first forming a bond with a child of the earth.As you probably know, we draw much of our energy from other sources, but for physical nourishment, we could only tolerate it with an earth-child bond.
Everything she dreamed about appears to be true.I can’t decide whether that’s good or bad.Liz looks distressed, but I think it’s good that we’re gaining information that we didn’t have.
“Why didn’t you tell Azar all this already?As the return leader, don’t you think he should know all of that?”
We didn’t know what would be the same, or what might have changed.Many of the blessed who fled Earth were upset about our departure.That’s why Odin kept most of the blessed who had lived here out of the return.He didn’t want to make Prince Azar’s job more difficult by bringing past biases into the search.
“I think he did the opposite.He didn’t even tell Azar what the heart was.”
Euphrasia tilts her head.And do you know what it is, earth child?
“It’s a stone.He couldn’t have told Azar that?”
Euphrasia’s smile’s sad.It began as a stone that could not be moved, and our enemies grew in strength with its control.But that changed—it came to us for a time.In our departure, it was retaken by the vanir.That was more than a thousand years gone.We didn’t know where it might have been or what form it may have taken.The heart always called to the earth and sky born alike—it was only a matter of time before the earth children found it.
“I will never understand the blessed insistence on withholding information that might be helpful.”Liz frowns.“But Euphrasia, you don’t look like you feel so great.Maybe you should find one of the humans we just met...”
It takes her half an hour, but Liz finds good matches for Euphrasia and all the other blessed who came with us—all thirty-two of them.We gather the others into one place, and we travel to the second stop for the day.There are another forty-six brights, and at the third location, we find eighty-eight more.
“It’s not enough.”Liz’s face is drawn, and she’s clearly stressed out.“I mean, I think it’s good.I’m really pleased that we’ve been able to find so many bondable humans who are sympathetic to the dragons, even with the government blasting that they’re our enemy on every channel.”
And yet, if we can’t find more, my people will all die,I say.It’s not nearly enough.
“I think we need to find another renaissance festival,” Liz says.“The military will definitely be expecting that, but...”She groans.“I don’t know what else to do.Why are they so stupid that they won’t see that we’re trying to do this the right way?”
Euphrasia’s new human, a woman who had almost white hair before it turned silver with the bonding asks, “Have you thought about Comic-Cons?”
Liz turns slowly.“No.”
Silver hair asks, “No, you don’t want to try that?Or no, you haven’t considered it?”
“I hadn’t really considered it,” Liz says.
“After the dragons came to the last one, the government canceled all renaissance festivals,” the woman says.“They said they were too dangerous, but the last I heard, they weren’t canceling Comic-Cons.”
“In the United States...”Liz slaps her own forehead.“But what about other countries?What are they saying?”
“So far, you’ve only picked up humans in the US,” the woman says.“Is there a reason for that?”
“I’ve mainly focused on friends of friends,” Liz says.“I don’t know anyone in other places.”
“But the news said that you simply showed up at the renaissance festival.”She shrugs.“If you wanted to try that again, maybe a Comic-Con in another country?”
Liz calls for any functioning technology and starts frantically tapping at screens.“Melbourne,” she says.“There’s a Supernova Comicon and Gaming Convention.”She beams at me.“This is perfect, but it’ll be much larger.”
Are you worried the humans will attack?
“I’m less worried about it in Australia.They won’t be expecting us to show up either, I don’t think.”
