I glance down to see my auric body has found some kind of thread. A little golden thread of light, its brightness pierces right through my heart as I walk on through the silent, starry darkness, towards that broken stone.
I know it’s Bjorn that I’m suddenly following out in the skies. A string of essence, it’s as if with each memory I retrieve of the good, the bad, and the ugly, I feel a little more of him, way out in the cosmos.
With each memory I retrieve of everything we are together, I findmore of that golden thread, leading me to Bjorn. I feel how it’s connected to our Bloodbond, too; because though all our bonds to Bjorn have been sundered, we each still have our memories of him, and his entire wholeness, leading us on through this ancient midnight.
As I finally come to the most massively broken star-stone, its towering reaches sundered and riven with cracks from our battle with the division energy here, I see how Bjorn’s golden thread flows into it.
Even more, this lifeline to him flowsright intoone of the cracks on the stone, flowing into the darkness. I peer into that gargantuan crack now, leagues taller than me and just as wide, as I stand in my infinitesimal self, and see how that Void is utterly black.
Though the true Void all around me is littered with stars of countless souls all still living here in the endless sky of the cosmos, this other Void is empty of everything that gives light.
Like a true black hole, I feel how that emptiness sucks me in now, as if hungry. It hauls at my metaphysical body and flesh, seeking to take me into its infernal night, forever.
Somehow, Bjorn is in there, as I draw a deep breath and ready myself. Gathering the threads of my bound drakes close around me, holding onto all their souls as my tether, I ready myself.
Then launch into the darkness.
All is screeching hell as I enter the place where there is no light. A terrible cacophony of a hundred thousand souls surrounds me now, as I both hear and feel them screeching and writhing in torment here in the blackness where I am now.
For this is the fury and darkness of the Usurper, borne of the souls that power it; and this is what lives inside the black emptiness in the Void, which I know I have comethroughsomehow, to be within the Black Dragon’s Void now.
There is no light here; nothing shines in this place of endless, cacophonous midnight. Only the writhing torment of the hundreds of thousands of souls stolen from the place of their birth exists here, as Ishudder in near-terror now from the massive, insane sound of their annihilation.
But I have come through from the star-stones in the real Void; I used whatever power remained in that place as I followed that golden thread of light with my fullest heart, holding nothing back.
And I have come here, weathering the Black Dragon’s eternal screeching night now.
Right to Bjorn, where he is trapped in the darkness.
25
ONE
At the end of his slender golden thread, my first true love writhes in and in upon himself, cursed and reliving terrible memories. Because he is cursed, as I see devastating oilslick-black sigils cascade through every part of his auric dragon-flesh here in this awful place, eating him up.
He is cursed by his own memories in this place of madness and ruination—the Black Dragon’s Void. I arrive where Bjorn is now, as I feel how he has lost himself. He doesn’t feel my presence as he writhes in turmoil in this place of sundered skies and nothingness.
I go to him, but he doesn’t sense me; as he churns, I feel in his soul how he feels he’s losteverything.Annihilated thoughts devour him, about everything he’s endured and what his life has become.
Because Bjorn feels he has lost it all—his home, his King, his battle with his father, now even our Bloodbond which joined him to something so good and light. He can’t find his innermost light anymore, and this turmoil inside him claims him.
Eating him up, in this place of no stars.
My heart breaks for Bjorn as I witness his agony here in this screaming hellhole. I realize why he’s not come back to consciousness with his soul trapped in this place; it’s because he doesn’t feel there’s anything worth returning to, now that his Bloodbond with me and all of us is sundered.
I coil around him now in the screaming emptiness, letting him know he’s not alone in this wretched place. Bjorn feels me as I coil all around and through him; I feel him understand thatsomeoneis here, someone cares, and has come to find him in his endless, most ruined hell.
As I coil into him now with my auric dragon, stroking and comforting him in his soul’s flesh, I feel how he doesn’t recognize it’s me yet. He just knows the animal comfort all shapeshifters need; to be held, stroked, and loved, even though we’re stuck here inside the Black Dragon’s Void, rather than in our actual bodies.
He knows someone is with him now, however, and that I’m not letting go, as I open my heart wide to everything he’s feeling, and everything he’s lost.
Bjorn’s worst memories go tumbling through me now, thanks to our auric closeness. I let them come, feeling them with him. I roar with him; I gnash my teeth with him. I rake my talons through the screaming nothingness as I buck and writhe, and experience all the pain and loss Bjorn’s had throughout his entire life.
That misery comes, but I don’t let it be all there is. Deep inside, I flare bright all the good times, the laughter, and the love. I show Bjorn the joy as I pour these memories through his auric dragon now, making him understand all is not lost.
Because we never would have found each other, had he not been banished from his clan and sought his fortune elsewhere. I feel him slow in his writhing now, as he feels me show him everything good in his life that has come to pass, even from the bad.
He finally knows itisme; at last, Bjorn feels it is a lifemate who has come to find him in this diabolical emptiness, even though we’re no longer Bloodbonded.
