His fingers moved slightly, barely brushing mine. The contact sent warmth racing up my arm, not the burning heat of dragon fire or the wild electricity of wolf energy, but something steadier. Safer. Like coming in from the cold to find a fire waiting.
"You didn't fail today, Aria. You survived. You protected yourself. There's no shame in that."
"It was so easy," I whispered. "Taking his life. Like crushing an insect."
"The ease isn't what should concern you. It's whether you felt pleasure in it. Did you?"
I thought back to that moment, hand through chest, heart stopping against my palm. "No. Just... necessity."
"Then you're still yourself. Changed, perhaps. Harder, certainly. But still the woman who keeps pressed flowers hidden in her room. Still the Keeper who questions instead of blindly obeying."
I looked at him sharply. "How do you know about the flowers?"
"You know how. Five years of blood carries more than just life force. It carries memory, emotion, the small details that make a person who they are. We know you better than you think. Better than you know yourself, in some ways."
The dream-forest shivered suddenly, reality rippling like water disturbed. Through the trees, I caught a glimpse of golden eyes, burning with barely contained irritation.
"Speaking of my brothers," Thane sighed, the sound carrying fond exasperation. "Kaelen grows impatient."
The dragon prince materialized from shadow, his presence immediately changing the dream-space's quality. Where Thane brought warmth and safety, Kaelen brought intensity that made the air itself feel charged.
"You were supposed to be teaching her to fight." Kaelen's voice carried an edge sharp enough to cut. "Not conducting therapy sessions."
"Understanding oneself is the first step to fighting effectively," Thane replied mildly, unmoved by his brother's irritation. "She needed this first."
"What she needs is to survive what's coming. The Order won't wait for her to process her feelings about necessary violence."
"And you think throwing techniques at her will help? She's not a weapon to be sharpened, Kaelen. She's a person in transition."
"She's running out of time to be either."
They faced each other across the clearing, and I felt the weight of centuries between them. Old arguments, old patterns, old wounds that had never quite healed. The chains they wore weren't the only things binding them.
"You're fighting about me like I'm not here," I said, standing. Both princes turned to me, surprise flickering across their features. "Making decisions about what I need without asking what I want."
Kaelen's mouth opened, probably to deliver some cutting response, but I continued before he could speak.
"Thane's right. I needed to understand what I'd done, to process it. But you're right too, Kaelen. I need to learn to fight while channeling your powers if I'm going to survive." I looked between them. "You're both trying to protect me in your own ways, but you're so caught in your own patterns that you're not seeing me."
Silence fell over the clearing. Then Thane chuckled, the sound warm as summer rain.
"She has a point, brother."
Kaelen's expression shifted through several emotions I couldn't quite identify before settling on something that might have been respect. "She does."
"So teach me," I said. "Both of you. All of you. Not as the Keeper, not as Pandora's heir, not as some prophesied omen of change. Teach me as Aria, who needs to survive the next week."
"The wolf and phoenix are waiting," Kaelen said after a moment. "We'd intended to rotate through, each teaching different aspects. But?—"
The dream-space shuddered again, this time more violently. Through the trees, I saw morning light beginning to creep across the sky. Real morning, not dream dawn.
"No," Kaelen snarled, his form beginning to fade at the edges. "We had hours. The connection should hold longer?—"
"Someone's waking her," Thane said, rising to his feet. His hand found mine, solid and warm despite his fading presence. "Remember what I said. Every choice is a chance to break the pattern."
The clearing dissolved, taking both princes with it. I surfaced from sleep to find Ellie shaking my shoulder, her face pale with worry.
"Aria, wake up. Please. The Council's called an emergency session. Something's happened."
