“And you cannot complete bonding in eleven days,” Arielle added. “Even with your outstanding abilities we’d need a few more weeks. A month tops. But then the dragon would still need to call to you. We don’t know how long that could take.”
Frustration clawed up my spine. “I feel like there’s something I can do now. I just?—”
Threads of silver poured through the window and floated around my arms.
“What now?” Arielle snapped.
“Nyzith Strands.”
She gasped. “They’re here?”
I’d forgotten she couldn’t see them.
I nodded vigorously. “They’re all over me.”
“Elariya. This is important. It’s the ring’s magic. They only appear when they want to show you something. Pay attention.”
I was. My eyes were peeled to them.
The strands swirled in silver loops, then they started to sing a melodious harmony right before flying through the door.
My mother’s voice came back to me.Follow the Nyzith Strands, they will lead you to your destiny.
So I followed them. And Arielle followed me.
We chased the dancing strands right down the hallway and out onto the balcony where they sparkled in the air, like stars in the sun. Then they gathered together and hummed, pulsing in the direction of the caves. The dragon caves.
“What’s happening? Are they still there?” Arielle asked, searching the air.
“Yeah,” I panted. “They’re pointing to the dragon caves.”
She looked back at me with wide eyes. “Blessed Mother. This happened the first time we tried the tracking spell. You and Wolfe came out here.”
I recalled the journal entry about that day, then I remembered what the Seer said. “My dragon is in that cave.”
Not where. When.That was what she’d said.
“It is in that cave. On a temporal plane.”
As if answering us, the Nyzith Strands sang on top of their lungs.
“From the look on your face the strands just did something. Didn’t they?” she observed.
“They did. That must mean we’re on the right track. But what can we do?”
Arielle gazed ahead. "The Nightblades have raised dragons here for millennia. If the cave leads you to one, it's quite possible it was born here. Creatures like that form bonds with the places they come from."
“If it were raised here, I’d be able to see some past version of it.” I stared deeply at her, my mind still processing.
“Yes.” She winced. “And I have a really bad idea. Areally, really bad idea.”
“Tell me.”
“The rules of time forbid you from using the continuum to take things from the past to make use of it in the future.”
“Then we can’t break the rules.” Magdalena had warned that catastrophic things could happen if a person dared to do so.
“We won’t. Those rules apply to physical objects, not magic. Not essence. You could use the threads of time to see if your dragon was ever in the cave. And if it was, you could collect an echo of its essence and use that as a compass. Then… maybe we could find the ring.”
