I’d thought the prospect of a dragon abandoning me on a mountain was catastrophizing, but here I am.
But as if he still heard me, the dragon’s voice growls one last time in my head, fainter with every word as he rapidly ascends into the sky, «Figure it out yourself, for once in your life.»
Anger burgeons in me, chasing his words.
That may have been the best parting gift he could have given me.
Because Iamangry—with him, and with the priests, and with Yora, and with myself—and that is so much better than flailing.
I don’t know what I’m doing.
I don’t have magic to help me, or guidance.
Only myself.
And if I depend on anything else for my determination, it’s no wonder I can’t enter the Sage ofWrath’s temple.
So: take stock.
I need food and shelter.
Ironic, that now I am suddenly free to plant whatever seed I wish to grow but have no notion of how to do so.
In the early morning, I hear birds chirping, but without my magic I have no skills to catch them. I feel the sun on my face, stronger than where I was before; a sign of just how high up I am. And the gentle breeze is an ominous portent of the chill to come when the sun goes down.
This high up, the mountain will get bitterly cold by the time night falls, and without the magic of my determination, no amount of resolve will prevent me from getting frostbite.
I can’t access the temple and whatever food stores are there, not that I know how to cook them anyway.
I can’t descend the mountain, because the magic dampening field is thinner there—the priests might be able to find me, and I’m not ready for that yet. My resolve didn’t falter through starvation training, though it’s true that I knew then that food stillexisted. I knew the training would have an end, if not when.
Maybe I will have to resolve to believe that now, too—that this situation, that my failures that created it—will have an end. Even if I’m not yet sure how.
I turn around, surveying the temple grounds.
Only then do I notice that there’s a cottage.
There has never been a cottage here on my previous visits to the temple. The priests who maintain the temple and any visitors have always been housed inside.
Is it new? That would mean someone has been up here since the Sage of Wrath’s working—her Quieting.
The dragon? Despite how he challenged my expectations today, I find I can’t quite imagine him there.
Probably it’s not occupied, simply some part of temple administration that sages are never troubled with.
But: there may still be food, or at least warmth.
A possibility.
I take my first step, and begin walking toward it.
Chapter 2
Tasa
Thehikebackupthe mountain is... brisk. The mountain air is fresh! The sun is shining! It’s a good day.
Itisa good day.
