Chapter 1
Ihavebeendriftingalone for a long time.
I don’t actually know how long it’s been since I put myself into this magical stasis to create the dampening field over Sanctuary Isle that prevents the priesthood from working magic against our people.
They call this region the Quiet.
In this meditative state, I can’t see the seasons pass; can only feel the presence and absence of those with powerful magic as they come and go.
And, in one case, speak.
But it’s been a long time since the dragon has spoken to me.
Other than the dragon—and only the one has ever visited—no one besides a sage, the most powerful magic users in the world, can even get close enough to approach Celestial Sanctuary Temple. And if they do, the magic of the Quiet suppresses their power.
Even animals sense the unnaturalness and stay away from the temple.
And nothing here changes.
I wonder sometimes if anything changed when I put this into motion.
The dragon used to tell me that it mattered. But it’s been a long time since he told me what the world is like now.
I wonder if he thinks I’ll give up and die if I know it’s useless.
I wonder if itisworth holding, after all this time.
Maybe I’ve done enough.
Maybe I mattered once, but not anymore.
Then suddenly, as if my roaming thoughts summoned him, I feel the dragon’s magic.
I always sense him sooner than anyone else, even the sages.
Perhaps it’s because he’s a dragon, but before I created the Quiet I’d met—and killed—other dragons.
And this dragon, I recognized the first moment I laid eyes on him, before I hatched this plan.
Before our eyes met, I knew what he was, and I could see he knew that I knew.
And then he turned away from me, like I couldn’t do anything, wasn’t worth anything.
I was unreasonably hurt, considering that I didn’t know him, that we were supposed to be enemies—
And that I agreed.
That moment changed something for me. Gave me the clarity I needed to turn away from the path I was on, which in turn gave me the power to create the Quiet.
I recognize the feel of the dragon’s magic in my current meditative state, even though I’ve never seen him since.
I’m walled into a chamber in the temple. I can’t see anyone.
But I canfeelhis approach now.
He’s moving fast.
Only then do I realize that I can feel more people, too—many more people than have tried to come here in a long time.
