Because this shield needs to do more.
This shield needs to be a bridge.
Not cutting us off, but making it safe for us to strive.
For us toreach.
Even if I won’t get to appreciate it myself—
«Forgotten me already?»
The suddenness of Zan’s voice in my head makes me blaze.
Some part of me had known Zan was still with me, I think, because otherwise I’d have spontaneously combusted and murdered everyone in sight instead of what I’m actually doing. It must have been knowledge from the mate bond, I realize, which I hadn’t been focusing on because the mate bond at my core feels like it’s on fire—
Oh.Oh, that’s where so much of my power has been going—tohim.
The power of wrath to keep him in the fight.
Wrath forprotection, not just destruction.
I can’t regret that.
«Stay with me, Yora,» Zan’s voice says in my head. «You promised to try to live, gods damn it!»
I did. Iam. But—
“I don’t know how to anchor this, except with my being,” I whisper.
I remember the feeling of Zan transformed but unresponsive, with me but not, and know I’m about to do the same thing to him.
Somehow, though, he hears me.
«Anchor yourself withmine,» Zan snarls in my head.
What, so we can both be effectively comatose?! Absolutely not—
Sparks of icy blue light glisten in my awareness, and it takes me a moment to realize what they are.
Zan’sscales.
His dragon power, which is a match for my sage power. Which we know can hold all of each other.
His dragon scales, still full of power, all around Sanctuary Island.
I am not the only one who has been preparing, who has beenfighting, for all these centuries.
And it’s not just us, is it?
Teren, freed from his bonds by my shield, puts a hand on my shoulder, and I feel the weaves of his power, too.
The comfort of knowing there are people with me.
When you give of yourself to those who only want to use you, you make yourself lesser.
But giving to people who want to help you be yourself, whoever that is? Who want you to be free?
That comes back to you a thousand-fold.
