What are you without power?the voice taunted.A girl. A commoner. Replaceable.
My knees hit the stone. Blood spilled from my nose, my ears.
“No,” I gasped. “I’m more than that—I chose this. I choseher.”
The spirit pressed harder.
My vision darkened. I felt the last edge of myself splintering.
And then I screamed—raw and ragged, as if the magic that made me was being ripped from bone and soul.
Kaelith’s roar echoed behind me, distant and furious—but she didn’t intervene.
This trial was mine to survive.
Or not.
The world twisted again.
The pain ebbed for a heartbeat, just long enough for me to suck in a ragged breath, and then the next wave hit. Not fire. Not cold. Something deeper. Loneliness. Despair so crushing it cleaved through bone. My knees were already bloodied from the stone, and my magic flickered low in my chest like a dying candle.
The spirits weren’t done.
The voice came again, this time not cruel, but calm. Final.
One must fall. You… or your dragon.
Everything around me froze. The air went still. Even the wind stopped howling through the cliffs. My heartbeat thundered like war drums in my ears.
“No,” I whispered, voice shaking. “Don’t make me choose.”
But the stone beneath my palms pulsed, and a vision unfurled before me—Kaelith, falling from the sky. Her wings torn. Her body shattered on the cliffs of Warriath.
You are her weakness,the voice whispered.You bind her. We must sever your bond.
“No—” I tried to stand, but my legs gave out beneath me.
The magic pressed in again, tighter now, coiled like a vice around my throat.
Choose. Her life. Or yours.
Tears blurred my vision. My chest felt carved open. But the answer came without hesitation.
“Then take me,” I gasped, slamming my palm into the stone again, my voice ragged with finality. “Take me. Let her live.”
The magic flared violently, like fire being stoked by rushing wind, and then… it vanished.
I collapsed, my body limp, the strength ripped from every limb. My cheek hit the stone, warm with blood and ash. I couldn’t move. Couldn’t breathe. The world pulsed and dimmed around the edges, and I felt myself slipping.
Then—
Thud.
Kaelith’s talons struck the ground beside me. The earth trembled beneath her weight.
She loomed over me, her breath fanning my face, hot and alive. Her scales rippled, shimmered—violet and gold flashing like firelight off water, as if something beneath her skin wanted to break free.
She lowered her head, her golden eyes glowing like molten metal.
