The possessive thought startles me even as it forms. Cannot be mine. Yet something primal and undeniable has taken root in my chest, a fierce protectiveness that defies logic and centuries of hatred between our kinds.
"You are right," I concede finally, the words rough with suppressed fury. "We need distance between us and this place."
Relief flickers across her features, her shoulders dropping fractionally with the release of tension. Only now do I notice how she holds herself, back straight despite the exhaustion evident in every line of her body. Pride swells within me at her strength. Most humans would have broken under what she endured. Most would be weeping, hysterical, unable to function. Yet here she stands, thinking clearly, making decisions that prioritize survival over sentiment.
She releases my arm but stays close as we continue down the tunnel, away from the chamber of her suffering.
The passage stretches onward, each bend and fork identical to the last as we move farther away from the TrueCoils’ labyrinth. I recognize the signs of desertion. The keh’shalin grows thinner with every dozen yards, starved of the collective essence that feeds them. No naga have traveled these forgotten paths in decades.
The sentient glow recedes until darkness presses against us like a physical weight; the radiance is nothing more than scattered pinpricks against the stone, stars drowning in an ocean of shadow.
I halt, and Serin stops immediately beside me.
"We need a different light source," I explain, my voice low.
I unsling the pack and reach inside, fingers closing around the cool, crystalline surface of the heartglass. It feels both smooth and subtly textured beneath my palm, like water frozen at the exact moment of rippling. At my touch, it warms in quiet recognition, and beneath the surface, a molten core begins to churn slowly. Fluid and alive, sapphire and emerald light drift within it like smoke suspended in liquid.
"What is that?" Serin asks, leaning closer to examine the translucent crystal in my hand.
"Heartglass," I reply, holding it where she can see.
Serin's lips part in wonder as the glow strengthens, turning her pale skin to sapphire, catching in her eyes like tiny flames. "It's beautiful," she breathes. "Your biotech is incredible. I've only read about it in books I snuck out of my father’s study, but seeing it is... different.”
I cannot help my soft snort. "Biotech," I repeat, the human term foul on my tongue. "That is what your kind calls it. A way to make sense of what you do not understand."
Her eyes flick to mine, curiosity replacing wonder. "What do you call it, then?"
"Magic,” I say simply. "If you were to sum up a naga’s ability to commune with the earth, I suppose that would be it.”
I begin moving again, holding the heartglass aloft to illuminate our path.
"How does it work?” Serin asks, falling into step beside me. "The books I’ve read only give a vague explanation of how yourmagicworks. It says it uses some kind of advanced machinery.”
I shake my head at her human terminology. "There are no mechanisms involved. It is a communion between naga and stone." I slow our pace when I notice her subtle wince. "The heartglass responds to my life energy. My essence. I offer, and it accepts, giving back in return." As I focus on the crystal, a familiar sensation flows from my core in the form of a gentle tug, like an exhale I can feel through my scales. The stone brightens in response, its blue-green glow an imperceptible pulse that keeps time with my heartbeat. "Feel how it warms," I say, holding it closer to her. "Not from flame, but from connection. The stone gives back what it takes, only transformed into heat and light.
“The keh'shalin, the veining light we no longer see winding through the stone, means these tunnels have not been traveled in a very long time. It no longer glows with the essence of my people, a good sign we have left the lair of the TrueCoil.”
Serin absorbs this in silence, her mind clearly turning over the implications. Then, with the directness I have come to expect from her. "Why tell me this? Isn't that forbidden? Teaching humans about your magic?"
"When you left Clavenmoor to warn my people about the planned attack on Vessan-Kar, you chose a side. Your father will see only betrayal. There is no returning to your old life now." I hold her gaze steadily. "Vessan-Kar is your home now.”
"I know," she says softly. "I knew when I closed the trap door to the tunnel, there was no going back.”
We continue in silence for several minutes, the only sounds our breathing. I find myself hyper-aware of Serin's presence beside me. The slight hitch in her breath when she places weight on her right leg, the way her fingers occasionally brush against the wall for balance, the subtle scent of her humanity mingling with blood and determination.
"Tell me again about the key," I say as we navigate another fork, choosing the path that angles upward. "About the female who freed you."
"Russet scales of a deep copper-red. Amber eyes. She looked older, but not ancient." Serin glances at me, her hands lifting to gesture the height and build of the female. "She said she owed my sister a debt because Leira saved Varok's life. Said Varok was like her own flesh and blood."
I falter mid-glide, the heartglass flaring as the air around me compresses and releases in a wave that makes my scales lift and settle in rippling succession down my length. "Severa."
"You know her?" Serin asks, hope brightening her exhausted features.
"Varok's den keeper," I confirm, my mind racing with the implications. "She served Varok’s family from the time he was a hatchling. After the Sundering claimed both his mother and sire, and Severa’s own kin, she remained at his side, keeping hisden, guarding him through grief and war, and becoming the one constant in his life. Varok is not her blood, but he is the closest thing to family.”
The full weight of realization spreads through my veins like venom from a bite I never felt. "I never would have guessed Severa is TrueCoil." So close to Varok, so perfectly positioned to gather secrets.
"TrueCoil labyrinth is what the female called this place. What is TrueCoil?"
