Far off in the library hall, he comes to with a deep inhalation. My vision of him is so potent through our bond, it’s as if I can see his luminous blue-opal eyes right before me as they flick open, staring up at the silver mirror-stone from where he lies upon a large scrollback couch, like a bed.
As his vast inner drake goes roiling through our bond with his waking, we all feel it. I don’t miss how its cosmic magnificence is still tinged with darkness, however.
Because the curse-work upon Baldur’s arms and legs has not receded one bit, despite how much energy Bjorn and I poured into our bond last night, and Mikkel and me before that, not to mention Lærke’s healing.
It’s as if all our power and sex have been just sinking right into a black hole, within Baldur’s cosmos—the darkest star, which eats all light. As his gaze pins me from afar now, filling my vision so hard my real vision rushes out, I feel my Fourth Drake’s sudden call inside my mind.
Rikyava. Come, and bring all your drakes. I have discovered a few things about the Black Dragon that everyone should hear, from while I was asleep.
As Baldur speaks to me mind-to-mind through our Bloodbond, I feel everyone receive it. No one got as powerful a vision as me, however, as I find myself shored up between Bjorn and Ström now, shuddering from the force of Baldur’s sending and barely able to stand upright.
But my drakes steady me; with a deep inhalation, I find my feet. I glance at them both and they nod.
Without further ado, Bjorn and I finish dressing in our battle-leathers and we’re out the doors. We stop long enough in the kitchens to find Mikkel and Lærke, already loading up new creations they’ve cooked this morning and getting it ready to transport upon their Bloodwinds to the library hall.
Mikkel has a lecherous smile, as he comes over and purposefully takes me out of Bjorn’s arms to kiss me. I feel Bjorn’s irate growl rumble throughout my veins; even he isn’t hesitating today, though, as we get everything ready, then head towards the library with our edible haul.
As we arrive, we find Baldur still in bed, propped up against copious pillows on his scrollback chaise, as he stares up at the massive silver mirror-stone. He’s been moved into the hall; Ström and Bjorn brought in the bed for him yesterday on their combined Bloodwinds, while Lærke picked out a bunch of nice clothing for him to recuperate in, stylish but also comfy and pajama-esque.
As we arrive with our copious amounts of food, however, Baldur doesn’t look around from the latest scroll he’s working on. He squints hard at something upon the massive stone, levitating on its winds before him. Then he chews his lower lip, while scribbling a series of runes with a charcoal nib on a vellum that probably came from the library’s stacks.
I feel the fever that blisters off him as I get nearer, however, and see his chills. It’s a bad sign, as sweat stands out upon his brow, acrid. The curses on his hands and bare feet burn dark as I cross the gargantuan space, heading right to him. Baldur’s intent, as he examines one of Hedda’s ancient texts, though he glances over now as we arrive beside his makeshift bed.
He doesn’t rise from the scroll-back chaise, however, though he does set aside his vellum and charcoal nibs, ceasing sketching whatever runic idea he had been working on from the scrolls.
“Rikyava. At last.” Baldur takes my hand as I sit upon his chaise. As his dark blue eyes dig into mine, I feel him open our connection wide. I catch my breath as his inner dragon sweeps into mine; Baldur’s gargantuan Blood Magic drake feels like an ancient wind of the cosmos and blazing sunlight as it floods into me, surging through my body, everywhere.
It’s like a galaxy being born inside my flesh as his power sweeps me, in just as many bright, beautiful colors as he simply uses it to give me a metaphysicalhello. But though his dragon is sound right now, flooding into me in a deep mate-taste and coiling my inner Blood Magic drakaina up, I feel how his body just isn’t.
I taste Baldur’s ephemeral paint, starlight, and wild herbs scent as his drake coils all through me, intoxicating. But Baldur doesn’t rise from his comfy spot as we greet one another, too exhausted. As he smiles at me, I feel an ephemeral kiss brush my lips from his magic.
Before he pulls me to him by my hand—kissing me in truth.
I surrender to him, as his magic pulls me in, though his body is weak. His dragon hauls me to him as we kiss, a soft but lovely pressing of lips and a brief delving of tongues.
As our kiss breaks, I heave a huge breath from tension I didn’t even know I had. Because even though I still feel rageful darkness churning inside Baldur, snarling and gnashing its teeth for whatever reason I don’t know yet, I also feel his enormous light still strong inside him.
Though his body is weak and barely able to contain his enormous metaphysics right now, Baldur reaches up a hand, stroking back a strand of my hair.
Gazing into my eyes, with his beautiful, galactic ones.
“Thank you for coming so promptly when I called you,” Baldur says now as he watches me, getting right down to business without allowing usa break to discuss his current condition one bit. “I’m pleased to announce that as I studied your Ancestor’s scrolls during my sleep, I found a few things, which may help us fight the Black Dragon. In fact, I’m certain of it.”
“Have you found something that can unmake the Usurper, or kill it entirely?” I ask, as a sudden wary hope lights inside me and I wonder what Baldur’s discovered.
Even as I ask, though, I see Baldur flinch. It’s just the barest flicker of his long eyelashes as the faintest smile touches his full lips, wry—but I know what I saw.
As I gaze into his deep blue eyes, I see a haunted look there now, where there had only been certainty before. It makes me frown, though he smiles reassuringly now, smoothing back my hair and tucking a wayward lock into my braid.
Though his smile is meant to make me feel hopeful, I feel his power throw up a wall between us. Just like he did before when he didn’t want me to sense something through our bond, Baldur blocks his thoughts from me now, and the greater part of his emotions, as he shuts me out once more.
It’s not a good sign, despite whatever he’s found. And I suddenly know that Baldur is no longer the all-believing, all-trusting rock I need him to be, despite his calm, reassuring presence.
As he blocks me out yet again, I know that deep inside, something has shattered his faith. That’s not good; because faith was the one thing Baldur had, despite all the visions his sister saw of us failing in our quest to stop the Black Dragon, over and over.
Now, as he smiles, blocking me from understanding what’s really going on, I feel that dark presence inside him intensify. I finally understand what it is, as a deep intuition hits me, Aesa’s Truthstone blazing to life on my chest.
Because the darkness that devours Baldur like a cancer, and makes his inner beast rage, is connected to his lack of faith. It also makes his cursesfrom the Black Dragon grow; I see them creep even more out along his collarbones now, as I sense his inner uncertainty.
