Location:Nexus Pavilion
Date/Time:1 Frostforge, 9939 AZI — the wyrmlings' assigned birthday
Realm:Pavilion sub-space
The first thing Jayde smelled when she stepped out of her quarters was burnt sugar.
She stopped in the corridor. Breathed in. The smell was not old. The smell was actively happening, somewhere through the Pavilion, the particular dark-caramel edge that came off sugar when sugar had been abandoned to its own devices for between forty-five and sixty seconds too long. Beneath it, underneath, faintly — ozone. Scorched stone. A whisper of smoke.
Fire-affinity breach. Localised. Small.
Then, from the direction of the kitchen, Green's voice, pitched exactly the way Green's voice pitched when Green was about to lose patience and would under no circumstance admit to losing patience:
"Tianxin."
A small roar.
"Tianxin Xue Huo, do not make me use all three of your names. I already have one. I will find the others."
