The flight to El'Elmore Cavern wasn't long.
"Somenaco, stay with me."
Digone's voice came sharp with panic through my mind.
"Almost there," he added aloud.
I tried to lift my head. My vision blurred as I glimpsed two dragons taking to the air from the cliff at the mouth of the cavern. Hope flared for only a heartbeat, "Elena..." her name slipped from my lips, hoarse and broken before the darkness swallowed it again.
"They're sending Ladon and Orochi to find her," Digone said quickly, his voice tight with both hope and fear.
The cavern's entrance came into view.
Cedrick, Mickel, and my mother, Oluna, waited for us.
Digone landed, still holding me gently in his claws.
My mother gasped. That sound alone told me everything. It was bad.
"Cedrick, we need to get him inside," Mickel said, stepping forward. He lifted me easily into his arms. "To the healers. Quickly."
He carried me like a child. I couldn't feel anything. To notice anything would have taken too much effort. I allowed my eyes to close. I didn't care if they ever opened again.
***
The mist clouded my vision as I came to the apple tree. Tears burned my eyes.
Deanna was sitting there, "Simmon," a voice said. I turned. For the first time since he passed, I heard him.
"Father…"
I ran to him. His arms wrapped around me, his warmth steadied me. "Come," he said. "Sit. We have much to talk about." He led me to the bench. I sank to the ground before Deanna.
"Please forgive me," I choked out. "I'm so—"
I could barely look up to her face. "I let you down."
She reached down and cupped my cheek, maneuvering my face to look me in the eye.
"No, child. No one could have foreseen this."
I met her deep brown eyes. They pierced my soul, yet somehow steadied me, so soft with that familiar, calming smile. I pulled away and looked to my father.
"I let you down. The guardian line is broken. If I'm here with you…" My thoughts raced, the weight of it crushing. They both laughed. Not in a mocking way. It was almost jovial and reassuring.
Shaking my head my voice squeaked out , "I don't understand..." Father raised his hand to stop me and gave me the direct command he could give me one guardian to another.
"Protect Elena, Somenaco…"
Their voices blended as the dream unraveled.
***
I sucked in a sharp breath as my body lifted from the bed. The scent of stone and herbal salves filled my lungs.
"There you are," Digone's voice broke through, relieved. "Thought we lost you for a second."
I did not say anything,
"Trovungh said you will need to stay here for a few days." He said and stood up.
"Get some rest" He placed his hand on my shoulder and leaned down, whisper "I'll be back to make sure you get to the council meeting in a few days."
I knew what he said he meant.
***
They said I could leave today. It had been three days since I felt her.
The last of the bandages had been removed this morning, soft hands peeling them back with ritualistic care. I felt no pain, just a strange emptiness. A numbness that felt deeper than skin.
The wound was closed, for it is my kind to heal fast but I couldn't shake this lingering feeling something had changed.
"Some wounds received while we are in the dragon from cannot be healed by magic, son." Trovungh the head healer told me as he checked to scar after the bandages were off.
I sat alone now in the outer chamber of the healers' hall, Digone had picked up a pair of jeans and a black T-shirt for me. I was standing for the first time without assistance. My reflection stared back at me from the polished obsidian wall. I hadn't looked before not really.
I was too afraid to look into the mirror but my reflection, it was there I could see the grief etched across my face, tired and worn out.
A single line, faintly raised. Still a dark red a scar that ran from the edge of my left hairline, across the bridge of my nose, and down to my right ear. The kind of scar mark no one could miss.
The kind that told a story without asking permission.
They'd tried, of course to heal it, three different healers, two spellsingers. They used salves that steamed and songs that stung. But nothing worked, even Yulanna the High Priestess herself tried, but assured me that glamor would conceal it.
The wound had closed, but it would not vanish.
I heard the words they'd whispered when they thought I was asleep:
"It's bound to the Guardian Mark."
"The magic struck through the bond. It left a trace."
"We can't remove what was written by the soul."
The white dragons know everything and yet they did not know what caused this. I reached up and touched it now, fingertips grazing the uneven ridge. It pulsed under my skin not in pain. It was Just the presence. Footsteps approached from the stone corridor.
I didn't move. Cedrick's voice was calm when it came, like always. "You're up early."
I didn't look away from the reflection. "Couldn't sleep."
"You're leaving today." Cedrick said taking a seat in the chair next to the small table.
"So they tell me." I replied not looking away from my reflection.
A pause.
Then, "Have you looked?"
I nodded once. "It stays."
Cedrick Lifted himself from the chair and stepped beside me, his arms crossed, gaze on the reflection too. "Most won't see it. Not with the glamour."
"That's what Yulanna told me. But she added some will." I met his eyes. "Those with true sight."
He didn't answer looking away. He didn't need to say anything.
Because we both knew. Once Elena's mark appeared she would be able to see it.
I let the words hang in the air a moment longer, then turned away from the wall.
My fingers found the necklace at my throat, the slim silver circlet that held the glamour spell. It pulsed faintly with old magic, linked to my core. Meant to conceal what should never be seen.
I hadn't activated it since the fall. Part of me didn't want to. It felt dishonest, even now.
But part of me needed it. I closed my eyes and whispered the word. "Veylmir."
The magic responded instantly, curling over my skin like a breath of warm fog. The sting in the scar dulled, not the pain, but the visibility. I opened my eyes and checked the mirror again.
It was gone. At least to anyone without true sight.
And in the same breath, I heard footsteps again this time brighter, faster.
Digone's voice called out down the hall.
"He better be ready, or I'm dragging him out myself."
And then as if on cue my mother's voice a softer but stern tone.
"You'll do no such thing. Let him come out on his own."
I turned from the obsidian wall, shoulders straightening. They didn't need to see what was beneath the glamour. Not yet aways.
Cedrick stepped forward, expression unreadable.
He looked older today, More exhausted than normal. Maybe it was the lighting, or maybe it was the weight of what he was about to say.
He placed a hand on my shoulder not heavy nor not light. Just a firm gentle squeeze of my shoulder.
"The funeral for Deanna is tomorrow."
I froze. He didn't let go as if wisdom Told him that I needed him to study me for a moment.
"The Council has decided... you shouldn't be there."
The words didn't land all at once. They came slowly, like ice cracking underfoot. I turned to him, jaw tight, vision blurring.
"You know she was my bond," I whispered. "You know."
Cedrick didn't flinch. He looked at me the way he always had, like I was his son. To be fair after my father died he did take me in almost became like my second father.
But still, he said:
"It is for the best, my son."
And just like that, another piece of me stayed buried. I said nothing, looking away from him, not because I agreed nor because I accepted it. But because there was nothing left to say. Once the Council made a decision, there was no changing their minds. They could forbid me from speaking. They could strip my title. They couldn't stop me from loving her and grieving her loss.
I would be there. Even if I had to stand in the shadows and say goodbye through silence.