Page 225 of Elemental Becoming

“Could it have been us?” I ask, quieter than I mean to. “The bond?”

Valen doesn’t answer right away. And in the space between silence and reply, the thought coils tighter in my chest.

What if we didn’t just respond to something waking up? What if wewoke it?

Valen finally speaks, voice low—measured. “No. I don’t believe it was the bond that set anything off.” He folds his hands, fingers lacing tightly. “If anything, I think the bond responded.”

He looks between us, searching.

“Magics this old don’t awaken without reason. The world doesn’t conjure a connection this rare just to make history repeat itself. It does it to protect itself. To restore balance.”

He pauses, eyes narrowing slightly.

“My theory is simple. The world doesn’t create something thisrare unless it has to. The last time the Unmaking rose, it took a bond like this to seal it away. Now it stirs again. The bond reawakens. Cause and effect.”

A beat.

“You didn’t wake something, Amara. Something wokeyou.”

He glances toward the shelves lining his quarters, then turns to Thane.

“I don’t speak from experience, Thane. I’ve never seen this before. But some of what I’ve read, others have refused to believe. Stories buried in pre-Fire Era records. Magics don’t create something from nothing—it answers imbalance. That’s the pattern I’ve followed.”

He pauses.

“You’ve studied war. I’ve studied what comesbeforewar.”

Thane nods, absorbing it.

“If you’re certain,” he says, “then we move forward from that truth. Let’s see what we can do proactively.”

An hour later, I’m standing with Valen on the training field, Calryx just behind me, her breath warm against my back.

Thane had to meet with the council to discuss the attack. He said the Spymaster, Malek, had brought new information forward. Something urgent.

That left me here.

Valen said we couldn’t wait. That I needed to begin learning how to channel from Calryx without burning out.

The sun hangs low over the training field, casting long shadows across the packed earth. Calryx waits nearby, her wings folded neatly, her eyes tracking my every move.

Valen stands beside me, arms crossed.

“Before we begin,” he says, “you need to understand whathappens when you channel.”

I glance at him, already tense.

“You felt it yesterday when you tried to take too much. That pressure, the way it builds. That’s imbalance.”

He steps in front of me, tone measured but firm.

“Channeling through a dragon is unlike any other form of magics. It isn’t casting. It isn’t summoning. It’s a conduit. The power flows through you, but it isn’t yours. If you try to take too much, or hold it too long, you lose the ability to release it safely.”

He meets my eyes.

“That’s burnout.”

I nod slowly.