Page 96 of Elemental Becoming
The air seems to thin around us.
“And you never questioned it?”
“I questioned everything,”she says.“But questioning is not the same as being answered.”
I go still.
Calryx’s presence presses gently against mine.
“You seek a whole answer from a creature given only a piece.”
The words are not harsh, but they cut anyway.
“Then what piece do you have?”I ask.
A pause.
“The eggs should not be silent,”she says.“The wards should not be weakening. And whatever has changed began before you awakened.”
Thirty years.
The thought moves through me before I can stop it.
“Before I was born,”I whisper.
“Yes.”
Her wings stretch wide, carrying us higher.
“You are already beginning to understand. Not because I gave you the answer, but because you are feeling where the pieces do not fit.”
The wind rises around us.
“You feel the fracture. You feel what has changed.”
A pause.
“That is where it begins.”
The words smother me.
The world is shifting—and somehow, I can feel it. Like something inside me has been pulled open, made aware of forces I was never meant to touch.
The wards. The eggs. The balance of this realm—everything is changing, and it isn’t contained somewhere far away.
It’s here.
Moving.
Unraveling.
And because of what I am . . . I can feel it, just like the dragons.
The weight of it crashes down on me all at once.
My breath turns shallow. My fingers tighten against Calryx’s neck as I fold over the saddle, pressing my cheek to her smooth scales.
In.
