“You and I, our fates are intertwined, young rider.”

His voice vibrated into Kaden, worming its way into him in a way he couldn’t explain. The words he spoke were true. He already knew it. He had already seen the Lord Commander in a vision. They were side by side on the back of dragons, prepared to attack an opposing army.

“It’s been a long time since a matriarch has given me a vision. I too used what they had shown me to help make this world we live in better.”

Kaden squinted his eyes at him. He didn’t know how that could be when the Daralty Armistice treaty was signed so long ago that the Lord Commander couldn’t have been there. He had said he had been blessed in a nest. That was the only way you got multiple visions, yet here Kaden was, getting more visions from different dragons.

“Sir,” he looked up at him with curiosity, “how old are you?”

“Two hundred and sixteen.”

Kaden’s mouth fell open. The hinges on his jaw wouldn’t close. He couldn’t believe it. Humans didn’t live that long. The Lord Commander’s face didn’t budge. He didn’t crack a smile. It wasn’t a joke. Kaden managed to close his gaping mouth as he swallowed back his shock. He didn’t think it was possible, but he felt it he wasn’t lying to him.

Everyone gave him far more respect than anyone else Kaden had met at the citadel. He had wondered why even the ambassadors stopped and frequently deferred to him. If he was truly that old, why wasn’t he leading everyone? He would have the experience of doing so.

“You too will experience this,” he said as his shoulders slacked and he took a few large steps toward a table and chairs. He motioned for Kaden to sit down. “We have some things to talk about. Things we need to discuss.”

Shifting nervously, Kaden carefully pulled the opposite chair out and sat down with the Lord Commander.

“I have not met another who had been blessed in a nest before you came along, son.”

Kaden had a hard time meeting his eyes. The overpowering aura he gave off always intimidated him.

“We needed to have this talk, but,” his eyes softened, “things have been hectic.”

Kaden took a deep breath. “So you are saying by being blessed as I was, I will live hundreds of years like yourself?”

“It is very likely, yes.”

“Do people know this about you?”

He nodded briefly. “Yes, otherwise it would not be explainable for how I am still here.”

“Why aren’t you in charge?”

Kaden jumped as the laugh he let out rolled across the room.

“I truly don’t want to be in charge of the political aspects of the world. When you’ve lived as long as I have, you really see how people truly are. I have no interest in controlling any of them in that way.”

Kaden could understand that. With everything he had seen recently, politics were just as troublesome at the higher levels as they were down at his local levels dealing with the magistrates. From what he had seen, he couldn’t blame the Lord Commander. He couldn’t imagine having to endure it for hundreds of years.

“The connection you have to your dragon, to all dragons, is far stronger than any connection your companions will ever have.”

That was evident just from the time they had spent while there. He had felt things they hadn’t. He had sensed the darkness when they had only had small inklings of it. The overwhelming force and pressure of the darkness that suffocated his thoughts must have come from Ambassador Laramee.

He nodded and said, “I was able to sense the ambassador when others couldn’t.”

“Ahh, yes. Meinor told me you had been asking about it. Yes, we now know it was the Ambassador. What he had been doing during those times of pressing darkness, we still have to discover. For now, though, I feel confident in saying that problem has been quieted.”

“Did you suspect him when you spoke to us after the evening attack?”

“We did, but we didn’t have enough evidence to go after him directly. Remni really didn’t like him and I could understand a lot of her reasoning, but he was too careful. He covered his tracks very well.”

“Except today,” Kaden added.

He sighed and said, “I don’t think he anticipated your skills here.”

“Why didn’t you sense him as I did? And why did the matriarchs above only grant me with visions and not you?”

He crossed his arms and leaned back in his chair. “The Matriarchs and I have not shared visions for a very long time.”

“So, they’re only using me to share their desires? Did something happen?”

He sighed and said, “I didn’t intervene when they wanted me to. It was a mistake, on my end. That nest I spoke of, they decimated it. I had faith in people when I shouldn’t have. They stopped showing me things after that.”

Kaden didn’t know how to take that. It was clear when they had shown him Ambassador Laramee attempting to kill the serpents in their holding cells that the dragons wanted him to do something about it. Why else would they show him it? They had their own motivations and here the Lord Commander was saying he didn’t obey them, resulting in many dragons dying.

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“I didn’t stop trying my best to do what I could for them and for all magic, but my connection was weakened with it all. I am still very much more in tune with the flows of magic than anyone else, but even I could not pinpoint where the rush of darkness was coming from here. Not without their help.”

Kaden looked at his hands. He had stopped the ambassador. They had all seen what the serpents were capable of. They were taking out the dragons right in the middle of the skies. It was clear they were a direct threat to all the dragons and all mages. Why the Ambassador had been so willing to assist them was going to bother him for ages.

“Do you know why he did it?”

“Not yet,” the Lord Commander said. “The Serpents are normal people, usually. We very rarely find any actual magical users in power. For the Ambassador to be a mage and an ambassador is truly baffling. It is making me wonder how many others are secretly under their control.”

“Why would normal people want to take out dragons and mages, anyway?”

He gave Kaden a polite smile. “You are very young, very new to the world of magic. Those who have our powers have a better place in this world. We’re treated better by everyone, all because some beast decided we were worthy. It makes people bitter, it always has. In some realms, it is worse. Even reaching a matriarch now is a high guarded thing. So even those who may be worthy, they never even get the chance at a higher station in life. They grow resentful and attack those who have benefited from it.”

Kaden couldn’t help the disgusted look on his face. “It’s not the dragon’s fault that humans are keeping them from others. Why would that mean that all dragons need hurt or captured?”

The Lord Commander took in another deep breath. “You will see a lot on your pilgrimage. I am willing to bet that the blessings you receive will come with even more visions. Those visions, they will expect you to act on. Do not hesitate, they know what is best for this world. Do not grow jaded and hateful of these people. They have chosen you, Kaden Bertoff. Make them proud.”

He pushed himself up from his chair, ending their conversation. He started to walk off to the door, but turned around and motioned for him to follow. Kaden scurried up behind him, following him through the door into the stairwell with the lift. The scraping of stone could be heard echoing below him as it rose to meet them.

“I know you will be joining me as a white mage when you’re done. I look forward to that day. They already expect you to do a lot for them and you haven’t even met them all. When you are done with your pilgrimage, we will discuss what you have seen.”

They stepped onto the platform and Kaden felt his body shake as the stone descended back down the floors. He didn’t know if that was entirely true, if he did have all the wanted traits of the dragons. He hoped that would be the case, wanting to control and use all the elements seemed like a wondrous thing but if it meant he would be living a long life managing politicians and defending the people from themselves as the Lord Commander was, he might pass on their blessings.

The Lord Commander led him back through the winding hallways into the open council room they had interrogated him publicly at only a day prior. There were servants running amok even that night, putting different decorations in place. He watched as several struggled to carry a large table into the hall.

“It’s for your ceremony tomorrow. It’s a bit of a rush order so they will mostly be working through the night,” the Lord Commander explained as they passed.

“Do you think people will believe it about the ambassador?” Kaden said in a quiet tone.

He nodded in response and said, “a lot more people than you realize were hurt in the attack. We lost several very important figures here. We haven’t even been able to contact everyone to notify them of all our losses. What’s one more to add to the top? It is truly the perfect cover.”

He continued to follow him through the halls he had sprinted through earlier that evening. They reached the communal lifts, and he watched as the Lord Commander waved away an earth mage as they got to a small lift. The mage merely bowed and stepped aside. The scratching stone roared to life.

“Did they say anything new to you, something other than about the ambassador?” He was looking down the dark lift shaft as they ascended.

“Uh,” he had to refocus his thoughts. Everything he had told him and everything that had happened was distracting him. “They said that the water is tainted, my home isn’t safe, and not to trust the lords. I don’t know if they mean in the water nation or in general? I thought it was about the ambassador, but he wasn’t a lord.”

“They actually said this to you? They didn’t show you images of this?”

Kaden nodded and said, “Yeah, they actually put the words into my mind. It was painful, to be honest.”

“Interesting. They have not done such a thing with me. I only got visions, not words.”

“They also said that this was only the beginning.”

Their lift came to a sudden stop, causing Kaden to fall to his knees from the jolt. The Lord Commander pulled him back up by his shirt while pulling him closer. “There are more serpents here. They know it. He wasn’t the only powerful one.”

Dropping Kaden as his eyes raced around, his thoughts bouncing around with them. He took a deep breath and said, “It seems that we are sending you right back into the thick of it. I am truly sorry. Heed their warnings. Be extremely wary of the Lords you’re going to interact with.”

Sayori’s words were echoing in his mind about being someone, doing something with the powers that he’s been given. He knew he needed to stop letting things happen to him and instead cause them to happen to him.

Straightening his back, he said, “did they tell you anything about what is happening in the water realm right now?”

He squinted in response and slowly shook his head no.

“I didn’t think so. The Ambassador clearly didn’t want people to know anything about what he was involved with.”

“Spit it out, boy.” The Lord Commander’s tone tuned irritable. He didn’t want to push his luck with such a man. They were on a small section of stone, suspended in the middle of the air, with no one around them. They were as isolated as they could get.

Even still, in a quiet tone, he said, “I was hunting in the wilds when I came upon a trapped dragon. It was a rune trap large enough to capture an adolescent. I saved the dragon, and it took me to the nest. There I was greeted by the matriarch and blessed by the nest. I’m sure you know how that goes.”

He nodded and waved his hand to continue.

“On my way to the water temple after my blessing, my cohorts and I discovered a second, more hastily built rune trap. Luckily, at that time, one of the mages with me was an expert in runology in our nation. She was able to identify which house it had come from.”

“We happened to run into the head of that house and escorted him to the water temple with us. There he was questioned and they’ve launched a full investigation into it. Every rider in the water nation is currently scouring the skies for more traps.”

The Lord Commander had his eyes closed, deep in thought. The grimace on his face told Kaden more than he could have said. He was not okay with dragons being trapped. Kaden would have been surprised if he had reacted any other way.

“And we’re sending you all there during said investigation, with words of betrayal at their highest rankings. This is a mistake.”

“No sir, no it is not.” The look he gave was stern in response.

“It is likely to be more House of the Serpent members sabotaging things. You are in danger. You all saw what they were capable of here. That region will be too unstable for you all to traverse in for your pilgrimage.”

“Which is exactly why we need to be there now, before anything worse can happen. I was the one who found the ambassador and I think I understand how things work now. I can feel things. If I can’t find out who is capturing dragons, I don’t know who could. I just know that I have to save them, me. The matriarchs apparently know it too.”

He felt the rumble of stone come back to life as their ascension continued. The Lord Commander must have accepted his answer as they rose back toward the stables.

“It is no wonder you were blessed by a nest of compassion.” He nodded to Kaden. “You will make them proud, young rider.”