The matriarch was indeed throwing a fit. They could feel the rumble of the tower as they climbed the steps back up toward the roof. She was frantic and doing some damage. Every shudder of stone had them bracing themselves up the many stairs. Lord Cronley and Grand Maester Pyters were leading them back up themselves. If the matriarch was causing a stir, they were going to be involved.

As they crested over the top of the stairs, Kaden saw Zuma’s head still poking out of the wading pool. He couldn’t help but snicker at how unbothered they were at the matriarch throwing a fit. Puffs of dust were wafting through the air as they saw a giant blue tail thumping down, knocking over small buildings. None of the stabled dragons were there. They were all in the air, keeping their distance from them. She was truly throwing a big fit.

Why was this matriarch so stirred up by their presence? He wondered if the matriarchs shared some type of link to know when he was around, if they were sharing the same goal. Maybe they could sense his purpose instead. Even between him and his fellow riders, the dragons each have unique personalities. Zuma being playful and stubborn as they splashed their paws in the water toward any mage trying to get near them. Every thunder against the stone made the pool slosh back and forth as Zuma rode the waves.

This matriarch might be more upset by his presence in what it signified. If he is to be their voice, that means things have gotten dire enough to even need him in the first place. This matriarch might not be okay with accepting that the situation has developed. He hadn’t thought about that being a possibility. The anxiety it may mean for them to know that their kind needs to intervene with the humans could be too much.

“Zuma,” he said in a stern voice as he neared the water. “Enough of that. We need to calm the matriarch.”

He thought that they’d give him attitude, and he was right. Literally rolling through the water, belly up, he could only shake his head in response. They were, if not consistent with their stubborn behavior. Eventually, they rolled back over and huffed a bit of steam above them before reluctantly swimming over to him.

He saw Vixenta shaking her head in disapproval out of the corner of his eye. Other riders might have a more serious bond with their dragons, but he and Zuma had forever been laughing and bickering through their bond. They were more like an annoyed sibling than his dragon.

Crawling out of the pool, Zuma shook the water off, drenching those who were standing too close. He watched Reese blow the water off his clothes with a quick wind movement. Now Zuma was just being bad. He knew they had done a lot for them all in the most recent days and just wanted to relax, but he need them to approach the rampaging matriarch. He didn’t particularly want to get stomped by their gigantic claws.

“Don’t get too close if she’s throwing her wings around,” warned Grand Maester Pyters. “Her breed has extra sharp talons on their wings. If the size and weight doesn’t kill you, it’ll slice you right in half instead.”

“Lovely,” he said as he pulled himself up on the still saddled Zuma.

Zuma didn’t wait for him to strap himself in before taking off. It wasn’t like they didn’t know where they were going. The matriarch was out of her cave and crushing buildings and walls down. He hoped nobody was inside any of them and everyone truly had taken to the air. If they didn’t stop her rampage, the whole tower would crumble, taking everyone inside it with her.

Zuma let out a roar as they neared. Kaden felt the air ripple around him as the response from the matriarch shook him. He felt the sound slam into his ears, fly into his head, and rattle his skull. She was not happy and not happy with whatever it was that Zuma tried to say to them. How was he going to calm a rampaging matriarch?

The cloud of dust was nearly impossible to see through. Zuma jerked themselves into one direction and Kaden nearly fell right off. A large tail thundered by through the air. She had actually tried to swat Zuma out of the air. He hoped they were making the right decision in trying to reach out to her.

He had to do something to calm her. Using what magic he had left in him, he pushed out a feeling of calm and collected sense. He didn’t know what it would do for a matriarch, considering they were magic given form, but he hoped it would at least ease their mind to his presence.

The stomping stopped. Dust was settling around them as Zuma flapped their wings to keep them in the air. An eerie silence ate at him. It fell around to show him the massive matriarch glaring at the two of them, staring right at them. They had her attention.

“We’re not here to hurt anyone. We’re here to help.”

A pain shot through his mind as he clung to Zuma for support. It ate at his sense, slamming into him. She wasn’t being as kind or noble as the others he had encountered. She had something to say and she was not caring how it was said.

He felt the glare, felt the intensity as it washed over him. His eyes rolled back and he slumped over in his saddle. The visions were chaotic, showing magical explosions and bloodied battles. He couldn’t make out what was happening as they wracked his brain. This was the future this matriarch was seeing.

It was no wonder she was as frantic as she was. The visions were showing him an unrivaled violence. Dragons were falling out of the skies. Blood was raining down from the heavens as battles raged on. It wasn’t just a war; it was the war to end all wars. He counted several extremely large blue dragons. There, in the middle of the visions, he saw several blue matriarchs crying out in pain as their children fell to their deaths.

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Mages were battling each other on the ground. Normal people were using similar weapons that they had seen from the House of the Serpent assailants. Dragons were dropping from the skies from runed ballistas. Lord Cronley stood with his daughters, fighting for his life with the Grand Maesters.

Just as quick as it came, the vision was gone. His eyes jerked open and he lifted his head to look at the matriarch glaring at him. This was the most graphic and violent of any of the visions he had witnessed. Before, they were only small snippets of the future battles, the future incidents. This, this was horror.

“I will do my best to prevent it,” he said to her. “I will stop it.”

She rumbled angrily. He wondered if this vision only came about because he triggered it by his presence. If this was their future, why hadn’t she acted this way before he arrived? He didn’t know how the flows of magic worked and he didn’t expect anyone else knew either.

“I don’t know what’s going to happen,” he replied, “but I’m going to do everything I can to stop it.”

This wasn’t good enough as she started stomping again, throwing her wings about. The sharp talons on the end nearly took Zuma out as they dodged out of the way. He didn’t know what to do. Directing Zuma back toward the group of mages, the visions played over in his head as he tried to make sense of what she showed him.

He was breathing hard as he slid off Zuma and ran to them. “Vision. War. Mages against mages. Matriarchs fighting and losing.”

Grand Maester Pyter’s face paled. “No, that can’t be.”

“You were there,” he said as he started to gain his breath back. “You and Lord Cronley.”

“Who are we fighting?” Lord Cronley was nearly shouting at him.

“I don’t know.”

“Were they Serpents?”

He shook his head. “No. I mean, I don’t know! That’s the most I’ve ever seen of an actual fight!”

Reese was grabbing his head, brushing his hands through his hair as he tried to put things together. “So she herself saw this?”

He nodded as he tried to ease his breathing. “Yeah, she saw it. Blue dragons were falling out of the skies.”

“So her children were dying,” Evonne said with a sad tone.

“Yeah…”

Sayori grabbed him by the shoulders. “Were they fighting another clan? Were they fighting other dragons?”

His eyes darted around as he tried to read her face. “I think so, yeah?”

“Was it a specific type of dragon? Were they bronze dragons? Are the countries going to war?”

“I don’t know. I don’t know!”

Lord Cronley grabbed him by his shirt and pulled him up toward him. “Son, tell us, are we going to war with another nation?”

“I don’t know! I have had other visions… others with all the various clan’s dragons on my side. The lord… the lord commander is with me. I don’t… I don’t think it’s a war between the nations!”

Reese sighed. “That is the possible future. That is not right now. Right now, we have an upset, rampaging matriarch who is about to topple a tower.”

Lord Cronley threw Kaden away and he fell down, slamming into the stone. He couldn’t blame them, any of them. He just told them there was an incoming bloody war. Of course, tensions were high. He just wished his ass didn’t have to get thrown to the ground because of it.

Grand Maester Pyters took a deep breath. “Did you try to comfort her?”

He turned to her and said, “Yes, she wasn’t happy with the answer.”

“You saw her in this vision?”

“Yes, I saw several blue matriarchs.”

“Several?”

“Yeah, uh, there were maybe six? At least I think they were all matriarchs. Some were larger than the others.”

Vixenta looked to the Grand Maester and shook her head. “No, we only have four.”

“Each temple has only one. There are no more…”

They all looked to Kaden and Vixenta said, “except for his wild matriarch. That means there is another one out there somewhere counting his.”

“What could possibly happen that gets even the wild matriarchs to come out of their hiding?” Asked Sayori.

Vixenta patted her armor and said, “I think we already have an idea.”

“How are we going to calm her down?” Evonne asked just as they all flinched when another stable fell to her rampage.

Taking another deep breath, Grand Maester Pyters said, “We will all need to push our will upon her. Let her know that we have received her warning and will do everything we can to protect it.”

“Remind her that she might be injuring her own children if she continues behaving this way,” chided Reese. This just got him glares by the rest of the group. He gave a dismissive shrug in response.

Pyters went on to explain to them how she will order the mages up there to join in and what they need to be doing. Kaden watched as several mages got to work trying to scribble runes on the ground with chalk while dodging flying concrete.

As they finished, Grand Maester Pyters nodded to them all and the blue mages, and the three young riders, joined together in a chant. They repeated the words Pyters had instructed them to and their voices carried over the sounds of destruction.

The runes started to glow in front of them and Kaden’s eyes widened as he saw a physical manifestation of their will form. In front of them, the air shimmered and twinkled like a thousand tiny diamonds. The matriarch halted as the glowing reached her. She whipped her head toward them and Kaden was worried she was about to ignore their attempt and come for the gathered mages.

Instead, she sat down with a loud thud. He watched as she slowly closed her eyes, listening to the rhythmic chanting. That’s when he felt her, felt her emotions. They were connecting themselves directly to her. She was panicked, worried for her kin. The mages were trying to reassure her that they were there for her, for her drakes.

A low hum erupted, and the air vibrated as she joined their chant. It was beautiful and haunting. He looked to see Zuma swaying with the chant, just as the matriarch was doing. All the dragons began to settle and land around the destroyed rooftop, swaying with the chanting.

He wasn’t entirely sure what he was saying or what they were even doing. He just did as he was instructed and it was working. It reminded him of the charms that the white mages had done to Taldor and Zuma so many days before.

Just as it had happened in the cave, every blue dragon opened their mouth and a spray of blue glowing magic rained down around the mages. This magic didn’t infuse itself into him this time, but he now knew it wasn’t something that had only happened in the wild.

The matriarch yawned a mighty yawn before sashaying back toward the remnant of her cave atop the temple. Laying atop the rubble, she pulled herself into a ball and promptly fell asleep. The chanting slowed, eventually stopping. Every dragon went back to life as if nothing particular had happened.

Cronley turned to the Grand Maester and said, “I think it would be wise if I personally escorted them to the king.”

Grand Maester gave a scoff and said, “I think you would be correct.”