Soon after the solstice Renna came to a decision. She would ask Arion’s help with reading the amulet book. The next night when they were sitting by the fireplace with their wine glasses she asked him to wait a moment and brought out the book to show him.

He was surprised.

“Where did you find this?” He asked.

“In the library, a long time ago.” She said, “I couldn’t read it then. Well I still can’t, I don’t know the language, but then I hoped I could learn.” she explained.

“It has a picture of my amulet on it… It might be important.” she continued imploringly.

Arion took a look. The book was in old draconic, a dead language only used by scholars of dragon magic.

He shook his head and explained “I can’t read it either. It’s a language that only scholars of my kind learn…”

He fell deep in thought.

“There is someone that might help us…” he said finally, “but you two have not met yet…”

Renna was intrigued. Was there more of his kind around?

“I will take the beast out to hunt tomorrow and when the sleep is over we will try to consult this person,” he said with a smile.

“She will be pleased to meet you, I suspect,” he added.

She? Renna could not suppress a small twinge of jealousy.

“Who is she?” She had to ask.

“My mother,” he replied quietly.

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Renna was taken aback.

It was little bit less than a week later when Arion returned and was ready to face his mother. They went to the door of the room with the dangerous mirror. Renna repeated in her head all of the instructions on how to deal with the mirror. Then he made her repeat them to him again to make sure she understood.

She was under no circumstance to let go of his hand. If she felt tired she would need to lean into him and close her eyes. Make her shape completely one with him. Then the mirror would draw from him and not from her. And not let go.

Then he unlocked the door.

Holding hands they went to stand in front of the mirror.

For a while, nothing happened.

Then, an older woman stepped into the frame. She looked similar enough to Arion to be his mother indeed. She was smiling.

“So you finally decided to share her with me, child.” She said kindly. “Won't you introduce us, Arion”, she asked.

“Renna, this is my mother Amelie Darkwind.” He said.

The woman in the mirror nodded her head in greeting.

“Mother, this is Renna Johansdaughter and there is a mystery about her we would like your help solving.”

Renna curtsied when he introduced her and then passed him the book she had been holding.

“Renna came to me with an amulet imbued with dragon magic, mother. It’s connected to her blood. It’s an artifact of her family. When she came here she found this book that seems to describe her amulet, but neither of us can read it, it’s in old draconic and seems to be quite technical.” He explained quickly.

“Please hold the book up to the mirror. There should be a copy of it in my library, I will find it and try to help you.” She said,

He did so and she studied the cover carefully.

“The mirror is draining me for two mother, we have to go…” he said soon after.

“Go, next month I may have answers for you,” she said.

“Renna, take care of my son,” she said as parting message.

Then the mirror went blank and they left the room quickly.

On the other side of the bridge the old woman smiled. She was convinced now that the seers had predicted correctly and his son would return. But she felt that for that outcome it was essential to find out all she could about the girl's amulet. Fate would run its course anyway, but it can save a lot of heartache to know why. She left to look for the book.