I eye the alcaoris, irritation at his high-handedness running through me, not to mention resentment of him interrupting this event when he’s the one who actually killed the beings now burning on the pyre. Though I suppose I am just as guilty for bringing them into this place and for deciding to press the attack. Perhaps more. Probably more.

I sigh as my anger dies away like the flames which have consumed their bodies. Eyeing the remains of my Bound and seeing that they are fully burned, I decide that there’s no point being obstinate. First checking that my Bound have everything they need, I start walking towards the draconic creature, though try to make it clear that I’m going at my pace, not running to him like an eager puppy.

Bastet and Shrieks both check with me separately whether I want company. Well, Shrieks checks, and Bastet just comes. I try to tell the raptorcat to go back, but my heart isn’t in the command and she ignores it with all the aloof regard of a true feline. I have to admit that I feel selfishly grateful to have her along. All I hope is that the alcaoris isn’t planning on betraying our agreement, putting her in danger alongside me.

‘I sensed your presence near my eggs, you and many others,’ the alcaoris says accusingly. I just cross my arms and stare back at him unflinchingly, even if inside I’m preparing to defend myself against whatever attack is about to come – somehow. ‘But I also sense that you did no harm to them,’ he continues begrudgingly. ‘I will forgive you for this infraction as long as you fulfil your word.’

“That’s my intention,” I confirm.

‘I suppose you will need to inspect the area in more detail,’ suggests the alcaoris.

“That would probably be useful,” I agree cautiously.

‘Then come,’ he commands, turning and heading back into the tunnel.

“What, now?” I can’t help asking slightly incredulously.

‘Yes. I wish to sleep. Come now, or do not come at all.’

Exchanging a glance with Bastet, I quickly send a message back to Shrieks and the others warning them of what we’re about to do – and what to do if I do not emerge in a reasonable amount of time. Shrieks, for obvious reasons, is not keen on me going alone, but I convince him to stay. He’s tired and needs to recover, as do they all. So do Bastet and I, but apparently I don’t have much of a choice and Bastet is determined to come with me.

Ultimately, the argument which convinces Shrieks is that there are three other Pathwalkers who need him. Since losing three Pathwalkers is far more serious for the village than losing a single one, especially one like me who can’t make eggs, he agrees.

Bastet and I hurry down the tunnel after the alcaoris. He moves surprisingly quickly for an airborne creature now under the earth. The journey down into the depths takes only a little more time than our last journey going up did – and we were racing to help our companions against this very creature. Not for the first time, I wonder whether I’m making a big mistake here.

But for now the Bond is still intact, and I don’t sense any intention on his end of things to sever it. Whether I would be able to sense it is another question and one that I try not to think about. Squirrely behaviour is probably more likely to cause the draconic creature to see me as prey to hunt than an ally to take heed of, I figure.

In its weaker form, Aingeal works perfectly as a torch without me needing to ask it to tone down its brightness – fortunately for all of us. Plus, hopefully this will mean that we won’t repeat the whole blinding episode earlier.

The alcaoris is definitely too big to fit into the tunnel below and curls up in a baleful heap around the hole down to the Pure Energy stream below. Or, at least, what should be the Pure Energy stream.

“So tell me, what brought you here?” The alcaoris eyes me as if wondering how much to tell me. “The more I know, the more likely it is that I’ll be able to find a solution to both of our problems,” I remind him.

The draconic creature holds his silence for a few moments longer as we engage in something of a staring contest. Then he breathes out, his breath tinged with green acidic mana. Fortunately, it just drifts past us, not eating into our skin at all. I don’t know whether that’s the Bond at work or just his lack of intention to hurt us. Either way, it makes me even more relieved that we managed to find a way to deal with him which didn’t involve being trapped in an underground space full of his mana.

I told you before: I wished to find a space to incubate my eggs.

“Yes, but why here? In this specific space? And was this area already created or did you create it?”

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I made it, the alcaoris answered shortly before going silent for a few moments more. Finally, he sighed again. The dam of my eggs was powerful. I was lucky to have caught her in her mating rise before more powerful males could come along, he admits. I feel briefly gratified to be right about the feeling of his presence. I was even luckier that she agreed to nurture my eggs until they were ready to lay despite my weakness. After that, she left them to my care – how could I do anything less for them than my best?

“And your best is to stick them in a Pure Energy stream?” I ask, trying not to let any sense of accusation seep into my words.

Yes, the alcaoris answered uncaringly. I am too weak to battle for one of the best egg incubation spots. But, because of their dam, my eggs need a high level of Energy if they are to hatch, and to overcome my own weakness. I dared not go too close to the other males: without the power to establish a territory, my eggs would have been consumed the moment I left them to hunt for myself. I was forced to search the upper slopes of the valley for a better place, but the Energy is so weak up here. It seemed like I would be forced to incubate them at the edge of the hatching zone, and take them with me whenever I hunted.

Then I sensed something – a feeling of Energy which was too strong for this area, emerging from below. Landing, I found a crack in the rocks which was leaking more Energy than it should. I followed it, digging, digging, digging with my acid, the sense of Energy intensifying all the time. And then I uncovered it: a small pool of Pure Energy, stuck between layers of rock and surrounded with Energy Hearts.

I lean against the wall. The alcaoris is surprisingly chatty now he’s got going. The annoyance which has hung around him like a cloud since the end of the battle has lifted. Maybe he’s been lonely or something? Anyway, it doesn’t bother me – the more he talks, the more information I will hopefully accumulate.

I couldn’t believe my luck. Even the greatest males of my kin would only be able to place their eggs in a pool of highly diluted Energy. I feared that the Pure Energy would be too strong, but tentative tests proved that my eggs eagerly absorbed the Energy they had access to.

So eagerly, that the Energy started disappearing. I had to dig deeper and deeper, finally hitting rock that my acid could not eat through no matter how powerful I made it, how much mana I poured into each drop.

I had to use physical force, and the use of a rock that I brought from deeper into the valley to make any impact. All the while, I had to be careful not to touch it for fear of sending myself into a trance I would not emerge from before my eggs died. Once I broke through the immensely strong rock, I found a whole chamber of Pure Energy. Dipping my eggs into it, I left to hunt: by this point, I was starving.

Fearful that some of my rivals might catch a scent of the Energy, I brought back a sapling of the trap trees to be a barrier between where I was and others of my kind. I did not want them directly nearby for fear they might sap away the Energy that I wanted for my eggs, but planted them instead a little further into the valley, so they would catch any Energy that drifted that way.

My eggs drank eagerly of the Pure Energy, but soon the level went down. When it reduced sufficiently, I found that the Pure Energy stream had been blocked by an Energy Heart until it had somehow found a path past the blockage. It certainly made a tasty treat. It was for this reason, I presume, that the Energy had been forced to escape and attract my attention in the first place. However, with the stream returned back to the way it should have been, my eggs could no longer be submerged the way they needed to be.

I therefore blocked the section upstream with a strong and flexible substance, encasing my eggs carefully in it. The stream built up behind them until my eggs were once more submerged.

All seemed to go well until something happened. I still do not know exactly what. One moment I was dozing and my eggs were fine. The next, I heard a tremendous roar and one of my eggs abruptly felt…wrong. It didn’t feel like it was dead, but that something deep inside it had changed, and not for the better.

I quickly pulled them all back, opening up the tunnel to a wave of Pure Energy. Returning to the surface, I was shocked to feel the quantity of Energy in the air. Fearing that one of my rivals might feel it, or something even more powerful, I fled with my eggs, watching from a distance.

After some time passed, I was able to observe that no others of my species seemed to have detected anything. Nor had any other potential enemies. The trap trees had done their job: they had contained even such a massive wave of Energy by directing it into their own growth. And, more importantly, my eggs were hungry. I didn’t have enough mana to keep up with their appetite.

Returning to my tunnel, I saw that the chamber beyond the place I had put my eggs before had expanded, becoming rather similar in size to the first chamber. It mattered little, except that my eggs would take longer to be covered by the Pure Energy once more. Replacing my eggs, I resumed my wait.

And so I have remained, going out to hunt and patrol for rivals from time to time. Until you arrived and tried to keep me from them. His eyes flashed and a low growl rumbled through the air.

“It's fortunate we managed to make an accord, then, isn’t it?” I hurriedly say thinking quickly. “Now we can find a different way of doing things without risking the Pure Energy spilling out and alerting others of your kind.”

Which is only necessary because you burned away the defence I had put in place, the alcaoris replied, not sounding any happier. I feel like arguing that causing an ecological disaster is not a good way of approaching a situation, but people in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones and all that. Though I do make a mental note to make sure that the samurans don’t end up doing exactly that under my guidance.

“What’s done is done,” I respond, trying to smooth things over a bit. “Let me think now.”

Eyeing the hole in the floor, I consider the alcaoris’ story carefully. It explains so much, and yet I still don’t have the whole picture.