The Silver Reckoning

Chapter 25: Silver's Conviction

Silver didn't sleep that night, laying awake, curled up in her metal nest, flinching at every scratch, movement and sound outside her cave. When morning finally came she lifted her head, finding herself breathing a little easier. A beam of sunlight cut through the entrance of her cave, illuminating the dragoness and her nest, causing her to glow softly.

With a shaky breath Silver rose from her nest and stepped onto the ground. Looking at her sleeping arrangement she connected her mind to it and it began to warp and change once again. Slowly it moved into liquid form, converging with her shell. It didn't help to leave a trail of metal wherever she went. Slowly she walked outside once again. At first she was cautious, but something told her that she wouldn't see Eldawin again... for a while anyway.

She felt herself relax, the cool wind brushing over her shell and cooling her down. It helped her focus. Shaking herself she turned and looked over the snowy landscape, wind whipping up squalls of snow and ice. The sun was out that day, a rare sight in the Antarctic. Without thinking she opened her wings, about to take off into the snow, when she stopped, hesitating. The previous night rushed back into her, everything that had happened. The illusions, the utter control He had, and that threat. A threat that scared her more then she cared to admit.

"What am I doing?" she growled at herself, looking back at the ocean behind her in half distaste.

She couldn't understand it. She had been threatened before, tortured before, controlled before. But why did this make her so wary about heading forward once again. Since when had she let herself be controlled by fear? The thought kept running through her head but every time it did she found herself flashing back into that horrid experience of the previous night.

Closing her eyes she began to breathe slowly, trying to clear her mind. The metal on her back shimmered softly in response and its cool, mindless determination seeped into her. It wasn't quite enough to convince her to take the first step... but it managed to calm her down.

She relaxed, her wings draping by her side as she looked into the sky, "O'hen!" she roared, "I need to speak with you!"

At first nothing happened, and she suspected that the time dragon either wasn't listening or didn't want to come, but then the sky began to fade into an eerie silver and time around her froze. A white light glowed softly in front of her, before expanding outwards to form a dragon shape and solidifying.

"You know Silver, I am not under your call," he said, rather stoically.

"And yet you came," replied the dragoness with a grunt.

He snorted, before nodding his head, "I did. Now what did you want?"

"Is it true what Eldawin said... about equilibrium?"

O'hen was silent for a moment, as if trying to figure out a way to word his answer, "In a way."

"In a way?" she growled, "What's that supposed to mean?"

He sighed, before looking at her, "It is true in the sense that every time you use your equilibrium... you loose a part of yourself – "

"And why didn't you tell me this sooner!" she cut in, "Don't you think that would have been an important piece of information!"

"I wasn't finished," he growled back, "Yes, every time you use equilibrium you loose a bit yourself, but the effect is far less... horrifying then the first. Depending on how it is used of course."

Silver went silent, tilting her head at the time dragon, before sitting down on her haunches. She gestured for him to continue, feeling a little angry that he had held this from her. He met her gaze, before sighing and shaking his head.