Thunder cracked and trees swayed in the wind. The canopy of the Grove was ripped apart as Rozestrazix landed heavily in the middle of the clearing, shaking the ground so strongly that the occupants of the Grove struggled to stay standing.

  “ZALIA, WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?”

  Their voice boomed, louder than the thunder. Zalia winced as her ears were assaulted, though Healing Presence healed them quickly enough to have little effect.

  Zalia stared up and took a deep, centering breath. This could end badly.

  “Rozestrazix, hello. Are you talking about the piece of diseased flesh I brought back here?”

  A deep rumbling came from the dragon’s chest as lightning crackled across their maw.

  “Yes. Zalia. I am talking. About. That.”

  Their words were clipped and angry. This could definitely end badly.

  Zalia was still maintaining Glemp’s core heat and had noticed that the little one had left the hut and was staring up in wonder at Rozestrazix. Boreal was standing without fear or worry, of course, while her children were a little bit more worried. Ember was holding Aylie behind her, not that it would do much.

  “Your senses are powerful to have seen it here. I brought it so that my friend, Glemp, might find a way to counteract the disease, create a defence against it or perhaps even cure it completely. If it is possible to develop a way to remove this from creatures over a large area, then it might also be possible to cleanse the entire north of it.”

  A bolt of lightning arced off of Rozestrazix’s shoulder, hitting a tree and shattering it.

  “Do you understand how quickly this curse can spread? To bring it here is stupidity.”

  “I know, and we’ve taken precautions against that. Both Boreal and I are here to stop it should it spread any further. Did you not want Boreal to take over your duty in this one day? You could consider this a test of her abilities to do just that.”

  There was silence except for the humming of lightning as it arced across and around Rozestrazix.

  “You are listening but you do not understand. Should this curse spread from the enclosed north, there will be no going back. I cannot protect the rest of the world from this, only hold it back. To put everything else at risk is a dangerous game, no matter the gains that might be wrought from it. If you are to do this, you must not allow any others to come to this place. You must take the children of Boreal away, as well as your own kin. Only you, Boreal and those you bring to study or defend against it must be here. You must destroy everything you experiment with, do you hear me?”

  The torrent of words shook the trees around them as the snow melted from Rozestrazix’s presence.

  “I understand. I’ll do as you say and I will ensure that no other animals can enter the Grove, either.”

  “Fine. This will act as a test for you both, but understand this, Zalia. If I should sense this curse spreading to either of you, I will return and I will reduce all of you and this place to dust. Nothing will remain. And, close the portal that leads to your kingdom, do not be a fool about this. Treat this matter as life or death, for that is exactly what it is.”

  With the flap of strong wings, Rozestrazix rose up into the sky, vanishing into the storm above.

  Zalia let out her held breath, suddenly feeling exhausted. It wasn’t often that she got scared anymore, but the ire of a dragon was not something she was used to.

  With a thought the portals leading both to Nature’s Reclaim and the far southern desert were sealed, becoming translucent images of the other side rather than portals one could step through. Rozestrazix had raised a good point there.

  Despite the adrenaline and tiny bit of shame flooding her body, Zalia felt somewhat relieved. While she wouldn’t be less slack in trying to prevent the disease, curse or whatever it was from spreading, she at least knew that her actions wouldn’t lead to the destruction of the north and possibly Endaria because Rozestrazix would stop it long before that happened.

  She looked over at Boreal, who was cleaning her paws, then to Ember, who was glaring at her.

  “Well, that was something.”

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  “You could have warned us!” Ember exclaimed.

  “I had no idea that Rozestrazix could sense it so accurately like that. I guess now we know.”

  “That was cool,” Aylie murmured.

  Ember turned to glare at Aylie instead.

  “Cool? It could have chosen to kill all of us instead of talking.”

  Aylie shrugged.

  “But it didn’t, no point worrying over what might have happened but didn’t.”

  Zalia looked at Glemp as the two continued to argue, having noticed that her friend was still staring up at the sky. She followed their gaze towards where the canopy of the Grove was already repairing itself.

  “Quite a sight, right?”

  “Yes, you have allies that… yes, are powerful.”

  She nodded her agreement, then thought about the problem at hand. There was simply no way she was going to stand here for hours, days, weeks on end while Glemp worked on solving the curse problem. Instead, she would make a living ritual for it.

  Flame-root would, of course, be a part of it, and the other herb she thought would suit it was Frozen Heart. The two together would hopefully reproduce the effect she was going for.

  It took some time for her to plant the herbs, the Flame-root especially, while Glemp watched on. She had to alter the environment in the Grove around the hut that Glemp would be working in to suit both the Frozen Heart and the Flame-root at the same time, which was considerably harder than she had realised it would be. She should have known, though, since one of them lived at the bottom of a volcano and the other in the snow.

  She had to try three different configurations but she got it eventually, activating the ritual. Glemp eyes widened as the heat in their core was replenished by it instead of her.

  “Ha! Got it. How does that feel, Glemp?”

  Glemp nodded a few times appreciatively.

  “Good, good. Yes, this shall work.”

  She would leave the vault open to Glemp’s home, of course, since it wouldn’t allow anyone to travel to either Nature’s Reclaim or the southern desert Grove but would allow Glemp to quickly return home should the ritual fail for whatever reason. As she stood watching the ritual happily, Ember walked up beside her.

  “Can we talk?”

  Zalia turned, happiness turning to concern.

  “Of course, what is it?”

  Ember nodded her head towards the path and started walking. Zalia followed.

  “I…”

  “Ember, what is it?”

  “I’ve been thinking about things and our future. How our paths are going in such different ways, with you going to Cormaine soon to help Ro. I don’t want to go there, to that place, and the people of Endaria need me still.”

  Zalia’s mind raced, trying to figure out what Ember was saying.

  “So, what then? Are you asking me not to go to Cormaine?”

  Ember shook her head.

  “No, no. You made a promise to Ro and you should follow through with that. Besides, if it weren’t Cormaine then you would be going somewhere else, discovering something new and most likely dangerous in some other part of this world.”

  She gestured to the Grove around them, further north than they had ever been before and then back towards where Glemp was studying the warping flesh.

  “That’s who you are and the thing you find joy in. I’m not asking you to give that up. At the same time, it isn’t who I am.”

  “Are you saying that you want to go our separate ways?”

  “Oh, no Zalia, no.”

  Ember stopped and pulled Zalia into a passionate hug.

  “Not that. I’m saying that for some time I’ve been trying to stop you from doing the things you want to do because they’re dangerous and more often than not I’m left home alone worrying. That isn’t healthy for either of us.”

  She pulled back.

  “I’m saying that I want to support you in your passions and I want you to support me in mine. As our ranks continue to increase, distances mean less and less and there is always the bond between us. I want to leave Nature’s Reclaim for a while and walk through Endaria helping people rebuild their lives. With my emotional healing and the strength that comes with my rank, there is a lot I can do to help. More than that, I’m going to stop pushing you to stop exploring dangerous places and I want to stop feeling so left behind even though I don’t want to go to these places. I should know by now that it’s going to take more than some wild animals and inhospitable environments to take you down and it’s about time I sought to fulfil my own passion.”

  Zalia hesitated, but could see the wisdom in Ember’s words. It made sense and it did sound healthier. She had always had a lingering feeling of guilt when going on her explorative journeys. It was usually drowned out by the feelings of freedom and joy that she experienced, but it was there.

  “Yeah, I think that sounds good. When are you going to go?”

  Ember stared up at the healing canopy of the Grove and out to the aurora above.

  “I think I’m going to go right now.”

  Their walk continued in silence for a few minutes before they arrived back at the Aurora Grove. Ember hugged, then kissed Zalia, as they stopped at the portal to Nature’s Reclaim.

  “This is going to be good for us. Besides, we have the bond between us. You can always find me if you want.”

  She gave Zalia a bright smile as she stepped backwards through the portal. Zalia watched her walk away, looking back more than a few times as she went.