SOREN
I caught her mid-fall.
Ice erupted from my palms on pure instinct, crystallizing into a platform beneath us both. It caught me too, keeping me from plummeting after her, then lowered us gently to the ground like a mother setting down a sleeping child.
The moment her weight settled fully in my arms, I felt it.
The dragon's presence.
Not sealed anymore, not caged or chained or bound behind the barriers her father had carved into her soul. It was just there, vast and ancient and awake, coiled somewhere in the depths of her being. The seal was gone completely. It should have taken over but that divine presence, that overwhelming power that had no place in a mortal body stood utterly still.
And she was still here.
Eris. Not consumed, not devoured, not shoved aside by godhood. Her consciousness remained, tangled with Pyronox's but distinct, separate.
