Page 158 of The Dryad Storm

Tierney Calix

Northern Vo River

Tierney peers up at the Vo’s translucent dome-shield, its purple-limned Dark runes barely visible against the starlit sky. Waist-deep in an isolated stretch of the Vo, she draws in a long, steadying breath as river life affectionately swims and buzzes around her, her storming power steadily channeling into the shield via Viger’s bond.

Their protection of Erthia’s largest River growing more crucial hour by hour.

The day started on a note of triumph. A potent rush of Fyordin’s power flooded their shielding as he placed a second focal-point shield rune on the Southern Vo River to complement Or’myr’s northern focal-point shield rune, the linkage of those runes amplifying the strength of their shielding over almost the entire River save for the southernmost portion, walled off by Gareth Keeler. Relief eddies through Tierney over both this proof of Fyordin’s success and that the ability to extend their shielding west to link to their allies’ shielding of the Dyoi Forest and Zonor River is now a possibility within their reach.

Tierney clings to this victory, desperately needing it.

Because she can also sense, through her River’s link to Erthia’s tapestry of Waters, that there’s been a monumental depletion of Nature’s Balance, huge swaths of the Natural Matrix in the continent’s southern-central lands consumed by Shadow. Tierney froze in that moment of detection, waist-deep in the Vo as she is now, her fears crashing through her with devastating force. In that moment, fear overtook her, surging with drowning intensity and heightened by her bond-sense of Viger’s draw toward a Deathkin Reckoning that grows ever stronger.

Viger is in the West somewhere, she’s sure of it. Close to this new locus ofShadow destruction, his directional pull through their bond like a living cord.

What Shadow horrors have you found out there, Viger?Tierney sends out to him through the bond.

A sense of Viger withdrawing his thrall snaps through her with whiplike force as he mutes their linkage with a silencing snarl.

Their connection going dark.

Viger’s violent withdrawal combined with her fear for Nature casts her every emotion into a hollowing implosion.

Disturbed, Tierney’s gaze slides toward Or’myr’s conjured purple moon, a tremble kicking up as she realizes that what she needs from Or’myr is, perhaps, no longer fully possible.

She needs herfriend.

Or’myr has been kind but painfully formal with her these past days, both of them focusing their energy into preparing their shielding for Or’myr’s enlargement of it once it gains enough power, both Tierney and Or’myr doing their level best to ignore their undeniable draw to each other dredged to the surface by Viger’s bond.

A pull that seems to be mysteriously increasing as Nature’s Unbalancing gains ground.

Barely aware of the loving swirl of minnows around her, Tierney remembers how she got into the habit of seeking Or’myr out at the Wyvernguard, returning, night after night, to his blaringly purple laboratory high up in the military academy’s now-destroyed South Island. The two of them would prattle on about anything and everything while they worked out magical formulations to draw their power into Vu Trin weapons. Tierney’s roiling emotions were always put at ease, grounded even, by Or’myr’s earthy aura and the intent way he listened as he worked, interjecting a wry comment every now and then and brewing her his signature mushroom tea. Or feeding her, his love of cooking and all things domestic having always charmed the hell out of her. And so, she lingered in his lab with him, night after night, Or’myr never failing to offer her a scientific tome for her to take back to her lodging, a twinkle in his forest green eyes that sent an enticing tingle over her skin as he crooned the same words every evening—For your reading pleasure.

Tierney flushes as she remembers a very different kind of pleasure—the lightning-bolt excitement of their shared dream. Her heartbeat quickens even as a pained conflict rears, because she doesn’t want her outrageous, perhaps unforgivabledream actions to change what was becoming rock-solid between the two of them.

Tears suddenly stinging at her eyes, she blinks them back and sets out to find him.

Tierney locates Or’myr by the stone wall that holds their shield’s northern focal-point rune. He’s down on one knee, tracing his Wand-Stylus over it. The sound of his enticingly deep voice murmuring amplification spells sends a disquieting thrum straight through her, and Tierney struggles to suppress her awareness of how his Vu Trin tunic is draped over his muscular physique, the military garb morphed to vivid purple, as is all his garb, by his powerful Strafeling geomancy.

Violet sparks flash from Or’myr’s wand’s tip and fan out over the rune, its violet light casting a dreamy glow over Or’myr. Tierney’s breath catches in her throat, her heartbeat jumping into a faster rhythm.

He doesn’t glance at her as he works, but Tierney can sense the static charge of his lightning flaring toward her as she draws nearer, his power crackling against her water magic with unmistakable longing, a memory of their shared dream flustering her once more.

What must he think of me?she agonizes as she stills awkwardly behind him, struggling not to remember the electric feel of his kiss, the balancing energy of his touch... and the explosive love in theirjoining.

“I’ve figured out a way to hasten the enlargement of our shielding,” Or’myr comments congenially, still not looking at her.

An edge of Tierney’s searing mortification softens in response to his warm, conversational tone. The tone of her friend.

Or’myr glances at Tierney, and a heightened relief sweeps through her in response to the calm, undimmed affection in his gaze. He scans the translucent shield’s faintly visible runes. “I’m keeping the bulk of the Vo’s shielding porous to all but Shadow power, but I’ve completely closed off the northern section we’re under and the southern section Fyordin is under to protect our runic focal points from both Vogel and the Eastern Realm’s forces.”

Tierney squints at the glowing purple focal-point rune beside him, as well as the newly crafted series of smaller purple runes orbiting it. She intuitively grasps what he’s building, her scientific mind’s appreciation of a clever solution further softening her emotional upheaval. But still, an undercurrent of fear remains, prickling under her skin.

“The Natural World’s Unbalancing,” she warns, “it just accelerated in a monstrous way. Vogel’s managed to kill off another huge section of Erthia’s wilds.”

Or’myr gives her a grim look. “I felt your disquiet through our bond.” Letting out a long sigh, he rises, sheathes his geo-wand at his hip, and meets her gaze once more. “Tierney, we’re giving this shielding all we’ve got for the moment. Not much to do but keep it steady and let our power amplify this focal rune as much as possible. Soon enough, we’ll shield the entire East andhold it.”

Leagues-deep emotion is suddenly balling up in Tierney’s throat. “Thank you, Or’myr,” she says, barely able to get the words out. “Thank you for helping my River and all of Erthia.”

---