Page 154 of Heart Cradle
A rustle from down the hall. “Yes, Your Majesty?”
“He’s awake and he’s insolent, see to it please.”
Chapter Seventy - Gold Ember
The morning light cast long golden shadows through the open arches of the royal stables. The scent of hay, old leather, and faint ozone hung in the air. Jeipier stood just outside the central hall, wings held neatly to his sides. He wasn’t pacing, but his fluffy tail flicked in rhythm, betraying the nervous energy behind his stillness.
Inside, a circle had formed. Maeve stood beside Eiran, arm brushing his. Across from them, Orilan, stood arms folded and unreadable. Yendel and Vaelwyn stood together, the former scribbling, the later studying. Callix, much younger, brighter-eyed, and notably messier, leaned back against a saddle rail, watching it all with a sort of feral curiosity. They were here for the Chain, for what it had done, for what it could do. And Maeve, still wearing it, though it looked more like jewellery than relic now, was the centre of it.
“It didn’t wrap around me because I asked it to,” she said, arms crossed. “It just… responded.”
Callix leaned forwards. “You didn’t intend to summon it?”
“No, but I think…” She glanced towards the dragon in the archway “I think I felt Jeipier’s fear, and it responded to that.”
“Can I speak out loud?”Jeipier’s voice was soft, uncertain. Young, but steady beneath it.
Maeve turned towards him slightly, head tilted. “You don’t need my permission, Jeipier. It’s your choice.”
He blinked once, then stepped forwards into the stable hall. The room quieted instantly. He sat, regal despite his youth, wings still folded behind him. Then he looked to the others, and for the first time in front of others, spoke aloud.
“When we fly,” Jeipier said, voice smooth and deep with a curious musical cadence, “the Chain sings through her. With words and warmth. Lots of pressure usually and sometimes with flashes of light behind my eyes.”
Eiran stilled beside Maeve and Yendel raised his quill, visibly alert.
Vaelwyn’s eyes gleamed. “It communicates through resonance?”
Jeipier tilted his head. “Yes, but I also think it feels me through Maeve. We are paired.” He looked at her then, chest swelling with pride. “I don’t know where I end, and she begins.”
Maeve exhaled slowly, then added quietly, “When we flew after the battle, I felt it again. The Chain didn’t just wrap around me, I think it was reaching through me, to him.”
Callix made a small, delighted sound. “Fascinating. The Chain might be evolving via converged magical imprint, essentially adapting to protect the bonded unit as a single source.”
“That,” Yendel muttered, “is a very long way to say ‘it likes her’ young Callix.’”
Orilan didn’t smile, but his posture eased slightly. “Whatever it is, it saved her life.”
Vaelwyn nodded once. “She’s mated, it may want to adapt to the Prince, and it may save others yet. We’ll begin tracing its shift patterns.”
“During the battle,” Maeve went on, “we’d just broken through the southern flank. Avelan casters had regrouped. I could feel it, that they were going to strike.”
She glanced at Jeipier. “Jei felt it too, through the bond.”
Callix nodded, already scribbling.
Maeve raised her wrist slightly. “I didn’t think. I just lifted my blade, and the Chain… reacted.”
Her voice dropped, soft with memory. “The runes flared gold. A rune drew itself from the blade’s edge. I didn’t know what it meant, but I felt it command. It detonated mid-air, pure light and force. Blinded them, I didn’t direct it. I just moved where the Chain pulled me.” She let the silence breathe. “Then it uncoiled.”
Even Orilan leant forwards at that.
Maeve brushed a hand over her leathers. “The links unspooled like they were alive. They raced up my arms, across my chest, legs and back in serpentine ribbons. Gold and light and runes older than language. It wrapped me in full armour. I didn’t feel heavy. It felt… right. Like I was being held by something that knew me.”
Yendel had stopped writing, he was just watching.
“The air around me started to hum. I moved faster than I ever have, saw things before they happened. A blow came at my back and Iducked without seeing it. Not instinct, more like direction, as if the Chain was guiding me.” She looked down at the relic on her wrist. “Like you all said… a guardian.”
Jeipier gave a low chuff. “It guided me too. When I dove, I knew where to strike. Like I saw it through Maeve’s eyes.”
