Two days passed without dragon attack.It wasn't quiet in the conventional sense. The garrison was too busy for quiet. But it was a different kind of busy.Repairs were being made to damaged fortifications. Soldiers moved in coordinated teams, carrying stone and mortar, rebuilding what the dragons had broken. The north gate was being reinforced. The secondary barriers were being strengthened. Every weak point discovered in the first assault was being addressed with brutal efficiency.Supplies that had arrived were being organized and distributed. Food was being rationed carefully. Medical supplies were being inventoried. Everyone understood that reinforcements might take longer than expected. Everyone understood that they had to prepare to hold for a duration that might stretch beyond hope.Defensive positions were being reinforced based on what they'd learned from the first assault. Charles walked the perimeter, pointing out improvements. Xavier studied sight lines from archer positi

The trip back to the garrison was a blur.The battle was still happening when he appeared at the garrison's edge.The dragons had been pressing toward the western perimeter. Had been pushing Sera's barriers backward. Had been exploiting the gap left by Draven's absence.But when they felt the pendant.When they felt the seven warriors.When they felt the dragon slayer standing in their path.They stopped.Changed direction.Oriented toward Draven instead of the garrison.All three of them suddenly understood that the real threat wasn't the garrison. The real threat was the fire mage standing at the garrison's entrance with cracks in his skin and magma-like light seeping through."What's happening?" Charles called, noting the sudden shift.Draven didn't answer. Just walked toward the dragons with fire crackling across his skin and seven warrior consciousnesses flowing through his mind.The dragons began their assault.Not toward the garrison anymore.Toward Draven.And Draven was ready

The message arrived five days after Draven woke up.Imperial seal. Imperial courier. Direct from the capital. The kind of official communication that changed things. The kind of order that came from the Emperor himself, not from generals or officers or anyone operating under delegated authority.The garrison commander opened it in the command tent in front of the senior staff.His expression changed as he read.The entire room felt it. Felt the shift in his face. Felt the moment when the situation became something different."The Dragon Slayer," the commander read slowly. "The Emperor is calling you the Dragon Slayer. Officially. Through imperial proclamation. This makes it not just garrison title. This makes it official imperial designation."Draven felt something shift in his chest at those words.Official. Real. Permanent."The garrison has held," the commander continued reading. "The dragon threat has been eliminated. Reinforcements are being redirected to other conflicts where dra

The letter came on a Tuesday, which Draven only remembered later because Tuesday was when the academy held its open sparring rounds and Lyra had been due to observe Jin's assessment.She didn't come.He found her at the desk in her room an hour after the session ended, which he knew about only because Jin mentioned her absence with a studied casualness that meant it had bothered him. The door was open. She was reading the letter with the careful attention she gave to things she was preparing to argue with."What is it?" Draven asked from the doorway.She held it out without turning around.The letterhead belonged to the Imperial Healing Guild, eastern chapter. The language was formal and dense in the way that dense language always is when someone wants to obscure how simple the underlying request actually is. Draven read it twice.The short version: Lyra had used registered guild healing techniques during the Western Garrison conflict. The guild acknowledged her service. The guild als

The note he left was four words.Back in two weeks. Don't follow.He slid it under Lyra's door because she was the one who would actually organize the others into doing something, and if she had the note in her hands she might hold Jin back long enough for Draven to be too far gone to catch. He didn't feel good about it. He left before he could think about it longer.The road east was empty in the early morning. He rode at a pace that covered distance without drawing attention, and for the first several hours there was nothing to think about except Elysande's card, which he'd read so many times the paper had gone soft at the fold.Come alone. You know why.He didn't know why.That was the part that kept circling back. Every piece of information Elysande had ever given him arrived shaped a certain way, partial, pointed in a direction she'd already chosen. He turned that over for most of the morning and arrived at nothing useful, so he stopped turning it over and watched the road instea