“The others, they possess keen minds and a breadth of vision for invention and innovation, but they are planners, not rulers. They do not inspire people. They barely see people. They certainly do not empathize with them. I see in you the potential to be both. That is a rare thing, as rare as you are. I believe you will one day exceed anything I have managed to accomplish, perhaps anything my predecessors did. Your mind is that unique, and your temperament that suited.”

“And to you being a ruler means exterminating anyone whose purpose isn’t obvious to you?”

“If you are to be Crache’s future, you have to know how Crache functions. You have to see and know every single cog and wheel. What lies at the bottom of this bay is an atrocity, but it is a necessary one. You must be able to reconcile that fact and truly accept it if you are to ascend to my position one day. Do you see?”

Dyeawan nods. “I believe I finally do see through your eyes, Edger.”

“But can you accept what you see?”

“I have no choice, do I?”

“You have more choices than most, Dyeawan. You are one of a very few people to truly know all sides of Crache. Now I’m offering you the opportunity to shape its future. So I ask you again, do you accept?”

In answer, Dyeawan extends a hand toward him.

Though his face remains ever unreadable, Edger’s body seems to visibly relax.

He steps close to her tender, taking Dyeawan’s hand in his.

Edger hasn’t noticed her other hand reaching beneath the litter of her tender for the object concealed there. Dyeawan raises like a knife the small bellows with its hollow needle. She does not stab Edger, however. Instead, Dyeawan brings the point of the needle down into the neck of Ku, the wind dragon, piercing the creature’s flesh and squeezing the bellows tightly.

Edger, acting on instinct more than anything else, quickly slaps the bellows from Dyeawan’s hand, loosing the needle from Ku’s neck. The bellows flies over the edge of the piled boulders and disappears into the waters of the bay.

“What have you done?” he demands.

“I’ve just killed you,” Dyeawan calmly informs him. “I’m very sorry.”

The bony pipes rising from Ku’s back begin issuing an eerie chorus of crackling wind. It’s not a sound being filtered from Edger’s throat; this is the result of an event occurring inside the wind dragon’s small body. Ku, perfectly docile a moment before, begins writhing in a frenzy against Edger’s flesh.