The Dragon Scales, #2
Emberclaw
by L. R. Lam
Contents
15. Everen: The Dreamer
Overview
Everen scries at Glimmerhail with Cassia and Miligrist, drinking scrysilver to seek fate’s guidance. He receives a prophecy pointing him through a Veiled storm and golden chime back to Arcady, learning the bond once hid him from the Dreamer. Nearly drowned by the vision, he is saved by Cassia. Shaken, Everen concludes the serpent (the Dreamer) must be healed and vows to return to the Lumet.
Summary
At Glimmerhail’s pool, Miligrist fails to See, so Cassia urges Everen to drink the last scrysilver. Enhanced sight and starlight accompany their joint submersion to scry, as Miligrist keeps watch. Everen asks fate what he must do next.
The vision restates the prophecy: on the Night of Locked Tombs the Lady of Vere Celene points the way; a Veiled storm and a golden chime will guide the last male dragon to the fading light of home. Everen sees himself crash in a snowy forest and meet Arcady without hatred, hand outstretched. Cassia interprets that the bond guided Everen and hid him from the Dreamer.
The vision shifts to the dragonstone tree and the wounded serpent. The serpent’s eyes become a gyre; it transforms into a wraith-dark dragon and strikes. Panicking, Everen inhales water and loses orientation until Cassia rams him upward. He surfaces, coughing, as Cassia drags him ashore, while Miligrist appears resigned rather than surprised.
Recovering, Everen wrestles with blurred past-and-future symbols. He decides the serpent must be healed so it can sleep again and that, whichever way the scales fall, he must return to the Lumet. He admits the bond feels absent since his return, despite once sensing it.
Miligrist orders rest and takes Cassia to record the vision, warning the Queen forbids Everen being alone too long. Later, at the cliff roost, Everen presses Cassia about what Miligrist withholds and fears he cannot return to the human world; Cassia insists he can and that even the Queen won’t stop him now.
As smoke veils the stars, Cassia keeps watch while Everen, exhausted and longing for Arcady, falls asleep resolved: heal the Dreamer-serpent and find a way back through the Veil, guided by storm and chime.
Who Appears
- EverenProtagonist; scries with scrysilver, endures perilous vision, learns prophecy, nearly drowns, and resolves to heal the serpent and return.
- CassiaSister and bond-mate; conducts the scrying, interprets the bond’s protection, rescues Everen from drowning, records vision with Miligrist.
- MiligristArchivist Seer; cannot See, oversees the rite, urges rest, records the vision, hints at withheld knowledge and Queen’s orders.
- ArcadyAppears in Everen’s vision in a snowy forest, a beacon tied to prophecy and the guiding bond.
- The Dreamer/SerpentWounded force entwined with the dragonstone tree; manifests as a threatening dragon within the vision.