17. Everen: Reek & Ruin

Everen awakens on the cliffs of Vere Celene after a vivid not-quite-dream, buoyed by the revelation that his connection with Arcady endures. Seeking clarity and space before his jailers arrive, Everen takes to the skies and flies toward the Reek, reflecting on warnings not to wake the Dreamer and the volcano’s own latent threat.

As Everen savors the certainty of their rekindled bond—lingering on precise sensory memories from the dream—he crosses the dragons’ ward and approaches the heat and smoke of the slumbering volcano. He weighs danger against the exhilaration of flight and the need to think alone.

Pan intercepts him in the open sky, ragged and furious with grief. She accuses Everen of corruption, claiming he brought the wraiths back and that the Queen is weak for sparing him. Everen insists Sidar would have died if their attempted crossing had continued, but Pan rejects his defense and his right to belong to the weyr.

Cassia and Mace rush to intervene. Cassia orders Pan to stand down in Queen Naccara’s name, acknowledging Pan’s grief but forbidding escalation. Pan, consumed by loss and contempt for Everen’s human ties, declares she cannot endure life without Sidar and denounces Cassia’s future rule.

Pan invokes old starfire-backed magic and formally challenges Everen to battle at sunset. The binding compels compliance and ensures only one survivor. As the spell seals across their scales, Cassia and Mace can only roar in protest while Pan’s triumph hardens the weyr’s internal fracture and forces Everen toward an unavoidable, lethal reckoning.