Owls hooted well into the night.
Tucked inside a sleeping bag, a human slumbered, blissfully unaware of the massive changes already underway.
Meanwhile, a certain dragon lord was busy with what he called housekeeping.
Kael stood on the edge of a high ridge, golden eyes glowing faintly in the darkness. In his hand, a single mana crystal pulsed with faint light, a shard of the very item that had dragged them into this mess. With a flick of his wrist, he hurled it into the distance.
The crystal arced across the night sky.
A heartbeat later, Kael vanished from where he stood.
Space folded, a temporary gate ripped open in the exact direction of the crystal's pull, and in the blink of an eye, Kael appeared right where the shard landed. His hand closed around it with effortless precision.
It would have been simple if he had just been tossing and catching a glowing rock.
But he wasn't.
Each throw was a probe, the crystal leading him closer to the end.
