Laric allowed that power to continue to flow outward, and as it radiated, there was something of a rhythm of energy that spread away from him and became almost uncontrollable.
He couldn’t detect anything more. He was merely wielding this power wildly.
A part of him thrummed with excitement, the idea that he had this kind of power within him and knowing that he might be able to keep using it. Spilling that energy out and feeling how it rippled away from him left him thinking that he could—and should—continue to do so, that this was his right, that everything should simply burn.
Laric blinked. That was coming from Sashaak. That was not him.
“Please,” he said. “I don’t want that much of your potential.”
“Release,” the voice said again.
Once more, Laric felt the buildup of potential. He didn’t know what Sashaak was trying to get from him, but he was concerned about the fact that he was holding on to it this way, concerned about what might happen.
Something touched him.
Laric jerked back. He looked over to see Xavier there, hands held up in a placating gesture, but there was some clear power coming from him. Xavier obviously had placed a spellcraft form around himself, some sort of a protective bubble that Laric wasn’t sure he would’ve been able to form.
“Take it easy,” Xavier said. “I don’t know what’s happening, and I don’t know what the dragon is doing to you but take it easy. She’s gone.”
“And Rowan?” Laric asked.
“Still on her horse and waiting for you to relax. I have her protected, but I don’t know how long I’m going to be able to maintain this. You are drawing on something more than I have ever felt before.”
“I’m trying to hold it,” Laric said.
“No,” Xavier said, and there was a real sense of urgency from him, “it seems like you are trying to let it go. You keep talking about releasing, and I’m asking you not to do that.”
In the back of his mind, Laric could feel Sashaak’s anger. Release.
Sashaak wanted to burn everything down. Sashaak wanted all of that power to spill out from Laric. Sashaak wanted Laric to use that connection, to allow that power to flow from him.
Why had he not known that before?
When Laric had first discovered that he had this link to the dragon and started to learn about the different spellcraft forms that Sashaak could teach him, he had not known that Sashaak would want to burn everything. But maybe it wasn’t everything that he wanted to burn. Sashaak only wanted to burn the ones responsible. Talia. The mages.
And Laric had to have a measure of control.
He felt that potential inside of him. It wasn’t only his.
His grandmother had wanted him to have potential. She had spoken of it in glowing terms and had told him that he could do so much with it. Laric had never really understood it, not until now. And now he felt that potential. Not just Sashaak’s, but his own. He had a measure of potential, and Laric had to take advantage of it, and he had to separate what Sashaak was feeling so that he did not get overwhelmed by it.
Slowly, Laric began to ease that away. That connection was there, a link of power, and though it was, there still seemed to be some part of it that was difficult for him to separate from.
Yet he knew that he needed to.
“Better,” Xavier said, letting out a shaky breath. “Can you tell me what happened?”
Laric felt the sense of Sashaak growing more distant.
“Talia,” he said.
“I don’t know what happened to her,” Xavier said. “Probably used some sort of shielding magic and managed to get away. But I need to know what happened to you. Care to share?”
“I… I don’t know if I have any answers. I can feel something.”
Xavier started to laugh, and there was a bit of an edge to it. “Something? I would say that was something. I haven’t experienced such an overwhelming sense in… I suppose ever. Even when I was around Malinar. But then, Malinar was an old dragon-bonded and never really lost control. Makes you wonder, though.”
“What makes you wonder?” Rowan asked, and hearing her voice helped Laric relax even more. He had almost lost control around her, almost lost control of this power and likely almost harmed her.
“Makes you wonder how the mages ever had a chance of overwhelming the dragon-bonded.” Xavier breathed out. “Don’t worry. We can still go looking for her, but I’m afraid that she’s probably gone from here.”
“This was a trap,” Laric said.
“Seems like it. I also wonder if she thought she was going to capture you, or someone else.”
“What do you mean, ‘someone else’?” Laric asked.
“Well, you’re not the only one bonded to a dragon, now are you?”
“Who else is out there?”
Laric found his gaze drifting across the sky, and though he could see the distant dragon and could still feel him, he saw nothing else.
“I don’t know,” Xavier said, “but I fear we need to find out. And we must do so before…”
Laric didn’t need him to finish. He knew what “before” meant.
Before mages arrived in the city.
