The draconic concept of honor is distinctly personal. Never presume you know what matters to one based on any other, whether by kin or kind. And woe to you if you trespass upon that honor.


    <hr>


    The dragon reared back, wings beating the air, and glared furiously at Jair. "She is under my care. You cannot—"


    "I can do,” Jair interrupted, “whatever I wish. Your people are nothing to me. I want information, and I will have it whatever stands in my way."


    "I will not stand aside. I know you will kill me, but I will not stop." He dove at Jair one final time, one more futile attack, and then he was ashes and Jair retained only the young drakling he''d speared on the end of Maelstrom.


    It twitched and choked and tried to spit poison at him, but it was barely holding on to life.


    Jair flew lower, then dropped them both to the ledge beside the others. "Bring Goldsparkle."


    Qahrvirna laughed. "That''s your best translation? Haha!"


    Jair narrowed his eyes at her.


    "Yes, yes, one goldsparkle coming up." She flashed over to the stairs tunnel in a sprint fast enough it almost could be mistaken for teleportation. "Raina, dear, your overlord demands your presence."


    Jair growled at her.


    She winked and stuck her tongue out, fangs on full display. "You object to my translations?"


    "You are doing an acceptable job as my herald, bloodfang. Continue, and I may let you live."


    The skewered drakling, meanwhile, continued struggling to escape the sword through its throat, only making its injuries more extreme in the process.


    Jair turned back to it with a frown. "Now, we have two options here. I can heal you and interrogate you right here and now, or you can give me your solemn vow that you will serve me forever without question or hesitation, and I''ll bring your family back."


    The drakling stopped struggling, eyes glowing with green light as it stared at him.


    "I told you, I am the Lord of Time. What I have done I can undo, but I will only do so if you bind yourself to me."


    "Er... Overlord dearest... what are you doing?"


    "Preparing to make a soul pact with a dragon. Why do you ask?"


    Then Raina came out, and the dragon stopped staring at Jair. It spun, sharply enough that Maelstrom nearly severed its head entirely before Jair noticed, and lunged at her with an angry hiss.


    "Woah, there, no. Mine." He darkflamed the dragon to the other side of the caldera. "Stay there if you wish to be forgiven for your offense," he snapped coldly.


    The drakling tensed and flared its wings, threatening, but didn''t move from the spot.


    "Herald, I will need you to act as binder."


    "I can do that."


    "Tell Raina to grab Maelstrom. You too."


    Once they were all aboard, he darkflamed them over to the drakling''s side.


    Raina advanced slowly, looking up at the dragon crouched over them with wide eyes. Though it was only the size of a small house, it was still a miniature copy of Ryenzo. It even had the same snout shape, the same little horns around the eyes.


    It looked down at Raina with an anger that burned like fire in its eyes, but Jair''s warning had stilled its brief impulse for violence.


    "Alright, thank Aelir you''re still young enough for this to work, or we''d have a much more complicated process to deal with. Herald?"


    Qahrvirna stepped forward.


    "I, Brother of the Ignis, Lord of Time, Dragonslayer, Kingmaker, do swear on my life and soul to behave according to the Accords of the Unsevered so long as my companion does the same." He held out his hand to Qahrvirna, who carefully bit down on it with one fang. Once she''d withdrawn enough of his blood that he started to feel mildly dizzy, she turned to the drakling and waited.


    Jair circled the drakling, tracing complex and precise patterns along its side and neck with a mana-inscription pen. The pen’s intended use was enchanting and construct creation and what Jair was doing was technically very illegal. Injecting foreign mana into a living creature was nominally harmless, technically mildly detrimental, and potentially incredibly damaging if you just happened to do it wrong. Bindings such as this were not enacted lightly, and not without special dispensation.


    Jair wasn’t going to wait for permission, and no dragon would ever deign to request it—or complain about the outcome, for that matter—so the legal status of their ritual enactment was irrelevant.


    That didn’t stop Raina from looking on askance. Lilin would have no idea what was happening, but Raina knew full well how dangerous this kind of process was. If he formed even a single line wrong, the whole spell would fall apart.


    The spell formation process took nearly a half hour before Jair stopped and returned to stand in front of the drakling. He traced the line down her arm to her right foreclaw, then ended in a circle at the side of her palm as he held it. "Do you accept this binding?”


    The drakling nodded quickly, eyes still huge. “I do.”


    Qahrvirna stepped forward and pierced the tiny circle Jair had drawn with the fang holding Jair’s blood.


    “Repeat the oath. You will be my subordinate for the rest of your existence, but I will return your family to their places and you will have a second chance to convince them not to fly against me."


    "I, Nyrala Mercurios Draconis, Final Daughter of Ryenzo, do swear on my life and soul to behave according to the Accords of the Unsevered so long as my master does the same." She was tense and trembling as the oath was all but torn out of her, stuttering over the unfamiliar phrases, but the magic enacted was strong. She instinctively felt the meaning of the ceremony Jair had evoked, even if she didn''t know anything about the Accords themselves.


    Her ignorance wasn''t surprising. Jair''s knowledge of the ways of the powers of the world, and especially anything to do with the soul, was far beyond what any individual—or even any collective—could boast.


    Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.


    He''d once tried binding anything and everything to himself, in the hopes that making the soul pact would be enough to last through time. It hadn''t. But things were different now. He could send people back in time, and he had a very strong feeling that by traveling back in time along with her, the pact would be maintained.


    Jair’s instincts were guided by enough centuries of research and experimentation—much of it forgotten in conscious practice, but still filed somewhere as vague instinct. They may not be infallible, but they were generally reliable.


    Unfortunately, he failed to take one new factor into account.


    So as Qahrvirna forced Jair''s blood into Nyrala''s veins, his existence tracing the drakling inside and out as the ancient ritual pact joined her power to his, Jair and Maelstrom got into a violent mental argument over the new intruder to their shared soul.


    Maelstrom wanted to eat the dragon.


    Jair wanted the dragon to not be eaten.


    Maelstrom really wanted to eat the dragon.


    "Stubborn thing..." Of all the parts of this pact process that he expected to be a problem, Maelstrom was not one of them.


    Unfortunately, Jair''s attention was divided, and Maelstrom''s was not.


    As Nyrala hissed and convulsed at the intrusion into her soul and binding through her every cell, she lost her balance and flopped over sideways. Her bulky out-of-control form nearly squished Raina by sheer size.


    Raina''s yelp as she jumped out of the way was enough to distract Jair''s thoughts for a flicker of a moment as he glanced her way.


    That was enough.


    With a satisfied flare of silver light, Nyrala disappeared into Maelstrom''s glowing tip.


    "Hey! That was my dragon! How am I supposed to interrogate her now?"


    Maelstrom flickered with black, green, and gold, then a more acidic green the color of the Mercurios'' signature breath.


    Jair coughed out the dragoncube and tossed it to Qahrvirna. He massaged his throat, voice hoarse. "Not going to need that for a while, no more dragons left."


    She stared at him, then up at the sky where a few minutes ago an epic battle of green fire had raged, then back to where the dragon had just disappeared into his sword. "Remind me not to get on your bad side,” she said breathlessly. “Although there’s several sides of you I’d love to be on if you’re amenable.”


    Jair ignored her. "Raina? I''m going to need you over here a minute."


    Raina approached hesitantly, looking around as though expecting Nyrala to reappear at any moment.


    "I have no idea what''s going to happen when we go back in time after this, but I''m very curious to find out and there''s no point staying in this dead-end timeline any longer."


    "Hey, who''re you calling dead-end?" Qahrvirna demanded.


    Jair held out Maelstrom, and Raina wrapped her hand around its blade.


    A flash of complex golden lines, and the two of them slipped backwards through time.


    <hr>


    Jair and Raina stood back at the ledge below, a day previously, when they’d just arrived.


    "Ooh, I like this place." Qahrvirna started walking around the empty dragon lair, measuring it with her hands as though preparing to start decorating.


    "You''re welcome to it," Jair answered. "But I need your dragoncube."


    Qahrvirna gasped and whirled to stare at him, hand on her chest. "You want my what?"


    "Don''t pretend with me. You have a nice little pointy cube that lets me speak draconic. Hand it over."


    "How would someone like you know about that?"


    Jair sighed. "Remember the part where we''re friends in the future?"


    Raina was watching them silently. Lilin was watching Raina equally silently. Eythron was slumped against the wall while Uqiar watched over him.


    "Oh, and Uqiar, you should move him away from the ledge. Once he knows there''s lava here, he''ll do his best to dive into it."


    "Idiot man," Uqiar complained, fondly. He picked up the unconscious man gently and carried him down the tunnel.


    "Alright, Qahri, I still need the dragoncube. Maelstrom, show yourself."


    The sword appeared in his hand.


    "Inspect."


    ─ Maelstrom


    ─ Type: Integrated Soulsword (4th Form)


    ─ Rank: Legendary


    ─ Abilities: Darkflame, Integration, Temporal Reversion


    ─ Unsevered Pact: Nyrala Mercurios Draconis


    Imbued with the pure energy of Mount Sanctum, the lifeblood and soul of its creator, the bound soul of a venom dragon, and the fire of the Venix, this blade has transcended its humble origins and become an artifact of limitless potential.


    Do not stand against us.


    ─ Bound to Jair Welburne


    "Does that mean you can bring her back out, or that she''s permanently part of your makeup?"


    Nyrala appeared in a flash of silver. She looked dazed and confused, but uninjured. Her body had taken on a vaguely metallic appearance, as though she were a statue of herself rather than a living being, and Jair had the distinct impression that she would no longer eat or grow in the same way a living creature would.


    Whatever Maelstrom''s interference had done to the Unsevered Pact, it had fundamentally changed the nature of the dragon it had absorbed. Or... Integrated?


    Jair filed away that line of investigation for later. He held out a hand to Qahrvirna. "Dragoncube?"


    "I can get it for you," Nyrala offered, eagerly. She crouched, tail flicking and claws flexing.


    Qahrvirna took a step back. "Ah, Jair... you didn''t mention having a dragon in your sword?"


    "She''s a recent addition." He turned to the dragon. "You can understand me?"


    "Of course, Lord of Time. We are one. Why would you be anything but clear to my understanding?"


    "Well, that simplifies things. What is your understanding of the Unsevered Pact we have entered into?"


    It was an ancient form of the binding currently used for eelship servitude, one enforced by magic itself, from back when spells were made of word and intent more than precise lines carved in conductive materials.


    "You will return my family to life and I will serve you forever."


    Most ancient vocal spells had lost their power generations ago, but the Unsevered Pact was one of a handful of ancient magics that remained active and viable. Jair suspected that was the influence of a handful of immortals who still maintained active companion bonds, not that he knew how magic itself translated between voice and motion and flow. Some mysteries were beyond even him.


    "That''s all?"


    She bowed her head. "I acted in violence against those who did nothing to me, because of an echo of a promise. I deserve the destruction you wrought on my family, but I will accept servitude in their place."


    "You''re a very honorable creature, Nyrala Draconis."


    She didn''t raise her head. "Please allow me to speak to them so they know better than to oppose us again. I do not wish them to be destroyed a second time."


    Qahrvirna watched the exchange with narrowed eyes. Raina and Lilin only heard Jair''s half of it since Nyrala''s would be incomprehensible screeching and growling.


    "Permission granted. Speak to your brothers and see to it that they do not attack the humans in the cities or oases. If they damage my property, I will destroy them."


    "I will tell them." Nyrala took off, swooping upward out of the volcano''s open mouth, and disappeared.


    "Okay, that''s going to require a little bit of explanation," Qahrvirna said, pointing. "If you had a dragon in your pocket this whole time, why did you need me?"


    "Figure it out yourself."


    "And what use is Eythron going to be away from his precious forest? I’ve only seen him this way once before, when he was first coming south, and it wasn’t pretty. He''s going to be either homicidal or suicidal the whole time."


    Jair shrugged. "That one, you''d have to ask whoever actually made the plan. I''ve never gotten him to Veor before."


    "Seers are so annoying."


    "Agreed."


    She glanced at Jair sideways.


    "Are you denying that I''m annoying?"


    She laughed. "So, what now?"


    "Well, we can set up camp here for the night. Hopefully, everything will be fine, and we''ll wake up in the morning to Nyrala reporting success and no damage to the city or oases."


    Raina nudged him with an elbow. "Why do you sound so thoroughly unconvinced by that possibility?"


    "Things are never that easy."


    <hr>