In creation there is destruction. For what can be made except by removing the nature of what already is in service of what is to be?


    <hr>


    The first half of Solaria afternoon was spent in further expansion of the past year’s goals: extended celebration of success, and the cathartic release of what hadn’t been accomplished.


    His first few times involved in the nobility’s Solaria parties, Jair had initially found this strange. In his family and community, much of the traditional purpose was stripped out of the holiday.


    It was still a day that wasn’t part of the normal week, the neutral time between sunrise’s final greeting to the previous year and the sundown signifying moving into the unknown of the new year, but there was a lot less ceremony to it. You got up to have breakfast at sunrise, then had a day off to do whatever they wanted. Which did involve a reasonable quantity of bragging about the past year or drinking away the regrets of uncompleted goals, but it was far more informal.


    For Ajriol’s party—or those of any other noble in Veor—the reflection on the past was turned all the way up. Some people—mainly the more distant cousins—had brought books or information reels with the specifics of their accomplishments. Most simply spoke or asked after others, but there were whole presentations that everyone attended together.


    Jair noticed a distinct pattern between those who tended to be all about themselves and those who were curious about others.


    Ajriol and Raina were both curious about others, as were two of the other newcomers that he hadn''t seen in the past. At least not in this sort of context; he’d met just about anyone with any degree of political power or influence at one time or another. The usual suspects were all as self-absorbed as ever, and several of the newcomers also seemed to care less for the acknowledgment of others'' accomplishments part. As far as they were concerned, what mattered was focused solely on receiving praise themselves—and soliciting it whenever not naturally occurring.


    Around midday, Carn excused himself to finish the preparations for the evening feast and pronunciation of future intent. The latter half of the day was also to be spent in contemplation of how one wanted to proceed, though that’s not exactly how it played out.


    There was some discussion of how to move forward, but a lot of the nobility treated the future resolution part as something of a reveal rather than a simple culmination of the day''s discussion. Very unlike the small personal home events Jair had been used to that included both back to back, one single discussion covering everyone with none of this additional trappings.


    They went to great lengths to conceal what they planned to announce as their intentions, even going so far as to employ misleading conversation topics to subtly influence people to think along different lines.


    Jair was used to the nobility''s games in general, but with this being so close to the start of his loop, this was the first time he''d been able to actually be present for this specific Solaria. He knew what most people would choose, because he knew what they would declare the results of in another year, but not what their past accomplishments would''ve been.


    Raina did her best to help him integrate with the cousins she found the least objectionable, but they were all so young that Jair found them objectionable regardless. He knew too much of what they would become and couldn''t quite bring himself to respect them.


    He did put on a decent fa?ade for Raina''s sake, but there was a reason she and Ajriol were the only main-line members of House Serin to maintain local residencies.


    The rest of the family may get along obligatorily, but there was no love lost between them. The number who started snapping at Raina''s legacy the moment she was out of the picture had long ago clarified this. Apart from Ajriol, Jair had no true allies within House Serin.


    But, he had Raina back now. And he would play whatever role she wanted if it meant he could stand beside her and watch her smile and hear her laugh.


    News of her dragon-kidnapping had spread a long way. Even those most self-absorbed weren''t likely to pass up such an exclusive piece of gossip. Their very own family member, being attacked by a dragon! That was the sort of thing that happened in stories, not in reality. In reality, dragons came and ate people and then left, they didn''t kidnap people. Not anymore. That was the sort of thing that happened in bygone ages.


    But Raina had the scars to prove it. Even if it weren''t for cousin Terrence being a Witness, too much of her story would ring too accurate to be denied.


    Jair did help to gently shift the conversation toward other topics when Raina seemed to be getting overwhelmed. Though they had looped several times since the event itself, so it was nowhere near as recent for her as it was for the rest of the world, it had still been horrifying and scarring and there was no way she would be over it so quickly.


    As the day passed, Jair couldn''t help but wonder what manner of chaos Lilin would be getting up to in their next several trips. She was behaving very demurely for Raina''s family, so meek and quiet that most people didn''t even notice she was there, but her eyes were alert and watching everything.


    Jair would be willing to bet already scheming for how she would disrupt the various noble events whose hosts were not personal friends.


    It was nice for Lilin to be able to think about something besides her feelings of disconnection and loss. Apparently, living in a dragon mountain with a vampire and two crazy nomads could shake anyone out of their complacency. Who knew?


    He should probably be concerned about how much time Lilin had been spending with Qahrvirna, but he trusted them both. Whatever trouble they got up to, it wouldn''t be too extreme.


    Probably.


    <hr>


    Around an hour before sunset, Carn returned to bring everyone inside so the servers could finish the final preparation of the courtyard. He stayed with the guests personally to attend to anything that came up, from running to the kitchen to fetch refreshments or showing people around various rooms. This would free up the rest of his staff so they could finish setting up for the evening feast, plus he was the one most intimately familiar with the layout of the place.


    The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    The Serin compound in the oasis was very different from their Veshin neighbors’ grand constructions. While Veshin had huge underground training facilities and a massive arena for everything from gladiatorial contests to ballroom dances or theater performances, House Serin''s oasis compound was built much more on the concept of luxury.


    There would be no resting rooms, no beds or sofas for sleep, but there were sitting rooms, a secondary library, and some of the most extensive baths to be found anywhere in Veor.


    Mana bathing had been a fad for several years a decade or so back. While its popularity had died down in recent years, several people who had converted to it in the past continued to find the practice valuable.


    As far as Jair could tell, there was no particular bonus or empowerment associated with bathing in a mana oasis. It was more exposure to the mana, so if you bathed in a different location you would have less quantity of mana drift motes available, but that wasn''t any different from if you walked or sat meditating or anything else. The water was more an insulator if anything, though its advocates swore that the mana absorbed into the water and helped with skin health. He’d never been able to conclusively prove these claims to be accurate.


    Apart from the lack of bedrooms, the Serin compound was equivalent to any of the best hotels as far as amenities. It had a large and ornate meditation room complete with paintings and relics to suit the vibe—though Jair personally found those distractingly restrictive.


    The gym contained top line exercise equipment, and of course there were kitchens and a dining hall adjacent to the courtyard. It was a small dining hall, compared to most. It could seat maybe twenty-five people at most, and was most comfortable at twenty or below.


    All of which pointed to Serin''s specialization on small and intimate gatherings, but of the highest quality standard.


    Their House may be numerically in decline, but its pride was as strong as ever.


    As the sun crept lower and lower on the horizon, Carn finally excused himself to go verify that all the preparations were in place.


    Raina was looking around the gathering with a frown. "Have you seen my father?"


    Jair also scanned the area, but Ajriol was nowhere to be found. "No. I haven''t seen him in a few hours, actually."


    "I''ll be right back, I want to check on him. He must''ve lost track of time, he’s not usually this late."


    "Do you know where he is? I can Darkflame us straight there."


    Raina shook her head. "I''ll just have to search."


    “Let me know if I can help.”


    While Raina hurried off through the compound, Jair stared out at the sunset.


    This sky he''d seen so many times from so many angles, but never this specific one. Not this exact sunset from this exact spot. It looked familiar, so similar, but just that little bit different.


    He was still contemplating when he heard Carn''s scream.


    Jair was instantly on alert, Maelstrom in hand.


    Carn was not an easily surprised man. He did not show his reactions readily. You could tell him he needed to have a five course banquet ready for twenty people in the next three hours, and he would nod and get to it.


    Jair had never heard him scream. He had cried silently at the news of Raina''s death, but never made a sound.


    A flash of Darkflame and he was in the courtyard.


    Carn stood frozen in the gateway, staring at what should have been a scene of preparation and hope.


    Instead, it was a massacre. Each of the seats intended for one of the guests had been filled with one of the serving people or hired help for the evening, each of whom seemed to have killed themselves in a different way.


    At the far end of the hall, where the grand window opened onto the rising sun, instead of the festive banners and lights that had been strung across it in the morning, Ajriol Serin had been strung up instead. Cables had been threaded through his disconnected limbs like grotesque lanterns, while his torso and head were strung vertically in the center of the window.


    Bloody gashes across his chest spelled out "Heal this."


    Seven dragons appeared around him and Maelstrom was in his hand. "Find Raina. Get Lilin." Their respective dragons rushed off, while Skyclaw crouched down at Jair sighed ready for him to mount if he wanted.


    He didn''t want to. Not yet. He spun to Carn.


    The man had fallen to his knees, breath spent, staring blankly as tears coursed on his face. The man''s fists clenched tight against the stone and beneath the grief his eyes were tight with anger.


    "What happened?"


    Carn shook his head. "You''d have to ask Lisa." He gestured to an older woman in a chef''s hat who’d apparently poisoned herself. Carn couldn''t stop shaking his head. "She was in charge of getting things ready. How could this… How?"


    He couldn''t tear his eyes away from his liege lord, Ajriol''s bloodied fragments decorating the wall. All lit up perfectly by the last rays of the setting sun.


    "Who would do this?"


    “I only know of one wildcard with the kind of power and influence necessary to pull something like this off,” Jair said grimly. “Don''t worry. I will fix this."


    Carn looked up to him, eyes wild. "Fix what?" There is a sort of wild desperation in his tone, the grief close to choking him. "Heal this? No one can heal this!"


    "I can." Jair knelt down before him and looked into his eyes. "I am the Phoenix Healer and I promise you, Ajriol will be fine. Right now, I need an exact timeline. When was the last time you saw him? Where was he going? Who was he with?"


    Carn swallowed. "I saw him…" he took a deep shuddering breath. "We were preparing the plans for the seating. He wanted to move Beatrice and Camilla so they wouldn''t be next to each other. I was with Moira at the time. She was…" He swallowed again and wiped his face. It didn''t help, the tears kept coming. "She was working on the bread dough, so it was at least three hours ago. Not more than four."


    Jair nodded. Around two hours after Jair had last seen him. But he had been doing preparations for most of the morning. Afternoon.


    "What happened after that?"


    "I made the seating changes and have been assisting guests ever since. And keeping an eye on Miss Raina just in case…" Carn’s voice choked off. "I guess I needn’t have bothered. Completely useless. I cannot protect my liege, so what use am I as a watcher for his daughter?"


    Jair took a deep breath. "Carn. You are the most loyal member of House Serin, Raina''s most trusted advisor. If I share with you a secret no one else in this world knows, can you guard it from any but her and I?"


    Carn nodded hesitantly.


    "Then hear this. I can revert time. I will bring Ajriol back, one way or another. I can give you the chance for revenge, if that is what you want, or if you''d rather forget this ever happened, I can let you. You will wake up this morning completely unaware of what might have come to be. The day will end with Ajriol still safe and whole. Or, you can come back with me and help unravel this attack. Punish the fiend who has done this. No matter how many times it takes.” He held out a hand. “The choice is yours.”


    <hr>