Rosalie wasn't able to move past the stress for the rest of that day and even into the next. The whole time, she was staying by either Grace or Arthur's side, glaring at anyone else who came near. If she was trying to guilt us into changing our minds, it was at least partly working. I already felt like we had died even though we hadn't even left for the Pool yet because of how inevitable she was making it seem.

I spent the last day before we left with Juniper. Nearly dying several times in the Hall and the cathedral made me think hard about how horrible I would feel if I went without getting a really good last moment with her. She was laying in the garden, watching all of our new guests mill about, fix small imperfections and holes on the outer ramparts and distribute food.

«Hey, girl,» I said softly as I laid down beside her. «Are you feeling okay today?»

She didn't give me a response, and I didn't ask her any more questions. I just laid there, petting her, fetching her food and water so she didn't have to get up and move, which she didn't at all. I didn't even know if she could walk anymore. I thought briefly about putting her down, but couldn't conjure the notion any longer than a few seconds. No. That…that would kill me. As it stood, just thinking about how old she was getting and how poor her health was, how little she probably had left even without intervention, it all fell down on top of the anxiety I was feeling about the journey to the Pool, and I could feel the dam I had built to keep my grief back starting to crack.

The next day we were up bright and early. After all the medicine, my wings were no longer broken, but they weren't ready to fly yet. I tried beating them against the air a few times, and the strain made it feel like something would pop. I stopped and shook my head.

«It's no good,» I said to the assembled flight. «I can't fly.»

"Can you change into human form and fly with one of us, at least?" asked Yura.

«None of us have been able to change since the Mare,» I said. «I'll have to walk. You can go on ahead. It'll take a long time to walk all the way there.»

"Nonsense!" said Emrys. "Unless someone was planning ill-advised solo jaunts into the realm of spirits, there'd be no point in arriving early if we need all our members to start. We may as well all walk together."

He made a good point, but there were still annoyed grumblings from Arthur and Ingo. None of us actually voiced any true complaints, though, and with our path laid out on a map, we headed out into the Juniper Hills.

Unless we moved really fast, there wasn't any way we would arrive in one day. I was well enough to carry Grace and Emrys, even if I couldn't fly, so the longer strides of us dragons would mean we'd get there by tomorrow evening, at the latest. But it was still a long journey. Our first leg took us south from Yorving, along the main road to Kirkwall. My tension at being out on an open road like this eased up once we were farther from the dark blot of the city, and we passed a few friendly travellers headed the opposite way as us. They gave us waves as we passed by and exchanged brief greetings with Emrys, the most talkative of our party. We even met a couple dragons as we neared a crossroad. They glanced away from the signpost they were studying to nod their heads our way.

"Greetings, knights," one of them said in Valish Draconic.

"Good day to you," I said back, before we turned onto a new road and left them behind. The encounter felt a little bizarre to me. I had still barely met any true dragons my whole life, with Brand and the three I spoke with one night around a campfire at the academy being the only ones I had interacted with more than staring at them from a distance. These two were the first I had seen that weren't attached to a knightly organisation of some kind. It felt…good to see them here, a reminder that they were normal people too. I wondered where they were going.

The road we had turned down provided a possible answer as the day began drawing to a close. Clinks and clangs filled the air, and I could see a cloud of dust rising up over the hill in front of us. A wooden gate blocked the area off, and we were finally forced to abandon the road and start travelling through the lightly wooded hills. We passed close enough to the fence as we went by that I could lift my head up and see over, into a deep pit carved into the countryside. The walls had been cut into huge blocky steps, and people were hard at work hefting picks and hauling huge blocks of stone.

«Mersaude Quarry,» said Griffin. «I've been looking at maps. That's the quarry where they get most of their marble around here. Regular stone too. For building. The castle was probably made of rock from that pit.»

It was a well-guarded place for a mining operation. I saw more than a few armed folk standing at the edge of the fence, or watching from simple wooden towers, rifles at the ready. I guessed it made sense if they were mining for valuable stone like marble, although I wondered how potential bandits or marauding mercenaries might cart off pieces of stone that big and heavy without getting caught or spotted in the first place.

The forest grew denser and denser as we kept walking, the deciduous trees that had already dropped half their leaves for the year giving way to thick, hefty conifers that reached high into the sky, like bristles on a brush. Their height and density meant the forest floor was shaded but clear, letting us make our way through without much difficulty. As the dark of night began coming in, I kept my head on a swivel, looking around at every snapping twig or rustling rodent. Each time I turned around, I half expected to see some horrifying ghostly figure watching us, or maybe a shambling mound of vines ready to consume us, or some other threat of the woods that people talked about while huddled around campfires. I was so distracted by every noise that I walked fully into a tree, smacking my horn into the bark hard enough that several needles and cones came loose and dropped onto my head.

"You alright?" asked Grace.

«I'm fine,» I said, shaking the needles off my head. «This place is just…making me nervous.»

It was Grace's turn to glance around. "I know what you mean," she said. "The air feels off here."

I hurried to keep pace with the others. «Let's just get to Crone's Leap. We can't be far now.»

We weren't, but we still needed to keep walking into the night in order to reach it. The hills tilted upwards, and soon the shade and vanishing sun meant we had to light lanterns. Somehow, the light made the darkness around us seem even more creepy. I was painfully aware of how much our light stood out, and how the contrast made it harder to see past it and into the shadow.

But we made it to our destination in one piece. The trees suddenly gave way to a high bluff, looking out over a cliff that dropped into a deep, verdant valley that reached out to meet the farmland and vineyards in the distance where the forest ended. The dragons all laid down to rest our legs while the others set up camp. Arthur moved closer to the cliff, looking ponderously over the edge.

«So,» he said, a little uncertain of his words. «This is where they say Saint Cèlis died.»

«That's what Kyrie told us,» I agreed, moving to lay down beside him. «I haven't read any scripture, so I wouldn't have known one way or the other.»

«Her death isn't in much scripture,» said Arthur. «I think the important part is that she died, not how she died, anyway. But this place…it still feels odd. Like it's sinister and holy at once. It's weird. I don't really like it.»

«We'll be gone first thing tomorrow morning,» I assured him. «You won't have to endure it for long.»

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He let out a long sigh. «It kind of reminds me of myself.»

I tilted my head. «How so?»

«Just…good and evil. Sinister and holy. It's the resting place of a prophet, but the reason it is that way is because she was murdered here, in cold blood, according to Kyrie. It's just making me think of me and the Fiend. Good and evil, always in dissonance.»

«Well, which one do you think's winning out here?» I asked. «Holy or sinister?»

Arthur shrugged. «You can't really separate them,» he said. «If Saint Cèlis wasn't murdered, she wouldn't be resting at the bottom of this cliff, and this place wouldn't mean much at all.»

«Inseparable….» The word came with a low growl in my throat. «Let's hope our situation isn't exactly the same, right?»

Arthur forced a smile onto his face, but it didn't last long. «I've been trying to hope through these last few days. It hasn't felt good though. Nothing about this plan feels right. I think we're still missing something important.»

I didn't disagree. There was a slight twisting in my stomach thinking about what would happen tomorrow. I was still full of doubt, even after having walked all day to get here.

«We don't have much of a choice,» I said. «Not if we don't want to lose you.»

Arthur laid his head down. «I know,» he said. His voice cracked. «I'm just afraid.»

I tried to put some confidence on my face to reassure him, but he didn't budge. «I bet that's just the Fiend,» I said. «It knows its days are numbered and it doesn't want to let its control go. But we'll get rid of it, one way or another. I promise.»

Arthur didn't say anything more, and slept that night on the cliff's edge, staring out into the valley.

────────────────────────────────────────

The next morning, we broke camp, and hurried off the mountain. There had been some frightful shrieks and howls piercing the night, and even though nothing had come close to our camp, everyone who'd taken a turn at watch was shaken. Only Emrys was still full of enthusiasm as we marched right back into the woods, a little less dark now with morning's light.

Griffin kept us on track as we headed southwest towards the western Fountainhead Mountains. I could see them even so many miles away, the snow of their peaks spreading down the cliffs and fells as winter grew ever closer. But we weren't headed up there today. The going got tougher the longer we pressed on, with the slopes climbing upwards and the ground getting rockier and less even. More than once, we had to stop and help one another get their footing on a particularly gravelly incline. Even with our claws helping us grip, the ground was too loose for us to climb easily.

The air began to take on a particular smell the higher we climbed. Pine had dominated the environment's scent as we had passed through the forest last night and today, but now there was something clearer, something…I hesitated to use the word "pure", but it felt apt. It reminded me of the crisp scent of a fresh snowfall, all the dust held down by the ice and the cold air driving away any foul odours. But it wasn't actual snow—we were still too low for that.

«Smells like we're getting close!» I called out with enthusiasm.

«Smells like we're in the mountains,» Arthur responded dourly. «Are we sure the Pool is even still here? It's been centuries since Cèlis died.»

"It's still a pilgrimage site today," said Emrys. "Or, that's what I read. It's just that people don't submerge themselves in it. Come to think of it, I hope that there aren't any of those pilgrims there today, or things will get very awkward and possibly violent if Barbosa's men are with them."

«How…reassuring,» said Arthur. «I bet this isn't the trail that pilgrims follow. We've been climbing for hours now and still haven't seen any sign of—»

He cut himself off and stood still as he crested a small ridge. I came up just after him, and stopped in shock too. I hadn't been able to see the glade in front of us from below, but now that I could, I was thrown off by just how beautiful it was. Trees ringed the clearing in an orderly row, like they had been planted just specifically that way by a meticulous gardener. Wildflowers grew everywhere they had room despite the season, with tiny bell-shaped pink blooms dominating the scene. In front of us, the cliffs of the mountains rose sharply up, visible over the trees, with one spear-like peak ringed with clouds and a flat shelf just below it sitting almost directly above us.

At the centre was the Pool itself. It was irregular, not like the circular tree line, shaped like a lopsided hourglass that curved slightly left. The waters were pure. I didn't have another word for it. They almost seemed otherworldly with their light crystalline-blue colour and gentle waves that somehow didn't stir up any mud or sediment from the bottom. With the sun's light hitting it, I could see that the only thing clouding the water was its own colour; it was otherwise transparent, perfectly free of dust and dirt. Just like the story described, there was a bubbling fountain that didn't have any visible source at the back of the pond, splashing water around as though it were the end point of an invisible waterfall.

Thankfully, as Emrys had wished for, we were completely alone. When I flicked my ears up and listened, I could hear what could have been a small mass of people in the distance, but they were far, far away, and weren't getting any closer. We had the Pool to ourselves.

I knelt down and let Grace and Emrys off. As Emrys started casting wards, Grace approached the water. She fell to her knees in front of it and leaned forward, staring at her reflection. Her brow furrowed.

"This place is weird," she muttered.

«What's wrong?» I asked, hurrying to her side.

"Look," she said. "Look at your reflection."

I did, leaning my neck forward to stare directly down into the water. The surface was a little choppy from the action of the fountain, but it was so perfectly clear that I could still see myself in between passing ripples. Or, logic said that it must be me, but you wouldn't have known just by looking at it. It still had the vague silhouette of a dragon, but there were more silhouettes that seemed to be superimposed on top of it, both larger and smaller, making its features constantly shift and morph in disturbing ways. A glance to the side showed me that Grace's image was doing the same thing. The reflections of the trees and mountains were unaltered. It was just ours that had been affected.

"I was going to be funny and stick my tongue in it, to try and get people's spirits up," she said, "since Kyrie said drinking it is fine as long as you don't go under. But now I'm, uh…actually getting a little nervous."

I rested one wing on her shoulder and tried to affect a playful smile. «I'll remind you again that you're supposed to be the one who isn't afraid of anything.»

She pushed my wing away, her expression deadly serious. "And I'll remind you again that doesn't apply when it's you that's in danger, Belfry." She stood up, wringing her hands. "Do you want me to come with you?"

«No!» I said, a little too forcefully. I shook my head. «No, no. I…I love having your support, Grace. But I think this is something I need to face on my own. I'll be okay. I promise.»

She was shaky, but she finally put her hands down. "Okay. I believe you." She wrapped her arm around my neck, and I put my wing back around hers.

We stood there for a moment before Emrys loudly coughed behind us. "A-hem!" I let Grace go and we turned to pay attention to him. He stood right in front of the water, his arms crossed as he surveyed the flight. The other rider-dragon pairs all seemed to have had a moment too, but were now all looking to Emrys.

"The wards are finished," he said. His words were quiet, but strong and measured. "I don't think we have much reason to delay. Because of this Pool's nature, we won't need to perform any kind of major ritual for our ersatz dragons to enter the realm of spirits. All they need to do is leap in." He sat down, staring into the water. "You should all go at once. I don't know where exactly you'll end up, but entering apart will make it far more likely that you are separated on the other side."

Griffin glanced at the water nervously. «This is our last chance to decide against this,» they said.

Gradually, everyone else shook their head. Even Rosalie, though it took a look from Grace to get her to let out the breath she had been holding and confirm the flight's answer.

"Alright," said Emrys. "Once we're ready, I will count you down. Remember: the world you're going to enter is one of the mind. Its rules are mercurial, and everything you see can and probably will change when you're not looking. Although it will feel like a dream, you will be in real danger if anything goes wrong. Once you have finished your task and severed the link, you will need to return to this realm by going through a pool on the other side that is tied to this one. It should look the same, or be otherwise clearly connected. Getting there will be the difficult part, not identifying it. Understand?"

I nodded, and Arthur and Griffin followed suit.

"Alright," said Emrys. "Are you ready to evict the Fiend from your heads?"

«More than ready,» said Arthur.

«Same here,» I echoed.

Griffin simply gave another nod.

"Good." Emrys held up a hand, his fingers splayed out. "If you're all ready, then dive in five…four…three…two…one!"

When his speech turned to an encouraging shout, I released my tensed legs and dove into the water. Although I held my eyes open, I missed the exact point of transition between air and water, and in that missed moment, the whole world changed. The water was all around me, clearer than the dark Mare Nocturn but still imposing on me from every direction. This time, it was a familiar place to be, and I felt less fearful as I let myself sink deeper. There was no pressure crushing my mind. There was only a sweet scent and a calming embrace, like I was laying down in the warmest, most comfortable bed ever made. I felt my eyelids closing.

So, I let them close, and I dreamed.

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