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“Interesting,” Darlrydan said as the vision faded. “It certainly seems she’s up to something, but Lydia-ida definitely isn’t booby-trapped. Did you think we wouldn’t have checked that?” He eyed Lydia thoughtfully. “But it does leave the question. What is she up to and why was the timing of our rescue important?”

“My guess is she wanted her to die and her family to blame themselves,” Indaturan said. “She’s sadistic enough if she thought it would distract them–”

“Which it would have done,” Sonia said. “Except Lyd didn’t die.”

“No,” Indaturan agreed. “She probably didn’t realise it was possible to transform a partial Kithreia into a dragon.”

“Ah!” Savira’s eyes were wide. “You transformed her before she was fully transformed? It’s actually possible?”

“Alaryia did,” Darlrydan said. “And it must be possible since it worked.”

“Ah!” Savira stared at Lydia again but the murder was gone replaced by burning curiousity. “I thought it might, but never had the chance to try it since it was only tangential to my research. Are you hungry all the time? You aren’t, are you?” She looked back at Darlrydan. “You’re absolutely sure she’s not booby-trapped.”

“Yes,” he said. “And you should have checked before trying to kill her.”

“Not to mention the fact that Xantaria may well know about your spy and be manipulating you via them,” Indaturan said. “She’s known for that.”

“You suspected that transforming an uncompleted Kithreia would lead to them not being hungry all the time?” Alaryia added.

“My research suggested it,” she said. “But I put it to one side because it would have distracted me from trying to find a cure for myself.”

“We can help you with that,” Ystelyan said. “Especially since we have to deal with you somehow after all the trouble you’ve caused.”

“You can? How?” Savira’s curiousity spiked even further. “And why would you help me?”

“It’s total serendipity that we found out,” Darlrydan said. “And it just so happens that it would fix the problem of what to do with you. Tell me, dear niece, in all your experiments did you ever consider what the tasariri could tell you about the situation?”

“What?” Savira looked baffled. “I don’t see what…” She trailed off and her mouth dropped open as she followed the logic. “No! It can’t be as simple as transitioning on Taloa! It just can’t. I would have realised if it were.”

“It can,” he said. “Sadly we already had occasion to test the theory. It cerainly works for dragons without heart friends.”

“Hmm…” She scowled thoughtfully and looked over at Kaliss. “But Kal is an adult. Even if you knock me into transition I don’t think she’ll be able to remake our bond. Still, only one way to find out. Let’s do it.”

“What if they put me in stasis for the duration of your incubation?” Kaliss said. “I think that would put me in the right sort of mental state for the bond to take, wouldn’t it?”

Savira looked thoughtful then clapped her hands. “Yes! I think it would. Let’s find out. It’ll be useful data at the very least.”

Darlrydan snorted. “I suppose that’s a minor saving grace, Savira.”

She tilted her head at him curiously. “What is?”

“That you’re as willing to experiment on yourself as other people when you’re in descent,” he said. “But there’s some things to work out first. Like who’s going to raise you on Earth.”

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