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A/N: The Haventon Born ebook has been released. See here for where you can get it!

Marian did look better, Lydia decided. When she’d last seen her on the day after the attack on the school, the woman had noticeably been in pain when she moved – but not any more. There were still pain lines on her face but they were probably mental rather than physical. She was sitting in a chair with a crystal block in her hands and several others in a basket next to her, but she looked up as they entered and immediately leapt to her feet.

“Mummy!” She ran to Julie and hugged her.

“Yep, that still feels weird.” Julie hugged her back. “I can cope with people calling me Caroline but for heaven’s sake, Marian, I’m younger than your son in this life.”

“And still my mummy,” Marian said. “Physical age not withstanding. But I can call you Julie if you really want me to.”

“I do,” Julie said. “How are you doing?”

“I’m doing better,” she said. “But I feel so useless. How can I even begin to make up for what I did when I can’t help because I’m healing?”

“You know, you probably can help,” Indaturan said. “Once I’ve fixed her up, you might be able to help our new guest at least do herself less damage when she uses her gift.”

“Hmm? New guest?”

“It’s Joanne Clayton,” Adrian said. “Her gift is even weirder than we realised.”

Marian listened as he explained what Joanne had told them and her eyebrows shot up. “A temporal affinity? Really? That’s remarkable, but poor girl. I don’t envy her. And yes, I can probably help her. Not so much with the damage but to clarify what she’s seeing at the very least.”

“That will help with the damage as well,” Indaturan said. “The faster she can do it, the less damage she ‘ll do to herself each time.”

“Well of course I’ll help,” she said.

“But you wanted to see us?” Adrian said.

“Yes, I’ve been studying.” She waved the crystal block at him. “Looking for something that might help.”

“By studying she means she’s been blasting through my library faster than a spatial manipulator can jump across the heartlands,” Indaturan said.

“And you think you’ve found something?” Adrian asked.

“Possibly.” She frowned slightly. “Well, I think I’ve found something but I might be imagining it and even if I’m not I don’t know if it will help. I suspect it does concern us though.” She went back to basket and pulled out some red crystals. “Access these and see if you sense the same thing I did.”

“Those are the history blocks my aunt made of the purge,” Indaturan said. “You asked me if I sensed anything odd about them earlier.”

“And you didn’t,” she said. “I know. That’s why think I might be imagining it…”

“Well, let’s see.” Julie took one of the blocks and closed her eyes. After a moment her eyes popped open and she stared at the block. “I’m sensing a second layer in this but I can’t access it.”

“That’s what I sensed,” Marian said. They both looked at Adrian who also took one of the blocks.

“Yes, I sense it too. It wants some sort of password.” He scowled at the block. “You can’t sense this, my Mirian?”

Indaturan shook his head as Darlryan reached past him and took the block from Adrian’s hand.

“No I don’t sense it either, I wonder if it’s avoiding dragons?” He tossed it to Sonia. “What about you?”

She closed her eyes then shook her head. “Just the main content.”

“Well then,” Darlryan said. “I guess it’s not us being dragons, which leaves another explanation. But why would Kalatria-ida have been leaving messages for hunters in history blocks she could never have expected them to have access to – and more importantly, any idea what she might have used as a password?”

A/N: The Haventon Born ebook has been released. See here for where you can get it!

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