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Lydia tutted to herself. “We’ll warn dad,” she said. “Though we really don’t need any more enemies. You’d better tell us more about this Savira-ida so we can tell him.”

“She’s brown, very strong and the youngest draconic idri. She was conceived on Taloa but born on Kithra – she has a heart friend but their bond is damaged. It’s strong enough to protect her from the mental disturbances that afflict potential idri who don’t have a heart friend and to keep her from frenzy, but it’s otherwise deficient. As a kithreia, her obsession was to fix her bond and gain heart friends for those who don’t have one – and even as a dragon she’s never quite let go of the idea. Her court is a ragtag mob of dragons of various colours who want the same thing.” He hesitated then added. “And she’s in descent – she has been for a couple of centuries at least – so she’s willing to do all sorts of horrible experiments to further her aims.”

“Oh! I get it!” Lydia said. “Brown is curiosity, right?”

“It is,” he said. “I have some big brown streaks in my personality, even if they don’t show in my hide. It’s why I get on with Dar so well. I think you have some as well.”

“Oh, yes,” she said. “I’m curious about everything. So what’s silver then?”

“Loyalty,” he said. “Specifically, loyalty born of emotional attachment. Though even that doesn’t really do it justice. Would commitment be a better word? And of course people who don’t like them tend to call them treacherous. Which isn’t really fair – no one is at their best in descent and Silvers in general aren’t exactly secretive about where their loyalties lie.”

Lydia stared at the table as she considered that then nodded slowly. “Yes, I understand that. If I was pushed far enough, I think I’d tell any lie or break any promise to protect a person or cause I was committed to.”

“Well you’re Matthias’s daughter,” Sarah said. “This Savira-ida sounds dangerous. But wanting to fix her bond with her heart friend I can understand and wanting to help the dragons who don’t have one is laudable. We might be able to help her. What are the chances she’ll listen to reason?”

“While she’s in descent?” Indaturan said. “Pretty much zero, I’m afraid. Now you might be able to get her to snap out of it with enough of a shock, but it’s finding the right shock. And the longer someone’s in descent, the harder it is.”

“And I don’t think any of us know her well enough to speculate on what might be the right shock,” Ystelyan added. “Having said that, knocking her into transition would fix it – and we could send her egg to Taloa to check Darlryan-mirian’s theory. Except we can’t do that without her permission unless she actually attacks us… Does she have a delegate leader for her court?”

“Probably,” Indaturan said. “She’s not stupid. And if she’d stolen part of my territory, I’d knock her into transition so fast her egg would bounce.”

“Well there is that,” Ystelyan said. “I really should do something about that soon, but I’m still under strength and the current situation requires all my attention.”

Indaturan looked like he would respond to that but Adrian cleared his throat and looked at his watch. “We really need to get back to Earth soon, my mirian. It’s getting late.”

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