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“I seem to remember that you have a remarkable talent for precognition,” Julie said to Tarian as they walked back towards the house. “And Naria-alra certainly seemed to think so.”

“Not that amazing,” he said. “I mostly get hunches and feelings. If I’m getting visions without meditating it’s something major. My talent lies in my ability to clarify those hunches into visions via meditation.”

“Ah! That’s even better in this situation. I was wondering how we were going to get a hook in.”

“Yes, my talent will be useful for that and I understand your family have a knack for clarification as well.” He paused and looked at her. “But you can only just have had your maturity. How are you coping with your memories? It can be problematic re-integrating them, especially the first time.”

“You speak from experience?” Julie asked.

He shook his head. “Not my own, but I’ve seen it happen to others.” He tilted his head at her. “Are you okay?”

“I think so,” she said. “I wouldn’t say I’ve re-integrated them fully but I haven’t had a headache for a couple of weeks and the nightmares are getting less intense, so I’m getting there anyway.” She stared into the distance. “There are things I wish I didn’t have to remember. I did some horrible things for what I thought were the best of reasons.” She clenched her jaw. “But I was misled by my own ancestors.”

“I can relate to doing horrible things for what you think are good reasons, Julie,” he said. “And from what your children say, you always tried to avoid killing people unless they deserved it.”

“From what I know of Kithra now I’m not sure exile was the better option,” she muttered. “What a horrible place.”

“Possibly not,” he said. “But you weren’t to know that. Come on, let’s clarify this precognition.”

***

“Tarian-kedan’s very specific talent suits him to this job more than any of us,” Julie said as they all sat in the lounge a few minutes later. “It’s going to be troublesome to merge which is why I’ve asked Naria-alra and Andrew to assist us even though neither has anything to import. Unrelated Dragons have an easier time merging than unrelated humans do so you three will merge with your brother and then he’ll merge with Naria via their bond. She can then merge with Tarian-kedan. That of course leaves us with me and Kyle, but now I have my memory back I’m fully trained in merging so I should be able to manage it and I can’t imagine Kyle’s mirian left him untrained in it.”

“He didn’t,” Kyle said. “But even if he hadn’t trained me, Karen’s and my bond still exists.”

Karen looked introspective for a moment then her eyes widened. “It does! I never noticed it was still there! Why didn’t I notice? Why didn’t mum notice? We should have realised you were alive…” She trailed off and cocked her head at him. “Oh bloody hell! You distracted us from it?”

“Ystelyan-mirian did,” he said. “If I’d severed it you would have noticed so keeping it and distracting you from it was safer. Anyway, I wanted to keep it.”

Her eyebrows shot up and she blushed slightly. “Let’s talk about this later,” she said. “But you can merge with me before I merge with Drew.” She looked back at Julie who was smiling at them. “I think we’re all set. Let’s do this.”

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