All Thayle wanted was to get to Lilly and assure her the danger was over. She could feel the poor dragon’s frustration over the binding link. However, the men and women from the local temple of Ulustrah were right behind here. Thayle knew why they were following her, and she knew what they were going to say. As she descended the stairs to the second level, the silence was broken.

“How did you do that?” Rachel asked in a stern voice. “How did you heal two people with such dire injuries then walk off like you were not even tired?”

Thayle wasn’t sure how she did it herself. She knew the power had come from Lilly, but she wasn’t sure how. She understood it had to be related to the binding link they shared. Something about being bound to a dragon made it possible. The more she thought about it, the more she didn’t want to explain it. She quickly went down the next flight of stairs stalling on her answer. She smiled as she saw poor Lilly, but before she could address her, the silence was broken again.

“Grand Priestess,” the woman called again. “How did you heal well beyond our ability to heal?”

Thayle turned and made them all stop in their tracks. She couldn't lie to them, so there was no choice but to explain it the only way she knew how.

“I am dragon bound,” she said. “I am magically linked to Lilly. I drew on her strength to boost my blessing from Ulustrah. I am essentially drawing on two powers at once.” She turned from the shocked faces and continued walking. She didn't want to keep poor Lilly waiting, and she didn’t want to continue this conversation.

“It has to be sacrilege to twist the dragon's power with that of Ulustrahs. Is this how you got your mark?” Rachel demanded to know.

Thayle struggled to remain in control and not strike the woman. “I got my mark by turning a blessing of growth into a curse of rot,” She said in an angry tone. Gasps and low muttered words escaped the lips of those behind her as she reached the bottom of the steps.

“You turned a blessing?” Rachel accused. “You willingly insulted Ulustrah?”

Thayle arrived at the middle of the room as Lilly reached her head in as far as her neck would allow.

“Thayle, is everything alright?” Lilly asked in a panicked tone.

“Everything is fine. Lengwin is safe, Gersius is talking with him now.”

“How can you call yourself a priestess...” Rachel barked, but Thayle turned on her with anger.

“You will never accuse me of being lax in my faith again!” Thayle yelled her voice suddenly echoing as two. She stalked toward the stunned woman her face scowling. “I cursed a creeper vine! It was hidden in a forest so dense we didn't see it until it was too late! It had Lilly bound and helpless, and there was no other way to save them. My only choices were, turn the blessing, or let them die!” Her voice echoed in in the hall with a harsh, threatening tone.

Rachel went pale as Thayle glared at her. The other priest with her stepped away as if expecting Thayle to rip her limb from limb.

“I chose to follow my heart and trust in Ulustrah’s love, and I turned the blessing. I did it to save the people I love from a slow, agonizing death! Ulustrah forgave me, and didn’t diminish my power in the slightest! If anything, I am more powerful than I was before!”

Rachel tried to stiffen her jaw, but Thayle could see the woman trembling.

“It was Ulustrah herself who allowed me to be dragon bound! She gifted me the ability to draw on Lilly’s power as well as her own. I am not some pretender to Ulustrahs love, I am her champion, and I will not be talked down to by a lowly temple priestess!”

“Thayle!” Gersius voice called from above.

She looked up to see her husbands concerned face.

“That is enough, let them go,” he told her his voice calm and reassuring.

Thayle nodded to him and gave Rachel one last glare before closing her eyes and turning her back on them. They shuffled away in silence as they passed by Lilly and left the temple.

“I want to eat one!” Lilly said over the binding link to Thayle’s amusement.

“No, let them wallow in their shame for a bit,” Thayle thought back to her.

“Why was she yelling at you?” Lilly silently asked.

“She is a fool that doesn’t understand our connection,” Thayle replied.

“What did you do earlier?” Lilly asked. “I could feel you pulling at me.”

Thayle sighed. “I found a way to draw on your strength to aid in my healing. I used it to heal Lengwin and save his life.”

“You pulled on my strength?”

Thayle nodded as she walked over to Lilly and ran a hand down the dragons Jaw. “Let's talk about it later when our husband is here to share in it.”

Lilly nodded back and rubbed her nose on Thayle’s chest.

Gersius led Lengwin down the stairs and across the balconies to the bodies of his men. To Gersius's dismay, one of them was Varnus. Lengwin cried over every man, slowly delivering to them the blessing of passing in the name of Astikar.

Gersius stood by like a statue, resolute and strong until they reached the ground floor.

“Thayle, I need you and Lilly to go back to the estate. You need to send half the priests of Astikar here at once.”

“Of course,” Thayle said, putting a hand to his chest. “Be safe, my love,” she added before turning to walk out the door to Lilly.

He heard the familiar sound of Lilly's wings and took a deep breath as Lengwin cried over the fallen men that were under his care.

Gersius’s heart ached to see Lengwin in such a state. He couldn’t help but feel responsible for what happened. More innocent men died in the wake of his passing. He put everyone he met in danger, and whenever he stayed in one place too long, that danger often caught up with him. Many died in Whiterun, and then the violence followed him to Eastgate. Now it found him in Avashire, and a good man was crying for the pain it brought. He'd barely taken his first steps on his new path, and already it was stained with blood.

He felt some relief when Lilly and Thayle returned. Thayle tried to comfort Lengwin, but the man was beside himself with grief. When at last the priests from the estate arrived Gersius took command to get things moving. The bodies of the Raven guard were removed, and the fallen brothers carefully brought to the back. There would be a proper ceremony for them later. They would be put to rest as the first martyrs in the war to free Calathen from the Father Abbot.

Gersius saw on the faces of the priests of Astikar as their brothers were laid to rest. He'd seen this look before on the faces of men as they learned the truth of some horrible lie. These men needed to see just how vile the rot in the order was. Each one of these men would tell a hundred more, and harden the hearts of their comrades against the Father Abbot. The first true blow in the war was struck, and the Father Abbot accidentally gave Gersius a powerful weapon. He now had the hearts of Lengwin and these men, and he as going to put them to good use.

When the temple was properly in order, and Lengwin was in control again, Gersius finally excused himself. They climbed on Lilly's back and took to the sky, eager to be away from the sorrowful scene. They rode silently for a few minutes before Lilly turned her head to look back at them.

“So can we talk about it now?”

“Talk about what?” Gersius asked.

“What Thayle did,” she replied.

Thayle sighed and shook her head. “Maybe now isn’t the best time.”

“I appreciate your concern,” Gersius said. “But I have put many men to rest before. I would like to know what you did as well.”

Thayle was silent a moment as she thought about it and decided to recount her steps.

“I was trying to heal Lengwin, but we priestesses of Ulustrah are not strong healers. He was poisoned, and I had to spend most of my strength there.”

Gersius nodded from behind her and let her continue.

“He needed more healing, but I felt my strength failing, and then I remembered what you did with Lilly.”

“When you say I drew on her power,” Gersius said.

“I saw you do it,” Thayle said firmly. “Your aura and hers became one, and there was a clear flow of power through you.”

“So you did the same?” he asked.

Thayle sighed. “I was in the middle of my song of healing when I decided to reach out to Lilly. I was just trying to feel her over the bind, and then there was a sort of opening.”

“An opening?”

“I don't know how else to describe it,” she said. “I felt a sudden rush of power. It blended with Ulustrah's blessing and strengthened it.”

There was an awkward silence, and then Lilly spoke again.

“I felt you touch me. It was a funny sort of pulling on my solus.”

“I felt like I could heal anything,” Thayle said. “My hands were nearly white with power.”

“Lilly is not a divine,” he said.

“This again?” Thayle argued. “Gersius, I shouted with a dragon voice! You and I are somehow pulling on Lilly's strength, and we can use it to boost our divine blessings!”

“What blessings?” Lilly said with a sigh. “Balisha has not given us any blessings to use.”

Thayle heard him sigh over the flapping of Lilly’s wings and decided to press that point.

“She hasn’t given you any blessings at all?” she asked.

“No,” Gersius said. “I am sure she has blessings, but I suspect she doesn't have the strength to grant them.”

“She really is that weak?” Thayle asked.

“When I saw her she looked like a dirty woman hiding in an old ruin,” Lilly said.

“How terrible,” Thayle said.

Gersius let out another sigh and shifted in the saddle. “I will pray to her in the morning and tell her we need to know some of her blessings. We must be able to demonstrate her power to the people. If your right and we can draw on Lilly’s strength, maybe she can grant us the blessing and Lilly can power them for a bit.”

Thayle felt terrible that Balisha was so weak that she feared to give them access to her power. They flew the last few minutes of the trip in silence as the estate came into view.

When they arrived at the estate, they found several changes. Lilly's enclosure was now properly a tent. It had tall walls of thick brown cloth and no roof allowing Lilly to land easily inside. It arrived while they were out and Kilgian had the acolytes assemble it. Thayle took a moment to explain how it worked as she helped Lilly dress.

When they were done, they joined Gersius at the gate to the garden and walked inside. Here they found more changes. Every acolyte now carried the familiar staves of the priestesses of Ulustrah. They were all on high alert, and where ever a proper priest was posted, he or she now had an acolyte beside them. The girls looked nervous as they stood guard with the weapons they had little or no training to use. Gersius couldn't stomach the thought of the slaughter the raven guard would make of them.

When he found Kilgian, he sternly confronted the man.

“Get these girls inside the walls and get those weapons out of their hands,” he told him.

“I know what happened at the temple of Astikar. I do not have the manpower to protect so many. They are going to have to protect themselves,” Kilgian argued back.

Gersius shook his head at the thought of a dozen dead girls laying around the compound.

“I cannot bear the thought of these children facing off against veteran soldiers. They will be cut down before they can figure out which end of the stick to throw at them.”

“Better they have a stick than be found hiding under a bed weeping and have their throat slit,” Kilgian retorted.

Gersius had to admit the man was right, but being right didn’t make the image go away. The only way to make these girls safe was to get as far away from them as he could. He went to continue his argument when Thayle walked up to him.

“Gersius, you are covered in blood, and you need a rest. Let's go up to the room and draw you a bath,” she said, taking his hand.

He nodded and let her lead him away.

When they got to the ground floor of the guest house, they found Culver heaving all the gifts of food into a small wagon outside.

“What are you doing?” Gersius asked him

“I am sorry sir, but Kilgian said that an assassin attacked the temple. He was worried that some of this food might be poisoned. He wants me to get rid of it.”

Gersius looked around at the gifts of food and drink. Kilgian was right; anything in this room could be poisoned. They couldn't risk eating any of it.

“They have to throw out all my bread?” Lilly cried, looking at it piled outside like trash.

“I am sorry, Lilly. It is the only way to be sure,” Gersius said.

Lilly looked heartbroken but helped Thayle take him upstairs.

Lilly drew the bath while Thayle helped him undress. She noted the holes in his armor, and the blood in his arm guards was still wet. She sent him off to Lilly as soon as he was undressed and gathered the damaged pieces up.

He settled into the water, but his mood didn't improve. All he could see was a trail of bodies.

Thayle took his armor downstairs, and Kilgian promised to have it cleaned and mended before the morning. When she got back, Lilly was sitting beside the tub talking to Gersius. He looked like the same broken man she'd seen weeks before. Sitting against a log, looking out over a fire while he was haunted by ghosts only he could see.

“I can’t believe the Father Abbot was so bold as to attack one of his own temples,” Thaye said as she entered the room.

“I have underestimated the Father Abbot one too many times,” Gersius said his voice hard and unforgiving. “People are paying for my mistakes with their lives.”

“Gersius, nobody saw this coming. Nobody even suspected that the Father Abbot could have men out here so fast,” Thayle argued.

“I am putting all the girls in this estate at risk. Every day we stay here increases the chance they will die.”

Thayle understood his point of view and looked to Lilly for help.

Lilly understood what Thayle wanted and turned to speak to him.

“I agree we need to leave as soon as we can,” Lilly said, running a hand down his arm. “But we can't go off before we are ready or we will be taking a bigger risk. You didn't cause any of this to happen. You only wanted to win the war and save your people.”

“And look what that has cost?” he said.

Lilly looked into his eyes with her blazing blue ones.

“You set out to do a noble and brave thing. It’s the Father Abbot who did all of this. He’s to blame for everything, and we have to stop him, Gersius. We have to stop him because there is nowhere we can go to find peace while he is hunting us. Not even my valley will be safe. He will be sure to look for us there.”

Gersius looked away from her and stared into the water.

“Please, Gersius, you can't carry the blame for everything that has happened. I don't hold you responsible for my wings. I am glad they were broken because if they hadn't, I would not have learned to love you.”

Thayle could feel his mood change across the bind. Lilly was reaching him.

“All the terrible things that happened turned out to be a wonderful blessing,” she said. “If not for the red dragon, I would never have submitted to you. If not for the bind, I would never have broken the curse. If not for the terrible events at Whiteford, we would never have returned to Thayle. We would never have learned to love one another and then to love her. Through all that pain, somehow we managed to come out stronger and more tightly bound than before.”

Gersius looked up at her with sad eyes. “You really mean that?”

“I am grateful it happened. I wouldn’t change any of it if it meant I would lose you or Thayle,” she said.

He reached up and ran his fingertips down her cheek. “How did I win the heart of such a beautiful dragon?”

“By being such a great man, and by teaching me how to love.” She leaned forward and gave him a gentle kiss. “Come to bed, my love, let your wives help you forget the pain.”

He spent the rest of the night in the warm embrace of the women he loved and let the worries that haunted him wait until the morning.