We were greeted by howling winds and falling snows. And the scenery, despite the darkness and the snow, was indeed what I'd spent long minutes staring at. A piece of land lost somewhere in the world, on a steep mountainside that was shielded by a chain of humungous alps. The entrance was not easier to see, and we would have never found it, had I not memorized the edges of the peaking rocks, jutting out of the façade. They pointed, all of them, to the center of the grey, white-covered wall of rocks making the mountain's exterior.

There was not a scratch past the fissures left by time's hand. But the voice was clear here, and loud, and urging. Come come come come…

I obeyed, almost capable of touching it, of feeling its invisible hands on my skin. Leon had been at my side through every step, his hand still holding mine, easing ever so slightly something within me. But that talk would come sooner than later—it was well overdue.

This place could not be found, not randomly, not through expanded researches. And it wasn't truly because of its hidden, remote position, or the hard journey to reach this point. But because the wall had cracked and opened for us, the mountain groaning, the rocks sliding down. A lair opened by an invitation, by a call.

We went inside, the very air between the walls cold. And running, despite the absence of any opening as the door sealed back, not a line to hint that it ever opened in the first place. Gentle winds came from the inside, from somewhere deep down, perhaps born from the very heart of this mountain.

The tunnels were dark, the runes etched to their walls barely seeping a faint, grayish glow. Sometimes, it became so pale it was white, and the glow didn't dim even when Aedis had conjured a sphere of glowing white above heads. The sphere almost did nothing, as though his magic was quenched, compressed by the powers in this place.

We walked the steep descent, each step careful, the place narrow enough that Aedis had been in front of me. Slowly, the descent straightened, and golden lights started stretching into the darkness, glowing with an other-worldly shine. I knew that light by heart, knew to whom it belonged.

We rounded the last corner, coming to full view with the lights, with the man from who it seeped. The face that met me—the most beautiful face I'd ever seen—the golden hair, the golden eyes, the warm glow to his skin, the body sewn of sunlight, I knew him.

It was Téors, but this face—him. It was the face of the man from Earth, the man who had come for me, who spoke of a time I didn't understand.

The same face, and yet the eyes, they were gold, not emeralds—

Emeralds.

Your time has come, child of light.

Emeralds, like mine.

Thou have finally come, child of light.

Those words, his words when I came back from our journey, too.

Emeralds, just like my dragon. Just like my first guardian familiar. My Siltheres.

Téors smiled, bright and broad and proud. Both of them, my beasts, brothers in a way that was only theirs.

''They were more than forged from the same hands. They were cut from one single fabric, molten and shaped from the same metal. So different but so alike; two different and unique species but with one soul. Brothers, they were brothers.'' He came closer, that body of his light in every step, graceful like a dance of sunlight as dawn broke.

My words. Those had been my words and my thoughts, my own realization from so long ago.

''It was you.'' I took a step closer to him, forgetting the pain, forgetting the trial, forgetting everything but that moment in the streets as time stopped. ''Both of you.''

There had been no distance left between us, and I sobbed, silent and calm. Sobbed for reasons I could not tell, could not explain, but that face, his presence here, the comfortable warmth that felt like home. It numbed the agony, it numbed the fear, the loneliness. It was as though we were back home.

His hands—those unusual hands—caressed my cheeks, wiping the tears away. ''You guided me back home. From the very start.''

He smiled brighter—smiled. I'd never seen him out of his phoenix body, never witnessed him slip in a second skin, never morphed into anything past colorful fires.

''And we shall always do so. Always.''

Both of them, with powers that bled together in complete harmony. Both of them, they had saved me from those shadows trying to seal me back in Earth. Apocalys's shadows.

He allowed his arms to fall around me, and he waited for my response, for my reaction. The arms I wrapped back were all he needed before he pulled me close, every touch just like I knew it. A whisper of fire, a delicious warmth, even when that fire was skins and clothes.

''Siltheres isn't here.'' My whisper was soft, barely coming out of my lips. And Téors held me tighter. I'd wanted to see him, wanted to wrap my arms around his scaly neck, snuggle to his side as we read through the Book of Astazan as we did so many, many times. I wanted that piece of home, that feeling of safety. That bit that Elayda didn't own, despite her strength and her titles. Despite all what the legends claimed she had.

But he was still in the White Realm, still guarding my people, my family, when I couldn't do it.

Téors and I at last pulled away, and yet he kept an arm on my shoulder as he greeted Leon, not bothering to hide that cunning stare, the message that he knew what and who he was. He always did, far before I realized it—far, far before.

"Fire of the Wild.''

For a moment, we stood there, silent and—and serene. Something I wondered if Leon had sensed it since we left the castle's grounds. If he'd even felt so back then.

I smiled, eyes drifting back to my phoenix, nodding to the arm on my shoulders, not resting, but holding it in a way that was not new, but—"That is not a wing you are laying on my shoulders, Téors.''

He looked thoroughly amused, his features so clear, so readable. "And?''

"That is not how you properly position it."

He laughed, and it had not been a screech that echoed from one wall to the other, not a rumble. But a clear, hearty laugh.

'Forgive me, my queen. But this beast cannot care less.'

'Beast?' I arched an eyebrow.

'Always a beast at heart, no matter what skin.'

I smiled, for some odd reasons, at those words. Téors had still his arm on my shoulders as he steered us back into walking, the road once again turning steep and ragged beneath my aching feet. The runes shined brighter the deeper we went, but there had been no near lights, no straightening grounds in sight.

"To where are we descending?"

Téors, in that man's face, stared at me for a passing moment. He looked at such ease, one arm on my shoulder, the other in his white tunic's pockets dotted with what could only be small, glittering stars. "The mountain's heart.''

''You have no intentions on telling me why?" I breathed as I placed a hand on the walls to ease my descent. He smiled, seeming to almost drift over the grounds.

"There are people waiting for thy presence.''

And no more explanations. But people—here. I could only wonder what Rimel wanted me to see.

Leon had still been silent, and observing. Every rune, every fissure, everything. My eyes drifted between the two of them, between my mate and my beast, noticing just how tall Téors stood, a bit more than half a head over Leon. But that face, it was disarming in a way I could not place. It was mesmerizing, it was divine and angelic. It was a face that could stop hearts.

"Why this visage?''

Téors brought us to a halt, and what flickered in his eyes was something I'd become so accustomed to. "Because it is the face of a man thou are to meet in the future. A man who is key to saving our world.''

The key to our salvation. A man with a face so magnificent, so powerful, so…familiar. I knew him, and then I didn't. A face engraved in my very consciousness and soul, stirring memories that were not there, begging to be remembered. A face hidden behind thick shadows, trying to come to light. Just like with Ha-ámej, but with a stronger ardency to it, a heavier need.

"Memorize this face, my queen. He will come when ready and needed, but until then, look for him in the darkness between the stars, in the faces that thou know. Perhaps thou will remember him far before he arrives.''

Remember him—I tried. Wanted to. It was like a burning need: every bit of me begged to move those shadows, to regain back who he was, what was so crucial about him to salvage Ardoria.

We continued our way down, winds gaining force with every step. And yet I was still thinking about what Téors said, eyes drifting back and forth between the road and both him and Aedis.

A man I had not yet met, sewn of sunlight. I could not recall him, but he didn't radiate like a sun in my mind. Not at all. In that strange, humming piece of me, he was not gold, and he was not sewn of sunlight, and he had no gold or emerald eyes. This face next to me, it awoke something, but not the real one. Not what I was supposed to see.

My phoenix abruptly paused, all the teasing light extinguished from his face. All the gleaming, cunning stares gone, only leaving hard, shocked features.

The words I spoke next had hung for long between us, "A man not so bright, not so golden.''

I'd never—never—seen Téors so nonplussed, so surprised.

"A man in different colors.''

Not scared—no, he wasn't scared of what I had pulled out of those foggy memories. Surprised to the bones, but delighted in a way I couldn’t place.

"And?"

"That's it.''

His thoughts didn't touch my aura, being forced back and hidden from me, and I couldn't tell if it was him or if it had been one of the Gods locking all that could add in those memories away.

I didn't comment on it, not now when more pressing matters were at hands. And so we resumed our walk, auras and minds slowly coming in contact with my spirit, brushing it with mental knuckles, not pushing through. Just brushing, as though asleep. More and more came the deeper we went.

"How many souls are here?"

"More than a thousand.''

Leon eyed Téors, long and—''You truly love not giving a complete answer."

Téors's face was calm as he replied, "If this beast was to disclose all my knowledge, thy mortal mind would never bear the weights.'' The Phoenix of Life didn't hide the edge of his smile as he stared between us. "Thou shall get used to it with time.''

More dormant auras came to reach, hundreds upon hundreds. And the shadows cast on the walls right where the glows faded, I knew them. I knew what they were made off, knew the darkness brewing around us. It was the same one that took me back to the trial.

"Havar sends his regards.''

Something in Leon's aura dwindled and roughened, his thoughts going back to the fire-forged wyvern we freed back in Nevora.

"I take it you've been meeting recently, then.''

''He's been summoned to the White Realm not so long ago.''

''You aren't about to tell me why.''

Téors's bit of silence was enough confirmation.

"Time does not thin out a bond, Leon of the Wildfire. But it renders it cold, even when it is between two beings who hold fire in their veins.'' My phoenix's arm loosened from my shoulders, his hand going up and down my back, each time pausing at the near-emptiness in my middle.

His eyes became vibrant, glowing like twin suns as the breath he took was stark and heavy. "Aether' mightiness.'' Warmth tingled there—but it only did that, tingled. I didn't meet his eyes, and wasn't about to stop until he made me. Until his arms burned into wings, until he stood behind me and wrapped them the way he always did.

The tingling became wildfire in my veins, pushing and searching through my blood. Coursing and flowing until he reached so deep, until he fell in that abyss, until he saw the fissures and the cracks. And then he shot up, fires and waves darting behind him, racing racing racing until they filled my blood vessels, until my legs numbed from the powerful surge, until m eyes rolled back at the magic. At how good it felt, even when my body would have melted away, had it not been his powers protecting it.

I might have gasped at the powers prickling beneath my skin, as so much of them seeped out of me and then went back in, sewing the torn flesh, forging the snapped bones. It went stronger, wilder, harder, and then it was gone.

Leon held me before I could have fallen, and what Téors had done through commanding my powers, it made me breathe easier. A wildness tamed, a war of tangled magic in order and in line.

His wings were still around my shoulders for the time I needed to rest, and as we continued our walk.

'Is there a way to heal those fissures lining my soul?'

They were wings, and yet I could swear I felt them gently squeezing my shoulders in a reassuring way. 'There is nothing to heal, my queen. Nothing to make thee feel unworthy.'

Perhaps they were the calmness of his words and the steadiness of his soul that made believe what he said. I pushed at it no more, not truly wanting to talk about the matter. And he did, too, turning to Leon, instead.

''Have thou ever wondered just what is Havar's fire made off that it only responded to thine?"

"I have.''

A heartbeat of silence, as though my phoenix had been testing just how deep he could get. If Leon had caught the strings he'd been pulling. "And have thou, Shadow, ever thought why there had been a flicker of a connection between Havar and ''—another squeeze to my shoulders—''our queen?"

Leon froze, and so did I. But I did not have all the information and realizations spinning in my mate's mind—I was not entirely sure I wanted to, right here and now. And Téors had walked in front of us, taking a step down into the stairs forged into the mountains, here where the winds were at their coldest, his eyes enough of a clue. 'We have arrived.'

He did not wait for us, and we did not rush, his words running over and over. In my mind, in Leon's, so wildly. A log left to be kindled, a string needing to be pulled.

I let out a breath, hand reaching for his, eyes still on where Téors had descended. "You'll never get used to it—I know I haven't, yet.''

His fingers slid through mine, his attention, too, focused on those stairs.

"I think I prefer him as a bird.''

My chortle, most likely, was what brought life to his smile.

''I think that, too.''